Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques |  | Author: Harold Davis
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $14.96
as of 7/31/2010 10:23 CDT details
You Save: $15.03 (50%)
New (38) Used (9) from $14.96
Seller: -hungrybookworm
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 35877
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0470527145
Dewey Decimal Number: 770.11
EAN: 9780470527146
ASIN: 0470527145
Publication Date: October 26, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780470527146 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Product Description
Sometimes you get the best results by breaking the rules, but first you have to know what the rules are! In this indispensable photography guide, renowned photographer Harold Davis first walks you through the recommended guidelines for composing great shots with your DSLR camera-and then shows you how to break free, build your own unique style, and compose beautiful images with confidence. - Provides practical composition basics as well as the artistic tips and tricks eagerly sought by digital SLR camera lovers, who are growing in number as DSLR camera sales continue to grow
- Explores the fundamental rules of composition-then how to break those rules to take captivating and unique images
- Informs and inspires you with the author's own gorgeous examples of landscapes, portraits, close-ups, and other photos that illustrate his concepts
- Helps you jump-start your creativity by showing you new ways to see
Go beyond the basics and create a photography style that's all your own with this must-have guide. Amazon Exclusive: Photography Tips and Techniques from Harold Davis 
How to Use Shadows to Enhance Your Composition | 
How to Use LAB Color for Black and White Effects | 
Professional Photography Techniques from Harold Davis | Amazon Exclusive: Interview with Award-Winning Photographer Harold Davis We hear you’ve written some new digital photography titles. What’s the story behind these books?
Wiley Publishing is releasing three new books of mine, Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques , Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques , and Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques . My idea with these books was to help people become better photographers by presenting the subject of digital photography in a different way. What’s different about your approach?
They say that cameras don’t take photos, people do. It’s really true. Someone with a great eye can take masterful photos with an inexpensive camera. Therefore, it is important to know something about photo technique, but the really amazing thing is that we can conceptualize and come up with these bits and bytes that make up a photo—and they can be meaningful to people. I try to help people come up with images that are relevant and meaningful. Cameras and hardware are just tools. What’s with all the photos in these books?
Well, everyone likes to look at striking images, so one thing my photos do in these books is get people’s attention. However, the photos play another role as well. Each photo in my book is accompanied by the story of how the photo was made and the technical data related to the photo. That way, if you’re not ready to dive into the text itself, you can learn a lot just by browsing the photos. My feeling is that you truly do learn about photography by looking at photos. It’s much more important to look at images you admire and try and figure out why you like them than it is to read about photography. The photos in these books are baked into the DNA of the teaching strategy. By browsing through the pages, someone can learn a great deal and have an enjoyable visual experience at the same time. What’s the most important thing that readers can get out of your new books?
I want to inspire readers to be the most creative and best photographers they can be. If you pick up one of my books, I hope you can make use of the technical content and see how the photos relate to some of your own work. The most important thing, however, is to take the ideas in the book, get out there, and do some really peddle-to-the-metal creative photography.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
 Seeing Better - in the lens and in the mind November 14, 2009
Jeff R. Clow (Corinth, TX United States)
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
I have read dozens of books that attempt to deal with the very difficult subject of photograph composition. Many of them rely too heavily on the author telling the reader how to "look" at things differently. What this book does throughout is very different - it actually helped me "see" things with a much clearer eye. For example, the chapter on "Seeing the Unexpected" prompted me to go out in search of macro and abstract details after reading the author's very good advice about asking yourself the simple question: "is there another way to approach this?"
Harold Davis is an accomplished photographer and his photos in the book are great examples of how creative composition can change a dull scene into an intriguing one. But what really makes this book stand out is that he talks about HOW one goes about making better photos, and his advice on creating a game plan and using pre-visualization is really good. I also found the chapters on how to create photographs that tell stories and how one should go about researching a photo to be particularly helpful and full of good advice.
An added bonus throughout this book is the details that the authors shares on each of his photos that are utilized to illustrate a chapter - you get an insider's look at the lens length, the f/stop, the ISO and the exposure that was part of crafting the image. Very helpful and quite interesting - especially on some of the shots where he used longer exposures.
The reason I read reviews on Amazon is because I like to see what other readers thought about a book before I ordered it, and I assume that you are reading this review for the very same reason. If you are someone who wants to expand your photographic ability and would like to learn how to do so through good fast paced instructions that are easy to follow and implement, then this is a great book for you. It is also one that will stimulate you to go out and try new things, and I believe you'll be a better shooter after reading this volume.
Highly recommended.
I can see clearly now December 17, 2009
Barbara K. St John (San Francisco)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm not a professional photographer, and don't have that natural "eye" for photos, so I am always looking for books to at least help me technicaly get better photos.
I really like this book because it is written in plain english and is very clear for those of us who aren't seasoned professionals.
The book opens with equipment and technique. All those years of point and shoot cameras do not prepare you for a manual one. To a novice, this is a very handy chapter.
The book primarily focuses on encouraging your creative eye. This could be disconcerting for someone who is looking for a really techical book although he does cover that in the last section. It covers technique, unleashing imagination, paradox (reality and unreality) and design.
For a beginner photographer I think this is a great book for opening up your mind to creativity, although I would also suggest another more "technical" book for more indepth info on that side of the camera. One reviewer wrote "Much of the time Davis helps the reader to learn to "find the magic in the mundane". I think that sums it up perfectly.
Train your Right Brain as well as your Left Brain! November 29, 2009
Tracy Marks (Arlington, MA USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Creative Composition is a valuable addition to the genre of how-to-photograph books, which tend to focus on the technical aspects of photography. Unfortunately, for many readers who are already skilled in using a camera, Davis devotes over 1/3 of his book to technical issues, but these he covers in relation to the creative choices a photographer makes.
The book is divided into four sections covering technique, unleashing imagination, paradox (reality and unreality) and design. Reading the book, I was initially frustrated because I wanted the author to discuss design and composition first, especially since we frame a picture before making technical decisions and manipulating the resulting photo. But finally at the end of the book he did adequately cover design elements - line, shape, pattern, iteration, rhythm, frame, light, color and tone.
My initial disappointment with Creative Composition (which includes more pictures than text) changed as I paid more attention to Davis' impressive images, and realized that in doing so I was training my powers of perception more than my analytic mind. Readers seeking formulas to help them better compose photographs need to be aware (or reminded) that left brain knowledge alone will rarely result in an inspiring photo. One does not THINK such a photo into existence. If anything, one develops a wider and more fluid ability to perceive, so that choices one makes taking a picture are a blend of intuitive perception and the knowledge that has hopefully penetrated from the analytical mind to a deeper cellular level.
Creative Composition does provide valuable guidance for composing and manipulating photographs, but much of its value is in the training of one's capacity to SEE. Such ability results not just from studying the text, but at least as much from experiencing and actually absorbing that images that illustrate Davis' main points.
Some of these main points which I found most useful include suggestions related to: composing for black and white, looking for visual ambiguity/double takes, and penetrating beyond obvious forms to see the unexpected or underlying abstraction. Much of the time Davis helps the reader to learn to "find the magic in the mundane."
As a photoshop instructor, I had no objection to sections demonstrating photo-manipulation techniques, and found some of his examples of creative ways to combine images quite evocative. But such photo-manipulation is not for everyone, and Davis' tendency to tell WHAT he did without explaining HOW he did it is not entirely helpful even to the Photoshop user.
When I drive to classes on the same roads for twenty years, I often deal with the tedium by imagining that I am an alien who just catapulted from a spaceship onto earth, and am trying to figure out what all these bizarre shapes around me are, and what function they serve. Odd as it may seem, such an exercise in imagination does help me to see differently, to reorganize the literal scene and view the world in an expanded way.
Reading Creative Composition likewise has a similar effect - particularly because of the way in which the images illustrate the principles Davis presents, and speak to a deeper part of the self. All that the book is lacking is a chapter of creative exercises a photographer might undertake to further open the gates of perception and stimulate creativity.
Look through the view finder as you have never looked before. December 8, 2009
M. A. Filippelli (Roseville, CA, US)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's clear in reading this book that Harold Davis is very passionate about photography. He writes so warmly about the subject of the photo be it human or inatimate object. This really draws the reader emotionally into the particular photo that he's describing. The Author Harold Davis does this better then any other author of photography books that I have read. One of the ideas that he presents so well is becoming almost interactively involved with the subject of the photo that you are taking.
The book is basically divided into four sections.
Cameras don't take photos, people do.
In this section the author talks about the technical aspects of photography and you can use these tools, understanding how they work and how it will impact the image. What I got from this section is thinking about what you're trying to capture, having the right equipment to do it and then executing your idea. Take it from though to reality.
Section two:
Unleash your imagination:
In this section Davis really drives home the idea of looking at what your image is and what it could become through the use of different types of lenses, filter effects and post processing. So much of photography is visualization makes this point through the photos that he shares with us. One of the things that the author points out is that you can take a beautiful picture of a well known sight and everyone will know where it is, you can take a picture of a beautiful flower and that could be anywhere. Possibilities are all around you. Look at the big things as photo ops but take the time to look at the smallest things, be aware of your surroundings for images present themselves in all sizes shapes and colors is really what I got from this section.
Section three:
Photography and Paradox:
In this section Davis talks about the settings that he used on his camera and post processing multiple photos to make one composite image. Unfortunately he doesn't tell you step by step through the software what he did but it's ok because this isn't a book on how to use PhotoShop. These images are amazing though. What I got from this section is to turn on your photographic mind, why not blur the lines of reality with photography. You are still in the end creating art.
Section four:
Photography is design:
Davis talks about lines, circles, shapes in photography. Davis also talks about seeing these patterns and using them to draw interest and direct you eye visually. Davis also talks about the use of color and light to enhance your photo. What I got from this section was simply taking to account all of the visual environmental factors properly framing the image.
I would describe myself as a fairly good armature photographer. .I gained a lot technically from this book but what I really gained was taking the time to immerse myself in the shot, think about the possibilities and think about the environmental factors. I haven't read any other of Davis's book but I will now. The photography is beautiful and I rally appreciated the warm enthusiastic writing style.
Gorgeous Book December 17, 2009
P. Smith (Northeast)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Having read many books on creative composition, I would say that Creative Composition by Harold Davis is excellent but does not distinguish itself greatly from the large pack of books on this subject matter I have read or browsed through. However, this is a beautifully put together book with so many example photos and to the author's credit, with every photo is included the camera settings used. However, Mr. Davis also quietly slips in a lot of Photoshop use and for that work he is very vague or silent on the settings he used. As a big Photoshop user, this disappointed me. Overall, I think Mr. Davis drives home very important points on creative composition but again, almost all of them have been printed somewhere else before. I will say this however- if I could only purchase five books on creative composition, this book would be one of them. Also, at $29.99 (before Amazon discount), it is at a very competitive price for this type of book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
|
|
|
