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 enlarge | Author: Blue Fier
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $15.90
You Save: $14.09 (47%)
New (32) Used (11) from $15.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 163729
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0470114363
Dewey Decimal Number: 770.11
EAN: 9780470114360
ASIN: 0470114363
Publication Date: July 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Paperback. Perfect condition. Never used. Great book.
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| Customer Reviews:
 composition photo workshop December 15, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Unstoppable woman running at full gallop into focus and into the future.
A page-turner. Articulate, pleasant reading. Not too much jargon
A buffet of eye candy and brain candy and camera candy
Opened my eyes and enhanced my views in many ways
So many avenues and so many approaches expressed
Provides skills to make me and my camera more versatile and powerful
A ton of info in one book. A treasure chest of tips, tricks, and fundamentals.
Sort a personal guide, cicerone, to a world of photography that is becoming more complex and more simple at the same time
A nice addition to my art library.
 Composition? November 2, 2007
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am an advanced amateur who purchased this book hoping to improve my skills, or at least learn something new. This book was a total disappointment. The author simply fails to uncover in depth the principals of composition. If you are a total beginner and want to learn about photography and the history of photography in general, this book is for you. You will be reading pages and pages of completely useless and non composition related information only finding the mediocre picture and a very brief explanation on how the author took that shot. The pictures are short of being "fantastic" and leave you with serious doubt of whether you are really learning from the best.
As for me, I will continue looking for a truly educational book.
It takes more than just a camera October 1, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Since moving to Alaska two years ago, I've taken up photography. The abundant wildlife and breathtaking natural scenery moved me to purchase a digital camera and start shooting. I had no formal training, but figured, much as with automobile repair, if I could read about it, I could figure it out. I read a variety of websites, participated in discussion forums, took many photographs, and generally have been trying to figure things out myself. With this background, picked up this book with interest and curiosity.
Composition is divided into eleven chapters, breaking things down into background, compositional elements, photographic styles and tips for improvment. The first chapter goes over a variety of background bits, talking about the the history of photography, sight and optics, eastern & western approaches to design and layout, and the interrelation between these items which is what makes up composition. The book clearly states that it comes to the discussion from a 'western' point of view. With the foundations properly set, the book delves into meat of the topic. Framing is tackled first, with discussion of shapes and thematic elements, shapes, the rule of thirds, symmetry and other topics explored. Next, focal depth and shutter speed, how lens selection determines output characteristics and photographic capabilities, ISO speed selection, and on. The quality and types of light are examined, and how to best make use of what is available at any given time. Two chapters are spent on color and black & white photography. Filters are examined for the positive effects they can have in bright and contrasty situation, and when they can be beneficial to filter out or highlight a particular portion of the spectrum. While some will argue that postprocessing and editing on the computer afterward render all filters other than ND and polarizing ones useless, I appreciate that the information hasn't been discarded onto the scrapheap of history. The final three chapters of the book deal with portraiture, landscape/scenic photography and tips on improving your photos further through post-processing.
I found Composition to have a nice layout (which it should, considering the subject matter); it is full of useful information and generally an enjoyable read. I had no problem picking it up and reading through a chapter here and there, then getting back into it later. At the end of each chapter, there is an assignment which directs you to apply the topic covered in the chapter in a variety of ways and try to get a better feel for what they are discussing. In addition, there is an accompanying online forum where you can upload the photos you take for the assignments, discuss them with others, and see how other readers approached the topics. A brief exploration of the website took a while to find the proper place to go to upload and see the images others have captured. As of this writing (10/1/2007), the forums there do not appear to be terribly active, with perhaps 11 photos uploaded to the busiest assignment; as the book was released recently, I'm sure the activity will pick up.
Composition is written for someone with an SLR camera - people with simple point and shoot cameras will gain some knowledge from the book. To be able to take full advantage of the book should have an advanced P&S camera - one that falls into the super-zoom or bridge-camera categories - if not a full dSLR setup. (This isn't necessarily a complaint about the book, per-se, but hey, we non-dSLR owners are photographers too!) With the stiff competition, many new models and rapidly falling prices in recent years for dSLR cameras, this book could act as the missing manual. While it won't tell you what all the switches do on your new Nikon D80 or which lens is best for your Canon 400d, it goes a long ways toward giving you a better understanding of how to make use of the capabilities of your camera, and will help train your eye to find those details, the shapes, colors and lighting which will produce outstanding images.
 For beginners only September 14, 2007
8 out of 16 found this review helpful
I'd give this book a two and half star rating, if half stars were available. I'm an advanced amateur trying to improve my grasp of photographic composition. Though all the book's illustrative photos (and there are many) are excellent instructional tools, the text is really only a survey of the many compositional challenges facing the photographer. It left me starving for more details. Also, one grip about the photographs in the book ... although details about shutter speed, f stop, iso, filter are included, the captions fail to state the make or format of the camera used. Some photographs left me wondering whether a large format camera was used. The format makes a big difference in judging how a lense of a particular focal lenth was applied to a shot. My recommendation: Buy this if you're new to photography, skip it if you consider yourself beyond the beginner level. A much better choice for photographers interested in improving their sense of composition would be The Simple Secret to Better Painting: How to Immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition.
Develop Your Talent September 6, 2007
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
As a photography educator for over 20 years, I have been looking for a book on composition that is not a technical monologue, but a guide that will lead the emerging photographer toward better image making. Too many books speak in overly analytical terms when trying to describe good composition. It is extremely difficult to apply overly strict theories in the field while shooting.
This book feels like you are out on a day trip shooting with the author/photographer. It is filled with great ideas, but also when and where to use them. The reader is given practical information to answer the real life questions of photography.
The `workshop' aspect of the book provides the reader with assignments designed to test and expand upon the techniques they read in the book. These assignments answer the age-old photography question...what should I shoot next? It encourages the reader to get out and shoot.
In addition, the ability to use the publisher's website to upload images created from the assignments and then receive feedback, is invaluable. This book really fits the subheading of `Develop your Talent'. I am currently recommending this book to all my students, whether beginning or advanced.
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