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Books, journals, dvds, magazines and even websites...

What sources of information, either general or specialised, would you recommend? With so much abundant literature on the topic (both professional, amateur, academic), maybe it's time to discuss the good, the bad, and the useful!!!

Post your suggested literature here (and why it was especially helpful to you...or not :D)
 
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I'm sure I'll not be the only person to mention this as it's almost becoming a cliche but...

Understanding Exposure - Bryan Peterson

An excellent book for learning the basics of aperture, shutter speed and iso as well a few more advanced areas such as exposure compensation. Manages to be technical without blowing your mind.
 
I would not recommend 'Understanding Exposure', but would recommend 'Digital Exposure Handbook' by Ross Hoddinott.

Explains the same things I think Bryan Peterson was trying to, but in a style that does not sound self-absorbed and it's not full of pictures of Peterson's wife in a bikini.

Then again, that might be a positive point for 'Understanding Exposure'...
 
I always enjoyed the "Starting Photography", "Basic Photography" and "Advanced Photography" books by Michael Langford. I find they contain more useful information than "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Petersen (which, as said above, does contain some cracking shots of his wife!).
 
Hmm. Would you say that these are rather technical books?

As in my experience, photography books divide into science and art almost. One looking more at technical basics of camera usage, developing film ect (I find lots of these in charity shops for some reason) - and there are some which are more about the arty side of composition, colour, and so forth, and tend to be more abstract, or theoretical.
 
Understanding Exposure is more about the technical aspects of taking a particular shot. His other book, Learning to See Creatively, is on composition.
 
I don't read techinical books but for literature/theory I can give a few reccomendations?

"The Photography Reader" - Liz Wells.
"Camera Lucida" - Roland Barthes
"The Pleasures of Good Photographs" - Gerry Badger (Highly reccomended)
"The Photograph as Contemporary Art" - Charlotte Cotton

I have loads more but those are the first that popped into my head :)
 
Anything Bryan Peterson gets my vote (y)
Understanding Exposure is a revelation to anyone new to photography.
There are also a few videos on youtube by the same chap.
 
Vic said:
I don't read techinical books but for literature/theory I can give a few reccomendations?

"The Photography Reader" - Liz Wells.
"Camera Lucida" - Roland Barthes
"The Pleasures of Good Photographs" - Gerry Badger (Highly reccomended)
"The Photograph as Contemporary Art" - Charlotte Cotton

I have loads more but those are the first that popped into my head :)
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Ah, Roland Barthes! Classic head-****ery, but a genius of man. :LOL: Bit impenetrable if you're not used to academic texts, but great if you're thinking of studying it at uni. :)
 
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I'd ignore photo textbooks. Get some photobooks from photographers you're interested in instead, as learning resources are easily available on the internet. Then disassemble/analyse the photos you like. It'll help greatly in training your eye. Magnum Magnum has a nice variety of photographers and styles, so that would be a good starting point.
 
FruitFlakes said:
I'd ignore photo textbooks. Get some photobooks from photographers you're interested in instead, as learning resources are easily available on the internet. Then disassemble/analyse the photos you like. It'll help greatly in training your eye. Magnum Magnum has a nice variety of photographers and styles, so that would be a good starting point.
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That's always solid advice! :D (And perhaps worthy of a seperate thread entirely, I thinks).

Though, I don't think I've ever come across a constructivist/deconstructivist book. Not one that does it in its entirety. Like a well known photographer who might break down his own photos, or another, including the process of how he or she came up with the idea, gathered the models/props, and composed it ect.
 
Top Cat said:
Ah, Roland Barthes! Classic head-****ery, but a genius of man. :LOL: Bit impenetrable if you're not used to academic texts, but great if you're thinking of studying it at uni. :)
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:LOL: Had to read it a few times and now can finally read it like an normal text, crazy how your mind adjusts to it (Oh I am studying at uni, hence the interest!) :)
 
I enjoy reading Amateur Photographer quite regularly - an interesting blend of technical articles, technique, and inspiration from a range of photographers. The monthly's are a bit of a much of a muchness IMO.

Books - I prefer to look at photo books rather than read about technique, but I'd highly recommend The Inner Game of Outdoor Photography by the late Galen Rowell and I'm not even particularly into landscape photography.

Michael Freemans books are very good, I especially liked The Photographers Eye, although The Photographers Mind is a bit heavier going.

I also got an awful lot out of Bryan Petersons books when I was starting out in photography, and have lent my copies out to numerous people since.

Aside from them, it's mainly books of photos on my shelves!
 
As mentioned above Langford's books are great. Essential reading though has got to be Susan Sontag's 'On Photography'. Historical, technical, artistic and philosophical all in one.
 
FruitFlakes said:
I'd ignore photo textbooks. Get some photobooks from photographers you're interested in instead, as learning resources are easily available on the internet. Then disassemble/analyse the photos you like. It'll help greatly in training your eye. Magnum Magnum has a nice variety of photographers and styles, so that would be a good starting point.
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With the exception of Light science and magic and The photographer's eye, yep.

We had this discussion in Talk Business a week or so ago...:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=295779
 
+1 for Sontag and Barthes (should I mention that I read it in the original French or would that be bragging? :cautious:)

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer - which gives a very readable tour of 20th century American photography and its protagonists.

e2a: John Berger's Ways of Seeing should be compulsory reading for anyone in the visual arts (1st year reading list on my Architecture course).
 
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While I'm thinking about slightly tangential books to the topic, I might also suggest Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan, and then move on to Travels in Hyperreality by Umberto Eco.

Neither of them deal directly with photography (though they do touch on it in places) but they examine the relationship between communication and society (and what is photography but communication).

McLuhan's analysis of emerging electronic communications in the 1960s is as relevant in the age of the Internet as it ever has been - he coined the term 'global village' to embody the idea that time and space were being shrunk to the point that ideas get everywhere at once. That this (and any other technological development) does, indeed inevitably, have unintended consequences on the way that society operates surely has an impact on the way that photographers think and act.

Eco's examination of the Hyperreal (a state where reality is supplanted by simulations of reality) is pertinent to any discussion of Photoshop techniques.
 
As a complete rookie with DSLR cameras I am finding the Digital Field Guide book very useful. Mostly as it's specific to my model of camera but also because it covers basics and more in depth stuff that I really have no idea about.

I am thinking Understanding Exposure is a worthwhile buy as the sheer number of hugely positive comments must have some truth in them. :)
 
andyp79 said:
I am thinking Understanding Exposure is a worthwhile buy as the sheer number of hugely positive comments must have some truth in them. :)
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If your local library has a copy, have a look first. I tried it because it was recommended, but didn't get on with Peterson's style at all and didn't really think it was a book that a real beginner could get much out of. I didn't, find Digital Exposure Handbook by Ross Hoddinott much better.

Different ways of learning and all that. Just offering the opposing view. :shrug:
 
Carousels Spin said:
If your local library has a copy, have a look first. I tried it because it was recommended, but didn't get on with Peterson's style at all and didn't really think it was a book that a real beginner could get much out of. I didn't, find Digital Exposure Handbook by Ross Hoddinott much better.
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You're not alone in this. I learned much more from Langford's books. "Understanding Exposure" frequently reads like Peterson's autobiography to me. Langford's books were more straightforward - "This is how to get this kind of shot", and they built upwards from there. There is also far more content. Although Peterson's images are excellent, I felt there were rather too many (especially those that took up a whole page), and quite often it feels like a glossy magazine than an instructional book. That being said, what he says is quite straightforward, and certainly correct.
 
@musicman Seconded. A deeper understanding of how we communicate is essential to all photographers. As you say, photography is communication. Plenty of photos are technically great (that's the easy bit!) but are unexciting or fail to stimulate on any other level. This is one place where Sontag interests me with her analysis of how we choose what's worth photographing.

P.S. yeah, that is bragging :p
 
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