"Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson

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Just wanted to say what an excellent read this book is, best £9 I've spent in a long long time, just wish I wasn't so stubborn and had bought it sooner. :thumbs:
 
Always good to hear an alternate view and I thought it was quite a poor book (albeit a few years ago so probably out an edition or so) and glad it was only borrowed from the library, can think of far better books for the beginner for example the exposure book by Ross Hoddinott

Didn't enjoy his writing style at all and thought he came across as very egotistical, subject poorly explained and only enjoyable bits for me were the photos of his attractive wife
 
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It's hard to give much credit to a book all about exposure that dimisses the histogram as "one of the most over-rated controls" (next to white balance). And that's all you get about it, even in the latest updated for digital edition. Blinkies don't get mentioned at all :eek:

What did you learn from the Sky Brothers? :thinking:

He hasn't really updated the way he shoots from film days, since the book was first published in 1990. It's a dreadful book.
 
Mr G said:
I agree, I thought "understanding exposure" by Ed Bray was far better, it is shorter and it is free :lol: get it here :thumbs:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=158332
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Yes, there are lots good tutorials on here, and all over the web. How you can possibly fill a whole book with such a simple topic is beyond me.

I guess my objection to the book is really the title, Understanding Exposure, which is surely a misnomer under the trades descriptions act. If it was called, 'This is how I like to shoot, and I get some damn good results' that would be fine.

But that said, there is no doubt that many beginners seems to get a lot out of it :thinking:
 
HoppyUK said:
It's hard to give much credit to a book all about exposure that dimisses the histogram as "one of the most over-rated controls" (next to white balance). And that's all you get about it, even in the latest updated for digital edition. Blinkies don't get mentioned at all :eek:
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But if you end up getting blinkies then it just goes to show you havnt understood exposure in the slightest ;)

Personally i think its an outstanding book, very readable and simple to understand the concepts involved and reccomend it to anyone who asks about such things.
 
essexash said:
But if you end up getting blinkies then it just goes to show you havnt understood exposure in the slightest ;)

Personally i think its an outstanding book, very readable and simple to understand the concepts involved and reccomend it to anyone who asks about such things.
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No, that just goes to show you might understand that blinkies when shot in RAW do not mean you've fudged the shot and it might man you've captured some shadow detail that could be missed.

ETTR relies in this.
 
I found it a great read for an absolute beginner. The whole exposure 'triangle' thing just wasn't clicking with me no matter how many websites I trawled or youtube videos I watched. Somebody recommended UE to me and after reading it, it all made sense.

I can understand the criticism of the lack of modern references, particularly the histogram but in fairness the principals of correct exposure were around before the histogram and they still apply today. Modern cameras just provide some helpful tools to help out.
 
gad-westy said:
I found it a great read for an absolute beginner. The whole exposure 'triangle' thing just wasn't clicking with me no matter how many websites I trawled or youtube videos I watched. Somebody recommended UE to me and after reading it, it all made sense.

I can understand the criticism of the lack of modern references, particularly the histogram but in fairness the principals of correct exposure were around before the histogram and they still apply today. Modern cameras just provide some helpful tools to help out.
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Well, no. Not in practise.

The principles remain the same in so far as you have to deliver the optimum amount of light to the sensor (or film). But film differs greatly depending on whether it's negative or slides - negs can tolerate a lot of over exposure, slides tolerate none.

Digital sits somewhere inbetween but is actually alike neither. If you want to output straight to JPEG, then treat it like slide film, but if you want to max the data on the sensor and particularly enhance shadow detail then digital provides the option of shooting Raw, exposing to the right (of the histogram, ETTR) and optimising the output file in post.

To do that, you need a histogram and blinkies, and neither is difficult to use. And certainly, without knowing about these things you do not 'understand exposure' whether you choose to use them or not.

IMHO, blinkies (over-exposure warning) is the single most useful and relevant gift that the Gods of digital have given us. Bryan Peterson doesn't even mention their existance.
 
I think this article on LL summarises the benefits of ETTR. I found UE to be very useful for developing my understanding of the exposure triangle when I first started to get my hear around really understanding exposure and first started getting to grips with manual controls. And I still find the principles useful for film photography.

However, having got to grips with exposure, when shooting digital you soon begin to realise the limitations of Bryan's techniques compared to ETTR and capturing the best image data possible with the camera, rather than trying to capture the best image possible.

I would still recommend Understanding Exposure to a beginner. But I think this comes under the category that Pratchett described as, "the lies we tell children".
 
I found a very good method. It is called start taking pictures and work it out for yourself, and I saved £9. Result :thumbs:
 
I bought it after seeing good reviews and read it from front to back, decided it wasn't for me and gave it away.
 
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