Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with Or Without a Macro Lens

Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with Or Without a Macro Lens Review

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In his sixth book, renowned photographer, popular instructor, and best-selling author Bryan Peterson challenges and inspires us to see close-up photography in new ways when we view it through his eyes. You’ve seen the dewdrops, but what about dewdrops on a bird’s wing or raindrops on a car windshield? You’ve seen the bumblebees on vibrant flowers, but what about the fluid edge of just one petal or the colorful rusting metal at industrial sites? Even when Peterson does capture the more traditional subjects, it's done in untraditional ways–and often with minimal specialized equipment! Most important, he moves beyond the commonplace to inspire new ways of getting close, using your lenses, and discovering unconventional subjects.

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Customer Reviews

Apr 27, 2012 17:08:43

Creative Lighting: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Lighting: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review

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How to make digital photography lighting more creative—and less challenging!

How do you master the art of lighting your photographs? Go beyond the basics, go beyond the "rules," and get creative with the help of renowned photographer Harold Davis. In this book, Harold shows you how to break the boundaries of conventional wisdom and create unique, lively, and beautifully lit photographs.  Packed with tips and tricks as well as stunning examples of the author’s creativity, this book will both inform and inspire you to create your own lighting style.

• Teaches you when and how to control the light in your photographs
• Reviews the basic “rules” of digital photography lighting and shows you how to break the rules to create your own uniquely lit images
• Helps you start building a lighting style of your own
• Includes stunning examples of the author’s photography and lighting techniques

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned digital photographer, you'll find ideas and techniques to spark your creativity.

Amazon.com Exlusive: Introduction Letter from the Author

Dear Amazon Readers,

Light is crucial to photography, and without lighting you cannot have a photo. But books about light and lighting come in a number of varieties. So if you are considering my book, I wanted to let you know why I wrote Creative Lighting: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques, where I am coming from in this book, and what you’ll find in it.

If there is one skill a photographer needs, it is the ability to see and understand light. Learning about the directionality, intensity, quality, and color of light is partly intuitive--but can largely be taught. Creative use of lighting makes or breaks a photo, whether the photo is shot outdoors or in the studio. Furthermore, you can’t even begin to understand how to create effective lighting until you learn to “read” light itself. Becoming familiar with light and lighting in all its infinite varieties is the first step along the way to mastering the craft of photography.

Creative Lighting covers both natural light and studio lighting. However, it is not a cookbook covering studio lighting setups; nor is it a book that emphasizes the pixels over the overall visual impact that a photograph can make. Each of the photos in this book can be used as idea generation for your own work--how you can use existing light, alter light, or create lighting to make spectacular photos of your own. I’ve included the story behind each photo in the book, as well as full technical data about the captures. The emphasis of my book is the creative use of lighting. Like other books in my Creative series, Creative Lighting is intended to be useful as an idea book.

Creative Lighting is conceptually divided into five parts. As you’ll see, there is a great deal of material, and it covers a lot of ground. The parts of Creative Lighting are:

Part I: Seeing the Light--Covers understanding and observing light and its characteristics (and applies to both studio and natural light); learning the material in this section is a first step towards becoming a master of light.

Part II: Exposure & Lighting--Details the responses to lighting in terms of camera settings because light and lighting is only one part of the exposure equation, the other side of the equation is how you set your camera to respond to the way the subject is lit.

Part III: Working with Ambient Light--Explains how to work with existing light, meaning sunlight and also mixed lighting environments, and also provides some tips for improving the quality of ambient and existing light.

Part IV: Lighting in the Studio--Shows you how to make creative use of continuous lights in still life compositions, and how to create stunning portraits using strobes in the studio.

Part V: Lighting in the Digital Darkroom—With digital photography, taking the photo is just the first part of the workflow. In this section, you’ll learn to use RAW processing and Photoshop to improve the creative impact of lighting in post-processing, and even change the entire lighting effect in a photo.

I hope you enjoy Creative Lighting. May the light be with you, and best wishes in photography!

Harold Davis

From the Author: Lighting Case Studies

Case Study: Light Through Clouds

Case Study: Bud in Vase

Case Study: Blossom

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Customer Reviews

Apr 02, 2012 20:03:06

Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography

Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography Review

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Great portraits go beyond a mere record of a face. They reveal one of the millions of intimate human moments that make up a life. In Beyond Portraiture, renowned photographer Bryan Peterson shows how to spot those “ah-ha!” moments and capture them forever. A teary child...old people laughing together...a smiling girl with big, big hair. Everyone remember pictures like these, usually taken by a mother, a father, a friend holding a camera, forever preserving small yet revealing vignettes of our personal histories. But we always relied on pure luck and chance to catch those moments. Peterson’s approach explains what makes a photo memorable, how to spot the universal themes that everyone can identify with, and how to use lighting, setting, and exposure to reveal the wonder and the joy of everyday moments. Beyond Portraiture makes it easy to create indelible memories with light and shadow.

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• Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography (Updated Edition)

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Feb 01, 2012 08:36:36

Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review

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Capture the beauty of the world around you with this professional advice

Landscape photography inspires millions of photographers. If you're one of them, you'll find new insight into landscape photography in this book by professional photographer Harold Davis, as well as tips, tricks, and technical advice to help you improve the quality of your photos. You'll learn to use lighting and composition creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, look at your subject matter in a new way, and even when to break the rules in order to capture the best image of all. Illustrated with the author's own spectacular landscape photos.

• Landscape photography intrigues and inspires photographers, but there is more to getting great landscape photos than many photographers expect
• Professional photographer Harold Davis teaches tricks and techniques that will enhance your skills
• Explains how to approach the subject creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, and refine photographic technique to create spectacular landscape shots
• Looks at how lighting, texture, and composition affect landscape imagery
• Lavishly illustrated with the author's own photos

Landscapes have long been a popular photographic subject; this book helps you advance your skills as a landscape photographer.

An Amazon.com Exclusive Introduction from Author Harold Davis

Dear Amazon Reader,

I’m passionate about landscape photography. I love getting out, traveling, finding new vistas, and photographing them. But, there’s a surprising paradox with landscape photography. On the one hand, this kind of photography might seem easy: It isn’t hard to find spectacular landscapes, no specialized gear is needed, and on its face, landscape photography doesn’t seem technically difficult.

On the other hand, as Ansel Adams put it, “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer, and often the supreme disappointment.” Great landscape photography is, in fact, far harder than it looks.

Part of the trick is being in the right place at the right time. But even if the scene you are witnessing is sublime, there’s no guarantee that you’ll bring back compelling digital landscape imagery without the right creative ideas, techniques, and tips—which is where Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques comes in.

I’ve always loved landscape photography, and in the course of my career I have had the opportunity to photograph a wide variety of landscapes from many perspectives. I’ve pursued my love of the landscape by hiking solo across the Brooks Range—the northernmost Mountain range in Alaska—crossing ranging torrents with my camera perched precariously on my back and the rest of my gear on handmade rafts. I’ve gone hungry in my pursuit of the wilderness landscape. I’ve dangled from small planes and helicopters, lashed in with a harness, to photograph urban and wild landscapes from above. And I’ve sought the dark spaces of the night, to photograph landscapes and show them in ways they haven’t been seen before.

Digital has changed almost everything about the tools of the landscape photography trade, and how captures are processing in the digital darkroom.

My goal in Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques is to be your companion and guide in landscape photography. I work with you to find the right locations for your kind of landscape photography, and help you figure out the right time to be there. I share my best creative ideas about landscape photography with you, and explain the equipment, tools, and techniques you need to master. Finally, I show you how I process my landscape work in the digital darkroom.

Each of the photos in this book can be used as idea generation for your own work—how you might approach a specific kind of landscape to make spectacular photos of your own. I’ve included the story behind each photo in the book, as well as full technical data about the captures. Like other books in my Creative series, Creative Landscapes is intended to be useful as an idea book.

Creative Landscapes is divided into four parts. As you’ll see, there’s a great deal of material that covers a lot of ground:

Part I: The Tao of Landscape—Tao is a philosophy with ancient roots that refers to the primordial essence of things, the natural order of existence, and the fundamental aspects of the universe. My approach to landscape photography involves embracing the Tao of the world, and this section begins a conversation about integrating one’s work holistically with the world around us and the demands of modern life.

Part II: Tools & Techniques—Explains in detail the camera settings you need to know to make the most of your landscape photography opportunities.

Part III: One World, Many Landscapes—Photographing a mountain landscape is different from photographing a desert—and both are different from capturing a seascape, or the city as landscape. This section explores different considerations to keep in mind depending upon the kind of landscape you are photographing.

Part IV: Landscapes and Post-Processing—With digital photography, taking the photo is only the beginning of creative image making. In this section, you’ll learn to use RAW processing, Photoshop, and HDR techniques to improve the creative impact of your landscape photos.

I hope you enjoy Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques. I hope it encourages you to try new techniques. Be adventurous, and seek out awe-inspiring vistas. Explore the world around you, as you capture your own creative landscapes.

Best wishes in photography!

Harold Davis

Landscape Photos from the Author

Bridge and Stars at Night (Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)

Yosemite Morning (Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)

Yosemite in Snow (Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)

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Jan 27, 2012 09:52:06

Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography, Revised Edition

Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography, Revised Edition Review

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A classic guide to creative nature photography, now updated for the digital world.

Amateur and experienced photographers interested in taking more compelling, personal images will love this new edition of Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography, now updated to address the exciting possibilities (and challenges) of digital image-making. Author Brenda Tharp’s inspiring approach has garnered fans all over the world, as she teaches that magical skill no camera can do for you: learn how to “see.” Readers expand their photographic vision and discover deep wellsprings of creativity as they learn to use light, balance, color, design, pattern, texture, composition, and many simple techniques to take a photo from ordinary to high-impact.

Featuring more than 150 stunning, all-new images, Creative Nature & Outdoor  Photography, Revised Edition is for anyone who understands the basic technical side to photography but wants to wake up their creative vision.

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Jan 09, 2012 00:56:09

Creative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review

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Creative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Feature

• Goes beyond basics to teach photographers how to conquer the challenges posed by black-and-white photography
• Appeals to professionals and serious amateurs who are interested in exploring creative black-and-white imagery
• Presents photography fundamentals and shows how black and white requires some of the rules to be bent
• Encourages creative thinking and confidence
• Lavishly illustrated with Harold Davis's outstanding monochromatic photos

Black-and-white photography poses unique challenges; without color to guide the eye, contrast, lighting, and composition take on even more importance. Renowned photographer Harold Davis explains these elements and demonstrates the basic rules of black and white photography as well as when and how to break them. He breaks through the complexity of this photographic medium, explores opportunities for black-and-white imagery, and shows how to capitalize on every one.

Richly illustrated with the author's own images, this beautiful guide presents the skills needed for great black-and-white photos while encouraging your confidence and creativity.

• Goes beyond basics to teach photographers how to conquer the challenges posed by black-and-white photography
• Appeals to professionals and serious amateurs who are interested in exploring creative black-and-white imagery
• Presents photography fundamentals and shows how black and white requires some of the rules to be bent
• Encourages creative thinking and confidence
• Lavishly illustrated with Harold Davis's outstanding monochromatic photos

Whether you're a professional just venturing into black and white or a serious amateur, Creative Black & White will both educate and inspire you.

Black-and-White Photography Tips from Author Harold Davis

Black-and-White Photography Tips

Photos by Harold Davis

Tips for Seeing in Black and White [PDF]

Learn how breaking photographic rules can result in stunning black-and-white photos

Black-and-white photography poses unique challenges; without color to guide the eye, contrast, lighting, and composition take on even more importance. Renowned photographer Harold Davis explains these elements and demonstrates the basic rules of black and white photography as well as when and how to break them. He breaks through the complexity of this photographic medium, explores opportunities for black-and-white imagery, and shows how to capitalize on every one.

Richly illustrated with the author's own images, this beautiful guide presents the skills needed for great black-and-white photos while encouraging your confidence and creativity.

• Goes beyond basics to teach photographers how to conquer the challenges posed by black-and-white photography
• Appeals to professionals and serious amateurs who are interested in exploring creative black-and-white imagery
• Presents photography fundamentals and shows how black and white requires some of the rules to be bent
• Encourages creative thinking and confidence
• Lavishly illustrated with Harold Davis's outstanding monochromatic photos

Whether you're a professional just venturing into black and white or a serious amateur, Creative Black & White will both educate and inspire you.

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Jan 07, 2012 05:14:05

The Photographer's Mind: Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos

The Photographer's Mind: Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos Review

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The source of any photograph is not the camera or even the scene viewed through the viewfinder--it is the mind of the photographer: this is where an image is created before it is committed to a memory card or film. In The Photographer's Mind, the follow-up to the international bestseller, The Photographer's Eye, photographer and author Michael Freeman unravels the mystery behind the creation of a photograph.

The nature of photography demands that the viewer constantly be intrigued and surprised by new imagery and different interpretations, more so than in any other art form. The aim of this book is to answer what makes a photograph great, and to explore the ways that top photographers achieve this goal time and time again.

As you delve deeper into this subject, The Photographer's Mind will provide you with invaluable knowledge on avoiding cliché, the cyclical nature of fashion, style and mannerism, light, and even how to handle the unexpected.

Michael Freeman is the author of the global bestseller, The Photographer's Eye. Now published in sixteen languages, The Photographer's Eye continues to speak to photographers everywhere. Reaching 100,000 copies in print in the US alone, and 300,000+ worldwide, it shows how anyone can develop the ability to see and shoot great digital photographs.

• Written by the author of The Photographer's Eye.
• Provides you with invaluable knowledge on avoiding cliché, the cyclical nature of fashion, style and mannerism, light and even how to handle the unexpected.
• Contains over 400 breathtaking images from real photographic assignments, with schematic illustrations of how and why the images work.

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Jan 04, 2012 11:47:34

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second Review

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The first book in the Understanding Photography series, Understanding Exposure, was a runaway best-seller, with more than 250,000 copies sold. Now author Bryan Peterson brings his signature style to another important photography topic: shutter speed. With clear, jargon-free explanations of terms and techniques, plus compelling “before-and-after” photos that pair a mediocre image (created using the wrong shutter speed) with a great image (created using the right shutter speed), this is the definitive practical guide to mastering an often-confusing subject. Topics include freezing and implying motion, panning, zooming, exposure, Bogen Super Clamps, and rendering motion effects with Photoshop, all with helpful guidance for both digital and film formats. Great for beginners and serious amateurs, Understanding Shutter Speed is the definitive handy guide to mastering shutter speed for superb results.

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Dec 26, 2011 10:52:36

Fine Art Nature Photography: Advanced Techniques and the Creative Process

Fine Art Nature Photography: Advanced Techniques and the Creative Process Review

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A gallery of the author's best work complemented by concise instruction and advice from a master

This book of nature photography instruction and inspiration features striking full-color images and concise, informative text. It includes the author's stunning nature images from across the United States. The text offers specifications on equipment used, when and where the photos were taken, details on why the image works, what the photographer was looking to accomplish, how the image was shot, and unique lighting or compositional challenges the image illustrates.

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Oct 28, 2011 16:54:21