One of the most popular cameras on the market is called the "Digital Rebel," yet many photographers use it and its brethren following tired old rules from tired old photographers. This book aims to show new and intermediate photographers that they can move beyond the dogma and shoot more creatively. If you're just starting out with a camera, or are starting to think about switching away from "auto," this is the perfect book for you. Not only will you find within all the classical "rules"-useful basic knowledge that can sharpen anyone's eye for great photography-but you'll simultaneously be shown how you can push the boundaries that many teachers erroneously set, filling your memory card with exciting, different pictures every time. This book brings the aspirational photography seen by so many in books or on Flickr within reach of everyone.
Within the Frame is a book about finding and expressing your photographic vision, specifically where people, places, and cultures are concerned. A personal book full of real-world wisdom and incredible images, author David duChemin (of pixelatedimage.com) shows you both the how and the why of finding, chasing, and expressing your vision with a camera to your eye. Vision leads to passion, and passion is a cornerstone of great photography. With it, photographs draw the eye in and create an emotional experience. Without it, a photograph is often not worth—and can’t capture—a viewer’s attention. Both instructional and inspirational, Within the Frame helps you on your photographic journey to make better images of the places and people you love, whether they are around the world or in your own backyard. duChemin covers how to tell stories, and the technology and tools we have at our disposal in order to tell those narratives. Most importantly, he stresses the crucial theme of vision when it comes to photographing people, places, and cultures—and he helps you cultivate and find your own vision, and then fit it within the frame.
Why we must forget photography and reject the frame of reality it prescribes and delineates. The central paradox this book explores is that at the moment of photography's replacement by the algorithm and data flow, photographic cultures proliferate as never before. The afterlife of photography, residual as it may technically be, maintains a powerful cultural and representational hold on reality, which is important to understand in relationship to the new conditions. Forgetting photography is a strategy to reveal the redundant historicity of the photographic constellation and the cultural immobility of its epicenter. It attempts to liberate the image from these historic shackles, forged by art history and photographic theory. More important, perhaps, forgetting photography also entails rejecting the frame of reality it prescribes and delineates, and in doing so opens up other relationships between bodies, times, events, materials, memory, representation and the image. Forgetting photography attempts to develop a systematic method for revealing the limits and prescriptions of thinking with photography, which no amount of revisionism of post-photographic theory can get beyond. The world urgently needs to unthink photography and go beyond it in order to understand the present constitution of the image as well as the reality or world it shows. Forgetting photography will require a different way of organizing knowledge about the visual in culture that involves crossing different knowledges of visual culture, technologies, and mediums. It will also involve thinking differently about routine and creative labor and its knowledge practices within the institutions and organization of visual reproduction.
Photography Rules provides over 150 essential mantras for anyone interested in taking good pictures. Written by an expert photographer and lecturer, the book is packed with practical advice and technical tips presented in a fun, light-hearted fashion. Paul Lowe guides you through over 150 bitesize dos and don'ts from the likes of Dorothea Lange, Don McCullin, Martin Parr, Rankin and Richard Avedon. Whether you're a complete beginner using your iPhone, looking to improve your DSLR skills or are already a professional, this book will give you insider tips inspired by the greatest photographers from history as well as original pieces of advice from some of the most well-respected living photographers. Each of the pithy entries will combine a specific rule and a supporting photograph or quote with commentary from the author on how best to put the advice into practice. Chapters include: Shoot Like a Photographer: Practical tips for taking great photographs – covering genre, composition, operational function, working with your subject, lighting, post-production and print Think Like a Photographer: Insider guidance on attitude, creativity, understanding photography and finding your purpose Act Like a Photographer: Dos and don'ts about being a professional, working with clients, marketing yourself, developing your career, making money and collaborations With succinct, accessible and engaging entries, expert advice from the author and original quotes sourced direct from the some of the greatest living photographers and industry professionals, readers can either dip in at random or read religiously for lessons in how to produce photographs they’re proud of. This is the perfect book for students, amateurs or professional photographers, looking to improve their skills and get inspiration. Shoot, think and act like a great photographer with Photography Rules.
Learn to ask better, more helpful questions of your work so that you can create stronger and more powerful photographs.
Photographers often look at an image—one they’ve either already created or are in the process of making—and ask themselves a simple question: “Is this a good photograph?” It’s an understandable question, but it’s really not very helpful. How are you supposed to answer that? What does “good” even mean? Is it the same for everyone?
What if you were equipped to ask better, more constructive questions of your work so that you could think more intentionally and creatively, and in doing so, bring more specific action and vision to the act of creating photographs? What if asking stronger questions allowed you to establish a more effective approach to your image-making? In The Heart of the Photograph: 100 Questions for Making Stronger, More Expressive Photographs, photographer and author David duChemin helps you learn to ask better questions of your work in order to craft more successful photographs—photographs that express and connect, photographs that are strong and, above all, photographs that are truly yours.
From the big-picture questions—What do I want this image to accomplish?—to the more detail-oriented questions that help you get there—What is the light doing? Where do the lines lead? What can I do about it?—David walks you through his thought process so that you can establish your own. Along the way, he discusses the building blocks from which compelling photographs are made, such as gesture, balance, scale, contrast, perspective, story, memory, symbolism, and much more. The Heart of the Photograph is not a theoretical book. It is a practical and useful book that equips you to think more intentionally as a photographer and empowers you to ask more helpful questions of you and your work, so that you can produce images that are not only better than “good,” but as powerful and authentic as you hope them to be.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Better Questions
PART ONE: A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH? Is It Good? The Audience's Good The Photographer's Good
PART TWO: BETTER THAN GOOD Better Subjects
PART THREE: BETTER EXPRESSION Exploration and Expression What Is the Light Doing? What Does Colour Contribute? What Role Do the Lines and Shapes Play? What's Your Point of View? What Is the Quality of the Moment? Where Is the Story? Where Is the Contrast? What About Balance and Tension? What Is the Energy? How Can I Use Space and Scale? Can I Go Deeper? What About the Frame? Do the Elements Repeat? Harmony Can I Exclude More? Where Does the Eye Go? How Does It Feel? Where's the Mystery? Remember When? Can I Use Symbols? Am I Being Too Literal?
PART FOUR: BETTER PHOTOGRAPHS The Heart of the Photograph Index
"The Visual Toolbox is photographer David duChemin's curriculum for learning not just how to use a camera--but how to make stronger photographs. He has developed 60 lessons, each one a stepping stone to becoming more proficient with the tools of this art, and the means to create deeper visual experiences with your images. David introduces you to the technical side of the craft but quickly moves on to composition, the creative process, and the principles that have always been responsible for making great photographs; he shows you these principles and invites you to play with them, turn them on their heads, and try a different approach to create beautiful, compelling images with your camera."--Publisher's description.
Learn to take great photos with your iPhone—the camera you always have with you!
Imagine if someone took the same photographic techniques, principles, and tools used by high-end and professional photographers, but applied them to shooting with an iPhone. Imagine the type of images you’d be able to create using those same ideas. Well, finally, somebody has.
The world’s #1 best-selling photography techniques author is about to break all the rules as he shows you how to apply the same techniques today’s top pro photographers use to make stunning images. You’re going to learn exactly how to use these techniques to create images that people will just not believe you could actually take with a phone (but with the quality of the iPhone’s camera, you absolutely can!).
Scott leaves all the techno-speak behind and, instead, treats the whole book as if it were just you and he out on a shoot with your iPhones, using his trademark casual, plain-English writing style to help you unlock the power of your iPhone to make the type of pictures you never thought could be done with a phone. You’ll learn:
• Which tools to use to make pro-quality portraits in any lighting situation.
• How to create stunning landscape shots that people will swear you took with an expensive DSLR or mirrorless camera.
• Proven posing techniques that flatter your subject and make anyone you photograph look their very best in every shot.
• How to organize and edit your photos like a pro!
• The pros’ top tips for making amazing shots of everything from flowers to product shots, from food photography to travel shots, and everything in between.
Each page covers a single concept, a single tool, or a trick to take your iPhone photography from snapshots to shots that will make your friends and family say, “Wait…you took this?!”
Foreword by Skip Cohen Translating the chaos of the real world into a breathtakingly simple, beautiful photograph can often seem like an impossible task. With busy, cluttered backgrounds and subjects who don’t know how to pose, how can you take control and get a great shot no matter the situation? In Picture Perfect Practice, photographer Roberto Valenzuela breaks down the craft of photography into three key elements–locations, poses, and execution–that you can use to unlock the photographic opportunities lying beneath every challenging situation. Valenzuela stresses the need for photographers to actively practice their craft every day–just like you would practice a musical instrument–in order to master the art of making great images. With chapters that offer practice exercises to strengthen your photographic abilities, you’ll learn how to approach a scene, break it down, and see your way to a great photograph. The Location section features chapters that cover symmetry, balance, framing, color elements, textures, and much more. The Posing section includes the Five Key Posing Techniques that Valenzuela uses every time he’s shooting people, as well as a complete list of poses and how to achieve, customize, and perfect them. The Execution portion, with sections like “Lighting through Direction” and “Simplicity through Subtraction,” reveals Valenzuela’s overall approach to getting the shot. The book also includes an inspiring and helpful chapter on deliberate practice techniques, where Valenzuela describes his system for practicing and analyzing his work, which leads to constant improvement as a photographer. If you’ve been frustrated and overwhelmed by the challenges of real-world locations, posing your subjects, or executing a great image–or if you simply want to become a better shooter but don’t know where to start– Picture Perfect Practice gives you the tools and information you need to finally become the kind of photographer you’ve always wanted to be: the kind who can confidently walk into any location, under any lighting condition, with any subject, and know that you can create astonishing photographs that have a timeless impact.
