Rating:
(47 reviews)
Author: Laurie Excell
ISBN : 0321741323
New from $12.99
Format: PDF
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Now that you’ve bought that amazing new DSLR, you need a book that goes beyond the camera manual to teach you how to take those great shots. One key element is composition—the creative arrangement of components in the shot, and the way a viewer’s eye travels through an image.
With Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots, author and photographer Laurie Excell starts with the basics of composition and explores how the elements of color, shape, angles, and contrast work to create compelling images. Contributing photographers, John Batdorff, David Brommer, Rick Rickman, and Steve Simon, provide unique perspectives on black and white, sports, art history, and other subjects related to composition. Beautifully illustrated with large, vibrant photos, this book teaches you how to take control of your photography to get the image you want every time you pick up the camera.
Follow along with your friendly and knowledgeable guides, and you will learn about:
- Key camera features that affect composition, including the exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, and shutter speed)
- Shadow and light and how to direct the viewer’s eye to your subject
- Lines and shapes that create visual paths to points of interest in your image
- The role of color—using complementary or contrasting colors—to add your own unique artistic expression
- Spatial relationship and placing your subject within the frame for portraits, action shots, or landscapes
And once you’ve got the shot, show it off! Join the book’s Flickr group, share your photos, and discuss how you use your camera to get great shots at flickr.com/groups/composition_fromsnapshotstogreatshots.
Direct download links available for Free Download Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots
- Series: From Snapshots to Great Shots
- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (November 27, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0321741323
- ISBN-13: 978-0321741325
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Free Download Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots
This is a short, rudimentary book on composition, yet ironically, is poorly suited to beginners. There are a number of serious flaws with this book, almost all of which are related to some form of bad organization/editing. For a book that can be read easily in within one evening, it's puzzling why there are *five* different authors--and this chaos really shows. The majority of this book is written by Excell, but the last 4 chapters are basically random, disconnected topics that were just stitched into this book as if it was just filler material. Those chapters are not connected to the main text, can overlap in content, and are often just poorly written in their own right.
The first six chapters written by Excell are by far the best in the book. The photos are excellent, and I enjoyed almost every one of them, although there was very little *instructive* value that was offered. You can see that Excell is an intuitive and gifted photographer, although (at least in this book), she is not skilled in articulating the knowledge she has. The writing strongly lacks organization.
These organization problems are obvious in a number of ways. Strangely, the first two chapters are not about composition at all. Chapter 1 describes equipment, and chapter 2 attempts to describe the basic principles of photographic exposure (iso/shutter/aperture). This is a bit odd in a book about composition, but I suppose the intent was to give background information for novices. Unfortunately, it does a very poor job at this.
Even if you did want to present these topics, why would you start with equipment before the fundamental concept of exposure?