Jul 162013
How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures From Your Digital Camera
This paperback edition of How To Photograph Absolutely Everything by renowned photographer, author, and broadcaster Tom Ang, delivers exactly what the title promises. Avoiding intimidating technical jargon, he explains the basic elements of photography – light, color, composition, and focus – then goes on to show how to make them work for you. From still lifes to children’s parties, thunderstorms to sunsets, close-ups to panoramas, every photographic subject, technique, and challenge is covered.
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Lots of workable tips and tricks for novice photographers,
Tom Ang’s credentials as a photography instructor is unquestionable. In this book, he managed the tricky balance between appeasing the novices and keeping the veterans interested. His goal is simple but ambitious: he wanted to make a book full of tips to at least get the newbies started in as many photographic settings as possible.
This book is full of examples of how to take interesting and good photos in all sorts of situations, well-illustrated and narrated to give a decent sense of why and how. It is also full of useful little tricks that are wonderful to learn, that one usually has to luckily discover oneself, or hear from a more experienced photographers.
The unfortunate thing about this book is that it does not cover enough technical details. In many cases I wish that Ang had said more than just “high ISO, wide-open aperture.” I realize that numbers are just numbers, but some instructions leave me wondering what range of numbers he is talking about.
There are plenty of things to benefit the novice and intermediate photographers alike, although the value diminishes with the reader’s expertise, as expected. For the newbies, this book is especially appealing because Ang took most of the photos with a simple digital point & shoot, again highlighting that it’s the technique and art that matter most, not the gear.
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|Good book for hobbyist,
I plan on using this book as part of a digital photography workshop I’m conducting next month. The best thing about this book are the hundreds of photos the author includes. The photos are of the type of subjects most any serious photographer can find, and they are captured with a point-and-shoot camera which is what most people shoot with. I agree with previous reviewer that Ang could have included more detail about the exposure settings. This would have been very useful in helping readers understand better shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings for particular types of shots.
I also don’t particularly like the layout of the book. The size is pretty awkward. The paperback edition will I think make a better choice because it won’t feel so weighty like this one. This book should be more than a coffee table book; it should one that serious photographers use almost like a manual for getting ideas about what and how to shoot in everyday situations. It’s a great resource for picking out one or two types of shoots (like night or animal photography) and practicing the suggestions that Ang provides. Overall, great book, but if you don’t like heavy hardback books, wait for the soft-bound edition.
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|Excellent if you know the basics,
While it is not absolutely necessary, I’d still recommend you (1) learn how to operate your camera beyond its automatic settings and (2) learn basic photography before you buy this book.
I’ve seen the hardcover edition of this book locally but read here in Amazon that it would be available in paperback so I opted to wait. When I revisited Amazon this month, I saw that the paperback is out and when we went to the bookstore, I was suprised to find it. I didn’t hesitate to buy it because of the positive reviews here. I’m glad I did.
Do not expect the book to teach you the details of “how to photograph absolutely everything”. If it did, then the book would probably be 10x heavier (it’s heavy enough as it is). What is there is worth every penny. I’ve been a serious hobbyist* for less than a year but learned fast so some of the contents of the book aren’t new but it still offered plenty of ideas that I’d like to explore further either by learning from online tutorials or by buying specific books, e.g., if you’re interested in portraits, then get a good portrait photography book.
Warning: This isn’t a book for advanced hobbyists (2+ years experience) and certainly not for professionals.
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Get the paperback book. It’s relatively lighter (but not light) than the hardcover.
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