May 102013
Picture Perfect Practice: A Self-Training Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Taking World-Class Photographs (Voices That Matter)
- Size : 25.15 x 20.07 x 2.29 cm
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 ph
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The best photography book I read in quite a while,
This book is different. It approaches photography from the artistic side, not the technical side. You occasionally hear comments like “shooting with a small aperture” or “with an off-camera flash”, but this is about as technical as it gets. Valenzuela does not discuss camera menus, gear choice, or lighting ratios. If you don’t know what these terms mean, you’ll need to look elsewhere (these are important things to know, no doubt). That being said, there are literally hundreds of information sources (many of them free) where you get that sort of technical information.
Valenzuela’s book rather approaches the topics from a creative/artistic point of view: it teaches you how to recognize geometry in the scenes you are shooting; how to reduce the background clutter by finding “simple” structures that are effective compositional elements; why a picture needs “balance” and how you can use elements you find in the scene to achieve balance; which expressions and messages you send by taking silhouettes; which emotions do you evoke by which method of posing; how do you effectively pose a subject; etc. The book addresses the “why”, as in “what’s the message you are providing with this method?”; “why would you want to choose this approach?”, at least as much as the “how”.
And this book does that in an ingenious way: very short chapters, dedicated to one simple concept (shadow, silhoettes, balance, geometry, etc.). You can read each chapter in 5-15 minutes. The chapters are illustrated by pictures that are both excellent, and “approachable”. Meaning: while many of the pictures are by all means fantastic, they are not so out-of-this-world artistically mind blowing that you look at them and feel “never in a million years will I be capable of producing something like that”. In other words, the author (who is perfectly capable of producing out-of-this-world artistically mind blowing images) choose illustrations for his book that get his points across, and keep you motivated. His purpose is not to prove what a brilliant photographer he is (for that, have a look at the portfolio on his website, you’ll be amazed!).
The short chapters always end with an exercise. These exercises obviously are meant to practice what was being discussed in the chapter. But at the same time, the exercises are real. “Take a camera and shoot 5 pictures of squares you find in the room you are currently in”. They are of the type that makes you want to do them right away, because you know you can do this, and because you realize that it teaches you something (e.g. recognizing the geometry in a scene).
This book is refreshingly different. I am currently on my third read of the book (got it as a gift 2 weeks ago). First time I read it cover to cover, without stopping for the exercises (which I highly recommend, by the way). For the second read I re-visited some key chapters that I noticed towards the end that I had not completely understood. And now I am slowly making my way through each chapter, actually doing the exercises.
The “Picture Perfect” book would also make an excellent program for any camera club looking to develop an instructional schedule. Highly recommend!
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|If you only buy one book on creative photography, this is it.,
I almost didn’t create a review for this product because I wanted to keep it as my own little best kept secret but it’s just too good not to share. (If nothing else let this be my feeble way of thanking the author for creating it!)
My husband and I have this longstanding theory that no artist is every really going to share all of his/her secrets with you in a book, a workshop or otherwise, and based on every book and workshop I’ve ever taken I’ve found this theory to be alive and well. They give you just enough information to *think* you’re going to learn a ton but you’re left feeling like there was something missing–SOMETHING they just didn’t share that would make all the puzzle pieces fit.
Then in comes Roberto Valenzuela and Picture Perfect Practice. He covers so many aspects of good photography it will literally take me years to master all that he has provided for devouring. That’s not to say the concepts he shares are difficult per se, it’s simply that there are so many things he covers, that to practice them to a point of mastery is no easy task. The book is organized well, by topic, and he provides key tips for practicing. He’s really opened my eyes to the notion that photographers see the world differently. Not just during a session but every day. Every object is transformed by the photographers eye and this is percicely what he helps you to develop: your eye.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. I have paid thousands of dollars for workshops that have contained a third of what I’ve found in this book for under $30. With this workbook and dedicated practice to the craft, I defy you not to become the photographer you are destined to be. Keep on clickin!
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|A good book…IF you like wedding photography,
This book has good practical advice for improving photographic composition, contrasting examples of good and bad photos to illustrate subtle points. But the vast majority of its examples are wedding/bridal photos. If wedding photography is not your thing, you might find the book much less interesting, compelling, or useful than if it addressed a broader variety of photo genres or included more diverse examples.
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