Did you learn photography from a book (at least initially)?

I learned the technical 35 mm stuff from a series of small Kodak books I bought for a few bucks each when I bought my first “real” camera at Kmart.

I learned initially on the job shooting pictures for yearbooks, but once I got to high school it was a textbook called "Object and Image."

 

What about you? Was there some early book you learned about photography from?

No

Though I learned about photography from books subsequently, initially I learned about photography and was inspired to do it by watching movies.

I initially used my mother's Kodak Autographic roll film camera when I was eight or nine, so she must have taught me how to use it. I really caught the bug when I was about twelve and built my own darkroom for developing and contact printing in my bedroom closet (who needs to hang up clothes?). Then it was learning by a lot of trial and error and questioning at the local camera store, which was within walking distance of home. Any books on photography that I read were from the library.

There used to be something called Fathers as well - often role models - certainly in my family. Let me use his M 3 Leica kit when I was 15-16.

80% "yes" - Well, I am not sure. I was given my mothers automatic 110 camera before I started reading a lot. My father had bought a humorous 1950s "how to", which I read at age about 14 when my late great granduncle's RF got handed down to me. - A bit later I received my 1st 35mm SLR with a matching book about it and the Pentax system and yes I used to be a bookworm and surely read through the local libraries. - Ansel Adams' trilogy, the Time Life books, whatever, even really old stuff from the 1920s.

What it mattered is what I am not really sure about. - Processing my first roll at school, doing maybe a dozen prints there mattered a lot!

I don't claim to have practically understood the zone system well enough, to shoot according to it. - I more kind of understood it in principle. I am not sure what books can tell beyond being an inflated user &/ shopping manual.

 

But once again: Get hold of an used copy of Light Science and Magic! I feel I am / was learning from it. Not everybody might need it but when you ever end doing studio work you'll be happy to have read it.

 

To the young or modern folks: If you want to learn from YouTube, sod books and go ahead! Clarifying: each medium has it's space. - I'd rather read the basic &/ background stuff. But postprocessing is a part of photography and very few things could beat watching somebody's screen while hearing them ramble about what they are doing, pausing, trying on your own...

There used to be something called Fathers as well - often role models - certainly in my family. Let me use his M 3 Leica kit when I was 15-16.

 

My dad did give me his Konica I rangefinder and a GE Light meter during High School. But he never actually taught me photography or anything. The camera was very helpful. He really wasn't an amateur photographer though. The High School yearbook thing taught me some basic darkroom and the college course and the book I list above helped fill in details of photography, but that didn't really give me the bug either. It was when I got out into the world that I kind of adopted it as a hobby.

Trial and error, mostly error.

Various combinations over time. My first camera was a Polaroid, at age about 9-10. That was just snaps, but whetted my interest early. Then, various Instamatics and the like, until Dad gave me his old Nikkormat EL in high school. That's when I delved deeply into both books and experimentation. My 19th birthday present was a trip to the travelling Nikon School, which served to coalesce and solidify much of what I had studied and experimented with. Since then, mostly self-taught, with a healthy dose of online resources. At the end of the day, book (or online) learning will only take one so far, and then you have to get out and simply do it. What I love about digital is the ability to experiment and receive immediate feedback, without the cost and delays associated with film. Even if a learner wanted to get into film, I'd first recommend digital as the way to quickly and effectively learn the basics of exposure and composition. I wish I had had it 40 years ago. (Wistful sigh...)

Photo clubs, Monterey Peninsula College with teachers such as Henry Gilpin and Ted Orland. Plus, there is a heavy Ansel Adams & the Westons vibe around here.

I started out with various Kodak books and pamphlets. Attended a Nikon seminar as well as some night classes later. A few photo workshops helped fuel the fires as well.

A combination . . . I've been doing this since about 1973. My first exposure was my father, a musician, and his father, an engineer who had dragged a 35mm camera (that I still have) through Africa, Italy and France during World War II.

 

I started with a little instruction from my father and my grandfather's old Federal enlarger (which I also still have!) and a Kodak Darkroom Data Guide along with magazines. I couldn't afford books until much later.

It's interesting to consider the different areas of photographic learning. As with others, I learned the functions and usage of cameras originally from parents, from my brother, and then more complex cameras from friends, my camera manuals, and many tech articles I read. I learn a lot about seeing and the aesthetic side of making photos from both photographic and non-photographic sources. Reading novels, seeing movies, looking at paintings have all helped and inspired my photography. The first actual book I read on photography was Sontag's On Photography, which helped me gain perspective and some insights into what I wanted to do with the medium and what I could see as some possibilities for the place and power of photos in my life. I've learned a lot about photography from watching people's reactions to my photos, from experiencing my own changing reactions to photos of others and my own photos over time. I've learned a few important things about photography from carrying a cell phone with me at all times. I've learned about photography by putting my camera down at some important moments and by leaving it home for some important excursions. It may be that I've learned the most about photography by taking some chances and heading into territory unknown and previously unlearned by me.

I wasn’t good at music or art. Photography was the only “creative” thing I ever showed some talent for.

 

In some ways photography is somewhat similar to computer programming in that both are fields which do have degrees associated with them, but which lots of amateurs end up working (or playing) in. I was professionally trained in computer science, but I had only minimal training in photography. I knew some people without computer science (or related) degrees working as programmers. Some were quite good, but there were holes in their education that mattered. Maybe the same is true of photography, I don’t know. Or is photography more of an art which favors talent over training? I don’t know.

I knew some people without computer science (or related) degrees working as programmers. Some were quite good, but there were holes in their education that mattered. Maybe the same is true of photography, I don’t know. Or is photography more of an art which favors talent over training? I don’t know.

 

I've seen the same over 35 years in IT. I think that photography is one of the arts where talent can, to some extent, be simulated by technical skills. You CAN learn to take very good pictures and impress your family and friends but that isn't the same as being truly creative or having a unique eye.

I learned initially on the job shooting pictures for yearbooks, but once I got to high school it was a textbook called "Object and Image."

 

What about you? Was there some early book you learned about photography from?

 

OJT - other photographers on the yearbook staff and our external photo advisors.

 

The one major thing that I missed was art training on composition. To this day, that is a major weak spot.

My father let me use his Leica. I broke it, because I didn't know about three-ply threads when I was nine. It was repaired, and I continued to use it. He taught me the basics, and I learned "Sunny 16" from the film boxes. My mother taught me a little about composition (according to her, Dorothy Norman was a buddy). I took a useful class about 1964, which resulted in my first published photo. We had a darkroom for the class, which resulted in my almost achieving mediocrity as a printer. I was lucky in that after college I had access to an amazing collection of books at the local library.

Now that you ask, I am not sure what you mean by 'learn'.

 

I was always more interested in science than art, and especially for photography.

 

I learned some from my father, but mostly science, including darkroom work.

I still have my "Kodak Films in Rolls" from years ago, which I read all the way though.

I had some other Kodak booklets, too.

 

The only book I remember from way back is: "Anscochrome and Ektachrome Home Processing"

(that would have been E2 days). I was in college when E6 came out, and did some of that in

the student darkroom. Maybe because I remember the book, and wanting to do it.

 

I might have had some library books when I was young, but don't remember learning much from them.

 

Things like the art of composing or framing, I don't know that I ever learned, I just did it,

and maybe wrong all these years.

 

I think I have to say that I didn't learn much about photography from books, either

the art or science parts.

 

I tried Cibachrome once. It sorta kinda worked OK but it was finicky. I saw something about palladium printing recently which looked pretty cool. And he was doing it with digital files from a Leica Monochrom. I posted about it in Film and Processing. Probably one of those things everybody but me knows about.

Mostly I just picked it up by doing. I did have the Boy Scouts of America Photography Merit Badge booklet. I did an essay on that some time ago (Could you qualify for a 1948 Boy Scout Photography Merit Badge?).

Test

As an early STEM subscriber, I devoured everything I could read about photography, especially the technical aspects. Along the way I read a lot of picture books too, but generally found those less than helpful and more for bragging rights by the authors. For one thing, I always wondered how (and why) anyone would remember what shutter speed and aperture were used. I found it much more useful to remember how I determined the exposure than the actual details.

 

I'm not saying details aren't important, rather that they should be so deeply embedded that you have time to see where the camera is pointed.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Ed_Ingold

(Could you qualify for a 1948 Boy Scout Photography Merit Badge?).

I think I still have both my Dad's Boy Scout Manual and mine. His from the thirties, mine from the fifties. If I can put my hands on them, I'll copy photography requirements and send along to you JDM. Could prove interesting to see an evolution.

When I started, I couldn't afford books . . . All of my money went to film, paper and chemistry . . . I don't remember reading much in the library. There were no photography classes in my high school in the late 70's. When I returned to B&W in the late 80's, I started to read about history and photo-chemistry. The Adams trilogy, Newhall, Stieglitz, Weston, et al. I took a B&W class (several) at a community college in order to get access to their darkroom. The course work, which I completed because I wanted to keep taking classes, forced me to learn some more history and then getting started in wedding photography forced me to learn about composition. To this day, I continue to learn from books, websites and personal contact with other artists.