Landscape photography composition book.

Can anyone recommend any good landscape photography books that deal

solely with composition and the elements that make up a photograph?

I've looked through and purchased a lot of books but none seem to

cover this topic effectively enough, the closest I've seen is the Art

Wolfe and Martha Hill "The Art of Nature Photography" book.

 

I really like the John Shaw's series of books, but would like

something that goes beyond the technical and equipment discussions

and looks more at the artistic element of landscape photography.

 

The kind of book I'l like to find is one that shows a series of

photographs of the same subject and discusses why one photograph

works and another doesn't, elements that distract or add to the

photograph, why a particular perspective is better then another.

Pretty much something that gets into the nitty-gritty of

compositional design and the formation of shapes, positive and

negative space, diagonals, the golden rectangle etc.

 

I did do a search of the forums and came up with the following list

but from reading the reviews, comments and browsing them at a

bookstore, I'm not sure any of them are exactly what I'm after or are

either out of print. The books in question are:

 

"The Image" by Michael Freeman

"Designing Effective Pictures" by Michael Freeman

"Principles of Composition in Photography" by Andreas Feininger

"Photographic Seeing" by Andreas Feininger

"Photography and the Art of Seeing" by Freeman Patterson

"Learning to See Creatively" by Bryan Peterson

 

A friend mentioned I might be better off looking at perspective

drawing books but would prefer one that is more associated with

photography.

 

If anyone can think of any recommendations it would be appreciated.

I would recommend Freeman Patterson's series of instructional books. While they're

not specifically about landscape photography, most of Freeman's photos are

landscape/nature.

 

They're very good at showing you how to open your eyes and really see. One of his

big points is that a succesful photograph reflects the photographer's reaction to the

scene.

 

One of books does specifically deal with composition, shapes & colour (I just can't

remember which).

 

FYI, I read the Andreas Feininger books at my local library. Courtesy of years of

budget cuts, all the library has is really old photo books. You might try this route.

Hi Gordon,

The Hill and Wolfe book matches almost perfectly your description of what you're looking for. It goes through many of the basic compositional elements (form, color, line, etc.), and doesn't spend too much time on the technical. I really enjoy this book.

 

Of the others you mention, the only one I'm familiar with is that by Freeman Patterson, which is a bit more "meditative," and contains lots of little assignments for getting yourself to be more creative and break out of ruts. A great book, but it may not be exactly what you're looking for.

 

Martin

Gordon, there is not too much difference in between painting with a camera or on a canvas, specially when it comes to composition. I agree with your friend, if you would like to learn more about composition itself, look into the fine art painting and drawing books instead. One book that I would recommend is, "Conversations in Paint, a note book of fundamentals" by Charles Dunn, it teaches you to see.

 

I have most of the photography books that you mention, those are a good addition. Perhaps you will be able to write one of these books yourself after you invest some time on learning from the painting/drawing books!

You might want to look at two books by Charlie Waite, an excellent British landscape photographer. His first is "The Making of Lanscape Photographs" and his more recent book is "Seeing Landscapes". I have the first, and while it does cover slightly more than just composition, it is not the ususal "what kind of camera, which lens" landscape book. Lots of excellent images with comparisons of different viewpoints, framing, etc.

Art Wolfe's <I>The Art of Nature Photography</I> is certainly good, but not every book by John Shaw is about technical issues. Have you read his <I>Focus on Nature</I> [iSBN 0-8174-4056-9}? That book is full of image examples and discussion on "the creative process behind them." John Shaw actually has a couple of vide tapes in similar themes, discussing composition, etc.

Hey Shun,

 

Just looked at John Shaw's website and could not find the videos. Do you have a pointer/source?

 

tnx!

Oh yea, another good book is John Fielder's "Photographing the Landscape". It is Fielder's first and only instructional book.

Gordon,

 

Something else to try is to look at books with just photographs, no how-to stuff, and when you see a photograph that really grabs you try to articulate what it is about that particular photograph that moves you. You might even want to write down your thoughts and reactions.

Paul, John Shaw's video tapes were produced back in the 1990's. In particular, Tape 3 and 8 are on composition. I don't remember the source I bought them from. You can always e-mail John Shaw himself to find dealers. Moreover, I just did a Google search for "John Shaw video" and found an outlet. However, since I have never dealt with this outlet, I would rather let you find it yourself since I don't want to leave the impression that I recommend them.

 

I finally met John Shaw in person 2 months ago and we discussed his videos. He said that he is a bit embarrassed by them but I think they are fine. Whether they are worth the $30+ price tag is an individaul decision. I would get one first and see whether you are happy with it before spending a lot of money. I also asked him about any more up-coming books and he said no.

Thanks, Shun for the note/help. I think I found the same web site you did for John's videos, and I will try them out. I met John last year at PMA, he was doing an hour presentation in the Nikon booth on how he uses the Nikon 4000 scanner - an excellent presentation, I even suggested he put it on his web site. Alas, he told me as well - no more books :-(.

Gordon,

 

I'll offer a second for Charlie Waite's "Seeing Landscapes" book. It deals only with landscape composition - no equipment overviews, lengthy focal length discussions, or anything like most of the other "how to" books. Waite simply shows a photograph on each page, and discusses why it's composed the way it is, major decisions made for the shot, and how it all came together. Some facing pages are different compositions of the same, or similar subjects, with discussion of decisions that went into each version, which is helpful. I recall that the only equipment content has to do with the occasional mention of why a particular focal length or film format was chosen for an image.

 

By the way, the producer of John Shaw's videos is "Frank Hughes Productions." I'm not sure of the website on which you found the Shaw videos already, but a search of that name might bring up additional sources and perhaps even alternative pricing. (I've no affiliation with Hughes or any vendor of the videos, just happened to remember the name).

 

Before buying, if you have a good public library in your community, you might check to see if they have the Shaw video series. As it happens in my city, not long after I moved here I discovered that a local camera club bought and donated the entire Shaw series to the public library, so I've seen the entire series many times for free. Perhaps your library has some or all, as well.

 

Good luck, Mark.

I'll second the recommendation for John Fielder's "Photographing the Landscape" - very insightful and well illustrated when it comes to composition.

<br><br>

Guy<br>

<a href="http://scenicwild.com">Scenic Wild</a>

I have also been using John Shaw's books. They are easy to read and very informative. I haven't used his videos.

 

Cheers

Thanks everyone for the replies, I wasn't expecting such a flood of helpful responses but glad that there was. Apologies also for the book listing in my initial post, the carriage returns seemed to of gotten lost for some reason.

 

I've just taken a look at Amazon on the "Conversations in Paint, a note book of fundamentals" by Charles Dunn which was recommended and just looking at the contents it seems to cover the sorts of things I was after. The Charles Waite and John Fielder's books sound interesting, I think I picked up one of Charles Waite's books the other day and gave it a quick flick through, can't remember it much though. I'll visit some of my local bookstores tomorrow and see if I can find Charles Dunn's book, as well as Waite's and Fielder's. I'll try to find some of the Michael Freeman books as well.

 

I forgot to mention too that I already own the Art Wolfe and Martha Hill book, it's the reason for spurning my query. :) I really like that book and was hoping there might be other ones out there similar to it, I picked it up second-hand in Portland at Powells Bookstore when I travelled over to the US a few years back.

 

Unfortunately I'm one of those people that have to work at creativity. Being someone who has never studied art I find composition the hardest part to photography and would like to learn what principles or theories give pictures more punch instead of just blazing away hoping to stumble across something that works.

 

I'll also have to dig out my old copy of "Focus on Nature" by John Shaw and look at that again. From memory I found it helpful but as helpful as the Art Wolfe title. It's a shame John Shaw isn't doing any more books, I'd love for him to do a book about the day in the life of a professional photographer and the processes he goes through in choosing locations and then working them. I think it would be a interesting and beneficial read.

 

Thanks again all for the responses. I'll let you know how the books go.

Gordon,

 

You recieved a lot of great advice on books and tapes. By all means learn as much as you can from these resources. Once you feel more comfortable with composition though be open to "breaking the rules."

Rules of compositition are meant to be broken from time to time.

 

Happy Shooting,

Another vote for Freeman Patterson. His series of books has changed my vision and improvd my photography more than anything else I tried in the past six years. You'll find some discussion of the formal rules, but he goes much further by asking you how you feel about a particular scene and what you can do to effectively capture this feeling on film - and that's precisely where things begin to get interesting, as he has wide array of things to suggest. He's not the "I usually use a warm polarizer" type. Actually, I doubt he has any habits - just this amazing toolbox where he picks what suits the picture.

"The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression" by Bruce Barnbaum is a book that matches up very closely with your requirements. He delves a great deal into the elements of composition and also has information about how to use equipment. He doesn't really talk about camera bodies/lenses, etc but talks more, for example, about how to use filters in B&W photography. Also, he has discussed the Zone System extensively and includes chapters on how to develop film, etc.

 

Hope this helps.

I'm in agreement with Ligia Dovale that you will find better

books on Composition outside of photography books, and _all_ the

priciples apply directly to landscape photography.

 

101 text on Composition: "Composition in Art" by Henry Rankin Poore

 

Advanced: Listen to Beethoven ;^)

Thanks for the additional suggestions all. I still haven't placed a order for any books yet but did pickup a Charles Waite book the other day as it was selling for fairly cheap. Not a bad book but not quite what I was looking for.

 

After doing a bit more research I've managed to make a short list of books I think match my criteria, they being:

 

Design Basics (5th Ed., 1999) by David A. Lauer;

Composing Pictures (1970, 1983) by W. Donald Graham;

Designing Effect Pictures (1988) by Michael Freeman;

Conversations in Paint (1996) by Charles Dunn;

Photographing the World Around You (1994) by Freeman Patterson;

 

'Composing Pictures' and 'Designing Effective Pictures' sound very good but people are asking exporbitant amounts of money for copies, ranging from US$250 to US$750. This seems rather excessive to me, I might have to try and find them at a local library or University and photocopy them.

Back again. On a related note to my post, I found a article on a art website which I thought was a good read and touched on things I wish more photographic books dealt with and explored more.

 

The article can be found here http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/135/120/

Gordon:

Want to thank you for this post that has helped me a lot in getting some good sources and made me to think about the MAKING of a good photo. I had exactly the same feeling about photography like you. The Vloothuis is really good and I enjoy it much.