If not "Hedgecoe" then Who?

[tj rohyans]

And just what's wrong with Hedgecoe? I'm a beginner with absolutely no formal

Photography training, strictly self-taught. I have one of John Hedgecoe's

books and found it very informative, however, elsewhere in this forum, others

were giving the man quite a brow-beating. Are there other Photographer/Authors

I should be reading?

[mac_mcanirlin]

Read whomever you can relate to, and read everything. You can ask 6 people opinions about any author and get 8 different opinions.

[emre]

I like the "National Geographic Photography Field Guide" by Peter Burian and Bob Caputo.

[michaelging]

I learned a lot from his books, he gives very good examples of what he is talking about.

[Craig_Cooper11664875449]

Most of these types of books help convey an understanding of the technical aspects of photography. And, these parts need to become second nature to you anyways. More books only help if you still dont get some parts of the technicals from the ones you already have.

 

The considerably more difficult part is learning to see, anticipate and abstract while photographing. Books cant really teach this and some people have it more naturally than others. However, by looking at and studying the works of prominent photographers (and you arent going to be told anything technical here) of your preferred genres you can begin to pick up on their styles, framing and abstractions that can give you ideas and begin to shape your own style.

 

My personal belief is that while you still feel the need to read technical "how to" books, magazines, etc, you still have a long way to go towards really taking photographs and defining your own style.

[tj rohyans]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I've spent some time with a local Professional photographer and he's complimented me on having an "eye" for composition and framing, so it seems I have some natural ability. But yes, the technical aspects are what I still need to study and learn, to the point I don't even have to think about it. As can be seen in my portfolio, I've mainly shot aviation related subjects, but I want to learn outdoor portrait photography. I have no room available for a studio (It's my girlfriends house and I'm just not able to hang a sheet and lights whenever/where-ever I want).

[peter_yee]

I also happen to like Hedgecoe books as an introduction to photography. The best part for me, is he usually give detailed information on each picture he took (camera setting, lens, film, etc.). The information are a nice starting point for me to learn about use of camera settings in taking pictures. I experimented from that point to get want the settings I like to use.

[Ed_Ingold]

John Hedgecoe's books are well written and informative. Unfortunately, his photography does not match the quality of his prose, which makes it difficult to take him seriously.

 

If you want information on camera operation, using light meters and flash, then a Lantern book may suffice. If you would like some insight into what a master thinks behind a camera and how he uses the tools of the trade, then read any of the books by Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell, and others of that ilk. (I'm partial to nature photography as art. Other's would be better qualified to recommend experts on social or commercial photography.)

[HuskyMason1]

"Photography" by: Barbara London and John Upton gives a good comprehensive overview...deals primarily with film but great with the basics...also the National Geographic books are excellent and Digital by Scott Kelby

[papasan]

For the technical aspects you need mostly practice. Spend as much time as you can with your camera in your hand.

 

For books on improving your visual skills, composition and creativity, i cannot recommend Freeman Patterson's books highly enough, particularly "Photography For the Joy of It", and "Photography and the Art of Seeing". Bryan Peterson's books are also pretty good: "Learning to See Creatively" and "Understanding Exposure".

 

Hope this helps

[unohuu]

Henry Horenstein.

Andrew Zuckerman.

Gordon Parks.

Annie Liebowitz.

Dorothea Lange.

Susan Sontag.

I also liked Hedgecoe, Amphoto books in general,

Add your own favorite photographer in here. Each one of us has something to contribute and someone specific that we are able to learn from.

Paul Lester.

Monte Zuckerman.

National Geographic manuals in general. I keep one or two in my camera bag.

Dawoud Bey

Cindy Sherman

Robert Maplethorpe

 

A starting place.

[akajohndoe]

Learn the relationship between aperture and shutter speed and take lots of pictures.

[bob_gentile]

Nothing wrong with Hedgecoe. IMHO, Amphoto and Kodak publications are top notch.

[JDMvW]

I like Hedgecoe too, but he does tend to write the same book over and over again. I don't mean that literally, but there certainly is a lot of similarity from the one to the other. In fact, if you go to the bookstore and browse, you do tend to find that all these books for beginners are very, very similar in look and content (much of it owed to Hedgecoe, so far as I can judge).

 

Once you've got the basics, books like those by Andreas Feininger, Ansel Adams, etc, are still useful despite having been written for film. Skip the stuff about developers, and look at how they use the camera and the darkroom (just like Photoshop, of course, and that's no coincidence--where do you suppose the program got it from?). Lately I've been browsing in the old 1971 or so Time-Life photography series, and have found the quality of the gravure illustrations to be incredible, and the text and examples useful with a little mental transposition.

[d_f11]

Charles Cambell had a teriffic book out back in the 90's. The title implied backpacking but it's excellent for anyone begginers & intermediate.