Deliver to your Kindle or other device

 
 
 

Try it free

Sample the beginning of this book for free

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Read books on your computer or other mobile devices with our FREE Kindle Reading Apps.
Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots
 
 

Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots [Kindle Edition]

Laurie Excell , John Batdorff , David Brommer , Rick Rickman , Steve Simon
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Print List Price: £15.99
Kindle Price: £8.84 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save: £7.15 (45%)
* Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £8.84  
Paperback £9.59  


Product Description

Product Description

Now that you’ve bought that amazing new DSLR, you need a book that goes beyond the camera manual to teach you how to take those great shots. One key element is composition—the creative arrangement of components in the shot, and the way a viewer’s eye travels through an image.

With Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots, author and photographer Laurie Excell starts with the basics of composition and explores how the elements of color, shape, angles, and contrast work to create compelling images. Contributing photographers, John Batdorff, David Brommer, Rick Rickman, and Steve Simon, provide unique perspectives on black and white, sports, art history, and other subjects related to composition. Beautifully illustrated with large, vibrant photos, this book teaches you how to take control of your photography to get the image you want every time you pick up the camera.

Follow along with your friendly and knowledgeable guides, and you will learn about:
  • Key camera features that affect composition, including the exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, and shutter speed)
  • Shadow and light and how to direct the viewer’s eye to your subject
  • Lines and shapes that create visual paths to points of interest in your image
  • The role of color—using complementary or contrasting colors—to add your own unique artistic expression
  • Spatial relationship and placing your subject within the frame for portraits, action shots, or landscapes

And once you’ve got the shot, show it off! Join the book’s Flickr group, share your photos, and discuss how you use your camera to get great shots at flickr.com/groups/composition_fromsnapshotstogreatshots.

From the Back Cover

Now that you've bought an amazing new DSLR, you need a book that goes beyond the camera manual to teach you how to take great shots. One key component to that is understanding composition--the creative arrangement of elements in the shot, and the way a viewer's eye travels through an image.

With Composition: From Snapshots to Great Shots, the author starts with the basics of composition--such as the popular rule of thirds--and continues with exploring how the elements of color, shape, angles, and contrast work to create compelling images.

The book covers all key camera features that affect composition (regardless of what type of DSLR you have) including shutter speed's ability to freeze and convey motion, as well as aperture's direct correlation with depth of field. Throughout the course of the book, the reader will gain an understanding of composition, which will allow them to bring their own unique artistic expression to any situation whether taking portraits, action shots, landscapes, or events. Beautifully illustrated with large, vibrant photos, this book teaches you how to take control of your photography to get the image you want every time you pick up the camera.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 11361 KB
  • Print Length: 288 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
  • Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (17 Nov 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B004GEATDE
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #121,856 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  •  Would you like to give feedback on images?


More About the Authors

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Ok for beginners 2 Jan 2011
By M. Bhangal TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
It is a bit hit and miss buying photography books if you are an intermediate/advanced user. You never really know whether a book is aimed at the beginner until you actually start reading it. If you are anything like me, you groan when you find that yet again, 50% of the book covers basic exposure, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and lens types... and then you get loads of stuff about the rule of thirds. Ouch!

This is a book for beginners, so the basic stuff I already know is there. To break my monotony, I was at least entertained by beautiful howlers such as

`Full size sensors generally have lower noise (which means more room for the pixels to spread out).'

Luckily, I have enough experience to know what that actually means (`As full size sensors have a larger surface area, they capture more light and are typically less susceptible to noise'), but I think some beginners would struggle to get anything from the original description!

I also found the technical description on colourspaces a little questionable. Shooting in a larger colourspace than your printer/screen can handle is a good idea only if you intend to post-process and are shooting JPEG. In that case you should be shooting in RAW anyway, and RAW doesnt care about the colourspace setting on your camera, leaving the decision of colourspace open until you export to JPEG/tif in post processing (via Lightroom/CameraRAW). None of this crucial information is clarified. Instead we get a glib 'a larger colourspace is always better' as the only advice, given without qualifiers.

Finally, I note that some of the example landscape shots are clearly High Dynamic Range, but the author doesn't state this... which means that if beginners tried to follow the steps they would never get the same colour composition. Naughty.

To conclude a good looking book for beginners, peppered with some questionable technical descriptions. For intermediate/advanced users looking for a book on composition, you are better off with the Photographers Eye/The Photographers Mind.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Very light on detail and misleading in places 6 Jan 2013
Format:Paperback
This book is a collection of articles / chapters by 4 different American photographers. It offers a very basic insight into composition and digital photography (i.e. discusses graphics, photographics and colour), however it has some considerable flaws (in my opinion):

1. The first chapter is devoted to the masses of high-end Nikon gear that the author uses. Uneducated beginners maybe fooled into thinking that they need to spend thousands on expensive equipment to achieve well composed photographs.
2. The author that dominates the first half of the book is an American nature photographer, and the book seems too biased towards this, to the detriment of other styles such as photojournalism, surrealism, portraiture etc.
3. Many of the images in the book appear to be HDR, which again may mislead beginners who are unable to achieve the same results as the author.
4. It is very light on detail and substance. For example the section on White Balance consists of 2 paragraphs of very basic stuff. Most beginners would be left in the dark after reading this.
5. There is a fair amount of waffle. For example, the section on the "significance of colour" has a picture of an American flag with the sentence: "Red White and Blue convey a sense of patriotism"..... Errrm not if you're German they don't.

To sum up, some beginners may find some bits useful (especially if you are into American nature photography), but I would not rate it highly. Far too basic and shallow.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
5.0 out of 5 stars Indepth look at the composition in Photography 24 Mar 2013
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
So I bought this book in another store and paid way too much for it. I found that it was on Amazon at a great price, so I took the other one back. The photographs are beautifyl in the book. The pages & the front cover are high quality, and overall its a really interesting read.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Popular Highlights

 (What's this?)
&quote;
Composition includes depth of field, which is mainly controlled by aperture; motion, which is controlled by shutter speed; light; and how you handle exposure to control the path your viewer’s eyes take through your image. &quote;
Highlighted by 35 Kindle users
&quote;
Your shutter speed controls stop-action or blur-motion, and the ISO controls the camera meter’s sensitivity to light with high ISO settings for low light and low ISO for higher resolution and low noise. &quote;
Highlighted by 31 Kindle users
&quote;
The aperture you select controls what is in sharp focus and what is blurred (depth of field). &quote;
Highlighted by 25 Kindle users

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



Look for similar items by category


Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. Privacy Statement Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. Delivery Information Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. Returns & Exchanges