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| Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: Bryan Peterson
Publisher: Amphoto Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.56
You Save: $9.39 (38%)
New (31) Used (11) from $12.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  481 reviews
Sales Rank: 176
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.2 x 0.4
ISBN: 0817463003
Dewey Decimal Number: 771
EAN: 9780817463007
ASIN: 0817463003
Publication Date: August 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
For serious amateur photographers who already shoot perfectly focused, accurately exposed images but want to be more creative with a camera, heres the book to consult. More than seventy techniques, both popular and less-familiar approaches, are covered in detail, including advanced exposure, bounced flash and candlelight, infrared, multiple images, soft-focus effects, unusual vantage points, zooming, and other carefully chosen ways to enhance photographs. The A-Z format make sit easy for readers to find a specific technique, and each one is explained in jargon-free language. Top Tips for each technique help readers achieve superb results, even on the first attempt.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 476 more reviews...
 A fantastic learning tool! September 17, 2004
611 out of 623 found this review helpful
A friend loaned me the older version of this book, and I was amazed at how much help it provided. Even though the old book was based around film cameras, the fundamentals that were taught and the example pictures were very, very helpful. This book is an almost complete update, with most sections rewritten, several new subsections added with specific information for digital users, and has a slew of new example photographs.
This book is even better than the old edition, and expands on some of the topics that were only briefly touched on in the first book. One in particular that sticks out in my mind is that he explains the "don't care" apertures of F8 and F11 that he uses often. The old book mentioned it in passing, but I don't recall an explanation on why those apertures were useful. There is a short section on just that in this book and suggestions on when to use them.
Full color photos are used throughout the book, and are a great help in understanding the concepts that he talks about. Each picture has a caption with the information used to take the exposure. He shows you the same picture with different settings so you can see the effects the settings have on the exposure.
I find the book pleasant and easy to read. The tone and writing are very agreeable and easy to follow. While some aspects are technical, they are written in a manner that makes them easily understandable.
This is all about how to capture the image, not processing of the image after it is captured. There is brief mention of pushing or pulling film and the effects it can create, but in general, this is about how to get take a proper picture. If you are looking for a book on how to process the picture after you have taken it, this is not the book for you.
I can not recommend this book enough if you are interested in photography. I don't know how useful it would be for professionals, but for the person just starting out or serious amateur, I can't see how you could go wrong with this. While all of the information can be applied to SLR cameras (film or digital), the majority of it can be applied to the point and shoot cameras of either variety as well.
Outstanding Information for Photographers October 26, 2004
438 out of 445 found this review helpful
If you are trying to learn more about how to properly use exposure (i.e. aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) this is a fantastic book to begin with. It informs for the film and digital photographer. I have been taking photos for many years, but it has only been over the past couple of years that I became more of a professional. Despite this, I still struggled to understand some of the concepts such as the difference between a good exposure and a "creatively correct exposure" and what options I had.
You learn how to expose for front-lit, back-lit, side-lit scenes, overcast skys, macro photography, motion, stationery objects, how to expose for bright scenes such as snow (grey card & 18% grey) and dark scenes such as night photography...you name it. Then Bryan Peterson tops it off with a sections on metering, special techniques and filters, and an analysis of film vs digital cameras.
Understanding Exposure not only explained the basics in a conversational manner, but is also informed me of how the pros work and how to step up my photography to a higher level.
This book has hands-on exercises that anyone can go through so that the reader has experience of all of the methods explained. Along with this, the book is FULL of color photos that show exactly what the end result could be. Where applicable, there are comparisons of before and after exposure adjustments so the reader may understand WHY they should make such changes.
Where there is a difference between adjustments for digital versus film cameras, Bryan Peterson gives you the specifics of the difference and haw to adjust for it.
It is a book every photographer should have!
 informative, though quirky May 8, 2006
119 out of 145 found this review helpful
UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE offers a solid introduction to principles for creating informed exposures. I've been taking photographs for years, but everything I've learned I picked up from experience. I thought, for the heck of it, I'd buy a book and see if I was missing something. In the end, it was worth the read, I learned a few tips, and found some inspiration to experiment.
The book, however, is not without its quirks.
On the positive side, the author does a curiously good job offering advice on formal decisions. While I don't agree with all of his judgments, I certainly applaud the effort and feel his comments are completely appropriate for the general public. Aesthetics can be tricky.
The book is filled with the authors photographs, ranging from the amazing to the sappy. I enjoyed his descriptions and explanations, telling how he took many of the shots. I just wish he left out his licensing fees. Pointing out how many thousands he made from the various shots is really crass. I already bought your book... you don't need to show-boat. Strangely, a handful of pictures are of his wife, and I found myself wincing at most of them. Particularly given his descriptions. Sadly, we're obviously not looking at the same woman.
Lastly, for all of the author's thoroughness, his explanation and discussion of ISO, in my opinion, is lacking. At the start of the book he explains that ISO is one of the three main parts to taking a correct exposure. Aperture and shutter speed get their own sections, but for ISO the author only offers a condescending "busy bee" metaphor... until 5 pages from the end of the book where he finally gives ISO a page. He explains the ISO value is the light sensitivity, but I don't remember him mentioning anywhere at what -cost- that sensitivity comes. For instance, it should say the faster the film and more light sensitive, the grainier the resulting image. There's a very grainy, low-light example in the book but grain itself isn't addressed.
How could anyone leave that out?
 Err .. is that it? March 14, 2005
79 out of 95 found this review helpful
I ordered this book based on the rave reviews it gets here, and elsewhere. I was looking forward to reading it, thinking it was going to help me improve my photography, master difficult lighting etc. So, when it arrived, I eagerly unpacked it, sat down to read and ... err, is that it?
Essentially it is a very basic beginners book. Probably for beginners its fine, but once you've figured out the elements of depth of field, and the idea that metering will not provide the optimum exposure in all cases, there's not much else.
If you're new to photography, take a look. If you've read any other books, or taken a few rolls of film, look elsewhere.
 Overrated, but decent March 8, 2006
75 out of 82 found this review helpful
OK, I'm going to have to give this a 3 just so my rating will stand out from all the 5's out there. I was let-down quite a bit by this book. I am a fairly-beginner photographer, perhaps maybe lower-intermediate. And, in all honesty, most everything in this book was kind of "blah" information. My biggest gripe is the following: the book is called "Understanding Exposre"... however, it should be called "Pointers for Exposure". Because, the best pieces of information that the author gives are not really explained (and, hence, they're not to be "understood" by the reader, but to be taken as gospel) but rather they're followed by statements such as "I learned this from my many years of photography, and trust me this works"! And that's a big problem for me-- not because I don't appreciate a great tip about exposure, but more because I was expecting to learn some valuable basics that would arm ME with the tools necessary to deduce, for a given lighting situation, how to best meter the light and determine the exposure. Instead, I've been given a laundry list of things to memorize for a given situation. Which, I guess, is great in the end-- and which is why my "REAL" rating for the book is a 4-- but just be forewarned that you will not really walk away from this book with a great UNDERSTANDING, though you may walk away with some good tips. Just my 2c.
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