Design is the single most important factor in creating a successful photograph. The ability to see the potential for a strong picture and then organize the graphic elements into an effective, compelling composition has always been one of the key skills in making photographs.
Digital photography has brought a new, exciting aspect to design – first because the instant feedback from a digital camera allows immediate appraisal and improvement; and second because image-editing tools make it possible to alter and enhance the design after the shutter has been pressed. This has had a profound effect on the way digital photographers take pictures.
The Photographer’s Eye shows how anyone can develop the ability to see and shoot great digital photographs. The book explores all the traditional approaches to composition and design, but crucially, it also addresses the new digital technique of shooting in the knowledge that a picture will later be edited, manipulated, or montaged to result in a final image that may be very different from the one seen in the viewfinder.
Features:
*Covers both traditional in-camera composition and the new opportunities for picture-making made possible by digital imaging editing.
*Shows how to explore situations and locations in order to find the best possible photographic possibilities.
*Uses clear examples from real photographic assignments, with schematic illustrations of how and why the pictures work.
Freeman is one of very few photographers, or artists of any ilk, who can articulate their art-related thoughts in concrete, accurate, analytical ways, and not in the jargon of so much of what is written about art that lacks any actual content. Not only is he an outstandingly gifted photographer, with dozens of books to his credit, but one who has mastered the grammar of images and is one of the few who can describe how and why visual phenomena work.
This is the most complete volume on this subject out there in terms of numbers of topics introduced and discussed at a reasonable length. It is also the most effective melding of the insights of current Gestalt perception theory with traditional design elements/principles in print. The first 60% of the book deals with the more concrete aspects of designing an image.
The last two chapters marry the other part of composing that is harder to articulate well: the message in a image, or the photographer’s intent. Only in this book has an author attempted to define major categories of intent in making an image. And then categorizes the physical and mental aspects of how a photographer goes after, constructs, or recognizes an image – the process.
Throughout the discussions he introduces those aspects of digital imaging that a photographer can use to influence a picture’s design. Perhaps the most powerful development is that digital in-camera and post processing technologies allow the photographer to apply to color images all those image control aspects formerly available only in the wet chemistry darkroom to monochrome images, as well as many more.
Make no mistake…. This is a book for readers. One cannot get all of this book’s benefit from the illustrations alone, in the manner of so many “how-to” art and photography books these days that have pictures, but little text. But this is the book to which thoughtful photographers will return over and over for many years.
The only way it can be significantly better would be to have twice as many pages. It would make a wonderful textbook for any studio art, photography, art history, or art appreciation course in high school or college/university.
Related Books:
- The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) by Scott Kelby
- The Digital Photography Book : Scott Kelby
- The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3 : Scott Kelby
- Head First Design Patterns – By Elisabeth Freeman
- Photoshop Elements 7 Digital Classroom – By Aquent Creative Team
- Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) – By Garr Reynolds
- Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs) – By Ellen Lupton
