 2008-10-31 - The Eye
This is a great book...But if you already have Freeman's "the image" you might expect more from this one.
2008-10-16 - Best book on Composition I have read
This book is excellent for introducing a large number of Composition theories and providing a large variety of examples. This book would not address the needs many new photographers have such as digital work flow, equipment selection, etc.
2008-10-09 - Wonderfully clear, helpful advice, and well written
I own a fair number of photography books and have become a it jadded: I no longer expect much from the books I order; a few nice pictures (maybe) and perhaps one or two useful points. But this book is not like that: It is a well-written gem with many, many useful points that, for me at least, helped to clarify many concepts. It is among one of the best photography books I own.
This book is not a collection of recipes or "how to" guides designed to get your shots hanging on a museum wall. Rather, it examines core design principles from a photographic perspective: Composition, balance, contrast, and more. It is not a book by a designer about photography, but a book by a photographer who understands design, how it impacts our photographs, and knows how to clearly convey the implications.
I heartily recommend this book.
2008-10-09 - Essential Reading for Every Serious Photographer
I always believed that the only effective way to teach/learn photographic composition was to share a viewfinder with a student/teacher. But this book has taken a very effective step away from that dependency.
The Photographer's Eye, which is full of comparative photographs, carefully backward engineers the image-making process and shows the reader what he/she can do to radically improve their photo-taking.
I recommend this book for my BFA and MFA students.
2008-09-21 - superbly written and photos illustrate points made
At once, The Photographer's Eye, grips you, beckons one to get your camera, and use your eyes differently, to take in what's there and not, and know when to do what. Michael Freeman is a master tutor, communicator.
This large sized book from Focal Press, a company that truly values it's readers and authors with high quality binding, paper, and print, has another winner with this book, that truly led me to reevaluate my sense of design, ways of approaching a photograph, and ponder. The book starts out like it should from the beginning of what an image is, what your eye sees, and slowly educates, showing vivid images, with notes, so I grasped what was to do and to follow. It's 180 pages, 6 chapters cover it all, left me feeling much more confident about why, what, and when. Knowing most work in digital domain now, additional skill building is brought forth on how before and after the image is taken, and what can be created.
Chapter 1 begins with the frame and image, from how to start to a sense of just how one can see what's there, and how to get it.
Chapter 2 gets into Design Basics, a topic not covered by many, but so necessary to accomplish Gestalt perception with balance, dynamic tension, patterns, visual weight, and content.
Chapter 3 covers Graphic and Photographic Elements, illustrating the two dimensional forms that show up in the picture frame.
Chapter 4 really showed me a new way of composing with light and color, using tone and color.
Chapter 5 on Intent had me examine what I was attempting to show in my composition and why, yes, answer why. Freeman has a gift in talking to the reader.
Chapter 6 is Process, brings about how design, art, and other media work together, and I found that my eye, and intuition was sharpened, more aware of this process.
A great book, just long enough to cover design, a well organized book, images that work, support what the author posits, and again, a quality book,that Focal Press brings us, a welcome git.
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