by Tom Ang.
I’m at the point with digital photography that I have two concerns: how to make the camera do something even remotely resembling what I want, and what, exactly, am I looking for when it comes to good pictures.
I read one of the Dummies books on digital photography and learned a lot about the technical details of operating a camera. (Except for f-stop. Why can’t anybody explain f-stop worth a damn?) But I hated the pictures, and I hated the advice on how to take pictures.
The Tom Ang book doesn’t rate so high on the technical details aspect. But I love the pictures.
Why would you want to be able to do X with your camera?
Here are some examples.
Why does the POV matter? Because if you take the picture of the statue from below, it looks like the saint is looking up toward heaven.
Why do you want to be able to adjust for low light levels and mess with exposure levels? To take pictures of stained-glass windows.
Why do you want to adjust your ISO setting? So you can take sharp pictures of dancers in a dark hall.
Each example is accompanied by a sidebar with the camera settings.
Unlike the Dummies book, this one made me want to go out and take pictures. I can’t think of higher praise.