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Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers | 
 enlarge | Author: Harold Davis
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $19.79
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Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 81592
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Pages: 176
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 15.8 x 8.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0596529880
Dewey Decimal Number: 778.7
EAN: 9780596529888
ASIN: 0596529880
Publication Date: April 4, 2008
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Amazon.com Review
From Author Harold Davis:
I was recently asked to compile ten of my favorite tips and techniques from Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers. Here's a look at what I selected, along with the photos from the book that are used to illustrate each technique or tip and page references to text that explains the technique more thoroughly. Briefly noted: these are not hardware tips (like what memory card to buy), these are photographic ideas that will help you stretch your technique and help you create the photos you can see in your mind's eye. Top Ten Tips on Light and Exposure 1. Choose a wide-open aperture for low depth of field.
Sometimes a photo that is completely sharp is neither possible nor desirable. To create a partial blur effect in windy conditions, place your camera on a tripod.
Using aperture-preferred metering or manual exposure control, choose a wide-open aperture such as f/4.0. The resulting low depth of field, possibly combined with motion blur, will create a pleasing effect. (Pages 50-55.) | 2. Use a slow shutter speed to blur the motion of water.
Moving water is rendered differently depending upon the shutter speed you use in your exposure. Setting the shutter actually sets how long the shutter will be open, not a speed.
Fast shutter speeds capture moving water crisply, and slow shutter speeds show water in motion as a blur. To create a very pleasing diffuse blur effect with quickly moving water, try a very long exposure time, for example, about three minutes. (Pages 92-94.) | 3. Boost the IS0 to use noise creatively.
Photographers usually think of noise as something bad that should be avoided using proper exposure settings and post-processing remove it. But noise can actually be used creatively. For example, one way to create a "pointillist" effect in your photos is to boost your ISO and then shoot straight into a strong light source. (Pages 112-113) | 4. Don't worry about white balance.
Many photographers spend much too much time worrying about their in-camera white balance settings. If you are shooting in RAW, the only thing this setting really does is control the way your photo is displayed in the camera LCD. So leave your camera set to auto white balance, concentrate on the photography not the white balance setting, and correct your white balance when you post-process your photo. (Pages 126-132) | 5. Use a light box and overexposure to create a transparent effect.
To create the effect of transparency, try an inexpensive light box as your light source. Use the kind of light box that is used for viewing slides or other transparencies. Place the lightbox either under or behind the object you are photographing. This is an excellent technique for flowers and other semi-transparent objects. If you overexpose photos like this, you can bring out luminous and transparent details. (Pages 136-137) | 6. To get your exposure right at night, try a test exposure at a high ISO.
If you want to capture star trails at night, you need to make a long exposure, which means using a low ISO. Before investing the time it takes to create this effect, test your exposure at a higher ISO and a faster shutter speed, then do the math to make sure your longer exposure is correct. (Pages 28-29 and 140-143) | 7. Create a studio of your own.
You can create a home studio of your own using surprisingly inexpensive materials. Desktop lamps can be used for flood lighting, and LED headlamps can be used for spot lighting. Venetian blinds can control the direction of light, and sheets can be rigged to work as diffusers. A good art supply store is also a great source of inexpensive supplies that can be used to make a creative home studio. (Pages 146-149) | 8. Use the RAW data in a photo to extend the dynamic range of your images.
You may not be aware just how much exposure latitude there is within a single digital RAW capture. By combining multiple conversions from the same RAW capture using the Adobe RAW converter, you can create a final photo that has brighter light areas and darker dark areas than you would ever have thought possible. (Pages 164-165) | 9. Transform your photos to black and white using color information in the photo.
It's easy to convert a color image in Photoshop to grayscale by simply dropping the color information in the photo. But this doesn't get you great black and white images with exposure and contrast subtleties. To create rich black and white transformations, you need to work with the color information in the color photo before you drop the color information. (Pages 172-175) | 10. Get your camera off automatic.
When you use auto exposure, you are letting your camera make the important decisions about the exposure of your photos. Take back control! Getting your camera off automatic means learning to really understand exposures. Furthermore, once you know how to set manual exposures you may find that your exposure settings are better and more creative than those the camera would have picked. By using manual exposure, you'll also find out when it is appropriate to use an automatic or semi-automatic exposure mode. |
Product Description
You may be passionate about photography, and own a digital SLR with perhaps more advanced equipment as well. But do the photographs you take with this powerful equipment come out as well as you'd like?
With this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, you learn how to apply the techniques and principles of classic photography so you can make great images with today's digital equipment. Harold Davis, author and renowned fine art photographer, puts the focus in Practical Artistry on light and exposure, two crucial concepts you need to understand and master if you are to truly capture the images you see.
Davis presents a generous number of his own images in each chapter, complete with technical information and an explanation of what he was trying to achieve. These striking photographs not only illustrate the lesson at hand, but also serve as inspiration for your own efforts. Browsing the photographs alone will tell you a lot.
Topics covered in this book include: - Camera, lenses, and equipment
- Understanding exposure and measuring light
- Relationship of aperture to shutter speed and ISO
- Working with depth of field
- Natural lighting, studio lighting, and the use of flash
- Light and color temperature
- Working with white balance
- Photographing at dawn or dusk
- Photography at night
- Capturing motion
- Telling a story with your image
- Capturing people, places, and things
- Setting up a digital workflow
- RAW processing and double RAW processing
- Adjusting exposure and reducing noise
- Black & white photography
- And much more
Concise and to the point, Practical Artistry clearly demonstrates that photography, essentially, is writing with light, and that the type of images you produce depend on the many choices you have for using that skill. Harold Davis gives you an array of choices in full living color.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 The art and science of using light May 9, 2008
Jeff R. Clow (Corinth, TX United States)
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
As Harold Davis so aptly demonstrates in this brilliant book, the modern photographer has to be "one part artist and one part photographer." Thus, it falls on the photographer to have a strong understanding of light and exposure in order to create memorable works of photographic art.
For newcomers, this book can provide a wealth of information about how it is not the camera, nor the lens, but the use of light that separates the amateur from the pro. Mr. Davis has written this book with the digital photographer in mind, and it surely will become the classic treatise on the subject for digital imagery.
The book is richly illustrated with great photography by the author, but what I really enjoyed was that each of the subjects - white balance, creative exposure, shutter speed, etc. - was explained in detail and then a representative photo was used to "show" the effect of decisions that the photographer can make as they compose the shot. Whether you are a visual learner or prefer to read well written prose, this book delivers each in a well thought out manner that is easy to understand.
I also found the author's discussion of how to use the RAW digital format to capture the true nuances of light and color to be particularly informative. Initially, the RAW format can seem mystifying to a digital photographer who has not experienced the power that RAW can bring to a situation, and this book does as fine a job as any I've ever encountered at explaining how to harness RAW for best effect.
Additionally, I found that the three chapters on front, back and side lighting to have the best explanations I have ever read on the differences each of these lighting situations brings to an image.
I would heartily recommend this terrific book to any photographer - from the newcomer to digital imagery to the advanced pro - because it captures wonderfully the true building block steps that can turn a simple image into a true work of art.
 Pretty Pictures May 26, 2008
Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA)
10 out of 17 found this review helpful
In the old days (before cameras had built-in light meters) every photographer had to understand the relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Then cameras got automated and photographers began to forget about this relationship. But any photographer who wants to advance in his or her skill as a photographer had better learn about this trio. This book is aimed at teaching this subject and its corollary, the nature of light.
After a general chapter on understanding exposure, the author deals with aperture, shutter speed, ISO (and the related topic, noise), light, and finally the digital darkroom. The author writes in clear easy to understand style, and the book is illustrated profusely with the author's pictures. Each picture is annotated with the image's shooting information and any special exposure considerations the author had.
Any book on exposure that I read aimed at digital photographers must pass a litmus test: Does the author show how to use the histogram? Unfortunately, other then a brief two-paragraph reference, Davis does not. Nor does he discuss the overexposure indicator (the "blinkie"). There is no reference to exposure compensation.
Some of the author's comments are a bit misleading. He says to always turn off vibration reduction when using a tripod unless the lens has a special tripod mode, which suggests that there may be some kind of tripod setting on a lens. But at least some lenses sense the lens is mounted on a tripod and thus can be left in image stabilization mode on a tripod. (To be fair, Davis does say to check the documentation.) He says ISO 1000 captures 10 times the light of ISO 100. While that is true, the faster speed only results in an increase of 4 and one third f/stops which is the traditional way that photographers consider exposure. It's too bad the author didn't try to be a little more precise about the relationship of f/stops and exposure, which some photographers refer to as reciprocity. He says that adjusting a single RAW image is better then processing in HDR for a large dynamic range. Often multiple processing of a raw image can capture the range of light in a scene. But sometimes the range of light exceeds the range that can be extracted from a single raw image.
Sometimes the author misses the opportunity to discuss important considerations that an amateur should know, as when, in his discussion of depth of field, he fails to point out that for a particular image size of a subject, the depth of field is the same for a particular f/stop regardless of focal length; or that bright light can be controlled with neutral density filters; or that the fall off of light from a flash can create dark backgrounds.
As part of my campaign against the use of the word "artistry" in book titles, I'll just note that the closest the author comes to teaching artistry is to suggest that controlling exposure can lead to more creative pictures.
It's a shame that a book with so many beautiful pictures does such a poor job of explaining such an important topic. Readers interested in a better explanation should consider "Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only (For Only)" by Michael Meadhra and Charlotte K. Lowrie.
A Photographers Essential Resource April 26, 2008
Leigh Miller (California)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Light and Exposure for Digital Photographers delivers today's digital photographer a fascinating, one-stop source for achieving superior photographic results. The photographs contained in the book are gorgeous and they alone are worth the price of the book. However, it is the step by step instructions, written in simple enough language for a novice, that ensure the reader will be able to create photographs of quality, like those in the book.
Anyone who has taken photographs is familiar with the experience of seeing one thing through the lens, clicking the shutter, and obtaining an entirely different, often disappointing, result. Many of us who are fond of taking digital photos and working with Photoshop, or the like, are used to attempting to make our average photos into something special by doctoring them with the digital dark room. Once in a while we get lucky. Light & Exposure takes the luck out of it and replaces it with the knowledge necessary to get the photo we wanted in the first place and the tools to enhance them afterward.
Harold Davis offers an array of in depth facts and instructions for serious photographers, insights and observations for the more artistically inclined, and hints and tricks for the dabblers like myself to enable the reader to create works of art in photography.
Any modern photographer utilizing a digital camera will find the
information and photographs in this book invaluable. Developing a strong foundation with an artistic bent is desirable asset to a photographer. Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers is the one, essential resource for any photographer's library.
Just Buy This Book! April 25, 2008
Michael M. Shaw
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I guess I'm not an unbiased reviewer, because I love Harold Davis' Photoblog 2.0 and never miss a day of reading it. I am always amazed by his vision, intelligence and passion for photography. If his recent blog entries are still available on this page, you no doubt have noticed he's a gifted photographer to say the least.
Now, imagine that blog expanded, illustrated; illuminated. "Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers" is filled with helpful suggestions, practical tips and just plain common sense advice. And that's just the text! Harold's photography is superb, and this is evident even in the sometimes-limited format of a book.
I believe you will enjoy and learn from this book; Harold is a natural instructor. I thoroughly enjoyed and heartily recommend this book!
Strong course on the basics July 15, 2008
Harold McFarland (Florida)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
While too basic for the experienced photographer who already understands the interplay of focal length, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings, this is an excellent primer on these subjects for the new photographer. As the title indicates the focus is on teaching the reader how to work with light and exposure to get the results they want, and the results can be stunning. Harold Davis is at the top of his game as a master photographer with this book. For the new photographer who wants to move up the quality of their work from the photograph category to the art category these are the most critical things to understand and this is one of the easiest to understand books on the subject. After providing a strong understanding of these items Mr. Davis teaches how to use them to get the effect you want. He includes intentional over and underexposure, depth of field and focus, macro photography, longer exposures, and white balance. Throughout the book you will find example photographs with complete detail of what he did to achieve the effect. Pick up a good book on composition and you have the complete package to top level photography. Light and Exposure for Digital Photographers is highly recommended.
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