Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 All good things end February 16, 2005
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book was in it's day a great book worthly of a 5 star rating but time has a way of making material irrelevant. Probably half the book deals with photography lessons that time won't change but the other half deals with equipment and how to use it. Having been published in 1984 all the equipment information in it has become outdated.
The book was written before digital photography was even a dream,eg: TTL flash metering was the new thing, but we have gone through D-TTL and now have I-TTL flash sysems out.
There is simply no reason to purchase a book that is simply so far out of date, a great book in it's day, but that day and come and gone.
 Excellent Author June 24, 2004
I won't dwell on this topic, but I've consumed many photogrpahy books in recent years and John Shaw is an excellent writer that gets his point across. I wish I had read it earlier than I did because it is fantastic. He writes exceptionally well and drives his point home from multiple angles. He starts with the essentials like exposure and.... I just can't say enough about the way John is able to communicate photographic concepts and photography in general. The best I have ever read. Second to John's book is, Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs With a Film or Digital Camera by Bryan F. Peterson; Bryan is also excellent. If you buy two books, buy these.
Excellent Author June 24, 2004
I won't dwell on this topic, but I've consumed many photogrpahy books in recent years and John Shaw is an excellent writer that gets his point across. I wish I had read it earlier than I did because it is fantastic. He writes exceptionally well and drives his point home from multiple angles. He starts with the essentials like exposure and.... I just can't say enough about the way John is able to communicate photographic concepts and photography in general. The best I have ever read. Second to John's book is, Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs With a Film or Digital Camera by Bryan F. Peterson; Bryan is also excellent. If you buy two books, buy these.
Very nice for advanced and beginner February 24, 2004
Great information and reference. Yes, the gear he discribes is pricey pro stuff but its guide to what is best, and from there you can judge what you need or can afford. At least you know that you need a ball head, or that composite tripods are really not worth the price, and how to test tripods in a store.
Nice tips on conditions that I did not know even existed, like snow, there are 3 or 4 different ways it will expose film, all different. Snow is not white like you think, it depends on the weather. Great tips through out the book. I don't read it cover to cover. When I pick it up I just open it and read a few pages on that topic. Great stuff and great examples. Shoting images for over 35 years. I have already used some tips and my outdoor pictures are a notch better. And thats the bottom line, right?
Great advice for all photographers December 20, 2003
John Shaw is a master photographer who excels at communicating his knowledge in very clear and concise language. This book is a marvel of efficiency as he covers topic after topic in highly succinct fashion. While keeping each section brief, he manages to teach a lot in the clearest way possible.Many tips on how to get correct exposure and strong composition are in here as well as techniques for macro photography. Also, a significant portion of the book is devoted to considerations when purchasing equipment and the information is invaluable. As others have pointed out, the equipment he favors is not cheap but some seem to miss the entire point of those chapters. Shaw does not give the reader a shopping list. He discusses the pros and cons of various equipment and encourages you to weigh the trade-offs to develop your own equipment list. Since much of the better equipment is expensive, this may mean rationing your money to get the best bang for the buck. This is an excellent book. It covers a variety of topics with a rare clarity that makes it a must have for any serious photographer.
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