# Bryan Peterson vs other authors



## smackitsakic (Dec 31, 2010)

I have read Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure book, as well as his photographers field guide book.

I noticed that he has a few others available, including 'learning to see creatively' and 'good portraiture'.

Are these books fairly repetative compared to his others?  Are there any other books out there that I should be reading first (other than Lighting: Science and Magic, which i've already ordered)?

I'm wanting to learn the next steps to photography...how to think, look, and see like a photographer and how to achieve compelling results.

Thanks.


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## fotojo (Dec 31, 2010)

Other authors to look for, to learn general photography, composition and so on, are Henry Horenstein and Michael Freeman. Their books are listed and reviewed on Amazon. Freeman's newest are distributed by Focal Press in the US and probably Canada as well.


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## KmH (Dec 31, 2010)

Bryan has an appealing writing style and shows a lot of really nice example images, and he delves just deep enough into the technical aspects. By the same token his books are inexpensive, and I have 3 of his books: Understanding Exposure, Learning To See Creatively, and Beyond Portraiture.

Micheal Freeman has a fairly comprehensive book about composition; *The Photographers Eye*, *Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos *and I have another of his books on order *The Photographers Mind*, _*Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos*_.

Some other titles I regularly recommend:

*Real World Camera Raw, With Adobe Photoshp CS5 *(or 4, or 3 and is applicable to Lightroom to since Lightroom's editor is Camera Raw) _and_ *Real World Image Sharpening*, _With Photoshop, Camera Raw & Lightroom_ by Bruce Frazer & Jeff Schewe

*The Dam Book*, _*Digital Asset Management for Photographers*_ by Peter Krogh


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## Zrock (Dec 31, 2010)

i enjoyed teh book Understanding exposure but really will not get the full benifit from it untill summer when i can try some of his examples and see for myself how it works. To hard to do them in the house. I just picked up teh Digital Photography Books volume 1, 2, 3 by scott kelby. Im still sitting on the fence with these books they almost seem like a glorifyed dictionary for photography have not found them very good so far


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## bkkm (Jan 5, 2011)

Hi all,

Has anyone read Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure? If so, how does it compare to Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure (which I have)? Would owning both be redundant, or does Freeman's book delve deeper into the subject than Bryan's does?


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## smlblk396 (Jan 5, 2011)

The first book I bought was understanding exposure third edition and it has a web site and you can watch the videos. I refer to the book all of the time to refresh my mind before I go out and shoot. Looked at Scott Kelby's book and may buy it later.


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## gennatay (Jan 5, 2011)

I agree with Zrock. I read Understanding Exposure, but it's too cold out to go try anything. I am going to order the Photographers Eye next.


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## benlonghair (Jan 5, 2011)

In my opinion, don't waste your money on Scott Kelby. Everything he tells you in his books can easily be gleaned from this forum. I'd been browsing here for about a month when I bought his book and was amazed that I'd read all of it on the internet already.


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## pgriz (Jan 5, 2011)

Benlonghair, I respectfully disagree.  I've borrowed Scott Kelby's books from a friend on a number of occasions, and his presentation of each topic is succint (one page), and generally pretty complete.  The answers we get on TPF and other forums are usually not as complete, even though they can cover the same ground.  As well, forum answers follow forum questions, and if one hasn't asked the question, then you won't get the benefit of the answer.  By reading Scott's books, one often (well, I often) see something that I have not thought about, or tried.

As for the various books, I don't consider any of them to be gospel, for be followed carefully and without deviation.  Like any good cookbook, these guides give you a starting point, from which you depart on your own journey.  I read these books for inspiration, for another view, for exploring a subject that I may not have gone into before.  But in pretty much all cases, just reading them won't get you very far.  You've got to try to replicate what the author has shown, understand why it works, and then use that as a departure point for further exploration.

In addition to the books, I strongly recommend joining a local photo club.  Just as on the on-line forums, there is a mix of personalities in each club.  The opinionated know-it-alls, the quiet ones, the "I'm into this for the company" ones, and the finally, the experts and pros (not always the same).  Some will be very helpful and can act as mentors and guides.  It's much faster to have one's mistakes pointed out than to discover on your own why something's just not working (and you can't figure out why).


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## KmH (Jan 5, 2011)

I agree that Scott Kelby's 3 book series is great to have and I disagree everything in Scott's book series can be gleaned from TPF.

No doubt a lot of it is basic photography knowledge readily available many places on the Internet. The value of Scotts book series is all that info is brought together, and is readily portable.


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## 3bayjunkie (Jan 5, 2011)

KmH said:


> I agree that Scott Kelby's 3 book series is great to have and I disagree everything in Scott's book series can be gleaned from TPF.
> 
> No doubt a lot of it is basic photography knowledge readily available many places on the Internet. The value of Scotts book series is all that info is brought together, and is readily portable.



And easy to read and understand. Highly recommended =) 
Scott Kelby&#039;s Photoshop Insider Blog » Photoshop & Digital Photography Techniques, Tutorials, Books, Reviews & More


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