Photographic Composition: A Visual Guide

by Richard D. Zakia, David A. Page

A note from the author, Richard P. H. Emerson reminds us that "Every artist is at first an amateur." One of the great American photographers of the 20th Century, Edward Weston, as a young photographer, only got honorable mention in a photographic contest sponsored by an amateur camera magazine. Ansel Adams, Paul Strand and others also began as amateurs. Wynn Bullock began his outstanding photographic career later in life when he was in his 40s Today, in our digital age, everyone is a photographer. Recognizing this and the fact that there are some basic proven guidelines for creating winning photographs, we put together this highly visual book especially for beginning photographers who want to improve their photography. In doing so we discovered that some professional photographers also found it helpful. One can think of our book as a visual grammar that will help you better compose what you desire to express and to do so with clarity. -------------------------------- However amazing the subject or technically excellent the photography, the single biggest factor in deciding whether a photograph is good or bad is how well it is composed. Photographic Composition Visualized offers a unique take on this fundamental issue by offering instruction in a visual format - the book is laid out in a unique spread format of a beautiful image on one page, with an in-depth break down of why the rule of composition works in the image, but also how a photographer can apply it to their own photography. Inspirational, instructive, and, most importantly, visually stunning and beautiful, photography master Richard Zakia teaches the lessons he has learned from over 40 years as a photographer. This is the book every photographer needs to own in order to create the outstanding images they always wanted to - but didn't know how.*Learn the rules of photographic composition direct from a master photographer *Unique format SHOWS the reader specific rules of composition with inspirational images and then TELLS them exactly how to apply it to their own photography *Covers the full range of compositional considerations, from pre-capture to post-processing

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 2010

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This book feels like a text book - the information providing inside is complete, thorough, and informative. But slogging through the bland 'snapshot' like photos and monotonous dry text within is almost like going through someone's family scrapbooks from the 1970s. Except, instead of descriptions of the pictures, you get to have them broken down into compositional rules. Which is a shame since it is clear the instructor....er..author is very knowledgeable.

It's all in there, just very basic. It's hard to compare a book like this, which has a very 1970s photography book feel (full of the great 'honest' lifestyle type of influences) and feels a very much outdated compared to a very modern compositional book like "The Photographer's Mind".

[Oleksiy Chapay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucky me. I came to the bookstore and I was just searching by word "composition". I found this one and bought without any thinking. And, just I said before, lucky me. Good organized, simple compilation of composition rules. With famous photographers' quotes, homework etc. Very useful book.
P.S. my rating is 4. Because of Zakia's photos. Most of them... eh... you know...

[Zhifei Ge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the simplicity.

[Kambizdirakvand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful book with full of exercises and samples which is very useful for beginners.
I think It would be better book if it contained more analysis on famous photographers pictures.

[Stephen Rainey]

Can tell that they do not get out much as they identified the Sydney opera house as being in Melbourne