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Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers
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 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.
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 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.
- GenresPhotographyNonfiction
176 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2008
1 person is currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Harold Davis
163 books14 followersHarold Davis is widely recognized as a leading contemporary photographer and artist. He is also the author of more than 30 books, including Creating HDR Photos: The Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Photography from Amphoto/Random House and Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis which is published by Focal Press, and has been called "one of the most beautiful books ever created."
Harold Davis believes that advances in the technology and craft of digital photography have created an entirely new art form. Trained as a classical photographer and painter, his photographic images are made using special HDR (High Dynamic Range) capture techniques that extend the range of visual information beyond what the eye can normally see.
Davis creates and processes his images using wide-gamut and alternative digital methods that he has invented. His techniques combine the craft of photography with the skills of a painter.
Photographic adventures and assignments have taken him across the Brooks Range, the northernmost mountains in Alaska. He has photographed the World Trade Towers, hanging out of a small plane, followed in the footsteps of Seneca Ray Stoddard, a 19th-century photographer of the Adirondacks, and created human interest photo stories about the residents of Love Canal, an environmental disaster area.
Harold is well-known for his night photography and experimental ultra-long exposure techniques, use of vibrant, saturated colors in landscape compositions, and beautiful creative floral imagery.
He makes his over-sized original prints on unusual substrates such as pearlized metallic and washi rice papers. Davis states, "I believe that nothing like my prints has ever been seen before. They simply could not have been created until recently. I've been able to innovate in a domain where many techniques and crafts have come together for the first time. My prints are made meticulously, and have a 200-year archival rating for ink and paper if they are handled properly.
Harold Davis believes that advances in the technology and craft of digital photography have created an entirely new art form. Trained as a classical photographer and painter, his photographic images are made using special HDR (High Dynamic Range) capture techniques that extend the range of visual information beyond what the eye can normally see.
Davis creates and processes his images using wide-gamut and alternative digital methods that he has invented. His techniques combine the craft of photography with the skills of a painter.
Photographic adventures and assignments have taken him across the Brooks Range, the northernmost mountains in Alaska. He has photographed the World Trade Towers, hanging out of a small plane, followed in the footsteps of Seneca Ray Stoddard, a 19th-century photographer of the Adirondacks, and created human interest photo stories about the residents of Love Canal, an environmental disaster area.
Harold is well-known for his night photography and experimental ultra-long exposure techniques, use of vibrant, saturated colors in landscape compositions, and beautiful creative floral imagery.
He makes his over-sized original prints on unusual substrates such as pearlized metallic and washi rice papers. Davis states, "I believe that nothing like my prints has ever been seen before. They simply could not have been created until recently. I've been able to innovate in a domain where many techniques and crafts have come together for the first time. My prints are made meticulously, and have a 200-year archival rating for ink and paper if they are handled properly.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 28, 2011
Lessons Learned:
Exposure can play a huge role in digital photography.
Summary:
Interesting quick read about the role exposure plays in digital photography. I must confess that I did not look at photography through the author’s lens. He certainly helped me in discovering some new insights into photography that I believe will make me a better photographer.
Exposure can play a huge role in digital photography.
Summary:
Interesting quick read about the role exposure plays in digital photography. I must confess that I did not look at photography through the author’s lens. He certainly helped me in discovering some new insights into photography that I believe will make me a better photographer.
March 24, 2011
Good introductory book, easy to understand and put into practice, but limited in its depth. More technical than "artsy", with easly understood examples given to put into use in your work. A great place to start for the beginner, and a good outline and reminder of what you should be doing for the more advanced photographer.
December 19, 2008
For those who learned photography through film, this book is very insightful in explaining the differences of digital and film. I'm relearning simple terms like exposure and what it means in terms of digital and the difference in comparison to film.
May 2, 2009
This book was very informative, but had I not read a couple other books about exposure and gotten a general sense of what it means, I would be totally lost in the technical jargon and assumptions that the reader is not coming to the book with absolutely no frame of reference for the subject.
October 30, 2012
Very basic, to the point of not being necessary.
April 5, 2017
Covers the basics from a digital camera point of view and has good examples and work flows for RAW photo formats. My current camera doesn't have a RAW format(Canon), when it dies I will buy a camera from somebody who sells uncrippled cameras. I like the author's photos as well, why take advice from someone who's photographs leave you cold?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews