Photography Rules: Essential Dos and Don'ts from Great Photographers

by Paul Lowe

Over 150 essential mantras for anyone interested in taking good pictures. 

Get close, take bad pictures, blur is your friend, use natural light, don't delete, be selective, stare – every photographer works by their own rules. These rules can be practical (know your lenses) or inspirational (break through barriers), but, as we all, know rules are also made for breaking . Providing insider tips inspired by the greatest photographers from history and original pieces of advice from some of the most well-respected living professionals, Paul Lowe (expert photographer and lecturer) presents over 150 bite-sized dos and don'ts from the likes of  Dorothea Lange ,  Don McCullin , Martin Parr ,  Rankin and Richard Avedon . Covering all aspects of photography – from making photographs, to being a photographer and professional practice – this book combines inspiration with practical tips you can experiment with.  With succinct , accessible and engaging entries  and  expert advice from the author – readers can either dip in at random or read religiously. This book will provide endless inspiration for students, amateurs and professional photographers alike.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2020

About the author

Paul Lowe was a British photographer, educator, writer and critic. He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Vic Odden Award in 1999.

Reviews

[Simon Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting, thought-provoking book on photography and photographers.
.
Across 3 sections, 'Making photographs', 'Being a photographer' and 'Professional practice', Paul Lowe has compiled a rich and varied set of rules and advice for photographers by photographers, often accompanied by examples of their work.

This is by no means a conventional 'How To' manual, more a set of ideas and concepts to consider when using a camera. Some of these could be seen as artistic or creative challenges: 'Don't crop'; 'Use natural light', while others are practical and ethical: 'Do your research but go with an open mind'; 'Never assume'.

As Lowe acknowledges in his introduction, rules are made to be broken, but by collating such an eclectic and wide-ranging mix of opinions from photographers working in many different genres, he encourages you to consider which 'rules' work for you or how you could adopt certain rules to improve or reinvent your photography. For those just starting out or looking to refresh their approach, this is well worth reading.

Thank you to Quarto Press for providing me with an advance reading copy via NetGalley.

[Jeannie Zelos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Photography Rules, Essential Dos and Don'ts from Great Photographers, Paul Lowe

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Crafts & Hobbies, Arts & Photography

Like many folk I love taking pictures with my phone. I do have a “proper” camera, albeit a few years old, but my phone is always with me for those spontaneous moments. I now have a phone with leica camera, and it has a host of selections that I have no idea how to use. I was kind of hoping there would be more nuts and bolts tips here, but this book really focuses ( hah, clever that!) on the actual subject, timing, framing and how to choose them.
There are pictures from other photographers and an explanation of what made them interesting, how the photographer would have viewed the subject, and I found those interesting. Its curious, what is it in a scene that makes us want to capture it? What I want to know is how to make that scene better, how to capture whatever it was that sparked my interest, and I didn't really get that from this book. There were also a lot of images of photographers, which I found a bit strange, I can understand showing examples of their work to illustrate a point but not really why we needed a picture of them. I also felt much of the work was not really current. I know good images stand the test of time but I didn't see much from recent times.

I was reading this on PC, and I feel this is one of those books that is best appreciated “in real life” as a physical book, not an electronic copy.
Maybe I would have been able to grasp more from the book that way, who knows, but though there were some tips I found interesting, overall this was just not what I was looking for.

Stars: Two. Not really what I was expecting or looking for. Maybe I'd have appreciated it more in a physical copy.

Arc via Netgalley and publishers

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Photography Rules: Essential Dos and Don'ts from Great Photographers by Paul Lowe is a collection of basic guidelines for 'Making Photographs'.
Most of the content is a collection of quotes from other photographers and copies of their pictures. On the Kindle, the images were very poor quality, so I do not know how well they will print for a hard-copy book. I read the whole book and highlighted many passages, but this is not a book I would ever use again for reference. After I finished the book I wondered if the author is a true photographer or if this book is rather a compilation of archived quotes from other sources.
Publication Date May 5, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review a digital ARC of this book.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

The blurb said I would find insider tips from the best around the world.
Honestly this book is just some random advice with some pictures, many of which I didn’t care for. Neither the advice nor the picture.
I was completely underwhelmed by this book, I have read better tips on Twitter and Instagram than in the 120 of this book.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Photography Rules by Paul Lowe provides 150 dos and don'ts with a specific rule and has a supporting photograph (mostly in black and white) or quote with a commentary on how best to put the advice into practice.

The book is divided into 3 chapters:

Making Photographs
Being a Photographer
Professional Practice

Making Photographs offers practical tips for taking great photographs, covering genre, composition, operational function, working with your subject, lighting, post-production and print Being a Photographer has guidance on attitude, creativity, understanding photography and finding your own purpose. Professional Practice looks at the dos and don'ts about being a professional, working with clients, marketing yourself, developing a career, making money and collaborations.

It's an interesting book with all these tips, a few bits on lenses or ISO, but moreover it's about composition rather than the equipment you are using. I would have liked to know with each photograph in the book what settings were used and the type of camera and lens.

Overall it's not quite the book for me, I think I'm more at the learning of the equipment stage, this seems to be aimed at a more professional photographer, though there are a few things I will take away from it.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspirational, informative, and practical compilation of photography advice from current and past photographers. Some of the "rules" will be familiar, some seem to contradict others, and that's what makes this book so interesting. It doesn't present just one way of thinking about photography or suggest there is only one way to make a successful photo, but offers different takes from a diverse group of photographers.

Well-organized and designed, with plenty of photos for inspiration, the book is divided into three sections: making photographs, being a photographer, and professional practice. The first two sections feel pretty timeless and are good reminders for even experienced photographers. The third section is more practical and feels very current, with advice on kick-starting projects, making career goals, and more. It also felt very unique to this book, as so many photography books I've read tend to shy away from these discussions.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this one when it's available!

[Ceylan (CeyGo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Quattro Group for an advance reader copy of this book for an honest review .

3 ⭐️

This is a cute little book with lots of tidbits of information and tips you can incorporate to improve your photos.

What I liked about this book:
- each page is a new photo and a new “tip” so really you can choose what you want to read and skip pages that perhaps not of interest to you
- lots of interesting photos
- not a “technical” book - so this isn’t a book about camera and lenses and lightening

What I didn’t like about this book
- nothing that I specifically disliked, just that it really didn’t inspire as I would expect a book on photography to do, since it is something I love

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice guide for someone getting into photography, as it has examples of different kinds of photographs and quotes from famous photographers. It gives a nice background of photography.

[Jackie]

Brilliant for strait-up honest hints and tips. To the point and clear cut.

[Shelly Seward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives exactly what it says on the cover; essential dos and don'ts from great photographers. Even though the camera equipment spoken about is older, the information is still relevant. The only thing I didn't really like was that it seemed to be mostly photojournalism. Other than that, lots of tips for all budding photographers.

***I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

This book feels very much along the same lines of what I keep seeing among the 'old guard' photographers: nearly all photojournalism, very old fashioned examples (with only a David Chappelle added in more as a concession than out of respect), and all looking to be film oriented. This is ironic because each field of photography (e.g., portraits, wildlife, macros) has its stars in the digital realm, most making amazing use of the new format. But with this book, it's as if the digital revolution never happened and 'true' photography is only about photojournalism and film. I feel like this author is living in the past and part of that old school club completely unable to appreciate or even recognize the current state of photography.

That said, the book does not attempt to constrain photographers and instead just passes along wisdom from famous photographers that is often contradictory (and rightly so since photography is so subjective). The author makes careful note in the preface that he is passing along the info and not attempting to prove the advice right or wrong - just what those photographers felt was key to their style. The breadth of photographers is long in terms of history - from turn of the century Bresson to (as noted earlier) David Chappelle. But the author doesn't attempt to tie in why he chose which image for which tip, which is frustrating. It's just a short paragraph about the tip, perhaps a bit about the photographer, and then an image. This is so ironic to me since so many of the tips were about having a viewpoint when you photograph - and then we have a book without a viewpoint from the author for the images contained within.

Another interesting choice was that a LOT of the images that had to do with famous photographers were self portraits or a photograph of that photographer by someone else. I found that an odd choice since I would rather see that artist's work rather than a photograph of him doing random x things. A whole paragraph about how a photographer was so unique and then to have a picture that is not even from that photographer is odd.

There is good advice at the end about the photography business; but again, it is nearly all about photojournalism. There's no advice for the emerging digital artist, the digital artist tools, or starting a business selling to the consumer and not to big business. If you want to start your own portrait business selling to people, look elsewhere than this book. To be honest, I found some of the advice actually problematic to the digital artist looking to sell to consumers.

In all, I have to admit to a great frustration that the culture of photography is still living in the past (pre 2000) and still hasn't evolved after 20 years of the digital revolution.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect book for me. It met me right where I was at.

I’d recommend it to any photographer with similar sentiments to me as it provided a unique, thoughtful compilation of the great advice and a well-tailored focus of image examples out there.

I would like to thank Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion Publishing for providing me with an advance reader copy via access to the galley for free through the NetGalley program.

The Story
It was refreshing to read and brought a distinguished and inspirational element to the photography section of my bookshelf.

It wasn’t a sell on equipment branding and specs, or a historical timeline of photography through the ages, an exhaustive technical how to, a recycled rearrangement of seen all, heard photography aspects, nor was it just exclusive insight into one author’s personal experiences.

Those things certainly all have their place in photography but I found this particular book to be an insightful, accessible compilation piece, having taken the main rules of photography (both creative and technical) and concisely honing in on the main driving points, taking the best of each concept as it displayed advice and an image example of each.

From that standpoint, the author’s foreword discussed the meaning and principles behind the rules as incorporated into the title and content which I really appreciated since it clarified questions that I had. This has excellent advice to integrating rules into your practice and break them one at a time to see what new things you can create.

So from that, each rule was thoughtfully curated, showing how they may or may not be broken to create compelling images.

I myself, feel I haven’t taken the time to be able to admire and understand the works by photographers. So I really enjoyed the quotes, the discussions, the theoretical concepts explained by each as they showcased some of their most powerful and iconic photos.

Perhaps it may be easier for readers to decide if this book is for them by telling about me.

To give some perspective, I have been taking photographs on and off for the better part of my life, mostly at my own amusement. I’m familiar with film and digital. Shooting mostly scenes of landscapes, wildlife, flowers, books, and recipes.

I have had limited formal training and never really kept up with the digital era and post processing achievements of today. I also haven’t kept up with the notoriety and skillset of photographers in recognition of their most famous works and the artistry/techniques they bring to the table.

However for the past year and a half I’ve sought to better my photography and challenge myself.

Concepts I really took away: Not shying away from motion blur and better celebrating the movement to show the energy of a scene, choosing a subject regardless of figures, and definitely paying attention to lines and lighting more.

Also, to break some terrible habits I’ve developed. Since not having been on social media for 6 months, especially not having been on Instagram, I feel more compelled not to tailor images to the constraints of the platform anymore. I guess I didn’t realize how much I catered my images to it with its square tiling, cutting off of margins, leaving me to frame images with an extra bumper of a gap and dead centering.

Techniques I’d like to try as a result of reading this book include: Using the tripod more, practicing more slow shutter techniques, and trying a hand at photo composites.

The Writing
I liked the vast overview of concepts especially from a journalistic point of view since my knowledge and experience with that is minimal.

This book is organized and easy to understand. Tidbits on referential connection, work submissions, publishing, ethics, captioning, working with models, and even working in traumatic situations and image management, which were wonderful bonuses in this book.

Very enjoyable, I learned a lot!

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[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weirdly this book made me feel like I was at an art gallery. Brilliant and unusual images with thorough explanations of what works and what doesn’t. I’m not a photographer, but as a novice, this book is great. And it's not just a coffee table book either, like some can be!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good tips and information to consider for those who want to better their skills. You get a tip with a photo that shows what the author is talking about - usually just a page per tip.