Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera

Many photographic books are either assuming that you have a particular set of equipment and if you don't just go buy it or they give such conceptual information that you're left unclear of how to actually put that in practice.Well, this book does none of the two: it will give you advice that's applicable to all sorts of equipment, from point-&-shoot compact digitals up to medium and large formats. While most other authors just ignore that there are a lot of people out there using consumer/amateur/semi-pro level equipment, Peterson actually goes on and comments on the differences between these cameras and how to use them effectively.Although relationship between aperture, shutter priority and ISO weren't new for me, the chapter on metering was a real eye opener. For the first time I found a book in which the author actually shows how to use the camera built-in light meter instead of telling you to buy an external spot-meter at great expense. He also tells what areas of the frame to take readings from when metering for a difficult exposure.After reading this book I felt like I had really learned stuff and that I could reliably apply it to my day-to-day photography.The bad points of this book for me are two;1 - The author tries to use figurative language, giving names to things so that it is easier for the reader to remember. Well, for me it seems patronizing and many times I felt like I was reading a text written for children to learn about difficult stuff. I would prefer if the text was written in more adult, technical terms.2 - The printing quality of the pictures in this book are very low. The lowest I have seen in a photography book so far. Also I felt underwhelmed by most of his compositions. Maybe because I have been reading too many books with breathtaking compositions when I got to this one that is definitely simpler, more stock-photo orientated I felt a bit underwhelmed.I know these are two very small points, but that detracted 1 star from my final evaluation.

So many people recommended this book that in the end I had to get it. And it's basically just as good as everyone says.As you'd expect, it runs through the main things you need to know about exposure: using aperture for depth of field, fast shutter speeds for movement and all that stuff that you already know.Except he seems to add things that you didn't know, or hadn't thought of.Remember, this is just about exposure, so it's not telling you how to frame shots, or what to take photos of, just how to get the exposure right.He uses a lot of easily remembered terms, like 'story telling' or 'who cares?' apertures. Some of them seem a bit silly, but there's no doubt you know what he's talking about. Later on, it gets even sillier, when he talks about 'Brother Blue Sky' and Mr Green Jeans' for exposure of skies and green areas. And you think, hang on, I'm not twelve. But I can see the point. If he was very technical about it, you'd never remember, but this way, you're out with your camera, and you think, I'll use Brother Reflecting Sky. Just don't say it out loud.So Peterson has a knack of putting things over in an easy to comprehend way that's actually useful when you're out taking shots. I tried a few of his techniques straightaway, and they work.The book is nicely illustrated of course, with good examples to show how the techniques work. It's well written, and genuinely useful if you pretty much understand how to use manual exposure but want to go a step further.

This is an excellent guide to the ins and outs of getting correct exposure in your photographs. I have been dabbling with photography for the best part of 20 years and even in all that time have never truly mastered the secrets of getting exposure right. Bryan Peterson explains exposure from first principles (the Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO triangle as he calls it), backed up with real examples. The difference here though is that the bad exposures he demonstrates are in many cases quite passable if you don't have the benefit of seeing the correct one alongside it, and so the book does a good job of teaching the subtleties of achieving perfect exposure.Throughout the book he gives you hints and tips, and rules of thumb to help you remember correct exposure techniques (for example "brother blue-sky", "brother backlit sky", "brother reflecting sky" and "Mr Green Jeans") and where necessary encourages you to learn important principles for yourself with small photo assignments. These days it's all to easy to let the camera do the work, but Peterson really does help you to master the Manual Mode of your camera. In just about every example photo he goes to great pains to explain his steps in measuring and setting the correct exposure, and in most examples you see his result versus the result he got by leaving it to the camera, which really helps to drive home the points he's making.So all in all an excellent guide, and one that I think should help me move to the next level in my photography.