Basics, Basics, basics...

[humminboid]

Football and basketball coaches always refer to "going back to the basics", meaning never forgetting the foundation upon which successful expertise is built.

With that in mind, I have just finished reading six volumes, which I think will help provide a solid basis for good photography. Some are very basic, and the last two are useful for tuning skills already earned.

Camera manual: By Nikon engineers: Sometimes confusing, but they mean well, and the information is in there, somewhere. Trust me.

Digital Photography Q and A: By Paul Harcourt-Davies. Book of the Month club sent it to me. Basic, and good.

Digital Photography for seniors: By Nick Vandome. Super simple, very good basics, how to get your camera up and running, with few excursions into really technical. Subjects like choosing and inserting the memory card, inserting batteries, turning the camera on. It does get into some editing, mostly with Photoshop Elements. Library. Worthwhile read. I need all the help I can get!

Kodak Profesional Portrait Techniques: Out of print,(?) can be found on eBAy. Kodak "wrote the book" on basic, apply-to-most-situations publications. Just looking at the pixes is a major education.

Minimalist lighting: Kirk Tuck. Good read, good information. It's Minimalist,
(not to be confused with "Ghetto", DIY or Cheap) meaning doing more with le$$.

The man is a pro, and uses uses Nikon CLS equipment, but, discusses principles that are widely applicable to any lighting situation, although he cites situations that a lot of us will never, ever find ourselves in.

Hot Shoe Diaries: Joe McNally. It doesn't match the rave review given on Strobist.

But, having said that, it is excellent, with a lot of information that can be harvested from within the pages. It does get repetitive, but... anybody who makes statements like:

"Light is quicksilver. Magic."

Or... "You pick up the flash in a throttlehold and start screaming at it. "Do that again!" It is of course, mute. Light keeps its secrets close."

is definitely worth reading. NOT for the novice, though.

There are lots more. Photography for Dummies, Digital Photography for Dummies, The National Geographic Field Guide for Photography... some are worth buying, others not so...the library is a good resource. If you like what you read, buy one for yourself.

[Daniel Bates]

+1 on reading the manual. Technical literature can be obfuscated or arcane at times, but equipment manuals are probably the most underutilized source of information ever (not) read.

[ka5txl]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

+1 on reading the manual. Technical literature can be obfuscated or arcane at times, but equipment manuals are probably the most underutilized source of information ever (not) read.

Ahh but as in ham radio we only read the manual AFTER it has comeback from warranty work

[Daniel Bates]

Regarding ham radio - they have manuals for those things? Oh, the questions I could have answered had I known!

My IC-728 wasn't too hard to figure out, but the 2100H 2-meter mobile's menus got very, very confusing sometimes. I think the same menu designer worked on the Canon 580EX Speedlite.

[johnastovall]

The true basics are:

The Camera, The Negative, and The Print all three by Ansel Adams.

Then you need some basic composition and the use of color.

Practical Composition in Photography Axel Brück

The Photograph: Composition & Color Design by Harald Mante

[KJ Smith]

If you have the three AA books, pick up "Examples The Making of 40 Photographs " He footnotes back to those three, by book and page #.

It is a great companion for them.

Kevin

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by KJ Smith

If you have the three AA books, pick up "Examples The Making of 40 Photographs " He footnotes back to those three, by book and page #.

It is a great companion for them.

Kevin

Thanks, I do that....