Basic photography book

[Karl J]

Can anyone recommend a good basic 35 mm SLR photography book ?

I'm talking about one that starts off with really basic stuff ; apertures, f-stops, ASA, focal length, etc .....

Many thanks in advance

[Aitch]

Look at one by John Hedgecoe. If they're still in print. Try Amazon.
H

[Karl J]

Ok I'll look out for one Aitch, wasn't actually going to buy it (yet ? ). Would be on a lend from the library, but having looked around there today all I could find were th more technical aspects of photography.

I have put in couple other question threads but still can't make up my mind on SLR or digital camera, I think .... IF .... I can get the theory of this SLR stuff understood then I'll go for that.

[walwyn]

What's to know?

The basics are pretty simple.

Aperture - the larger the aperture the more light gets through so the shorter your exposure time is.

F-stops - These relate to aperture the small the number the bigger the aperture. However, the larger the aperture the smaller the depth of field.

ASA - Relates to the film speed the larger the number the faster the film. However, the faster the film the more grainy the resulting print will be.

Focal length - Is the distance from the centre of the lens to the point at which parallel rays entering the lens converge.

A 50mm has the same perspective as your normal vision. The smaller the focal length of the lens the more 'panoramic' the field of view is, the longer the focal length the more 'telescopic' the field of view is.

So you decide on the perspective that you want, normal, landscape, telephoto, and pick your lens accordingly.

Then what you have to do is trade off exposure time in terms of depth of field, and graininess of the resulting picture.

In reality you'll probably stick with one film speed 100, 200, or 400 ASA, so that leaves depth of field vs exposure time. For things that move an exposure of around 125th sec is probably what you are aiming at, but the faster the better.

Any book will tell you this I have about 6 and none of them really say anything different. So basically you are better of looking for a book that covers the area of photography you are interested in.

[Karl J]

Walwyn - That certainly sounds useful, cheers.

''What's to know'' ... well for someone who knows virtually nothing about photography except how to load a Kodak Advantix film, it does certainly seem like there are a lot of technicalities involved.

The 50mm thing is interesting, & the aperture / f-stop v depth of field. Well, in fact all of it is !

I have currently got a couple of books on various outdoor type SLR photography, but haven't seen too many basics explained.

eospete - cheers for that also, I've had a quick look and it looks to be pretty comprehensive so will go deeper into that tomorrow. Thanks

[Steve]

Carlos if you wait a few days we have a photography guru, who is going to run a Q and A forum, and post articles on all things photography.

[Karl J]

That sounds rather useful Steve.

I'm not rushing in and buying anything til I have a better idea of what it's all about.

[walwyn]

Don't get bogged down in all the nonesense, for 99% of what you'll do, other than choosing which lens to use (you'll probably only use one), and framing the subject everything else is pretty much irrelevant. You will have a 100 ASA film in your camera, and the light level is X so you open or close the aperture untill you get a shutter speed which is fast enough to capture the subject without blurring. On modern cameras there will be a readout in the viewscreen saying what that is.

Yes if you have a grasp of the technicalities you can do things with the camera in an artistic way (deliberately blur the background), but unless you have a specific reason for doing so, all the fstop stuff is not really needed.

Now black and white darkroom techniques is a different thing all together.

[Adey Baker]

Carlos

Have you got any friends with SLRs who could let you have a hands-on 'tour'around their camera? - that would be worth more than any book.

Adey

[Karl J]

Originally posted by Adey Baker
Carlos

Have you got any friends with SLRs who could let you have a hands-on 'tour'around their camera? Adey

Oh I wish !!!!


Walwyn - yes I think I was sort of heading toward that thought. The dig-readouts & various functions on the slr do appear to make it much easier than I originally thought. ... Still weighing it all up though ! ..... with plenty of help from Norwich central library.

[normjackson]

I see via link below that your county library has a million copies of John Hedgecoe's "Basic Photography".

http://norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/cgi-bin/viewpoint_server-web.sh

Trouble is, they've got millions of copies of millions of his other titles too. Sounds like a good place to start though...

[Karl J]

Normj -- In spite of having a million copies it's not one I came across yesterday !

I did get his ''Art Of Colour Photography'' out though.

Have to have another look tomorrow.

Cheers for the title.

[normjackson]

Sorry Carlos, I meant loads of copies held at all the different libraries in the county. I'm sure what you've chosen is worth really focussing your attention on. Best not to overwhelm yerself with too many books at once, I'd have thought. As you get more choosy, I assume you can reserve any title you want on the lib website and have it waiting for you at reception (Essex Libraries charge 50p for the service I think).

Hope you get your chance to settle down for a nice drink and a read...

Norm

[Karl J]

Yes, its a good service, you can reserve it online & then they e-mail you when it's in. There is a charge but can't remember how much, not much though.

[tarves57]

Amazing!

Walwyn, I just bought and read a John Hedgecoe book for 12.99. What you wrote in your first email reply constitutes exactly all I needed to learn from it. (and very concisely too!)

Brill

Susan

[phyllosc]

I forget the name of the author (It may be Hedgecoe) but the book your looking for Carlos is called the '35mm Handbook'. It's been around for years and has gone through several editions.

Check it out, I don't think you'll be disapointed.

Dave

[jay1964]

I don't think J Hedgecoe is very good. His books are very basic - after a short while his book will be of no use. I would try Heather Angel as she covers the basics but concentrates on wildlife photography. The best way to learn is to go out and play with your camera to see what it does. You can learn alot by looking at other peoples work noting their lense choice, aperture, shutter speed etc.

[walwyn]

Susan,

Thanks, here at work I'm sometimes refered to as 'Edward Scissorhands', due to a tebdency to cut away irrelevancies.

[normjackson]

Walwyn, relieved to see your co-workers don't think too allegorically.

I suspect the number of unread or discarded photography books around is exceeded only by cookery books that have submitted to that fate. That's why Carlos is probably quite right to raid his library to start with for some introductory instruction. Later, something a bit more like a manual or encyclopaedia may be appropriate. The 35mm Handbook I remember presented itself as a practical manual, even to the extent of coming with a waterproof plastic cover. I can't remember whether it was the version by Michael Langford or Michael Freeman. I rather liked Hedgecoe's Manual of Photography with its more encyclopaedic coverage of techniques; and thousands of example photos to look at. I don't disagree with jay1964 that, having decided to specialise, you will probably find yourself looking to respected authorities in that field for guidance and, perhaps more importantly, inspiration.

I expect deciding on choice of hardware is likely to cause considerably more soul searching...but that's for t'other thread.

[Jeremy]

Take a look at John Shaw`s "Nature Photography Field Guide". Very comprehensive. Or try "Photographing Wild Birds" by Chris Gomersall, or "The Art of Bird Photography" by Arthur Morris. "Photographing Fungi In The Field" by George McCarthy is worth a read too!