Home Forums Gear Photography Basic books on Photography

Hi,
I have a Pentax K frame I have been using basically by the seat of my pants for years, with varied results. I do, however, love the results when I actually get it right. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good, basic book on photography so that I can maybe become more consistant with my photos?
Thanks
Crowkiller

Crowkiller,

My SLR is also a Pentax and it should do well for you.

Two books I really like:

National Geographic "Photography Field Guide"
John Shaw "Nature Photography Field Guide"

John

Crowkiller.... Thought you would have gotten a little better response to your question by this time. Since you haven't I'll take a couple of seconds and tell you everything I know on the subject! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I haven't read any books on basic photography in a long, long time so I can't help you there. I'm sure if you go to any of the "Walden" type book stores they will have something on basic photography by Kodak. Here's a pretty good website for getting some photography basics and more. http://www.photographytips.com/

I would suggest you check out "shutter speed", "lens opening/aperture", and "depth of field". Once you have a good understanding of those and how they affect your photograph you should start producing better photographs more often. You can expect a great photograph each time you snap the shutter, but don't be disappointed if you don't succeed every time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm another K1000 fan. I've been doing mostly digital stuff for several years now but, my ol' K1000 is still in the gadget bag, just in case!

I've been trying to find a specific set of books (two volumes) to give you the exact title and the author's name but can't find 'em. (They're no doubt still packed for a move that had to be canceled.)

At Amazon.com or abebooks.com, look for books with the name Ansel Adams in the title. Adams wrote an excellent series of rather technical books (The Camera -- The Negative -- The Print -- etc) that are a bit chewy for your first study. Someone else wrote the set that I'm recommending, with the name Ansel Adams in the title, IIRC.

Belay that!

I gave you bad advice. When I went to abebooks.com, "Ansel Adams" led me to several thousand possibles. So I had to keep adding key words until the search results came down to a manageable number. Among the final several hundred possibles, I found what I was looking for, for you --

Schaefer, John P -- An Ansel Adams Guide : Basic Techniques of Photography

-- a good place to start learning --

Thanks, everyone. I picked up a couple of photography books at a "going out of business sale", and have been reading them, I'll look the others up when I get through these. I am getting better at remembering that it is NOT an automatic camera.
Thanks again