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| Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) | 
 enlarge | Author: Bryan Peterson
Publisher: Amphoto Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $16.74
You Save: $9.21 (35%)
New (32) Used (10) from $12.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  478 reviews
Sales Rank: 177
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.2 x 0.4
ISBN: 0817463003
Dewey Decimal Number: 771
EAN: 9780817463007
ASIN: 0817463003
Publication Date: August 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 For beginners only April 16, 2005
51 out of 64 found this review helpful
I was a little stingy with my rating, because, to be honest, i was disappointed. If you understand the basics of film speed, shutter speed & aperture (he calls it "the triangle") there is little to gain from this book. If you are a complete beginner, please change that rating to 3 stars.
About the only thing i found slightly interesting in this book was the discussion about depth of field, but this was nothing new to me either.
The GLARING DEFICIENCY in this book is a total failure to discuss anything about the use of flash or artificial light. If you have even heard the phrase "fill flash" you will be disappointed with this book. This book covers natural light ONLY!
Henderson (below) is right.... is that it??
 A "Must Read" for Learning Photography August 28, 2004
46 out of 50 found this review helpful
Kudos to Bryan Peterson on the release of this long-awaited update to his 1990 classic, Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs. I've been recommending the original edition of this book to my DIGITAL photography students and on-line forum buddies for several years now, even though the original edition pre-dates the "digital photography" revolution. This new edition includes all the essential information from the earlier edition and brings it completely up-to-date with the inclusion of how this information is relevant to digital photography.
Who should buy this book? This is a book for those interested in photography who want to take their photography to the next level. This book is for the hobbyist who is mostly using the camera's automatic settings, but is interested in using more of the camera's manual and semi-automatic modes to get better results. The author does a superb job of teaching the fundamentals of exposure in a simple and very easy to understand manner. This is usually an intimidating topic, but Mr. Peterson teaches it using every day language and examples. In no time, the reader will understand how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are manipulated to get the right exposure and the desired photographic results.
Beyond this, the author teaches the reader how to "approach" almost every conceivable photographic opportunity using the camera's semi-automatic modes (mostly aperture-priority). So not only does he teach the fundamentals of HOW exposure works, but he teaches WHEN to use one approach over another to achieve desired results. This alone is worth the price of the book!
This book is beautifully written and generously illustrated with over 150 original color images from the author. The images really bring the concepts to life and are a source of inspiration for the reader.
Who should not buy this book? If you are a seasoned photographer who has mastered the subject of exposure and is well versed in the use of aperture-priority, manipulation of depth of field, and metering, this book will be too basic for your learning needs.
Again, kudos to Bryan Peterson on the release of this fine book. I am among the thousands of photographers who are very appreciative to Bryan for changing the way we approach a given photo opportunity and have taken our photography to the "next level."
Sincerely,
jim henderson (the sandman on the forums)
A Wonderful Exposure Primer for Creative Photographers November 30, 2005
43 out of 46 found this review helpful
This is a book that every serious photographer should own--both for information and inspiration. I've had a copy of the original version of this book (1990) in my office since it was first published and it's worn to a frazzle. That's why I'm so thrilled that it has not only stayed in print this long, but also that Peterson has updated it.
The first thing you'll notice when you read through this book is that Bryan Peterson is not just good at explaining the intricacies of good exposure in almost every conceivable situation (landscapes, close ups, portraits), but he is a world-class photographer. It's one thing to talk about manipulating depth of field or subject motion in theoretical terms, it's quite another to see the concepts demonstrated in masterful, creative and fun photographs. And the photos are so well chosen and so well done that even if the book was written in a language I didn't understand, I would get the points being made. His editors should be proud of that too.
Getting good exposure is at the heart of making a good photograph. And you would think that with the auto-exposure systems built into both film and digital cameras that getting a good exposure would be a piece of cake. But as Peterson points out (and illustrates so nicely) there is a world of difference between getting a "good" exposure and getting the ideal "creative" exposure. Getting the ideal creative exposure requires careful consideration of how that exposure will affect things like depth of field, freezing or exaggerating motion, the color and quality of light and how your subject is presented.
This book is not just about exposure, of course, but is a great source of information on various types of lighting, close-up photography, portraits, night photography, using a tripod and, most importantly, seeing creatively.
I can't imagine making a serious study of photography and not having this book (and Peterson's classic book on "Seeing Creatively") nearby. Peterson is a gifted, funny and immensely talented teacher and photographer--more than willing to share all of his knowledge. As the author of many how-to books on photography myself, I have used Peterson's books as a constant source of information and ideas and I check my own facts against his regularly--I couldn't pay him a much higher compliment. As a photographer, I find myself looking at his pictures with great admiration and envy. His photographs are great. And by the way, "No!" I don't even know Bryan--except through his great books.
Jeff Wignall
Author, The Joy of Digital Photography
thejoyofdigital@optonline.net
 very basic, beginners only December 23, 2007
40 out of 51 found this review helpful
The book is very basic. It teaches you about aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. If you already know about the three, look elsewhere.
The book basically tells you about the existence of depth-of-field, and stop-action and motion blur shutter - that's all.
As I was finishing it, my only hope was that I got the wrong book, but alas, no mistake.
Even as a beginners book, it had important things left out:
- No clear explanation of what the aperture numbers are. It just tells you bigger number - smaller hole.
- Should have talked about hand-held camera shutter seeds (minimum 1/focal length speed rule comes to mind). The whole book assumes the use of a tripod for its teaching.
- Doesn't mention fill-flash for balancing light, although there is an extensive chapter about types and angels of light.
- Although filled with many beautiful photos, only a couple of instances show comparison shots. The author hasn't made the effort to take good and bad pictures to compare and illustrate his point.
- The author preaches about matrix metering, but emphasizes the fact that he only uses spot-metering. Spot-metering is not explained - it's too complicated and error prone, so use matrix metering. I thought this was what the book was all about!
- The author doesn't make it very clear about "low key" and "high key" images and how the meter wants to put everything in the middle 18% gray. There was an attempt to explain this, but it was so simplified, that is was confusing.
- No mention of the "zone system" for exposure
The internet has much more helpful info for free.
Purely basics February 1, 2005
38 out of 45 found this review helpful
I bought this thinking it would have a lot of in depth information about exposure. However I went through the book within 30 minutes and did not find anything new or quite interesting. It's a very basic book in understanding the importance of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and how they work together. Not really much past that. I would definitely recommend this to beginner's, but if you want to save a few bucks you can learn all the information provided in this book via online resources, just use your favorite search engine ;)Was also kind of upset that they mentioned anything about digital cameras seeing as how there was maybe 4 pages at the end of the book that talked about irrelevant fluff.
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