After you’ve mastered all of the basic, intermediate, and advanced exposure skills and techniques, what book should you read next?
The book to get is Perfect Exposure, The Professional Guide to Capturing Perfect Digital Photographs by Michael Freeman. It is a terrific book, with a comprehensive and detailed look at how professionals go about determining exposure.
Freeman’s book assumes you know all of the basic to advanced exposure skills before you get into his book. Apertures, ISO settings, and shutter speeds should be as familiar to you as the back of your hand. Determining depth of field with a hyperfocal distance chart should be second nature. Using exposure compensation in manual mode to capture the optimum kind of raw data should be a regular part of your workflow. It should take you just seconds to set a custom white balance. Determining the true Guide Number of your flash and knowing how to use it should be part of your skill set. Without all of these skills you will be lost in Freeman’s book. I cover all of these skills and techniques and more in my own exposure book (drum roll please), Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies (more about my book here). It is one of the highest rated photography books at Amazon.
Once you have read about, practiced, and mastered the beginning to advanced exposure skills in my book it is time to dig into Michael Freeman’s book. Freeman will build on what you have learned in my book. Then he will give you guidance as to how to meter in a variety of lighting situations. Then he will lead you through the very important arena of post processing. Most of his book is about the nitty-gritty technical side of exposure. Freeman won’t spend a lot of time with the artistic side of exposure. You will find that in my book. The content of the two books complement each other. You will have a great time.
I have no idea how Michael Freeman can be a well traveled, international photographer and still find time to write so many terrific photography books. His books are the best of the best. Somehow he manages to do both. I suspect he never sleeps. I imagine him creating images all day and writing books all night, stopping only to eat once or twice a week!!
Purchase Links
You can buy both exposure books in the exposure books section of my photography store which has direct links to Amazon.com.
Series Link
This is one in a series of articles that will guide you to the best of all things photographic. The rest are here: Buyer’s Guide: Recommendations For The Best Photography Equipment, Software, Books, Magazines, DVDs, Online Photo Labs and More.