Book Review - The Photographer’s Eye
I have read quite a few photography books and, while most are helpful, in truth most of them do not deserve a place on my book shelf. It would have been perfectly find to borrow them from the library, read them, and return them.
This book is one of the small handful that I intend to keep within a moment’s reach on my book shelf. It is loaded with helpful information and - even more important - serves as a ledge from which to access other material.
Some time ago I reviewed the book Take Your Photography to the Next Level. In general I liked the advice in the book but did not like the photographs. When I reviewed that book, someone recommended this one and there really is no comparison between them.
Michael Freeman is an amazing photographer. He truly is a master at taking journalist and location photos - but this is not one of those ‘why my photos are better than yours’ books. The shots he uses throughout the book are great for illustrating the information on the same pages. They really do a great job at pointing out what the author is attempting to say and also help illustrate what he was thinking with each shot.
Particularly helpful were several sections where he showed how he went through a particular shoot. He gives his thought process for each shot along with his feelings about what went well and what didn’t. This is great for learning how to take my own photographers that work well.
In particular Michael spends a great deal of time discussing lines, curves, and shapes within the photos and how they work. The accompanying photos stress these points very well and I feel ready to try taking composition better into account in the future. I will need, however, to continually flim through the book in order to be reminded of different ideas.
While I read the book cover to cover, it is organized in ‘mini-sections’ that take between two to four pages each. Each of these mini-sections covers a particular topic - such as ‘Figure and Ground’, ‘Optics’, ‘Black and White’, and ‘Visual Weight’ for instance. This makes it very convenient to go back to the book when necessary.
There is quite a bit of text in this book due to the large size and small print. It is not something you will be able to read in a few hours - unlike most other photography books. In a sense it is a bit like Light: Science and Magic
One other thing I love about this book is how topics of much greater depth are introduced - then resources provided for further investigation if you desire. Bauhaus and Gestalt require more than a few pages for proper understanding, but he does a great job of giving you the most important information and provides a great wealth of future reading books in the bibliography. I will lend this book to a friend shortly, but plan on photocopying the bibliography first so I can make a trip to the library.
As with Light: Science and Magic
If you happen to know a National Geographic photographer and can follow him/her around the world and ask how each photograph is composed, then great for you. For all of the rest of us, this book is almost as good.
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Tags: book, compositiion, eye, Michael Freeman, photographer, photography, review