National Geographic: The Ultimate Field Guide To Landscape Photography [Book Review]

Damien Franco | May 04, 2009 | Comments Comments

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National Geographic: The Ultimage Field Guide to Landscape Photography

National Geographic: The Ultimate Field Guide to Landscape Photography

National Geographic: The Ultimate Field Guide to Landscape Photography (National Geographic Photography Field Guides) by Robert Caputo

This is an updated, new edition to National Geographic’s most popular field guide: landscape photography. The new information is comprised of information on digital cameras and digital software in the field of landscape photography.
Never before have I seen a book whose small size and grand photography been in such opposing juxtaposition. That is to say, even when this book is small enough to fit in your pocket or small camera bag, you can feel the grandiosity of the images throughout. The pictures truly are larger than life.

Breakdown

The Landscape Photograph
Composition
Using Light Effectively
Cameras & Lenses
Digital Strategies
Useful Info

The Landscape Photograph

The first chapter does a great job of laying down a creative foundation. This book isn’t so much about the technical how-tos of landscape photography, rather this book helps you to tap into the creative how-tos of landscape photography. You’ll learn how to capture that sense of place by thinking in adjectives and exploring new places. This is all about seeing and thinking about your surroundings and your subjects.

Composition

The real meat of the book comes in using the three elements of photography and using composition to guide the viewer through your photograph. Of course the rule of thirds is reviewed as well as using leading lines, framing, and how patterns and scale affect your photo. National Geographic photographers are some of the best story tellers in the photographic industry and they accomplish this by using great composition.

Using Light Effectively

This is where the book does get a little more technical, but lighting in photography is a technical exercise, so it’s to be expected. Lighting can create dynamic mood and in this chapter you’ll learn to make the most of what you have, heading out in the right time of day, plus some great information on creative lighting in landscape photography.

Cameras & Lenses

This is part of the “update” to the field guide so they talk the about digital revolution and evolution as pertaining to landscape photographers. This is handy if you’re not sure what camera and/or lenses you’ll need as a budding landscape photographer. It’s thin and straight to the point. This isn’t what you’re buying the book for so you can probably totally skip it.

Digital Strategies

What photography book isn’t complete without a chapter at the end on post production? As I’ve said before, you can review it to see if any of their techniques are faster and/or better than what you’re doing, but there are much better resources available on the web. Again, this isn’t why you bought the book.

Useful Info

Funny, I thought the whole book was full of useful info. This is just a few pages of resources like camera bag essentials and online resources for purchases and further education.

Conclusion

As I stated above, the pictures throughout this book on photography were stunning (and these were images not published by National Geographic before!) This book flows really well. It’s just flat out well written. It’s a field guide so it’s perfectly sized to throw in your camera bag as you head out to conquer the world of landscape photography. I loved it and am very glad it has made it’s way into my library.