Instructional book?

[Hellashot]

Can anyone recommend a book on general photography as an intermediate level knowledge? The books I've paged through at the book store said to be instructional seem more to be a show off of the author's work with general talking about that photo. And most of the books on digital photography were half about post processing and meant for small through-the-LCD cameras.

Thanks.

[Scottes]

If you're looking for "intermediate" then it might be time to start looking for specialized books (portraits, wildlife) or more "general specialized" (nature, exposure, flash). Many of these will talk equipment & photographic technical stuff while trying keeping pertinent to the specialty.

Beyond that, it seems that many "how to take a better photo" will go into good detail on a specific type of shot. For instance, they might spend 2-4 pages just on night photography, another 2 on landscapes, another 4 on macro. These books expect you to know a bit, but not everything.

A book called "Shoot!" may be of interest. It's a compilation of 2-4 pages articles by many top photographers, with each article on a particular subject. A few random choices from the table of contents:
-Understanding F-Stops
-Understanding Depth of Field
-Freezing Action
-Handling the Backlit Subject
-Shooting at Sunset
It's an excellent book, and I can easily recommend it.

Lee Frosts "The A-Z of Creative Photography" tackles different types of pictures, in a sense. Patterns, Panoramics, Neon Signs, Fairgrounds, Fill-In Flash. It talks about the specifics of each type, and has some more generic stuff mixed in, like DoF and such. It's pretty good, too, but a little less intermediate (maybe).


I read a lot, and subsequently buy a lot of books covering various subjects. In all my experiences, once you've read a couple general books about something, the next thing to do is start concentrating on more specific areas of that subject. So what do you want to do? And then find or ask for a book on that specific subject.

[ChrisN]

Why not surf around the net a bit before going out and buying a book.

Honestly, these resources have been the biggest asset for me.

Try (for starters):
http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/rick_sammon.html

http://photoinf.com/
the articles here have been very inspirational for me.

http://www.morguefile.com/ver3/classroom.php
The writer of these tutorials is very good at keeping it basic.