Rating: 
Summary: This book changed the way I think about taking photgraphs.
Review: Not only does this book contain some very beautiful pictures but it explains how to create your own beautiful pictures. The prose is well written and easy to understand and the examples fit very well. I found the book inspiring and it infected the way I think about the world around me. Reading this book has helped me take better photographs and increased my enjoyment of photography.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good book - buy something else.
Review: Of all the photography books I own, this easily rates as
the worst. It seems more concerned with the author and his
interpretations of images than it does teaching/demonstrating
ways to improve your work. "You may have a different
emotional response to brown than I have". Too damn right I do.
Maybe the author is a good photographer in his own right, but
it comes across very poorly here.Overall the photos are pretty uninspiring, dull sombre colours,
abstract subjects that are hard on the eye, uninteresting compositions ... and so it goes on. It's all oppinions I suppose in photography, but I suggest
your hard earned cash is better spent elsewhere.
"Photographic Composition" by Grill & friends is how it
should be done, or try "Composition Techniques" by Ernst Wildi. Regards, Adrian
Rating:
Summary: The BEST book to help train your eye to see the shot youwant
Review: Several years ago, I took a class with my new camera for a national known photographer. I ask for a book or text to help learn to get the shot I knew was there. His first and only suggestion was this book. I went to the library, got the book every time I could for the next year and almost worn it out. The next year some of my coworkers insisted that I enter a statewide juried show with 4 photos in 4 of 12 categories. I took home a 1st,2nd,and 2 honorable mentions. The photos are now in a musuem forever. This I credit to the book and the photographer who would not suggest another book. Good luck and happy seeing to all :)
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiration
Review: Take this book as an inspiration. It offers you new appraoches for the search of subjects and the way to cature them on film.
The book is relatively poor in instruction and something like "swirl your camera with an open shutter at its strap but be carefull that the strap is carefully fixed" can only be taken as an invitation to be more creative. And jumping up and down in a forrest with your camera's shutter open might also not be everybody's idea of innovative photography.
You need to like Freeman Patterson's photos in their simplicity to appreciate his explanations. I do, and I like the book as well!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but weak coverage of basic principles
Review: This book is mainly for advanced photographers who have a thorough knowledge of the basics of photographic composition and are looking to explore new areas. It's goal is to get you to extend your techniques beyond the usual and develop your own personal style. The basics of composition are addressed only in a cursory fashion. For a beginning to intermediate photographer like myself, it would help to have a solid grasp of composition before departing from it. If this is your situation, then you would be better served by "Photograhic Composition" by Grill and Scanlon (which is currently in print) or better yet "Image:Designing Effective Pictures" by Michael Freeman. The latter book is by far the best discussion of composition that I've read. Unfortunately, it's no longer in print, so you'll have to find a used copy.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but weak coverage of basic principles
Review: This book is mainly for advanced photographers who have a thorough knowledge of the basics of photographic composition and are looking to explore new areas. It's goal is to get you to extend your techniques beyond the usual and develop your own personal style. The basics of composition are addressed only in a cursory fashion. For a beginning to intermediate photographer like myself, it would help to have a solid grasp of composition before departing from it. If this is your situation, then you would be better served by "Photograhic Composition" by Grill and Scanlon (which is currently in print) or better yet "Image:Designing Effective Pictures" by Michael Freeman. The latter book is by far the best discussion of composition that I've read. Unfortunately, it's no longer in print, so you'll have to find a used copy.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good but Freeman Patterson has another better one
Review: This is a good book on composition and related matters but Freeman Patterson has a much better one in "Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop". Buy that one instead of this. This book would rate about a B, B+ or at best an A- whereas the other would be solidly in the "A" category. Freeman's text is clear and easy to understand and his photo's are fine but the other book is better in all ways IMHO.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good but Freeman Patterson has another better one
Review: This is a good book on composition and related matters but Freeman Patterson has a much better one in "Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop". Buy that one instead of this. This book would rate about a B, B+ or at best an A- whereas the other would be solidly in the "A" category. Freeman's text is clear and easy to understand and his photo's are fine but the other book is better in all ways IMHO.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good but Freeman Patterson has another better one
Review: This is a good book on composition and related matters but Freeman Patterson has a much better one in "Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop". Buy that one instead of this. This book would rate about a B, B+ or at best an A- whereas the other would be solidly in the "A" category. Freeman's text is clear and easy to understand and his photo's are fine but the other book is better in all ways IMHO.
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