Understanding Exposure, Fourth Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

Seriously. If you are a beginner or are even an advanced user looking to refresh on the core principals of photography - get this book.After the first three chapters my photography was transformed. Don't buy another lens. Don't buy a new camera body. Buy this book first.

I had picked up a digital version of this book when I first started shooting and read it nearly cover to cover on a plane ride during a business trip. I put Bryan's tips to use as soon as the plane hit the ground and was immediately rewarded with some fine memories from the trip. That was some five years ago. When we purchased a digital camera for my girlfriend's son I immediately sought out the print version to put in the bag. He loved it and started using his camera the way it should be used - out of Program Mode!No book will create fantastic photos just by reading it. You still have to have an eye and be willing to experiment a little with what the camera can do. Bryan Peterson does an amazing job of challenging the novice photographer, getting them out of their comfort zone and thinking about the technical capabilities of these very complex pieces of equipment. I now unconsciously employ the exposure triangle whenever I'm setting up a shot whereas before I didn't really understand why some photos worked well and others didn't. Bryan's analogy of ISO settings compared to a number of construction workers or bees in a hive is a priceless gem that I have expressed several times to my photographer friends when we're out shooting.The examples provided in the book are plentiful and easily understood. An excellent read for any novice wanting to take their camera out of Auto and start taking 'real' photographs instead of snapshots.

I purchased this book as I've always been particularly interested with low-light level photography and astrophotography. I noticed almost immediately I could take better photographs or images by bumping down an ISO level with my newly purchased Nikon D5600. I then realized I needed to learn how to use manual mode for manually choosing aperture and shutter speed for optimizing my skills, and shortly later I purchased this recently written book.PROS1) Includes at least one really good photo, if not two or three good photos at times, depicting each photo taking scenario described.2) Many photography taking scenarios described, targeting mainly using Manual mode, as the book's main theme is about using Manual mode instead of Program (Automatic) mode.3) I enjoy hearing those with experience, describing their personal recommendations based on sound reasoning. (eg. Author prefers using Center-weighted light metering, as it's a technique that has yet failed and has almost always worked. I, myself, was mainly using spot metering up until this recommendation within the book, but I still have a strong preference for spot metering due to my subjects usually causing difficult positions.)4) Author uses one or two good digital cameras (eg. Mostly Nikon D800E images with a few Nikon D3X images.), and he does thoroughly explain each scenario within generic camera terminology.CONS1) First chapter is extremely wordy! In other words, the author tends to go significantly astray, whether intending humor or reflecting needlessly upon a scenario. I do not mind one or two astray comments (or jokes) within the introduction or first chapter, or even throughout the book, but the first chapter was extremely taxing upon my free time for reading! Halfway through the book now and thankfully the (excessive) comments were kept to the first chapter!2) Does not describe how the digital camera performs light metering, until halfway through the book. Light metering becomes extremely critical when taking any photos or images of black or dark colored subjects, such as the book describes black cats. (I just happen to have a black cat, and was using him for photography imaging practice alongside the book! Other less knowledgeable people might have significant issues if they're unaware of this while reading the beginning half of the book.)3) The EBook version seems to be an EPUB file format with a size of ~10MB. Clearly after seeing the file size not disclosed by either the book publisher or the referred book vendor sites, the EPUB book format's included photo images are of very low resolution! Maybe this is because I purchased the book from Google Play, but I'm presuming all the EBook formats for this book are going to contain similar image resolution for all the formats, since the publisher is referring EBook purchases directly to the Amazon, IPad, Android specific book vendors. As I stated within this review, would be nice to have a PDF format containing much higher resolution images! (Added this #3 con and purchased the EPUB version on 2017.08.07.)TIP: As with all books containing color photographs, best to buy the book instead of an EBook version. As of yet, I do not think there is an EBook or PDF version for this book, and would only buy the PDF version if the PDF version contained all the color photographs within the print copy. Else, and somewhat self explanatory, the EBook version would be useless without any of the color photographs! On the flip, a college/university level book could likely describe all the photographs within the book, if a well explained description for each photograph were provided. It's how us older folks learned long ago, when photographs were rarely used within books or were too costly to publish!

After reading all the positive reviews on this book I was very disappointed when I got it. By the 4th edition you would think the author would get it right. He uses all new photos in this edition and most of them are under exposed with "Vivid" set on max. No prize- winning photography in this book. Perhaps some of the bad reproductions are due to the Made in China printing techniques. Overall this is a $10 book at best rather than a $21 dollar book. I generally like Bryan Peterson's work but this book is far from his best work and is simply disappointing. Once you have read the first chapter on The Exposure Triangle (the relationship of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO) you have the meat of the book down pat. The rest of the book is just an expansion of that simple principle.

I purchased the 3rd edition which was my first book on photography. After that, I bought many books on photography, but, did not keep them all. This was the book that never left my table. Just out of love and emotion, I purchased the 4th edition's Kindle version too. It is a keeper. If you are new to photography, you must get this book. All reviewers are already praising this book, I have nothing more to say. It is THE most important book on photography. It teaches you the very basic concept that you must carry on in your whole photography life.

There’s some very good bits of information buried among way too many dad jokes and useless stories about pictures he took which to be honest were mostly bad. I guess the pictures only need to demonstrate a concept, but even then what he was trying to show was often unclear since he rambles endlessly. He kept mentioning about how he would go into a subject more deeply, but the space of the book wouldn’t allow it. I would much rather have has good, hard information than be bored with stories which had no benefit. Overall, I don’t regret reading it, I guess. But I would suggest another book for more direct lessons.

If you buy just one book to get to grips with photography and a shiny new DSLT or DSLR Camera - GET THIS ONE.I downloaded the sample and in no time was engrossed, understanding and what's more taking it in and retaining what I had read, along with the practice sections, it went in and has stayed there. So I bought the book.Bryan Petersen's way of explaining and guiding is GREAT.If you are just starting to learn or on the way with your photography and there are things you don't get - BUY IT.This book is not all about exposure, it covers a lot of area's like F Stops, ISO, Shutter speed, Creatively Correct Exposure and so much more, it is well worth every penny and the little effort that is asked for every so many pages.I do not usually write a review about books - but felt I had to, DON'T take my word for it - Download the sample from Kindle - you WILL have an epiphany.

I wasted 4 years taking mediocre photos just on aperture and shutter speed modes. I was mainly focusing on things like composition without consideration to the exposure. I was certain that the semi auto modes gave me more opportunity to focus on my creativity while the camera deals with the nitty gritty of exposure. I was 100% wrong.With the knowledge I gained from this book, I made it a commitment to only shoot manual mode for a few weeks. Now I have better control of my images and “know” what I need to do with my exposure settings. As a result, I can be much more creative and shoot images that I would have regarded as being lucky.

I’m really glad that I bought this book. I’ve been struggling learning how to shoot on manual mode, You Tube videos and other books on the exposure triangle just confused me and I didn’t get it. On the bottom of page 9 of this book there are 2 paragraphs that just explained how to shoot manually perfectly and the penny dropped. I put the book down and got my camera out and started taking manual photos. I wish I’d found this book ages ago, the author has a very clear and concise writing style. I’ve learned a lot about exposure, lighting, white balance, shutter speed and filters from this book, but it also covers a lot of other topics that I don’t need to know at the moment. This is the type of book that you will keep on your bookcase as a resource for then you want to learn a new topic. Highly recommended.

I bought this when i first got my camera, admittedly the tech he is using is perhaps older than the most modern cameras but the principle is more than relevant. I would suggest this to any new photographer wanting an easy way to understand how their camera works. As a result of reading this ive never actually used my camera in an automatic setting.If you think you dont have time to read books just think about what you are doing when the Mrs is watching the soaps:), you could finish the book in a couple of weeks.

Superb book for the beginner wishing to delve deeper into the world of photography. I've recently tried several other books for the interested novice but none are as clear, readable or as beautifully illustrated as this one. It's cleared up a couple of concepts I was really struggling with and I know it's a book I'll return to again and again.