Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second |...

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second | Bryan Peterson | Focusing specifically upon the challenge of photographing subjects in motion or at low light levels

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Understanding Shut...

	Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second Bryan Peterson Amphoto Books, 2008 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Leaving the intellectual muddle out of it, this is a book you'll want to own as a glorious idea generator

When I first looked at "Understanding Shutter Speed" by Bryan Peterson on Amazon I wondered how shutter speed, only one of the components of an exposure, made up a book. In fact, there are some organizational problems that are caused by choosing this particular slice as a wedge into the topic of photography. A good editor might well have wondered what the final chapter on "Composition" is doing at all in this particular book.

The great strength here is idea generation. It's hard not to look at the illustrations in this book and say, "Hey why don't I try that?" The caption information is explicit enough so that you can recreate the ideas shown for yourself, or use them as a jumping off point. As an idea book, "Understanding Shutter Speed" is well worth its price.

Personally, I find the text (as opposed to the photo captions) problematic. Peterson seems out of his depth when it comes to digital. He really seems to think that from a noise viewpoint you are better off underexposing by two stops and adjusting in RAW as opposed to boosting the ISO and exposing properly (he's wrong). His discussion of ISO using a metaphor of hundreds of carpenters struck me as simply silly and without much point.

But leaving the intellectual muddle out of it, this is a book you'll want to own as a glorious idea generator.

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Focusing specifically upon the challenge of photographing subjects in motion or at low light levels

Professional photographer and instructor Bryan Peterson presents Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second is a handbook for intermediate to advanced photographers, focusing specifically upon the challenge of photographing subjects in motion or at low light levels. Full-color photographic examples illustrate the tips, tricks, and techniques for capturing top-quality images, while the straightforward text imparts a lifetime of expert wisdom in clear and concise terms. "You will always attain the fastest possible shutter speed at any given ISO when you use the largest possible lens opening, and you will be able to attain the slowest possible shutter speed at any given ISO by using the smallest possible lens opening... That well-known cotton candy effect you can get with [waterfall shots] doesn't start until you use apertures of f/16 or f/22." Enthusiastically recommended for expert or professional photographers seeking to refine their camera work.

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Be Willing to Think Outside the Box

I read Bryan's first book, "Understanding Exposure" and thought it was one of the best photography books writtens. Therefore, when he came out with this one I didn't buy it because I didn't want to be disappointed with rehashes of photos I already saw or he just added a few points to concepts already covered in other books.

I was on a photo safari when someone told me how much they enjoyed the book. Therefore, I decided to buy it. I was pleasantly surprised to see how he took something as basic as "shutter speed" and successfully held my interest for the entire book.

Bryan categorizes the book based on the shutter speed. These range from the speeds that freeze action (1/1000, 1/500, 1/250), to the slower ones that emphasize motion.

The books value is in the use of the slower speeds. There is not much to learn about taking images at the faster speeds that freeze action.

I give credit because he didn't just provide a bunch of pictures of the cliche slow shutter images (i.e., waterfalls and people walking). Instead, he shows you how to allow the moving subjects to paint the picture. My favorites examples are the boats in the water and the fields of grass. In these examples, he shows the typical image taken a faster speeds. Next, he shows how slowing the shutter speed allows the objects to move slightly thus producing very interesting photos.

I've taken photos of flowers in the past. I used to get upset because I couldn't use a fast enough shutter speed when I increased my aperture for greater depth of focus without increasing my ISO. In retrospect, I could've used a slower shutter speed to emphasize the motion and create more colorful images. This only works if one dares to try something different.

In conclusion, Bryan does an excellent job of showing you how to creatively use what you already know.

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Short and to the point

I already own previous titles from this author " Understanding Exposure", "Learning to See Creatively", " Beyond Portraiture" and " Understanding Digital Photography". This book is very similar: it contains great pictures as examples, it contains short text paragraphs that can be read and understood separately and it provides useful tips and examples.

It is unfortunate that some of the pictures are re-used from previous titles. This also happened in his previous titles. I fail to understand why Peterson does this. Being a photographer for so many years, he surely has enough photos available to be able to exemplify without such re-use of material.

Nonetheless, the pictures are AMAZING and worth alone buying the book. The tips are very useful.

I like the style very much and appreciate the fact that the text is short and without useless "filler text".

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Good, but not great

I first bought "Understanding Exposure" from this same author, and felt it was one of the best books I have ever read re: photography. A manual of sorts I still keep nearby. This edition focuses on the sub-point of shutter speed as it relates to exposure.

The Good:
Great color photography with good examples of how varying shutter speeds will affect an image. There are a number of tricks -- like you can shoot action coming directly at you at 1/250, but need 1/500 for lateral or vertical movement.

The Bad:
I felt the book had a lot more fluff than the author's other effort. Some of the images were re-used -- or at least came from the same shoot -- and it had a lot more creative examples which I personally didn't like. It was outside the box a bit in terms of how to use shutter speeds, my complaint is that the results, even if intended, were not desirable.

Overall:
I liked this book, and glad I have it as a supplement to my growing photo library; but, I would not buy this before having his other edition. Shop price on this. I wouldn't overpay. I would give this 3 1/2 stars if Amazon allowed it.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7

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