John Shaw's Landscape Photography: Amazon.ca: John Shaw: Books

Product Description

From grand vistas to intimate woodland glades, landscapes are favorite photography subjects. Too often, however, photographer's visual experiences of the majestic outdoors aren't reflected in the pictures they make. Why? Because many people overlook the importance of good technique, believing that exotic locations and expensive lenses create fantastic pictures. As John Shaw, the famous nature photographer and best-selling author, demonstrates in this definitive book, expertise as a landscape photographer comes from mastering techniques and developing a personal response to nature, not from having a large budget for travel and equipement.

John Shaw's Landscape Photography teaches that producing good photographs means learning how to control the tools of photography: camera equipement, lenses, film, light, and exposure. The goal Shaw proposesis to make technical proficiency second nature, so that it doesn't intrude when it is time to compose great pictures. With lessons fully illustrated by 195 color photographs, including many before-and-after sequences, this beautiful book also covers all the basics of photographic design and composition that characterize brillian portraits of the landscape.

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An acclaimed nature photographer teaches that producing good photos means knowing how to control the tools of photography: camera equipment, lenses, film, light, and exposure. This guide covers the basics of photography and discusses the common problems and solutions in landscape work. 190 full-color illustrations.

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Customer Reviews

33 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars For beginners, but then ..., Dec 1 2000

By

Ricardo Navarro Sanz (Barcelonne, Espagne) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Shaw's Landscape Photography (Paperback)

The book reasonably covers most of the ground relevant to landscape photography, is acceptably written, well presented and nicely illustrated. On the other hand, Mr. Shaw spends pages for introductions that could be condensed in paragraphs, which can make the book more readable to some, or get on your nerves while you wait him to get down to what you bought the book for, i.e. the relevant techniques stripped down and discussed clearly and thoroughly. And when he finally seems to get there, more often than not he just skims the surface, this time in a few paragraphs where you would expect to see pages. So the book offers lots of words for little substance, it is often shallow and incomplete even for a basic-level text (e.g. fancy discussing exposure of high-contrast scenes on slide film without a single word about bracketing?), could be better structured, more to-the-point and systematic for a manual, and it certainly adds nothing new.

Plenty of nice pictures, yes, some great; that is, if you like Fuji Velvia's garish colours, which plague the book. You can pick some ideas from them, but in this kind of book you judge pictures for their illustrative value rather than their beauty: what you want to see is different alternatives compared for each technical issue discussed, which is often limited or lacking in the book, and be given full technical details of each shot, whereas here you are left even without the exposure settings.

All the same, useful book if you do not know about basic exposure, what hyperfocal focusing is, what a polarizing filter does, when to use a tripod, the basic characteristics of various focal lengths, the basic effects of different lighting, basic composition, basic ..., etc. But then what you need is a general photography handbook, such as Michael Langford's, which through a both more thorough and concise coverage of these and other topics is more likely to improve your technique overall, including for landscape photography. If you are beyond that level, do save your money and look somewhere else.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A good overview of landscape photography, Jun 13 2004

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Richard Drdul (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Shaw's Landscape Photography (Paperback)

There are a lot of other photography books out there with the same general content as this book -- an overview of photographic techniques, equipment and the creative process as they relate to landscape photography. Although it is not an outstanding book, it is better than average, primarily because of the clear, direct way in which John Shaw writes, and the practical advice which he provides.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent text, Aug 21 2003

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Gerald Davis "Gerald Davis" (Melbourne, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Shaw's Landscape Photography (Paperback)

THis book takes the mystery out of landscape photography. The techinal aspects are simply explained and illustrated in many cases which allows the artist at it were in you to be released. Very thoughtful and insightful a must for anyone interested in landscape and even travel photography.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars John shaws Landscape Photography
This book give precise and thoughtfull insites on both the technical and creative methods used to produce superior landscapes. There are numerous excellent examples. Read more

Published on July 9 2003 by Russell J. Christie

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring!
a great book, u get a lot of ideas from the photos in this book.

Published on Sep 21 2002 by A reader from Asia