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

By Bryan Peterson

 

Product Description

 

The first book in the Understanding Photography series, Understanding Exposure, was a runaway best-seller, with more than 250,000 copies sold. Now author Bryan Peterson brings his signature style to another important photography topic: shutter speed. With clear, jargon-free explanations of terms and techniques, plus compelling “before-and-after” photos that pair a mediocre image (created using the wrong shutter speed) with a great image (created using the right shutter speed), this is the definitive practical guide to mastering an often-confusing subject. Topics include freezing and implying motion, panning, zooming, exposure, Bogen Super Clamps, and rendering motion effects with Photoshop, all with helpful guidance for both digital and film formats. Great for beginners and serious amateurs, Understanding Shutter Speed is the definitive handy guide to mastering shutter speed for superb results.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #585 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Released on: 2008-04-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Bryan Peterson, a professional photographer, is the author of Understanding Exposure, Beyond Portraiture, Learning to See Creatively, and Understanding Digital Photography. A well-known instructor, he is the founder of the online school The Perfect Picture School of Photography (www.ppsop.com). He lives in Chicago.

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Customer Reviews

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.
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.  

Celebrate Your Creative Self

Celebrate Your Creative Self
By Mary Todd Beam

Product Description

Artists and creatives of all kinds who are looking for new ways to liberate their artistic imagination will love this book. Readers are invited to playfully explore various aspects of visual art, such as light, color, texture and design through a series of imaginative art projects. Artists will experiment hands-on with dozens of techniques and mediums in new and unconventional ways including: * Capturing whites with crayon and wax resist * Glazing and floating colors * Portraying the patterns of nature with sedimentation and precipitation * Loosening up with gesso painting and printing with plastic * Constructing a new piece of art from old work * Experimenting with three-dimensional assemblage * Creating a street map In addition, artists are prompted to challenge their imaginations by building new painting surfaces, creating their own personal symbols and more. Further inspiration can be found in a gallery of work by more than 30 contributing artists. Celebrate Your Creative Self is a fun, no-fail guide every artist should have.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60473 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 128 pages

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Mary Todd Beam is one of the best-known workshop instructors in the realm of artistic creativity. She has been giving workshops all over the country for a number of years and is an award-winning artist. She divides her time between Cambridge, Ohio and Cosby, Tennessee.

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Customer Reviews

Celebrate your Creative Self: over 25 Dxercises to Unleash the Artist Within
Celebrate Your Creative Self: Over 25 Exercises to Unleash the Artist Within
Have not had time to use a lot of the activities, but there seems to be some really creative acitivies that interest me.

Idea Starter
I really like this book. I own it and have given it as a gift to many of my artist friends and students. It has great idea starters that are open ended enough to allow for creative license. I also really like the spiral binding that allows the book to lay flat while refering to some of the techniques.

great book!
It was a very inspiring book. Lot’s of great photos of artist work. I am an oil painter and still found it helpful and inspiring.

Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life

Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life
By Robert Fritz

A revolutionary program for creating anything, from a functional kitchen to a computer program, to a work of art, Robert Fritz demonstrates that any of us has the innate power to create. Discover the steps of creating; the importance of creating what you truly love, how to focus on the creative process to move from where you are to where you want to be, and much more.

 

 

Customer Reviews

What do I want?
This is an excellent book. The author logically and intuitively guides any “thinking” reader through a new view of human circumstances and opens a door to creating one’s reality rather than being stuck with only problem solving. I am an artist and a spiritual student and this book is a revelation on breaking bonds and choosing to live creatively.

Create new structures and change your life
“The greatest leaders and statesmen in history have not been problem solvers. They have been builders. They have been creators.” ~ Robert Fritz from “The Path of Least Resistance”

The theme of Robert Fritz’ brilliant book, “The Path of Least Resistance” can be summed up in three words: “Structure determines behavior.”

Like you, before reading the book I had no idea what the heck that meant. Nor did I have any idea what “structural conflict” vs. “structural tension” was all about–let alone why creating structural tension is the core attribute of creative genius.

As you gain an understanding of how structure determines behavior, you’ll also gain a sense for why Fritz believes affirmations and willpower and all that other “positive thinking” stuff will never give you sustainable creative powers.

For that? We need a whole new structure. And that’s what Fritz great book helps us create.

You can create the life experience you desire… if you define it.
Upon first glance you might think that this book is just another typical self-help book, but it is actually much more than that. You might think that what the author discusses, that you need to determine what you want and decide upon the steps is overly simplistic, and you might be oversimplifying it.

Fritz is first and foremost and artist. He is a musician and composer and his work deals with his analysis of structures, which are often hidden from plain view. Why do you do the things you do? It is often because you are moving along the easiest path, one which you or others may have constructed for yourself, but not necessarily one you would have thought about.

You can think of it this way. If you are like most people, it takes 20 – 30 days to form a new habit. At first it is easier for you to stay where you are, and it will take effort to overcome the resistance. However if your goal, desire, etc. is to achieve the result, then you will shift your internal structure to where it is easier to do the steps to achieve the goal.

Like a recipe however, if you are not clear on the steps or the results, you may wander off track. You really need to focus on the outcome you are trying to create.

This is the essence of the artistic process, the one that professional creators use to achieve their results. This process can be learned and put in place to achieve whatever outcomes you desire.

The catch is, more often than not once you start achieving, you may slack off and fall back into your old structural pattern.

A worthwhile read. I re-read my copy at least once a year and each time I find new insights as I have grown since my last reading.

Highly recommended for you.

Cheers!