Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography (Updated Edition)

Learning to be a photographer is about more than focusing and exposure. One of the most important and difficult things is learning what to take a picture of, and then designing an image that expresses something about its subject. Many authors of photography books talk about teaching the photographer to see. I think of that as being the process of selecting a subject and then deciding how it should look to capture the photographer's vision of it. Bryan Patterson promises to teach that in the revised edition of "Learning to See Creatively". Unfortunately, he doesn't keep his promise.It's not that this is a poor book. The author talks about the elements of photographic design like line, shape, form, texture, pattern and color. Unfortunately he doesn't link these elements to the photographer's vision. It's as if one knew nothing about tools, had a plumbing problem, and was presented with a wrench. It would be nice to be told how to use the wrench to solve the problem. If you know how to relate the tools to the problem, you don't need this book.He also talks about composition and guidelines like the rule of thirds, or frame within a frame. But even here, he doesn't make the connection to vision. Even the chapter called "Expanding Your Vision" turns out to be a discussion of the characteristics of lenses of different focal lengths.There are chapters on digital photography and photographic careers but they look like they were added on to the work because somebody thought that was what would help the book sell.Peterson's photographs are good. When he explains why he made the design and composition choices for a particular picture you can see some relationship of technique to vision. It's also interesting to occasionally see a comparison of the same subject handled two different ways. But unfortunately the author doesn't take the opportunity to relate similar pictures to photographic vision.This might be a good enough book for the intermediate photographer who isn't really ready to work on his or her vision, although I much prefer Brenda Tharp's "Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography" which covers the same ground in a more concise way.One might think that you can't teach someone to see creatively. That may be true, but Freeman Patterson's old standby, "Photography & the art of seeing" comes a lot closer than this volume. And books like those by Galen Rowell or Tony Sweet do a much better job of relating technique to the visions of their authors.

As with other Bryan Peterson books, "Learning to See Creatively" is a well written, easy-to-read book aimed at beginner/novice photographers. In this book, you will learn about the basics of composition and visual design and leave you with new ideas to apply to your own images. Note: if you have read other books by Peterson, you may notice some recycling of material (although if you liked those books, you're likely to enjoy this one as well).This book starts off with a basic discussion of the characteristics of various lenses. There's a short description of how each lens type behaves followed by a few examples photographs used for illustration. The style/method of presentation in this topic is repeated throughout this book. The main text is clear and informative (focusing on just the basics) and there is a small selection of example photographs for each topic. Each photograph has a short sidebar accompanying it. These sidebars have a bit of a tendency to contain more text about the thing being photograph, rather than focusing on the relevance of that photograph to the subject. This may be a bit distracting, but not entirely unwelcome.The next three chapters deal with 'core' compositional topics. You'll learn about elements of visual design (lines, shapes, etc), followed by basic ideas like the "rule of thirds" and "frame within a frame". A short discussion about the different characteristics about light closes out this section. Although there was not a lot of depth in these topics, there was enough material to be engaging for the beginning photographer.To wrap up the book, there's a short chapter about digital photography, although the material is dated and particularly shallow. A chapter on 'career considerations' is last, and I found it surprising to see this chapter in a book clearly meant for beginners. Like the previous chapter, there's not a lot that would be useful here for either beginners or seasoned photographers.Overall, this book is a good choice for someone who has just learned the basic technical aspects of photography, and is searching for ways to augment that information to take better photographs. While you won't find a lot of depth in each topic, the level of detail is appropriate for the audience, and the material presented serves as a good foundation for further study. Recommended.

I always struggle with photography as my mind visualizes a photo I would like to take but my limited knowledge of the physics of light does not allow me to accomplish what I want to do. For the longest time I did what I am sure many others did, they took lots of pictures by trial and error. Even when I had success I was never sure why. I definitely could not recreate that success or explain to someone why it happened the way it did. Finally this year I decided to do something about it and try to learn what makes a good photograph. I have purchased several books on lighting and exposure and I am getting a better grasp on how they interact. But the technical side was only part of the equation I also wanted to open up my creative side. Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography by Bryan Peterson is helping me to delve into this more seriously. His writing style and examples have helped me to think more as an artist and less as someone who merely points and shoots. What I have noticed is that after reading this book I look at things differently and I appreciate the beauty around me more than I did when I was focused strictly on the science of taking pictures. Finally I am starting to understand what my style is and I can develop that creatively. If you find yourself wanting to go a different direction with your photos and not sure what the first step should be, I suggest picking up this book and hopefully you too will begin to see interesting and beautiful subjects for your photos that give depth and dimension to your pictures.

This book has a lot of good information with good techniques and photos that are really inspirational and I found it helped me pick out better images already after reading it just once. If you can't get anything from this book at any level of skill or experience, then you obviously chose the wrong hobby.On the other side, I did feel that some of the photos were good but looked dated and while I was really inspired by the authors film photography, I thought the slight foray into digital techniques was unnecessary and couldnt be covered in enough detail in the space available.All in all, a good read and great for mining ideas.

I had previously read the authors Understanding exposure, and have read Some of Scott Kelbys photoshop books but this was a Natural follow up to Understanding exposure.It succeeds in helping you see things that are there but one simply can not seeThe result is that one can make existing good photos look better or even great and take more than one of the same photo and later on come up with really eye-catching imagesThe equal amount of text and very instructive ( and illustrative pictures makes it a gem to have around and look at from time to time to keep the inspiration flowing

Easy read.The amateur should be happy with content and get an appreciation of the subjects.Digital section is somewhat lacking but then its about picture content etc. and not the picture taking device.I'm happy with my purchase.Delivery was prompt.

Gives you food for thought. Great suggestions on how to look at scenes differently and not be afraid to try something new.

Excellent in all respects. I would highly recommend this book to any beginner of photography. It contains advice on all they need to know to get started.