Book review for:
The Photographer’s Eye – Composition and Design for better digital photos, by Michael Freeman
Verdict: 9/10 – Excellent!

I came across this book over a year ago, and it sat on my shelf gathering dust with a few other photography books that were on my ‘must read’ pile, no matter how much I read this pile never gets smaller…I seem to have a problem not buying every photography book I start flicking through in the local bookstore.

Anyway, eventually I found the time to get stuck into the book, and a few pages in it became evident that it was going to be a good one. On the theme of my last post about creativity, this book certainly helped aid creativity a while back when I was going through a bit of a creative block. It’s not often that you actually find a photography book that ditches the technicality of exposure, techniques and equipment – it’s a refreshing change to find on 100% on pure creativity, literally trying to help you develop an eye for a better photograph.

I think this book is pretty much suitable for anyone really, but I think I would suggest this book to people who know the fundamentals of photography, or people that aren’t really thinking about the tech when out taking photo’s, the people who are actually trying to capture something with better composition and design.

I know it’s difficult when you are starting out with photography, as there is so much technicality to take in before you are in a position where you physically know the right ‘settings’ to be able to get the photograph in your mind.. something that took me a long time to get to grips with. It’s a pretty liberating feeling when you get to the stage when it’s your creativity that is fundamentally getting in your way to getting the photographs you want rather than the technicalities. Obviously you can never know enough about photography, but I very much think that once you have come a certain distance with your technical learning – with and eye for creativity you can really start getting good images consistantly rather than the odd one off.

This book is a refreshing change, every section was as good as the previous, covering simple techniques for basic composition, to much more complicated ideas and theory. All good stuff, I really can’t stress quite how good I found this book.

Chapter One focuses on the ‘Image Frame’ – looking at the aspects of cropping, basic filling of frame, framing, divinsing and general shape of the physical image.
Chapter Two is describing the ‘Design Basics’ – from using contrast and dynamic tension, rhythm, pattern and texture.. all great ideas showing you the possibilities of just a simple image.
Chapter Three discusses the ‘Graphic and photographic elements’ within a picture, such as using diagonal or horizontal lines, eyelines, motion and movement within your picture to portray what you imagine to be happening in the scene.
Chapter Four talks more in depth about ‘Composing with light and colour’ – Looking at chiaroscuro and key, color in composition,, color relationships, muted colours and black and white.
Chapter Five discusses ‘Intent’ – covering such topics as conventional and challenging, documentary or expressive, style and fashion etc.
Chapter Six, the final chapter talks about the ‘Process’, such as searching for order, construction and juxtaposition, post production and anticipation.
The actual imagery used within the book used by Michael Freeman is excellent, he uses some amazing images to describe the ideas and techniques to help aid your creativity, the general layout of the books is extremely good on the eye, and makes for a very easy going read – I can highly recommend this book to anyone and any level of photographic knowledge, I actually wish that every photographer would read it!

You must understand that this book doesn’t talk about EXIF data of any kind, he doesn’t mention the kit he used to take the photos, nor the f stop or ISO, even the camera he used, which in my opinion is pure joy, it really helps you focus in on the creative part of your thought process, in my mind the most important part.

Not often do I rate a book as high as this, I cannot see why I could give this book any less than 9/10 – it is pretty much faultless, a worthy book on the bookcase of the photographer.

To see the book on Amazon please click the link below.
The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos

Thanks,
Chris