The Best Photography How-To Books

It was surprisingly easy to decide what to put on this list. I thought it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the simple reason that we all want to know "how to" do different things. Photography's house is large, and contains many mansions.

I think the reason it was easy is that the list is so short. Make it more than a dozen and the sub-categories begin to get complicated. Beginner or veteran? Color or monochrome? Film or digital? But there are those books that are either so popular, good, admired, or lasting that including them on a short list comes by acclaim. You can of course quibble with individual choices (please).

Obviously there are many specialties and numerous areas in which a technical library could go into much greater depth, but all of these books contain much that any photographer could learn from—even the ones that don't address the kind of photography you happen to be interested in, or practice, right now.

Set-aside
...But first, a title apart: Ctein's Digital Restoration from Start to Finish. This book makes my personal top 12 list, but Ctein (the name is pronounced "kuh-TINE," and it's his whole legal name) is a friend and a long-time collaborator and contributor to The Online Photographer, and including him in the basic list could easily be seen as, if not a conflict of interest, then at least a conflict of objectivity. But in the main, the judgement about the book from TOP readers who've bought it is that its usefulness and interest go well beyond what the title promises.

Humbly submitted, then, here is TOP's list of the top tech titles.

Classic Large Format

1. The Ansel Adams Photo Series: The Camera, The Negative, and The Print, by Ansel Adams and Robert Baker (Little, Brown, 1995). (Best to consider this a matched set instead of three separate books—but you only need these three, and can dispense with auxiliary titles. Note also that I'm not recommending the "Ansel Adams Guides by John P. Shaefer." The correct ones to have are the ones at the links. I understand the covers of those have now changed, to all white.)

Adams's technical writings were developed throughout his lifetime, starting with a rather opaque single volume called Making a Photograph: An Introduction to Photography way back in 1935, proceeding to the Morgan & Morgan volumes kicked off in 1948 that were reprinted numerous times, and culminating in this wonderful set from 1980. A thorough revision, carried out just before the master's death, these were made with the help of many people, including Adams's last assistant, John Sexton, co-author Robert Baker, and Jim Alinder, then the Director of the Friends of Photography in Carmel. Adams was an American institution by the time this project was done, and his publishers, The New York Graphic Society, spared no expense and took painstaking care over these books. Their clarity is admirable, and Adams's generosity, ebullience, experience and deep knowledge come off equally vividly.

The books have now segued (as Adams predicted, in these very pages, that they would) into describing materials and processes that are obsolescent and beginning to become historical. However, my feeling is that no photographer will fail to benefit from this extended encounter with Ansel Adams as teacher.

Recommended for the hardcore techie, meaning, dedicated large-format B&W photographers of a mathematical cast of mind who are not afraid to get into sensitometry—and purchase a densitometer: Beyond the Zone System by Phil Davis (Focal Press, 1998). Considerably more rigorous than Adams and Archer's Zone System.

Basic Digital

2. Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (Peachpit Press, 2009). This might seem like a digital parallel to the above, because it's another three-volume set, but, really, there's nothing in the young field of digital that can remotely match the authority and time-tested seriousness of the Adams titles. Scott Kelby's books are best-sellers and widely enjoyed (he's been the #1 computer-book author for five years running—and I'll always be grateful for an important mention he gave to TOP in Layers magazine during our rather precarious early days). They're easy and fun to read and chock full of info. Big on tips 'n' tricks, they have something for everyone. Just one mild caution, which is not a criticism of the books but an admonition to the reader: the books repeatedly say they're telling you how to do things "like a pro," which is true, but bear in mind that "pro" pictures are generally (I say generally, son, generally) fashionable, competent, standardized, surfacey, and most often anonymous and interchangeable: there's nothing wrong with competence and the ability to get a clear picture when you need to, Lord knows, but a lot of devoted amateurs would rather know how to do things "like an artist" than "like a pro." I'm just sayin'; will go shut up now.

If you already have one or more of the three volumes, you can buy the slipcase separately.

Like Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure that we were discussing the other day, Scott's trio is best suited for beginners and some intermediate photographers. If you no longer fit into those categories but would like a "core" digital text, I suggest waiting for the forthcoming new third edition of Peachpit's Real World Digital Photography by Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan, and Tim Grey, which should be along shortly. It's available for pre-order now.

Concepts and Approaches

3. On Being a Photographer: A Practical Guide by Bill Jay and David Hurn (Lenswork Publishing, 2007). Ominously, this essential book is listed as "out of stock" at the publisher, and has been for some time now, if I'm not mistaken, and there is at least a chance that there are issues over the rights following the recent death of co-author Bill Jay (I am going to miss Bill Jay). If you don't have it yet, better turn over rocks (if not move mountains) to acquire it while you can. Of course, maybe it's just awaiting its next printing. But ya never know. (There is a "DVD Version" listed at Lenswork without much elaboration. Don't know about that, but I'll try to find out.)

The Professional

4. The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets From One of the World's Top Shooters It's gratifying that this book, which has lately been so popular, is so good. Joe McNally, who has the energy typical of pros but is, shall we say, unusually self-effacing and friendly, works at the more glamorous end of the profession, and he's a pretty unusual photographer, working at a high level—that's a pun for those in the know, as he's known for working at high levels, literally—that's a self-portrait, above—but also finding time and funding for a massive personal project making portraits of 9/11 firefighters.

His book gives lots of really practical and genuinely valuable advice, but also gives you a very good window into what it's like to be a top pro today. You probably already have this, as it has been distributed to everyone on the planet able to pronounce the word "camera," but if for any reason you don't....

Light and Lighting

5. Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting By Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, and Paul Fuqua (Focal Press, 2007). Lighting is probably the photographic subject which is least often learned from books. It is, first of all, mainly the province of studio and commercial photographers, who have evolved among themselves a sort of extemporaneous apprenticeship system known, of course, as assisting. In return for working hard for low pay, the assistant learns the tricks of the trade from, as it were, the master of his or her choosing. Other ways of learning lighting might include hand-on classes at technical schools—the Art Center in Los Angeles and R.I.T. have outstanding courses in lighting—or simply through experimentation and the personal experience of trial and error. Among all these ways of gaining knowledge about lighting, books bring up the rear.

This might not be the case if all books on the subject were as intelligent and knowledgeable as Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua's. Their discussions range from "How Photographers Describe Light" and the concept of the family of angles, to specific surfaces and backgrounds and strategies of approaches to picturing different materials such as glass or metal. Our full review, by Geoff Wittig, is here. Geoff says of the book, "it is much easier reading than one would think; the concepts and their application flow so logically and are so clearly explained that it's entertaining rather than a dry slog."

In the category of lighting, two more books deserve mention. The first is our friend Kirk Tuck's great best-seller Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography, a book with a perfect title that is perfectly descriptive of the book's contents. The second is the companion book to The Moment It Clicks, Joe McNally's The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes, which might be thought of as "Strobist in book form." But then, maybe David Hobby will one day write his own book....

Photojournalism

4. Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach, 6th edition by Kenneth Kobré (Focal Press, 2008). This is the book that started me down the road to writing this post, when someone mentioned Professor Kobré's "Lightscoop" flash attachment in the comments the other day. The longtime "bible" of photojournalism and the most-used textbook on the subject. It's been around for years, and it's been years since I've seen it.

Subjects include:

• covering news, features, sports, politics and contemporary issues
• narrative picture stories
• finding features and catching candids
• environmental and interpretive portraits
• recording sound for multimedia and video
• shooting video
• creative use of the strobe
• digital shooting & darkroom techniques
• concept photography & illustrations
• newsroom politics
• picture editing
• shooting within the bounds of the law
• controversial pictures & ethical discussions
• expanded history of photojournalism
• internships and after
• freelancing and business practices.

Nature and Outdoor

7. Landscape Beyond: A Journey into Photography by David Ward (Aurum Press, 2008). Generations of color nature and outdoor photographers got kick-started by two essential books: Galen Rowell's Mountain Light (currently out of print) and John Shaw's original Nature Photographer's Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques of 1984, the cover of which was a white egret on a blue background (a revised, updated version from 2001 is available as John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide). David Ward's book is exemplary among a more recent crop of titles, and reflects the vibrant British nature photography scene. And you've got to love a book the first chapter of which is entitled "Simplicity."

David Ward. Photo courtesy Calumet U.K.

Geoff Wittig reviewed this book for us last year. He said, "Landscape Beyond is David Ward's eloquent, thoughtful exploration of the aesthetic structure of landscape photographs. This is several planes higher than the customary 'rule of thirds, golden hour light' type of discussion. Ward instead delves into perceptual theory, the properties of beauty, and the nature of mystery. The book is illustrated by his photographs, which are quietly breathtaking. They convey an impression of the contemplative beauty to be found in the natural world."

Image Editors

8. Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: a professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC by Martin Evening (Focal Press, 2010). Criticisms that this book is long, thorough, and complicated have always struck me as slightly absurd: Photoshop itself is difficult, complex, and definitely industrial-strength, indisputably the app of choice for imaging professionals. Why buy any book that won't help you master it thoroughly? A simple, dilettante-friendly book about Photoshop would be analogous to a book called "Anybody Can Fly a Fighter Jet—in Six Easy Steps!!!" Yep, tough subject: so is calculus or vascular surgery. You're not going master it from your easy chair with a game on.

The 2010 edition contains a well-received DVD.

Of course, it obviously only makes sense to buy a how-to book about software if it covers a program you use. So, alternately:

...For Aperture: Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 3 by Don Scoppettuolo. I have it on inside authority that this is the book that Apple's Aperture tech support people are trained on. It also includes a well-regarded DVD.

...For LightRoom 3: I don't use LightRoom, and don't know enough about the available books to make a choice. However, TOP reader Bahi Para, who teaches Lightroom, tells me "For Lightroom 3, I'm happy to report that the standard is really high but there are still two that stand out: Kelby and Evening." He notes Kelby's distinctive sense of humor and his talent for conveying a lot of information straightforwardly, and says Evening is for slightly more technically-minded people who might not enjoy Kelby's lighthearted approach.

...for GIMP: Grokking the GIMP online—read it online, download for free, or buy a printed copy. Shouldn't a free program have free documentation?

Optics and Lens Focal Lengths

9. EF Lens Work III: The Eyes of EOS. (Canon, Inc. Lens Product Group, 2008. Currently backordered). This might seem like a throwaway on this list, but not so. What's more important than understanding lenses and focal lengths? My own object of obsession in this category, long ago, was The OM System Lens Handbook, a book I almost memorized. (You can always tell which company is really feeling its oats at any given point in history: it's the one with the book out.) Although this is overtly a catalog of one manufacturer's products, you shouldn't necessarily avoid it for that reason. The discussions and examples of focal lengths and the copious supporting material—much of it excellent, especially the sections on manufacturing and the science of optics—make this a great learning tool for photographers of all stripes. Even ones who shoot Nikon, Pentax, or Olympus! I wouldn't be without it.

EF Lenswork III is also available as a free download in several parts.

Legal Handbook

10. Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making Images, by Bert Krages, Esq. (Amherst, 2006). What, this doesn't fall neatly into the "how-to" category for you? Well, it probably should. Bert Krages is the author of the deservedly famous "The Photographer's Right" page, a single sheet meant to be carried in your camera bag. Legal Handbook for Photographers is similarly succinct (128 no-nonsense pages) and similarly useful. Like it or not, we all deal with legal issues every day (especially these days) and your default shouldn't be ignorance. Not fun, maybe, but essential for any photographer.

An augmentation for photographers beginning in business: Carolyn E. Wright, Esq.'s Photographer's Legal Guide. Carolyn Wright writes the popular Photo Attorney blog.

Camera Raw

11. Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS5 by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe (Peachpit Press, 2010). I've made the case that what I'm about to describe is true of most books, from The Scarlet Letter to The Bush Dyslexicon. : books hit you different at different times of your life and at different stages of development. Certainly it's true of photo-technical books that they're better if they're there for you when you're ready for them. (Similarly, if you've moved beyond them, it becomes almost impossible to read them—it's been a long time since I was able to read a text on basic B&W printing, for instance. I've gotten to the point that I often know what books the authors were reading.)

Anyway, I read the late Bruce Fraser's Camera RAW when Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) was new and Bruce's book was the first one on the market, and it opened up digital photography for me—previously, the headache of setting white balance (WB) for every shot was just an intolerable intrusion into the flow of shooting, and it was that or be frustrated by the camera's often addled guesses (although cameras have gotten better since then). I was ready for it, it was ready for me, and I had something as close to a Socratic experience as you can have with a tech book. Now there are a whole passel of camera raw books—even one "for Dummies." Justified or not, I retain an durable affection for this one, which has been, for several editions now, thoughtfully updated and revised by the imaging polymath Jeff Schewe. Friends don't let friends shoot JPEG.

Okay, that last comment went overboard!

Not a book, but a nice way to learn RAW, especially (but not exclusively) if you use Adobe Lightroom, is Michael Tapes' excellent and expertly made video "RAW Without FUD" ("FUD" means fear, uncertainty, and doubt) from RawWorkflow.com, makers of the WhiBal.

Digital Printing

12. Mastering Digital Printing by Harald Johnson (Course Technology PTR, 2004). Although this is definitely the first book you should have about digital printing, it should almost be called an "everything but how to" book. It covers virtually everything about digital printing except, well, the nuts 'n' bolts of how to actually do it. That might be part of what makes this book so useful and so enduring—it doesn't get caught in the trap of describing a limited set of ephemeral and transitory hardware and software products. You'll probably have to learn how to print online anyway, since everyone has their own combination of camera, software, and printer and the issues are often particular to each. But this is a great backgrounder. It sits on my shelf next to The Printed Picture by Richard Benson and Nash Editions: Photography and the Art of Digital Printing by Garrett White.

Oh, and for the nuts 'n' bolts missing from Harald Johnson's fine book? Try Uwe Steinmuller's Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers, 2nd Edition from Rocky Nook. (I've also sent away for Vincent Oliver's printing DVD, but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't say anything about it.)

There. I was determined to cram The Printed Picture on to this list somehow, even though it's a "what to" book rather than a how-to, and I finagled it.

Hope this list helps. I'd be interested in your contributions and criticisms. Cheers,

Mike
(Thanks to Geoff Wittig and Bahi Para)

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Readers' Suggestions

Suggestions are welcome. Please tell us what you like and why you like it. And please, on the honor system, don't mention anything in which you have any stake or interest.

I won't be able to feature every suggestion, just a few, so be sure to see the comments for more.

Tim McGowan: "Great post, thank you. I've read a lot of photography 'how to's,' and the one book that really helped me with composition is... [Many more reader recommendations past the break —Ed.]

...Freeman Patterson's Photographing the World Around You: A Visual Design Workshop for Film and Digital Photography. This is not a rehash of composition for painters, this book is written by a photographer for photographers. It is 168 pages, and by page 55 you will be composing better photographs."

RichNYC: "I see David duChemin's trilogy as an indirect update for the digital age of Ansel Adams's collection: Within the Frame, VisionMongers, and Vision & Voice. Inspiring and thoughtful.... P.S.: As for myself, any top 10 list of photographic books not listing anything by Galen Rowell will always be incomplete."

Curtis Clegg: "A discipline not mentioned in your list is the business of photography. To that end I would recommend John Harrington's Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition. It's a valuable resource for both emerging and established professionals about making the critical business decisions that can make or break a photography business."

Boyan:"One book that has been immensely helpful to me to understand the artistic principles of good composition is Composition in Art by Henry Poole. The best $10 I have ever spent on photography."

Ctein: "Dear Mike, dunno how it compares to any other books in that field, but since you said you had little to recommend regarding Lightroom, let me toss in Mikkel Aaland's book, Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure."

Joe Reifer: "Lance Keimig's recently released book Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark is destined to become the standard text on shooting via moonlight. I'm also a fan of Peter Krogh's excellent book on digital asset management, The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers (2009)."

Andreas Friedl: "One of my favorites is The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman. A rather practical and approachable introduction to composition (if there is such a thing)."

Ed Buziak: "There's always one essential ingredient missing from 'How-To' books... and that's the fun factor. So I recommend Ted Orland's Scenes of Wonder & Curiosity. He was Ansel's darkroom assistant back in the '70s (19s not 18s!) and he fuels readers with page after page of anecdotal truths about photography both with pithy words and very amusing images. To own his book—which I guarantee will be read from beginning to end—would be a unique learning experience for any photographer with a soul and at least half a brain."

richardplondon: "On composition: in that he concentrates on the visual mechanics of a picture as a picture, Harald Mante is an exemplar of clarity and non-prescriptive even-handedness. His method and analysis cut right to the point, not just of his well-chosen examples, but of our seeing of all pictures."

Victor: "There is one book that I have found to be a serious inspiration to my photography, Pictures on a Page: Photo-Journalism, Graphics and Picture Editing by Harry Evans. It works backwards and makes you think about how you could use the photograph when you are shooting, the effect of this simple and obvious shift in perspective is outstanding and applies equally to online media as print. A serious photographers' must-have!"

Mike replies: A famous book, Victor, but tough to come by.

Will: "I did not see any basic photography books listed. (I may have missed it!) Please let me nominate Kodak Guide to 35mm Photography: Techniques for Better Pictures in my opinion it is the best starter book."

Matthew Miller: "I want to second Andreas Friedl's recommendation of Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye , and add that his other books are also excellent. I've found Mastering Color Digital Photography particularly helpful.

"Unfortunately, the editing from publisher Lark Press is pretty shoddy—this seems to be a problem with everything they put out. The Photographer's Eye is put out by Focal Press (same as Light: Science and Magic) and is much more polished.

"Also, it's a bit weird that the publisher didn't avoid having a title clash with the classic John Szarkowski book."

John Allen: "Two thoughts on this: First, I would put less emphasis on books about Photoshop, which I am more and more thinking is of marginal relevance for photograpers; we need software like Lightroom or Aperture which put the emphasis on managing workflow and collections of images, not on very complex (and sometimes questionable) modifications to individual images.

Second, books on Lightroom: I've enjoyed reading Inside Lightroom 2: The Serious Photographer's Guide to Lightroom Efficiency by Richard Earney (Focal Press, 2009). It gives a good explanation of what can be done within Lightroom to improve an image (the 'develop' stage of the workflow) but it also has a lot to say about how to organise a collection and how to print. Some aspects of Lightroom which were obscure to me, despite using it since version 1, were finally explained by this book."

Andy Ilachinski: "My vote (among those not yet mentioned) is Galen Rowell's Inner Game of Outdoor Photography. A deeper, richer, more inspiring account of what 'participatory photography' is all about—on a technical and very personal level—I have yet to see."

Hermon Joyner: "I think the book that made the most difference to me as far as black and white darkroom practice goes has to be David Vestal's The Art of Black and White Enlarging. It literally changed my life and made me a better photographer. I nearly wore that book out and always kept it in my darkroom for fast and easy reference. It's easier to digest than Ansel's series and always seemed to be more practical and useful. Even though I no longer keep a chemical darkroom, I still would never give up that book."

[Hermon is the author of the beginning textbook Focus on Photography from Davis Publications. —Ed.]

Al Benas: "I have bought and read many books on B&W in the digital world. I found Mastering Digital Black and White: A Photographer's Guide to High Quality Black-and-White Imaging and Printing by Amadou Diallo to be the best. TOP reviewed it some time ago. It contains the best explanation and examples of the effect of blending modes for layers that I have yet encountered. The author also discusses many 'tricks' to enhance and add dimension to photographs. I highly recommend this book."

Robin Dreyer: "I disagree with one thing stated in the Comments section, that On Being a Photographer is only for photojournalists. It's brilliant and qualifies as a 'how to' in my book. Just about the most thoughtful thing I've read about the craft.

"I have found the massive textbook Photography (9th Edition) by Jim Stone, Barbara London, et al., to be an enormously useful broad-based text with the best diagrams, examples, and explanations of basic photographic concepts I've ever seen. It also covers some history and has good profiles of photographers so you get a good sense of different ways to be a photographer. A major selling point is that many of the ideas presented are illustrated by excellent work by great photographers—rather than the more common practice of the whole book being illustrated by photographs made by the author.

"I love to have this book around when I teach—if I get a little stuck explaining something, chances are that this book has it nailed with an explanatory drawing and representative images. The only downside is the price tag—around $100. However it's been through many editions so you can get last year's model for quite a bit less."

Mike replies: The Barbara London book's price—proof that it's frequently used as a textbook!—is the only reason I didn't recommend it.

Raymond Arnaud: "I would recommend two authors. The first is Katrin Eismann, who has published several specialty books for Photoshop, and whose book The Creative Digital Darkroom has to be one of the best written and understandable how-to's for Photoshop. I first encountered her at the Kodak Center for Creative Imaging in Camden, Maine, where the interns praised her as the best Photoshop instructor there.

The other is Dan Margulis. Most of his books are directed to the pre-press world, but his Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace is a mind-opener when it comes to color manipulation. Maybe a bit too specialized for the top ten, but merits being on a side shelf to be ready at hand when you're ready.

Mike replies: The Eismann book has long been my standard recommendation on the subject. However, the last edition was 2008 (and CS3), so it's getting about time for them to hit the refresh button.

Clive Evans: "Good list.

"I have found Seth Resnicks's D65's Lightroom Workbook: Workflow, Not Workslow in Lightroom 3 the best lightroom resource. [I don't know what the story is on this book, but it's not available new from Amazon. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have time to look into it further. —Ed.] It gives a step by step "bulletproof" workflow, even a dummy like me can't go wrong....

"For those who would find a three volume Ansel Adama set too much then may I recommend The Craft of Photography by David Vestal as an admirable one volume substitute?

"I'd like to see you do similar top ten on 'non how to' books."

Mike replies: Clive, The Craft of Photography was the book I learned on. I later enlisted David Vestal to be a regular columnist for Photo Technique (then called Photo Techniques, plural) magazine, a post he still fills as far as I know.

Mike Nelson Peddle: "Freeman Patterson's Photography and the Art of Seeing: A Visual Perception Workshop for Film and Digital Photography changed how I saw the world, and consequently how I make images. While not a book per se, John Paul Caponigro's website has thousands of PDFs on virtually every aspect of creative seeing and photography."

M>B>: "I consider the best large format book to be by Jim Stone....

Jordan: "This is a great list, Mike. I have always really liked the Freeman Patterson books. They are easy to find new or used and quite inexpensive. They focus on the creative process and 'seeing' and are agnostic on equipment/technique. Lately I have also become a big fan of The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman. For darkroom techniques, I love the Eddie Ephraums books, especially Creative Elements. I learned a tremendous amount from that book and it literally changed the way I take pictures."

Comments

[Ben]

The best how-to books I have read have been photographer's memoirs and biographies. I'm thinking specifically of: "Walker Evans" by James Mellow, "Mapplethorpe: A Biography" by Patricia Morrisoe, "Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Londa Gordon, "Brassai: Letters to My Parents"' "The Mind's Eye" by Henri Cartier Bresson and my absolute favorite of all "Memories of a Dog" by Daido Moriyama. Read that last one twice. Read about how these people lived and you will learn so much.

[Chris Klug]

Regarding Ansel's series, I recently attended SIGGRAPH (a computer-centric imaging convention attended by many in the digital film and animation world), and sat in on a talk by a high-ranking expert at SONY Imageworks, about as digital an image-processing shop as you get. During his lecture (which was about digital and film 'looks' he mentioned that the best source of information about image capture and image correction was Ansel's 'The Negative' and that everyone in the room should read it if they had not. You could see a number of the people in the room jotting down the title in their notes. So, it has not quite faded into the category of history quite yet.

[Bill Rogers]

Great choices - especially Light: Science and Magic. This book has been an immense help to me.

[James Bullard]

I'm not sure I'd list "On Being Photographer" but maybe that's because it is aimed at photojournalists and I'm a landscape photographer. In any case I didn't consider it a "practical guide". I see Amazon has used ones for $49 and change. I might sell my copy for $50 too.

[Tom Stermitz]

You list a good selection of "how to" books, but a dearth of "what is photography" and "art of photography" books. Arguably, art is more important than technique...

Upon your recommendation in an old post, I bought "American Photography: A Critical History 1945 to the Present". That book did more to educate me on "what it means to be a photographer" than anything else.

I suggest you do a similar article as this one, recommending books on the artistic aspects. In this vein, I have loved Galen Rowell's "Mountain Light".

[Tregix]

Mike,

You did not mention composition…that the hard part of photography IMHO. The only good book I found on the subject is…in French and almost impossible to find unfortunately. But it is a very good one.

« L’art de la compostion et du cadrade » by Bernard Duc

I understand that your list is dedicated to How To books, but since you mentioned “The printed picture” at the end of the post I will speak about the big big guy, you know, John Szarkowski.

“The photographer’s eye”, “Looking at Photographs” and “Photography until now” are MUST READ BOOKS to me.

Cheers,

Tregix.

[aizan]

what?! no mention of "post exposure" by ctein?

[Dennis]

OK, your readers aren't the typical audience, but the best "how to take pictures" book for non-photographers I've seen is Nick Kelsh's "How to Photograph Your Baby". Great for new parents and probably useful for anyone shooting friends & family with a point & shoot.

Beyond that, I can't say I have any good how to books to recommend. I have a few nature, landscape & wildlife books ... John Shaw's classics (nature and macro) are great introductions.

Allen Rokach and Anne Millman have a series out "The Field Guide to Photographing Gardens/Trees/etc" and they're good. My favorite how to for landscape photography (along the same level as the John Shaw books) is actually "Landscape Photography: A Kodak Guide" by Jeff Wignall 1987. And for birds, "The Art of Bird Photography" by Arthur Morris is excellent.

I haven't really run across much in the way of "how to shoot artistically" type books. The ones I've read have been sorely disappointing. They tend to talk about what makes a good photo as if it's something you can stop and study for five minutes before pressing the shutter rather, with 2 pages dedicated to "diagonal lines" then 2 pages dedicated to "curving lines". Maybe one of those books is helpful for analyzing photos, but I think I'll give up photography before I stop and ask myself "what am I trying to communicate here" each time I press the shutter :) But it does help to know what makes a good picture. The Photographers Eye" is excellent.

The only book on your list (other than the John Shaw mentions) that I have is "On Being A Photographer" and I'd recommend that to anyone ... what an eye opener !

[Rob Atkins]

My bible (or Koran) growing up: The Nikon Image.

[Douglas Urner]

I must say that On Being a Photographer is one of the most useful books I've read. The authors address the hard questions of figuring out where to point the camera and when to press the shutter release. It fascinates me how relevant this books becomes as camera technology improves -- it addresses the questions that the software folks haven't figured out yet :-) I do wish it included the images that they discuss as examples, but you can find most of them online.<./p>

Even though the print version is hard to come by, Lenswork Publishing has a PDF on DVD for about $10 US. A real bargain I think.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I have benefited tremendously from the Ansel Adams basic photo series, and from Light: Science and Magic. I recently got EF Lens Work III, and am not disappointed but have not yet benefited tremendously (give it time) (I shoot Nikon).

So I will look with greater attention at a couple of the others that look of interest, since I seem to be in sync with the ideas behind this list.

I have benefited tremendously from Ctein's restoration book. I'm sure it's been said here before, but let me say again that it's very useful in general, not just for restoration. Useful techniques, and useful ways to think about what you want to achieve.

I found Adams' Examples very very educational. It takes 40 of his photos, and tells us what he can recall of his thought process planning them, taking them, and printing them.

[Bryce Lee, (I am not Asian) in Burlington, Ontario, Canada]

Maybe because I am aging all to0 rapidly due to external forces beyond my control, have found "NO" publication
serves my purpose save the original instruction (once a small booklet now a major tome in length) guide.

Damn difficult to carry a reference publication into the field.

Learned by a hands on process,
from a simple box camera including a Hasselblad all the way to large view cameras. Ditto the processing of the film, printing and prresentation of same.

Books are good if they fulfill a purpose for you! They don't for me.

As for life itself, it is trial and error.

[Nicholas]

Talk about timing! I was planning to order a couple of how-to photo/imaging books this very weekend, and then this post comes along. Fascinating concept, serendipity.

Opportunistically, I have a question: It's not (yet) in your list, but you've previously strongly recommended Bruce Fraser's Real-World Sharpening. Does it still rate as highly in your view? Or do you recommend another title in its place?

[Mike Johnston]

Nicholas,
I still do recommend it, yes.

Mike

[Miguel]

David Ward books are impressive. Not anly "Landscape Beyond", but also the former "Landscape Within".
My comments about both books can be read in Amazon UK

[Koert]

Perhaps for the very philosophical end of things: John Berger: Ways of seeing?

[Lynn Burdekin]

From memory I can recommend Andreas Feininger's Principles of Composition in Photography. It was not prescriptive and had a good selection of interesting examples, with discussion about what worked and why. Unfortunately I lost my copy, and it seems to be long out of print. I also remember his book The Complete Colour Photographer as a worthwhile read.
Another long time favourite of mine is The Ilford Manual of Photography, first published in 1890. I have the sixth edition (April 1971) - it has comprehensive discussions about the nature of light and light sources, image formation, lenses, camera movements, sensitometry, film characteristics, exposure, development and processing, printing, identifying faults in negatives and lots more. A great resource, particularly for film work.
Another recommendation is the Kodak Professional Photoguide, first published in 1977. Printed on heavy duty cardboard, it's a slim volume designed to be carried on location, it even includes a gray card and colour patches.

[Bruce Appelbaum]

Having owned several editions of the Olympus lens books back in the day, I was happy to lay my hands on the Canon lens book as well a few years ago.

For more frugal readers, the Canon book is available for download from

http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/Documents/digital_slr_educational_tools/en/ef_lens_work_iii_en.asp

It is broken up into sections, but is all there.

[Ronny Nilsen]

Great list, I have most of theese books. :-)

Re: Canon EF Lens Work III: The Eyes of EOS.

If you are satisfied to just reading the content, Canon have published the book in PDF format here:

http://www.canon-europe.com/support/documents/digital_slr_educational_tools/en/ef_lens_work_iii_en.asp

I also think I like David Wards first book "The landscape within" even better than the "landscape beyond".

[Jim Richardson]

Mike,
You're right about the OM System Lens Handbook. Many were the nights when I fell asleep in bed lusting after yet another OM system lens. In the end I owned nearly all of them over the years, from the earliest 55mm f1.2 (sucked wide open) to the glorious 180mm f2 (truly stunning and an actual bag lens.) The book included great images and cogent explanations of lens technology. And over the years all of the Olympus brochures and catalogs were some of the most intelligently produced and beautiful to be found. There were indeed feeling their oats.
Jim

[Mark Cotter]

Let me echo or re-enforce that Martin Evening on Lightroom 3 (or 2) is probably the best book for the program. I rate it highly and it sits on the shelf above my Mac with a couple of other reference books.

[Matt Weber]

I like that you placed Adam's books on the top of your list. I realize that digital is the way that most kids will learn photography, but just like you suggested an "M6 and one lens for a year" there is a lot to be learned by going the "Old School" route. Being self taught, I learned almost everything I know from the three books by Adams. Actually, the darkroom book by Ralph Gibson's Lustrum press was a very good and fun book to read. It had great stories of Larry Clark mixing up special concoctions in his darkroom. I would say that book should be on the list, except it's not 1985 anymore...

[Tom O'Neill]

I liked Bryan Peterson's newer book, "Understanding Photography Field Guide". I have been taking photos for 60+ years and I would recommend it to all, especially new photographers.

[Ken Tanaka]

Coming to this late, against my better judgment I'll offer a whiff to this storm.

The computer books in the list may be useful but you'll learn nothing of photography from them. Personally, I've sworn off them a few years ago. Short shelf lives and generally inside-out organizations (i.e. user manuals) made them poor investments in knowledge. They become clutter quickly.

I do recommend Light, Science and Magic but only for someone who's really willing to take the time to study it and try the lessons/experiments. Some will but most won't.

richardplondon's suggestion for Harald Mante's "The Photograph" is a real gem that I loudly second. The compositional/organizational lessons that Mante puts forth in this book are timeless and travel far beyond the mindless "rule of thirds". If you want to buy a book that will be genuinely useful in 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years, as an heirloom to the babies whose pictures you're snapping madly today, this is it.

Not to be a putz, however, but the best books on photography are books of photography. They're also books of photography by people who have taken excursions beyond the conventional pretty pictures and snapshots in long careers. The work of folks such as Barbara Crane, for example, will take you on a decades-long excursion of photographic possibilities.

The best ways to learn photography are to (a) DO IT and, (b) to study work you admire. I salute Mike's list effort but much of it ain't about photography skills or appreciation.

[Doug Brewer]

What? No David Vestal?

[Boyan]

Dennis wrote I think I'll give up photography before I stop and ask myself "what am I trying to communicate here" each time I press the shutter

I have to disagree here. The point is to learn to do this instinctively over time. Without that you run a high risk of a muddled message, unless you have inherent ability (in which case you do not need any of these guides). You don't have to do it each time, but in situations that allow it can be extremely helpful. One useful tip I picked up from Thom Hogan's writing is to try to name each photo before you press the shutter release. This forces you to do just that --- enunciate what the image is about.

[James Bullard]

The book that taught me more than any other (except the Ansel Adams books) was The Amateur Photographer's Handbook by Aaron Sussman. It is old but for me when I was starting out, it was gold.

[robert e]

re Lightroom:

It's not a book, but I have found Adobe's Lightroom 2 online help pages useful and usable. The clean and uncluttered main page includes an explanation of LR's workflow philosophy, which is echoed by the layout of the documentation. The documentation is both searchable and well hyperlinked.

The first chapter explains and links to the various available help resources, which includes many video demonstrations by professional users and instructors.

Beyond addressing specific topics, procedures or cases, most of the videos are also useful for demonstrating LR's workflow paradigm and how individuals customize it for their needs.

The LR 2 page is here:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/2.0/index.html

The LR 3 page is here:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/index.html

LR 3 was recently released and hasn't changed much in terms of design and usability, so at the moment there is some understandable but potentially confusing overlap in the help resources.

[Miguel]

The better "how to book" I have read in the last years in written in Spanish by José Benito Ruiz, an amazing nature photographer from Spain.

The book is "El fotógrafo en la naturaleza".
Here is a link to his personal page.

http://www.josebruiz.com/books.htm

[Robbie Corrigan]

Absolutely fantastic. I have been looking for some books to help me along. I found Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure really helpful in my first 6 months to a year. I went into town this afternoon and found 1 of the Ansel Adams set and have the other 2 on order. Lightroom and the various techniques available to be unleashed within were another sticking point for me, now I have the answer! Thanks V Much

[Richard P]

I don't think any aspiring amateur or profession photographer should go out until he or she has an answer to why they're doing what they're doing which is why Sontag's On Photography should be mandatory reading.

[Christian]

One more reader suggestion:

Practical Composition in Photography by Axel Brück.

It has been invaluable to me, and I refer back to it periodically.

[Jim Metzger]

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the Life Library of Photography. I have seen complete sets at yard sales for $10, a steal even if all you use them for is looking at great reproductions of historically significant photographs.

It is generally my first recommendation to those who want concise and detailed examples of "how" and "why" photography works. The fact that you can break down the process into separate titles, The Camera, The Darkroom, Photojournalism, Color, etc. is even better.

Some of the information may be dated (what, no digital) does not detract from the wealth of information presented.

[erlik]

I don't know whether Kenneth Kobré took the photo on the cover of his book, but it's terrific, marvelous, and so on. That's what decisive moment is all about. Definitely a photo I would like to have on my wall.

BTW, instead of Photoshop for photographers, people can also try a book simply about Photoshop. I skimmed Photoshop CS5: The Missing manual by Lesa Snyder and it looks quite comprehensive. Covers not only Camera RAW, but also all the other features of Photoshop. It's aimed at beginners and advanced users, and from what I saw, it delivers.

[Friedrich]

There is a free electronic version of the Sony Lens Book available at http://www.sony.de/res/attachment/file/94/1193315650394.pdf (German; I don't know whether an english version can be found online). Since it's directly from a Sony server, I assume this is legal.

Likewise, Google may find a PDF version of "on being a photographer". In Germany, used editions cost 90 €, which is a bit much for 96 pages, in my opinion. I don't really assume this to be legal, but for some, there may be no other practical way to obtain the book.

I would very much like something to teach me how to see, how to find great pictures. I'm good enough at technique, but fear I'll never be good as an artist.

[Jan Kusters]

As far as I am concerned, the three books from Ansel Adams are by no means passé. Alright, unless you still work in a wet darkroom, many things have changed in a direct, technical sense. But Mr. Adams explained why he did what he did, and described his experiments leading to his way in detail. While we no longer need to look at him for guidance on developer and paper, we can still learn from how he worked to get at a certain point. Basically, all those small titbits of information in-between his once ‘real’ information have become the basic information. How big should a print be? Common answer back then was negative size, and now would be pixel numbers? But he starts out by attention to perspective and viewing distance… In the beginning of 'the print' he explains how he evaluates his proof prints, using a dimmable lamp. Still works, and perhaps even more important now we do out correction onscreen before seeing a print…

The zone system has been abused massively even back in the wet days, and we are waiting for the hands of a new genius like Adams to come up with a digital -colour?- version. But when producing black and white pictures, it still helps me to pre-visualise the end-result up to a level the lcd on the back of the camera never can. Nothing changed there. I hear massive howling about the dynamic range of digital, but very few seem to realise what the dynamic range of an actual print is...

Greetings, Janneman

[David Paterson]

" "pro" pictures are generally (I say generally, son, generally) fashionable, competent, standardized, surfacey, and most often anonymous and interchangeable"

This is the most appalling predjudice. Surely someone with your knowledge of photography must be able to name - without even trying - 100 professional photographers who are/were also great artists. Just go through the alphabet - Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, Eugene Atget, Richard Avedon . . . and that's in ten seconds from someone with no memory for names. Of course not everyone reaches those heights, but your dismissive attitude insults many thousands of more workaday "pros" whose private work is nevertheless thoughtful and deeply felt.

[Mike Johnston]

David Paterson,
Naming a few exceptions doesn't disprove the rule. Almost all pros have done some exceptional work; just look to their portfolios to see their best. But most pros (the egotists aside) would agree that many of the pictures they do for clients are workaday and prosaic.

If you don't believe that, just ask a few of them.

Mike

[Poagao]

It's funny (or sad, I suppose): Whenever I go to the bookstore, there are shelves and shelves of "how to" photography books, but precious few of actual photography, and even fewer of actually decent photography.

[David Paterson]

Mike Johnston
We judge famous photographers by their famous images, not by their failures or their out-takes, of which - of course - there will be many. Likewise I don't think we should judge professional photographers solely on what they produce for commercial clients; they are being ASKED for the workaday and prosaic, much of the time. Many do such commercial commissions in order to support their private work - Sebastian Salgado springs to mind.

[Mike Johnston]

"they are being ASKED for the workaday and prosaic, much of the time"

...That's what I was saying.

Mike

[Marshall Cant]

Mike: You have more guts than a bucket of fish to publish a "10 Best" list of anything, let alone photography! Good for you. Great read.
I concur on the recent trilogy from David duChemin. Excellent, refreshing, insightful. (His eBook publications are likewise very good).
Thanks again.

[Patrick Dodds]

"And you've got to love a book the first chapter of which is entitled "Simplicity.""

I'm afraid this made me smile, written as it is above a photo of David Ward next to a quarter of a tonne of equipment that he looks as if he is about to lug off on his latest shoot...

Great article though Mike and thanks for all the tips and controversial choices.

[Friedrich]

By the way, I've found the best way to learn a computer program is to start with a video tutorial and discover for yourself from there on. There are a great many free video tutorials on Lightroom - which is a great program, and not hard at all, once you learn how this new category of program is to be used - on the net.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Jim Metzger: It's true, I did learn a lot from the Life Library of Photography, which my parents bought for me when I was first shooting seriously.

I think mine are from when they were first coming out, and the photo reproduction quality in those volumes was very high.

[Dennis]

Boyan wrote:
"Dennis wrote I think I'll give up photography before I stop and ask myself "what am I trying to communicate here" each time I press the shutter

I have to disagree here. The point is to learn to do this instinctively over time. Without that you run a high risk of a muddled message ... (cut) "

The conclusion I've reached, pretty comfortably, after years of amateur photography and lots of reading about photography, is that the only message I want my photographs to carry is "hey, look at what I saw that I found interesting". I've tried making photography about light and I've made boring pictures of pretty light; I've tried making it about lines and made boring pictures of interesting lines. Finally, the words of David Vestal and Jay & Hurn resonated with me. Light & composition are important, but ultimately it's about the subject. And I love Vestal's take on the introspective photographer whose explorations of inner self are of interest to nobody but the photographer !

I'll admit that sometimes it takes a second to figure out what about a scene catches your eye. But talk about what you want to communicate (at least for the pretty straightforward photography I do) seems like a layer of fog over something that should be straightforward. If you mean consider whether you want to freeze or show motion; consider whether you want to isolate the subject or show everything in focus; consider whether you want a silhouette or halo I agree those are things you need to think about and learn to decide quickly. But calling that communication is taking it way too seriously IMO.

I know this is kind of OT, but at least I emphasized a couple of authors ;)

[e_dawg]

One of the best books on learning composition IMHO is: "The Simple Secret to Better Painting", by Greg Albert.

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Secret-Better-Painting-Immediately/dp/1581802560

Don't be put off by the title. Photographs follow the exact same rules of composition as paintings do. It's simple and clear, albeit occasionally repetitive. Nevertheless, it does a great job of taking the many important (and sometimes complicated and hard to visualize) concepts and distills them into a few core principles with an underlying theme: the "simple secret", as it were.

Another strength of the book is the way it illustrates a particular concept in action. For each concept, there is a reference painting that very clearly uses that concept and includes two thumbnail graphics showing correct and incorrect applications of said concept so you can not only see the right way of incorporating said element into your painting / photograph, but how to avoid compositional mistakes, too.

[Ed Hamlin]

Right On, You are definitely on the mark with the series by Adams and Baker. I have the original series and have referred back to them often to refresh and see how to bend in a different way the rules of photography. Great list.