Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Whether you just take snaps on holiday or want your work to appear in a magazine, this comprehensive guide offers tips on equipment, technique and ideas. It is illustrated with example photography.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This fine book provides a thorough, up-to-the-moment overview of virtually all aspects of photography. The author of numerous manuals (e.g., The Photographer's Handbook), Hedgecoe begins by defining the camera itself and offering excellent advice on selecting equipment. He then discusses the key elements of photography, including lenses and films, along with the basic techniques of focusing, shutter speeds, and depth of field. He provides helpful suggestions regarding the essence of good photography-light and composition-and devotes a separate chapter to color photography. He concludes by covering the most popular kinds of photographs, including portraiture, landscapes, nature, and sports. Separate chapters describe setting up a studio and working in specialized photography, such as underwater photography and astrophotography. Hedgecoe also deals with the elements of post-production for both the traditional darkroom and digital photography. The text is clear and accessible, every page is generously illustrated, and a substantial glossary and useful index are included. One of the very best comprehensive guides available, this work belongs in all core photography collections in public and academic libraries.-Raymond Bial, First Light Photography, Urbana, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Since the 1970s, Hedgecoe has written dozens of handbooks, workbooks, guides, and manuals on photography and video. DK Publishers has, over the past decade or so, built an international publishing empire by providing, as they state in their publicity, "high quality, innovative books to enrich your lifestyle" through "pioneering a distinctive, highly visual style in its books for adults and children...." This style is based on the use of the double-page spread as both the visual and conceptual frame for their book's content. This frame is flooded with colorful photographs or graphics, each accompanied with brief text blocks of information. The following double-page spread may be related to the first, but usually has its own conceptual unity, thus providing readers with a string of allied but distinctive bits of visual and factual information. It is television frozen onto the page. Or, for the historically minded, Henry Booth Luce's pioneering concepts in Time brought into the 21st century. The marriage of Hedgecoe's latest guide to the DK Publisher style works well. The book, filled with information and flooded with colorful images, is attractive and useful to anyone new to photography. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public, community, and undergraduate college libraries; all levels of readers. W. S. Johnson SUNY College at Brockport