Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When I read that there was a book on photographic composition available I immediatly ordered it. I teach photography and have been loaning out of print books to my students for years. I was hoping this book would serve instead. It will not. Anyone interested in the subject should hunt for the following books: "Photographic Composition" by Ben Clements and David Rosenfeld. This only covers Black and White photography. "Image - designing effective pictures" by Michael Freeman has the best explanation of colour theory for non-techies I have ever seen - were it in print I would give it 5 stars. In the current book, Mr. Wildi's approach is overly simplistic, with important areas ignored, or given such a cursory glance one wonders if he wasn't required to add chapters at the insistance of an editor. The one page explanation of colour theory and relationships is a prime example. His best advice on the subject; go to a paint store and get a few booklets from a paint manufacturer, as they usually have some good examples of colour harmony and were created by people with an understanding of colour. Only a couple chapters of this book actually deal with composition, and they mainly repeat common inanities like the Rule of Thirds - you can get this dog eared advice from any Kodak booklet. Wildi even manages to tell the reader to avoid putting the horizon in the center of the photograph about 5 times. After explaining several times that when a tree is the main subject of a photograph it should be shown from the ground to the top (I didn't make this up), the following page has an example, which shows neither ground nor treetop. The example, while basically a picture postcard, is better than the advice. Many of the short snippets of advice in the book are sound. But it is all material a beginner could derive from any book on basic photography. One of the multitude of titles by John Hedgecoe would serve better, as they all go into considerably more detail and are better organized. A good deal of the space in this thin book with large type, is devoted to repeating what seems to be a mantra - Square format is best, because it can be cropped either vertical or horizontal. All very well and good I suppose, but the obvious audience for this book owns neither a Brownie 620 nor a Hasselblad. Composition, is not a black art. It can be taught - just like any other subject in the commercial or fine arts. Books like this one, which leave the reader scratching his head, only serve to make it seem like incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo. If you wish to learn composition, either find the books I recommend at the beginning of this article, or one of the many on graphic design, composition for landscape artists, etc. This book adds nothing to the available information.