Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition)

1) Principles of "correct" exposure, a term that is highly debatable. Learnt the basic principles of
a) Shutter speed
b) Aperture
c) Film
Learnt how to expose for a starting aperture and then from that point on, he guides you to explore different settings to achieve specific results. Along with these techniques, you will learn a little about
i) Light meters
ii) Quality of light (sidelighting, backlighting etc)
iii) Depth of field
iv) Close-ups

v) Freezing the action, blurring the subject, panning, implying motion
vi) Print v/s slides etc.

3) The book rarely lays out rules. He stresses out the importance of trying out different styles and techniques and one can see from the 147 beautiful and stunning pictures, the variety of shots that one can try. For each of his pictures, he gives out a brief introduction regarding time of day, location etc, followed by important technical details like the shutter speed used, aperture used, film speed, focal length etc. I find myself, sometimes, just flipping through the pages, and trying to estimate the shutter speed,aperture and focal length used , just by looking at the picture and not looking at the text and after the estimate, comparing my estimate with the one actually used. I find this habit really useful, because the next time I see a sunset, snowfall, or waterfall, I instantly have in my mind the shutter speed, aperture etc, to begin with. Just the fact that you actually know what you are doing when you operate the camera, give you so much more confidence.

4) Amazing consistency in technique. Pretty much for every photograph in the book (147 of them, in all), he begins by taking an accurate starting exposure. In fact, I now feel, that this technique alone, has improved my photographs a great deal . Then he explains the reason behind each (shutter speed + aperture) combination. I have found this consistency missing in other books that I have read (around 15 books now). Other books, that I have read, tend to approach each scenario (like a sunrise, sunset, cloudy weather, bright sunlight, indoor scenes etc) as a separate technique, which is kind of confusing. The result of this consistency is that, you would be quite confident while approaching different subjects that you see in daily life.

Just to be complete in this review, besides the three fundamental elements (shutter speed, aperture and film), he explains
a) Tungsten balanced film
b) Pushing and pulling film
c) Multiple exposure and deliberate under and over exposures
d) Bracketing
e) Small section on filters

I think this book belongs in every aspiring photographer's collection.

Finally, a list of the few areas that this book does NOT address (but which can be found in other books) are:

1) Equipment details like
a) how an SLR works and functions
b) different kinds of lenses available(zoom, macros,standard etc) and their working
c) brand comparisons (like canon v/s nikon) etc. though he does compare brands of slide and print film.

2) Darkroom techniques - developing your own negatives etc.

3) Black and white photography techniques

4) Digital photography comparisons/techniques.

5) Creative techniques (rules!) that will be found in most books like golden mean, rule of the thirds, framing, crosslines etc. But this is fully justified, with what I mentioned earlier, that there are no "rules" laid out. This book is more about shooting from the heart rather than mind.


If it's not 5 stars, don't read.....   March 24, 1999
71 out of 73 found this review helpful

I really liked this book and here's why...I respect other poster's comments (1 star) but, I wanted to say why the book is good....

The author talks about how light affects the camera's lighting system...too much light causes the camera to force an underexposure, too little light causes over exposure. This is especially important when shooting sunsets or snow covered areas.

The author talks about light reflecting off of different colors, how much light is reflected off of white, and how much light is reflected off of black, and what the average is. This is cool information when shooting pictures of people who are wearing predominantly light colors, or dark colors and how to adjust for that.

The author talks about different ways to meter, especially when trying to accomplish silhouetts, or back lit subjects. Cool stuff to know.

He talks about the effect of film speed on meter readings....is this not good information to know? I think so.

Another cool thing, he talks about the quality of light and how the differences cause different colors, cool colors, harsh colors and how those colors affect the print....this is important stuff to know.

He talks about overcast conditions and frontlighting, sidelighting, backlighting, accomplishing silhouetts...I mean....this is totally cool.

He even talks about contrasty conditions. He even instructs you how to evaluate your pictures and come up with zingers.

He talks about aperture and depth of field...what it is and how to accomplish different depth of field shots.

You know, I'm not going to tell you about the whole book, but, let me tell you something...when I read this book, I was excited. Now, I'm not a professional photographer, but, some of the things Perterson tells you really motivated me. My idea of just shooting pictures doesn't run through my head...I'm constantly wondering about shutter speed, aperture, and so forth. In his book he indicates that after a while, you begin to know what kind of results you're going to get if you shoot a certain way.

I used to just point, wait for focus, and shoot. But you know what? All I got was a picture, really not creativity in it like depth of field or motion. First, I really didn't understand it, and second, I just thought about taking a picture. Recently, I was on vacation with my wife and we were on the way to Tombstone. At a rest stop, I took my camera out and was thinking "depth of field". I saw this sparrow sitting on a limb and decided to apply depth of field...when I got the picture back, holy mackerel, here is this little sparrow completely in focus and everything else out of focus....there was no doubt that the bird was the subject...it was cool....I couldn't have done that intentionally without knowing how to. I also took some of my wife...she has beautiful blue eyes and red hair. I used depth of field to allow the background sky and mountains for a backdrop, limited depth of field...I coudn't believe it...when I got the pictures back, my wife....holy mackerel...she stood out and it was awesome...again, thanks to the book, I couldn't have done it.

Peterson also talks about zingers, which is a picture that you REALLY like because of the creativeness you created by using creative exposure, I have this album that has about 18 zingers...all because I applied what Peterson was teaching.

I have a totally different outlook on how I take pictures now. I try and be creative as much as I can.

I couldn't wait to try out the process of taking a picture of the sunset by not aiming directly at the sun....try it....meter your camera at the sun and take the picture...no doubt your picture will come out dark, now try the same shot but meter to the side of the sun (eliminating the sun completely) or down, like into the ground....you will get a picture that has the sun bright as can be....it's totally amazing what you can learn from this book....I used to aim the camera at the moon when it was full and bright as can be...when I got the pictures back, yuck, they were muddy....I couldn't figure it out, but, when reading the book, I understood why....the bright moon was causing the camera to expose for less time causing a severe underexposure....however, aim the camera to the right of the moon, eliminating it, and you are actually metering for the lit sky, not the moon, then bring the moon into the frame and shoot, the camera will shoot at the metered skie's requirements...I couldn't have done it without knowing about it and I learned from Peterson's book...

You could of course get a different book, but, I liked this one because he gives you samples of his own pictures (real life pictures), ones that you can say to yourself, "yeah, I've been trying to do that myself" and be able to accomplish it yourself. I've looked at other books too, and yes, they have somewhat the same principle, but, they were also more technical and you know what - - - Peterson's book won over all of them.

This book has motivated me to do the following:

buy a gray card - - - why? Because of what Peterson tells you about light reflection.

apply the Zinger method - - - why? I'm able to pick certain pictures that REALLY STAND OUT because of my creative approach.

apply depth of field - - - why? It gives me the opportunity to really bring out features of an exposure and bring attention...

apply motion - - - why? It gives me the opportunity to combine motion with depth of field and so forth.

Sunsets - - - how to take pictures of them and what the results are when you take pictures of the sun from different angles.

Night shots - - - how to take pictures at night and what the results are when you meter differently.

Samples and how the samples were exposed....Every picture after page 9 or so tells you exactly how to shoot that kind of picture and why the picture was shot the way it was...I just apply that to my every day picture taking...

Motivated me to take more creative pictures...

Teaches you about bracketing exposure, double exposure, and samples of each.

Talks a little about filters...and frankly, I like the idea of natural lighting because I really don't like the idea of having to go out and spend a lot of money on lighting equipment.

It's a simple no brainer approach to getting a basic approach on exposure.

It's an awesome book, and, I've highlighted all throughout those things that seem important to me, and I've gone through 3 highlight pens.

I use the book as a guide, almost like a textbook. I haven't gotten to the point of "hmmm, I want to do more, this book doesn't do it for me"

It's a great book for more than just basic film shooting.

It's just an awesome book, and Peterson, if you read this, You've really helped me out. Thanks...


Buy this book!   December 27, 1999
Soozie (Kihei, Hawaii)
55 out of 57 found this review helpful

I bought this book by accident on vacation two years ago. I have read it cover to cover six times since then, and every read is a revelation. For those who did not appreciate it, all I can say is for some a book like this is a key to understanding, and for others, a waste of time. For me it has been the key, and kept me going in photography, when I had lost hope trying to grasp the same concepts in other books. I have now read all of Peterson's books, but this is by far the standout. It is not heavy on precise technique, but explains exposure in a way that makes it accessible, so you can graduate to more technical guides, or simply work it out on your own. There are certainly more technical volumes, but this one conveys simple as well as advanced concepts in a simple, comprehensible way. Excellent!