"The Photographer's Eye"

I was given the book  [Author - Michael Freeman  Published by Ilex Press Ltd 2007] as a birthday present. Again I wish that I had seen the book before setting out on "The Art of Photography". Given that my work is due for Assessment this month I have mixed feelings about having all the concepts raised, discussed and tried throughout the Course explained in full detail.

I cannot decide whether I found the content of the book so much easier to read and understand because I had struggled to get my head around the ideas during the Course or whether there is a great deal more clarity and information in the book. Probably its a combination of both. Whatever the reason I feel much more confident in applying the suggestions and advice in my photography.

It is not my intention to precis the book I can only recommend that others get hold of a copy. One of the things that did raise a question in my mind is a comment on 'cropping (pp20-21). To quote: "Unlike stitching, however, it [cropping] reduces the size of the image, so demands a high resolution to begin with. I don't understand why. Cropping, of itself, does not affect the resolution of an image. It is only if there is further manipulation would the resolution be affected. I suppose if you cropped the image significantly and then wished to produce a large size print that problems may arise but it would have to be a large change.

In the Chapter on post production there is a discussion on the ethical questions raised by our access to the latest software. Whilst personally I think we worry far too much about ethics (it only arises if we set out to deliberately deceive someone) there is an interesting example given of where some 'cheating' in post production may or may not have happened. The photograph in question is of some Roman ruins at Ephesus in Turkey. Here the author wanted a picture clear of tourists. He tackled this problem by taking a number of shots, stacked them as layers and then selectively erased the unwanted areas. I have never done this but presume it is demanding and time consuming which would be enough to put me off doing the work so any ethical questions would not arise. However in Photoshop CS5 Extended there is now the opportunity for median rendering that makes life so much easier and therefore very tempting. As I learnt of this technique in the book "The Ultimate Workshop' [Martin Evening & Jeff Schewe  Focal Press 2011] I would be in breach of copyright to explain in full how it works so I suggest you borrow or buy the book.

You have probably worked out that I spend a lot of my time reading about the subject matter and have a reasonable library. Obviously nothing beats going out and actually taking photographs because that is the only real way to make progress. However knowing of other peoples approaches and the techniques developed by others to meet specific problems is of great help. I am not into re-inventing the wheel! Fortunately I have the sort of mind that remembers that I have read something even if I cannot recall the details and the most likely place I read it. Thus I can pull the book or article off the shelve and refresh my memory.