Mastering Composition: The Definitive Guide for Photographers

The book is well laid out, with well-chosen photos used as examples for his topics. I normally get bored reading photography books because it’s more of a person saying how they did whatever they did this specific time for this specific thing. I know that serves a lot of people well, but for me it’s sooo specific that it’s easy to lose attention for it. This book is general enough to be immediately useful, but not so general that it’s low value. I just highly recommend this. I’ve been making photos from intuition and was somewhat worried that becoming too versed in the mechanics might take away the intuition or “Magic.” But now that I’ve been learning the “why” behind photo construction, I’m one hundred percent thankful for this book and don’t feel like it took away ANY of that natural creativity or vision away; it gave me more ways to be creative.

I have an inflexible rule. Don't buy composition books. Edward Weston said, "Composition is the strongest way of seeing." My way of seeing may not coincide with your way of seeing. In other words, an image, whether it be a painting, a drawing, or a photograph, that pleases or interests me in some way is the best composition of that image and that subject., for me whether I made that image or not. Now this book. If you have any interest in becoming a better image maker, you need this book. It doesn't give you data, (f-stop, exposure, etc.) but beautiful images illustrating a rule or concept that the author has presented. Besides snippets of historical, scientific or art information that are interesting in themselves. Such as the origin of the Rule of Thirds. He discusses the Fibonacci sequence and golden ratios, golden spirals and other visual impacts. Read the other reviews. I am at a loss as to why anyone would give this book a negative review.. One reviewer said none of the images gave him a "wow". Well, this is not a picture book. Every image illustrates a concept or principle or rule discussed in the text.

I'm new to photography and was told by a number of friends who do it for a living that the best thing I could do to improve my skills on a budget was read as much about the subject as possible. This is probably the 8-9th photography book I've read since December 2015. It's very in depth and informative. The example pictures are wonderful and help drive the talking points home. Some of it is honestly a little over my head but that's not anything against the author. It's just something I'm going to have to go back and re-read after I've put some of the lessons into practice. I highly recommend for anyone who feels their pictures would benefit from better composition.

For those of you that wants to know what it takes to be a renown photographer you have to understand the psychology of how people see. If you have taken a class in "Intro to Psychology" you will enjoy this book. The author breaks it down to simple terms on how this is achieved. I learn a lot about composition from this book that I didn't take into consideration before. Like neutral space and balance in a photo. It has changed my view on compositions considerably. I didn't know I was already using this idea in architectural photography, but for some reason the concept didn't carry over into landscapes with me. Now I have a better idea on how to convey the message I want to create when I photograph the ocean or desert and how other people will see my work as opposed to what I see.

First of all this is an extremely well written book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm an intermediate photographer that loves to travel for outdoor photography. I would often study many photos of the same scene that I have taken that are just slightly different. But however how close they appear to be at first glance one will usually stand out as more pleasing but I never knew why necessarily. This book explains really well, with nice pictorial examples, the why. This book now helps me look at a scene more analytically and abstractly and to take a step back from the extreme details of a scene and look at the general basic shapes, tones, curves and lines of a scene before I take a shot. Such a valuable book and fun read.

I've never taken an art or photography art class but I would guess this could be a textbook. It covers a lot of the principles dealing with art in general as well as photography. It was rather affirming that a number of principles came naturally, but others were good things to think about and apply in the right situations. It's not so dogmatic as to say you have to do exactly as the book says. While technical, I felt like it also encourages exploration and personal style. As time goes on, I review the info at times just to get some reminders of things I hadn't realized before.

I am a new photographer and most of what I have learned has been from books. This one is one of the best I have read. The information is clear and easy to follow. I learned so much about composition that I can now put into practice. I would highly recommend this. I read it cover to cover and now have it as a reference for the future.

Photography is a blend of art and science. This beautifully done book will definitely help improve your artistic vision. I highly recommend it for beginners to enthusiasts to professional.

Awesome book if you wanna know more about general principles in mastering composition, lighting and more... must have for anyone in photo, digital or traditional art

I love this series of books. They cover most genres of photography and develop your skills then leave you with a handy sized refresher while you consolidate knowledge. This one doesn’t disappoint

I've read dozens of books on photography and a few of them were supposed to deal with composition exclusively. Unfortunately too many authors seem to think that whoever reads their books is a total photography newbie so they go through the basics of photography before devoting a few chapters to the instructions pertaining to the title of the book. Not this time. The author only writes about composition and how to make good use of it from start to finish. There's not a lot of filler either. The author goes through many different compositional concepts and how it affects the viewers response and then accompanies this with perfectly chosen images to illustrate his point. The lessons are easy to understand and easy to apply and will make anyone who reads this a better photographer. This is definitely one of the better books on composition out there.

Very very well articulated book and it teaches things in a manner which can be grasped easily

Painstakingly researched and informatively structured, this book will be an eye-opener to photographers from novice to professional. I've been taking photographs (some award winning) and reading avidly about the subject for half a century but still learned a lot from reading this publication. The huge range of compositional aspects that the book covers is expertly illustrated by the author's choice of photographs, clearly demonstrating each point being made. An especially neat touch is the shrewd use of photo editing to change images in (sometimes subtle) ways that convey a very different mood and feel from the same basic image. Very insightful. And it's all wrapped up with a final section that gives a range of useful ideas about practical applications of everything discussed. The writing style is approachable and fluid, the structure well thought out and the publication quality appealing. The images are not only illustrative but often stunning in their own right and it would not look out of place on a coffee table. I suspect this may become a seminal publication among not just photographers but possibly artists of all genres in the art and science of image composition. Whether you've just started in photography or think you know it all, it's well worth a read.