Do you have a unique or "classic" book?

I have a huge interest in video work with my Olympus M43 camera. The challenge is technique and developing a better appreciation for how the old film masters did things in the day.....

Its so easy to raise an EM1 or the GH4 and to shoot away in video mode and to never learn some of those interesting basics.....

This learning curve / experience made me interested in the old literature and in the process I discover really interesting books. These books is a joy to read/study and to learn how the old timers did things, the amazing creativity and solutions they designed and build to get effects and more. Just what these guys did to get text on a movie....something so obviously simple today....

Here a image of one of those books I discovered:

Do you have one or more of these great books on your bookshelf? Take an image and show us pls...... Photography books is also OK

You right, the content....those parts that really still apply today is in many cases really interesting and applicable...... Thanks for taking the time to show.....

I wasn't aiming for fine art with this snapshot.

This book combines a little history/biography with technique.

Plus it's autographed ... by my nephew (in crayon).

My favorite old photo-related book is a late 1950s edition of The Contax Way. Besides covering the Zeiss Contax rangefinder cameras & lenses of the era, and earlier too, it also has a fair amount of basic photography instruction along with example pics. It's interesting to see what aspects of photography were valued & emphasized at the time compared to what we value & emphasize now. For example, in the section on using fast lenses (the 50/1.5 & 85/2 Sonnars) the discussion is all about taking pics in low light. Shallow depth of field: zero mention.

-Dave-

The Kodak Guide to 35mm photography:

https://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Guide-35mm-Photography-Techniques/dp/087985801X

Still relevant today.

Tedolph

Siegfried, while I don't have your specific book, I have several shelves that include most of the others mentioned so far. All of Ansel Adams technical writings and several of his photography books. Quite a few of the 1950s era - e.g. Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, the Leica manual, etc.

Much of mankind's knowledge is 'locked up' in books - reading is the 'key'.

JaKing wrote:

Siegfried, while I don't have your specific book, I have several shelves that include most of the others mentioned so far. All of Ansel Adams technical writings and several of his photography books. Quite a few of the 1950s era - e.g. Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, the Leica manual, etc.

Much of mankind's knowledge is 'locked up' in books - reading is the 'key'.

Funny thing is, when you suggest that someone read a book, even a specific book, you are branded as being "elitist" and "not helpful", especially in the Beginner's Forum.

Tedolph

tedolf wrote:

JaKing wrote:

Siegfried, while I don't have your specific book, I have several shelves that include most of the others mentioned so far. All of Ansel Adams technical writings and several of his photography books. Quite a few of the 1950s era - e.g. Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, the Leica manual, etc.

Much of mankind's knowledge is 'locked up' in books - reading is the 'key'.

Funny thing is, when you suggest that someone read a book, even a specific book, you are branded as being "elitist" and "not helpful", especially in the Beginner's Forum.

Tedolph

Same thing is happening in our schools here. The education union considers the expectation that teachers can read, write, spell and do arithmetic to be a harsh imposition. Teachers who cannot spell see nothing wrong when a child cannot spell.

Don't start me on journalists! They appear to want total freedom to write whatever they like (often badly) , with no attached responsibility or liability at law ...

JaKing wrote:

Siegfried, while I don't have your specific book, I have several shelves that include most of the others mentioned so far. All of Ansel Adams technical writings and several of his photography books. Quite a few of the 1950s era - e.g. Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, the Leica manual, etc.

Much of mankind's knowledge is 'locked up' in books - reading is the 'key'.

You a blessed man....

Love reading and learning. Most frustrating losing my left arm in an motorcar accident is it is not easy to read as much as before. Try to hold the book, page plus plus.

But you right, new tech is good, youtube and more......at the end nothing beats a great book.

JaKing wrote:

tedolf wrote:

JaKing wrote:

Siegfried, while I don't have your specific book, I have several shelves that include most of the others mentioned so far. All of Ansel Adams technical writings and several of his photography books. Quite a few of the 1950s era - e.g. Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, the Leica manual, etc.

Much of mankind's knowledge is 'locked up' in books - reading is the 'key'.

Funny thing is, when you suggest that someone read a book, even a specific book, you are branded as being "elitist" and "not helpful", especially in the Beginner's Forum.

Tedolph

Same thing is happening in our schools here. The education union considers the expectation that teachers can read, write, spell and do arithmetic to be a harsh imposition. Teachers who cannot spell see nothing wrong when a child cannot spell.

Don't start me on journalists! They appear to want total freedom to write whatever they like (often badly) , with no attached responsibility or liability at law ...

Great subject for a next time....

Thanks for sharing....this is like a photographic treasure we discovering.......

dgnelson wrote:

I think there were 17 books in the series that came out in the 1970s. I have 8 of them. If I remember correctly they sent you one every month. I was just a teenager and my mother payed for them. Lots of photographs from iconic photographers plus a lot information on how to compose and make an image. A lot of the technical stuff is out of date, but the real know-how on making an image is timeless.

Dan

You right Dan.....parts I enjoyed most in the book I showed was shooting angles, framing, how the camera "see" the shot and how the photographer present the final image.

Editing......all mechanical, no software.

Thanks for posting.......

Seedeich wrote:

David Kieltyka wrote:

It's interesting to see what aspects of photography were valued & emphasized at the time compared to what we value & emphasize now. For example, in the section on using fast lenses (the 50/1.5 & 85/2 Sonnars) the discussion is all about taking pics in low light. Shallow depth of field: zero mention.

I wonder why they don’t mention DoF.
Maybe they are interested in praising the low light capabilities of the fast lenses.
Better not mention, that you can’t get sharp images at the same time.

Depth of field was certainly discussed in the books, from which I learned photography in the 70’s.

When 100 ASA was considered a fast film then fast lenses were all about getting a picture - any picture. I have a copy of “The American Cowboy - in life and legend” by Bart McDowell and photographs by William Albert Allard published in 1972 by Nat Geo. The low light photos, of which there are quite a few, were shot on Kodachrome 25 ASA with lenses that had apertures of F1.4.

Erich Salomon in the 1920’s used a 6x4.5cm Ermanox camera with an 85mm F1.8 lens for its low light capabilities.He was probably using film rated at 50 ASA.

So up until the 1970’s early 80’s most people wanted fast lenses for the low light capabilities. That changed with the introduction of faster film stock. 3M’s 1000 Asa tranny and Kodak’s VR 1000 print film were game changers as far as low light photography was concerned. Come the 1990’s faster lenses became more common and substantially cheaper and then coupled with accurate AF people began to really explore the shallow DOF look. But it took the advent computer aided optical design to make lenses that were decent wide open cheap enough for mere mortals. I remember splashing on a 180 mm f2.8 man was that something special, now you can get 200mm lenses a stop faster without having to sell a kidney.