Photo Inspiration: Secrets Behind Stunning Images

by 1x.com

The inspiration you need to help improve your photography skillsWell-known for their stunning world-class photography, 1x.com has worked with their most talented photographers to handpick 100 awe-inspiring images and provided the back-story and photographer's secrets that helped capture them. This book presents you with inspiration as well as underlying techniques that can help improve your photography skills immediately.Shares behind-the-scene stories of the featured photos from the photographers themselves, from their artistic vision to the technical details that went into each shotOffers clear, concise, and accessible descriptions for the ideas, vision, performance, setup, location, equipment, camera settings, lighting diagrams, and image editing methods of each amazing photo

"Photo Inspiration" provides a unique combination of the final photograph with the tools and knowledge that made it possible, all of which are aimed at helping you meet your photographic potential.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2012

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The book is well structured and broken down into categories: Portraits, landscapes, macros, lifestyle, children, etc. Each category has 5-6 images - so they are fairly short. If you specialize in one type of photography (and most serious photographers do tend to stick to one genre), you'll go through a category fast and feeling a bit cheated. There are, however, a total of 100 images - so there are a LOT of categories. Some categories especially felt lacking: children, for example, seems like it could have been much better considering the boom in that particular market segment.

The book is very well presented: a large full page image and then on the facing page information about the image. Mostly a small 2-paragraph discussion about how it was shot, a small couple of lines about post processing, and then a small blurb about the photographer. I would hardly call it a tutorial - it really is what the book is titled: an inspiration. Nor would I say there were 'secrets' revealed, unless you count vague references such as, "I added a curves level and a Nik Plugin", or "I woke up at sunrise to get the shot" a secret.

The book is very broad in scope and ambition: it includes everything from photojournalistic film shots to heavily manipulated composites of several digital images to create artistic pieces. It really is a nice journey through beautiful images (all of the work in there really is high caliber) - and there are quite a lot of them. But the scope is so broad as make the categories feel weak and underrepresented.

I'm on the fence about how to review this: as an inspiration book, the photography is beautiful. But that is the downside as well: many of the photographs require special equipment, skills, or locations that are not accessible to the common photographer. As such, it seems a book that talks a lot of photography talk but really is more ideal for those who appreciate (but don't necessarily do) photography themselves. Artists and locations from around the world are represented - the variety is excellent.

[Ray S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always wanted to get into the mind of photographers process

Perfect for exploring a photographers creative process and understanding how they plan, & execute their strategy, then process their images to reflect the message they want to convey.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by Ken Rockwell

"This book is exactly what so many of you have wanted: a modern book with explanations of how each shot was made."

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice e-book to read on an iPad or Kindle fire because the color images can be zoomed and viewed full screen. There is a lot of detail on how each image was captured. An interesting & informative read.

[Tony Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

good ideas and tutorials

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

-How do they get there? Helps to honey your skills