Fundamentals of Photography: The Essential Handbook for Both Digital and Film Cameras

by Tom Ang

From the award-winning photographer—a comprehensive, accessible, and detailed guide for every whether beginner or advanced, using a digital camera or film.

Award-winning photographer Tom Ang provides a thorough, explicitly detailed bottom-to-top understanding of modern photography, explaining all the techniques that will help anyone who uses a camera—in a professional capacity or as a snapshot shooter—improve the quality of his or her photographs.

Here is everything you need to from the most practical advice (the fundamental facts about light sources) to the most sophisticated nuances (how light is measured through photometry), from the basics of the camera (which button controls which function) to the finer points of framing with an LCD viewfinder, featuring a selection of Ang’s most inspiring images. For users of film cameras, Ang explains the differences between types of film and details the various methods of processing and darkroom techniques.

Ang delves into the development and transformation of photography by digital techniques. For the digital-camera contingent, there’s a specificity of previously unavailable information about the cameras and about processing, digitizing, and outputting the images. Ang also discusses subjects usually ignored in manuals but of interest to all photographers, including critical theory, the presentation of images, the function of the human eye in the perception of images, and ethical and copyright issues.

Fundamentals of Photography is an essential book for every photographer.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Reference, Education

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2008

About the author

Photographer, author, traveler and academic. An early pioneer in digital photography, I have written over 30 books on photography as well as on video. This work was recognised by the award of the HIPA Content Producer Award in 2019. I also won the Thomas Cook award for best Illustrated Travel Book for my coverage of the Marco Polo Expedition.

I was senior lecturer in photographic practice at the University of Westminster for over 12 years (1991–2004) and created the MA Photographic Journalism course. For over 10 years I photographed in Central Asia, traveling in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. I led a Know How Fund project that helped equip a radio studio for radio students and which reformed the journalism curriculum for the Kyrgyz Russian Slavonic University in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

I have written over thirty books on photography and video including Digital Photography Masterclass (now 3rd edition), Fundamentals of Photography,Tao of Photography, Digital Photographer’s Handbook (now 7th edition), Picture Editing (2nd edition), Eyewitness Companion: Photography, and Digital Video Handbook, How to Photograph Absolutely Everything.

I presented the BBC series ‘A Digital Picture of Britain’, first transmitted in 2005 on BBC4. A second series, entitled 'Britain in Pictures' was transmitted in 2007. I also presented an 8-part TV series for CNA (Channel News Asia) in Singapore which was broadcast in August 2009. This took a Bronze at the New York Film and TV Festival the following year.

I have served on juries of Hamdan International Photography Award, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, World Photography Award, Czech Press Photo.

I am a Sony NZ Digital Imaging Ambassador.

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers a wide array of useful topics on just about every aspect of photography, and gives a good intro to all of them. The book includes chapters each on cameras, lenses, printing, color, light, etc. The problem is that each individual topic basically gets just a two-page spread, so many topics are covered too briefly. For example, he talks about demosaicking -- how the digital camera takes a bunch of individually-monochrome pixels and produces a complete image with colors at each step -- and mentions a few algorithms but doesn't get into any of them in much depth. Too often I also found the explanations just plain unclear, so that I didn't understand the concept even at the high level it was covered.

[Daniel Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Ang's book is a clear yet thorough guide to photography. Although it covers both digital and film photography, there is very little material that actually feels useless if, say, you only want to learn how to shoot digital. It's not a progressive course, but a solid reference, and I gained a lot by reading through it.

It's a color book, so it includes a great number of color photography to illustrate every nuance. It also covers the processing steps of digital photography, which is very useful to learn.

Only flaw I would say the book has is that sometimes, for the sake of being exact, it can include useless details about little-known areas of photography. But overall this was not detrimental to the book's overall usefulness.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good resource for all things photography. I like the color-coded parts of the book, the examples of images to illustrate a talking point, and the general language used in such a way as to teach the lingo without dumbing it down.

[Alex Kartelias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was filled with so much information, I don't even know if I can recall what I read...But it's still good to be at least aware of one's ignorance and be familiar with the basics. A lot of this seems like it can be learned only through experience, but still a good book.

[Andres Moreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book. Is a book that covers a lot of topics on photography, but in some topics get too bored and isn't too much clear! I like it in general!

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative!

[Michael DeRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read that will get anyone on the right path.

[Ap Rivard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, very educational even for intermediate to advance level, in my opinion.

[Nicolás Barros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy bueno para iniciarse en este mundo, sin profundizar, es una gran lectura para quines quieran comprender el funcionamiento y los "porqué" de la fotografía.