Is there a definitive beginners Book?

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Arctic Jack

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Hello my girlfriend has taken an interest in photography and is on saving up for a DSLR camera. Her knowledge of cameras and photography is zero. It is her birthday soon and as well as money towards a camera I’d like to get her a little something to give her a foundation in camera and photography basics to just to help her get started. Is there a book that could help her recognise what functions these cameras have and things to look for when buying one? If it had some basics in taking pictures too, that would be a bonus.

Is there a definitive beginner’s guide?

Any recommendations would be great thank you.
 
I'd suggest "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson

Superbly written book that gives a good foundation as to what the different settings do and how they relate to one another, with some good examples. It would give her a good technical foundation to be able to learn for when she gets her own dslr.

Other than that, perhaps a couple of books just containing photos of different subjects (not the teaching or explanation type of book) that she may be able to get inspiration from.
 
I rate Bryan Peterson's book as a very good introduction - it really helped me understand exposure, but it does cover the bit that pretty much any camera can do for itself reasonably well (exposure). As an alternative suggestion, how about something less camera-focussed and emphasising the skill of the photographer in taking interesting images? something like The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman.
 
The 'Digital SLR Photography for Dummies' book isn't bad. It's obviously pretty basic, but covers the basics of exposure, composition, camera features etc. I found it a useful read.
 
This is interesting. I've found lots of info on the web and in books covering the mechanics, but far less about the artistic side; how to compose etc, i.e. how to take shots from being snapshots to something that stands out.

I guess a lot of that side is down to personal taste so harder to teach, but there must be more to it than the rule of thirds and foreground interest!!!???

Are there any good books or other resources that assume the mechanics are understood, and cover composition and expression more?

Mark
 
Mark, the book By Michael Freemen I've already mentioned is a good introduction to composition, and he's also added The Photographer's Mind to the series where he encourages you to think about how you take photographs. There's a third about looking at photographs, but I haven't read that one yet. I like hos style of writing, others don't.

The artistic/aesthetic side of photography (and art in general) has been written about since the beginning, and there are some bargains to be had amongst older books written in the film era.

For landscape photography I'd recommend Charlie Waite's The Making of Landscape Photography which can be picked up for a couple of pounds on Amazon, and I'd also recommend Joe Cornish's DVD With Landscape in Mind. In both of these the photographer describes their thoughts in taking the image, and Charlie Waite is very good for providing information on what he might have done differently to improve the shot.

The aesthetics of photography are something that interest me far more than the technicalities.
 
Second the Photographers Eye. Nicely laid out with pretty much a topic per two pages with lots of photographs to explain the theory in practice.

Just need to read through a couple of times to get all the aspects stuck into the mind so they are there sub conciously when taking shots.

This is an area that is most important to me (the technicalities of the camera function are helped by being a geek!)
 
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Thank you for all the recommendations in here... To get it in time for her birthday I had to order today... I ended up going with:

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera - Bryan Peterson

I also ordered a second book which wasn't mentioned here but I thought it would give her an additional insight into photographing children, which is what she’s looking to do with the camera.

Photographing Children: Develop Your Digital Photography Talent (Photo Workshop) - Ginny Felch, Allison Tyler Jones

I checked the reviews (which were decent) and used the tool to look inside and it looked to me like it would be a stepping off point into the basics. Has anyone come across this book before?
 
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Thanks Alastair, I'll take a look at those.
 
Here is my usual disagreement about the Bryan Peterson book, not impressed when I borrowed it from the library albeit a little while back.

As myself and a few others have mentioned, bit old fashioned and hardly makes a mention of using the histogram which is one very important aspect of modern day photography

Far better books about and sounds like a more general guide to photography is needed
 
tijuana taxi said:
Here is my usual disagreement about the Bryan Peterson book, not impressed when I borrowed it from the library albeit a little while back.

As myself and a few others have mentioned, bit old fashioned and hardly makes a mention of using the histogram which is one very important aspect of modern day photography

Far better books about and sounds like a more general guide to photography is needed
Click to expand...

Out of interest could you name the better books please?
 
 
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