Collins Complete Photography Course - John Garrett > Reviews (1)

I have been getting into photography recently after buying my first digital SLR camera about a year ago. The amount my camera does is mind boggling after spending years using a point and shoot. Even after 12 months of experimentation I needed a few tips and pointers. Time constraints mean a course is out of the question for the time being, and the magazines I have bought were both expensive for what they were and aimed at people who have been doing this for a while and don't really contain the basics. After looking though the selection in book stores and checking out Amazon reviews I bought a few 'teach yourself' type books aimed at beginners. Easily the best of those I chose was Collins Complete Photography Course.

Price

The book's RRP is £14.99 but I picked this up on Amazon for just under £10, brand new. The book is hardback, 192 pages long and good quality, glossy paper that do the prints full justice so I'd say it's a good price, even at full RRP.

Authors

The book is a collaboration between John Garret and Graeme Harris first published in 2008. With these books I like to read the biographies of the authors, really to see how much I trust their expertise, after all I'm essentially being taught by them.

John Garret is an Australian photographer. He moved to London in the 1960s to work in fashion photography. He then became a photographer for 'Paris Match' in the 1970s . He has since worked on a number of major newspapers, become a judge for photographic competitions and even directed 30 television commercials. He has written a photography book previous to this one which sold 2,000,000 copies.

Graeme Harris, also Australian, is a friend of John Garret. He came to London in the 70s to work as a still life photographer. He has since worked teaching A level and degree students at photography workshops, tutoring at two London Colleges and a private photography school as well as completing commercial assignments.

I think these two are a great combination to write this book. The book obviously contains a lot of expertise but I was also impressed with how easy it was to follow and written in a straight forward 'this is how you do it' way, unlike some other books I've looked at. I see after reading the biographies of the authors this is probably due to having someone who actually teaches the subject being involved rather than people who are just straight forward photographers.

Using the book

The book is split into 13 sections with subsections under these.
1)Introduction – Introduction- The story of photography
2)You and Your Camera – Camera Types- Getting to grips with your DSLR- Image Quality- Lenses-Exposure- Flash- White Balance- Essentials- Review
3)Exposure – Capturing the light- Choosing the Exposure- Bracketing- High Key Photography- Low Key Photography- Sunrise and sunset- Silhouettes- Multiple Exposures- Review
4)Aperture – Using aperture creatively- Depth of Field- Shooting with a wide open aperture- Using selective focus- Stopping down- Review
5)Shutter – Exploring shutter speeds- Shutter speeds and movement- The peak action- Fast shutter speed- Slow shutter speed- Panning- Movement to camera- Camera movement- Time exposure- Review
6)Lenses – The creative lens- The angle of view- Control of perspective- Wide angle lenses- Telephoto lenses- Perspective in portraiture- Zoom movement- Close up photography- Review
7)Composition – The leap from a snapshot to a photograph- Horizontal or vertical format- Filling the frame- Changing viewpoint- Perspective- Focal points- The rule of thirds- Review
8)Light – The magic ingredient- Time of day- Weather- Single light source- Window light- Making the most of flash- Flash in daylight- Night photography- Candlelight- Photographing on a light box- Review
9)Colour – Exploring colour- Emotional colour- Saturated colour- Unsaturated colour- Colour relationships- Review
10)Filters – Transforming the image- Your filter kit- The polarizing filter- Graduated filters- Diffusing filters- Filters on lights- Colour correction and enhancement- Review
11)Black and White – The power of black and white- Filters- Colour to black and white- Print quality- Final prints- Toning- Red and orange filters- Available light- Shooting tonal abstracts- Sun prints and photograms- Review
12)Image Enhancement – The digital revolution- Cropping- Colour correction- Removing unwanted details- Toning- Hue/saturation- Adding colour- Solarization- Posterization- Review
13)Image Management – Organising and displaying your images

At the end these is a glossary of terms which I found very useful and some suggestions for further reading after you've grasped the basics with this one.

The idea with this book, as the tile suggests, is that your treat it like a course and start at the beginning and work through, which I did. However, I like that what is covered and in which section is displayed so clearly, meaning if I want to remind myself about white balance for example, I can see at a glance exactly where to find what I'm looking for. I can't fault the way the book is organised. Once you've treated it as 'a course' it can sit happily on your bookshelf as a very useful reference book.

Well... did it teach me anything? Of course it did!

The first line of the introduction says 'This book assumes no previous knowledge of photography, though it is intended not only for beginners but also for those who have some experience and are looking for inspiration to take them to the next level.' I'm not sure I agree with this. Yes it's great for beginners but I'm not sure there is much to offer a seasoned photographer. This is all about the basics.

As I've mentioned the way this book is written makes it very easy to understand. It's written in plain English and any terminology used is explained fully (and listed in the glossary anyway). It starts off with the absolute basics of how to use your camera functions, though I'm not sure how useful this would be as it's examples use a Nikon, and things may be in different places on other models. I guess it can't show you every model though and it serves as a rough guide. As the book takes you through the technicalities of how to create great photographs it gives constant examples to explain the point. As in other books I've read in which the photographer is as much about showing off his own work as teaching you, this book show how both how to do it and how not to. So it may show you an image that not focussed, for example, next to one that is to show the difference. Obviously, photography is about the visual and the pictures used to illustrate this book are carefully picked and as useful as the words.

As you go through each chapter there are little boxes with 'Quick tips.' I found these really helped to understand key points and remember them rather than picking out which are the most important aspects of the main text. The fact the information is split up like this makes it a lot easier to take in rather than looking at a big block of text that can be a bit daunting and off putting.

After each chapter has given you the breakdown of the subject there are projects for you to do to put it into practice. After trying to teach myself my camera and worrying about what combinations of the hundreds of settings to use, where to stand, how much to zoom, whether to use a flash etc. (and in the end half the time missing my opportunity in the process), this gets you to focus on just one thing at a time. While you might not come out with the best of photos from these projects they did give me a good understanding of the area I was focusing on. In the end, of course, you should be able to put all this together to get some great photos, which I have with varying success but I'm still learning!

Sticking to the point...

One thing that I really like about this book above others is that there is only one short section on digitally enhancing your photographs. I'm still to be convinced on the wonders of photoshop. The knowledge I want to learn is how to take a photograph using just my camera and my eye, not taking something mediocre and using a computer to perfect it. Before photoshop came along photographers were taking some amazing pictures all by themselves. Surely if the photographer had real talent this 'enhancement' wouldn't be needed. Sure, I crop the odd picture or change some to black and white but that's about it. Well done to Collins for sticking to the taking of the picture for the most part of their make and not the manipulation.

One other point that's worth making is that whilst the book, in the main, is for people using a DSLR, is also is suitable more manual SLRs and also touches on point and shoot and even camera phones. It's very much about the technique and not the equipment, which means it's stuffed with useful information and not padded out.

Conclusion

Overall, this a brilliant start to anyone stepping into the confusing and daunting world of photography. It might not make you the next David Bailey but it will give you the basic knowledge you need to start taking your hobby to the next level as well as being a good, no nonsense reference for the future. Recommended.

P.S The pictures with this review are my own, not taken from the book!