BooK Review: The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering by Bahman Farzad

I recently bought this book from amazon.com. I am involved in photography since 2001,and was confused about the correct exposure.I already read many books about correct exposure,but none of these book were able to give me much help. One of my friends told me about obtaining the correct exposure by using spotmetering .I was very much interested about spotmetering.I began to search books about spotmetering in the bet. When searching the net with Google , I found a site named www.spotmetering.com. Here I came know about spotmetering and Bahman Farzad (The writer).

In this site Bahman Farzad is describing his book 'The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering' with photographs and other illustrations. I was very much interested and ordered the book from amazon.

After receiving the book, I jumped into my bed and began to read.After 30 min , I found that I know something very much valuable and this is what I am looking for. Next day,I went out with my film camera Nikon F-80 . I turned my camera in manual mode and followed the rules ,that I found in the book.When I printed my film,I was surprised very much to see the result. The light ,which I was trying to capture for a long time, at last I achieved it.

The book describes the techniques of measuring the correct exposure using spotmetering and partial metering with lot of diagrams and illustrations.The book also focused on the zone systems with lot of examples and diagrams.zone system is basically difficult to understand for new photographers. But Bahman Farzad made this topic very much interesting and easy to understand. 5 zone system scale is basic for understanding the correct exposure.The refernce tone selection and correcting the exposure over normal exposure is described in this book so easily that a novish photographer will master the technique of applying the zone scale with spotmetering.

The book also contains cheat sheets for various camera models including lates Nikon D-200.Besides,It has a printed gray card ( 18% gray),which will be helpful for determining the correct exposure using gray card.

For a professional or ameture photographer it is a must have book and I usually strongly recommend this book to my students and friends. Following are the review by famous photography magazine::

Outdoor Photographer Magazine Book Review:
"Farzad offers simple solutions to the sometimes complicated light metering issues of the modern equipment."

Dick Watkins: Nature Photographer Magazine:
"Using simplified text, drawings, and examples, Farzad makes this difficult subject (exposure) comprehensible. His charts of lens apertures, shutter speeds and film speeds are some of the best that have been published. If you have any problems getting the correct exposure or understanding how to determine exposure, then you need to invest in this book."

Elinor Stecker-Orel: Popular Photography Book Review:
"Farzad's wealth of creative analogies should certainly alleviate the confusion all beginning photographers have in understanding (and remembering) how to expose their subjects correctly"

Book Review, Nature Photographer Magazine, May/June 2000 issue: By Dick Watkins


One of the hardest concepts for photographers to grasp is determining correct exposure. I have worked with several students explaining shutter speed, lens aperture opening, and film speed only to have them return a month later still confounded and bewildered. add to this the different methods of obtaining a light meter reading and many of these people are ready to revert to the simple, easy, always ready point and shoot camera.
Bahman Farzad's Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering simplifies the teaching and learning process to help you understand exposure and how to achieve your desired results.
The book targets the outdoor photographer using a modern 35mm camera with a variable aperture lens and color slide or negative film. Outdoor photographers are faced with many color tones and varying degrees of light creating a perplexing exposure dilemma. Farzad identifies this situation as a complex subject and recommend a simple technique called single tone metering. Farzad explains, "once one tone of a complex subject is correctly exposed, the rest of the tones follow and are correctly exposed."
Using several popular cameras, Farzad includes a guide to their operation as it relates to exposure. An exposure cheat sheet for each camera is in the book and could be valuable information to the user on understanding that particular exposure system.
Farzad, a professional freelance photographer, is an instructor in photography at the University of Alabama. He holds master degrees in engineering and computer science. I have reviewed a previous book by Farzad, Teach yourself the Simplified Zone System. This along with this current publication is leading the way for all users of cameras to actually comprehend proper exposure. Using simplified text, drawings, and examples, Farzad makes this difficult subject comprehensible. His charts of lens aperture, shutter speeds and film speeds are some of the best that have been published. With few words these charts explain themselves. If you have any problems getting the correct exposure or understanding how to determine exposure, then you need to invest in this book. I can assure you once you have arrived at the last page, you will have a better understanding of spot-metering and exposure.

Using simplified text, drawings, and examples, Farzad makes this difficult subject comprehensible. His charts of lens aperture, shutter speeds and film speeds are some of the best that have been published. With few words these charts explain themselves. If you have any problems getting the correct exposure or understanding how to determine exposure, then you need to invest in this book. I can assure you once you have arrived at the last page, you will have a better understanding of spot-metering and exposure.

B&W ...Thoughts and Tips on Taking Black and White Pictures

"Life is like a good black and white photograph, there's black, there's white, and lots of shades in between."

Why Black & White ? You can ask me this question.We are now the era of digital color photography but still Black & White photography has a unique value for the following reasons:

*It's classic and elegant, even romantic and special.
*When learning photography, the simplicity of black and white helps you focus on the important stuff.

*You can often turn a drab color shot into an amazing black and white.

*If you do your own darkroom work - traditional or digital - it opens up a world of magic and fun.

For more Thoughts and Tips on Taking Black and White Pictures, read on ...


It's Classic and Romantic

When people look at a black and white photograph, they often remark how "classic" and "elegant" it looks. For example, it remains to this day a popular choice for weddings. Headshots of CEOs and company presidents - destined for some annual report or other investor brochure - are also often shot in black and white. Black and white prints have a refined quality about them. The simplicity and uncluttered look give the subject a polished, high-class feel. Without the distractions of color, the picture begs each viewer to recognize the individuality and uniqueness of the subject.

Another reason why brides often ask for black and white is that it most clearly expresses the romantic. They know that there is something special about it. It has style. The most famous romantic images - Eisenstaedt's sailor kissing a nurse; Doisneau's couple kissing near a French hotel; Erwitt's lovers kissing in a rear-view mirror in California - have been bestsellers for years because they define the romantic.



Learning Graphic Concepts:

Tips on Taking Black and White PicturesBlack and white helps to learn the basics without getting too distracted; this is one reason why it is so popular among teachers. Black and white focuses the attention on form, shading, pattern, and other graphic concepts, to give them an unusual quality with tone and hue. With a clear view toward graphics, composition, and design, the photographer can concentrate on:

·How contrast creates lines and how lines lead the eye or psychologically affect the viewer by curving, lying flat, diagonal, or vertical.

· How shapes or lines make a pattern and how shape with texture gives an object form. · How highlights compete for attention and dark tones create an important negative space.

Many artists prefer black and white because it causes the photographer and the viewer to see the world in a way that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Seeing the reoccurring pattern, line, or shape is easier with black and white, which does such a good job of emphasizing it. This is especially the case when a black and white photo shows good contrast - when the blacks are black, the highlights are bright, when you can still see some detail in both the highlights and the shadows.

All photographs - not just those labeled "abstracts" - are only two-dimensional representations, or abstractions, of a three-dimensional scene. Black and white makes a photograph even more of an abstraction by removing the distracting qualities of color and allowing us to concentrate on the graphic elements. Take a look at how different an abstract photo looks in black and white. With the color removed from the overall expression, the shapes of the leaves and the lines in them take on more significance. The graphic concepts are easier to see:

When Black and White Works Better Than Color
Some things just look better when shot in black and white. With it, you can find interest in everyday objects and scenes around you. What might appear boring when shot in color suddenly becomes fascinating when captured in black and white. Here are a couple of situations which especially benefit from black and white: Overcast DaysIt can be so disappointing to get pictures back from a trip or a shoot to discover they look boring and washed out because the skies were a bright overcast gray. If you choose to shoot the same scene with black and white, you will often get great results; the focus moves to the forms and patterns and away from the dull white of the sky.

Black and white is simply fantastic for these kinds of days. The bright, overexposed sky, often blown out in both color and black and white, becomes much easier to ignore. Instead of noticing a dull sky, the viewer sees your intended subject, whether it be a person, an object, or an interesting place.

Portraits




Black and white also works very nicely for portrait photography. Skin tones, in black and white, are mellowed; blotches, blemishes, and uneven shading is less easily noticed than it is in color photos. Our eyes are very critical of facial skin tones in color but, when we examine black and white, we cannot evaluate the tones with the same critical eye. In this color portrait, the subject's face - blasted by an overzealous flash - takes on unnatural, artificial-looking, and unpleasant skin tones while the background is lost in dark shadows. However, by simply converting the image to black and white, the effect of the harsh light is lessened and the portrait instantly becomes a more pleasing image. The bright skin color is toned down to a soft, even gray and the shadowy background becomes less noticeable.

The Fun That Can Be Had

You can set up your own darkroom to process and print your own images. Like many, you may find it magical to see an image appear out of nowhere in your film or on a print. Developing your own film can be as fun as an art project is to a preschooler. Especially if you are a do-it-yourselfer, hands-on, tactile kind of person, you will get a kick out of mixing potions, clipping film, and seeing your pictures come out of nowhere. Without color to think about, this process is much simpler in black and white than with color film. You can also color select portions of a black and white by using products such as Marshall's photo paints.

Black and white is a predominant choice among masters because it tells the graphic story clearly; it is conducive to learning the art; it connotes a classic fineness; and it is plain and simple fun.

(c) 2007 All images in the post is reserved by Shubho Salateen

Quates on Photography

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration. -Ansel Adams

In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice. -Ansel Adams

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution. -Ansel Adams

You don't take a photograph, you make it. -Ansel Adams

The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance. -Ansel Adams

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment. -Ansel Adams, "Photographing Nature: LIFE Library of Photography" by Time-Life (Editor)

A good photograph is knowing where to stand. -Ansel Adams

A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into. -Ansel Adams

A photograph is not an accident – it is a concept. -Ansel Adams

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. -Francis Bacon

I use photography as a point of departure. Like Frederick Sommer, I prefer to view a photograph as "a thing seen" in its own right, rather than considering it as a document of "a thing seen." This is a disengagement from viewing a photograph for its content alone. An image has its own reason for being, perhaps possessing its own kind of intelligence. -Jonathan Bailey , in Camera Arts Feb/March 2001.

A big shot is a little shot that kept shooting. -Amanda Caldwell

Everything has it's beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucius

The most important attribute a photographer can have is enthusiasm. -Arnold Drapkin, "Professional photographer's survival guide" by Charles E. Rotkin

Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field. -Peter Adams, Adams Sydney, 1987

Photography is not about cameras, gadgets and gismos. Photography is about photographers. A camera didn't make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel. -Peter Adams, Sydney 1978

Ansel Adams-A Tribute to the legendary American Landscape Photographer

Charles and Olive Adams gave their son, Ansel, the freedom to grow and become whatever his intellect and talents would allow him to be. At twelve, unable to stand the confinement and tedium of the classroom, he utterly disrupted his lessons with wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers. His father decided that Ansel’s formal education was best ended. From that point forward, the boy was home-schooled in Greek, the English classics, algebra, and the glories of the ocean, inlets, and rocky beaches that surrounded their home very near San Francisco. He also made a serious study of the piano, which he thought was to be his avocation. Another rich source of learning was the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and contained exhibits and displays from around the world that fascinated young Ansel for a full year.

In 1916, during a family vacation in Yosemite National Park, Ansel was given another gift from his parents...a Kodak Box Brownie. It allowed him to record the wondrous images that he already perceived in the natural beauty around him, a process that would continue all his life. Given the position of Custodian of Yosemite’s Leconte Memorial (Joseph Leconte was an eminent geologist and conservationist.) in 1920, Adams wrote to his father that “...I want you to see what I am trying to do...the representation of material things in the abstract or purely imaginative way.”

After a prolonged and sometimes painful courtship, Ansel Adams and Virginia Best were married in January 1929, and for the first two years of their marriage, he wavered between his two possible career choices, music and photography. After viewing the wonderful work of a new friend, photographer Paul Strand, Adams decided on his course. Happily for all those who would enjoy his work in the future, he would be a professional photographer. A short time later, he joined Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Henry Swift, Sonya Noskowiak, and Jon Paul Edwards to form “f/64”, a group dedicated to the concept of photography that looked like photography, not like an imitation of other art forms. Their exhibitions excited much comment, a great deal of which was negative, as their more simplistic, high realistic work was in stark contrast to the overdone photos in vogue at that time.

March 1933 was an important time for Adams. It was then that he met the renowned photographer and patron, Alfred Stieglitz, husband of Georgia O’Keefe, owner of An American Place gallery, and a powerful influence on artists of that time. Stieglitz was favorably impressed with the young photographer and his work, and mounted an exhibition for him in November of 1936. Adams wrote in his 1985 autobiography “Steiglitz taught me what became my first commandment: “Art is the affirmation of life.”

The photography of Ansel Adams is virtually synonymous with the Sierra Nevada, the four hundred mile long, ten to fourteen thousand feet high mountain range that inspired the Sierra Club. John Muir, the Sierra Club’s first president and one of the greatest of America’s environmentalists, led the group to become a powerful force that influenced the United States government to establish the National Park Service. Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, and Glacier National Parks are all found within the Sierra, and their splendid beauty was recorded with enormous dedication and brilliance by Ansel Adams. Both the grandeur of the canyons stalked by gigantic looming thunderclouds (Tenaya Lake, Mount Conness, Yosemite National Park, c. 1946), massive rock formations shrouded with fragile morning mist ( El Capitan, Winter, Sunrise, Yosemite National Park, 1968) and the intricate composition and wonderful design of pine cones and eucalyptus leaves were recorded with painstaking and crystalline clarity for anyone to witness and enjoy. Adams said of his work: “My approach to photography is based on my belief in the aspects of grandeur and minutiae all about us”.

Adams also worked in the commercial field, taking pictures of everything from raisin bread to glassware to bathrobes for a Christmas catalog. It was not his favorite work, but it paid the rent and allowed him to continue his more artistic pursuits. Even his commercial work produced some powerful images (Worker and Turbine, Pacific Electric and Gas, 1939).

Adams established a working partnership with another great photographer of the time, Dorothea Lange, with whom he collaborated on several magazine pictorials for Fortune and Time. The Fortune piece concerned the struggle between small family farms and large conglomerates over water rights in California’s San Joaquin valley; Life magazine contracted them for a study of the Utah Mormons. But Adams, though he admired the work done in that field, was not a proponent of documentary photography. He wrote to Lange in 1962 that he “...resent(ed) being manipulated into a politico-social formula of thought and existence....Is there no way photography can be used to suggest a better life-not just to stress the unfortunate aspects of existence...?”

In 1943, anxious to contribute in some way to the war effort, Adams sought and received a commission from Ralph Merritt, then director of Manzanar War Relocation Camp, to illustrate and record the lives of the Nisei, American-born citizens of Japanese descent who were interned there. He was tremendously impressed by the spirit of those people as they patiently awaited to return to their lives. “Born Free and Equal”, a compilation of photos of the camp with text written by Adams himself was released in 1944, but was badly received by those who only wanted to see the Japanese as the enemy.

In 1949, Adams received another camera as a gift. Edwin Land, brilliant inventor of the Polaroid Land camera, invited the photographer to become a consultant. Adams was impressed by the camera and by Land’s determination to make photography an artistic form accessible to all. Although other professionals considered the Land camera to be little more than a toy, Adams continued to test the camera and promote its use by providing boxes of the film to his associates. Ultimately, he sent over three thousand memos to Polaroid.

Ansel Adams wanted his work to be seen by many, not just the few who could afford to purchase it. He chose three images...Moonrise, Winter Sunrise, and the vertical of Aspens...and arranged for them to be printed as easily affordable posters. This went so well that, in 1984, production begun of Ansel Adams calendars (still a favorite over desks and on kitchen walls everywhere).

In 1979, Adams published his very successful book, Yosemite and the Range of Light, which was to sell over two hundred thousand copies. And in 1980, The Ansel Adams Conservation Award was established by the Wilderness Club, and Adams himself named as the first recipient. The citation read “...Ansel Adams-for your deep devotion to preserving America’s wild lands and to caring that future generations know a part of the work as it has been...”. The work of Ansel Adams serves as a guide to what we once had, what still remains with us, and what we must not lose in the future. As he reminds us in his autobiography, “The only things...that compatibly exist in this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.”

A Timeline


1902 - Ansel Easton Adams born on February 20, at 114 Maple Street, San Francisco, the only child of Olive and Charles

1915 - Despises the regimentation of a regular education, and is taken out of school. For that year, his father buys him a season pass to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, which he visits nearly every day. Private tutors provide further instruction.

1916: Family Trip to Yosemite, Californina.

1925: Decides to become a pianist. Buys a grand piano.

1927: First acknowledged photograph.

1940 - Teaches first Yosemite workshop, the U. S. Camera Photographic Forum, in Yosemite with Edward Weston.


1953 he collaborated with Dorothea Lange on a Life commission for a photo essay on the Mormons in Utah

In 1962 Adams moved to Carmel, California, where in 1967 he was instrumental in the foundation of the Friends of Photography

1984 - Dies April 22 of heart failure aggravated by cancer

Ansel Adams-A tribute to the legandary American Photographer

Charles and Olive Adams gave their son, Ansel, the freedom to grow and become whatever his intellect and talents would allow him to be. At twelve, unable to stand the confinement and tedium of the classroom, he utterly disrupted his lessons with wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers. His father decided that Ansel’s formal education was best ended. From that point forward, the boy was home-schooled in Greek, the English classics, algebra, and the glories of the ocean, inlets, and rocky beaches that surrounded their home very near San Francisco. He also made a serious study of the piano, which he thought was to be his avocation. Another rich source of learning was the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and contained exhibits and displays from around the world that fascinated young Ansel for a full year.

In 1916, during a family vacation in Yosemite National Park, Ansel was given another gift from his parents...a Kodak Box Brownie. It allowed him to record the wondrous images that he already perceived in the natural beauty around him, a process that would continue all his life. Given the position of Custodian of Yosemite’s Leconte Memorial (Joseph Leconte was an eminent geologist and conservationist.) in 1920, Adams wrote to his father that “...I want you to see what I am trying to do...the representation of material things in the abstract or purely imaginative way.”

After a prolonged and sometimes painful courtship, Ansel Adams and Virginia Best were married in January 1929, and for the first two years of their marriage, he wavered between his two possible career choices, music and photography. After viewing the wonderful work of a new friend, photographer Paul Strand, Adams decided on his course. Happily for all those who would enjoy his work in the future, he would be a professional photographer. A short time later, he joined Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Henry Swift, Sonya Noskowiak, and Jon Paul Edwards to form “f/64”, a group dedicated to the concept of photography that looked like photography, not like an imitation of other art forms. Their exhibitions excited much comment, a great deal of which was negative, as their more simplistic, high realistic work was in stark contrast to the overdone photos in vogue at that time.

March 1933 was an important time for Adams. It was then that he met the renowned photographer and patron, Alfred Stieglitz, husband of Georgia O’Keefe, owner of An American Place gallery, and a powerful influence on artists of that time. Stieglitz was favorably impressed with the young photographer and his work, and mounted an exhibition for him in November of 1936. Adams wrote in his 1985 autobiography “Steiglitz taught me what became my first commandment: “Art is the affirmation of life.”

The photography of Ansel Adams is virtually synonymous with the Sierra Nevada, the four hundred mile long, ten to fourteen thousand feet high mountain range that inspired the Sierra Club. John Muir, the Sierra Club’s first president and one of the greatest of America’s environmentalists, led the group to become a powerful force that influenced the United States government to establish the National Park Service. Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, and Glacier National Parks are all found within the Sierra, and their splendid beauty was recorded with enormous dedication and brilliance by Ansel Adams. Both the grandeur of the canyons stalked by gigantic looming thunderclouds (Tenaya Lake, Mount Conness, Yosemite National Park, c. 1946), massive rock formations shrouded with fragile morning mist ( El Capitan, Winter, Sunrise, Yosemite National Park, 1968) and the intricate composition and wonderful design of pine cones and eucalyptus leaves were recorded with painstaking and crystalline clarity for anyone to witness and enjoy. Adams said of his work: “My approach to photography is based on my belief in the aspects of grandeur and minutiae all about us”. Adams also worked in the commercial field, taking pictures of everything from raisin bread to glassware to bathrobes for a Christmas catalog. It was not his favorite work, but it paid the rent and allowed him to continue his more artistic pursuits. Even his commercial work produced some powerful images (Worker and Turbine, Pacific Electric and Gas, 1939). Adams established a working partnership with another great photographer of the time, Dorothea Lange, with whom he collaborated on several magazine pictorials for Fortune and Time. The Fortune piece concerned the struggle between small family farms and large conglomerates over water rights in California’s San Joaquin valley; Life magazine contracted them for a study of the Utah Mormons. But Adams, though he admired the work done in that field, was not a proponent of documentary photography. He wrote to Lange in 1962 that he “...resent(ed) being manipulated into a politico-social formula of thought and existence....Is there no way photography can be used to suggest a better life-not just to stress the unfortunate aspects of existence...?” In 1943, anxious to contribute in some way to the war effort, Adams sought and received a commission from Ralph Merritt, then director of Manzanar War Relocation Camp, to illustrate and record the lives of the Nisei, American-born citizens of Japanese descent who were interned there. He was tremendously impressed by the spirit of those people as they patiently awaited to return to their lives. “Born Free and Equal”, a compilation of photos of the camp with text written by Adams himself was released in 1944, but was badly received by those who only wanted to see the Japanese as the enemy. In 1949, Adams received another camera as a gift. Edwin Land, brilliant inventor of the Polaroid Land camera, invited the photographer to become a consultant. Adams was impressed by the camera and by Land’s determination to make photography an artistic form accessible to all. Although other professionals considered the Land camera to be little more than a toy, Adams continued to test the camera and promote its use by providing boxes of the film to his associates. Ultimately, he sent over three thousand memos to Polaroid. Ansel Adams wanted his work to be seen by many, not just the few who could afford to purchase it. He chose three images...Moonrise, Winter Sunrise, and the vertical of Aspens...and arranged for them to be printed as easily affordable posters. This went so well that, in 1984, production begun of Ansel Adams calendars (still a favorite over desks and on kitchen walls everywhere). In 1979, Adams published his very successful book, Yosemite and the Range of Light, which was to sell over two hundred thousand copies. And in 1980, The Ansel Adams Conservation Award was established by the Wilderness Club, and Adams himself named as the first recipient. The citation read “...Ansel Adams-for your deep devotion to preserving America’s wild lands and to caring that future generations know a part of the work as it has been...”. The work of Ansel Adams serves as a guide to what we once had, what still remains with us, and what we must not lose in the future. As he reminds us in his autobiography, “The only things...that compatibly exist in this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.” A Timeline 1902 - Ansel Easton Adams born on February 20, at 114 Maple Street, San Francisco, the only child of Olive and Charles 1915 - Despises the regimentation of a regular education, and is taken out of school. For that year, his father buys him a season pass to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, which he visits nearly every day. Private tutors provide further instruction. 1916: Family Trip to Yosemite, Californina.1925: Decides to become a pianist. Buys a grand piano.1927: First acknowledged photograph.1940 - Teaches first Yosemite workshop, the U. S. Camera Photographic Forum, in Yosemite with Edward Weston. 1953 he collaborated with Dorothea Lange on a Life commission for a photo essay on the Mormons in Utah In 1962 Adams moved to Carmel, California, where in 1967 he was instrumental in the foundation of the Friends of Photography1984 - Dies April 22 of heart failure aggravated by cancer

The First Photograph-History Review

The first attempt to reproduce the First Photograph was conducted at Helmut Gernsheim's request by the Research Laboratory of the Eastman Kodak Company in Harrow, England, in March of 1952. After three weeks of work utilizing strong side lighting, high contrast film and the identical angular displacement of the camera and enlarger lenses, the lab produced this copyprint. However, because of the sharpness of the lens and the camera's objective nature of precisely copying the texture and unevenness of the plate itself, Gernsheim declared this negative-like version to be a "gross distortion of the original" and forbade its reproduction until 1977.



Kodak Research Laboratory, Harrow, England.
Gelatin silver print reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras.
March 1952.
Gelatin silver print.
20.3 x 25.4 cm.

Reproduction::
This most famous reproduction of the First Photograph was based upon the March 1952 print, produced at Helmut Gernsheim's request by the Research Laboratory of the Eastman Kodak Company in Harrow. The pointillistic effect is due to the reproduction process and is not present in the original heliograph. Gernsheim himself spent eleven hours on March 20, 1952, touching up with watercolors one of the prints of the Kodak reproduction. His attempt was meant to bring the heliograph as close as possible to a positive representation of how he felt Niépce intended the original should appear. It is this version of the image which would become the accepted reproduction of the image for the next fifty years.

The view, made from an upper, rear window of the Niépce family home in Burgundy, in the village of Saint-Loup-de-Varennes near Chalon-sur-Saône. Representationally the subject matter includes [from left to right]: the upper loft (or, so-called "pigeon-house") of the family home; a pear tree with a patch of sky showing through an opening in the branches; the slanting roof of the barn, with the long roof and low chimney of the bake house behind it; and, on the right, another wing of the family house. Details in the original image are very faint, due not to fading -- the heliographic process is a relatively permanent one -- but rather to Niepce's underexposure of the original plate.



Helmut Gernsheim & Kodak Research Laboratory, Harrow, England.
Gelatin silver print with applied watercolor reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras.
March 20-21, 1952.
Gelatin silver print and watercolor.
20.3 x 25.4 cm.

Basic of Photography composition rules

Composing a photograph is essentially an editing process — deciding what to leave in and what to leave out. There are basic accepted criteria for good composition that, when applied, will help you achieve visual harmony or dynamic tension. Faithfully following all the "rules" of composition will not necessarily culminate in a good photograph. The rules are intended more as guidelines than strict dogma, but they will help you design well-balanced images that are pleasing to the eye. While it may be the subject that initially attracts viewers to stop and look at an image, it is the artistry of composition that holds them there.Here are some of the basic elements of effective composition:

STRONG FOCAL POINT :

It is usually best to have one main subject as the focal point because a photograph can successfully tell only one story. The main subject can be one object or several, and you may decide to include a secondary subject. But make sure nothing detracts from the focal point. Lacking a strong center of interest forces the viewer to search for something to observe, eyes seeking a resting place. Always give the focal point suficient prominence in the composition so that all other elements are subordinate. Even if the focal point is small, it can be given prominence by composing empty space around it.

RULE OF THIRDS

The exact center of any composition is not a satisfying place for the viewer's eye to come to rest. With the main subject placed in the center, the viewer is less likely to explore the rest of the photograph. In fact, it is preferable to keep the viewer's eye moving. To create movement in your photographs and to avoid the static bull's-eye composition, use the rule-of-thirds guidelines for off-center placement of the main subject. It is the traditional way to create a well-balanced composition and has been used by artists for centuries. To apply the rule of thirds, imagine the scene in your viewfinder divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically, similar to a tic-tac-toe grid laid over the scene. Place the main subject and other important elements of your composition along the grid lines or at the points where the grid lines intersect. Employing the rule of thirds not only helps avoid symmetrical composition but also provides a pleasing proportion of space around the main subject to prevent distracting tension between the focal point and the edge of the frame.





A common compositional faux pas occurs when the horizon is positioned directly through the middle of the frame, bisecting the scene. Utilizing the rule of thirds, the horizon is placed near one of the grid lines. This will lower or raise the horizon in the frame and give emphasis either to a dramatic sky or an interesting foreground.

SIMPLICITY
The best way to present a clear message in a photograph is to keep the composition simple. The fewer elements you have to work with, the easier it is to design a pleasing image and control the viewer's eye movement. There are several ways to simplify a composition, but the primary method is to move in closer to the main subject. Photojournalist Robert Capa said it best: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." Whether you physically move the camera position closer or zoom in optically, getting closer allows you to fill the frame with the subject, paring the composition down to its essential components. It removes visual distractions from the edges of the frame, eliminates superfluous elements and defocuses the background. Shallow depth of field helps to isolate the subject from a busy background by blurring objectionable clutter, and may even create soft pools of complementary color behind the subject.

LEADING LINES

Another compositional technique to create energy and movement in a photograph is the use of leading lines. Whether they are graceful curves or dynamic diagonals, all lines should lead the viewer's eye to the focal point. But be careful with the use of leading lines. They can also work against you by directing the eye away from the subject or, if the line divides the photograph in two, leading it right out of the image.A few other factors to consider when refining your compositions:• Let the lines in your composition decide if the scene should be shot horizontally or vertically. If the scene presents long vertical lines, compose vertically to take full advantage of them. When presented with strong horizontal lines, use a horizontal camera orientation.


This plays to the strengths of the composition and also will help to avoid wasted space at the edges of the frame.• Be aware of white or light areas in your compositions. The viewer's eye will always go to the brightest part of a scene, so eliminate any bright spots that will pull attention away from the main subject.• Look for repetition of shapes and textures. Patterns create rhythm and motion in a composition.• Compose boldly using sweeping diagonal lines. Long horizontal lines can be static and visually boring. Conversely, diagonal lines add visual energy. Change camera angle to pivot prevailing lines so they don't run parallel to the top and bottom edges of the frame.• Try using a wide-angle lens. Compose for a foreground, middle ground and background with overlapping compositional elements to create a three-dimensional effect in a two-dimensional photograph.Obviously, I am only able to scratch the surface of composition basics in this space. There are many other techniques that can lead you to visual harmony. And then there's the other side of the coin — how to successfully break the rules of composition to create dynamic tension. But it is important to know and practice the basics before deviating from them. After they have become second nature to you, begin to experiment. It's okay to break the rules, but do so knowingly and intentionally. When you know and understand the basics of good composition, you will be free to roam the spatial relationships within your viewfinder.


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