Fundamentals of Photography

Fundamentals of photography: the essential handbook for both digital and film cameras by Tom Ang is a new book that has come into the Learning Centre and is now available for loan.

Contents:

• WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY? -- What is photography -- The imaging process -- Image quality -- Digital principles -- Work flow -- The uses of photography -- Eye and camera compared -- Visual perception -- Composition -- Guiding the eye -- Analysis: Composing with lines
• FUNDAMENTALS OF LIGHT -- Types of light sources -- Properties of light -- The quality of light -- Contrast -- Basic photometry -- Light and exposure -- Exposure and development -- The spectrum -- Recording color -- Color
• THE CAMERA -- Camera controls -- Camera construction -- Viewfinder cameras -- SLR cameras -- Electronic-viewfinder cameras -- Medium-format cameras -- Manual focusing -- Autofocusing -- How focusing systems work -- Short shutter times -- Long shutter times -- How the shutter works -- Depth of field -- Lens aperture -- Aperture effects -- Digital camera features -- Exposure measurement -- Stabilizing the camera -- Photography equipment
• CAPTURING LIGHT -- Film and sensor -- Types of film: black and white -- Capturing color -- Color films: transparency -- Color films: print -- Film formats and applications -- Medium and large formats -- Exposure metering -- Metering techniques -- Digital image capture -- Working in low light -- Digital color capture -- Working with sensor formats
• USING THE LENS -- The photographic lens -- Handling lenses -- Lens specifications -- Zoom lenses -- Normal to wide zooms -- Long zooms -- Lens formulae -- Wide-angle lenses -- Normal lenses -- Aberrations -- Macro lenses -- Medium-long focal length -- Analysis: Working with lenses -- Very long lenses -- Specialist lenses -- Image clarity -- Optimizing lens performance -- Light-adjusting filters -- Special effects and correction filters -- Camera movements -- Analysis: Working with movement -- Panoramic photography -- Photography in challenging conditions
• MANIPULATING LIGHT -- Principles of lighting -- Creating the studio -- Analysis: Working with multiple light sources -- Light modifiers -- Lighting setups -- Actinic light and exposure -- Portable flash -- Using electronic flash
• WORKING WITH COLOR -- Color and vision -- Composing with color -- Color saturation -- Color recording -- Reduced color contrast -- Analysis: Working with color -- Mixed lighting and mixed whites -- Color palettes -- Digital color -- Color management -- Color settings -- Input and output
• PROCESSING THE IMAGE -- Processing the image -- Black-and-white film development -- Developers and other chemicals -- Sensitometry -- Color processing -- In-camera processing -- Raw processing -- Image proportions -- File types and uses -- Image work flow -- Image shape -- File size -- Image levels -- Controlling image tonality -- Burning and dodging -- Analysis: Burning and dodging -- Color balancing -- Color-to-mono conversion -- Cloning, duplicating, healing -- Masks and selections -- Layers -- Layer blend modes -- Darkroom effects -- Basic image sharpening -- Adaptive sharpening
• DIGITIZING THE IMAGE -- From analog to digital -- Types of scanners -- Scanner features -- Scanning work flow -- Advanced scanning -- Image management
• OUTPUTTING THE IMAGE -- Principles of enlargement -- Darkroom equipment -- Black-and-white printing -- Variable-contrast printing and toning -- Color printing methods -- Digital output -- Digital printing -- Archival issues -- Presenting your images -- Displaying your images -- Pictures on the web
• REFERENCES -- Diagnosing film and processing defects -- Compendium of filter effects -- Picture editing -- Copyright FAQ -- Glossary -- Websites and further reading