Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#21

Post by danso » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 3:11 PM UTC

Cd00d wrote: post #19

lusr wrote: post #8

I've seen some of Dan's great photos before and it's awesome to be able to learn from him. Some of the advice he gives are things I've learned myself and explained to people before, and much of it is also new so I'm pretty excited to get through this properly. One thing I would add, having been through this before myself and seeing my girlfriend going through it now as she takes up photography, is dealing with how pe…

Agreed. I used to take a lot of macro shots of flowers as I traveled and did a lot of hiking in varying ecosystems. Playing with focal depth and framing was a great pleasure, and my shots were frequently something I was really proud of. Then I had a roommate say in a pseudo off-hand passive aggressive way that she didn't understand nature photography - "I mean, it's not like the photographer made the flower, it was a…

It's obviously not worth dwelling now, many years later, but I think you should've dismissed her comment based on her premise ("it's not like the photographer made the flower..."). It is a hard balance between pursuing what you think is art and appealing to others; but if a critic's reasoning is flawed, then you're justified in having an air of superiority.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#22

Post by dugmartin » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 3:23 PM UTC

aw3c2 wrote: post #9

website feedback: The text is way too big for me and the centered layout could use some differentiation of "content pane" to "left and right emptiness". The photos are huge too and somehow make me completely lose place and orientation. I have no idea how to fix it though. It could work on wide screens (would work on 1680x1050 already) if you placed images and text side by side.

More feedback - you have a utf-8 encoding problem in the first paragraph within "for learning your camera’s manual controls". It looks like the single quote was encoded by Word and doesn't translate to utf-8 - I see it as an accented "i". Just replace the ’ with ’ in the html.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#23

Post by dr42 » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 3:26 PM UTC

As someone with 25 years of photography, I cannot recommend this "book". Starting with the very first photo, a typical photojournalist shot, super wide angle shooting into the sun photo. This just continues into the book with cliched subjects (sunsets, cats) and advice like "take lots of photos"

The section in aperture starts out with a photo that's hard to look at its so badly exposed.

The section on metering is just plain wrong, true only for spot metering, which most of the people who read this beginners guide are not going to be using. For the people it actually targets its misleading to talk about which spot the camera is metering on.

There are many many better books than this which will give beginners a grounding in the mechanics of photography.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#24

Post by hk_kh » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 3:42 PM UTC

dr42 wrote: post #23

As someone with 25 years of photography, I cannot recommend this "book". Starting with the very first photo, a typical photojournalist shot, super wide angle shooting into the sun photo. This just continues into the book with cliched subjects (sunsets, cats) and advice like "take lots of photos" The section in aperture starts out with a photo that's hard to look at its so badly exposed. The section on metering is jus…

If you know of better books it would be a nice idea to put them on your comment (bashing is good, but giving alternatives is better).

For instance, I dived in the technical basics of my old SLR with this book I found at my parent's house: Photography - the guide to technique by Andrew Hawkins, Dennis Avon [1].

This is probably an outdated and now useless guide, but answered me many questions I had when I started.

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photography-Guide-Technique-Andrew-H...

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#25

Post by rome » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 3:58 PM UTC

Cd00d wrote: post #19

lusr wrote: post #8

I've seen some of Dan's great photos before and it's awesome to be able to learn from him. Some of the advice he gives are things I've learned myself and explained to people before, and much of it is also new so I'm pretty excited to get through this properly. One thing I would add, having been through this before myself and seeing my girlfriend going through it now as she takes up photography, is dealing with how pe…

Agreed. I used to take a lot of macro shots of flowers as I traveled and did a lot of hiking in varying ecosystems. Playing with focal depth and framing was a great pleasure, and my shots were frequently something I was really proud of. Then I had a roommate say in a pseudo off-hand passive aggressive way that she didn't understand nature photography - "I mean, it's not like the photographer made the flower, it was a…

Reminds me of this anecdote.

Your camera takes great pictures.

Thank you. Your mouth gives great compliments.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#26

Post by pooriaazimi » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 4:01 PM UTC

I'm no photographer, but enjoyed these stunning photos nevertheless and shared this link with some friends.

One thing I noticed though (and as you posted it on HN, I think it's not nitpicking for pointing it out): why are you hijacking mouse clicks?! I really, really hate it when I command-click (open in a new tab) on a link, and the site decides that, no, you really should view the content in the same tab...

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#27

Post by calinet6 » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 4:20 PM UTC

I just read the article, "Why even buy a camera?" because it's a subject near and dear to my heart, one I've debated with many photographer friends. Many insist that you should learn on a camera with manual controls, and some insist that it's all in the light and any camera will do.

You handled this question perfectly. Not even kidding. Down to every finer point of debate, you nailed the balance and gave the best, most helpful possible answers, including visual backup to express the true differences.

Absolutely fantastic. I'll be sharing this with other photographer friends and those interested in learning more. Great work. Thanks for posting.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#28

Post by statictype » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 4:57 PM UTC

Great work. Do you have any plans on releasing this as a nicely packaged ebook? I'd probably pay for that instead of having to individually instapaper each page.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#29

Post by dr42 » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 5:19 PM UTC

hk_kh wrote: post #24

dr42 wrote: post #23

As someone with 25 years of photography, I cannot recommend this "book". Starting with the very first photo, a typical photojournalist shot, super wide angle shooting into the sun photo. This just continues into the book with cliched subjects (sunsets, cats) and advice like "take lots of photos" The section in aperture starts out with a photo that's hard to look at its so badly exposed. The section on metering is jus…

If you know of better books it would be a nice idea to put them on your comment (bashing is good, but giving alternatives is better). For instance, I dived in the technical basics of my old SLR with this book I found at my parent's house: Photography - the guide to technique by Andrew Hawkins, Dennis Avon [1]. This is probably an outdated and now useless guide, but answered me many questions I had when I started. [1]…

I deliberately avoided suggesting alternatives because I think the best advice for a beginner is to stop with all the pretentious 'arty' photo techniques and take snapshots.

But, if pressed, I would suggest this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Photography-Very-Short-Introduction-In...

Most colleges have continuing education classes in photography. Stanford for example, I know does.

Re: Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography

#30

Post by danso » Thu, Jun 21, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

calinet6 wrote: post #27

I just read the article, "Why even buy a camera?" because it's a subject near and dear to my heart, one I've debated with many photographer friends. Many insist that you should learn on a camera with manual controls, and some insist that it's all in the light and any camera will do. You handled this question perfectly. Not even kidding. Down to every finer point of debate, you nailed the balance and gave the best, mo…

Thanks...I honestly question how much reliable advice I could give, as I've arguably overspent, even as I'm not caught up in the arms race. Someone did point out that iOS has special apps that do allow shutter speed control, so I'll have to come up with a few other different usecases.