If you, like me, are in the Macro photography field, then make you a big favor and don't waste your money with this book. I have dozens of photography books but this one is the worst of them all. It shows a bunch of photos of a couple giving a course to students, shows very bad flash techniques and doesn't even mention the most used flash systems for macro photography like Flash Rings, SpeedLite, SpeedLight, Twin Lite, etc. just a bunch of flash diffusers. The macro photos are pathetic and many of them are "really" out of focus with a legend that says that you can make them to suggest a subject... what was that? I really regret to have spent my money on this crap. Really a bad bad book. Flash Techniques for Macro and Close-Up Photography: A Guide for Digital Photographers
I read this book from cover to cover the night it arrived. The photography you'll find inside is inspirational, and got me feeling a little intimidated, because obviously I wanted to get similar images. Thankfully the authors give a lot of instruction for how you can achieve similar results. Not only does the book cover using off camera flash for macro images, but they review a lot of the basics that are so vital to getting artful images from your camera. I love the watercolor like images that they have as examples, it's another way to look at photography other than just point, frame a subject and shoot. Spoiler Alert: go to page 42 to learn how you can FLIP your lens to use it backwards. It's amazing. I tried it with just holding the lens and had so much fun with my "new" lens. I am going to go buy a reversing ring tomorrow!
I have other photographers ask me about shooting the macro style for flowers or fine are style photogaphy and sometimes I would struggle with the ansewers. THIS BOOK gives the answers. Covering equipment and techniques, and some good how to's. Close up photography for the digital photography will help eliminate some of the guess work, and lessen your mistakes. So tell all of your Close up and macrop photography friends about the book, once you get yours. Also could be a good Mother or Fathers day gift.
You can picture large prints of the images in this book looking amazing as they hang on walls in your living room, or your favorite restaurant's walls, or your child's bedroom. Then, you realize, with some know how, practice, patience and luck, you can create similar images yourself. Like a lot of similar, how-to-ish photography books, this one has some technical guidance for the beginner and intermediate photographer, but it also offers a lot for the experienced shooter who has not ventured much into the close-up and macro world. It will make you want to get out there and do it. A beginner might want to read through slowly and practice each level and variation of shooting set up as he goes. But, if you've been shooting creatively and have a solid understanding of your camera, lenses, and using your flash/flashes off camera, then the book serves as an excellent inspiration to get out there and do it. I have an old macro lens that I am excited to dust off and put into practice.
I'm rather fascinated by the negative reviews on this book. They say two things that simply make no sense.
1. Amhearst is run by a pack of idiots who would repeatedly publish books by authors who don't know what they're doing.
2. Photo realistic images are the only 'correct' and 'good' form of photography.
You have to realize a couple things you're reading them. First... that even the concept of 'photo realism' is somewhat of a misnomer. National Geographic images are broadly considered the pinnacle of photo realism and if you believe that what you see in those images is precisely what you would see if you were there in person viewing what that photographer saw, you'd be dead wrong. The photographer made choices about depth of field, color temperature, and many other factors to create the image that he/she created. They created an interpretation of the world they saw with their eyes with the goal of providing the viewer with a perhaps hyper realistic view of what they actually saw. Second, that all it takes to characterize yourself as a 'professional photographer' is to have sold a photograph. Anyone that has gone out to hire a wedding photographer is aware of the range of skill and knowledge out there.
At the clear risk of being accused of being an Amhearst review drone, I'm going to admit that YES I own the series of books this couple wrote and I like them and I recommend them. That said, I'm going to be very clear. If your view of photography is that any image that is not photo realistic is 'bad' then this book is not for you. It is also not for you if you believe that you require a lot of expensive photographic equipment to take good photographs. If you think there might be other possibilities, read on.
Few professional photographers have the level of experience, credentials, and awards that the Deutschmann's have. You can read the biographical notes in their book(s) or do a bit of surfing to get their background. These authors have a love of photography as art. They create images that communicate what they feel about something and their images require a high level of vision and skill to create.
Their book offers unique insights in to how to do that yourself. Certainly photo realistic images are photographic art, that is not in question. But they are not the only style and they are not the only 'good' photographic images. The authors are on a mission to make photography accessible and not so darned intimidating (as it is to a lot of people). To do this, they include some images of students in their classes... because their students are regular people and they want you to see that regular people can create photographic art. They offer ways to utilize common household materials, re-purpose less expensive / older photographic equipment etc. to achieve specific effects while keeping costs down. If you're a bit of a DIYer, this will appeal to you. Lastly, their books are not instructional manuals... they are how to's with plenty of examples of what you can achieve. What's the difference? I've picked up (and discarded) plenty of photography books that tell you 'under this circumstance, set your aperture to thus and so and your shutter speed to this and that' and you'll get this great image. HUH!? first, who the heck wants to produce a photo that looks exactly like that and do you really want to memorize all that (or keep notes)? What these authors do is provide a more intuitive path to creating images. They point you down that path and tell you to create what YOU want to create, not what someone tells you is a good image.
I made a point separately about paintings and someone considering Escher's more realistic drawings 'art' while saying the paintings of Monet or Dali are simply bad... after all, they are out of focus and distorted, respectively. These two artists have not created images that actually look like what they were painting. How terrible! Right?
Photography is art in precisely the same way a sketched or painted image is. It is simply art created with a different medium. I can't tell you how many reviews I've read that say 'this is terrible, landscapes must be taken at most one or two clicks off these optimal camera settings'. Really? WHO exactly wrote that into law? That's just silly. What folks like that are saying is that their concept of photography is limited to trying to capture things exactly how they are seeing them... and that they refuse to admit, or simply aren't aware, that even in doing that they are interpreting what they see.
Oh, and BTW.. if you follow National Geographic feeds, they publish images or image series regularly and some of their more recent photographic series featured images in which the use of blur was quite similar to some of what the Deutschmann's have done. Blur is simple one of a myriad of tools in a photographers toolbox to create images. Like it, don't like it? Your choice. There is NO rule that says it's 'wrong' or 'bad photography'.
Lastly, sure... the author's writing style is passionate, lighthearted and encouraging. This is not a technical book in the sense of one you would be given in a college course on photography. That is not it's intent. - Do It Yourself - Photography - Photography Book - Macro'
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