One of the most common ways in which this wonderful art is learned today is through self-taught reading. That is why I bring you a list with some of the best photography books that currently exist.
To understand the basic principles of photography or to acquire information about tricks, special techniques and tips that allow you to improve your photographs, it will not be enough for you to read every article that is going around the internet, you must go to the sources of knowledge. Books are an inexhaustible source of information and inspiration for all those photographers who dare to read them.
However, the vast number of books and the wide variety of authors available for you to acquire all the necessary information and be able to take your photographs to another level, can end up disorienting you instead of helping you perfect yourself as a photographer.
That is why, in today’s article, I have prepared this list with 11 of the best photography books that cannot be missing from your library and that will help you enhance the artist in you.
- Photography Step by Step – Michael Langford
- The Photographer’s Eye – Michael Freeman
- The Camera Lucida – Roland Barthes
- The fundamentals of photography. High Quality Photography
- People Photography – Michael Gnade
- The Secrets of the Photographic Exhibition – Bryan Peterson
- On photography – Susan Sontag
- The Photographer’s Vision: Understanding and Appreciating Good Photography – Michael Freeman
- Read this book if you want to take good pictures – Henry Carrol
- The art of composition – Fran Nieto
- The Personal Photographic Project – Rosa Isabel Vázquez
And if what you are looking for is a gift for another person, here are more ideas to give to photographers.
The Best Photography Books
If you do a quick search looking for the best photography books on the internet, you will realize that the number of titles available about this art is abysmal. Year after year, the number and variety of manuals, books and articles that are published is enormous, which can mean that, if you are taking your first steps, you are not sure where to start.
To help you a little to orient yourself in this sea of ink, I have prepared a list of books that cannot be missing from your photographic library.
1. Photography Step by Step – Michael Langford
Entering the world of photographic bibliography with this book is doing it through the front door. Although it was published in 1978, almost all of its content is still valid today.
Although some of its contents such as development and enlargements are only applicable to analog photography, you can take advantage of these chapters to learn a little about the history of photography while the rest of the chapters will be of great help to you to learn from the fundamentals of camera management to lighting techniques, types of frames, composition rules, etc.
Throughout its more than 200 pages and its 800 illustrations, the author will introduce you in a clear and effective way to the aspects that will be the basis for all the knowledge you acquire later. This is one of my favorite books =).
You can take a look using google books and if you want to get yours, you will find it on Amazon for approximately 30 euros.
2. The Eye of the Photographer – Michael Freeman
This book is really a masterpiece that will help you understand what to do with your camera once you have it in your hands.
With this manual you will be able to take control of each of your photographs since, in a very didactic way, it addresses the principles of composition and design through various examples and diagrams that will help you understand each theme very easily. Have you ever wondered why some photos are more attractive than others? By reading this book you will understand not only why, but also how.
Thanks to this book and the practical guides that extend it, you will be able to fully develop your skills to make your photographs incredible.
You can buy your copy on Amazon for just 24 euros.
3. The Camera Lucida – Roland Barthes
The Chamber of Lucida It is a different photography book than the two manuals I mentioned earlier, in fact, it is probably a book like no other. That’s why I recommend it to you.
With this work you will be able to delve into photography “that is not seen” that is, in its messages, expressions and in the way in which they transmit sensations to turn them into a singular photograph that produces desires in the spectators.
This work seeks to find a meaning to photography beyond the techniques to produce them. If you want to write your own photographs, this is the book for you.
You can get a copy of this copy for only 19 euros on Amazonbut, if you have doubts about its content, take a look before buying it HERE.
Four. The fundamentals of photography. High Quality Photography
The safest thing is that Mellado is an author that, if you don’t already have it, you’ve seen it, it sounds familiar to you, or you’ve looked at one of his books.
Having one of his publications is essential for anyone who wants learn photography self-taught. With this work with exercises at the end, very didactic and clear, full of practical advice and useful information, you will be able to go much further than you imagine.
In this blog, we have dedicated, to date, the review of this title and three others. You can take a look at them before deciding on one or the other 🙂
On Amazon you can find it for approximately 53 euros.
5. People Photography – Michael Gnade
If I had to choose a book to take with me everywhere, it would surely be this one =)
Thanks to this work you will be able to get inside the thoughts of a photographer at the time of taking his shots, the reason for choosing the elements, their arrangement in the frame and the technical equipment necessary to take them.
This book is really a relic since it was published in 1978 but, beyond the change in technology, it is completely current.
The fundamental contribution that you will find in this book is, without a doubt, inspiration, since the photographs that the author chose to illustrate each of the people photography techniques that he used are truly spectacular. In addition, it has another detail, each photograph is accompanied not only by a brilliant explanation but also by diagrams that will help you understand the reason for the choice of composition in each of them.
Getting one of these copies is really difficult, you will most likely find it second-hand, sometimes there are copies available on Amazon At low price.
6. The secrets of the photographic exhibition – Bryan Peterson
The primary raw material of each photograph, light, not only has to be shaped but also known how to capture it.
This work will allow you, in a simple and clear way, to understand all the secrets of photographic exposure through the compression of its three key factors: shutter speed, diaphragm opening and ISO sensitivity.
With this book, carry out a correct measurement and exposure of your photographs, freeing yourself once and for all from the automatic or semi-automatic modes. After all, you are the one who should make the decisions, not your camera.
You can get your copy of this issue for approximately 23 euros on Amazon.
7. On Photography – Susan Sontag
This essay is far from everything that you can find in the vast majority of photography books that you can come across. This work delves into the deepest corners of this wonderful art: its role as a means of ideological communication.
Although it was published in 1975, all the questions and reflections that it raises about photography are still and will continue to be in force for a long time to come, since they make art itself, beyond the means by which it is expressed.
You will find in this work very interesting reflections on the role of photography in today’s society as an artistic discipline that will stimulate you to investigate, experiment and reflect not only on how to carry out photography, but on art itself.
For only 10 euros you can take a trip to the depths of photographic art. You are ready?
8. The Photographer’s Vision: Understanding and Appreciating Good Photography – Michael Freeman
By now you may have realized that I’m really a fan of Michael Freeman, and once you read some of his works, I’m sure you will be too.
Analyzing and understanding the messages of a photograph is not as simple as you might imagine, so this work comes to give you a hand in it.
Through this book you will be able to understand the complicated photographic medium and identify those factors that make a photograph successful.
Through the analysis of the works of the great masters of photography, you will learn how to observe, analyze and understand their work, as well as transfer all that knowledge to your own projects.
This book is not only to read and enjoy but also to reflect and debate all the opinions that the photographs awaken in each one of us.
You can buy a copy of this book for about 23 euros.
9. Read this book if you want to take good pictures – Henry Carrol
If you are looking for a book that, in a simple way, introduces you to all the technical concepts of photography but without falling into innumerable and tedious technicalities, this is the book for you.
This book is far from being a manual, so its reading and understanding is ideal if you are looking for relaxed photographic reading material, that is, you should not study it but rather enjoy reading it.
If the typical manuals, even some of the ones I have recommended here, intimidate you, starting by reading this book will be of great help to you.
It will allow you to learn the fundamentals of photography but through more than 50 photographs and case studies taken from the great masters of classical photography such as Henry Cartier Bresson, to gradually incorporate knowledge as you read.
Another piece of good news: as it lacks all the technicalities typical of this type of work, you do not need to have a digital reflex camera since the concepts covered in this book are applicable to any type of photographer, whatever the camera they have in mind. her hands.
Where to buy it? You can get your copy on Amazon for just 12 euros.
10. The art of composition – Fran Nieto
As its cover indicates, composition is the language of art, so if you want your photographs to speak for you, you can’t leave it out of your list of best photography books that I have to have.
From our way of looking at the fundamentals of…