This e-book form the folks at Craft&Vision, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, is actually a very good read for beginners or those just stuck on the concepts of exposure (as well as depth of field and affects of shutter speed) and I highly recommend it. I mean, how can you go wrong for $10?
The case studies are all very helpful and go beyond simply the how-to of exposure, but also tell the readers why certain settings are made or why something should be “over” or “under” exposed. Exposure settings for a scene are meaningless unless they’re put in context, and this e-book does a great job of putting them in context.
Fry discusses ISO as well as interpreting and using the information in histograms, those graphs on the back of your camera that seem to really confuse most new users. There’s also a small, but pretty good section on depth of field and hyperfocal focusing. Fry uses a method of setting focus that I’ve never heard of before and I’m looking forward to field testing it. He also touches on one of my very favorite subjects: the depth of field preview button.
The only disappointment was the section on HDR and that’s only because there’s an editing/captioning error that makes it a bit confusing to those not familiar with the technique. There’s an error with the meter graphic in the first (A) image. I believe is should be 1/250 @ f/22 exposure (as described in the text) with the meter showing -2 and the histogram pulled to the left. It’s also referenced on page 44 as being image A-page 44 when it should be image A-page 42. Hopefully most people will figure it out, but it might confuse someone who’s totally new to the concept. Perhaps this can be fixed. Maybe it already has since I and another reviewer have pointed it out in the comments section for this book on the Craft&Vision site.
Still, that’s a minor complaint (though a confusion inducing error) for a book that is, over all, a very good treatment of exposure for outdoor photography.



