Langford's Basic Photography: The guide for serious photographers PDF
Preview Langford's Basic Photography: The guide for serious photographers
Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page i Langford’s Basic Photography Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page ii Dedicated to Michael and P. Langford Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page iii Langford’s Basic Photography The guide for serious photographers Eighth edition Michael Langford FBIPP, HonFRPS Formerly Photography Course Director Royal College of Art, London Anna Fox Course Leader BA Photography University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham Richard Sawdon Smith Deputy Head of College University College for the Creative Arts, Maidstone Contributors Peter Renn Lecturer University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham Christian Nolle Tutor Technician University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham Mark Bolland Lecturer University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham AMSTERDAM• BOSTON• HEIDELBERG• LONDON• NEWYORK• OXFORD • PARIS• SANDIEGO• SANFRANCISCO• SINGAPORE• SYDNEY• TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page iv Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington MA 01803, USA First edition 1965 Second edition 1971; Third edition 1973 Fourth edition 1977; Fifth edition 1986; Sixth edition 1997 [reprinted 1998 (twice), 1999]; Seventh edition 2000 Eighth edition 2007 Copyright © 2000 Michael Langford Copyright © 2007, Anna Fox, Richard Sawdon Smith, Peter Renn, Christian Nolle and Mark Bolland. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The right of Michael Langford, Anna Fox, Richard Sawdon Smith, Peter Renn, Christian Nolle and Mark Bolland to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permission may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone ((cid:1)44) (0) 1865 843830; fax ((cid:1)44) (0) 1865 853333; email: [email protected]. Alternatively you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier website at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier Material Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made British Library of Cataloguing in Publication Data A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN-13: 978-0-240-52035-3 ISBN-10: 0-24-052035-1 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.books.elsevier.com Typeset by Charon Tec Ltd (A Macmillan Company), Chennai, India www.charontec.com 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page v Contents Picture credits xiii Foreword xv Introduction xvii 1 What is photography? 1 Why photography? 1 How photography works 3 Picture structuring 7 The roles photographs play 10 Changing attitudes towards photography 13 Personal styles and approaches 17 Measuring success 21 Summary 22 Projects 23 2 Light: how images are formed 24 Light itself 24 Wavelengths and colours 25 Shadows 26 When light reaches a surface 27 Light intensity and distance 31 Making light form images 32 Summary 37 Projects 38 3 Lenses: controlling the image 39 Photographic lenses 39 Aperture and f-numbers 42 Depth of field 45 How depth of field works 47 Depth of focus 50 Image stabilization 51 Lenses for digital cameras 52 Lens care 52 Summary 53 Projects 54 v Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page vi CONTENTS 4 Cameras using film 55 The essential components 56 Camera types – which is best? 64 How view cameras work 66 How direct viewfinder cameras work 69 How reflex cameras work 74 Summary 80 Projects 81 5 Using different focal length lenses, camera kits 82 Why change focal length? 82 Lens kits 90 Close-up equipment 95 Essentials and extras 98 Horses for courses 100 Summary 101 Projects 102 6 Digital cameras 103 How are digital images captured? 103 Analogue versus digital 104 The megapixel debate 105 Screen output 106 Grain and noise 106 Optical and digital zoom 107 Image stabilizer 107 White balance 108 File types 108 The digital archive 110 Downloading 111 Digital cameras 112 Will digital cameras take over? 115 Summary 116 Projects 116 vi Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page vii CONTENTS 7 Lighting: principles and equipment 117 Basic characteristics of lighting 117 Lighting equipment 124 Practical lighting problems 131 Special subjects 135 Summary 138 Projects 139 8 Organizing the picture 140 Noticing subject features 140 Structuring pictures through the camera 156 Where photographs go 164 Summary 171 Projects 172 9 Films, filters 173 Silver halide emulsions 173 Features common to all films 175 Choosing films for black and white 182 Films for colour photography 185 Storing film – before and after exposure 190 So which film is ‘best’? 190 Filters – how they work 193 Filter kits 202 Summary 203 Projects 204 vii Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page viii CONTENTS 10 Exposure measurement 205 Factors that determine what exposure to give 205 Exposing different film types 207 Measuring exposure (continuous light) 211 Practical exposure tips 220 Measuring exposure for flash 222 Practical flash exposure tips 226 Summary 230 11 Film processing 231 Equipment and general preparations 231 Processing black and white (silver image) negatives 239 Processing chromogenic (colour and black and white) negatives 245 Processing colour slides and transparencies 246 Processing other film materials 249 Processing by machine 249 Permanence of processed results 250 Summary 252 Projects 253 12 Black and white printing: facilities and equipment 254 Darkroom organization 254 Equipment: the enlarger 256 Equipment: accessories 262 Printing papers 263 Safelighting and printing paper sensitivity 268 Processing procedure 270 Summary 275 Projects 275 viii Prelims-K52035.qxd 2/16/07 5:42 PM Page ix CONTENTS 13 Black and white printing: techniques 276 Making contact prints 276 ‘Straight’ enlarging 278 Controls during enlarging 280 Variations 284 Common print faults 290 Chemical afterwork 290 Toning 292 Tinting 294 Retouching 295 Permanence and archiving 296 Summary 299 Projects 300 14 The digital image: post-production 301 Overview 302 The hardware 302 Software programs 306 Basic image editing 313 Advanced image editing 319 Working on pictures 326 Digital ethics 340 Summary 341 Projects 342 15 Finishing and presenting work 343 The permanence of prints 343 Mounting methods 344 Spotting 346 Getting your work noticed 347 Pictures on the World Wide Web 352 How to get connected 354 Summary 355 Projects 357 ix
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