It's Not About The F-Stop (Voices That Matter) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Jay Maisel has been hailed as one of the most brilliant and gifted photographers of all time. But he is also much more than that–he is a mentor, teacher, and trailblazer to many photographers, and a hero to those who feel Jay’s teaching has changed the way they see and create their own photography. He is a living legend whose work is studied around the world, and whose teaching style and presentation garner standing ovations and critical acclaim every time he takes the stage. In his first educational book, Light, Gesture, and Color, Jay put his amazing insights and learning moments from a lifetime behind the lens into a book that communicated the three most important aspects of street photography: light, gesture, and color. Here, in It’s Not About the F-Stop, Jay builds on that success to take you beyond the buttons and dials on your camera to continue to teach you how to “see” like a photographer, and how to capture the world around you in a way that delights, intrigues, and challenges the viewer. Each page unveils something new and inspires you to rethink everything you know about the bigger picture of photography. This isn’t a book about f-stops or ISOs. It’s about seeing. And nobody communicates this, visually or through the written word, like Jay Maisel.
Series: Voices That Matter
Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (April 4, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321987128
ISBN-13: 978-0321987129
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 0.8 x 10.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #186,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #40 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Equipment, Techniques & Reference > Lighting #125 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Equipment, Techniques & Reference > Digital Editing #255 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Visual Arts > Photography
"It's not about the F-Stop" is, as the title implies, a non-technical book about photography. Specifically, it's a book about how to see the world around you and photograph it. Lessons are drawn from the authors own work and are accompanied by brief stories or captions that attempt to impart wisdom to the reader.This book is best approached in a non-linear fashion- you don't need to read from start to finish because the lessons rarely build on previous pages. This was frustrating at first, but I found myself more drawn to the work if I simply appreciated the photographs first with no expectation of unlocking any secrets by reading the caption.Even though it's clear that the author is not trying to "dazzle the reader with amazing photos", it is disappointing that the quality of some of the photographs is not what we'd expect from the author/photographer. Several are excellent, but too many are boring. Maisel intentionally shows us a few garbage photos to make a point by showing the better version on the next page, but at least a third of the "good ones" are less than what I'd expect. It took 47 pages to arrive a photo that was really absorbing and about as long to get past the cliches in the captions and into the good stories.The book seems to be intentionally disorganized. There's a mix of art and commercial work scattered throughout as Maisel attempts to rap with the reader about photography; addressing the reader in an offhand way that tries neither to impress nor browbeat. He simply tries to engage you with photography. When Maisel treats us to the stories accompanying the photos, this book shines.
Jay Maisel is a big name, commanding big bucks, so why do I feel so cheated by his book?Reputation shouldn’t allow for the half-heartedness that I feel is the problem with this book. There’s an incompleteness that really irritates me. The photographs he has selected are very good but they’re not all greats, and they’re not really contemporary enough to really have much to say. Yes there are compositions which are interesting, yes there are compositions which are compelling to the eye, and sadly there’s quite a lot which I don’t really like. I’m a heretic, I know.I have a big problem with photographer’s books where the anecdotes occupy a greater space than the pictures, because unless it’s their autobiography, the reason for the book is the pictures. I find the approach taken with Jay Maisel’s falls into this familiar format. Rather than giving the technicalities of the shot or the creative process involved in making the shot, we’re treated to a series of asides about how he disregards the client’s wishes and delivers what he wanted to give or what he could talk them into accepting. Whilst this isn’t unknown in the advertising industry, it paints a sort of gung-ho picture of working with blue chip clients. From my own experience it’s a little less free and a lot more art director lead creativity to fit in with the campaign specifics of the end client and outlet – maybe the world has changed since then. If you get carte blanche to be able to hand in a picture of a kid playing in water rather than the brief from the client then fair play to you for that, but most us have to deliver with almost no wriggle room.
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