Better Photography
A Review of Better Photography Learning to See Creatively
by Brad Jeske
How do you get better pictures? Remember that gorgeous sunset on your last vacation, and after you stumbled about setting up all of your camera gear, you got the picture. Only to see, after it came back from the photography shop, it wasn't anything like you had hoped for. How do you get those great shots? Buying more expensive, cameras, lenses or filters aren't the answer; it's learning to look at your pictures taking more creatively.
Maybe, your first step should be to take a look at DiAmar Production's new interactive CD, Better Photography, "Learning to See Creatively". This CD is the second in the critically acclaimed Better Photography series, based on the best-selling books by Bryan Peterson. This CD is loaded with more than 700 images, along with 200 audio clips from Peterson describing composition and techniques.
Bryan Peterson is a professional photographer, author and instructor, who specializes in available light photography. He has written three books on photography and is a contributing editor to Outdoor Photography magazine. Peterson has also won many awards for his work in photography, and has taught more than 12,000 people in workshops across the country.
Better Photography is broken down into six main topics:
Getting Started
Interactive Theater
Workshops
Before & After
Photolab
Gallery
The Getting Started section, contains: Introduction to Seeing Creatively. This area is an overview as to what is contained in the rest of the CD.
If you're a beginner, I suggest you begin with the Interactive Theater. Expanding Your Vision with Lenses tells you about lenses and how they can effect the outcome of a image. Wide-angle, normal and zoom lenses are covered. Elements of Design discusses how to composed your photographs, choosing the main subject of your photograph, and avoiding a lot of unnecessary space. Composing Strong Photographs reinforces ideas of good photography by using simple rules to apply to your picture taking. Exposure Options delves into the area that is sometimes the most confusing for beginning photographers. "What should my exposure be?" Here Peterson gives some insight to help you understand exposure better.
The Magic of Available Light explains the differences in using light to create mood, by shooting pictures under different types of lighting conditions.
Two of most powerful areas on this CD are the Workshop and Photolab. These two areas allow the user to experiment on a wide variety of different photographic levels. These sections allow for a more hands-on approach where your results are immediate. This is something that photography books can't do.
The Workshop has the ability to mix and match 14 different workshops and cross-reference them with 88 topics. If there is a specific area you'd like to explore and work in, then you could do that here. The Workshop area includes everything from exposure to using available light. There's even some exercises to try for the hard-core enthusiast.
The second part of this power duo is Photolab. This section is broken down into Aperture, Lenses, Shutter and Film speed. These areas work independently from one another, but with the ability to experiment with what happens to an image if you shoot it at a different aperture for example. Or how shutter speed effects a picture is all covered here.
As with the Workshop, Photolab gives a photographer control of what would happen if you tried a different lens, or played around with a different aperture, by seeing and understanding how these individual items can affect a image.
A note about the Workshop and the Interactive Theater, the subject matter of these two areas are the same. The Workshop gives you the flexibility to go through the topics in any order you wish. The Interactive Theater has a pre-defined sequence that contains over six hours of instruction.
Before & After has 300 pictures demonstrating the photographic possibilities of looking at a scene. These excellent examples show how to search for the most interesting ways to get better shots in your own picture taking. Along with many of the pictures are sound-bites with Peterson describing what he was thinking, and some of the techniques he used. Along with this is the technical data of what kind of lens, aperture, shutter speed, and film speed was used.
The final section of the CD is called Gallery. This is a collection of Peterson's own portfolio, divided into the sections Scenery, People, Close-ups, Landscapes and More Scenery. Here you can find are more than 450 photographs, along with the technical data for each image.
Better Photography is an excellent CD for both the beginner and the advanced photographer. I have had two years of photography in college and I can say that this CD is a great source of reference. My only reservation about this CD was the price: $59.95 for the CD alone, and $79.95 to include the book on which this program was based. When I first saw this product I thought the price to be somewhat higher than other CD's I've reviewed. But after viewing it, I feel that the price is justifiable, especially with the Workshop and Photolab. Those two sections make this CD well worth the price.
If the price doesn't affect you, then I feel that this is a CD that you'll come back to again and again, to look at the photography, or to use the Workshop. Either way, if you want to improve on your family/travel pictures, or you are serious about your picture taking, Better Photography can help head you in the right direction.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: |
Better Photography Learning to See Creatively |
| Company: |
DiAmar Interactive Corp.
|
| Cost: |
CD-ROM Only $59.95 w/ book $79.95 |
System Requirements:
Windows
80386SX processor or higher
Windows 3.1 or higher with MS DOS 5.0 or higher
Hard disk with 4 MB of space available
4 MB of RAM (8 recommended)
MCI compatible sound card and speakers
13" VGA (640 x 480, 256 color) monitor and graphics card
CD-ROM drive (2x or faster)
Macintosh
Macintosh II or higher
System 7.0 or higher
Hard disk with 2 MB of space available
4 MB of RAM
CD-ROM drive (2x or faster)
13" 256-color monitor (640 x 480, 8 bit)
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 3
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Interface 5
Replayability 3
Overall Score:
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