I noticed that more and more young amateurs prefer still life photography instead of going out in nature or on the streets. “Still Life and Special Effects Photography” by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz is a wonderful choice for those looking for an entry point into the professional or fun end of this type of photography. Some of the photography is quite dated and old fashioned, but it’s proving a good base in this field.
As for how the book presents the shooting techniques, there is one page with the image as final product and on the opposite page a detailed drawing and explanation of how everything was set up in black and white sketch (a 2-D plan view of the lighting and studio setup, a 3-D illustration of the studio setup), plus technical details of each image, the photographers comments and other informations.
To understand this book you must have a solid base of photography already build (it’s hard to learn from it if you are a beginner) – not just because of all the studio facts and shooting techniques, but mostly because still life and special effects photography is far more complex than snapshotting.
[tags]still life photography, still life and special effects photography, photography book, special effects in photography[/tags]
