You Will Be Able to Take Great Photos by the End of This Book by Benedict Brain

As straightforward as it is encouraging, this concise guide to the art and science of photography can help anyone take a good photo, regardless of the camera they are using.

Photography has never been so easy—or so hard. While virtually anyone with a smartphone has the ability to take a photo, most of us don’t know how to take a great one.

Free of intimidating technical jargon, and filled with suggestions, examples, and helpful illustrations, this book offers everything the average person needs to deliver a well-executed, interesting, and thoughtful image.

Its concise chapters explore the anatomy of digital, film, and smartphone cameras; photo editing apps and lenses; and the basic principles of composition, light, and exposures times. It offers pointers on different types of images, such as portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and travel photography, and a list of projects at the end of the book will inspire readers to put what they learn into practice.

Throughout it encourages readers to see the world as a photo opportunity, and to develop a photographer’s eye in every situation. Because the most important element in the picture-taking process is not the sophistication of the camera, but the creative vision of the person holding it.

BENEDICT BRAIN is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and sits on the society’s Distinctions Advisory Panel. He writes a regular column, “The Art of Seeing,” for Digital Camera Magazine, where he also served as editor. He regularly leads tours and workshops on photography and is a frequent judge at major photography shows.

Author Residence: Bath, England