Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure: The Professional's Guide to Capturing Perfect Digital Photographs

I like the author and I have benefited much from one of his earlier books (Photographer's Eye...). Perfect Exposure is in some sense similar to that one: It is written for those who are familiar with many problems related to recording an image onto his/her medium. Neither is a book for beginners, that is.In this book we see M. Freeman discussing a variety of subjects of his choice which, not surprisingly, includes "exposure". However, as he admits, there are also discussions on other things, like post processing.I somehow think that reading this book resembles listening to an informal talk by a senior in a club. Only the members (here, photographers with a certain level of experience) are allowed to be around. The speaker determines the subject, the content, the order and the pace. So far so good. This might well be the author's idea in writing this book: A rather freestyle talk on a much wondered subject with avid listeners around. Photography jargon should not be a problem for anticipated followers. Still, almost all the terms are explained nicely for those who may want to refresh their memories or to attach the same meaning to a term like the author did.However, the editor(s) and the publisher should have done much better than this! Mr. Freeman's notes, discussions and advice is not presented in an easy to follow manner. The book seems to be consist of separate articles although there is some order at the beginning and there are cross references to photos in other parts. One of the weaknesses in the design is the lack of figure numbers and, in many cases, the legends. I accept the aesthetic appeal of this but I do not think it increases the readability much. Since the placement of the figures follow no rule (like being adjacent to the part of the text it is related to), the reader can be lost easily. An occasional photo/figure of a discussion can even be three pages after the text. The figures, by the way, are nicely chosen for the issue at hand, if you can connect them.Although the less than stellar production makes a disservice to the author; the content, as a whole, is quite valuable. Almost all the difficult shooting conditions are dealt with. In most of these, the author first acknowledges the difficulty and then discusses various approaches to overcome them. Still, I should warn those who are looking for recipes. The title and the list of contents might suggest that you are certain to find recipes for all easy or difficult exposure situations; there is only a little of those here! I must tell you before you build up anger that the lack of easy to follow recipes is, in fact, a sign of the author's respect to you, as a club member! He believes in you and in your powers to find/create your own recipe for each and every situation according to "your own" ideas and style. He only points to potential paths you can take; it should be your journey.I am serious and I do like to be valued like I have described above. What I dislike most in books like this is statements like "you idiot, just follow the rules I am listing...". Freeman may be doing something right and something suboptimal but he is never intimidating and his approach is always in a truly professional & friendly manner (unlike some others who just replace "you idiot" with "dear reader").All in all, I recommend Perfect Exposure to those who have enough experience about the subject. I do not know a measure of "enough" but I can make one for you if you do not mind! As clicking the shutter of a digital camera has become very easy (in terms of cost etc.) here is my recommended classification of photographic experience (not to be taken too seriously!):<10.000 clicks ....... Novice10.000-20.000 clicks ....... Curious or long time user (can still be a novice)20.000-50.000 clicks ....... Enthusiast (this book is probably for you)> 50.000 clicks ....... ... Well, you should not be reading this, anyway :)

Freeman is one of the busiest and most versatile photographers going. He is constantly travelling the world from one assignment to the next and seems to be working simultaneously on the assignment de la semaine and on more than one book at at time: the next instructional book and probably a portfolio/thematic picture book. Either he has an outstanding team back in UK, or he is blessed with extraordinary energy. Maybe he has so much book writing time because of all the time he is in the air....This is the most intelligent, systematic writing on photographic exposure I know of since the first two issues of Peterson's Photographic magazine in the late 1970s, when it started either as a bimonthly or a quarterly - I forget which. Those two issues carried long, detailed articles on the correct uses of reflective and incident meters in light, shade, and with gray cards. Nothing since has been as comprehensive and useful, until this book.Freeman uses the capabilities of digital equipment as an integral part of his argument. The core of the book is his breaking the population of exposure situations into twelve categories - three groups with several types - that are easy to recognize in real shooting situations. The crux of this categorization is the histogram. He specifies what the specific characteristics are of each situation and what the most likely manipulations are that help a shooter evaluate and improve an image. I think his use of a "tonal matrix" is particularly interesting and has the potential to be useful, too, with color distribution to understand the abstract structure of an image. This section alone makes the book worth buying.None of the other books on exposure currently in print is anywhere near so systematic. They tend to be aimed at beginning photographers and are generally presentations of pretty pictures and how the author/photographer used exposure for that image. The arrangement is generally of over/underexposing, movement, night shooting, and such topics.I do have some concerns and wishes, though. There are a few instances where I could not quite see or understand the point of a set of illustrations and the captions. Too, I wish he would have spent a few more pages looking at exposure and specific hues/colors.But the numbers of such instances are so few as not to threaten my judgment of the value of this book to any photographer of moderate to high sophistication. This will be a fine addition to his "Photographer's Eye" and "Color" as longstanding references. His approach is an obvious teaching method that I suspect will be taken up soon in many a class and workshop.

There are oodles of beginner-level books that explain and examine exposure (my personal favorite being  Bryan Peterson's Understanding Photography Field Guide )--but not many options for those photography enthusiasts looking for guidance beyond the basics. Michael Freeman's  Perfect Exposure  fills this gap admirably. It's meaty, it's challenging, and I fully anticipate that I will reread it again and again over the years--and learn something new every time. If you're a prosumer looking for a serious treatment of exposure, or even a professional looking for a refresh or just a fresh take, this is the book for you.That said, this book isn't for everyone. Freeman assumes his readers already have a basic understanding of exposure, so he doesn't spend time on the basics. The writing is dense (hence "challenging"), but worth taking the time to unpack. The layout of the examples can be a bit frustrating; none of the examples are numbered or otherwise identified, so sometimes it's difficult (if not impossible) to determine which pictures the accompanying explanatory text is referencing when. But that's an editing/design issue, not a Freeman issue, and overall it doesn't impede understanding of Freeman's exposition. I had no trouble getting past these things--but I can see how others might.Overall, highly recommended. But it's up to you to self-select and determine whether this book is suitable for your wants, needs, and aspirations--and personally, I do believe there are enough reviews on Amazon that you'll be able to make that determination fairly accurately.

Excellent book, shame it is no longer readily available. Fantastic illustration that really brings the technical aspects to life, challenging but with very clear instructions on getting much better exposures and more control over exposures.

Excellent, a very clear book. I'd previously been familiar with Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. This books gave me more confidence in understanding how I need to think when capturing an Exposure Setting (which part of each picture), plus when I should consider over/under exposing. So, added a couple of extra dimensions to my photography fun. Thanks very much Michael Freeman!!!!

Great book, clearly and concisly written. Down to the point, great for starters of people who want to further their knowledge in photography. It doesn't get much better than this.

I came to this book after many years of not having done a lot of photography. I had just bought my first dslr and was not very happy with the results. It was obvious that I just didn't understand exposure enough.This book opened my eyes in a very enjoyable way. There is a high level of professionalism from Michael Freeman and this is evident in the book. I guess I would not recommend it for complete novices however it is easily, and well, written and has a fairly no nonsense approach to a technical subject.The book covers the main range of possible exposure situations a photographer will find themselves in and has clear ideas on how to deal with them. I did find it refreshing that the author makes it clear that there is no "correct" exposure as the photographer is the one who needs to know what they wish to portray. Well written and good value for money.

A bit hard to digest as the first book to read on this topic. I think I'll come back to it repeatedly over the years..