Synopses & Reviews
Light & Lens: Photography in the Digital Age is a groundbreaking introductory book that clearly and concisely provides the instruction and building blocks necessary to create thought-provoking digitally based photographs. It is an adventurous idea book that features numerous classroom-tested assignments and exercises from leading photographic educators to encourage you to critically explore and make images from the photographers’ eye, an aesthetic point of view.
Acquire a basic foundation for digital photography. Light and Lens covers the fundamental concepts of image-making; how to use today’s digital technology to create compelling images; and how to output and preserve images in the digital world.
Explore the history, theory and methods of digital image-making. Light and Lens translates the enduring aesthetics of art photography into the digital realm. You’ll view, capture and think about images from a new perspective.
Increase your ability to analyze, discuss and write about your own work and the images of others.
Learn with exercises and assignments by leading digital educators. Innovative techniques will train your eye to make the strongest visual statement.
Solve visual problems and overcome image challenges. Whether you use a digital SLR or a point-and-shoot camera, you’ll get new strategies to master composition, design and light.
View the full range of the digital terrain with stunning images and commentary by over 190 international artists.
Robert Hirsch is a renowned photographer, educator, historian and writer. His book credits include
Photographic Possibilities: The Expressive Use of Ideas,
Materials and Processes;
Exploring Color Photography: From the Darkroom to the Digital Studio; and
Seizing the Light: A History of Photography. He has had many one-person shows and curated numerous exhibitions. Hirsch has also conducted many workshops and interviewed eminent photographers of our time. The former executive director of CEPA Gallery, he is now the director of Light Research in Buffalo, New York, and on the Visual Studies faculty of University of Buffalo/The State University of New York.
Robert Hirsch’s new edition of Exploring Color Photography is also now available from Focal Press!
*Applies technology in the service of ideas *Emphasizes conceptual problem solving in photography today
* Full of beautiful and inspiring images
Review
Fills a missing gap by taking the traditional educational approach to teaching photography in an art department, with the emphasis on the new angles introduced by digital technology
Review
"Light and Lens encapsulates contemporary photographic practice in a thought-provoking, creatively organized, yet easy to use resource that I know I will be adopting for more than one course." -- Elizabeth Lee, SUNY Fredonia
"Congratulations on a fine new text book. I used the book in a second semester class last semester and appreciate your usual dedication to ideas and picture content. We spent quite a bit of time talking about ideas generated by the text. A nice break from the struggle to teach software. I will use the book again this coming fall for the same class." -- Barry Andersen, Northern Kentucky University
Synopsis
In the tumultuous, ever-shifting terrain of the digital age, this groundbreaking introductory book offers the strength and stability of the fundamental aesthetic and technical building blocks necessary to create visually stimulating and thought-provoking digitally based photographs.
About the Author
Robert Hirsch is a photographer, writer, and the Director of Light Research (lightresearch.net). His books include Seizing the Light: A History of Photography, Photographic Possibilities: The Expressive Use of Ideas, Materials, and Processes, and Exploring Color Photography. Hirsch is a former Associate Editor for Digital Camera (UK) and Photovision Magazine, and a contributor to Afterimage, exposure, Buffalo Spree, Fotophile, FYI, History of Photography, Ilford Photo Instructor Newsletter, and The Photo Review, as well as former Director of CEPA Gallery.
The former executive director of CEPA Gallery, he is now director of Light Research in Buffalo, NY.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Why We Make Pictures: A Concise History of Visual Ideas
2.Design: Visual Foundations
3.Image Capture: Cameras, Lenses, and Scanners
4.Exposure and Filters
5.Seeing with Light
6.Observation: Eyes Wide Open
7.Time, Space, Imagination and the Camera
8.Digital Studio: Where the Virtual Meets the Material World
9.Presentation and Preservation
10.Seeing with a Camera
11.Solutions: Thinking and Writing About Images
12.Photographer on Assignment
Addendum I: Safety
Addendum II: Careers