
Show HN: The Bastards Book of Photography - danso
http://photography.bastardsbook.com/
======
lusr
I've seen some of Dan's great photos before and it's awesome to be able to
learn from him. Some of the advice he gives are things I've learned myself and
explained to people before, and much of it is also new so I'm pretty excited
to get through this properly.

One thing I would add, having been through this before myself and seeing my
girlfriend going through it now as she takes up photography, is dealing with
how people respond to your photos.

It can be disheartening when you take what you think is a great shot and
nobody else (on Facebook, reddit/r/itookapicture, Flickr, etc.) seems to be
interested. These feelings can be exaggerated when you see the photo that
everybody _is_ talking about is a simple cat photo or of some exotic location
or event you're unlikely to find yourself in.

It's important not to allow yourself to feel discouraged.You have to just
stick to your hobby for the original reason you picked up the camera in the
first place and not to allow yourself to side-tracked by a lack of validation.
It's important to seek out the opportunities leading to photos that you
treasure and to remember that if others also enjoy your output that's a bonus,
but not a healthy goal.

I'm not sure if Dan has experienced this (he may not have been concerned by
what others think), but I believe it could be greatly beneficial to bring this
mindset to the attention of readers so that if they find themselves feeling
discouraged that they are aware of what's going on and how to deal with it
constructively.

~~~
Cd00d
Agreed.

I used to take a lot of macro shots of flowers as I traveled and did a lot of
hiking in varying ecosystems. Playing with focal depth and framing was a great
pleasure, and my shots were frequently something I was really proud of.

Then I had a roommate say in a pseudo off-hand passive aggressive way that she
didn't understand nature photography - "I mean, it's not like the photographer
made the flower, it was already there."

I really felt it undermined some of my best efforts, while clearly not
understanding anything about photography. But then she also felt a $200 point
and shoot was superior to all my oversized stuff.

I guess these days I'm too lazy to carry around more than an iPhone, and not
interested in spending a lot of money on that hobby. I doubt that comment has
had an impact on my passion for the hobby, but then again, I remember that
comment with glaring clarity and it's been about 8 years.

~~~
rome
Reminds me of this anecdote.

Your camera takes great pictures.

Thank you. Your mouth gives great compliments.

~~~
tedmiston
"This picture is excellent, you must have a nice camera."

"This dinner is excellent, you must have a nice oven."

------
calinet6
I just read the article, "Why even buy a camera?" because it's a subject near
and dear to my heart, one I've debated with many photographer friends. Many
insist that you should learn on a camera with manual controls, and some insist
that it's all in the light and any camera will do.

You handled this question _perfectly._ Not even kidding. Down to every finer
point of debate, you nailed the balance and gave the best, most helpful
possible answers, including visual backup to express the true differences.

Absolutely fantastic. I'll be sharing this with other photographer friends and
those interested in learning more. Great work. Thanks for posting.

~~~
danso
Thanks...I honestly question how much reliable advice I could give, as I've
arguably overspent, even as I'm not caught up in the arms race. Someone did
point out that iOS has special apps that do allow shutter speed control, so
I'll have to come up with a few other different usecases.

~~~
calinet6
Certainly, but the point is still very good and balanced either way. Good
advice.

My example comes from using a point-and-shoot pocket camera, not my phone.
Very little control over shutter speed and aperture and such, but I've used it
with great success for landscapes in good-to-low light. I've probably sold
more prints from the P&S than my SLR, all because I had it in my pocket when
the light was right.

------
thenomad
I've just started reading this, and it appears to be _excellent_. Thank you.

Is there a way within the site to give you some kind of renumeration (monetary
or otherwise) for all the effort you've put in?

~~~
danso
Well don't get out the wallet yet, the later chapters were hastily produced as
I kept rethinking how things should be presented... :)

But thank you...that's extremely kind of you...I had thought it could be a
side platform to sell prints but haven't gotten around to implementing that.
At this point, I don't feel like it merits payment yet or that I've gotten
nothing out of it, it's been a great learning lesson for me as I'd never
really used Jekyll or SaSS before, and all of the photos were lying around
anyway.

------
lemming
This looks great! I also liked Bernie Sumption's guides:

[http://berniesumption.com/photography/beginners-guide-for-
ge...](http://berniesumption.com/photography/beginners-guide-for-geeks/)
[http://berniesumption.com/photography/depth-of-field-for-
gee...](http://berniesumption.com/photography/depth-of-field-for-geeks/)

~~~
danso
Yeah, he was the first person I thought to link to in my resources section. I
don't remember when I first bookmarked him...at least 3 to 4 years ago, but I
still refer to it from time to time, and pass it along to all other beginners.

------
DannoHung
Pretty nice for beginners! I'd put more mundane shots in (like in the fourth
chapter) so that people don't get discouraged because they don't have the eye
for finding good subjects yet.

~~~
danso
That's a great point...my inclination was to do "interesting" photos even if
they were mundane (most of them were taken during walks or sites that I
frequent)...but I think taking photos in new York gives you a huge advantage
over most other plans, and that's not really fair of me to exploit that so
much

------
iuguy
This is brilliant. Far better and more accessible than most photography books
I've seen.

------
pooriaazimi
I'm no photographer, but enjoyed these stunning photos nevertheless and shared
this link with some friends.

One thing I noticed though (and as you posted it on HN, I think it's not
nitpicking for pointing it out): why are you hijacking mouse clicks?! I
really, really hate it when I command-click (open in a new tab) on a link, and
the site decides that, no, you really should view the content in the same
tab...

~~~
danso
Ooh, hadn't thoughht of that. You must be talking about the table of contents,
in which I use some quick JS to listen for clicks on the box to call a load
actions with _self as the target. I didn't even think that would effect those
who explicitly do new tabs.

(if you meant for ulterior purposes, no...I don't even explicitly load in
jquery, hence the sloppy inline JS)

------
hopeless
As an introduction, I like it. It's reasonably non-technical and generally
errs on the right side of practicality vs theory

------
cocoflunchy
Good to see a book about something else than programming!

Be careful about night shots of the Eiffel tower though: there are some
copyright issues. See <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower> for more
info.

~~~
danso
Thanks, I had that in the back of mind but not when I was putting this
together:

(tl:dr the lighting apparatus of the Eiffel Tower, not the Tower itself, has
been upheld as a copyrightable image by France's highest court)

------
statictype
Great work. Do you have any plans on releasing this as a nicely packaged
ebook? I'd probably pay for that instead of having to individually instapaper
each page.

~~~
danso
Thanks...not at this point...one of my main motivations was to get used to
doing things with Jekyll/octopress and markdown,mso I haven't figured out the
workflow from that to other formats. But I guess this would be a great chance
to try that out. If I were to ever charge, I'd rather it be for a print book,
but who knows

------
aeturnum
Why list the EV adjustment of the photos? The effective EV is apparent from
the capture settings and listing how much you adjusted the photo based on your
camera's meter isn't that useful. Each camera meter has its own quirks and it
seems strange to include such a subjective setting.

On the other hand, I dig that you include lens and focal length. Both are nice
to know when viewing photos.

~~~
Lio
I would guess that the author is trying to show when they've deliberately
overruled the cameras exposures settings.

So in the section on under exposure the exposure compensation gives an idea by
how much the image was under exposed.

Which IMHO is useful to know.

~~~
danso
Yeah...that was what I was going for but the parent comment has a point, one
which I did t really think about until I started collecting photos and
noticing that some of the photos didn't match expected EV...I had thought that
the EV reflected what the camera registered, no matter what mode I was
in...but of course, it only measures compensation, which will be wrong if the
photo is taken and the EV doesn't match the EC. And since I've just confused
myself trying to explain this I doubt it's clear to the average reader.

It would be pretty easy to generate histiograms with Imagemagick...that is
probably more useful

------
aw3c2
website feedback: The text is way too big for me and the centered layout could
use some differentiation of "content pane" to "left and right emptiness".

The photos are huge too and somehow make me completely lose place and
orientation. I have no idea how to fix it though. It could work on wide
screens (would work on 1680x1050 already) if you placed images and text side
by side.

~~~
dugmartin
More feedback - you have a utf-8 encoding problem in the first paragraph
within "for learning your camera’s manual controls". It looks like the single
quote was encoded by Word and doesn't translate to utf-8 - I see it as an
accented "i". Just replace the ’ with &rsquo; in the html.

~~~
danso
Thanks! I'll check it out

------
lickerswill
Well f*#kn done. I'm a photog and I get a lot of questions. I will definitely
point people to this awesome resource. Kudos.

------
johnx123-up
Good work. Would love a kindle version.

------
mkanemoto
I really enjoy "the Bastards Book of Photography". There are a few reasons:

1) The sequence feels right. Everyone can start with photography, you don't
need the fancy equipment, and you can start with what you have.

2) The text starts people on the road to manual settings, i.e. learning the
camera. The mechanics are not what photography as art is all about, that's
composition and creativity. But, without practice and understanding the
mechanics until they are second nature it's very hard to realize your
composition and vision efficiently.

3) This is a starting point with some help to novices. If this helps someone
take a slightly better vacation or family photograph, great. The text straight
off the about page sums it up.

There are concerns:

1) "Wow" is what teaches?

There seem to be two major paths to learning from experts:

If they are dead there are books. Review: The Camera, The Negative, and The
Print by Ansel Adams. Highly technical from a master who had a nervous
breakdown after putting everything into his art to for a showing. Still not a
great starting point for the novice. They are fantastic books for someone
who's more advanced and ready to get into the minutia. This is contrary to the
message that people should just go look at compositions and dive in.

Expert workshops: If wow is what teaches, than there are many expert
photographers who conduct workshops. For the majority of novice to curious
photographers my advice has always been to save the money and go out with a
photo club or some photo friends. None of the people in these clubs are
probably "wow" experts, but it's a bit like learning a sport by matching up
with someone of equal skill rather than paying to be taught by a pro before
you know what you are getting into.

2) Technical Details: These are common practice. The body of the site directs
people to learn their own settings and exposure. I'd read more into the text
and intent than the photo details.

3) Photography is art? Not to the majority of people who just want to take
photos on vacation or of the family. The most common questions I get are: What
camera to buy (well addressed here), what do those settings on my camera dial
mean (addressed fairly well here), and how do I take better pictures (good
starting points to think about composition).

4) Go look at good photos. Agree. Fair? No. The big investment for most people
is time. From point #1, there are a lot of good books at the library... if you
are of the willing.

As for disclaimer about skill, &c: People have paid for my photos as well. I
have an art degree. Look, I'm not great but I'm handy with a camera.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanemoto/sets/72157621724362081...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanemoto/sets/72157621724362081/)

------
tomazstolfa
Great!

------
rorrr
WARNING: negative feedback ahead.

Disclaimer: I'm a pro photographer (as in I get paid for taking photos), and I
had a few exhibitions.

A few important points, if you want to become a good photographer:

1) My philosophy with most art teachers/book writers is - unless your art
makes me say "wow", you can't teach me much. There are many truly great
photographers out there. Dan Nguyen is not one of them.

I look at his photos, and most of them are properly exposed, somewhat properly
framed, sometimes they have something interesting, but most of the time they
are mind-numbingly boring and mediocre.

2) His idea of posting technical details next to a photo is not new, but, most
importantly, it's completely useless. I remember when I just got into
photography, I was looking at all the cool photos and I really wanted to know
the f-stop, the exposure, the ISO that the author used. It took me about a
year to figure out it didn't matter. Main reason being - you will never
encounter that exact scene with that exact lighting.

Even if you magically come to that same exact spot, same time, same date of
the year, magically frame the shot the same way, set all the exact settings,
you will NOT end up with the same picture.

3) Photography is art - don't be a fucking robot. Play with the camera
settings, they are really trivial. It shouldn't take you more than a day to
figure out how aperture, exposure and ISO work.

4) Trying to replicate some cool photo online is a good learning technique,
but you don't simply do it by replicating the camera settings.

5) Now the most important point of learning how to photograph well: STOP
READING TECHNICAL GARBAGE. Sites like dpreview are full of "photographers" who
endlessly discuss their gear, their camera settings, and then you look at
their photographs, and they are fucking boring and lack any taste (just to be
fair, there are good photographers on dpreview).

Stop it, and look at photos instead. You should look at hundreds of photos a
day, that's the only way to develop your photographic taste. And try not to
get stuck on user-submitted websites like photo.net or flickr, there's a ton
of crap there. Instead seek the best photographers in whatever area interests
you - street, portraiture, landscape, etc.

Go to your local store and look at the photo books (not the technical ones,
art ones). You will be pleasantly surprised with the quality of photos.

~~~
scott_s
I wonder if your ability to not think about the technical details of
photography comes from the fact that in the beginning, you _did_ think about
them, and now you have a completely intuitive understanding of them.

~~~
rorrr
You may be right, but most "photographers" get stuck at that phase forever.
Photo companies convinced most people that buying an expensive DSLR will make
them a good photographer. Or if you carry a tripod, that automatically makes
you a pro.

While knowing your technical side is nice, it is completely unnecessary to
take good photos. I know of a brilliant wedding photographer who shoots with
cheap disposable cameras from your local gas station. He is booked months
ahead.

~~~
scott_s
But most people never become good at most things they try. I don't know enough
about photography to comment much more on it, but that phase may be a
necessary part of the learning process.

------
dr42
As someone with 25 years of photography, I cannot recommend this "book".
Starting with the very first photo, a typical photojournalist shot, super wide
angle shooting into the sun photo. This just continues into the book with
cliched subjects (sunsets, cats) and advice like "take lots of photos"

The section in aperture starts out with a photo that's hard to look at its so
badly exposed.

The section on metering is just plain wrong, true only for spot metering,
which most of the people who read this beginners guide are not going to be
using. For the people it actually targets its misleading to talk about which
spot the camera is metering on.

There are many many better books than this which will give beginners a
grounding in the mechanics of photography.

~~~
DannoHung
> The section on metering is just plain wrong, true only for spot metering,
> which most of the people who read this beginners guide are not going to be
> using. For the people it actually targets its misleading to talk about which
> spot the camera is metering on.

That section was for people who were using camera phones with on screen touch
focusing (the iPhone camera app also adjusts the exposure for the area where
focus was selected). The section on dSLR spot focusing was to explain how to
do that with dSLR's if you wanted to.

The next chapter on frame exposure settings goes over using exposure
compensation.

Your only valid criticism is that the Aperture chapter's photo is poorly
exposed.

~~~
dr42
So how about using photos that are well exposed, starting with the opening
photo with the blown out sky, and then the dreadful photo of the dogs/family
in front of the Hudson.

There's one good photo in the whole book, and that was taken with a p&s (s90)
- something you claim cannot resolve more than 15' in front if the lens and
takes a second to shoot. Both point are of course are completely wrong and
misleading.

The 'book' (quoted because its really just a few dozen paragraphs) looses any
credibility when it's accompanied by photos that are so awfully made.

~~~
danso
I don't think my photos are going to be everyone's cup of tea and that's fine.
I dont mean that in a "fck you it's art" but that I'm not only following my
own style, but within certain limitations.

I don't disagree with you on how those particular photos are blown out, but
those were candid shots in irregular lighting. To make a conventional shot,
you would set up lights and possibly do significant post processing. I chose
to emphasize as much of the area that I wanted even as details are lost at the
other end.

The main point of the book is that there are options _in the first place_ and
it's important to be aware of them to properly adjust...rather than just
snapping a photo and wondering why it turned out so off.

It's difficult for me to show what the choices were, granted, because I didn't
shoot those scenes with thhe intention of demonstrating a decision tree for
the final shot. Being able to show more direct comparisons, between the
exposure options, is my intention as I add new examples to the book

As far as the metering section, I think you're right that it's confusing...I
decided to split off the chapter with doing touchscreen exposure and never
fully fleshed out standard metering. That is something I'll work on

