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Author
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Rob Barron
Loves the place
Registered: September 2006
Location: Poole, Dorset
Posts: 5973
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Review Date: Fri January 4, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £13.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Wide coverage of all aspects of macro
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Cons:
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Price BUT available much cheaper than list
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Let me start by saying I love this book! It is not only highly instructive, it is also very inspirational in the pictures it includes. The list price of the book is £19.99 but look on Ebay and you'll find it much cheaper, even as low as £3 for one 2nd-user edition currently on sale!
I enjoy macro photography very much and wanted a book that covered as many different aspects of this absorbing genre as possible. I have a couple of different books on this subject, another is 'Digital Macro Photography' by Ross Hoddinott. That one is good but not equal to this book in my opinion.
The clear, logical layout of 'Small Things Big' (herein refered to as STB) makes it both a good read cover-to-cover and also a great reference tool for looking up specific information.
It starts with Camera Basics which includes an introduction to 35mm and medium format, lenses, acessories (close-up filters, bellows etc), exposure and lighting. All of these are applicable to both digital and film and to be honest I haven't found much if anything that is different between the two in practical terms.
We then move on to Techniques including natural light, filters, backlighting, using different types of lenses, bellows, tubes etc. These are gone into with greater detail and refer to the practical application rather than theory. There is then a small section specifically looking a digital work but as I said, there is little difference when it comes to techniques.
STB then goes into greater detail about different subjects for macro work, e.g. butterflies, insects, water droplets, plants, and more. All of these are accompanied by superb photographs clearly illustrating the tuitional elements of the book. Put this on your bookshelf and you'll refer to it again and again, put it on your coffee table and even non-photographers will pick it up and be fascinated.
The latter part of STB looks at two things: compositional factors, using lines and shapes, colour, perspective and so on and then Adapting Imagery which looks at post-processing, adjusting colour, saturation, contrast, sharpness, and so on.
There are 160 pages giving clear and understandable tuition which will help any macro enthusiast to really get to grips with this field of photography and I thoroughly recommend it to you if you are in that group. If you're not, buy it anyway and you probably will be very soon!
Cheers,
Rob
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revueman
Quite Chatty
Registered: August 2007
Posts: 51
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Review Date: Fri January 11, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £2.98
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Intuitive.
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Cons:
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None
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Hi Rob,
I have been looking for a book on macro photography for some time, so after reading your review decided to buy it.
I ordered it from Amazon for £2.98 +PP, and it was delivered in 2 days.
Good read,
thanks
Steve S.
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