The A-Z of Creative Photography, by Lee Frost, is a book I received as a gift this past Christmas. It was recommended by a number of trusted sources and gets pretty darn good reviews on Amazon. So what did I think?

It’s a good book – for beginners. It covers “over 70 techniques” of creative photography. But…most of the topics are relatively basic – backlighting, fill flash, panoramics, sunsets, etc… There were only a few advanced topics, but even so, the information presented is good. However, “Explained in Full” is a little bit of an exaggeration. Creative license perhaps, but I think marketing won on the title discussion. BUT, this happens to be my favorite part of the book. Each topic is explained in two, count ‘em, two pages. That’s it. Fantastic! Who has time to read a whole book on pinhole photography? I’d rather be shooting.

A couple other thoughts:

The pictures are both good and bad. But most of the bad look like they weren’t meant to be good. So it gets a pass there. But each does the job of explaining the technique and results of the topic.

The book needs some serious updating for digital. It was published in 1998, which is pre-mainstream digital photography. There are more people getting into photography now since digital has made it so inexpensive. Many could use a book like this if it was rewritten with today’s tools in mind.

This is a great book to recommend to people new to photography, but not much more than an easy reference for experienced photographers.