Awaken Your Vision to Create Stunning Images Wherever You Are

This is definitely a beginners guide. As a more advanced photographer I felt the written text was simplistic at best, certainly geared to those with lesser knowledge of the subject. The worst part for me though were the images. I found many to be flat, both in lighting and inspiration. Since the authors are clearly capable of producing much better imagery, both technically and compositionally, I have to question their editing choices. In a book titled Extraordinary Everyday Photography, the images should at least live up to the expectations.

Beautiful photos and tips on improving your photography techniques and subjects. It was a gift for a friend, but he has mentioned tips from it a couple of times and I thought the photos were really lovely.

The photos and the details about the photos-- Shutter speed & aperture + focal length of lens all given for every photo in book-- make it possible to use this as a textbook for my photography class. I wish it explained a little more in depth some basics of composition and color theory. Color theory ought to be discussed well in one chapter of this gorgeous book.

Bought this for a photo class. No complaints. (:

It provides many works as examples, words from photographers, and challenges for the reader.

This book is moreso for those who have an understanding in ISOs and other manual settings.

What a great book: well written with images which illustrated the text. I love the fact that the images have details about the camera settings used. This book sparked my interest in photography again. I strongly recommend this book to (tired) professionals and amateurs alike 

I really liked this book. The authors presented solid, time-tested techniques for creative photography. Their writing style is engaging and easy to read. I would recommend it, especially to photographers starting their journey into DSLR photography.

So, why four stars instead of five? For me, and probably most photographers with a fair amount of experience, the material was mostly review.

Got into digi photog about five years ago. Have filled up a shelf in study with works re same. Have been adrift last few years re when and how to use all the capabilities of this technology (Canon Rebel and Adobe Elements ! )for my kind of picture taking - "family photojournalist" ;-).
This book does the job. The pics with the camera settings and author's thinking on how set all those knobs and buttons is a godsend for a mid-level amateur like me.

The photos in the book is uninspiring and this is based on me being an amateur photographer. I would not have bought the Kindle book if I had flipped through an actual book and say the lackluster photos.

There are photography instruction books that suggest that a person can be a better photographer if they practice Zen in photography. Somehow my mind rebels at this approach, as if what I consider a form of religion (I know others will disagree) can be picked up and put down like a camera lens. That's why I was pleasantly surprised when Tharp and Manwaring suggested a Zen-like approach without ever mentioning Zen. I was also pleased when they suggested that their recommended approach could be used not only to make photographs of the inherently spectacular, like the Grand Canyon, but also to make better photographs of the everyday world around us.

The authors suggest a number of techniques for using the photographer's most important instrument - the mind. The opening chapters deal with learning to see the world and the later chapters with composing the key elements, especially light, to reveal what we see in that world. The book is lavishly illustrated with the authors' images. Each chapter includes several exercises designed to improve your vision, and, even though the text is well written and clear, if you don't work at these exercises, the book is not likely to benefit you. Typically, the chapter entitled "The Moment of Perception" includes an exercise that requires the reader to go out and photograph color, such as an image of one color, or contrasting colors. Doing these exercises is expected to sensitize the photographer to color in all of one's photography.

One of the side issues of this approach is that it seems aimed at sensitizing the photographer to form, without regard to content. Many of the authors' images in the early chapters resemble abstract paintings rather than photographs of something. The photographer should keep in mind while doing these exercises that many photographers believe that the purpose of photographic form is to explicate the content.

Learning how to see is far more difficult than learning how to set proper exposure. There is no guarantee that the authors can do this, but it seems to me that someone interested in improving the skill to see is likely to benefit from this book.

A few experienced photographers commented that this book offers nothing new to them. As an experienced photographer myself who have read my share of books, I have to both agree and disagree with them.

After reading hundreds of photography books, my expectation is that, with very few exceptions, I will only learn a couple of new things from any single book. Brenda Tharp's books are good examples.

I learned from Freeman Patterson's "Photo Impressionism and the Subjective Image" how to create impressionistic images with multiple exposures. Then I read Tharp's "Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography", and learned from her yet another multiple exposure technique for the same kind of images. That was the only new thing I got from the book, and for me, well worth the read.

Now I find similar nuggets in Tharp's "Extraordinary Everyday Photography", like these:

- Panning: shutter speeds and panning directions that work well in different situations.

- Merging multiple images in Photoshop for impressionistic result: calculating the opacity settings for each layer.

- Merging two images in Photoshop for dreamlike result: focus settings, lens limitation, and preferred blending modes.

- Last but not least, a topic dear to my heart and rarely mentioned anywhere: "Separate the Focus and Metering".

While I'm familiar with all these techniques, Tharp introduces me to new details. Once again, it is well worth a read.

Tharp's two books are slim and her writing style is friendly and easy to digest. It takes a diligent reader to dig deep and find the nuggets, which Tharp generously shares.

As far as instructional photography books are concerned, 'Extraordinary Everyday Photography' is a bit of a hard book to categorize because it contains a fairly eclectic collection of tips and advice spanning creative, technical, and compositional topics. What is clear, however, is that this book is targeted towards novice photographers, likely those that have learned the basic technical information about operating a camera, and are looking for inspiration and ways to improve. The information presented inside is by and large a rehash of mostly generic advice that you can easily find in other books dedicated to the particular topic discussed (and those dedicated books will generally do a better job, and give you more depth).

If you are a looking at this book as a beginner/novice, I would say reading the excellent collection of Bryan Peterson books will serve you much better than reading this book. If you're an experienced photographer, outside of some of the nicer images inside, you'll find the this book fairly pedestrian. For those seeking information about composition, there's only a single chapter inside that covers this, and it's fairly shallow. Tharp's other book, "Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography", is definitely a better bet.

This book takes cues from many other photography books in that it is filled with pictures accompanied by EXIF information, which suggests that it's somehow important for beginners to diligently study ISO/shutter/apertures used in great images to make better images themselves. Of course, this isn't how it works in practice. I would say unless you're specifically trying to make a point about why those aspects are important to the topic being discussed, it's not really that useful to put that information there.

One minor, but personal irritant of mine, is that when it comes to showing the technical details of an example photograph, the book insists on pointing out the 'effective focal length' (i.e. the focal length accounting for the crop factor multiplier). Sometimes this is even done in extremely confusing/misleading ways. For example, some images will say that it was shot "with a 24mm lens at 36mm". This perpetuates the misnomer that the focal length somehow changes when you use a cropped sensor, when that's not really what's happening at all. It'd be far better to just leave this part of it out, since it's really not relevant to the pictures anyway.

As far as the rest of the text goes, much of the first part of the book contains mundane (and perhaps even cliche) advice about looking at the world differently and experiencing the moment. The book does mention Miksang ("contemplative photography"), and the message is fairly similar, although I've never really understood why books about this really try to beat this idea to death. The core idea is straight-forward enough: stop looking at a scene conceptually as specific recognizable objects, and instead experience it as an abstract set of lines/shapes/light; by doing this, you'll discover beauty and images you may not have seen before. Of course, what the book doesn't tell you is doing that alone isn't going to make a great image (only perhaps help you find a subject).

The book gets a little more technical further into the book as it discusses things like color, black/white, and panned images, as well as using multiple exposures, post-processing tools, and creative lenses (like lensbaby). There's nothing particularly noteworthy about these topics, except perhaps that--like other beginner books I've read--it's fairly surprising that books targeted towards novices talk about using Photoshop (in this case for incorporating textures using different blend modes), when I would bet most novices don't really use Photoshop (and those that do, probably already know these basics).

The few topics on composition are probably weaker than most other books on the topic. You'll hear the usual advice about filling the frame, rule of thirds, and so forth, with a few examples, but mostly the information is pretty shallow. The book ends with chapters about exploring light and photographing at dusk/dawn/night. Here you'll find more fairly generic advice.

In general, I'd say this book disappoints on many levels. It's not really an inspirational book, nor a technical book, nor a composition book. My advice is to get dedicated books on the particular topics you're interested in, and skip this one.

Many books claim to be able to revolutionize your photography. This book might actually be able to deliver on that promise. Through a very thorough discussion of critical photographic techniques, the authors present a detailed set of exercises that are designed to challenge your thinking as a creative photographer. The quality of their advice and suggestions is well-bolstered by technically and aesthetically excellent images that illustrate how and why their guidance should be applied.

I am an amateur and really just absorbing whatever I can from a variety of books while taking some courses and trying to develop my skill levels. - I do really like this book - but have not studied in depth ... yet!

I understand the authors ideas, but the sample photos made me put the book down very quickly.

If I could shoot at f14 for 25 seconds I would not need a book about everyday photography.

I did learn not to order books online about artistic concepts. There are much better books out there my favorite by Scott Kelby.

Well thought out, and wonderfully photographed. I applaud the idea that you don't have to go on holidays to be inspired. Carry a camera always. Today's compacts are made to live in your pocket. And look for beauty, humor, texture, pattern and line in your own neighborhood.

Sorta interesting pictures, and I mean very little "sorta". If you are a lotta bored and I mean a "lotta" you might find this book slightly, and I mean very, very, slightly interesting. Basically I think this is a total waste of $20.00 Take a picture of your $20 bill and keep it and you will be a lot better off. Go look at any coffee table book in any hotel and see more interesting stuff.

Bought this for a photo class. No complaints. (:

It provides many works as examples, words from photographers, and challenges for the reader.

This book is moreso for those who have an understanding in ISOs and other manual settings.