Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography

"We are in the Stone Age of digital photography. We've figured out how to make some tools, but it is just now beginning to dawn on us what we might do with them. I've often been frustrated at the concentration on the technical aspect of digital photography with so little discussion of the aesthetics and heart behind the image making. This book is essentially a distillation of what I've been teaching over the last 25 years."

Master photographer Stephen Johnson has been taking beautiful landscape photography for decades, and teaching others the practical art of image making since 1977. While he started out with traditional film camera techniques, Johnson is widely recognized among his peers as a pioneer of digital photography. Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography chronicles his ride on the bleeding edge of this medium's evolution, and provides a practical in-depth introduction to digital photography that offers the latest techniques for beginning and experienced photographers alike.

What sets this guide apart from other books on the topic is its approach and execution: This isn't a Photoshop book, although Photoshop has its place within the book; it's a book that a master teacher and photographer creates after a lifetime of showing others how to understand and make great photography. With 5 color photographs throughout, including black/gray duotones, and 715 illustrations reproduced with a 200 line screen, Johnson's book covers everything from:

The basics of digital photography Film camera techniques vs. digital Practical approaches of the filmless photographer Techniques of the digital darkroom A photographer ™s digital journey Photography, art and the future

This is a holistic work (and method for teaching) that embraces the state of photographic tools and techniques, blended with suggestions and experiences on why I make photographs, Johnson says. At its best, photography rides that crest where technology and art intersect. But the deepest engagement that photography can bring remains its ability to capture and hold a moment before the lens. In this age of digital manipulation, that fundamental fact must be remembered.

Widely recognized among his peers as a pioneer of digital photography, a master photographer provides a practical, in-depth introduction to digital photography that offers the latest techniques for beginning and experienced photographers alike.

Widely recognized among his peers as a pioneer of digital photography, a master photographer provides a practical, in-depth introduction to digital photography that offers the latest techniques for beginning and experienced photographers alike.

Stephen Johnson teaches photography at Skyline College and the College of San Mateo. He edited and designed "At Mono Lake" (1983). Gerald Haslam is Professor of English at Sonoma State University and the author of "That Constant Coyote: California Stories" (1990) and "Coming of Age in California" (1990). Robert Dawson teaches photography at San Jose State University. His "Robert Dawson Photographs" appeared in 1988.