Take Your Photography to the Next Level is a book designed for those that can use a digital camera. Meaning you can take nice photos in the fully automatic modes, program modes and you have begun to play around with the more manual options of your camera and want guidance of how to not only take better pictures with your camera, but how to see the better pictures, how to take a so-so picture and make it a great picture using the ever important cropping skill.

Anyone with a $200 digital camera can aim the camera and press the shutter release, but it takes time and skill to capture a truly remarkable photo, one that will not only inspire you the photographer, but also inspire those that look at the picture. One of the most interesting aspects of Photography is that you can have no skill what-so-ever and still learn to take incredible photographs. You just need to know what to look for and how to use your camera to the utmost and how to choose the settings you need to get the vision you imagined when you first saw the subject of your picture. With time and understanding anyone can be a great photographer and this is the goal of this book. How to take a so-so photographer and turn them in to a great one.

This full color book is loaded with sample photos that show you that even the most mundane of subjects like jagged rocks or a rock wall can become a stunning photograph if you know how to do it. It talks about framing your photos, balance, tonalities, negative space, flaws and more.

It talks about the elements of a great photograph, what photographs well, photographing cliches, finding inspiration, rules for looking, cropping and how to crop, formats and aspect ratios, how to pick your best work and how to present it and so much more. For a better understanding of what this book covers check out the chapters list below.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: Seeing

• Center of Interest
• What is the Image About?
• What is the Photograph About a Deeper Level?
• What are the Parts of the Image and How do they Relate?
• Tonalities
• Emotional Impact
• Flaws
• Reading My Photographs
• What is the Photograph About?
• What is the Photograph About at a Deeper Level?
• What are the Parts of the Image and How Do They Relate?
• Tonalities
• Negative Space
• Balance
• Framing
• Emotional Impact
• Flaws
• Is Beautiful Essential to Great Photographs?
• Elements of a Great Photograph
• What Photographs Well?
• Photographing Cliches
• It's Been Done Before
• Noticing Subject Matter

Chapter 2: Finding Images

• Working the Scene Part 1
• Working the Scene Part 2
• The Poison of Preconceived Ideas
• Finding Inspiration -- Interest Comes First
• Rules for Looking
• Seeing Fatigue
• There's Nothing Here to Photograph
• Where Should You Point The Camera?

Chapter 3: Composing

• Sketching to Make Photographs
• Complicated doesn't Cut It
• Does and Image Need a Center of Interest?
• How Close to perfect is Needed?
• Decisions and Compromises
• Your Options
• Where Should You Point the Camera?
• Framing Your Images
• The Art and Religion of Cropping
• To Crop or Not to Crop, That is the Question
• Formats and Aspect Ratios
• What About Cropping Both Ways?
• Back to Framing?
• Framing Assistants
• What Edges Can Do For Your Images
• Working on Edges
• Corners and What To Do With Them
• Example Images -- Composing Corners and Edges
• Cropping for Good
• Summary

Chapter 4: Assessing Images

• Initial Disappointment
• Selecting Images for Presentation
• More on Picking Our Best Work
• Image Deficiencies
• Top Ten Reasons Why Image Fail

Chapter 5: Mind Games

• Stuck in a Rut
• Dealing with Slumps
• Twelve Ways to Challenge Yourself
• Career, Family, and Photography
• Dealing with Disappointment
• Cognitive Therapy
• Photographic Flops
• Equipment Envy
• How Good the Equipment?
• Money
• Statistics and the Odds of Success
• On Negative Thinking
• Looking for Perfection -- The Price of Experimenting

Chapter 6: Take Your Photography to the Next Level

• Part 1: Finding Your Level
• Part 2: Getting Help to Assess Your Level
• Part 3: Moving On, Making Better Images

This is an excellent book. It is fun to read, easy to understand and really has a lot of very useful information. If you want to take better photographs but need help in getting going this is the book for you. It will do a great job of pushing you in the right direction. If you already have some skill this book will help fine tune those skills and refresh what you know. A great book and one I highly recommend.