The Photographer's Mind Remastered: Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos

Michael Freeman is a genius of both photography and teaching. His books are works of art in there own right that can be savored over and over again for the pictures alone. However, if you can stop looking at the pictures long enough to read the books you can learn some amazing things. Michael is a prolific writer and I have many of his books but my three favorite are  The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos , Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure: The Professional's Guide to Capturing Perfect Digital Photographs , and this one. Each title perfectly captures what the books are about. If you want to learn more about composition then get the Photographer's Eye. Want to learn about Exposure, get Perfect Exposure. Want to learn more about composition and creative thinking, then get this book.This book is for the beginner and expert alike. However, it does assume a level of competence with a camera. You don't have to be an expert, you just need to know how to make your camera do what you want. So if you are looking for a book that tells you what to do then look elsewhere. This books are about thinking and in particular teaches you what to think about for advanced composition and creative thinking.People often get too wrapped around the axel about gear. If only they had a faster camera or more mega pixels or higher ISO, then they would be taking masterpieces. That could not be further from the truth. The cold hard truth is the best and fastest way to take better pictures is to one, take lots of pictures. A way to supercharge your learning in that process is to look at and study beautiful art and pictures. This book not only shows you amazing photos, it also analyzes the photos and explains why they are amazing photos and what he was thinking.I recommend all 3 of these books as masterpieces you will treasure and will, with practice, accelerate your learning process for taking great pictures.

This is a really important book. Most photography books are solely concerned with cameras and lenses, but this book focuses (pun intended) on the psychology of the way images are interpreted and understood by people, which I think is far more important than equipment. The book is beautifully written and filled with gorgeous photographs illustrating the photographic and artistic concepts explained within. Photography has become bigger than ever before, and with the affordability of high-quality DSLRs and the image-sharing world of social media, everyone is a photographer today. In and of itself that is not a bad thing since Photography as a medium of documenting life as well as a medium for creative self-expression should be available to everyone. The problem, I feel, is that we've become too obsessed with technology, and we've forgotten that understanding the psychology and philosophy involved in all visual art is of paramount importance in creating images. Most books and YouTube videos are dedicated to catering to the consumer mentality. Everyone wants the newest, most expensive cameras with the most bells and whistles and highest megapixel counts, not realizing that you can take a great photograph with ANY camera, even point and shoot cameras and mobile phones. But the way to do that is to understand the elements of a good photograph and to think deeply about your compositions. That's where a book like this comes in. The author also wrote another book entitled The Photographer's Eye, which is equally a great book and also deals with the psychology of image making. Both books should be on the bookshelf of any serious photographer or artist.

Having recently purchased and read both The Photographer's Eye and The Photographer's Mind by Michael Freeman, I will review both. Eye is easily the most helpful book I've read on photographic composition, discussing in clear terms framing, design basics, graphics, light and color, intent, and process. What I found especially helpful was the section on gestalt theory. While I have read about gestalt theory before, I have not found it quite so clearly discussed as here. Eye is a book to return to again and again.Mind, though it falters slightly near the end, for the most part maintains the same high level of quality as Eye in discussing "intent" and "style." Especially interesting is the section on beauty and the sublime ("Dead Monsters"), which dips into classical aesthetic theory going back to Burke, Kant, and Addison. In a book geared for the practitioner, such theorizing can easily go too far, but that is not the case here. In fact I could have done with a bit more classical theory. Even if one chooses to eschew classical principles, I believe it is better to do so knowledgeably than ignorantly. The cataloguing of styles is helpful. I found that I already use a number of styles in my photography, but I can now do so with greater awareness and confidence. I appreciated the web links throughout the book and the references to various photographers whose styles are discussed.I can highly recommend both books to amateur and advanced amateur photographers.

I found this a very readable and informative book. As a serious photographer, currently enrolled in a three year professional photography program, the author's ideas and pictorial examples where thought provoking and provided creative seeds for my own exploration and image creation.Another feature of the book which I liked was Michael's recommended topics, concepts, or individuals to do Web lookups. I pursued some and learned much. This permits the reader to pursue his/her interests and makes the book itself easier to read.I read the Kindle edition and found both the layout and the orthography challenging. Where the author speaks about ideas or concepts related to a given image which in the printed version is probably on the same or opposite page in the Kindle edition you might find it several "pages" away which makes the dialogue harder to follow. This, coupled with misspellings and lack of capitalization of cities, towns and countries caused me to only give the book a four star rating

As novice getting back into photography, I struggled with "The Photographer's Eye" - it seemed to take a little while/re-reading for the concepts to take hold but after that, I enjoyed that book.As per the first book, this is aimed at the intermediate/advanced photographer and as such does not cover technical competencies (shutter speed/aperture/iso etc).This book to me is a continuation of his previous book and I feel without having read/be aware of the solid concepts/techniques of composition, the reader may be a little lost.This book takes the reader through and expanding on the 'why's of compositional elements and considerations for certain situations. There's a section in the book that provides a small case study for one of Freeman's images, and whilst not a great image, the thought process and considerations made whilst deciding on the final composition/light control etc is very much appreciated.One small issue I have is related to the layout of the items on some pages. Whilst Freeman's writing style is flowing, the pages contain images with captions and the layout does not really provide the reader will clear breaks for us to explore the images/captions, before returing to the main text. With this, I found myself jumping between the images, the captions and the main text and getting ahead of myself. The publishers have missed reading Freeman's section on "leading the eye".If you enjoyed and learned something "The Photographer's Eye" and want the 'why' to the 'what', this is a good choice. Throuroghly recommended for anyone wishing to improve.

As all kinds of cameras becoming ubiquitous, sheer volume of pictures explode, there is more and more democracy in the appreciation of good photography. What makes a good photography? Is there really any standard nowadays? And, if yes, how to achieve the quality? Mr. Michael Freeman has tried to answer these questions in a series of books.In the first book of the series "The Photographer's Eye", he addressed some aspects of a solid composition: gestalt theory, right choices of tools for different purposes, necessary skills for capturing one's idea, etc. The Photographer's Mind is the second book in this series. It starts right from where the first book ends: the psychological study of what makes a good composition. After all, once you've learnt your tools, got your hands swift enough and known the gestalt rules, you'll need to know more about what makes a good photography in order to advance. This enters the realm of psychology. However elusive this topic is, in "Chapter 1: Intent" of this book, the author analyses the psychology of photo appreciation in seven selected aspects, largely focusing on the choice of arrangement of the image contents."Chapter 2: Style" is more on available options of graphical styles to go for rendering your intent. This chapter goes further in the field of gestalt philosophy of composition."Chapter 3: Process" talks about practice. Concrete methods for building a sophisticated compositional mind are discussed here. The author is a good guide.Like Mr. Freeman's other books, this book is again elaborated in stylish and non-pretentious text. A real pleasure to read as essays. Points are also explained or presented with content-rich and beautiful photographs, as well as informative illustrations. Each section in chapter 1 and 2 provides an "extended reading" subsection. The materials suggested in extended readings surely widen the horizon of your photographic mind.I strongly recommend this book to people having ambition of advancing the quality of their photographs, or sheerly enjoying intellectual contemplation from reading good English.

If you want a book that tells you the technical details of how to take photographs, don't buy this. If, on the other hand, you are already comfortable with the technicalities of your camera, and want to develop your own style, this may be the book for you.This is not a manual on which settings to use in which circumstances. Rather, it analyses the creative process around choosing what to photograph, and composition. It also looks at how the viewers may perceive a photograph and how you can, to a certain extent, control the way in which they see a scene.This has made me think about why I take photos and what response I want to elicit from people. It has also made me consider new approaches, and given me ideas on how to move forward and develop my skills.

Another great book from Michael Freeman with lots to provoke thought. I borrowed the paperback from my library initally and then bought the Kindle version. However, the useful sidebars present in the book are not to be found on the kindle version and the images tend to be rather low resolutuion which is dissappointing as some of the images are rather small even in the paperback. I have now bought the paperback as well. 5 stars for the paperback but only 3 for the Kindle edition.

The Book arrived on time and in excellent condition, very good book with some good tips and ideas, I would buy from this seller again.