Patterson's book is not about Composition - it is about Zen and pretty much
a really nice picture book. Grill and Scanlon are ok. Start out at the
library and look for books on composition in the art section. Most photo
composition books were written by people who have not studied composition
(or art at all) and have no idea what they are talking about. Photographers
tend to be a techy bunch and they figure they'll get around to composition
after they learn how to do a five light high key set-up or whatever other
technical goal they have.
I have a list of composition books that are actually about composition
at:
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/mani/books/mbookcomp.html
The one I recommend most is
Image - Designing Effective Pictures, by Michael Freeman. It is out of print
but worth hunting down.

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http://www.chapelhillnoir.com
home of The Camera-ist's Manifesto
The Improved Links Pages are at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/links/mlinks00.html
A sample chapter from "Haight-Ashbury" is at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/writ/hait/hatitl.html

"Musty" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I wanted to buy a book (or books) on the following subjects:

(I would appreciate any comments/suggestions on these)

1) Composition:

So far I am thinking of getting "Photography & the art of Composition" by
Freeman, Patterson
There is also "Photographic Composition" by Grill

Any experience with these books? Any other suggestions.

2) Technical Techniques (specifically with SLR) - but a book that
discussed
DSLR would even be better. This book would have to deal with technical
aspects (eg lighting, color, lenses, tricks etc). A deep discussion on
post-processing would be required.

3) A good technical book on Adobe photoshop (one that deals with PS 7.0 or
CS would be best)

In terms of knowledge, I would consider myself novice. I have really only
gotten into photography using digital cameras (previous owner of an Oly
C-5050Z). Currently I have a 20D /w 17-85mm EF-S.

Thanks
Musty.