Photographic Skill, The Book | Skill | Photography | Ant Smith

I guess a part of me feels like an upstart, writing a book on photography when I'm just some guy. But then it's been a kind of conscious decision to keep photography as a passion not a paymaster. And I have done so for some 40 years now, with modest success along the way. So this is an 'outsider' work, not from an industry giant with a proven record, but with a perspective that you wont find elsewhere. Photography for the love of it.

So I set out to create something for others 'on the outside' of academia and industry, but who have a passion for the art and craft of photography; whilst recognising that lack of knowledge doesn't equal lack of sense.

Much can be freely discovered these days on the internet - but there are two big drawbacks that I wanted to address. Firstly, the internet is awash with confusion and misinformation around all the key concerns - people with only half an understanding of the issues offering well intentioned but fundamentally bad advice. Secondly, whilst great to answer very specific 'how do I do this' type questons, the internet is really poor at providing an holistic overview - you already need to know the things you don't know in order to ask for answers.

So this book is meant as the perfect complement to the other resouces available. It isn't a 'photoshop™ how to guide', but rather a walkthrough of everything you need to know about to master the craft. A means to ensure there are no 'unknown unknowns'. What are all of the techniques and tools available, and why and when might you want to use them. It's left up to you to work how how to apply them with your kit and your software (things that constantly change), but with reliable and unambiguous advice every step of the way.

Each is presented in a series of 'key lessons' (99 in total) which will start you on your '10,000 hours journey to mastery'

Sample Pages

Quotes and Reviews

Martin Evening

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"I think you have carried out a very exhaustive and detailed study of photography and post-processing skills and you have certainly crammed in a lot of technical detail there. Therefore potentially making it a useful technical reference for photographers."

Martin Evening, 2022 (photo Jeff Schewe)

Whilst Photographic Skill offers a comprehensive "Why and What" of photography, Martin is the de-facto go-to author for anyone who wants to know the specific "how" of working digitally with Photoshop and Lightroom. Check out his work at http://www.martinevening.com/

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Lauren Scott

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"packed full of technical advice while being equally easy to follow"

Lauren Scott, Editor Digital Photographer Magazine, 2022

"Digital Photographer is the ultimate monthly photography magazine for enthusiasts and pros in today's digital marketplace" - which should make Lauren Scott well placed to make such judgement of Photographic Skill! Find out more about the magazine and Lauren's work at https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/uk/author/lauren-scott

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The Images

The most consistent feedback I have had is that, on occassion, the images in the book are too small. This is partly a constraint of the design I've adopted - but also it means the page count (and thus cost) of the book is kept lower.

SO here is a set of galleries conatining just about every photograph that appears in the book, viewable at full size on an HD monitor.

I've left a very small number of images out - either becaue they are somewhat horrific or else somewhat erotic. I've done this because websites are so very open to a broad audience, and I don't want to suprise anybody who hsn't seen the book. Feel free to message me if you do happen to want to see higher resolution versions of any images I have not included...

I've grouped the images to keep each gallery more mangeable in terms of finding a specific image: