The Confused Photographer's Guide to Photographic Exposure and the Simplified Zone System

Contrary to popular belief, when you buy an expensive camera the exposure skills DO NOT COME with it!

When you buy an expensive GUITAR, you KNOW that playing skills DO NOT COME with it! When you buy an expensive CAR, you KNOW that driving skills DO NOT COME with it! When you buy an expensive CAMERA, why, then, do you NOT KNOW that exposure skills DO NOT COME with it?

This book teaches the beginning Digital/35mm photographer (9th grade level) the simple and practical methods of correctly exposing a subject. This is also the world's first Digital Zone System book that addresses the application of the Zone System of exposure using current manual digital cameras including many of today's D-Slrs. The book covers in detail the applications of a camera's meter, an off-camera spot meter, an off-camera incident meter, and easy-to-remember techniques for exposing sunlit to moonlit subjects without a meter. The book uses Farzad's simplified 5-stop technique using 100 ISO color slide or Digital Film as its base, but the same techniques can be applied to Black and White, as well as color negative film with different ISOs. Since all the thinking is done before the photographer takes the picture, the book is ideal for this millennium's 35mm photographers that use one-hour processing labs. Since all the exposure decisions are made ahead of time (before the picture is taken), the technique saves the digital photographer many hours that he or she would waste behind the computer trying to figure out what he/she wanted to capture in the first place. The highest level of math required from the reader to understand this book, is to be able to multiply and divide a number by two. Also in the fourth edition (with the Lotus flower on the cover), a special calibration section is added to the end of the book for all those photographers who have spent a few thousand dollars on their D-Slr and are consistently getting underexposed and unacceptable images.

The fourth edition also includes Digital footnotes and assignments for photographers using manual digital cameras. The book also includes Digital as well as 35mm exposure cheat sheets for Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS 10D, Canon EOS 20D, Canon EOS 30D, Canon EOS A2/A2e, Canon EOS Rebel TI, Canon EOS Rebel XT, Canon EOS Rebel Xti, Canon PowerShot G5, FujiFilm FinePix S7000, Minolta Maxxum 5, Minolta Maxxum 7, Minolta Maxxum 9, Minolta Maxxum STSi, Nikon Coolpix 990, Nikon Coolpix 5700, Nikon Coolpix 8700, Nikon D50, Nikon D70, Nikon D80, Nikon D200, Nikon F4, Nikon F5, Nikon F100, Nikon N70, Nikon N90, Nikon N6006, Nikon N8008s, Pentax *ist-D, Pentax 645N, Pentax MZS, Pentax PZ1P, and Sony DSC-F717.

Bahman Farzad is a Freelance Photographer and a Systems Engineer. He also taught photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (Special Studies) for 16 years. Bahman and his daughter Parastoo "Paris" Farzad founded the Birmingham School of Photography in 2004. A graduate of the University of London, he holds two Master's degrees in Engineering and Computer Science. He has won numerous awards in photography and graphic design and has published articles and photographs in many photographic magazines including American Photo, Popular Photography, Petersen's Photographic, and Darkroom and Creative Camera Techniques. He is also the author of "The Confused Photographer's Guide to On-Camera Spotmetering" on which Outdoor Photographer Magazine commented, "Farzad offers simple solutions to the sometimes complicated light metering issues of the modern equipment."