When you look at photographs by great photographs do you look in awe and wish you could take photos like that? Do you find the journey from snapshots to stunning photos unchartable? This book will help you to understand what makes a photo work, how to create photos of which you can be proud. Freeman presents various aspects of photography theory and art is simple ways for any photographer to understand. It's a book to which you'll refer and reread many times.

After nearly avoiding this book because of all the comments about the "poor writing" I have to say that I am completely confused as to where those opinions originate. I find Freeman's writing to be very intelligent and clear with the added bonus of not coming across as snobbish or opinionated. I am very impressed by the book and while I am really enjoying reading the detailed discussion of each of the compositional elements I see already that the design of the book makes for an easily accessible reference in the future (as I know I will be reviewing these topics over and over again). The "poor writing" is also backed up with solid photographic examples to help drive the points home. I recommend this book highly and is already helping me to "see" a great deal that I have been missing so far.

The thing that is so great about this book is not only the depth it brings to important topics, but the breadth of topics as well. All the different things -the little details- that can make or break an image, are right here to be studied and understood in the context of image making. Also the format of the book really allows justice to be done to the photos, while not skimping on important text / information.

I do like newer works such as Within the Frame, but the thing this book has that the others lack as a nice mix of the technical concepts and the emotional concepts. Both are equally important to good photography. If i had to choose only one book on composition, this would be it. This will be a go-to reference for many years IMO.

Can't recommend highly enough! The only one of its kind that is different than any other book. A must read!