What the book teaches
The book starts from zero. The first idea comes in chapter 0. Every control in the book changes one of three things. It changes how much light comes in, how long the light comes in for, or how the light is turned into colors.
After that, you learn composition, light, exposure, focus and color. Then the book covers phone cameras, film looks and editing. The fourth part is about taking photos of real life: people, streets, food, pets, the weather and buildings. In the last chapter, you shoot a whole roll as a final project.
Every chapter uses Chobial on iPhone as the camera. Where Android works differently, a short "On Android" note says how. On a phone, the aperture can't be changed, so the book shows other ways to get a soft background. You can get close, or use 2× or the telephoto lens.
How each chapter works
Each chapter opens with a public-domain photo. Public domain means anyone may share and print the photo, so these photos can be in a free book. You'll see work by Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Hine, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eugène Atget and Muybridge. Chapter 6, on viewpoint, pattern and moment, opens with Stieglitz's The Steerage from 1907. Chapter 0 opens with Ben Shahn's 1938 photo of a traveling photographer's plain wooden box camera in Columbus, Ohio.
After the photo, most chapters have the same parts:
- The idea, in plain words.
- In Chobial: numbered steps with screenshots of the app.
- See it: the same scene done two ways, side by side.
- Common mistake: the trap beginners fall into, and how to fix it.
- Try it: one exercise to shoot in the app.
The book has 189 pictures in all, counting photos and app screenshots.
Written in plain English
I wrote the book for beginners and for people whose first language isn't English. The sentences are short and the words are common. Every photo word is explained the first time it's used, and the glossary at the back collects them all. The book is in English only.
The pages are A5 size. That's a small book page, about 15 × 21 cm.
The pages at the back for looking things up
- A glossary of 258 photo terms. Each term shows the chapter that explains it.
- "My photo is…" helps you find what went wrong and how to fix it. It covers photos that are too dark, too bright, blurry, flat, orange, blue or noisy. It also covers crooked photos, skies gone white, and colors that look fake or overedited.
- Cheat sheets: shutter speed by subject, white balance by light, the exposure triangle on one page, and a film picker by light.
- Starting settings for each situation.
- A 30-day challenge: one exercise a day from the chapters' "Try it" parts, 10 to 30 minutes each. Day 1 is ten photos on Auto. It's fine to skip a day.
- A map of Chobial's screens.
All 46 chapters
Getting started
- 0. Meet your camera
Part 1, Photography basics
- 1. What a photo is
- 2. Seeing a picture
- 3. Composition, part one: placing things
- 4. Composition, part two: leading the eye
- 5. Composition, part three: space and balance
- 6. Composition, part four: viewpoint, pattern and moment
- 7. Light
- 8. Exposure: how bright the photo is
- 9. Shutter speed
- 10. ISO and noise
- 11. Aperture and depth of field
- 12. The exposure triangle
- 13. The histogram and your highlights
- 14. Focus and sharpness
- 15. Color and white balance
- 16. Flash and light you bring
Part 2, Phone photography
- 17. Your phone's cameras
- 18. Holding still and pressing the shutter
- 19. Tap, lock, adjust
- 20. What your phone does without asking
- 21. What a phone can't do
- 22. File formats
Part 3, Film looks, developing and finishing
- 23. What makes film look like film
- 24. Choosing a film for the light
- 25. Black and white
- 26. Developing a photo, step by step
- 27. Editing part of a photo
- 28. Describe Edits and your own looks
- 29. Photos from your other camera
- 30. Choosing your best photos and telling a story
- 31. Sharing your photos
- 32. Keeping your photos safe
- 33. Printing
Part 4, Photographing real life
- 34. Photographing people and places with respect
- 35. Portraits
- 36. Selfies and group photos
- 37. Street
- 38. Landscape
- 39. Travel and the city
- 40. Food and cafés
- 41. Night and city lights
- 42. Pets and children
- 43. Weather
- 44. Architecture
The end of the book
- 45. Final project: shoot a roll
- Reference pages
About Chobial
Chobial is a film camera and photo editor for iPhone, iPad and Android. The Android app is in a closed beta on Google Play, and the Android beta page has the details. The camera shows the film look live in the viewfinder and saves RAW by default. A RAW file is the full data from the camera's sensor, before any color style is added. Every photo keeps its original, so you can develop it again later with another film.
Chobial has 46 films built in, and 22 of them are free. You can see them all on the films page. It's free to shoot, develop and make films. Pro is a one-time purchase or a subscription.
Get the book
The book is free, and you don't need to sign up or give an email address. It has 472 pages and 46 chapters, numbered 0 to 45, plus the reference pages.