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Yeah... this is the best book that ever was in my hands.

I recently picked up and LOVE "Material World: A Global Family Portrait" by Peter Menzel, one of the best done, most informative, and best executed concepts I have had the pleasure of reading.

Here is a link to it on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Material-World-Global-Family-Portrait/dp/0871564300

Ryan Holloway
http://www.ryanhollowayphotography.com

the visual story by bruce block

The best photography book I've read so far is The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally. I learned lots of stuff about off-camera flashing, which is vast branch of photography. You never get bored with it. I like this particular book also because of the way Joe writes. It's like sitting in a cafe chatting with him.

Those are great books, everyone. keep em coming.

It's very difficult to pick just one, and I agree that several of the books listed above are great. But I think my favourite has to be Bryan Peterson's "Learning to se creatively". Why I choose this? Because it's the one that I take down from the shelf most often!

OK, I'm showing my nerdy colours here. I really love Light: Science and Magic and the Joe McNally books, but if I have to pick ONE book that has impacted my photography the most it would have to be The DAM Book by Peter Krogh. It's all about Digital Asset Management.
While I didn't learn how to light or how to see, reading that book (I own both the first and the vastly updated second edition) I learned how a photographer can have a professional workflow that treats the entire collection of images as an asset and increases the value of that asset by systematically organizing and securing it. Nerdy as I said, but a truly valuable resource from the world leading expert in DAM.

the last book by david duchemin is the greatest photography book i ever read
it's titled "within the frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision"

http://www.amazon.com/Within-Frame-Journey-Photographic-Vision/dp/032160...

Within the Frame by David Duchemin:
So inspiring, motivating...
Very different from any other book I have.

A must have.

There are so many to choose from, that it's hard to choose just one. But I think that Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera would be the one. It's written in such a simple way and is the book that turned on the lights for me as far as exposure control goes. Until I read it I struggled to get a grip on the relationship between ISO, aperture and film speed, but this book showed me how truly simple this is and I haven't looked back since. This book is a "must read" for new photographers or those who have DSLRs or high-end digital compacts but still rely on the automatic modes.

I concur, for any photographer, reading Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" is a must ...

I would also submit that DuChemin's book "Within the Frame" is also another good book - it strays away from the normal "photo" "How-to" format and focuses on the "why-to" ... He also discusses photographing people, landscapes, and more - this book focuses a bit on the human element.

Books that inspire me:
- Cecil Beaton "Portraits",
- Vanity Fair "Portraits",
- George Hurrell "Hollywood Portraits" [hmm I sense a theme :)],
- Alan Silver & James Ursini "The Noir Style",
- Magnum Agency "Magnum", just to name a few. :)

I'd say The Moment it Clicks by Joe McNally. Not only does he talk about the lighting and setups for his photos, but also the people-oriented side of photography required to work with subjects and editors, and plenty of odd and entertaining stories from his career.

I think my all-time favorite photo book is "Magnum Magnum"
It is showing the other side of some great photographers, that are ot as well known.
big up to that.

"The Negative" by Ansel Adams. At the time I was shooting black & white film and developing it myself, and Adams' scientific approach to photography blew me away. The Zone System and his focus on previsualising helped me improve my own photos, and the way he offhandedly explains his own research ("You can buy commercial developer, but I made my own. Here's the formula...") was an inspiration. It's not a practical book for digital shooters, but if you've ever tried your own developing or wanted to know the nitty-gritty about correct exposure it's well worth a read.

One of my favorite morning blogs to read is http://5b4.blogspot.com/. The author is a collector of fine art photography books and he posts well-written, comprehensive reviews with scans of the pages. The blog is focused solely on photography books and is updated often. I find it a great resource to find excellent fine art photography.

-Dan

Again everyone. A big thanks for sharing your favs here. Looksmlike all aspects of photography is covered - artistic, technique and creative. This may take some time to catch up on :)

The most inspirational has to be "The Moment It Clicks" By Joe McNalley.

Although anything by Monte Zucker is fantastic also.

The Photographers Eye by Michael Freeman if my favourite photography book. Its a really great book about composition and photographic design. Its very accessible, not at all dry and will take you way way beyond the rule of thirds.

Nigel Parry's "Sharp" is my favourite book of photographs, lots of powerful and creative portraits.

Hot Shoe Diaries or Moment it Clicks, can't decide.

“The Photograph: Composition and Color Design: by Harald Mante. "The Photograph" is a great book on composition; it goes way beyond the basics (rule of thirds…). The book has been around for some time but was just recently published in English. It’s definitely not for the beginner, but would be great for any photographer (wedding, landscape, portrait…) the only downside, is all of the flipping between pages and text.

James W

http://www.jwwphotography.com

Photographing Creative Landscapes: Simple Tools for Artistic Images and Enhanced Creativity by Michael Orton. This book is what originally inspired me to start digital photography seriously. Orton created his marvelous effects using Kodachrome slide file. I figured that if he could do it the hard way I could certainly do it with Photoshop.

100 years of life in pictures
any mcnnally book
brian peterson

Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) by Bryan Peterson, was the book that got me really USING my camera. Great book that explains things in a way a newb can understand. It has been about three years since I read and I am getting ready to read through it again just to brush up.

I have to agree that Bryan Peterson's seminal book, Understanding Exposure is the single must-read for all photographers. No one explains the techniques and vision of photography together so well and with such freshness. Anyone can use this book to both understand the photographic art, and just take better photos. It is the "Anyone Can Cook" of photography.

His book Learning to See Creatively, is also highly recommended. He has a new one coming out this week that covers most of these two books as a field guide summary of all his works. Very much the definitive touchstone author in the field.

I'd say Galen Rowell's book "Mountain Light" is a photography book that really inspired me. Each shot in the book is simply amazing and he gives in great detail how he did it but more importantly WHY he did it that way. The images are inspiring and the text is entertaining and informational.

Art of Color Photography - John Hedgecoe
Michael Freeman