Best Books to Learn Photography for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide

If you’re interested in photography and don’t know where to start, this list of the top photography books for beginners will help lead you down the right path. Photography isn’t just for the experts, so don’t worry if you haven’t spent your life clicking just yet. This article will introduce you to the best books for photographers, providing all the information you need to learn more about this incredible craft without spending hours browsing around online.

What Should a Beginner Photographer Learn?

When you’re starting off as a beginner in photography, it can feel overwhelming. Part of the issue is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Understanding camera settings is crucial for gaining control over your photos. The fortunate news is that many beginners have come before you in search of answers and have prompted the experts to share their knowledge in ways that will help them to grow.

Getting comfortable with digital cameras and their various features is essential for any beginner. The photography books listed are not specific to any genre of photography but will help you in every area. This means that you don’t have to have your path completely nailed down for these to benefit you. Whether you want to run a photography business or do this as a hobbyist, these will help you grow.

Can You Teach Yourself Photography?

It may seem oversimplified, but reading a book about photography is one of the best ways to teach yourself photography. Enrolling in an online photography school can also provide structured learning and valuable resources. The next thing is to get out there and start shooting. You can learn a lot in the field, but you do need to come from a foundation of understanding, or you risk making a lot of mistakes and getting into really bad habits from the get-go.

Are Photography Books Worth It?

The biggest leaps in growth as a photographer often come from education in the form of books and online courses. Books are the best way to get started. Many of these books also cover advanced photography techniques that can take your skills to the next level. In fact, if you’re wanting to start a business in photography, reading books on business can be a game changer. Don’t make the mistake of trying to learn everything on the job.

Foundational Books for Any Photographer

While many photography books are fairly specific in their audience, there are a few that make amazing reads for anyone interested in photography. These are the books that are recommended over and over again to photographers of all interests and experience levels. These are books that don’t fit neatly into a category but stand out as the most relevant or inspiring.

"The Moment It Clicks" by Joe McNally

In some photography books, a photographer shows an image and then talks about what makes it work or how and why they took that image. But The Moment it Clicks comes across as though Joe McNally chose the advice and wisdom he wanted to share and then effortlessly chose an image from his vast portfolio to illustrate the point.

McNally, who photographed for Life magazine and National Geographic among countless other publications, is a literal master of light and has written other, more technical volumes. But this book might be the most personal. He poured countless years of accumulated wisdom into a single volume, seamlessly mixing the technical with the anecdotal.

Tidbits of wisdom include quotes such as:

Nice is nice, but it stops short of being fabulous.
A good idea becomes a bad idea when you don’t see anything else.
If you want something to look interesting, don’t light all of it.
Light falls, just make sure it falls in your favor.

Each pithy quote is illustrated with one of Joe’s amazing photographs as well as an accompanying behind-the-scenes story and technical information on “how to get this type of shot”. This book should be required reading for anyone working in or hoping to pursue a career in commercial or editorial work.

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"Light, Gesture, Color & It's Not About the F-Stop" by Jay Maisel

If you don’t already know the work of Jay Maisel, then these books, Light Gesture, Color and It’s Not About the F-Stop will be a surprise treasure. Jay’s career spans more than half a century, and he has photographed just about everyone and everything there is to photograph during that time. But these books focus less on his commercial work and more on his personal love of photographing “Light, Gesture, and Color.”

These three elements, according to Jay, make up the essence of every good photograph, and his books describe his relentless pursuit of light, gesture, and color in a classic, conversational manner. Every photographer will glean from Jay’s wisdom in these two books but should be considered essential for anyone with an interest in street photography. Many of his photographs are of objects so ordinary (bus wheels, power lines) that most people would have overlooked them, but Jay’s search for light, color, and gesture transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

The images alone are worth the price of the book, but the real brilliance is the ease and generosity with which he pours out his wisdom and knowledge of the craft. Jay’s tone is casual, almost conversational as he shares his thoughts and the stories behind each image. These books are less technical than Joe McNally’s, and while they are chock full of wisdom, it’s shared in such a casual off-hand way that I’m positive they barely scratch the surface of Jay’s years of cumulative knowledge. These are the books to come back to when in need of inspiration and motivation.

"A World History of Photography" by Naomi Rosenblum

When in college, being fastidious about reselling textbooks at the end of each semester to pay for film was a must. A World History of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum was the one exception. Despite the fact that it commanded a relatively high price on the used book market, it’s the one textbook that was kept and is still on the shelf today.

Years later, it can still confidently be said that this book belongs in the library of every photographer. It’s a massive volume and the most comprehensive history of photography to date. It is also a very image-heavy volume, with hundreds of images spanning almost two centuries of photographic history.

It focuses on the people and historical context of photography as well as the technology. While the book is a chronological history of photography, it also delves deeply into the uses and types of photography during each time period. Throughout the book, there are also profiles of photographers, which serve not as side boxes or antidotal information but as a part of the text, giving specificity and context to each time period. And because this is a world history, each section also compares what was happening around the world within each time period and genre of photography.

The book is well laid out, and if reading more than 600 pages on the history of photography is more than you want to tackle right now, it will be easy enough to pick out the chapters that are of most interest. And while the book is text-heavy, the images are still plentiful, and it would be worthwhile to spend an afternoon looking through the images of your favorite subjects (portraits, landscapes, etc.) from beginning to end just to trace the stylistic and technical changes over the centuries.

Books and Resources to Learn the Basics of Photography

If you are just getting into photography, you might be wondering what books are the best for beginners. A list like that would be tough to compile and recommend for a number of reasons. For example, many beginner-level books have a lot of technical information on things like camera technology, gear recommendations, and typical camera settings that change all the time with newer technology. Many beginner-level books end up getting re-published with newer editions in order to incorporate these changes, and they can get out of date rather quickly. The classic book in the genre is Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure, although the fact that it is on the fourth edition demonstrates my point.

"Read This if You Want to Take Good Photographs" by Henry Carroll

Getting to grips with the basics of photography has never been easier - or more fun - than with Read This if You Want to Take Good Photographs. An easy-to-follow, accessible guide, this book is perfect for anyone new to using DSLRs, compact systems, and bridge cameras. The book is jargon-free and affordable, though it lacks advanced techniques.

"How to Create Stunning Digital Photography" by Tony Northrup

When it comes to learning photography, reading from books and watching videos are two approaches that each have strengths and weaknesses. So why not combine the two for the best of both worlds? That's exactly what this package from Tony Northrup offers. As well as this 233-page book, you get over three hours of supplementary online training videos, and free help from the author and other readers via an online readers group. This is very much a practical, hands-on course that requires you to grab your camera and get shooting right away. There are exercises at the end of every chapter to give you the real-world experience you need, and the emphasis is very much on learning by doing.

"The Digital Photography Book: Part 1" by Scott Kelby

This book takes an approach to improve your photography that makes perfect sense. The book offers more than 200 photographic tricks of the trade, to help you get looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos, explained in the same way you would in a normal conversation.

"DSLR Photography for Beginners"

Most DSLRs seem more complicated than your computer, and navigating their technical instructions can be overwhelming for a novice photographer. DSLR Photography for Beginners explains the different types of cameras, lenses, filters, functions, and more.

"Understanding Exposure, Fourth Edition" by Bryan Peterson

Updated for 2016, this popular book explains the fundamentals of exposure as it relates to light, aperture, and shutter speed, in order to help you taking successful photographs in almost any situation. Bryan Peterson demonstrates how to get sharpness and contrast in images, freeze action, take meter readings and more, as well as explaining everything you need to know about filters, flash and light. Peterson has a clear enthusiasm for his subject, and whether you're an experienced beginner or an intermediate photographer looking for a refresher, you'll get a deeper understanding of exposure from this guide that can't help but improve the quality of your images.

"Mastering Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO & Exposure" by Al Judge

Many of the most basic photography terms can be off-putting to the beginner, and even experienced photographers don't always understand them properly. So this book explains the fundamentals in a quick, easy, and very accessible manner, allowing you to have more control over the quality of your images. By the end, you'll fully understand exposure and its components, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO - also known as the Exposure Triangle - and how they work together. Every photographic term is clearly defined and thoroughly explained, as well as is highlighted by using bold caps.

Best Books for Portrait Photographers

"50 Portraits" by Gregory Heisler

While this book is included as one of the best books for portrait photographers, 50 Portraits by Gregory Heisler is a book that should be read (and reread) by all photographers, regardless of their preferred genre and subject matter.

As its name suggests, this book is a collection of 50 portraits that Heisler has photographed over the course of his career. The book itself is incredible. It’s hardback, and the images could easily stand alone as a coffee table book. If you don’t immediately recognize Heisler’s name, you will undoubtedly recognize his work. He has photographed everyone from Muhamad Ali to Hillary Clinton. Many of the images he shares in the book were photographed as cover images for Time, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Life, Esquire, and the likes. Every portrait is a study in lighting, of which Heisler is a master.

Along with each portrait, Heisler shares the story behind the images. He shares his thought processes, and how his ideas evolved into the final portraits. It’s the sort of stories and information one might share if you sat down with him to look through his images in person. The stories have depth, and every one of them is more than a fun anecdote about photographing someone famous. They are an absolute wealth of information about what goes through the head of a photographer while working.

Gregory Heisler also shares his “Thoughts on Technique for each image.” This isn’t a place to get bogged down with f/stops, shutter speed, and iso (although he includes that information for each image in an appendix), but they are literal thoughts on why and how he used the techniques he did and why they work in that particular portrait.

Heisler’s tidbits of wisdom range from his thoughts on portraits:

I don’t seek to flatter my subjects so much as to respect them. I want to give them their moment, a moment in which their individuality is heightened. Their uniqueness set into strong relief.

To his thoughts on technique:

If your picture isn’t good enough, your light isn’t close enough.

This book is a must-buy for all portrait photographers, but it really should be the cornerstone of any photographer’s library.

"People Pictures & Capturing Authentic Portraits" by Chris Orwig

What makes the books People Pictures and Authentic Portraits by Chris Orwig isn’t just the skill of the photographer, it’s the masterful and approachable way in which Orwig teaches what appears to come so naturally to him. While both of Chris’s books on portrait photography focus on connecting with people, People Pictures is more about finding your own voice, and Authentic Portraits is about learning to create portraits that represent who a person is, not what they look like. These are not books filled with lighting diagrams.

People Pictures is a book of 30 exercises to improve your portrait photography. Every assignment is about connecting, seeing, and developing your own voice and vision as a portrait photographer.

"Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of People" by Henry Carroll

Henry Carroll’s series of books on photography are an example of exceptional publishing - and this one dedicated to portraiture is no exception. They show what a little academic knowledge can do when boiled down by great editors, skilled illustrators, and an investment in the images. They are inspiring to browse through and contain some useful nuggets of information which any creative person of your acquaintance should enjoy. Experienced photographers, however, will find every other book on this list more useful.

"Mastering Portrait Photography" by Paul Wilkinson and Sarah Plater

If portrait photography is your area of expertise, or you want it to be, Mastering Portraits by Sarah Plater and multi-award-winning portrait photographer Paul Wilkinson is one of the best photography books on the subject. The authoritative guide explains the essential techniques of portrait photography in a clear and concise way, with minimal jargon to make it as accessible as possible. Inside you'll find advice on choosing the right camera and equipment for you, right through to understanding exposure, aperture, metering, shutter speed, depth of field, and white balance settings.

"The Headshot: The Secrets to Creating Amazing Headshot Portraits" by Peter Hurley

In the modern social media age, having a decent-looking head-and-shoulders portrait is something that concerns everyone, not just actors and models. So if you want to know how to take professional-looking headshots, this book by professional portraitist Peter Hurley is just what you need. You'll learn the same techniques the author used to take amazing headshots of Fortune 500 CEOs, actors, and public figures, from lighting your subjects correctly to putting them in flattering positions. Hurley also shares his trade secrets for getting genuine smiles and authentic expressions rather than people's standard 'photo face' that always makes a headshot look dull and lifeless. This is not so much a step-by-step training manual or reference guide as an insight into how one man approaches his art.

"One Face, Fifty Ways" by Mark Wilkinson & Imogen Dyer

Its simple premise is to offer easy-to-follow examples you can use to get as many different looks as possible with the same model. In so doing it also covers many basics of photographing all people (and there is a chapter with models other than Imogen). Since so many of us start out with family members or cooperative friends serving in that role, this light-hearted but informative guide is a good way to build your confidence in shooting people.

Best Books for Landscape Photographers

"The Landscape Photography Workshop" by Ross Hoddinott and Mark Bauer

Get to grips with landscape photography with one of the best photography books around. A beautifully illustrated workshop-in-a-book, this photography handbook acts as a training session in the art of landscape photography, mixing detailed written explanations with easy-to-follow creative assignments to help you hone your skills. No matter what you’re skill level, there’s something here for everyone, starting with the basics of equipment and exposure right through to more advanced photography techniques, post-processing, and printing.

"The Photographer's Eye Remastered" by Michael Freeman

There's no point in understanding the technical side of photography if you don't understand the composition. This classic book, updated to celebrate its 10th anniversary, explains the principles of good composition, and how to put them into practice. It's divided up into bite-size chapters to make everything easy to follow. The images are shown with multiple crops, thus demonstrating how one particular composition of a picture works better than another. Following the author's reasoned and well-explained advice will help you develop your compositions and take better pictures as a result. In short, if you struggle with composition as a photographer, then you need this book.

"On Composition" by Michael Freeman

In many ways, composition is the most powerful tool in a photographer's armory. Michael Freeman, one of the world's leading reportage photographers, explains both why and how composition works, from perception to visual imagination. He includes lots of real-life examples of composition in practice to demonstrate the key rules you need to follow. And most usefully, this book includes a number of compositional templates, from the 'Walk-in to the Frame Break' to the 'Fibonacci Point', which you can use to compose your shots.

"The Art of Photography 2nd edition: A Personal Approach to Artistic Expression" by Bruce Barnbaum

First published in 1994, this book is considered a classic of photography instruction. It was fully updated in 2010 to incorporate digital photography. But actually, it's not so much a technical guide as a deep dive into the philosophical and creative side of photography. The author's main aim is to dissuade photographers from the approach of taking hundreds of shots in the hope of getting one good image, and instead understand the processes by which you can shoot fewer, but better pictures overall. In other words, if you're at the stage of your photography journey where you understand all the tools and techniques, but you're still taking unimpressive pictures, this is the book for you.

"Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision" by David duChemin

Great photography lies not so much in technical expertise but in learning to see things in a different way from the norm. The starting point for this book is that you don't have to travel to far-flung locations to take arresting pictures; great images are possible anywhere. You just have to scratch the surface and find them.

Additional Books to Consider

"The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kelby: A great read for beginners or experts alike. The layout offers larger print and brilliant images that anyone will easily understand- it’s perfect for all levels of experience!
"The Photographer’s Guide to Composition" by John Freeman: An essential guide to composition techniques for the novice and experienced photographer alike.
"Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques for Taking Great Pictures" by Harold David: An easy guide to digital photography with simple and practical tips.
"Picture Perfect Practice: A Self-Training Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Taking World-Class Photographs" by Roberto Valenzuela: A guide for beginners and experts alike that teaches you all the basics of how photography works.
"Studio Anywhere: A Photographer's Guide to Shooting in Unconventional Locations" by Nick Fancher: Professional portraitist Nick Fancher explains how to get great-looking shots in less-than-ideal scenarios.

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