PHOTOGRAPHY: How to Improve Your Technique

One thing that Catherine Noren does not do is to show the reader how to improve his photographic technique. But she does present the beginner with a basic and concise, if unexciting, introduction to photography. Beginning with a simple, non-technical introduction to the camera, the author enumerates a few of the more popular types (instamatic, Polaroid, 35mm, and twin-lens reflex), though her description is too superficial to really serve as a guide for selecting one's own camera. Ms. Noren does suggest, however, that the potential buyer carefully consider his needs and' not overinvest. The basic elements of focus, composition, light and exposure are briefly discussed and demonstrated, mostly by the author's own work (generally unexceptional, but illustrative). She advises beginners to photograph things you have never seen before, that you'll never see again, familiar things in unfamiliar ways or the way you'll remember them best -- but her few suggestions (""the zoo,"" ""togetherness. . . ,"" ""wintertime -- a deserted park bench in the snow"") are more easily given than effectively followed. Her darkroom procedures are clear and simple, and she supplies a list of basic equipment necessary for developing film and enlarging and developing prints. There is also a glossary of photographic terms and a list of recommended further reading, notable for its selection of material available in paperback. This brief overview may well be adequate for getting started in photography, but a more comprehensive and exalting approach can be found in Czaja's Writing with Light (above). Supplementary.