In a comment to an earlier post, Rppizio, wondered about the vocabulary of photography. That made me think — I remember feeling like people were speaking a foreign language the first time I started to scroll through flickr, photo forums and photo blogs. So much jargon!

Reading a few books really helped. When I started writing this post, I listed all the books but since there were over ten I felt like the post was getting a little too long. So, for today, I’ll just talk about the two books that helped me understand aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation and why all of that is important if I wanted to make the camera obey my vision.

Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera

This one was so key to understanding the difference between how WE see and how the CAMERA sees. Peterson does such an incredible job of making this easy to understand — all the f-stop and reciprocal talk that usually just buzzes around my head while I look at the pictures… he actually makes it all make sense. And the pictures are gorgeous and will inspire you. And before the end of the book you will understand why the “exposure triangle” and how it relates to your vision. Great stuff!

Perfect Exposure: The Professional’s Guide to Capturing Perfect Digital Photographs

If Peterson’s book is Exposure 101 than Freeman’s book is the advanced course. While he does touch on the basics, he spends more time on the technical aspects of your camera’s metering systems, dynamic range and digital sensors. It’s really an eye opener! He also spends a good deal of time on style and how your approach to exposure (or how you choose to expose in the “twelve typical lighting situations”) determines the mood of your photograph as well as becomes a key-component to your personal style. This book was really one big a-ha!

Any books that you would recommend on exposure? Which ones really changed your way of thinking, photographically speaking?