When I was looking for a book to study street photography in my debut, I was surprised by the limited choice available. Here’s a quick but honest review of Mastering Street Photography by Brian Lloyd Duckett. Is this a good book? Should you buy it? Read on.
What’s in the book?
Published in 2016 and reprinted in 2018, and 2020, Mastering Street Photography covers everything related to street photography. The six chapters of the book go through the equipment, exposure, compositional techniques, creativity, practical advice, the legal side, and postproduction.
With all these subjects over 175 pages, you can’t expect the book to go into great depth for each of the topics. But what’s in there is relatively complete, well-written, and most importantly useful for street photographers. From the complicated decision about which camera to buy or to use, to its usage in the streets (zone focusing for example). To very specific thematics like “Working Safely” and “Conquer Your Fear” (something I had experienced myself and covered in How to get over the fear of holding your camera in public!). This is really a book dedicated to street photographers.
The photographs inside
It’s subjective but the photographs featured inside the book are, for me, really good! First, there are a lot of shots inside, most of them coming from the author, Brian Lloyd Duckett. A majority of them are about human subjects. I just wish there were more architecture and urban environments covered photographically. But I was delighted to see that both color and black-and-white photographs are present.
Should you buy Mastering Street Photography?
If you’ve been a street photographer for a long time and have already accumulated a lot of experience, I’m not sure this book will teach you anything new. But if you’ve no or little experience with street photography, Brian Lloyd Duckett’s Mastering Street Photography is a must-read book. It’s informative, it’s inspiring and it’s one of these rare books specifically dedicated to street photography. It’s well worth its price of 29€/£19.99/$29.95 and I’m glad I bought it!
