This book by Chris Weston covers various aspects of exposure, from exposure control to post-camera exposure control, including exposure tools and flash exposure. Yes, that's a lot of talk about exposure but this topic is probably the most important reason for disappointing pictures. Composition is very important too, but for even badly composed snapshots can be appreciated for what they show. Not much can save underexposed or overexposed pictures though. This 176 page book attempts to teach how to get suitable exposure in various situations.

The photographic guide to exposure is a well-presented and organized book divided into eight small chapters. Each chapter includes page-after-page of beautifully composed and well-exposed full-color photographs. Those pictures convey with certainty that Chris Weston is a very capable photographer and that he has an affinity for wild animals. As such, it inspires confidence in his technique and photographic know-how.

The text itself is well-written with a simple style and plenty of examples.  The techniques and tools for exposure are all explained, but not as thoroughly as we would have liked.  Specifically, his explanations of the zone system and of metering for flash exposure are not detailed enough for beginners to fully grasp. Most other topics are simple enough to be understood without further explanations.

The book is well divided into eight complementary chapters, with cross-references when appropriate. In the introduction, the book exposes the truth about exposure: despite being achieved through technical means, it is a highly subjective matter. The first chapter, focuses on how to control exposure using shutter-speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity. From this chapter on, it becomes obvious that this book has been written with both film and digital sensors in mind. The second chapter is devoted to light and how we perceive it, both perceptually and emotionally. Here, color-temperature, white-balance, film types and filters are presented along with suggestions on when to use them. The third chapter introduces metering tools.

The book's core starts with chapter four which is about calculating exposure. This chapter joins lessons of the previous three chapters into a series of steps used to calculate and set exposure controls to achieve desired results. Chapter five is full of exposure advice for specific situations. In this chapter, the zone system is briefly explained, a bit too briefly perhaps - there's no clear explanations on how to get the metering values from a built-in light-meter, arguably the most common type of light-meter. Chapter six is devoted to flash photography which adds a challenging dimension to exposure metering since a flash's light is not in the scene to meter until the flash fires.

Chapter seven is devoted to correcting exposure after pictures are taken using digital techniques such as Photoshop. Actually, this chapter tries to be general but the text is really about Photoshop. The final chapter is a presentation of several photographs by Chris Weston along with the thought process he used to calculate their exposure.

All in all, the photographic guide to exposure covers its topic fairly well. Most explanations are complete and supported by plenty of full-color examples. The topics covered include various aspects of exposure and specific situations. This book can easily complement a general photography, given that it covers exposure in more depth than usual.