How-to vs Picture Books in Your Library

[sun of sand]

3 people 100:1

im calling BS

pics or it didnt happen

[Q.G.]

Some people don't like looking at small pictures printed badly in too expensive books, and spend their money sooner on going to see large pictures hanging on walls.
The ratio of how to vs pic books then becomes much much bigger than 100:1 as soon as they have only 1 cheap little how-to booklet.
Strangely, it doesn't grow when they acquire more how-to books.
The poll offers 100:1 as the 'nearest' (though still far far removed) option.

[RalphLambrecht]

Worked fine on Google Chrome.

I think the issue is that some buttons work while others don't.

[Exeter2010]

In my learning days I collected many how-to books and read them. I find that, as with almost all learning from books, eventually every concept begins to be repeated and then from that the core principles can be distilled. I have many how-to books on photography, but it is only the very few that I refer to any longer. 'Light: Science & Magic' is one, Szarkowski's 'The Photographer's Eye' another. Oh, and of course St. Ansel's Trilogy, more recently ...I once enjoyed reading "National Geographic's Photography Field Guides" and others of that ilk, but those have collected a lot of dust on the bookshelf.

My collection also includes some critical books, How to Read Photographs, Theory of Composition, etc. I suppose these could be considered how-tos as well. I'm not much for spending big bucks on photographer books. I look at them at the bookstore from time to time (when they're not wrapped in plastic), I just can't bring myself to spring the eighty or a hundred bucks when that could buy some film or paper.

I buy a lot of magazines like Focus, B&W, Silvershotz, to see what's going on out there in our little corner of "The Art World" as I see it. Whether those magazines are any indication at all, I don't know. I do a prodigious amount of online viewing of the photographers I admire and occasionally go to the museum when there are photographs there.

The voting button didn't work, so I had to do an essay instead (to get my answer in there)

[Laurent]

I think it's about 1 : 5 (1 how to for 5 pictures book). Used to be the reverse but I got rid of many "how to" that did not teach me anything, and bought more picture books that teach me a lot...

I could probably get rid of some more "how to" ones though.

BTW I was unable to vote anything but 100:1 or 10:1, the browser won't let me choose anything else !!!

[jnanian]

i am about 1:5 or 1:7 i didn't count them all
so it is a guess ..

some of the photo-books
i have are ones i have made myself.

[SuzanneR]

I have about three "how to" books, and about 200 to 300 monographs. So, yeah... 1 to 100 is about right!!

[sun of sand]

your poll officially sucks :/

[RalphLambrecht]

Let's stop this poll and let's wait until the software is fixed. Bug has been reported to Sean, but so far no answer.