Ian Plant’s book Visual Flow: Mastering the Art of Composition belongs on the digital bookshelf of every serious photographer. It is a hugely informative, well-analyzed and finely crafted work on a truly important aspect of creative photography (or other visual art): composition. Visual Flow is a thinking person’s approach to composition (which is the only way to truly create images, rather than “capturing” them), and the thoughtful explanations honestly provide a deeper level to the reader’s understanding of composition. Since that is really the point of buying a book on composition, I will say this up front: you can learn about creating art by reading this book. This book is an in-depth work, with a lot of thought put into defining the whys behind the “rules”. Visual Flow also includes plenty of healthy explanations of the whys behind breaking the “rules”. It is so popular, in some circles, to pay lip service to being a “rule-breaker”. To read some forums, it seems nearly mandatory to discuss the importance of rule-breaking. So much so that people have a tendency to boast about the rules that they are breaking almost before they even learn what the rules are……..

Source: photographytricks.com

Book review Ian Plant Visual Flow