Langford's Basic Photography, 9th Edition

You don't have to understand physics to take good photographs, but understanding how light behaves and how lenses form it into images gives you a broader view of the possibilities of photography. The principles involved are very simple and easily demonstrated.

We start with light as it is the very essence, the basic substance of photography. What precisely is light, and which of its basic features are helpful to know when you are illuminating a subject, using lenses and learning about colour? From light and colour we go on to discuss how surfaces and subjects look the way they do, and how light can be bent (refracted) with glass to create a usable ...