 | The Negative (New Photo) by Ansel Adams
Buy new: £11.89 / Used from: £6.88 The most significant work about exposure: everything starts from here. Adams' The Camera is also important as an introduction to visualisation.
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 | Cinematography: Theory and Practice: Image Making for Cinematographers, Directors, and Videographers: Image Making for Cinematographers, Directors and Videographers by Blain Brown
Buy new: £16.88 / Used from: £16.08 The best all-round introduction to cinematography available, relevant to DoPs at any level. Especially significant for the concept of 'filmspace', a powerful handle on how we make 3-D work in 2-D.
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 | Making Pictures: A Century of European Cinematography by The Association of European Cinematographers
A beautifully produced book which picks out the European contribution to cinematography, a welcome balance to the Hollywood-centric publishing elsewhere.
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 | Vermeer (Masters of Art) by Arthur K. Wheelock
Buy used from: £31.99 Interested in lighting? Look at these pictures for a long time... (Updated Feb 2004) ...And then see 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' for Eduardo Serra's outstanding realisation of the period and its art.
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 | Principal Photography: Interviews with Feature Film Cinematographers by Vincent LoBrutto
Buy new: £18.72 / Used from: £25.00 A good selection of interviews by someone who knows what they're writing about.
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 | The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Pictures Filming Techniques by Joseph V. Mascelli
Buy new: £9.63 / Used from: £31.98 The 'Grand Old Man' of cinematography books: still essential reading for learning the rules you're going to break...
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 | Spielberg, Truffaut and Me: An Actor's Diary by Bob Balaban
Buy new: £1.17 / Used from: £1.99 The best diary I've read about what it's actually like to be working on a film set, and a funny and touching record of the making of a favourite film.
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 | The Motion Picture Image: From Film to Digital by Steven Barclay
Buy used from: £70.59 A comprehensive technical manual, but well-written and readable. Lots of fundamental information.
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 | Every Frame a Rembrandt: Art and Practice of Cinematography by Andrew Laszlo
Buy new: £17.57 / Used from: £33.82 At last, a book by a Director of Photography! (this list is not in order of importance, just as they come off my bookshelf). Clear and well-written 'war stories' about actually making films.
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 | Film Into Video: A Guide to Merging the Technologies by George Cvjetnicanin
Buy new: £38.03 / Used from: £43.12 Film camera people are running just to keep up with what's happening in post-production: at a bare minimum we need to know what's covered here. Only the speed of change makes it slightly out of date.
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 | Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers by Schaefer
Buy new: £8.46 / Used from: £7.48 A classic series of interviews, there are others but this is the first and has lots of good insights.
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 | Hands-on Manual for Cinematographers by David Samuelson
Buy new: £42.74 / Used from: £29.17 More for Assistants, but this list without something by David Samuelson would be like leaving J.K. Rowling out of Children's Books. You should have this book if you call yourself a cinematographer.
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 | Cinematography: A Guide for Film Makers and Film Teachers by Kris Malkiewicz
Buy used from: £7.97 Can't leave this off a Cinematography Reading List.
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 | Cinematography (Screencraft) by Peter Ettedgui
Buy used from: £56.94 Pithy, well-written and well-illustrated short pieces in a handsome volume.
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 | Contemporary Cinematographers on Their Art by Pauline B Rogers
Buy new: £22.79 / Used from: £11.95 This and the companion volume (More Contemporary Cinematographers...) have some good pieces - ignore Focal Press's customary shoddy editing and glean lots of useful titbits
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 | The Innocence of the Eye: A Filmmaker's Guide by Ed Spiegel
Buy new: £8.94 / Used from: £5.99 A book which has more and more relevance as you start to cut sequences together in your head before you shoot them.
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 | Magic Hour: A Life in Movies by Jack Cardiff
Buy new: £10.49 / Used from: £3.86 A wonderful book, and if anyone needs an insight into why we would want to do this job, this answers all the questions.
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 | Painting with Light by John Alton
Buy used from: £86.95 Read this book to realise how film-making hasn't changed fundamentally since it came out of adolescence in the 1920s.
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| Image Control: Motion Picture Filters and Lab Techniques by Gerald Hirschfeld
Buy used from: £117.95 Well-produced visual comparisons of the differences filter and laboratory choices can make to the look of the image.
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| A Man with a Camera by Nestor Almendros
Buy used from: £71.17 Sadly no longer with us, but he lives on in his beautiful films (Days of Heaven is essential viewing) and this lovely book.
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 | Film Lighting: Talks with Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers by Kris Malkiewicz
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £6.17 More interviews, worth a browse.
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 | Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
Buy new: £6.49 / Used from: £2.50 It's called the film Business for a reason. Read (and marvel at) what goes on long before the Cinematographer is employed...
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 | Film Technology in Post Production (Media Manuals) by Dominic Case
Buy new: £13.31 / Used from: £19.39 Well-laid-out, comprehensive guide to post-production by someone who solves the problems involved daily.
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 | Reflections: Twenty-One Cinematographers at Work by Benjamin Bergery
Buy new: £90.15 / Used from: £81.98 Very expensive, but edited with more analysis than is common by someone who has an eye for subtlety and the wider significance of the pictures.
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 | The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje
Buy used from: £14.94 Fascinating insight into the editing process, two brilliant minds dissect the creation of some of the past 30 years' most important films.
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