If you’re thinking about becoming a Certified Professional Photographer, I highly recommend it. Though it will probably involve *some* studying and work on your part, I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it once you’re officially a “Certified Professional Photographer.” For more information about becoming a Certified Professional Photographer, visit www.certifiedphotographer.com
What’s involved with Becoming Certified? You can read my article, “The Mystery Behind the Certification Process” (PDF). The official website I mentioned a minute ago also has information about certification — including the forms you’ll need to fill out and the actual directions.
Recommended Reading:
In the past, the PPCC included a list of supplementary texts, but they do not currently endorse any recommended reading aside from Barbara London’s Photography (9e) . For posterity’s sake, I’ve included the list of supplementary texts below, as well as links to the reviews I wrote of each book. You can also browse everything tagged “CPP” if you like.
Online Study Materials:
9e Companion Website
8e Companion Website
Supplementary Texts:
Basic Studio Lighting, Tony Corbell
Body Parts, Don Blair
Complete Guide to Digital Photography, Michael Freeman
Digital Photography Expert: Light & Lighting, Michael Freeman
Digital Sports Photography: Take Winning Shots Every Time, Serge Timacheff
Image: Designing Effective Pictures, Michael Freeman
Light, Science & Magic, Fil Hunter
Outdoor and Location Photography, Jeff Smith
Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color, Leatrice Eiseman
The Photographer’s Handbook, by John Hedgecoe
The Portrait, Don Blair
Photography, Barbara London
Basic Photographic Materials & Processes, Lee Stroebel
Thank you.
You’re welcome
I am so thankful for this info!! I plan to do my certification within the next year and have a bit more confidence. Thank you for sharing your experiences. Maybe this time next year I will be writing an article about how your articles assisted me in passing my certification!
Thanks for the kind words. Good luck with the certification process!
This is an amazing, thoughtful, generous gift to each of us seeking to grow ourselves professionally.
Having prepared successfully for professional exams in two other professions, I know the time and research it takes to determine which materials are the most authoritative and most helpful. This “resource compilation process” has to precede or accompany the actual studying process, and usually has some blind alleys where a reference looked good but proved to be shallow or inaccurate.
Your annotated, vetted collection together with your short, helpful article on “The Mystery behind the Certification Process,” form a foundation on which I’m confident I can depend.
Thank you so very much.
Thank you Bob. These resources really came about from my own process of studying to become a Certified Professional Photographer, as I noticed there was a gap between the supplied materials and the information I wanted to know.
I’m so glad that this information has been able to help other people too.
Great info, Betsy. Because of your encouragement I too am a certified professional. I’ll share your web site with others when I am asked about certification.
Betsy, I am unable to get the reading list pdf. Is a link missing?? Thank you for providing all this information.
@Janel – Thanks for letting me know! It appears as though the url was updated on the CPP website. I’ve updated the link above, but just for thoroughness: reading list pdf.
Betsy,
One thing I noticed was that John Hedgecoe’s book “The New Manual of Photography” was not on the recommended reading list; I thought this was the upgraded version of his “handbook”.
Comments?
Good question! I haven’t looked through the New Manual of Photography (pub. 2003) so I can’t say for sure, but my guess would be that it covers more digital aspects of photography, whereas the Photographer’s Handbook (pub. 1992) was more film oriented.
The CPP exam does still include film related questions. So, it may be on there as a way to thoroughly cover all bases in combination with Michael Freeman’s book, Complete Guide to Digital Photography.
[I'll check with the PPCC and see if I can get an explanation from them.]
@D.W. – It looks like the PPCC did away with the recommended reading list, and the only book currently recommended is the “main” book (London, 9e). So maybe that would explain why the list was never updated!
Thanks so much for all you shared on CPP test preparation. Since I sort of ran out of time, I studied only 9th edition of Photography by London, Stone, Upton. But I did study very thoroughly. It was a wonderful experience for me to fill in blanks (divots? potholes? craters?) in my photography knowledge with deep study, even though it was only one book.
It seemed to me that many of the questions were written with the book very much in mind. And I think that the vast majority of my responses were based mainly on what I got from the book.
So how did I do studying only London, et al? I scored over 90 on the exam, and I want folks to know that studying other books may not be essential to passing the exam’s cut-off of 70.
However I should say that I had a darkroom when I was a teen, and I’ve taken my share of training courses, plus meetings and conferences with my state PPA organization, a college level Photoshop class, and any number of 1-day or half-day workshops. But I think something like this kind of experience, except maybe the Photoshop classes, would be typical for most candidates as they begin to prepare for the exam.
@anonymous, you’re certainly correct. I think that’s why the PPCC changed their “recommended reading” list to only include London’s Photography.
However, I know some people feel better the more prepared they are, and having multiple books to cross-reference can’t hurt (in the very least, it can help solidify concepts!). I’d still definitely continue to recommend the online study guides for London’s Photography, as I found those very helpful when reviewing for the exam.
Thanks for sharing your experience, and enjoy your new CPP status!!
Oops, I should have said that I studied the 9th edition of London AND the 9th edition online study guide. I definitely agree with you, Betsy, that the study guide is valuable in preparing for the exam. I answered all the questions in each chapter, restudied areas I missed, then retested myself in the study guide, keeping at it until my score in each chapter was 80% or better.