The Digital Photography Book

The Digital Photography Book

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Editorial Reviews

Scott Kelby, the man who changed the "digital darkroom" forever with his groundbreaking, #1 bestselling, award-winning book The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, now tackles the most important side of digital photography--how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks today's top digital pros use (and it's easier than you'd think).

This entire book is written with a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: "If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, 'Hey, how do I get this flower to be in focus, but I want the background out of focus?' I wouldn't stand there and give you a lecture about aperture, exposure, and depth of field. In real life, I'd just say, 'Get out your telephoto lens, set your f/stop to f/2.8, focus on the flower, and fire away.' You d say, 'OK,' and you'd get the shot. That's what this book is all about. A book of you and I shooting, and I answer the questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I've learned just like I would with a friend, without all the technical explanations and without all the techno-photo-speak."

This isn't a book of theory—it isn't full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts: this is a book of which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and nearly two hundred of the most closely guarded photographic "tricks of the trade" to get you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with your digital camera every time you press the shutter button.

Here's another thing that makes this book different: each page covers just one trick, just one single concept that makes your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you'll learn another pro setting, another pro tool, another pro trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. There's never been a book like it, and if you're tired of taking shots that look "OK," and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, "Why don't my shots look like that?" then this is the book for you.

Customer Reviews

Great Beginning Book for Photographers

Reviewed by Johnny, 2010-02-10

I already had this book and really enjoyed it. When my granddaughter became interested in photography I thought she would get a lot out of it. When I found out that she was getting a new digital camera for Christmas I decided to order this book as an addition to her presents from us. At last report she was reading the book completely and liked it a lot.
Johnny

Completely useless for both beginners and advanced photographers

Reviewed by Falcon, 2010-02-08

I find it hard to believe that I'm writing this, but I simply must save unsuspecting readers from frustration I experienced. I'm amateur photographer and always willing to learn something new, so I was lured to this book by positive reviews in my quest for knowledge and better pictures. I failed to heed the warnings in the negative reviews (which I normally do) and now I'm terribly regretting this because every bit of critique appears to be true.
I usually read introductions and acknowledgements, so this book immediately alienated me with author's ill-conceived sense of humor. The funny part though is that author realizes (admits it in the book) that his humor attempts are "lame" at best but still insist of occupying at least 5% of the book with this trash. What also contributes to the injury is the author's writing style and "pro" reference in each paragraph. Basically each tip is aimed not at learning something new, but rather at "looking like a pro". I find it ridiculous, but it surely attracts all those photo-wannabes that give this book positive reviews.
Now let's look at the content. Each page consists of paragraph(s) of text with some "useful" tip and a picture to illustrate the tip. Do not assume that pictures illustrate a technique, and you could learn anything from them. Most of the time pictures are pointless and/or of questionable artistic value. You will see plenty pictures of cameras, camera menus, camera controls, authors family and friends and even mindless clipart in cases where author was too lazy to actually come up with the photo. Bogus pictures occupy exactly half of each page, so you could surely cut the book in half and convert it to nice pocket format without losing anything.
The quality of tips in the book is of dubious nature. I would say that about half of them is just a common sense. Trust me, you do not need a book to figure out that camera has to be steady to make sharp pictures or that by throwing away you picture CDs you are risking that somebody might gain access to your work. It also unlikely that you bought this book to be reminded that your work has to be backed up (several "tips" devoted to that).
Now the tiny part of the book that actually contains some useful information is misdirected. For people that spend some time shooting (i'm not even talking about ubiquitous "pros" here) all the "tips" are self-evident and are on borderline with common sense. Many of them are blatantly oversimplified of just plain incorrect. For beginners those tips do not make much sense because they lack the basics which are not covered by this book.
In general this book is the worst disappointment I ever had (in books at least :). Spend your time and money elsewhere. There are plenty of good books for beginners and advanced photographers out there and this is just happens not to be one of them. If you really want to improve your pictures better read Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) or Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. The latter, especially, going to make you a better photographer, guaranteed.

Great book

Reviewed by R. J. Wong, 2010-02-03

I purchased this book because I recently got a Canon DSLR also from Amazon. I am a total beginner when it comes to using a SLR. So I got this one because of the gret reviews. This book is very good. Easy to read and very informative. I've also bought a couple of others, but like this one the best. I am planning on also getting the volumes 2 and 3 in the near future.

He certainly knows how to take pictures. Good teacher? Not really.

Reviewed by VY, 2010-02-02

The book is not completely useless. You can "extract" a few tips from the book. However, al books of this author (yes, I've read them all) are lacking a basic order. It looks like the author never bothered to put things together, simply writing about anything that comes to his mind. For example, he writes about sharp pictures, then, once he gets to a word "flash", he completely switches from the main subject and keeps writing about different kind of flashes you can get from one particular store. Then, while talking about flashes, he gets to white balance, or something else, and keeps talking about that totally different subject. Then, the wedding comes to his mind. Ok, here we go, we talk about weddings, which get us to making sharp pictures, which leads to flashes and lenses, etc., etc. etc. Repetitions, repetitions, repetitions... The "jokes" are very distracting. While reading many things, I was thinking: "what is he talking about, is he out of his mind?" then you realize: "ah, that was a joke". Silly.

A good starter for a novice

Reviewed by CGScammell, 2010-02-01

I had to buy this for a digital photography course. Scott Kelby is a great photographer and his photographs prove that. Even I, as a long-standing amateur, picked up a few new tricks.

I found his lame humor at the beginning of the book distracting, though. Sure, he's a funny guy but anyone serious about learning all the tips of great photography may be annoyed at the wasted words. It wouldn't have hurt to have added a few more technical descriptions of how certain tricks work.

What I really enjoyed were his special tips at the bottom of many pages. Those were the ones framed and shaded in hues of green. Another bonus was mentioning both Nikon and Canon features when there were differences between the two brands' terminology. A few added Adobe Photoshop tricks also round out the information in this slim how-to book.

I would recommend this book for someone who already has taken a few good photographs and who is familiar with her own camera. But for someone more determined to turn pro, there are more technical and just as simplified books out there.

4+ stars