Category: (Book)
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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.
Great Beginning Book for PhotographersReviewed 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 photographersReviewed 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 bookReviewed 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 noviceReviewed 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