Rating: 
Summary: Very good writing makes learning much easier.
Review: Excellent, up to date and very well written book covering digital photography from A to Z.Well-written means that in our family, where one of us has been a photojournalist for a very long time and the other is just coming into her own as a digital fine art photographer, we both are learning from it. My wife tells me that some of the books that I bring home make her head hurt. This one she says is consistently approachable, informative and with three authors offering their insights, flexible. It covers a huge amount of territory, it is a very large book, and it will appeal to both novices and those of us who think we are "in the know" but still want to learn more. The basics are presented in such a readable way that even if you are sure that you know all that stuff, it's still enjoyable and informative. You can read the book straight through or just hit the chapters on what interests you at the moment and find very useful tips that should make your picture making life easier. Covering as much ground as it does in a constantly changing field, it does not have all the answers. What it does do is refer you to other books that are more narrowly defined and cover a single aspect in more detail when the authors feel that more explanation is necessary. Anyone who picks it up is bound to learn something new and worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Photography, digital imaging, and Photoshop rolled into one
Review: I am a newcomer (9 months) to the world of photography, graphic design, digital imaging, and since Christmas, digital photography. I have had a crash course in these subjects because of a new job, as I am now a magazine editor and webmaster with no training in any related topics. I have been frustrated all along the way as I've pieced together the basic concepts about scanning and fought to learn the horridly obscure Adobe tool interfaces of GoLive, PageMaker, and Photoshop. (Hard-core Office user here.) This book brought it all together for me and made me a true convert to digital cameras. It provides step-by-step principles for anyone who needs things laid out a bit at a time, yet you can choose the chapters that relate to your present needs. For example, since I got a digital camera for Christmas, I skipped the chapters on buying one, and didn't miss out on a thing. But even better, they provide some basics for photography and for digital image correction in Photoshop, which was PRECISELY what I needed right now. If you're a beginner, but a fast, systematic learner, this book's for you. I loved it, and I'm looking for more books by these two authors. I love their sense of humor and appreciate that they haven't made me feel stupid for not having learned all of this material somewhere else already. They're fun, kind, and supportive--not like that awful Dan Margulis of "Professional Photoshop," who spends as much time panning other professionals and making me feel dumb as he does teaching anything.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a professionals excellent for prosumers
Review: I am a teacher for photography and movie making part time and a freelance designer and animator the rest of the time and I find this book as a first class aid in all respects and mind opener for fundamental understanding of digital photography.
I am somewhat disappointed of the printing and paper quality of such important book.
I like to recommend it to all professionals or prosumers that are eager for more knowledge without having to "worm" through too many unnecessery books.
Rating:
Summary: CONVERTING FROM FILM----YOU NEED THIS BOOK
Review: I have lots of experience with film photography. I have been
buying books and trying to make the transition to digital
slr photography. Tim Grey finally wrote the book that I need.
It really fills the bill. If you already have the concepts
of film speeds, shutter speeds, aperature etc. down pat, this
is the book you need to help transfer that knowledge to the
digital world.
Rating:
Summary: CONVERTING FROM FILM----YOU NEED THIS BOOK
Review: I have lots of experience with film photography. I have been
buying books and trying to make the transition to digital
slr photography. Tim Grey finally wrote the book that I need.
It really fills the bill. If you already have the concepts
of film speeds, shutter speeds, aperature etc. down pat, this
is the book you need to help transfer that knowledge to the
digital world.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and fun to read
Review: I received a copy of this book for Christmas. I don't even own a digital camera but as soon as I finished reading several chapters
I decided to purchase one. This book informs with lively, fun, personal anecdotes from professional digital photographers, but it is down to earth and simple enough for anyone to benefit from. It takes you from theory to practical usage, helping with incredibly useful camera purchase information all the way to software manipulation techniques to wring the most from that digital camera. Highly recommended and fun to read!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing breadth
Review: I went to a large bookstore today looking for a basic book on digital photography I could buy for my newbee sister so she could get some real insights into the camera I bought for her Christmas present. I'd looked through about fifteen different books and they all sucked until I looked at this one. I started paging through the beginning of the book and I thought, "This is perfect! It gives basic but rigorous descriptions of all the fundamentals that I would teach my sister myself if I lived near her." Then I started looking over the rest of the book and to my amazement, I found chapters written at a depth that even I was interested in reading (look up some of my digital photography on www.dpreview.com) and I ordered a copy of it for myself. I am now about to order a copy of it for my sister!
Rating: 
Summary: Well organized overview for an intermediate level person
Review: It is very diffucult to write a book useful to absolute beginner's and to professionals who work every day with digital camera equipment. A true professional would probally only find a few chapters worth reading, and a beginner would struggle through the Photoshop lessons. The book in my opinion would be most useful to anyone in the intermediate range that is interesting in learning more. I read the book cover to cover, and found that it filled in a lot of holes in my knowledge on the topic. Overall the book provides an excellent overview of digital photography. And like the reviewer who gave the book 2 stars said, specialized books on more specific topics would be more benefical. For example there's a chapter on Quicktime VR; if you really want to learn about this topic, you're better off buying a book on it specifically. For photoshop, a book like Photoshop Artistry 5.5 would be far superior. But if you're looking for an overview of digital photography, this book is great.
Rating:
Summary: Digital Photography Explained In Detail
Review: Marvelous! This book is encyclopedic in size and content. However, it presents the material in an easy-to-read style with a multitude of pictures, and with more pictures on the companion web site. I enjoyed reading it and gained much new information on the technology - digital photography basics from the camera thru file-handling to editing, managing files, printing and storage. The chapters on editing are quite long, appropriately, for this discusses the "digital darkroom", the important difference from conventional photography. I have seen other books focused on material which is presented here in one or two chapters. But those chapters are long enough and detailed enough they could have been separate books. With all the material in one book the information is cross-referenced to integrate the various technologies into a cohesive whole that leads to making of better pictures, whether that be on the Internet or as prints. The book is divided into four sections: 1] Essentials; 2] Techniques; 3] Digital Darkroom; and 4]Output, Mange and Present. There are 4 chapters ranging from 12 to 112 pages. The Companion Web Site provides the pictures shown in the book so the reader may practice the editing techniques presented. This book provides information on photographic equipment, software and techniques for use by a wide range of users. It covers cameras which are entry-level, deluxe point-and-shoot, "prosumer" and professional. While acknowledging that the basics of photography are the same for film and digital equipment, it identifies the differences in the digital camera and digital photography and discusses them in detail. The information is more than is needed by the user of an entry-level camera but the concepts of camera operation are useful for all and apprise of features in better cameras that might make one's photos better. There is a chapter on how A Digital Camera Works. This discusses: lenses, fixed, zoom, interchangeable, and special; the viewfinder and the LCD; the shutter, including the delay needed for the camera to process light data and means to compensate for the delay where needed; the sensor including the size and quantity of the pixels and the size and type of sensor; and flash units both on and off the camera. The chapter on Buying A Digital Camera ha a lot of information on various types of cameras and provides a guide for the purchaser. It recommends a few sites, www.dpreview.com, www.photo.net, and www.fredmiranda.com and the Companion Site includes specific cameras in each price range. The sensor on digital cameras is smaller than the 35 mm film frames. For the same lens a digital camera has about 2/3 the effective focal length. This is one reason the digital camera lenses are "wide angle". There is a good explanation of the different image file formats, RAW on top-of-the line- cameras, TIFF and finally JPEG. Cameras usually store the date in JPEG format since the files are much smaller. But this is because the JPEG protocol "compresses" the file using various algorithms and in the process losses some of the data. Then as the JPEG images are edited and resaved further image data is lost. Therefore, it is desirable to work with non-lossy formats such as TIFF and PSD, converting to JPEG when needed for final presentation. The heart of this book is in Chapters 10 and 11, 196 pages covering image-editing techniques, the "digital darkroom". The author uses the tools in Adobe's Photoshop CS [expensive] while stating that many of the editing features are included in the lower cost Adobe Elements 2. In following her discussions I found that Elements did not have all the tools she was using. However, I still found her approaches and techniques quite usable. Years ago I dabbled in using a darkroom for film work. It was difficult and non-forgiving. It was a struggle to avoid stained fingers and carrying that chemical smell outside the darkroom. The Digital Darkroom is much more powerful, easier to use and easily correctable. Her guidance will be very useful to me as I manipulate my digital images. An interesting point she makes is that digital photography consumes more time than film - because we become involved in all of the steps, especially the editing. I find that quite true. With a film camera I bring the film in for developing. In a day or two I return to get the prints. With digital I first edit the images, cropping and changing exposure, perhaps even eliminating some part of the original image. I then send the files for printing by a service - either online or in a local store. I find these prints better than I could produce on my own printer, although the new, more expensive printers, some using 6 colors, are said to do a wonderful job. The book explains the difficulty in getting the eye's picture into the camera, onto the computer monitor and onto prints. Each of these creates colors differently and it is a wonder we can come as close as we do to having the pictures on the monitor and in prints so close to "our reality". There are procedures for improving the quality of the images on each of these devices. Also, she discusses a number of alternatives for sharing the digital images - e-mails, web sites, slide shows, projectors as well as prints. The final chapter discusses the saving and management of the image files - both the raw and edited images. Onsite, offsite, hard drive, tape, CDs and DVDs are all discussed. It was a chore to go through this very big book. But it was enjoyable for the eye-opening information it presented. If you are serious about digital photography this would be a good book to have. I will continue to use it.
Rating:
Summary: Digital Photography Explained In Detail
Review: Marvelous! This book is encyclopedic in size and content. However, it presents the material in an easy-to-read style with a multitude of pictures, and with more pictures on the companion web site. I enjoyed reading it and gained much new information on the technology - digital photography basics from the camera thru file-handling to editing, managing files, printing and storage. The chapters on editing are quite long, appropriately, for this discusses the "digital darkroom", the important difference from conventional photography. I have seen other books focused on material which is presented here in one or two chapters. But those chapters are long enough and detailed enough they could have been separate books. With all the material in one book the information is cross-referenced to integrate the various technologies into a cohesive whole that leads to making of better pictures, whether that be on the Internet or as prints. The book is divided into four sections: 1] Essentials; 2] Techniques; 3] Digital Darkroom; and 4]Output, Mange and Present. There are 4 chapters ranging from 12 to 112 pages. The Companion Web Site provides the pictures shown in the book so the reader may practice the editing techniques presented. This book provides information on photographic equipment, software and techniques for use by a wide range of users. It covers cameras which are entry-level, deluxe point-and-shoot, "prosumer" and professional. While acknowledging that the basics of photography are the same for film and digital equipment, it identifies the differences in the digital camera and digital photography and discusses them in detail. The information is more than is needed by the user of an entry-level camera but the concepts of camera operation are useful for all and apprise of features in better cameras that might make one's photos better. There is a chapter on how A Digital Camera Works. This discusses: lenses, fixed, zoom, interchangeable, and special; the viewfinder and the LCD; the shutter, including the delay needed for the camera to process light data and means to compensate for the delay where needed; the sensor including the size and quantity of the pixels and the size and type of sensor; and flash units both on and off the camera. The chapter on Buying A Digital Camera ha a lot of information on various types of cameras and provides a guide for the purchaser. It recommends a few sites, www.dpreview.com, www.photo.net, and www.fredmiranda.com and the Companion Site includes specific cameras in each price range. The sensor on digital cameras is smaller than the 35 mm film frames. For the same lens a digital camera has about 2/3 the effective focal length. This is one reason the digital camera lenses are "wide angle". There is a good explanation of the different image file formats, RAW on top-of-the line- cameras, TIFF and finally JPEG. Cameras usually store the date in JPEG format since the files are much smaller. But this is because the JPEG protocol "compresses" the file using various algorithms and in the process losses some of the data. Then as the JPEG images are edited and resaved further image data is lost. Therefore, it is desirable to work with non-lossy formats such as TIFF and PSD, converting to JPEG when needed for final presentation. The heart of this book is in Chapters 10 and 11, 196 pages covering image-editing techniques, the "digital darkroom". The author uses the tools in Adobe's Photoshop CS [expensive] while stating that many of the editing features are included in the lower cost Adobe Elements 2. In following her discussions I found that Elements did not have all the tools she was using. However, I still found her approaches and techniques quite usable. Years ago I dabbled in using a darkroom for film work. It was difficult and non-forgiving. It was a struggle to avoid stained fingers and carrying that chemical smell outside the darkroom. The Digital Darkroom is much more powerful, easier to use and easily correctable. Her guidance will be very useful to me as I manipulate my digital images. An interesting point she makes is that digital photography consumes more time than film - because we become involved in all of the steps, especially the editing. I find that quite true. With a film camera I bring the film in for developing. In a day or two I return to get the prints. With digital I first edit the images, cropping and changing exposure, perhaps even eliminating some part of the original image. I then send the files for printing by a service - either online or in a local store. I find these prints better than I could produce on my own printer, although the new, more expensive printers, some using 6 colors, are said to do a wonderful job. The book explains the difficulty in getting the eye's picture into the camera, onto the computer monitor and onto prints. Each of these creates colors differently and it is a wonder we can come as close as we do to having the pictures on the monitor and in prints so close to "our reality". There are procedures for improving the quality of the images on each of these devices. Also, she discusses a number of alternatives for sharing the digital images - e-mails, web sites, slide shows, projectors as well as prints. The final chapter discusses the saving and management of the image files - both the raw and edited images. Onsite, offsite, hard drive, tape, CDs and DVDs are all discussed. It was a chore to go through this very big book. But it was enjoyable for the eye-opening information it presented. If you are serious about digital photography this would be a good book to have. I will continue to use it.
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