Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography: 107 Lessons on Taking, Making, Editing, Storing, Printing, and Sharing Better Digital Images

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Summary: Featuring 107 individual lessons
Review: A very highly recommended contribution to both novice and professional photography reference collections, Rick Sammon's Complete Guide To Digital Photography is a comprehensive self-teaching tool featuring 107 individual lessons covering all aspects of effectively taking, editing, storing, printing, and sharing high quality digital images. Full-color illustration enhances a meticulous text which offers detailed walkthroughs, tutorials, and more to fill the pages of this superbly organized and presented "how-to guide" written especially for photographers adapting their visual media to the diverse complexities and challenges of the Information Age.

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Summary: Excellent and complete guide for all your digital needs
Review: As a newcomer to the digital world I had more then a few questions after buying my first digital SLR camera. I spent a good amount of money and time looking for a book that would cover all I needed to know to make my jump from film to digital.All other guides tended to be vague,incomplete and repeated useless information. Rick Sammons' guide is an excellent,detailed guide that answered all my questions clearly and gave me some great tips. All bases are covered from setting white balance to getting the best artistic prints from Photoshop. If you're making the jump from Film to digital ( especially if you own a digital SLR) I highly recommend this guide. I only wish I would have come across this guide sooner. It would have saved me some money.

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Summary: Sammon Cooks
Review: As writer of the Associated Press's syndicated "Camera Angles" column, Rick Sammon is America's best-known go-to guy for photographic advice. When he speaks, you should listen, and his jargon-free voice comes through in this pixel-packed book. The book is broken into easily-digested lessons, ranging from how to keep backgrounds from interfering with the main subject to working with layers in Photoshop. Each is illustrated with Sammon's own delightful photographs, taken all over the world but always, it seems, with teaching in mind.

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Summary: A Great Book for Anyone New to Digital Photography
Review: For anyone that is new to digital photography, this book is a must read. Rick takes often complicated concepts and explains them in terms that everyone can understand--from beginners to more experienced photographers--and immediately apply to their own work. If you were taking ordinary photos before reading this book, you'll be taking better ones after you finish. Rick's coverage of digital darkroom techniques and how they relate to conventional film photography is well done. He offers practical examples of how you can use digital imaging software such as Adobe Photoshop to improve any photograph--examples that you can immediately apply to your own work without the worry of having to learn everything about Photoshop first. Whether you shoot film and enhance your work digitally or shoot pure digital, you will not regret puchasing this excellent reference. A must have for anyone serious about digital photography.

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Summary: No help for beginner in digital camera use
Review: Good photos, helpful pointers about taking pictures, too much info on use of Photoshop for beginners, assumption that the reader is using a prosumer camera, and almost nothing about how to use "your new digital camera"...setting white balance, using all the controls built into these cameras, how to shift your "mind-set" from taking photos with a film camera to a digital camera...worthless book for a new digital camera user...and I've been taking B/W-Color photos for 40+ years and have my own darkroom.

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Summary: Easy Reading, Easy Learning
Review: Here is a book that truly is a "complete guide to digital photography". It covers all the bases and does so in a friendly and easy to understand way. A gallery of several hundred color photographs complements and reinforces the text. On each page, the author informs the reader what to do and then shows the results using interesting photographs he has captured from his travels around the world. Each page is an instructional 'show and tell, tell and show'. This is a great book by a noted photographer and writer.
To the publisher's credit the book is well designed, printed on quality paper, and the reproductions of photographs are of the highest quality.

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Summary: A great pick for those who prefer the practical approach
Review: I am (or after reading this book should I say "was") a novice to photography and the digital darkroom. This book is a great starter and covers ever major aspect that comes with digital photography deeply and comprehensively.
Generally this book has two part: How to make/take a picture (yes, Rick also teaches you how to "make" a picture) and how to work it. It is obvious that Rick is a great pro Photograhper and he shares all his awesome photographic techniques with you. Still, his writing style is easy and even understandabel for the beginner. After reading this book your pictures will improve whether you are a beginner or advanced -Guaranteed!!!
His digital darkroom techniques require some basic knowledge about Photoshop. This is no tutorial how to use the different options and tools of photoshop. But a great book teaching you how to use them effectively. His approach is totally outcome oriented - the production of digitally enhanced pictures. Coherently he covers standard situations how to improve a picture and being creative, like redeye, overexposure, black and white, color management, creating more impact on the picture, preparing for print, etc. His procedures are easy to understand yet overwhelmingly efficient. The great illustrations let you retrace what has happened and how the effect will look like.
To get to that basic knowledge about Photoshop you either have to struggle through the borring help programm of the software itself. Or you get yourself a separate book. Another very convienent, yet more spendy way to probe the potential of Photoshop, is partially included on the CD which comes with this book - a virtual software tutorial. The one on the CD is great but is only on small section out of the whole tutorial, which you can buy seperatly. The whole series from Julieanne Kost runs about 200 $ but there a also cheaper tutorials out there for slightly over 20 - check with ebay. These are not so good in sound and maybe not as nicely stuctured but still a very convenient alternative to a book.
Finally, the printing quality, the binding and the illustrations reflect the thoroughness and love for the detail with wich this book was writen.
This book you will find fun to work and read through.

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Summary: Essential to have next to your computer!!!!
Review: I am a film photographer (yes we still exist!) who has been unsure about whether or not to take the plunge into the digital world. I purchased Rick's book to help me learn the basics on scanning, photoshop and printing. I can honestly say it has opened up a new world for me! The book is set up with a logical flow and is easy to follow. He also writes as if he's talking to you, which makes it fun to read and easy to understand. Rick's visuals are also superb. Using his own work he illustrates each topic visually. This helps to understand the concepts (and will also make you want to travel more!). In no time I've been able to learn enough about photoshop to be able to greatly enhance my work and even be more creative. I sit at the computer with Rick's book next to me and learn something new all the time. I would not be moving at the pace I am without the help of this book. I recommend it for both film and digital photographers!

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Summary: pretty pedestirian stuff
Review: I am a photographer of ten years, and I was looking for a good liasion to the digital format from film. This book tries too hard to be everything to all levels, and it ends up getting in its own way most of the times. What pretends to be a good overview for beginners and pros, stadles the two and inevitably caters to the lowest common denominator.
If you have any photography experience, understand how to expose a negative, etc. avoid this book. The pictures he uses are not that good or just plain cheesy. It makes me wonder how he got to this point.

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Summary: Enjoyable reading
Review: I enjoyed reading Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography. His writing is clear and consise.