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Summary: Digital and Conventional Photographic Techniques
Review: If you are looking for a book that is jargon-free and will demystify the technical elements of conventional and digital photography, this might be for you. Tom Ang is the Senior Lecturer in Photographic Practice at the University of Westminster, London. He has worked as a technical editor and picture editor. His photography has been widely exhibited and he contributes regularly to magazines. He now writes for MacUser magazine. Tom gives his secret hints and tips on the essentials of good photography. He explains the processes behind digital photography and explains how you can achieve excellent results. There are a few practical projects so you can create your own evocative memories. If you were to purchase this book for the photographs alone, it would be well worth the price. Some of the Contents Include: Digital Camera Features, Film-based cameras, Choosing the best lenses, Zoom lenses, Camera Accessories, Memory Cards, Accessory lighting, How color monitors work, How Scanners Work, Software, Printers, Computers, Picture composition, Image Orientation, Quick Fixes, Color Composition, Silhouettes/backlighting, photographing clouds, Close-up photography, Vacations, Journeys and Travel, Photographing Children, Landscapes, Mirrors, Bird?s Eye views, Pets, Sports, Festivals, Urban Views, Natural History and Panoramas. This book will also show you how to: Scan Images
Manipulate Images - cropping, sharpening, blurring, color adjustments, tones, tinting, filter effects, masks, grayscale and color. Once you have your pictures you can then print them out and create your own books. There is information on how the Internet works and how to deal with copyright concerns. If you are looking for a book with all the basics, I think you will be pleased with this information. I like making kaleidoscope pictures from friend's pictures. It looks like a picture of their souls. What is amazing is how the picture reflects their personality or dreams. I always add a bit of snow to the picture and then change it into a kaleidoscope. ~TheRebeccaReview.com
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Summary: of all the digital photography books out there..............
Review: Ok, so there are hundreds of digital photography books out there. I have a few myself. This book is one of the better ones in my opinion. It has wonderful color photos throughout. It does explain how to use with a computer (seems to like Apples better).
Anyway, its a good book and fairly cheap. I bought mine from Costco for twentyfive bucks. Amazon's price is similar so I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Awesome - Simply The BEST
Review: Summary : You have to buy this book! However hard I tried to take good photos, 99.9% of them came out bad :( When I bought a new digicam I decided I was going to learn "how to take good pictures". So I headed down to the book store and spent another hour looking through their selection. Of about 30 books, I found two or three softcovers that covered differing aspects : One for using a digital camera, one for retouching techniques, one for photographice techniques.... But then I picked up this expensive looking hardback, opened it, scanned through ... and quickly bought it! This book is amazing : it covers every aspect of digital photography, from camera choice to photographic techniques to retouching and printing. It even has a section on setting up your own photographuce business.... One thing I love is the "quick tips" section with its simple "problem - solution" type approach. And its packed full of stunning full colour photos. Its about 400 pages long and encylopaedic in coverage. Dont hesitate : buy this book today.
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Summary: Sumptuous production; flawed attempt at trying to do it all.
Review: This is a beautifully produced collection of digital images, deserving of a place on the coffeetable. The author - a wellknown photographer and teacher - made a valiant attempt at covering the entire digital imaging field. Unfortunately, that includes a (long outdated) discourse on digital cameras, computers (current crop of PCs does as fine a graphics job as do Mac's), camera and computer purchase recommendations (ie, get a Mac). Well-illustrated sections on how digital cameras transform light into pixels are diluted in impact by 'how a computer works' and so on. The section 'Image Manipulation' is very well done with good screen shots on quality paper and sufficient detail to take a stab at it. Yet a beginning digital photographer will find even that excellent section lacking in how-to-to-get-started advice. The exhaustive sections on various photographic techniques (landscapes, portraits, closeups, buildings, animals and humans in the wild, etc) again are sumptuously and lavishly illustrated, but speak in sweeping generalities rather than in detailed specifics. I also was put off by the substantial bookspace taken up by scanning of film negatives and prints - whereas the title leads one to assume the text exclusively addresses digital photography. Overall: a beautifully produced idea book for advanced photographers -- but it is neither a tutorial nor a teaching manual.
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Summary: Fantastic book!!
Review: This is a superbly written book. It covers everything of relevance to digital photography including things that many books skip like copyright infringement, & shooting etiquette. Scanners, monitors, software, computers are all covered and explained as to how they relate to photography. The text is aided with tons of great pictures, and diagrams explaining key concepts. A large section of the book is dedicated to digital manipulation, but instead of giving specific instructions on how to execute photoshop commands, the general problem is explained and the general solution is given. Like if the background is too distracting, try desaturating it. For me this was great, I appreciated the ideas and suggestions more than what could have been wasted space on beginner photoshop tutorials. So the book doesn't teach photoshop, good for some, bad for others. Generally the book is full of a lot of technical information and creative ideas for taking & making more interesting photos. I thought it was great.
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Summary: Excellent reference book for intermed+ , not Photog 101
Review: This is an excellent digital photography reference book, but it should be noted upfront that it is not "How to take photos 101". If you need to understand basics like f-stops and exposure, there are 100's of other books out there better suited for you. I mention this because another reviewer was critical for those omissions. The author assumes you have basic photographic understanding, and works upward from there. I don't want or need basic information, and it was refreshing to find a current (2004) book that doesn't waste space on the elementary. I'd checked out a dozen books from the library prior to this one (which had a waiting list), and this one was the only one I am purchasing.
This is not a book intended to be read front to back. It is a reference book best digested in chunks. It starts off with some technical info on digital, as well as film, cameras, followed by info on PCs, monitors, scanners, printers and software. Not terribly exciting, but I read a few paragraphs here and there and did learn a few things. From there the book is organized in "topic format" allowing you to quickly find on your present interest, be it photographing buildings, clouds, animals, sports, children, etc. Then it progresses into scanning, color management, cropping, correcting and enhancing images, filters, and other creative processes prior to finalinzing your image, and also speaks to certain software.
Overall the book is intelligently organized. Interspersed throughout are "Quick Fix" charts for a multitude of issues, enabling a quick scan across a page or two to find your issue, which is a real benefit. At the end of the book, there is also an extensive glossary, a couple of pages of web resources, and a list of manufacturer and software websites, as well as some further reading suggestions. Lastly, there is an extensive index, a real plus for any reference book.
The book does have a few weak points, such as needless text on the internet and viruses. And the inclusion of information on hardware is risky due to frequent technology changes. But I do admire the author's idea to include complementary material.
The book is loaded with beautiful photos on nearly every page, which will serve to inspire your creativity. The pages are top quality stock, coffee-table book quality, and the hardcover is a full color replica of the dustjacket. I plan to keep this out in full view on a table, not buried in a bookcase.
If you are a competent digital photographer looking to refine your technique and expand creatively beyond merely saving/printing photos with little editing, this book is for you. The intent is to make a good phographer a great photographer.
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Summary: Beautiful book, well written and very helpful.
Review: This is the perfect book not just for digital photographers but all persons wanting to get more out of their camera. The writing is friendly and clear, the illustrations are outstanding -- in fact there is more color photography in this book than I expected (I don't know why, but I was thinking it'd probably be that kind of book that has 32 pages stuck in). It walks you through everything and is like a little course in photography in a book. Highly recommended.
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Summary: More Great Amazon Service
Review: This was my second photography book purchase from Amazon in a month and again, the book is very good, the price is great (good bye Barnes & Noble) and again, Amazon's service is EXCELLENT !!!
Rating:
Summary: More Great Amazon Service
Review: This was my second photography book purchase from Amazon in a month and again, the book is very good, the price is great (good bye Barnes & Noble) and again, Amazon's service is EXCELLENT !!!
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Summary: Uninformed Mac bias but very useful
Review: What makes this book excellent is the Quick Fix information which shows how to correct common photographic problems. Ang is great at explaining photographic techniques and bridging the gap between traditional and digital. However, he clearly knows very little about computers as evidenced in the "Mac vs PC" section. That war ended years ago. If you can bypass the "choosing a computer" section, this would be a near perfect book for novices and intermediates.
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