Real World Digital Photography [Paperback]

You can just use it as a reference book for questions about lenses, filters, white balance, metering, or practically any other photography subject - whether film or digital. However, many will prefer to read it cover-to-cover, even at 700 pages. The flow of the book is aided by innovative and intuitive approaches for the explanation of countless topics, including the comparison of the destructive effects of "over-editing" to too much sanding on a wood project. And the authors aren't afraid to voice their opinions about the benefits (or lack thereof) of Photoshop plug-ins, nor are they hesitant to make bold predictions - such as the forecast that tiff might eventually replace the psd format.

Every step along the way, the authors illustrate the differences between digital and traditional photography, which can give you a better understanding of photography in general. For example, the five-page analysis of the similarities and differences between film grain and digital noise provided a great platform for understanding both. The ten-page explanation of the ramifications of digital cameras' CCD's being smaller than a 35mm film frame provides a thorough understanding of lenses in general. The breadth of the book is, well, breathtaking, with every conceivable topic being covered -- from the authors' opinions on the best way to use histograms to artistic ideas for composition of your pictures to recommendations on which type of camera bag to purchase! Whew!

Speaking of histograms, a three-page section reporting Photoshop co-creator Thomas Knoll's opinions about the ideal histogram was pretty profound information that I've never seen anywhere else. For me, at least, this was worth the price of the entire book.

Most of the last 200 pages cover photo editing using Photoshop. I would describe these 200 pages as "meaty". There are no trendy Photoshop tricks here -- just solid photo editing approaches that are worthwhile for even the most serious Photoshop user. I enjoyed many of the authors' fresh viewpoints and approaches to essential digital photography editing. This section is probably too serious to constitute an introduction to Photoshop. Instead, photographers who are considering purchasing Photoshop for the first time could review these pages for examples of what the program can do.

If you're currently using a film SLR and you're thinking about making the move to digital, this book is a must. It gives you all the information you'll need to make the right decision on whether to go for a "point and shoot" or an SLR, and which features you might want. It might, in fact, cause you to decide to keep you film-based SLR and buy a digital "point and shoot" camera. Even if this book were to make you decide against making the digital conversion, I feel certain you'll gain a much better understanding of your film camera as a result of the in-depth film vs. digital comparisons.

Dennis Chamberlain
Adobe Certified Expert - Photoshop CS

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.

Equipment selection, composition, lighting, camera settings, and post-production are all covered in detail.

This is not by any means a "For Dummies" book. If you are seriously into photography and are willing to spend the time, this book is an excellent resource.

The post-production material is very much centered around Photoshop. If are are interested in using another program, much of this material will be of limited use to you.