The Digital Photography Book
by Scott Kelby
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Book Reviews of The Digital Photography Book
Book Review: A great book
Summary: 5 Stars
I've always been a "dabbler" in photography but 6 months ago I decided to take it a bit more seriously and treat myself to a Digital SLR. This will be my second photography book, the first being the "Nikon D40 Field Guide".
I really liked this guess you want to know why?
This book is a great "wide and general" book. The way it is written is as a series of recipies/advice on how you would shoot a particular shot. It is grouped together into logical chapters: weddings, sports, portrait, landscape. Each is a page long and focuses on one specific thing. The style is supposed to be as if you had asked a specific question: "how do I do....XXXXX". You get the answer. There's a drawback to that which I'll come back to.
To me, that is a great way to layout the book. You can - as I have just done - read through the whole book and pick things up. Then later on, when you have that specific question you can come back to 1 page rather than have to search through the whole book.
As I said, I'm an enthusiastic amateur. The book is certainly written in an amateur style - there's no myriad of complicated ackronyms or goobildygook. I certainly picked up a lot of good information from the book.
Things to note or beware of:
A lot has been written about Scott's writing style and humor (or lack of). Personally i didn't mind it. I didn't find it insulting at all. To me it seems like he's trying to breakdown the barrier of the super-elite techno geek - which no doubt he could be given his extensive experience. Apart from the first chapter it's not that prevalent: if you read Brien's review that's practically all of it that he's pulled out.
The main criticism for some will be that he doesn't explain in this book WHY you do X, Y or Z. I understand that criticism and it's true, but that would make for a much longer book. This book aims to give you a little bit of knowledge on a wide variety of subjects.
In my mind you need to balance this book out with 2 others: 1 book that is specific to what your camera can do (like the D40 field guide above) & 2 an uber-techie book explaining exposure.
The book is general and may focus on areas you aren't that interested in. The wedding photo section, or shooting flowers section or the sports section (where he starts by saying you'll need $$$$$$'s of gear to do sports well) will not be of interest to everyone. However it's still good to read those sections and understand a little bit more about photography.
This book is only 1 tool in your photographic arsenal. IMHO it does that job very well.
Book Review: A good book -- just ignore the author :)
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are new to photography you probably would like to have access to a professional photographer who could tell you things like, "No, don't do that. Do it this way." It would be great to be able to ask questions about the things that you really want to understand about photography without having to wade through pages of information about depth of field and stops and exposure.
Of course, you have to know something about these concepts if you want to excel in photography, but if you are anything like me you learn best when you are shown the basics by example and then are able to explore and expand from there.
That is why I like this book. Scott says that this book is designed as if the two of you were out on a photo shoot together and you needed to know how to do something. He wouldn't go into a discourse on the history of the camera and Matthew Brady and Ansel Adams, he would simply give you a few pointers on some settings and tell you the expected consequences of using them.
That is exactly what this book does.
Through simple, half-page tips, topped by helpful photographs, he moves you through the concepts that puzzle those of us that are getting started in the often mystical and mysterious world of digital photography, though you could use this book whether you are shooting digital or not.
What equipment should you really have with you? What is the best equipment? What if you don't have a lot of money to buy this stuff?
How can you get sharp pictures? What camera settings can you use? Are there certain poses, techniques or tricks that can help eliminate camera shake? What are some good ideas for shooting weddings? Portraits?
If you don't have a lot of time this is your book. Take it with you on a flight or browse through it while you are waiting for the doctor, etc. You can digest one of the tips and put it to use within 5 or 10 minutes easily.
Now, if there is one thing I would say about this book as a warning. Scott thinks he is funny. Most of this ummm... `humor' is at the front of the book but if the Dummies books and their corny humor bothers you Scott's attempts at humor will as well. However, I think his editors (and maybe he knows it too) have caught on to the fact that he can be annoying sometimes and so they have limited his antics to the book and chapter intros. If you just read the tips you will find lots of info without being annoyed to the point you want to rip the book up.
Book Review: Wow! I learned a lot!!
Summary: 5 Stars
_The Digital Photography Book_ is NOT the be-all end-all knows-all book of digital photography or even digital SLRs. But it is a really great book if you are like me and want to get one or two steps beyond "letting autofocus do its thing, pushing the button, and hoping for the best" but DON'T want to take a month-long course on how the f-stop mathematically relates to this or that and the difference between convex and concave lenses and so on and so on.
I love taking pictures, but I am by no means an expert. Especially when it comes to SLRs and the thousand different settings you can make -- and potentially screw up. I just recently got my first digital SLR camera (a Pentax K10D) and was looking for a book to help me get beyond taking it out of the box, putting the lens on it, and taking a couple test shots of my parents' living room.
I found that book in _The Digital Photography Book_ by Scott Kelby. It has a very nice easy-to-read conversational tone, and it doesn't get bogged down on technical detail. Yet, it had ENOUGH technical detail that I got a much better idea of how f-stops and focal lengths affect my pictures, and how that in turn is influenced by what type of lens I use.
The book has details about lenses, f-stops, aperture speeds, macro shooting, landscape shooting, portraiture, some brief notes about sports shooting, recommendations about what camera setting work best in which picture settings, discussions of tripods and tripod mounting schemes, the uses of the monopod, and all kinds of other useful information.
I can also say that _The Digital Photography Book_ has whetted my interest for more detail and made me a more adventurous photographer, so I probably WILL one day sit down for a month with a book about the more technical aspects of SLR and DSLR shooting. When I do, it will be in part because of Kelby's message that great pictures ARE achievable without a doctorate in lens and camera mechanics, you just need to get out and shoot and here's how. Thanks, Scott.
I do feel obliged to add a couple of side notes: Scott focuses mainly on Canon and Nikon cameras, as they are the most popular DSLRs out there. Still, most of his information was also directly applicable to my Pentax, and likely to any other brand of DSLR as well. Also, the book does not have a whole lot of information on flashes and flash ratings and flash types.
Book Review: Misleading Hubris
Summary: 3 Stars
How so?
It's about the title. Rather, the title's not about what the book is about.
Calling a book "The Digital Photography Book" suggests that it is the (or at least an) authoritative volume on the subject of digital photography. This impression is reinforced by the book's remarkable popularity. Three years after its publication it's still a bestseller, ranked 390 on Amazon's overall list as of the date of this writing.
So what's the problem?
It's far from authoritative and it's not really focused on digital photography.
Rather than being a comprehensive treatment, the book is a series of tips under general headings such as "Shooting Flowers Like a Pro", "Shooting Weddings Like a Pro", "Pro Tips for Getting Really Sharp Photos", and so on. There's nothing really wrong with this except that most are not really about digital photography.
For instance under "Shooting Flowers Like a Pro", there are sections such as "Don't Shoot Down on Flowers", "Use a Macro Lens to Get Really Close", "Don't Wait for Rain - Fake It", and amazingly, "Where to Get Great Flowers to Shoot".
All of this is well and good, but it has nothing to do with digital as opposed to film or general photography. If you think that the faking rain section deals with the use of Photoshop to add an effect of rain, you'd be wrong. What the author is suggesting is carrying a small spray bottle of H2O to physically spritz on the posies prior to shooting.
Hmmm.
In addition, there are some serious omissions.
Kelbey starts off the "Shooting People Like a Pro" section with a discussion of "The Best Lens for Portrait Photography".
In it he makes the point that many pros consider 85 MM as the optimal focal length for portraits. While this may be true when shooting 35mm film or an FX sensor digital body, it is not the case for DX, used by the great majority of digital shooters. But worse yet, the whole issue of sensor size and its implications is not addressed anywhere in the book.
If you're interested in a sampling of snippets on various photographic subject matters by all means buy this book.
But if you're a competent film photographer looking to transition to digital, keep on looking. Complete Digital Photography by Ben Long is a far better choice.
Book Review: Great book
Summary: 5 Stars
Using my hubby's Amazon account (sorry dear) I have to voice the following:
I am in agreement about the TACK SHARP - that REALLY annoyed me. I like Kelby's humorous conversational writing style, but there were two major "GOTCHA" attempts within the first two chapters of the book.
Keep up with the humor Scott, but, please stop patting yourself on the back over fooling the reader. This type of stuff makes your reader lose faith in you, and also makes your reader feel like an utter moron and not want to believe anything you write. It's almost like we're gun-shy, waiting for you, at any moment to say "HA! JUST KIDDING!" from that point on.
You are an amazing talent, and a WONDERFUL teacher. Please don't degrade your skills and gifts with these misleading and semi-insulting attempts at humor. Thrill us with your cornball puns and silliness, but dump the out-and-out false leads.
OK, off my soapbox. I didn't see the need for this book. Waiting for a kid to finish Karate practice, I went to the local B&N and got a coffee. I picked up this book, and began reading. I bought it so I could continue reading, and purchased book 2 as well.
Ya done good Mr. Kelby. There was many things here I didn't know, and some were embarrassingly simple - I felt ashamed that I did NOT know them. Lo and behold, I read the steps to sharp images. Tripod - check, cable release - check. Mirror lockup - yeah, uh, it's a custom function I've never used... uh ok, someday.
Last night, we had a lunar eclipse. I raced home 1/2 through, grabbed my camera, 500mm f/4, tripod, shutter release, and off I went to a PERFECT viewing spot (nice and DARK). Setting up, I remembered "Oh yeah... Kelby's mirror lockup... hmmm, yeah, lemme try that". OMGOSH!
I was thrilled with some of my exposures - the moon was beautifully sharp (admittedly I did shoot a few before I remembered his advice...)
OK Scott, I am officially un-mad at you for your poor choice of humor (but don't start it up again!). Here's a sample of an image using mirror lockup:
http://westernimagphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/4378171_ekuFx#257186474
YES, this was worth every penny - so much so that I've recommended it to six different photographers in the two weeks I've owned it, and they've found it very useful as well.