The Digital Photography Book
by Scott Kelby
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Book Reviews of The Digital Photography Book
Book Review: Good All-round Guide On General Photography Techniques
Summary: 4 Stars
The Digital Photography is targeted at both the beginner and intermediate photographer. It contains about 200 tips on how to make you photos look like the pros'. It is a 218-page book with each tip occupying a page (plus a few pages of ads placed unintrusively at the back of the book). Each tip is accompanied by a high quality picture.
There are over 120 tips related directly to shooting:
Flowers (11 tips)
Weddings (21 tips)
Landscapes (29 tips)
Sports (17 tips)
People (14 tips)
Urban Shooting (16 tips)
General Tips/"Recipes" (14 tips/recipes)
The rest of the book are primarily tips on equipment (e.g. lenses, tripods, cable release), operating your equipment (e.g. ISO, exposure, tripoding), post-processing (e.g. sharpening, RAW processing, organizing), printing (e.g. print size, paper choice, color profiles), and other topics of interests (e.g. selling your photos as "stock", monitor calibration, megapixels).
The Digital Photography serves as a book that offers a solid, all-round view of general photography techniques. You can benefit from this book even if you're into a particular niche, such as landscape photography.
As an intermediate photographer, I already know many of the tips and tricks covered in the book, so I feel the book is perhaps best suited for a person who is just starting to venture into the world of SLR photography. With that said, I did learn some very helpful techniques from the book. I also found many helpful tips for taking more creative shots. All in all, I'd recommend this book for both the beginner and intermediate photographer.
Book Review: Can this book help you take better photos? Yes!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this book after purchasing my camera, but didn't review it closely enough.
When I had a specific need to get some good shots, I went back to this book and studied it closely.
The learning and depth really occurs with the explanation of the manual settings on most popular brands.
Namely, White balance, ISO (film speed), shutter speeds, F stops and Burst mode, for quick sequential shots.
Understanding these settings, and practicing with your camera, will improve your photographs. You can then return to the book, for a better understanding of the tips.
Many times, I'm trying to recapture exactly what my eyes are seeing at the moment not end up with something that is starkly lit by a "flash bulb". These settings, with the help of the book will give you a good understanding (or at least a lot of practice will) of how to capture the moment.
I never realized how much better shots can be without the flash. Users really need to try to force themselves away from the "auto" setting on their camera, except for the MOST basic shots.
With storage space so cheap, it's so much easier than the days of film and film processing to get the practice you need.
The downside of the book is that it tries to cover almost too much info. (lenses, filters, kids & old people) I think some of this could have been left out, and focus around manual settings could have been covered in better depth.
I think the book is a very good starting point, and should also be used as an ongoing reference until you are comfortable with your brand of camera and its settings.
Book Review: Easy to read reference
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is easy to read and is plastered with the author's dry but witty humor. The author's humor coupled with the light-hearted down-to-earth approach make this book very amusing and easy to read.
The book does not cover the technical aspects of photography, such as aperture, ISO and shutter speed setting in grand detail - which the author pointed out is not the goal of this book.
Think of this book as a personal companion or a quick reference guide filled with scene-specific techniques on how, what, where and when to shoot in different situations. Not only does the book answer the previous sets of what/where/when/how questions, but also the why. For example, why shoot a photograph of a flower on your knees instead of standing up? Why diffused lighting works best for floral shots and why you should include a foreground, a middleground and a background in landscape photography. Kelby makes seemingly general techniques that once seem mundane to the average photographer/photo-viewer now an indespenable tool of the trade.
The author's chapter on photo gear recommendation near the beginning of the book is also a plus for beginning photographers. Although this book is geared toward D-SLR users, the techniques employed can also be used for point-and-shoot compact users as well. Remember, this book's main objective lies in the techniques of digital photography and its compositions, not the techinical configuration of a camera.
All in all, this book is one of the few photography books that deserve a spot in my photography library collection.
Book Review: Direct and Concise-for the most part
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this to help my girlfriend get into photography. I'm somewhere in the intermediate skill range, and already have a solid understanding of the technical aspects of photography. Reading through this, I found that I agree with a lot of Kelby's tips. There were also quite a few that useful to me, even at my skill level. His results-oriented approach works really well.
I found only two (glaring) problems that really need to be revised in the next version (and I don't see how the editor even okay'd them in the first place).
1) Skip the first chapter. As others have noted, Kelby takes the reader on a wild goose chase of lies and misdirection. This is in bad taste especially for a beginners book, since they are not going to know when you are BS'ing them or not. It follows the formula: "this is the secret of photography .... gotcha! You are such a gullible sap!". You can read the chapter on Amazon to see for yourself.
BUT the rest of the book is not like this. That's why I urge you to just skip the first chapter. I urge Kelby to dispose of it and save some trees.
2) The author overuses the word "pro". If you can go for even one sentence without encountering it then you're probably not reading this book. He seems to be under the delusion that novices walk around all day bouncing that word around their head. It becomes meaningless. Someone please send him a thesaurus. Or just drop some of the occurrences altogether. It's already understood that we want to take better pics.
Book Review: Good Quick Tips -- Is it for you?
Summary: 4 Stars
This is actually a very easy book to review. Here's how to know if you want this book. First, its basically a series of one page tips on photography. Each page follows the format of Headline, Sample Picture, and then a paragraph or two of explanation. For example, one tip is "If You Are Shooting Wildlife; Aim at the Eyes". Then, there is a picture of a leopard cub (I think). Under that, there is a bit of explanation about why you aim at their eyes and why it will make your picture better. The next page is a completely different tip. So how do you know if this book is right for you? Easy:
Pages 2-21 Tips for Getting Sharp Photos
Pages 23-34 Shooting Flowers Like a Pro
Pages 37-58 Shooting Weddings Like a Pro
Pages 62-90 Shooting Landscapes Like a Pro
Pages 94-110 Shooting Sports Like a Pro
Pages 114-127 Shooting People Like a Pro
Pages 130-143 Avoiding Problems Like Pro
Pages 146-156 Taking Advantage of Digital Like a Pro
Pages 160-175 Taking Travel and City Life Photos Like a Pro
Pages 178-193 How to Print Like a Pro
Pages 196-209 Photo Recipes (Steps to shoot a photo like the one on the page)
Remember each page has one tip. See enough tips about the kind of photography that interests you? Then buy it.
P.S. I don't do much wedding or sports, but some of the tips in there can be carried to other photography too. Overall, I felt there were enough quick ideas that it made it worth the price and spot on the bookshelf.