Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

5 Comments

1. Michael J. Snyder says:

   November 21, 2009 at 1:17 pm

   I found this book particularly annoying in part because it continually suggests the reader can learn MORE about a given topic of interest by buying another book by the author. It blows off Mac and I found it a waste of money.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. S. J. Pfrimmer says:

   November 21, 2009 at 3:24 pm

   This book has practically nothing on actual photograhy. It does has a tremendous amount of information on what to do with your pictures once you’ve taken them though. If you’re looking for a book to improve the initial qaulity of your photos, this isn’t it.
   Rating: 3 / 5
3. Anonymous says:

   November 21, 2009 at 3:27 pm

   This book would be great for the person who has no knowledge whatsoever about digital cameras but wanted to buy one and needed to know what to look for and what to do with it in the first weeks after purchasing it. Alternatively, this book also provides lots of details on what a pro or semi-pro photographer would want in his or her studio for doing portraits or close-up macro shots and editing them with an expensive professional editing program. Since I fit in neither category, I found the book lacking.

   I’ve had a basic point-and-shoot 2mp Canon A20 for almost four years but bought a 5mp Pentax Optio 555 with full manual controls and wanted to learn how to use those controls. Sadly, this book really didn’t help me that much. If you already have a digital camera, too much of this book is devoted to how to purchase one and what accessories are useful. I know what a megapixel is – I want to know how to take good, interesting pictures.

   Several portions of the book tell you about basic photography, but by and large, I found it too basic. For instance, in the chapter on photographing people, the author states that if you want your subjects to have a good appearance, you should be sure they are wearing nice clothes !!??!! Really? There is some fairly obvious text on how to center or frame subjects, but nothing momentous.

   Conversely, at the opposite extreme, the author spends too much time discussing how to set up a portrait studio (page after page on lighting accessories) or a macrophotography studio, for doing close-up photos of inanimate objects (such as for eBay auctions). He goes on for pages telling you about what sort of backing to have behind your subjects – definite overkill.

   I bought this book hoping it would tell me how to make best use of the manual, aperture priority and shutter priority settings on my camera. It does tell you that the smaller the f-stop, the larger the aperture. It also tells you that to shoot moving objects, such as sports photography, you need a faster shutter speed to capture the fast moving action. But that’s pretty basic and self-evident. I wanted to know how aperture and shutter speed effect depth of field, so that I could take great photos of people or flowers in sharp focus, with the background blurred out of focus to emphasize the subject. Guess what? This three inch thick tome does NOT explain any of that. I spent hours re-reading every possible portion of the book that might provide that information, but although it does mention the concept of depth of field several times, the author does not bother to tell the reader how to make use of it with his or her camera. I find that inexcusable. In fact, the author really does not provide much of use about any aspect of the manual controls on a camera, aside from the aforementioned sports photographer’s need for a fast shutter speed and the need for longer exposures in dim light. To the extent that proponents of this book claim I should find this information in general, non-digital photography books, I have to ask why that isn’t the case with all of the actual picture-taking chapters in this book.

   There is a chapter/book on general use of digital imaging and editing software that is moderately useful. I have been doing ok with several programs (Photosuite, Picture It!) just playing around without reading the instructions and after reading this book, I discovered I was missing out on some useful aspects and features of those programs. However there is also a separate book (one-seventh of this entire reference work) devoted to shamelessly plugging the program Photoshop and how to use it. I don’t own the full version of Photoshop and given its six c-note price tag, I’m not ever planning on owning it or even the basic version of the program, Photoshop Elements, which is rarely discounted much under eighty bucks. Perhaps I’m speaking solely out of ignorance of its wonderful benefits, but I neither see why Photoshop is so much better for the average digital photographer who just wants to print nice, interesting pictures nor do I understand why 15% of this book is consumed with telling me about a program I’ll never own. I agree with the other non-enthusiastic reviewer that these programs should probably be covered in a separate, more detailed primer focused solely on the program you actually own.

   Finally, I found quite a few of the author’s photos spread throughout the book lacking in value. Some of them simply did not demonstrate well a particular point the author was trying to make (e.g. the stone gargoyle in the rule of threes subject framing section as well as the castle on a hill photos). Quite a few other photographs that were supposed to show the potential wonders of digital photos were simply not particularly interesting.

   I’ll conclude with the best advice on digital photography books that anyone can give: plan on spending some reasonable amount of time in an actual bookstore reviewing not just this 7-in-1 Dummies book, but several others too. I wish I had. Look to see if you agree with several of the points I’ve made or that other reviewers of this book have made. Look to see if there is substantial text in the book that addresses the areas where you have questions or need more information. Read some of it carefully to make sure that it makes sense to you and the author’s writing is clear. Then, make up your own mind. Finally, don’t hesitate to make some use of the internet, though, because some of the best websites of any sort that I’ve seen online are the digital photography websites – especially (…) – they really are exceptionally useful reference sources. Last but not least, enjoy your digital camera.
   
   Rating: 2 / 5
4. Johnpix says:

   November 21, 2009 at 3:32 pm

   If you have a question about digital photography, there’s a very good chance it’s covered in one of this books 8 chapters. It’s an excellent reference source and if after reading you would like more indepth information on a topic, you’ll have learned enough here that you can easily track down further detail. I’m an advanced amature digital photographer and consider this book an excellent reference source for special situations that periodically arise.
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. G. Ivanson says:

   November 21, 2009 at 6:28 pm

   Very helpful especially if you have problems figuring out which end of the camera faces toward you and which end faces away. Plain English and not overly technical. If it could make a decent photographer out of me, there is hope for anyone.
   Rating: 4 / 5