Digital Photography Books
A Selection Of 5 Recommended Books For Beginner, Amateur and Pro Photographers
There's been an incredible boom of digital photography over the last few years since the turn of the century. Digital photography books seem to have sprung up just as quickly. Publishers and photographers alike know just how large this industry is and will be in the future.
The trick is to find the most useful, well written and easily understandable ones. Digital photography can get a little confusing, especially if you are new to photography. We have tried to find digital photography books that will suit everyone from the absolute beginner to photography up to the more advanced, aspiring artists and digital photographers.
As I am finding, you can never assume to know everything about photography. That is especially so in the digital world. There is always some new style, technique or software just around the corner to keep re-creating the excitement.
5 Digital Photography Books: A Recommended Selection
Absolute Beginners: Digital Photography Books
"If you find the manual which was provided with your digital camera daunting and confusing with a very long and steep learning curve, get this book. You will be doing yourself a big favour and you will be glad you did."
This section from a customer review above says it all really. I have always found the manuals supplied with cameras far too technical. Put it in a drawer and get this book, it explains everything in easy to read and understand terminology!
Unlike many other digital photography books, this one actually devotes most of its pages to actually taking a great photograph. It spends just the last 2 chapters on digital imaging. So if you are a newcomer to digital photography, but would like a little guidance on how to take better pictures, this is for you.
What do you shoot with?
If your camera is a little more than a "point and shoot" and has manual settings, this will be especially useful to you. All text is accompanied by full colour illustrations that will have you wanting to rush out and imitate or better what you see!
The Author, Dave Huss has now been a photographer for over 40 years. Some of his work has been featured in Studio Photography and Design magazine and Nikon's Capture User magazine. He has been seen on Tech TV and CNN. He is also the author of several other books including:
Dave dispels all the myths that digital photography is difficult and expensive, and rightly so! Discover how to make the best of light, flash photography and your computer.
The average rating at Amazon is 4.5*/5. Click the above link to read all the reviews and order from Amazon.
Beginners and Up: Digital Photography Books
"This wonderful book comes from the author of the popular title "The Joy of Photography" in 2000. Jeff Wignall has produced this book on Digital Photography and aimed it predominantly at the newcomer to digital."
However, even aspiring photographic artists will find it useful. It covers everything from simply re-sizing and emailing pictures to your family. Then right up to more complicated aspects of digital imaging.
If you are just starting out in digital photography, but just know it is a hobby you will keep, this book is an excellent place to start. It includes clear explanations of JPEGs, pixels and tiff formats. It wades through the different types of digital cameras and explains in detail, the relationship between your camera and computer.
You will also learn how to compose, enhance and add special effects to your images. All explained with big bright colourful photographs. Readers should find Jeff’s explanations easy to grasp and find themselves inspired and wanting to progress in this wonderful hobby.
What else?
Everything is covered from digital tools (cameras, lenses, accessories), digital vision, every day problems and solutions. Working with light, flash and exposure, travel and landscape photography. Help with portraits, effective sports photography, post-production techniques including seeing, sharing, and storing digital images. Basic desktop printing and the digital darkroom is basically explained with Photoshop.
This is a great start to digital photography, and would make a fantastic gift for anyone interested in photography.
The average rating at Amazon is 5*/5. Click the above link to read all the reviews and order from Amazon.
Intermediates: Digital Photography Books
"Aimed more at the more experienced or intermediate photographer, this wonderfully written guidebook teaches you how to take your digital photography to the next level."
Julie Adair King, a bestselling author, shows you the secrets, hints and tips that professional photographers use to capture spectacular nature and travel images, memorable portraits, and consumer product shots.
You will learn how to take full advantage of your digital camera's manual and creative features, from resolution options to exposure controls and discover techniques that will help you to take better photographs first time (even in challenging and difficult lighting situations)!
The Author
Through a well written series of tutorial projects, the author Julie Adair King, shows you how to light shots effectively, use the correct camera settings, use some of the many camera accessories and software and much more. You'll learn to use your existing digital camera for professional results using a step by step approach. Set yourself up in a cheap but effective home studio, create 360-degree panoramic images, learn action and low light photography, black and white photography techniques and learn to adopt many other professional techniques.
If you know someone that has just moved up from a digital point and shoot, or a more advanced digital camera to a Digital SLR, this book is a great introduction to the more professional aspects of photography.
The average rating at Amazon is 4.5*/5. Click the above link to read all the reviews and order from Amazon.
Advanced Intermediate or Semi Professional: Digital Photography Books
"For those serious photographers who have all but mastered their Digital SLR as in simply knowing where the buttons are and what they do, the next level is covered in this book by author Ken Milburn, a professional photographer."
The emphasis is on how to optimise your images for selling on the web using Photoshop to increase your workflow and image quality.
This absorbing book, will offer you a ton of expert advice if you are ready to move to the next level with your digital photography. Digital Photography: Expert Techniques focuses mainly on workflow: time tested, step by step procedures that are based on hard-nosed experience by and for genuine practitioners of digital photography.
The conversational tone of this book presents detailed information about where and what to look for in today’s affordable higher-end digital cameras, how to use more simple techniques and equipment to shoot some breathtaking shots.
Plus, instructions on shooting panoramas, do's and don'ts for creating better masks in Photoshop, and professional digital darkroom techniques for many different styles, effects and finishes for your photographs. For those of you wanting to exhibit your work, there is a section which includes how to prepare yourself and your images for such an occasion.
Its main contents include:
Digital Photography: Expert Techniques is in four colour front to back, allowing you to see each step in the Digital Photographer's workflow, including the steps in-between. Serious or semi professional photographers, even including professionals, who want to take advantage of the unique creative powers that digital photography and digital image processing brings, will find this problem-solving book almost invaluable.
The average rating at Amazon is 5*/5. Click the above link to read all the reviews and order from Amazon.
Digital Photography Books: A Pocket Guide
"We just couldn't have a digital photography books section without a pocket guide! This quick pocket guide is useful to keep with you in your camera bag for easy reference. Today digital cameras are much more affordable and many will provide quality images that now rival their traditional film counterparts."
This new medium is both cost effective and also environmentally friendly as digital images are easier to share, and you only have to print the pictures you need.
Best of all, it's a lot of fun! With your digital camera, you can release your creative spirit and take more risks you never would with a film camera owing to the developing costs involved. The only obstacle with digital photography is learning how to unlock all of this pleasure and power packed into these digicams. Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 2nd Edition expands on the basic photography techniques introduced in the first, bestselling edition to help you take the pictures you’ve always known you could!
This book is the mentor you've always wanted in your digital photography world, it explains each of the camera’s buttons and gizmos, shows you what they do, and then helps you to choose the right settings. When you come across a situation where you need a little help, simply pull this pocket guide out of your camera bag and quickly find the answer.
This book covers everything from shooting sports action, image resolution, night and close up shots, to transferring images to your PC, memory cards, archiving and making QuickTime movies.
Topics are labelled "A-Z" in the guide's three main sections;
for quick reference. Or if you prefer, you can use the more comprehensive index to find the information that you need. There's even an entire section of easy to read reference tables for exposure compensation, white balance settings and camera mode explanations.
A great little reference book for the novice to keep on hand.
The average rating at Amazon is 5*/5. Click the above link to read all the reviews and order from Amazon.