Customer Reviews

50 Fast Digital Camera Techniques (50 Fast Techniques Series)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book resolved numerous unanswered questions I had about my 'prosumer' Canon PowerShot G3 (see review). What benefit is the histogram, for instance? Now I know not only what it's for, but how to use it for proper exposure - that alone was worth the reasonable admission price. I learned about exposure lock, focus lock, exposure (and flash) bracketing, why results with the built-in flash may be disappointing, why fast-action sports photos require a fancier (SRL) camera, the pros and cons of the red-eye prevention pre-flash, and dozens of other tips and features that the camera's instruction manual describes in detail, but leaves it to you to find out the why's and the how-and-when-to-use-it's.

As expressed by some disappointed readers, this is NOT a book for point-and-shoot photographers and/or cameras [you'd be better served by one of the "Dummy" books]. It is meant for the more richly endowed cameras with many selectable functions, some of them mysterious. The title certainly falls short in not making that difference clear. But I found the contents enormously helpful in grasping the camera's potential (even though I couldn't tell apart the black-and-white original and edited vignettes that start each section). The enclosed CD has full-sized color photos that you can edit in graphics software, and a 'slide-show' that shows each and every book illustration in color (albeit compressed to web size). Also on the CD is a protected Acrobat version of the entire book [ie, you can view, but not print individual pages - using PrintScreen, you can copy a page to the clipboard, paste it in Word, then print the page].

Overall: a superb guide to familiarize the reader with the arcane buttons, dials and menus of a complex digital camera. Other books might better serve snapshot photographers.

As an experienced 35mm user just switching to digital, I found this book to be the perfect complement to my camera's instruction manual.In a clear and straightforward manner, it addresses a wide multitude of picture-taking situations and accessory choices, from the most basic to the more complex. Each of the 50 techniques is concisely explained and extremely well illustrated in a most logical progression of sections ranging from 3 to 10 pages each. The table of contents and index are wonderfully comprehensive and make finding what you want as simple as possible. The included CD-ROM and associated web site are a beautiful bonus. My only wish is that more of the illustrations were in color, but at the price that would have been too much to expect. All in all, most highly recommended for both the beginner and advanced user.

This book has been a great help to me. I am on my 4th digital camera but the first three worked fine in Auto mode and I never challenged myself to learn how to use all the features of the cameras. Having no photography background with advanced film cameras, I was not familiar with using white balance, f stops, depth of field, etc. This book has helped me to understand how to really get the most out of my more advanced "prosumer" camera and it is also full of tips and techniques for taking better photos of all types from landscapes to portraits, panoramas, pets and kids, using off-camera lighting and tripods. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to take better digital photos!

This is a great book for someone who knows little about photography except how to push the button and maybe get the pictures on their computer. Its filled with lots of information in easily digestible amounts.

The first "technique" simply is a form to fill out with all the settings your camera can set, how high and low each can go, if it applies to your camera, and where in your camera's manual the topic is discussed. This sounds rather dull at first but believe me you will be thankful later when you know exactly what your camera is capable of and know how to quickly find the information again when you need it.

I'd say the first 15 "techniques" (I prefer mini-chapters) are great to get you up to speed with the basics of what you need to know about photography and how to really USE all your camera's features.

The rest of the book is essentially bonus material to expand your knowlege of certain types of photography.

This book is clearly written for people who own point-and-shoot digital cameras, which is pretty much most people. If you have a Digital SLR, this book is not for you, but then you probably are either a serious hobbyist or a professional and don't need this book.

Digital cameras are great new item for us photographers but just how much they can do and how you can be creative with them is often lost on many of us. I thought I was pretty good with my camera but then I was smart enough to buy this book and follow along as Mr. Georges took me through step by step techniques to make better digital images.

My favorite was #49 where you learn how to isolate a flower from its background in order to make it stand out better. I also liked the actions sports section as I am always shooting games that my kids are playing in.

I've always been a big fan of Gregory's books and the added value of having Larry Berman and Chris Maher co-write with Greg makes this a MUST for any new digital camera owner. I've been following Larry on the digital photography forums and he has been able to produce some amazing images with consumer digital cameras and has been instrumental in my upgrading to the CoolPix 5000, which I love. BTW: Larry and Chris have really defined shooting digital infrared ... sure wish they would publish a book on the subject. ( Are ya listening guys?!), Bottom line ? this is a great book for consumer digital camera users - like myself- and I'd like to see a lot more like it from these authors. --- to bad they only let ya put 5 stars!!!!

Greg's new book helped me "move up" to a more complex digital camera and better understand what I just bought. Nothing is really "automatic" in taking pictures anymore. He helped me understand the relationship between various digital functions, and provided me some basic steps and new techniques to follow on how and when to highlight some functions over others - something the manufacturer of my camera failed to provide in its technical description of my camera. He's an expert in this technology and through his book provides an extremely valuable mentoring service to help me become a better photographer.

This well produced book is color throughout and really measures up to any other digital camera recipe book that I've seen. The techniques get right to the point, with lots of variety and nice images. Everything is step-by-step and richly illustrated, covering both camera tricks and cool special effects. About half the techniques show how to get the most from specific digital camera features, and half are subject-oriented techniques (e.g. flowers, still-life, landscapes, people, etc.) I've been shooting like a maniac with my new D50, and I'm a satisfied customer with this book.

I brought this book based on good review here and read it through. I found some mistakes, also disapointed for not going to details in other chapters or not talking some important things in photography. But I think for people never taking picture before, this is a good book to introduce photograph to them.

Now, I like to pointed one obvious mistake when author talked about the lens F/x.x aperture number. He said that F actually means 1. That is wrong. F means the focus length. The aperture number is an indication how much light can get through the lens. A f/2.8 lens will allow more light through than a f/3.5 lens when they have the same focus length. For build a compact camera, most manufactures try to build smaller and lighter camera. When you select a camera, select bigger aperture number on the lens will enable you take picture at lower light.

When author explains in the book why smaller pocket size camera has deeper field range, he also failed to explain that smaller pocket size camera also has smaller lens, sometimes the tiny lens has f/3.5 or even worse aperture number. The aperture number is causing the field depth to be deeper, which may not be a bad thing for point and shot camera, but not work well in low light.

The book did mentioned about aperture priority and shutter priority. But not in any depth at all, not enough for anyone to take advantage of the camera functions by following the book. I am really disapointed about that. It did not talk about lens filters at all, which is very important technique but totally ignored.

In the 50 techniques talked in this book, at least 10 of them is not related to the camera directly, rather is how to use photoshop element software, how to print. But in the how to print section, it did not discuss the paper differences. From my experience, using HP photo paper and Epson photo paper will produce different result in any printer. If anyone talks about printing photos, how to select paper to get best result should be discussed. But author did not get into that details either.

I give this book two stars because it does help people to learn how to select subject, which is also an important part of taking good picture.

I am a beginning digital camera user and bought this book to try to shoot in different scenarios. The information was extremely helpful, and I am a better digital photographer because of this book. I would have liked to have seen more of Larry Berman's southwest images, though.