Customer Reviews

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

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The biggest thing that stands out in this book is that it is not designed for digital photographers. It appears to be an old film photography book that was edited to add a little digital photography information and terminology. The problem is, the digital photography info they added was not relevant to taking pictures with digital cameras, but more about history and technical design. And certain terms they use repeatedly in this book are not the common terms used in the rest of the digital community, adding more confusion for beginners. Most of the book references film. The author apparently tries to make this acceptable by saying that because images can be scanned and manipulated on computers, that film photographers are digital photographers too. I honestly don't think that is what people buying a book on digital photography are looking for.

Chapter 3 is "Film Basics" talking about various aspects of using film and how it works. Chapter 4 begins the "Digital Basics". It starts out with discussion on the types of lenses, and how focal lengths affect the pictures. The problem is, that even though we are in the "Digital Basics" section, all the references are in relation to 35mm film and 35mm film cameras. Chapter 5 is on exposure and focus. At the beginning of the chapter it makes a quick reference to the white balance settings on a digital camera, and then goes directly in to extremely film only discussion, including negatives. The chapter is very thin and shallow and there is not much to learn about exposure even if you were a film user. Beyond this chapter (the next 18 chapters) is mostly information on scanning your images and manipulating them with software, like Photoshop. Seriously, if you want a book on how to use Photoshop, you buy a book on Photoshop, not digital photography. This book will not teach you how to use your digital camera better, or take better picture in general. There are a ton of better books for that, and a ton more that will teach you how to use your favorite photo manipulation software.

If you are a beginner, with a digital camera, looking how to use it and take better pictures, this is not the book for you. You will learn very little here. The little reference there is on digital photography looks like it was pulled off of Wikipedia, or some similar site. It seems like the authors first hand knowledge does not go beyond film based photography. And even though there are similarities in concepts between film and digital cameras, the author does not cover them. There is actually very little useful information about photography in general in this book. Mostly information on film, and manipulating the pictures you took using software. Look elsewhere for a photography book.

Mediocre progression from basics to intermediate. As an example, discusses differences between CCD and CMOS sensors early in the book .... typical of the book. Does an absolute beginner have any need to know about CMYK? Film grain? A real hodge-podge of beginner, intermediate, and semi-advanced info.

I'm trying to get ready to teach a beginners class at a senior center, and hoped this would provide a useful outline of what to cover, and how. Pretty much useless for this.

On a positive note, the material was well written and held your interest.

Yes the front part of the book is heavily biased towards films photographers going into digital and the authors belief, at 2004 no less, that digital would not succeed but would be a short fad. Despite that if you come from a film background or just want to learn the history of some of the techniques, it covers that area pretty well explaining some of the basics like scanning and the moire effect, unsharp mask, contrast and sharpening. I do not agree that it is a mixed bag. I do think that it starts from the beginning and leaves you, if you follow all the Elements/PhotoShop exercises at an intermediate level and tackle the area in DP you are really interested in.

What I liked best was the handling of transferring color photographs to black & white and the differences between screens, dp cameraa and printers, the Elements/ Photoshop labs on masks and various sharpening methods and layers. The end of the book helps you with lighting issues so it is very complete. Alas Prentice Hall no longer supports this book on their website so you lose those features, so shop wisely.