Customer Reviews

The Art of Digital Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques with Style (Amphoto)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The title of this book is mis-leading as there's hardly any technique. There's plenty of gorgeous photo's with associated exposure information, camera settings and lenses used (good of the author's to include these). As other's have mentioned there is heavy usage of Nik filters. However the author's are open and frank about the use of such filters and the results are great indeed. Reading content is not much more than a few hours long and wedding photographers will learn very little. This is a picture book with general comments and opinion, "professional techniques" it is not!

I purchased and read Bambi's first book on wedding photography published in 2000 and also this one expecting new information and an updated on all that has changed over the past 5+ years. I was disappointed to find little new information other than a lot of plugs for Canon equipment.

Many images that illustrate the value of NIK filters for Photoshop but little discussion of when to use them or why. One example is provided on an approach to converting images to black and white but no mention of the literally dozens of ways to do this and the many after-market action sets by Kubota and others to make this easy and efficient.

Strongly suggest anyone getting into wedding photography or making the transition to digital from film purchase first the excellent book "Digital Wedding Photography" by Glen Johnson. Then fill in the gaps with books such as Bambi's - though I believe her 2000 book was better than this latest one which is largely a cosmetic makeover.

This book is definately pretty to look at and it offers a few tips that any amateur photographer could make good use of, but the title is certainly misleading and overall its not a good buy if you're hoping to learn something. I found it to be very light on practical wedding photography information and heavy on photos.... It might answer your basic "what" questions, but it doesn't come close to answering any "why" or "how" questions. If you're looking for a book with several beautiful pictures that would look great on your coffee table, than this book is for you, but if you're actually hoping to learn something, I'd recommend buying something else.

I returned this book after the first read. As a new wedding photographer I admire Cantrell's style and her first book was excellent, thus I had high expections for her second book which covered digital wedding photography. It seems as if she was distracted in writing this book. The explanations regarding equipment, dealing with the wedding couple, pricing, are vague and the explanations tired and repetetive, and many of the photos are out of focus and grainy. Definitely not of the quality and caliber of her first writing endeavor. If one is buying this book searching for ideas on how to effectively manage your digital workflow, deal with jpeg vs. raw, eye-candy photos for inspiration for one's one work, and digital techniques for wedding photography, you will not find it here. You may want to purchase her first book for inspiration and ideas, it is better written.

Digital Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques With Style by professional photographers Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen is a remarkably "user friendly" illustrated guide to the art of digital photography focusing on ever aspect of wedding preparations, ceremony, and celebration. Introducing aspiring photographers to the many variable aspects of digital photography techniques, Digital Wed-ding Photography provides a complete understanding of how to employ digital technology for a greater artistic and creative photographic image, how to capture events as well as enthusiasm and emotion throughout the day, the effective thought process of a photojournalist, understanding clients, delivering color and black-and-white photos with deft style, how to create awe-inspiring albums and Web sites, as well as digital photography service marketing, and a wealth of additionally informative tips. For its grasp of the most effective strategies and approaches, Digital Wedding Photography is very highly recommended for novice photographers wanting to enhance their photographic wedding portrait skills.

This book is suited for weekend amateurs photographers who may be still be shooting film but want to consider going digital.

Consider this book a good INTRODUCTION to digital photography obviously skewed towards wedding coverage. It is also a good refresher for advanced amateurs.

The person who wrote that horrible review for Bambi's new book is clearly an idiot!! I'm impressed with the flow, the writing and the images featured in this new book. My only complaint is that it took 2 years to actually be released, the suspence was enough to kill a person! Compared to her first book, this one has all new images, new ideas and new advice. I've been a pro wedding photojournalist for 6 years now and from a professional stand point I learned a number of things from it. It's also written in a way that anyone interested in becoming a photographer could understand. I highly recommend this book, pay no mind to the fool talking smack... he's just jealous! :o)

If you're looking for a book that illustrates wedding photography in broad strokes, this book is fine. It talks about breaking the day down into different sections, what the photographer likes to have in her bag, some post-processing filters she uses, etc... However the treatment is on the shallow end in detail.

On the back of the book it says "... to inspire any bride-to-be and the photographer on her special day." I think as long as your not looking for more than inspiration, this book will be fine, however it does not really go into technical depth on the challenges and techniques to handle those challenges that a wedding photographer will encounter.

It's really aimed more at inspiration than instruction.

As a wedding photographer, I tend to collect books like this one. But this one is AWESOME. It has specific recommendations on exactly which lenses to take, as well as other incidentals to pack in your gear. It also tells you the exact settings/lens used for each photo in the book, AND it tells you what extra work was done in Photoshop. I rarely read technical books cover to cover, but this one I did!

Bambi Cantrell is, quite simply, a legend in the wedding photography industry, both as a shooter and educator. Skip Cohen has impressive credentials of his own, as president of Hasselblad USA, and now a guiding force of The Rangefinder Magazine and WPPI. If there is anything about wedding photography that these two luminaries don't know, it's not worth knowing.

That's why I was so pleased to see just how successful their collaboration was in this book. It showcases gorgeous photos, features useful professional tips, and provides an inspiring basis for raising the bar on the quality of your work. It's suitable both for new photographers looking for an introduction, and for wedding veterans who want to add useful techniques to their repertoires. Highly recommended.