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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive and Up-to-date, January 30, 2009
This review is from: David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual (Paperback)
David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual is an outstanding resource for beginning and intermediate photographers. If you are buying your first digital camera, or trying to decide whether you should trade up from a compact point-and-shoot to a digital SLR, this book will answer all of your questions. Using an informal, conversational and friendly tone, Pogue covers the features and functions of all kinds of digital cameras, including recent developments such as geotagging and face recognition. He also tells how to improve your photographic skills. I especially liked Chapter 4 in which he discusses the "Ten Decisions" you should make when you are getting ready to take a photo. Chapter 6 explains how the professionals get the kinds of shots you see in magazines. His explanations are concise and easy to understand.
He goes beyond the shoot itself when he talks about what you can do with all your digital files. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 cover two popular photo storage and editing programs, iPhoto and Picasa. Chapter 11 is an excellent guide to printing your photos (he explains concepts like resolution and aspect ratio), and Chapter 12, Electronic Photos, explores the many ways to share your photos via email, web galleries and slideshows.
I would have liked more captions explaining exactly what the example photos are supposed to show, and I thought the use of blue type for emphasis was an annoying gimmick. But those are minor gripes. This is a clearly-written, up-to-date guide to every aspect of digital photography.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent primer, February 2, 2009
This review is from: David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual (Paperback)
If you are new to digital photography or haven't gotten beyond the shoot and print stage, you should find a lot to like in this book. The explanations of various technical camera and photography subjects are easily among the clearest and most easily understood I've come across. Kudos to Pogue for making such a jargon laden subject easy to understand.
I happily recommend this as a first book on digital photography. All the basics are covered from understanding how cameras work and what all the terms mean, to buying the right camera, to basic photo cataloging and editing. Pogue also covers the equipment extras that enhance photography quality like tripods, memory cards and the like. There is also a good primer on how to compose and shoot interesting images.
Pogue also includes is some introductory coverage of the image cataloging and editing programs that come with common cameras as well as Adobe's Photoshop Elements. As with any book that offers coverage of multiple programs, it doesn't take you beyond the basics of any of them.
If you're one of the holdouts from film photography who wants to understand the what and wherefore of digital, this book does that, and should get your started. However, It's pretty basic. If you are an experienced photographer and understand what you are doing, don't look to this book to take you to the next level.
It definitely doesn't offer the in-depth coverage that some other Missing Manual books do. That's not a complaint, just an observation. As someone who teaches photo editing, it's great to have a basic manual to recommend. As an introductory book I absolutely recommend this for its clarity and good writing.
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, but FULL OF ERRORS, January 26, 2010
This review is from: David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual (Paperback)
I bought this book based on the many positive reviews on Amazon, and I found it useful with a readable, engaging style. But it is FULL OF MISTAKES that should have been caught before it went into print, and will confuse many readers, especially beginners. This book is way below the standard of excellence set by other books in the Missing Manual series. Here are some examples: Writing about Landscape Mode, the author writes that it sets "Large Aperture, creating a large depth of field ...". The fact is that Landscape Mode sets Small aperture, which is what creates a large depth of field. (A Large Aperture actually creates a shallow depth of field.) In discussing Manual Mode, the author wrote "That's full automatic", which is just the opposite of the truth. In discussing lenses, he writes "Telephoto means 'zoom.' " This is incorrect; not all telephoto lenses are zoom lenses, nor are all zoom lenses telephotos. And the list goes on! For a complete list of errata submitted (so far) by readers, go to:[...]
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