Customer Reviews

Digital Night and Low-Light Photography

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

 

 

I blame myself. It's probably because I learned photography in the film era that I assume that any photography instruction book whose title begins with the word "Digital" will tell how to squeeze out the additional benefits that digital photography offers, or at least how to overcome problems created by the nature of digital photography.

At first glance, this book seemed just right for photographers who want to extend the opportunities to take photographs beyond sunny, fair weather. Chapters include equipment, technique, outdoor and indoor low-light photography, night photography and post-production. The chapter on outdoor photography was light-oriented, with sections devoted to dawn, sunrise, sunset, dusk, storms and bad weather, fog and mist, snow and frost, using flash and painting with light. Other chapters were more subject-oriented, such as the chapter on night photography that dealt with the moon, buildings and neon lights, among other things.

Photographers have a wide variety of skill levels and no book can be expected to appeal to both the novice and the expert photographer. This book is aimed at the novice digital photographer, who, the author believes, should, like all serious photographers, use digital single lens reflex cameras. The chapter on equipment is quite basic. The technique chapter is slightly more advanced and does cover the use of histograms, white balance and noise reduction, the latter a feature that is particularly important to the adjustment of the long time exposures low-light photography often requires. Throughout the book suggestions are given on white balance settings. I wish there had been the same attention to the use of histograms and noise reduction.

The chapters on the different photography conditions were sufficient for the new shooter. For example, Gartside explains how to set exposure and white balance for sunrise. On the other hand, I felt the sections on flash needed more information on the techniques for integrating ambient light sources with flash, other than suggesting bracketing one's shots.

It seems pretty clear that serious digital photographers are going to use some sort of image processing software to get the most from their pictures. Yet I found the chapter on post-processing the weakest because it covered Photoshop (the de facto leader in post-processing) features in a way that would be beyond those who were not experienced with Photoshop and yet not enough detail for experienced users. For example, no beginner could ever understand the use of levels from the brief description provided, while more experienced photographers would probably like to know how to extend the contrast frequently required for pictures taken on overcast days. Moreover there was no discussion of the use of Adobe Camera Raw, one of the most useful tools in Photoshop. I would suggest that any serious beginner, low-light or otherwise, explore the use of Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements, the slimmed-down, less expensive version of the software) by reading books like Tim Grey's "Photoshop CS2 Workflow" and Rob Sheppard's "Adobe Camera Raw for Digital Photographers Only".

The beginner who wants an introduction to taking pictures when the light is low and some inspiration from Gartside's photographs will probably find this book useful. More experienced photographers are less likely to learn anything new.

I purchased this book, after reviewing the few selections available on the topic, because it incorporates the use of Digital Photography. I got excited after reading the description, thinking that this would be a very instructional book that would help me in learning to shoot better at night, as an "in-depth guide to the techniques a photographer needs". Well that wasn't the case. Instead the book highlights various situations, allotting just two pages for each technique giving a quick overview of how the author created various images. Most of the information is common sense...use a tripod, use a cable release and different lenses will give different results.

There is no doubt that Tim Gartside is a very good photographer, many of the images in the book are quite stunning. But I bought this book in the hopes of learning about night photography, not be treated to a virtual slideshow of his work.

Also, one of the major points that he seemed to emphasis is the use of Photoshop. That if you don't get the best shot, you can always "fix it" later by tweaking this or that in Photoshop. Or that if you don't get the exact shot you want, take several and then montage them later in Photoshop. I don't want to have to do that. I want to know what I'm doing so that I can get the best possible shot in camera, not in Photoshop.

This book is good for the beginner, for a very basic overview of night and low-light photography. But if you have any photo experience, I would suggest passing on this book.

This book purported to be about digital photography yet it read like a film photography book with the occasional reference to Photoshop to make it 'digital'.
I was particularly disappointed in the star photography section. He implies that you can leave the shutter open for hours, like in the film days. Anyone who has tried long-exposure photography knows that the sensor heats up after thirty minutes, leaving red edges in the shot. (For great star trails information, google Moose Petersen and 'star trails'. Now HE knows!). So, as far as I'm concerned, he never even tried that chapter with a digital camera. I wonder where else he skimped?

Pretty pictures, but I'm disappointed overall.

When I purchased this book, I prepaid in anticipation of learning how to deal with low light temperature with candles, night photography and other problem conditions. Shooting with professional equipment, I have taken multiple courses in lighting but primarily for portrait. The courses and books ALWAYS contain the details of the pictures: Camera, speed, F stop, ISO and such, but none of these photos have any information on the technical details of the examples. He simply went in two page "sub chapters" of each topic with little discussion. This is an book of many small examples instead of a book for how to use the camera in difficult conditions. There are many better books out there or information on the web that will be of far more use.

This book is strictly for beginners, and it should say so in the title.

Buy it if you need information about uses for a cable release, how bad you'll need a tripod, the differences between compact and SLR cameras, what a polarizing filter is for, how to change the white balance settings, and much more basic stuff, like always carry spare batteries and buy many memory cards now that they are cheap.

Oh, the featured photos are quite good, but in that case treat yourself straight up with a big coffee table book.

I picked up a lot of ideas of things to take pictures of from this book. The way it was written was interesting reading and covered a wide scope of photography topics. The only reason that I didn't give it five stars was because I was looking for more of a "how to" type of book with more indepth information that what it had. But I am still glad that I have this book and think that it is worth what I paid for it.

Numerous suggestions for couple dozen low light senerios. The author needs to improve his composition a little and forget the excessive post shutter processing. But this book is about low light photography and he covers it well.