24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Far Off, February 8, 2005
This review is from: Digital Photography Expert: Close-Up Photography: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (A Lark Photography Book) (Paperback)
This is a book that attempts to cover the entire range of close-up photography from close-ups of gems to close-ups of insects. As I read this book I kept wondering what audience the author was trying to reach and what he was trying to teach that audience.
The book is laid out in individual sections of two facing pages. Each page contains text and photographs or diagrams. The layout resulted in beautiful typography but almost seemed to interfere with a coherent development of any subject because of the desire to shoehorn the material into the two-page format, when clearly some subjects required extensive development that couldn't be so limited.
Moreover the level of detail was not enough to help a beginning close-up photographer in the basic tasks or an experienced photographer in complex tasks. Instead the book was most useful as an idea book about what is possible in close-up photography.
Often the author offered opinions without any substantiation. For example, he regularly indicated that single lens reflex cameras were best for close up work, but never explained that that was due to the difficulty of framing a close subject due to parallax errors with a camera whose viewfinder is not on the lens axis.
There is also a lot of bad information here. For example at one point he suggests manually calculating exposure for a flash picture. I found this incredible given that fact that most digital cameras provide for some sort of automatic, through-the-lens, metering of electronic flash.
But then I should not have been surprised. Undoubtedly every publisher now wants photography manuals pitched at digital photographers. Indeed the title of this book is "Digital Photography Expert Close-up Photography", and the cover states that it is the "definitive guide for serious digital photographers". And yet there is not a single mention of what I consider to be the most useful tool offered by digital cameras, a histogram of light values to aid you in calculating exposure.
Finally, much of this book is devoted to something other than close-up photography. For example, the discussion of rocks and stone features pictures of a slot canyons and petroglyphs all of which appear to be at least 10 feet distant from the camera.
I don't want to suggest that this book is totally without merit. Scattered throughout the book are tips that a close-up photographer might find useful. For example the author suggests it may be possible to achieve depth of field by compositing several pictures of a small object in editing software, each with a different focus point, to create the appearance of sharpness where a single image would not succeed. But for someone looking for a well-conceived, total approach to the art of close-up photography, using a digital camera, this book is not a help.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Reference & Learning Tool, September 18, 2004
This review is from: Digital Photography Expert: Close-Up Photography: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (A Lark Photography Book) (Paperback)
This book has examples of any type of close-up photography you can imagine, plus tips on how to take pictures of each type of object. It also reviews some of the basics of the techniques behind it. It is very light however on talking about the tools, especially the lighting tools.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview. Too general as intro. instuctional resource., July 30, 2007
This review is from: Digital Photography Expert: Close-Up Photography: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (A Lark Photography Book) (Paperback)
As another reviewer who gave it 2 stars, I agree that this is more of an "overview of the field" than a practical "how-to" book. For example, I picked up this book to find info about choosing the best macro lens(es) for flower close-ups, and to learn about the differences among most popular options (50 mm vs. 100 mm. macro properties); instead, the author goes into detail about using elaborate setups with lens extension rings (p. 14-15) and even provides a table with extension types and magnification each provides, but does not discuss the basic macro lenses available on the market to advanced amateurs and professionals alike...
The diagrams that explain different lighting setups are helpful, but much of the book deals with setups and types of photography that will only interest specialized professional studio photographers (e.g. sections on museum reproduction and cataloging photos of coins, shells, gemstones and pearls, and reproduction of manuscripts / prints and paintings). Even in those cases, it seems that this is way too complex for an amateur, and yet not specific / detailed enough to be of use to an experienced (or aspiring) specialist. I was hoping this would be the same level of detail and quality as the same authors excellent book on black and white photos (in the same series), but it's not even close. It is certainly worth a look, if you can find it at the local library, but not something I would recommend buying.
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