Customer Reviews

Digital Photography Expert: Nature and Landscape Photography: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (A Lark Photography Book)

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You would think that a book whose title includes the words "Digital Photography Expert" and the "definitive guide for serious digital photographers" would give you hints about using digital cameras. This book doesn't do that.

It has a few good points. The typography is excellent with plenty of white space and clean layout. The pictures are good. And several times the author uses a series of pictures to build up to the best picture of a subject, just as a photographer in the field might develop his vision of a subject.

Now the bad points. The book is thrown together by mixing a lot of different learning points without relationship to each other and treating them in a superficial manner. It's as if no one ever told the author about making an outline of his teaching points before starting to actually write.

Then there is the approach to digital, or rather a lack of it. One would expect that this book would suggest a way that the digital aspects of photography could be used to enhance the taking of nature and landscape photographs. Instead the author completely ignores the nature of digital cameras. For example one of the most important devices a digital camera may contain is a histogram to allow you to adjust exposure. (A histogram is graphic representation showing the distribution of light values in a picture.) A good book would tell you how to use the histogram. The author's only reference to a histogram is to tell you that shots of the sea can be tricky and one should check the histogram. In the glossary, the author does explain what a histogram is in language similar to the parenthetical expression used a few sentences earlier in this paragraph but he never tells you how to use the histogram.

But wait. There's more. Often he perpetuates myths that are just wrong, or at least require more information to be useful. For example he says that telephoto lenses have less depth of field then wide angle lenses, which is not true if the image size of a subject on the sensor is the same, or that split neutral density filters don't work with telephoto lenses. And the essential nature photography skills he leaves out are legion. There is no mention of the use of flash or any of the so-called "rules" of composition.

I can't suggest a single book that will provide you detailed information on both landscape and nature photography and digital photography. However for a comprehensive, well-organized approach to nature photography nothing beats John Shaw's "Nature Photography Field Guide" even though he doesn't mention digital. To see how to capitalize on digital cameras' characteristics I recommend "Shooting Digital" by Mikkel Aaland. And if you are interested in wildlife photography, which Freeman purports to explain, but ends up ignoring, you could do a lot worse than reading the late Bill Silliker, Jr.'s "Master Guide for Wildlife Photographers."

Don't waste much time with "Digital Photography Expert Nature and Landscape Photography"

I'm not sure how this book (and author) can state that this is the "Definitive guide for serious digital photographers". If I went on useful content it would only rate 1 star (the lowest rating allowed) but I liked some of the pictures, so I was generous and gave the book 2 stars..

Here's a sample of what "Serious Digital Photographers" will find interesting about this book. The terms "f-stop" and "shutter speed" are mentioned 4 times each in this book. Could it be that these aren't things that serious digital photographers care about? Perhaps they just aren't important when it comes to taking landscape photos. Oh well, the author probably thought we wanted to just look at his pictures instead of taking our own.

Another of the author's valuable suggestions include taking pictures in the morning or at twilight for more interesting light effects. I'm sure rare nuggets like this are sure to come as a big surprise to photographers everywhere. Do yourself a favor and skip this book. Try John Shaw's landscape photography if you want a much better book.

Freeman is renowned for his ability to convey photographic knowledge. The complaints from the other commenters show that they're not familiar with his books. They should look into his other writings for more basic knowledge and take from this book what it is...information for people who aren't looking for basics but beyond basics.