Digital Photography from the Ground Up: A Comprehensive Course [Paperback]

Juergen Gulbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2008

Digital technology has revitalized the interest in one of the most fascinating creative hobbies: photography. This "ground up" guide to digital photography will help the novice photographer get started with a firm foundation in understanding the principals and techniques of modern photography. It will also guide the more experienced photographer through the transition from analog to digital photography.

Whereas most other books on digital photography focus on image editing in Photoshop, this book deals with the photographic workflow from capture to print and storage.

In this book the reader will learn:

How imaging occurs in digital cameras What to look for when buying a new camera An understanding of composition Digital shooting techniques Image editing, printing, and presentation How to archive and organize photographic images

This is not a book that explains which button to push, but it is what the title promises: an in-depth course loaded with valuable information and tips. Juergen's goal is to share his own experience as a photographer, and to pass on the knowledge that will make photography an enjoyable and rewarding endeavor.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Juergen Gulbins has extensive experience in writing, technology, desktop publishing, designing high-end document archival systems, and digital photography. He is a prolific author who has written and translated books on topics such as CAD, Unix, DTP, typography, Internet, document management, Linux, and various aspects of digital photography. He has been a passionate photographer most of his life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Rocky Nook (March 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933952172
• ISBN-13: 978-1933952178
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #751,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Digital Photography Primer, April 15, 2008

By 

John Jacobson (Riverside CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Photography from the Ground Up: A Comprehensive Course (Paperback)

This is a great book for the novice to intermediate digital photographer. There are no major issues that are not addressed. The book starts with chapters on equipment, with tips on choosing a camera. It then proceeds to chapters on composition, and a number of short sections on shooting topics such as animal photography, landscape photography, night photography, and others.

Appropriately, the longest section (over 100 pages) covers image editing software, with representatives from the world of MacOS, Linux, and Windows. While the level of detail doesn't approach that in a book dedicated to image editing such as Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom or Art of RAW Conversion: How to Produce Art-Quality Photos with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Leading RAW Converters by Juergen Gulbins and Uwe Steinmueller, it has adequate detail for the newbie to use to become acquainted with the various features of image editing software. It gives detailed instructions (including screenshots) about the use of many of the most important features.

There is a short chapter introducing the RAW format, and then a chapter on printing presentation quality pictures with ink-jet printers. There is special emphasis on the shareware program Qimage, a print application that provides excellent quality prints from even medium resolution photos. The image quality from this program in many instances even exceeds the quality obtained from printing directly from Photoshop. I was pleased to see credit given to this program, which I have used extensively over the last eight years and found to be invaluable in printing high quality ink-jet prints.

There are short sections on choosing and using a scanner, image management, and finally a brief description of Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom, popular all-in-one programs.

This book is a complete introduction to digital photography. It does not provide new information for the experienced photographer, but it does provide answers to questions that neophytes may not know to ask, and will refresh the memory of intermediate photographers about techniques they may not have used for years.

Highly Recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where was the editor?, February 7, 2009

By 

Aaron Shepard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Digital Photography from the Ground Up: A Comprehensive Course (Paperback)

From the few sections of this book I've read so far, I would say it's not badly written, but it's very poorly edited. In fact, it looks like the publisher ran a spell checker over it, and that's about all. Almost every page has wrong words, missing words, faulty footnote marking, or just plain mistakes. For instance, in the section on color spaces, the ProPhoto color space is mistakenly called "PhotoPhoto."

The translation from German was apparently done by someone not fluent in English, because there are some odd constructions. The index is haphazard -- you can't count on it showing all the places a subject is discussed. There was also not enough attention paid to internationalization. For instance, the section on color spaces emphasizes a space called ECI RGB, a European standard not commonly used in the U.S.

I had read another book by this publisher on scanning film and negatives, and it was excellent. But they really dropped the ball on this one. I feel sorry for the author, having his book treated like this. I hope the publisher can clean it up in a later edition, because they might then have a fine reference indeed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Foundation for a New Photography Enthusiast, April 3, 2008

By 

Jeremy Hall (Pleasant Grove, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Photography from the Ground Up: A Comprehensive Course (Paperback)

Most photographers I know are self taught through lots of reading and plenty of practice. Anyone getting started is usually looking for a simple source to explain the basics about photography so they understand at a level that helps them get better, quicker.

Digital Photography from the Ground Up provides a solid overview on essentially all things related to digital photography. This book is definitely targeting the beginning user or one that may have been trying things out for awhile and would like to get a better foundation behind their hobby.

With this in mind, the advanced user likely knows most of what is covered in this title, but could use a copy to lend out to those that are always asking them questions! The concepts do get a little more advanced in some sections, but the concepts are clearly and simply explained to make them approachable and understandable for anyone. Because this book covers so many topics, each is only covered in a concise manner. For example night photography, which could be a chapter long is covered in one page. This is what beginners need though; a good explanation of how to best approach a type of photography including the potential mistakes and how to best set your camera to get good photos.

Though not a title that is going to take you from beginner to master, rather it is a wide reference doing exactly as the title suggests. Readers are taken from the ground up to a good understanding of all the areas they need to know to excel at photography.