Customer Reviews

Digital Photography: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks (Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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There are definitely better books out there. There are several great pictures in the book but the author leaves out one of the most important parts: the settings used to take the photo (lens, f-stop, etc.)For basic information check out Scott Kelby's The Digial Photography Book and for detailed info The Better Photo Guide to Digital Photography is great. It gives you quick lessons as well as all the settings used to shoot the pictures discussed in the book. Again the book is okay but I feel there are a lot better ones out there.

Like other excellent titles in Wiley's Visual series, Rob Sheppard's book on digital photography is well organized and makes extremely good use of photos to illustrate techniques described in the text. In some ways, the title of the book may do it a disservice: don't think that you will only get 100 tips; there are tips and tricks lodged within the 100 labeled tips. Also, the book provides sound advice for taking better photos, be they digital or not.

In this book I saw great explanations of fundamental photographic information such as WHAT METERS REALLY DO (Tip 22) -- and why it really is important to understand. In the past I've often drawn blank stares when I've tried to explain this topic, and Sheppard (with the help of some great photos) does it simply and succinctly in a way that most people would be able to grasp. In similar manner, more advanced topics are handled such that photographers are encouraged to stretch their abilities to new levels.

Readers who like to flip open a book in random places will really enjoy Digital Photography: Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks, 3rd Edition, as it is definitely not necessary to read through methodically starting at page one. You can just crack open the book, pick a tip, any tip, and give it a try the next time you are out with a camera or sitting at a computer with some photo files to play with.

As is customary in Wiley's Visual series, each tip is assigned a Difficulty Level so the readers has some ideas of what they are getting into. The book covers a broad range of topics beyond the fundamentals of taking good photos. While not getting too deep into the fine points, space is devoted to basic digital editing for taking advantage of photo-improvement techniques that were unavailable when darkrooms were full of nasty chemicals. That said, this isn't a book of advanced photo-editing techniques using Photoshop CS3, but it does a dandy job of demonstrating some of the amazing improvements that can be made using Photoshop Elements.

Sheppard gets bonus points for not assuming that everyone uses a PC; key combinations are given for Macs as well as PCs. Just because Mac users are substantially smarter than a typical shoulder roast and can usually translate instructions given for PCs, it is nice that we are not taken for granted as happens in many books on digital editing.

Maybe after taking some great photos and then doing some digital editing to bring out their strong points and minimize any flaws, readers will want to explore some of the many ways that they can make use of their images. Sheppard doesn't let them down here either, as several Tips and Tricks are devoted to various ways of sharing photos on the web, DVDs, and in print.

If this book isn't worth the price of ten cups of java, I don't know what is. It adroitly covers many of the issues involved with the taking, improving, and use of digital photos and does so in ways that are accessible to readers of varied skill levels. It is hard to give a comprehensive review of such a wide ranging book, but I'm quite certain that many people will part with about twenty bucks if they visit a bookstore and flip through the pages. And most of these people will shortly find themselves understanding something that was fuzzy in the past, or trying new ways of taking photos, or getting a little bolder with their digital editing, or trying new ways of sharing their photos. If so, buying and working through Digital Photography: Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks, 3rd Edition will have been money well spent.

MyMac.com Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Originally Published at http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=3087

This book is excellent with respect to presentation. All glossy printing, and good organization. However, it is certainly "simplified", too simplified for my taste. It is based upon Photoshop Elements 4, and I have Photoshop Elements 8. Simply following instructions was not always possible due to difference in versions 4 and 8. With insufficient detailed description of what the program was actually trying to accomplish, it took some experimenting to figure out how to do some of the things shown in the book. Still it is useful and interesting.

I read it from one end to another in an evening (although I know that's not how you are supposed to use it - I wanted to get an overview). Easy to read, and the pictures are great for actually seeing the right way and the wrong way to do things.

Table of contents looks great for picking the topic relevant to what you are trying to do at the moment (when my camera comes in and I am actually taking pictures!).

Nearly half the book deals with Photoshop Elements rather than the camera itself, so I don't know if I'd recommend it unless that is the editing program you intend to use. Still, many of the concepts in that part of the book, such as work flow, would be applicable to any editing program.

In looking for a book that deals with digital cameras that are more advanced than simple point and shoot, this one seemed to be the most infomative and I enjoyed the many example photos. It went beyond the basics to answer many of the questions I had regaring manual modes, exposure settings, etc. and I enjoyed the visual learning concept.

This 2007 edition is great for beginners to intermediates. 100's of pictures with very good descriptions. One-half the book is geared towards using many of the features of Photoshop Elements. I found it an excellent buy.

This is an excellent book with 103 digital photography tips of varying difficulty.. The first 60 lessons are tips on taking good photos . The last 43 lessons are tips on how to improve your photos using Photoshop Elements 8. As a newcomer to Elements 8 it was most helpful.

I'm torn. I'm not sure what to rate this book, because it's all about where you are at. If you are a pretty savvy, you probably aren't shopping for this book anyway. But, where are you on the beginner scale? I would say that the more "beginner-y" (rather than"intermediate-y") you are the more you'll like it. Because the less you know now, the more tips you will find interesting. There are nice little soundbites/overviews of most photographic subjects. Coming into digital from film, I like it for the post-processing basics more than anything (there are about a third of the book). I bought a used copy, cheap, but I'm not sure it's worth full retail price. A lot of the material is stuff you'll find in any "basic" photography how-to guide--and that's because, of course, it's important, basic stuff to know. Does rather seem more like "100 Important, Basic Photography Concepts" than 'tips' or 'tricks.' I don't love it, but I like. It's well presented, but it's not particularly deep. Still it has it's helpful points. If you aren't doing it already, this books really SHOULD get you off the full auto modes of your camera...and it will get you a little beyond that; and it's really nice that you can just flop it open and read anywhere, in any order. But it doesn't cover any topic in depth...and some of the 100 are a little silly--like the topic that basically just tells you to think positively about your photographic potential or the "tip" to order photo prints online. In short, it does a good job of being what it is. (Some SAMPLE TIP topics are: ISO settings, White Balance settings, Prevent Red Eye, Take Advantage of the Golden Hour, Choose Appropriate Program Mode, Avoid Blown Out Highlights, Use a Tripod, Understanding Focal Length, Bracketing, EXIF data, Shoot Color, Shoot Patterns, Workflow, Protect Original Files, Create a Panorama, Understanding Layers, Size for Printing, Create a Photo book online, Create a slideshow, Create a photo greeting card.)

This book really helps a person understand how to get things done faster and easier with very easy to understand language and with visuals.

I gave several of these books as gifts to friends having little, or casual interest in digital photography. Well received---lots of photo examples hold attention. And the price was right!