Customer Reviews

The National Geographic Field Guide to Photography: Digital

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I totally disagree with those who call this book too basic. On the contrary, this book assumes you already have film photography concepts. It's a concise guide to digital photography and focuses on how to make a transition from film photography to digital. It does not, for example, tell you how to buy a digital camera. Instead it just dicusses the important features of a digital camera (as well as scanners). This is not a book that weighs 20 pounds which you'll never read. It's small and can be carried with you when you need to consult it.

Why would you want to consult it? Well, it does have a lot of useful information. Things like what to do with ISO settings, how to back up your image files, how to make effective edits in a photo-editing program, how to print. This is really more of a tips book for the advanced beginner. It also features three National Geographic photographers and talks about how they made the transition to digital.

I like this book because it's concise, to-the-point and practical, and is not pretentious at all, unlike "The Joy of Digital Photography". It may NOT have enough details for the absolutely beginner, and is unlikely to impress those who already know how to set bulb exposure. But it's ultimately a book about how to leverage the advantages of digital photography in order to create good pictures.

I have to wonder if some of these other guys who rated this book low are just computer geeks or what. I am new to digital photography having just bought a Digital Rebel and this book really opened my eyes to the possibilities of digital photography without having to wade through a big heavy book. Plus there are some National Geographic photographers who talk about their use of digital and that was very interesting. I have already put stickies in a lot of the book for favorite techniques that I want to work on.

I found this to be a very inspirational book. It really helped me understand the possibilities of digital photography and what was really important. There are so many people who know a little about digital photography but act like they are experts even though they give misinformation. I figure if National Geographic thought enough of this book to put it together and with the author an editor of big photo magazines, this should be pretty accurate. I thought it was.

The book seems aimed at people like me, photographers who want to master digital photography but don't want a degree in computer science. Plus there is some really great photography in here from some top digital photographers.

Sheppard's book is a great introduction to digital photography, especially given his aim of treating the subject as the latest photographic technology, rather than something exclusive to the computer or digital world. The book is replete with examples of how digital cameras are expanding the possibilities for photographers and allowing them to ensure they're getting the shots the want. Central to Sheppard's treatment here is his discussion of the digital darkroom techniques. Sheppard correctly indicates that the digital darkroom should be seen as an extension of the traditonal darkroom, affording us new tools to try and achieve the results we are looking for. Instructively, Sheppard makes reference to Ansel Adam's works on prints as representing still many of the aims of digital darkroom work.

Still, the book seems only an introduction. There is very little in-depth discussion of the topics, so this won't be the only book on your shelf. But it certainly should be the first one you read before delving into more in-depth (and generally lacking in an overreaching artistic view) works on photography or digital darkroom techniques. In fact, this book would likely be best incorporated into National Geographic's Photography Field Guide -- with the digital sections hived off into where they are most appropriate in that general guide rather than simply having essentially a digital supplement to the series.

This book was rather disappointing to me. I thought that it would have good tips on how to take certain photos with a digital camera, like out side shots, indoor shots, back lit shots and so on but it had very little of any such advice. It seems to me that this book is more a sales pitch for digital cameras and their versatility. Unless you have no idea how to get started choosing a digital camera or how do use the ?digital darkroom? do not get this book. If you have a basic knowledge of digital cameras or own one all ready and have a basic knowledge of ?digital darkroom? software do not get this book you will all ready know everything that is mentioned.

If you are thinking about buying a digital camera, or if you own one and know absolutely nothing about it, then this may be the book for you. If you already own a digital camera and you're looking to improve your photography skills, then you need something more advanced than this. This book only covers the very basics of digital photography.

The only section I found helpful were some of the tips and tricks cooncerning postprocerssing of images, but that alone would not warrant purchasing this book.

ok, the quality of the printing, the images, the layout, the paper used are all excellent as you'd expect from a Nat Geo book.

problem is the written content which runs from the most basic:

"All digital cameras use image sensors to capture pictures"

to the very advanced (this was found under the heading "Tools of the Digital Darkroom", subsection: "Duplicate Layers", discussing tricks in Photoshop):

"To fix a washed out image, duplicate the photo so there are two idential layers. The Pallette will have a mode setting (it will say Normal at first): change it to Miltiply (ignore all the other choices), and the image will intensify as if by magic."

having used Photoshp for a while, i tried to follow most of his examples. i couldn't. he skipped steps that made that impossible for me.

all the time he seemed to either be speaking below me, as if i had no idea what "Digital" meant, or was talking as if i was very well versed in all aspects of it.

and why it's called a "Field Guide" is beyond me. it has few tips for taking outdoor photos, but once read you wouldn't need to carry this book and refer to them in the field.

yet had lots and lots of discussions about the types of digital equipment you'd use at home.... so, why call it a field guide?

There is one reason why National Geographic choose Rob Sheppard to write this book: he is one of the best digital photo writers out there. He not only knows his stuff, but conveys it in an eays-to-understand manner. No doubt that reading this book will make you a better digital photogapher!

I got this book at the same time as the Nikon D70 Field Guide, and I like the other one better but this one is very good, too. It's more basic and doesn't pertain to any particular camera, but it's good if you're REALLY a beginner and need some place to start. After I read this I enjoyed the D70 book even more. Photography is becoming very fun for me thanks to books like this.

This book is for the very beginner. The only part that I found useful was the post processing. There is enough in the post processing that warrants buying the book.