Customer Reviews

Real World Digital Photography (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two thumbs up! I loved this book. Like a movie with subplots, Real World Digital Photography can be read and appreciated on many levels. It appears that the authors intend for it to be all things for all photographers, and in my opinion they've succeeded as well as can be expected. But if the book has one "focus", it would probably be for the experienced digital SLR user, and for the film SLR user who is considering making the conversion.

You can just use it as a reference book for questions about lenses, filters, white balance, metering, or practically any other photography subject - whether film or digital. However, many will prefer to read it cover-to-cover, even at 700 pages. The flow of the book is aided by innovative and intuitive approaches for the explanation of countless topics, including the comparison of the destructive effects of "over-editing" to too much sanding on a wood project. And the authors aren't afraid to voice their opinions about the benefits (or lack thereof) of Photoshop plug-ins, nor are they hesitant to make bold predictions - such as the forecast that tiff might eventually replace the psd format.

Every step along the way, the authors illustrate the differences between digital and traditional photography, which can give you a better understanding of photography in general. For example, the five-page analysis of the similarities and differences between film grain and digital noise provided a great platform for understanding both. The ten-page explanation of the ramifications of digital cameras' CCD's being smaller than a 35mm film frame provides a thorough understanding of lenses in general. The breadth of the book is, well, breathtaking, with every conceivable topic being covered -- from the authors' opinions on the best way to use histograms to artistic ideas for composition of your pictures to recommendations on which type of camera bag to purchase! Whew!

Speaking of histograms, a three-page section reporting Photoshop co-creator Thomas Knoll's opinions about the ideal histogram was pretty profound information that I've never seen anywhere else. For me, at least, this was worth the price of the entire book.

Most of the last 200 pages cover photo editing using Photoshop. I would describe these 200 pages as "meaty". There are no trendy Photoshop tricks here -- just solid photo editing approaches that are worthwhile for even the most serious Photoshop user. I enjoyed many of the authors' fresh viewpoints and approaches to essential digital photography editing. This section is probably too serious to constitute an introduction to Photoshop. Instead, photographers who are considering purchasing Photoshop for the first time could review these pages for examples of what the program can do.

If you're currently using a film SLR and you're thinking about making the move to digital, this book is a must. It gives you all the information you'll need to make the right decision on whether to go for a "point and shoot" or an SLR, and which features you might want. It might, in fact, cause you to decide to keep you film-based SLR and buy a digital "point and shoot" camera. Even if this book were to make you decide against making the digital conversion, I feel certain you'll gain a much better understanding of your film camera as a result of the in-depth film vs. digital comparisons.

Dennis Chamberlain
Adobe Certified Expert - Photoshop CS

Marvelous! This book is encyclopedic in size and content. However, it presents the material in an easy-to-read style with a multitude of pictures, and with more pictures on the companion web site. I enjoyed reading it and gained much new information on the technology - digital photography basics from the camera thru file-handling to editing, managing files, printing and storage.

The chapters on editing are quite long, appropriately, for this discusses the "digital darkroom", the important difference from conventional photography. I have seen other books focused on material which is presented here in one or two chapters. But those chapters are long enough and detailed enough they could have been separate books. With all the material in one book the information is cross-referenced to integrate the various technologies into a cohesive whole that leads to making of better pictures, whether that be on the Internet or as prints. The book is divided into four sections: 1] Essentials; 2] Techniques; 3] Digital Darkroom; and 4]Output, Mange and Present. There are 4 chapters ranging from 12 to 112 pages. The Companion Web Site provides the pictures shown in the book so the reader may practice the editing techniques presented.

This book provides information on photographic equipment, software and techniques for use by a wide range of users. It covers cameras which are entry-level, deluxe point-and-shoot, "prosumer" and professional. While acknowledging that the basics of photography are the same for film and digital equipment, it identifies the differences in the digital camera and digital photography and discusses them in detail. The information is more than is needed by the user of an entry-level camera but the concepts of camera operation are useful for all and apprise of features in better cameras that might make one's photos better.

There is a chapter on how A Digital Camera Works. This discusses: lenses, fixed, zoom, interchangeable, and special; the viewfinder and the LCD; the shutter, including the delay needed for the camera to process light data and means to compensate for the delay where needed; the sensor including the size and quantity of the pixels and the size and type of sensor; and flash units both on and off the camera.

The chapter on Buying A Digital Camera ha a lot of information on various types of cameras and provides a guide for the purchaser. It recommends a few sites, www.dpreview.com, www.photo.net, and www.fredmiranda.com and the Companion Site includes specific cameras in each price range. The sensor on digital cameras is smaller than the 35 mm film frames. For the same lens a digital camera has about 2/3 the effective focal length. This is one reason the digital camera lenses are "wide angle".

There is a good explanation of the different image file formats, RAW on top-of-the line- cameras, TIFF and finally JPEG. Cameras usually store the date in JPEG format since the files are much smaller. But this is because the JPEG protocol "compresses" the file using various algorithms and in the process losses some of the data. Then as the JPEG images are edited and resaved further image data is lost. Therefore, it is desirable to work with non-lossy formats such as TIFF and PSD, converting to JPEG when needed for final presentation.

The heart of this book is in Chapters 10 and 11, 196 pages covering image-editing techniques, the "digital darkroom". The author uses the tools in Adobe's Photoshop CS [expensive] while stating that many of the editing features are included in the lower cost Adobe Elements 2. In following her discussions I found that Elements did not have all the tools she was using. However, I still found her approaches and techniques quite usable.

Years ago I dabbled in using a darkroom for film work. It was difficult and non-forgiving. It was a struggle to avoid stained fingers and carrying that chemical smell outside the darkroom. The Digital Darkroom is much more powerful, easier to use and easily correctable. Her guidance will be very useful to me as I manipulate my digital images. An interesting point she makes is that digital photography consumes more time than film - because we become involved in all of the steps, especially the editing. I find that quite true. With a film camera I bring the film in for developing. In a day or two I return to get the prints. With digital I first edit the images, cropping and changing exposure, perhaps even eliminating some part of the original image. I then send the files for printing by a service - either online or in a local store. I find these prints better than I could produce on my own printer, although the new, more expensive printers, some using 6 colors, are said to do a wonderful job.

The book explains the difficulty in getting the eye's picture into the camera, onto the computer monitor and onto prints. Each of these creates colors differently and it is a wonder we can come as close as we do to having the pictures on the monitor and in prints so close to "our reality". There are procedures for improving the quality of the images on each of these devices. Also, she discusses a number of alternatives for sharing the digital images - e-mails, web sites, slide shows, projectors as well as prints. The final chapter discusses the saving and management of the image files - both the raw and edited images. Onsite, offsite, hard drive, tape, CDs and DVDs are all discussed.

It was a chore to go through this very big book. But it was enjoyable for the eye-opening information it presented. If you are serious about digital photography this would be a good book to have. I will continue to use it.

This is the best single, overall volume on digital photography that I've seen.

Equipment selection, composition, lighting, camera settings, and post-production are all covered in detail.

This is not by any means a "For Dummies" book. If you are seriously into photography and are willing to spend the time, this book is an excellent resource.

The post-production material is very much centered around Photoshop. If are are interested in using another program, much of this material will be of limited use to you.

I have lots of experience with film photography. I have been
buying books and trying to make the transition to digital
slr photography. Tim Grey finally wrote the book that I need.
It really fills the bill. If you already have the concepts
of film speeds, shutter speeds, aperature etc. down pat, this
is the book you need to help transfer that knowledge to the
digital world.

I went to a large bookstore today looking for a basic book on digital photography I could buy for my newbee sister so she could get some real insights into the camera I bought for her Christmas present. I'd looked through about fifteen different books and they all sucked until I looked at this one. I started paging through the beginning of the book and I thought, "This is perfect! It gives basic but rigorous descriptions of all the fundamentals that I would teach my sister myself if I lived near her." Then I started looking over the rest of the book and to my amazement, I found chapters written at a depth that even I was interested in reading (look up some of my digital photography on www.dpreview.com) and I ordered a copy of it for myself. I am now about to order a copy of it for my sister!

Title: Real World Digital Photography, 2nd Edition
Author: Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan, and Tim Grey
Publisher: Peachpit Press
ISBN: 0-321-22372-1
Pages: 678
Published: November, 2003
Reviewer: Robert Saucier
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Real World Digital Photography, 2nd Edition is solid information for those just getting into digital photography with point-and-shoot cameras, those with a bit more experience, or those who are stepping up to digital SLR (dSLR) cameras from the world of 35mm film.

The authors take the reader through a wealth of information; from how digital cameras work to how to set up a "digital darkroom."

Real World Digital Photography is divided into four major topic areas:

"Digital Photography Essentials," "Digital Photography Techniques," "The Digital Darkroom," and "Output, Manage, and Present."

"Digital Photography Essentials," takes up almost one-third of the book. This section offers an introduction to digital photography for the new or soon-to-be digital photographer. It covers the history of digital photography, jargon, how digital cameras work, how to buy a digital camera, and what accessories are "must-haves."

"Digital Photography Techniques," the shortest of the four sections, covers the creative act of creating a photograph after first detouring into some technical aspects that the reader needs to consider prior to snapping the shutter.

"The Digital Darkroom" and "Output, Manage, and Present" make up the last half of the book. These sections deal with improving your photos after shooting and how to best store and show those photos.

There is a wealth of techniques for adjusting visual elements (color, contrast, sharpness) as well as performing editing tricks such as removing unwanted elements or applying creative plug-ins to create a work of art from what might have been "just" a nice photograph.

Storage of old photos has moved from the shoebox to the spindle and the pros and cons of long-term storage solutions are covered here. There's also discussion of planning for changes in storage media - a real concern for the prolific shutterbug!

Overall, the authors present information simply but with plenty of detail. Complex topics are described as simply as possible and the information is presented in a progressive manner. Readers with more experience will be able to make use of the table of contents and the index to quickly move to topics of interest.

I'm not new to either film or digital photography but I appreciated the photography "refresher course" provided in chapters 6 and 7. These chapters provide the meat regarding technique in composition, framing, and lighting. Unfortunately, this technique section is the lightest area covered.

I also thought the details and methods described in the editing chapters were fantastic although geared to Photoshop users. While many of the editing processes could be duplicated through trial-and-error, offering more specific tips for using Paint Shop or one of the other lower-priced editors would've been a big plus. After all, someone using a one or two hundred-dollar point-and-shoot probably wouldn't spend the $649.00 to buy Photoshop.

There are few shortcomings to be found here, especially considering the age of this edition - almost two and one-half years old as of this review. My only real grumble is that, while recommendations on software tools were more than adequate, little to no mention was made of freeware tools such as Google's Picasa (an image management application) or The GIMP (a Photoshop-like image editor).

Real World Digital Photography is a definite winner loaded with excellent information for both new and veteran photographers. It's definitely earned a place on my bookcase!

This book not only covers settings for the camera but takes you into saving, organizing and most important, into editing, particularly with Photoshop CS. This is not sugar coated obvious stuff but really gets into the pros and cons and the whys of their recommendations. Great for ex-film users and for the serious amateur.

Excellent, up to date and very well written book covering digital photography from A to Z.

Well-written means that in our family, where one of us has been a photojournalist for a very long time and the other is just coming into her own as a digital fine art photographer, we both are learning from it.

My wife tells me that some of the books that I bring home make her head hurt. This one she says is consistently approachable, informative and with three authors offering their insights, flexible.

It covers a huge amount of territory, it is a very large book, and it will appeal to both novices and those of us who think we are "in the know" but still want to learn more.

The basics are presented in such a readable way that even if you are sure that you know all that stuff, it's still enjoyable and informative. You can read the book straight through or just hit the chapters on what interests you at the moment and find very useful tips that should make your picture making life easier.

Covering as much ground as it does in a constantly changing field, it does not have all the answers. What it does do is refer you to other books that are more narrowly defined and cover a single aspect in more detail when the authors feel that more explanation is necessary.

Anyone who picks it up is bound to learn something new and worthwhile.

Having undertaken a number of photography courses and worked in digital for some years I was not expecting this 'prescribed text' for a Uni course to be adding anything to what I already owned.

I was wrong, this one is the best guide to photography and digital I have seen and will help any aspiring photographer achieve their aims.

I used this book as a text book during a digital photography class at Rice University. It guides you from very basic information about both photography and digital photography, through very advanced techniques for getting the most out of your camera and images. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants begin, or improve their digital photography and photoshop skills. afterall, everyone know that girls only like guys with skills.

photoshop skills, photography skills....