Real World Digital Photography [Paperback]

Deke McClelland (Author), Katrin Eismann (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201354020 | ISBN-13: 978-0201354027 | Publication Date: July 8, 1999 | Edition: 1

Once the domain of professional photographers and designers, digital photography is making inroads into businesses everywhere as prices drop and image quality rises. Whether you plan to use digital imagery for fine art, illustration, or documentation--in print or on the Web--Real World Digital Photography is your industrial-strength reference guide to this exciting and evolving technology.

Written by two nationally recognized experts in digital imaging, the book is chock-full of hands-on production techniques designed specifically for working professionals. It also includes advice on how to choose a camera that fits your needs and your budget, a full-color portfolio that beautifully illustrates the creative potential of digital photography, and the accumulated wisdom of artists and others who use the technology in their daily work.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The title of Real World Digital Photography doesn't adequately indicate the scope and sheer practical usefulness of the information within. The book not only gives a clear breakdown of how to choose and use a digital camera, it also covers everything from sound photographic advice (lighting, framing, and cropping) to manipulation of digital images (primarily in Photoshop). This latter section is especially well-written, covering everything necessary for color correction: levels, histograms, the unsharp mask filter--all explained clearly but without an overwhelming amount of detail.

This book is aimed at neither the casual consumer nor the professional digital photographer with $50,000 to spend. Rather, it is perfect for several types of professionals: graphic designers, design students, real estate and insurance agents, and many others. It shows how digital cameras work (what makes both the inner workings and the output differ from that in traditional film cameras); which camera to buy for your needs and budget; and how to take, edit, archive, and store pictures.

Many basic terms get clarified--for example, how JPEG compression works--and there are lots of sidebar tips such as how to progressively downsample an image in a way that preserves the most detail. The book also explains how to print the images on inkjet or dye sub printers. (Did you know not to convert an RGB image to CMYK before sending it to the printer? Let the printer do the conversion.)

A lot of the information and explanations in Real World Digital Photography will still be useful long after the featured cameras are considered yesterday's technology. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Types of cameras and which to buy, how they work, the mechanics of digital imagery, setting up a digital "darkroom" and desktop studio, the basics of good photography, Quicktime VR, digital correction of images, preparing images for print or Web, and archiving digital images.

From the Back Cover

Once the domain of professional photographers and designers, digital photography is making inroads into businesses everywhere as prices drop and image quality rises. Whether you plan to use digital imagery for fine art, illustration, or documentation--in print or on the Web--Real World Digital Photography is your industrial-strength reference guide to this exciting and evolving technology. Written by two nationally recognized experts in digital imaging, the book is chock-full of hands-on production techniques designed specifically for working professionals. It also includes advice on how to choose a camera that fits your needs and your budget, a full-color portfolio that beautifully illustrates the creative potential of digital photography, and the accumulated wisdom of artists and others who use the technology in their daily work.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (July 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201354020
• ISBN-13: 978-0201354027
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,494,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally Useful, But Too Broad a Mark, May 28, 2001

By 

ajw (Central New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Real World Digital Photography (Paperback)

The cover of "Real World Digital Photography" checks off the target audience level as Absolute Beginners, Intermediate, *and* Advanced. That may be the main problem with the book -- while there is a lot of useful information within, it's a bit all over the place and thus won't turn you into an expert at anything. This may be the author's goal, as they declare that their readers are "working professionals" -- those who need to use digital photography in their work: graphic

artists, designers, editors, real estate agents, insurance adjusters, etc. However, it will leave experienced computer users looking to learn more about the Photography aspects of Digital Photography a little bit empty.

I found a few of the authors' choices on organization to be counterintuitive. For instance, a long section on studio lighting in Chapter 8 that gets very advanced very quickly (e.g., comparing photofloods with halogen lamps with HMI lights, using light meters and grey cards) comes before the Essentials of Photography section in Chapter 9. Similarly, a chapter on Immersive Imaging and QuickTime VR -- taking panoramic shots, building interactive object movies -- (Chapter 11) comes before the chapters on Correcting Your Photographs, Preparing Images for Print and The Web, and Archiving Digital Images. You can, of course, always just jump to the section you need.

On the positive side, the book is printed on high quality stock and includes tons of very valuable sample photographs, both in black-and-white and in four sections of color plates. Also, I found a number of valuable tips in the section on Correcting Your Photographs, such as how to use Adobe Photoshop features like the Unsharp Mask and manual image adjustment of "levels" (though the section does not pretend to be a complete manual of Photoshop's features). The authors have devised a useful categorization of camera types: Gadget, Entry-Level, Deluxe Point-and-Shoot, Professional Lite, and Professional. These terms are used helpfully throughout the book to refer to the various kinds of cameras that are available.

For me, the book would have been much more useful had the authors expanded the chapters on photography itself and on manipulation of digital images to help you creat great photos, and less time talking about RAM, storage devices, and hardware; but I think that's because I'm more of a hobbyist/photographer with a lot of computer experience rather than an average computer user who needs to suddenly use digital photography in the workplace. Those users may find this work more valuable. A final note: The book is copyrighted 1999, and so it is a bit dated at this point with its references to prices and camera features.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Photography, digital imaging, and Photoshop rolled into one, January 11, 2001

By 

R. Stephen Gracey (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Real World Digital Photography (Paperback)

I am a newcomer (9 months) to the world of photography, graphic design, digital imaging, and since Christmas, digital photography. I have had a crash course in these subjects because of a new job, as I am now a magazine editor and webmaster with no training in any related topics. I have been frustrated all along the way as I've pieced together the basic concepts about scanning and fought to learn the horridly obscure Adobe tool interfaces of GoLive, PageMaker, and Photoshop. (Hard-core Office user here.)

This book brought it all together for me and made me a true convert to digital cameras. It provides step-by-step principles for anyone who needs things laid out a bit at a time, yet you can choose the chapters that relate to your present needs. For example, since I got a digital camera for Christmas, I skipped the chapters on buying one, and didn't miss out on a thing. But even better, they provide some basics for photography and for digital image correction in Photoshop, which was PRECISELY what I needed right now. If you're a beginner, but a fast, systematic learner, this book's for you.

I loved it, and I'm looking for more books by these two authors. I love their sense of humor and appreciate that they haven't made me feel stupid for not having learned all of this material somewhere else already. They're fun, kind, and supportive--not like that awful Dan Margulis of "Professional Photoshop," who spends as much time panning other professionals and making me feel dumb as he does teaching anything.

71 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digital Photography is the right book at the right time, July 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Real World Digital Photography (Paperback)

The current zoom in digital photography has spawned literally hundreds of thousands of "new" photographers and at the same time lots and lots of questions about this new craft. The &FOTOgraphics department at graphic-design.com has received hundreds of letters with all kinds of questions on how to take better digital pictures. Real World Digital Photography is what we'll be recommending from now on! Deke McClelland and Katrin Eisman have forged what will become the BIBLE of Digital Photography -- with the answers to everyone's questions about this new way of taking pictures. I recommend REAL WORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY to anyone who wants to take their digital camera out of the realm of snapshots and into the world of industrial strength image techniques.