Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography 2.0: Taking, Making, Editing, Storing, Printing, and Sharing Better Digital Images Featuring Adobe Photoshop® Elements® [Paperback]

Rick Sammon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2007

“Clear, concise, lively, well-organized and opinionated.”—Popular Photography and Imaging

In this thorough revision of his best-selling guide, Rick Sammon covers all the steps in the digital photographic process. The book teaches basic technical picture taking and the art of photography, plus introductory and advanced digital techniques.

Orchestrating over 1,000 images into easy-to-read lessons, Sammon uses an approach of "learning to see and seeing to learn" with pairs of images, software screen shots, and the best photographs from his own shooting assignments.

New for this edition, all the image editing tips feature the popular Adobe Photoshop® Elements®; file format discussions now include working with Camera RAW files; and more than 170 new color images have been added. 1000 color photographs

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rick Sammon is the author of the Complete Guide to Digital Photography 2.0, Exploring the Light, and other books. He travels widely on photography assignments and to give his popular workshops and seminars. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 2 edition (January 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393329143
• ISBN-13: 978-0393329148
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Computers & Technology > Digital Photography & Video > Digital Printing
  • #9 in Books > Computers & Technology > Digital Photography & Video > Adobe Photoshop Elements
  • #50 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Printing

More About the Author

Rick Sammon has published 31 books, incluidng Rick Sammon's Digital Photography Secrets, Face to Face, Exploring the Light and Rick Sammon's Pocket Guide to Travel Photography.

Rick writes for PCPhoto, Outdoor Photographer and Layers magazine.

Rick hosts photography and Photoshop shows on kelbytraining.com .
Rick gives more than a dozen photography workshops (including private workshops) and presentations around the world each year. He also presents at Photoshop World, which Rick says is a 'blast.'

Rick is also the author of the Canon Digital Rebel XT lessons on the Canon Digital Learning Center. He is also a Canon Explorer of Light.

When asked about his photo specialty, Rick says, 'My specialty is not specializing.'

See www.ricksammon.com for more information.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable but not completely satisfying read., June 11, 2007

By 

A photographer (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography 2.0: Taking, Making, Editing, Storing, Printing, and Sharing Better Digital Images Featuring Adobe Photoshop® Elements® (Paperback)

I'm giving this book four stars based almost solely on Rick Sammon's enthusiasm. He is obviously a person who enjoys what he does and likes interacting with others. His writing was lively enough so I read the book in one afternoon. The bottom line problem with this guide is the same bottom line problem I'm finding in all digital photography guides I've encountered. The first thing they want to do is teach you a little basic photography knowledge and the next thing they do is tell you how to use Photoshop tricks to create "artful photos" that, in effect, minimizes the need for knowledge of basic photography. Photography is more than tricks and "secrets of the pros" and Photoshop is a fine tool for photographers to augment their work. Unfortunately, most digital photography teaching vehicles today emphasize the ghastly and tasteless manipulations in Photoshop and fail to emphasize learning basic camera technique. To Rick Sammon's credit, he does provide a measure of how to use tools available for in-camera control as opposed to relying solely on Photoshop corrections and manipulations in post production. But when the chapters on the various Photoshop tools and manipulations come into play, it's still a lot of ghastly and tasteless trickery that takes center stage.

The higher quality, professional and advanced amateur digital cameras that are available today are so sophisticated, it's difficult to really screw up your pictures if you have a basic grasp of photography and how to use the camera's features. Despite this, a lot of people are screwing up their pictures in post production by relying on photo editing software. Sammon's examples in the Photoshop Elements portions of this book point this out very clearly. The "before Photoshop" photos are often preferable to the "after Photoshop" photos. I'm not speaking of basic operations such as minor color corrections, cropping, sharpening, etc. I'm speaking of the use of filters and borders and the cut-and-paste collages that Sammon often refers to as "artistic" which are, in fact, perfect examples of over-processed pseudo-art.

I'm not really picking on Rick Sammon here. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I've enjoyed Sammon's writing and photography in other publications as well. It's just that we really don't need more people playing around with their computers to create the photographic equivalent of black velvet paintings.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best!, February 16, 2007

By 

Danny Rako "Danny Rako" (Pembroke Pines, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography 2.0: Taking, Making, Editing, Storing, Printing, and Sharing Better Digital Images Featuring Adobe Photoshop® Elements® (Paperback)

Lots of people claim to be digital photography experts and will sell you a book. However, Rick Sammon actually IS the expert. This book is written in a down to earth manner but addresses photographers at all levels and makes some more difficult concepts very easy to understand with a laid back approach. Part of the magic in this very large and all-inclusive book (almost 500 pages) is that Sammon has "been there" and "done that." The author has traveled far and wide and is considered an expert in travel and wildlife photography. Many of his shots are used to illustrate key concepts throughout the book and are presented in vibrant and accurate color. The book comes with a tutorial CD as well. All in all, this book is a great value and great addition to the libraries of photographers of all skill levels.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps for Beginners, June 18, 2009

By 

Ricardo (New York City) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography 2.0: Taking, Making, Editing, Storing, Printing, and Sharing Better Digital Images Featuring Adobe Photoshop® Elements® (Paperback)

I may be judging this book a bit harshly by giving it only 3 stars.

The reason I say that is because I feel that it covers a lot of ground but never seems to go beyond the basics. Whether or not this is a good thing you will have to judge for yourself.

Given that I've been involved in photography for over 40 years, I probably should never have purchased the book. However, I would certainly recommend it to someone with very little experience who is interested in learning more.

I've read a lot of Rick Sammon's articles over the years and he is one of the most enthusiastic proponents of digital photography that you will ever come across.

Just be forewarned. If you are an experienced photographer with no need to review the basics, this book is not for you. However, if you are new to digital photography and want to improve your skills, this would be a very good source of knowledge and inspiration.