A Short Course in Canon PowerShot S3 IS Photography book/ebook [Spiral-bound]

Dennis P. Curtin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2006

This book/eBook package is your guide to getting more interesting and creative photos with the 6 megapixel 12x zoom Canon PowerShot S3 IS. (The book also has links to 50 or so animations BUT you need broadband Internet access to play them. They will not play over a dial-up connection.) If you want to learn more about the concepts of photography, this book/ebook is for you. It discusses every camera setting on this amazing camera in a clear, well-illustrated style, but it also does much more. You'll see why and when you use specific settings, not just how to set them. You ll find that this guide helps you quickly master your camera so you ll be getting the kinds of photos you hope for. The book is printed in black & white and has a well-liked spiral binding that lets the book lie flat or be folded back. The accompanying eBook on a CD disc is a printable and searchable full-color version of the same book in Adobe's popular PDF format. It can be read on a PC or Mac using the free Acrobat Reader or any current Web browser. Just some of the things you'll learn are how to take pictures in fully automatic point and shoot mode and how your camera captures digital images; how to play back and manage your images; use buttons, dials, and menus; control image size and quality; shoot continuously, use all of the camera s exposure modes and exposure controls to get photos that show the scene exactly as it is, or as you want to interpret it; using histograms and the RAW format for the highest possible quality; how to control sharpness in your photographs; and how to use focus, depth-of-field, sharpness, softness, and blur creatively. Learn all about light and color and how to use them creatively. Understand how they change throughout the day and seasons, how they re affected by the weather, and how light s direction and quality affects highlights and shadows. See how to set white balance to capture colors the way you see them. Learn how to use lenses creatively when photographing

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

For the past three decades Dennis Curtin has been an editor, author, and publisher in photography and computing. His latest books on digital cameras and digital photography have been widely praised for their quality and simplicity. They have been used by most of the armed services, many police departments, and even some camera companies to train specialists in photography. On the publishing side, Dennis was editor-in-chief of one of Time-Warner's educational divisions and also held similar positions in Prentice-Hall's technology and engineering program and Prentice-Hall International. In those roles, he has worked extensively with Ansel Adams and other leading photographers of our generation. In his roles as publisher, editor, and author Dennis has been fortunate to publish or write many best-selling books in photography and computing.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 144 pages
• Publisher: ShortCourses.com; 1 edition (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1928873723
• ISBN-13: 978-1928873723
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,542,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a valuable purchase, August 31, 2007

By 

L. Satin "book and CD fanatic" (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Short Course in Canon PowerShot S3 IS Photography book/ebook (Spiral-bound)

I recently bought this item despite the negative reviews posted previously by two other purchasers. I think these two reviews were not fair to the book. First, it is not the case that the book discusses the RAW format, and second, an eBook was not included with my camera when I purchased it. In fact, both the book and the CD that come with the order are valuable and some of us (still) prefer books. In this case you can have your cake and eat it too. The book covers many key aspects of the features of the Canon 3S IS camera and I think that unless you enjoy reading the small manual that came with the camera, this book will definitely be an asset to you and will facilitate your learning how to use the camera and take better pictures. The illustrations are good and the text is clearly written.

So, if you own a Canon Powershot 3S IS I think you will NOT be disappointed by this book and CD. Yes, it is not cheap, true, but the CD alone is 20 dollars from their web site. The book is nicely done.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No Index-What Was He Thinking?, December 22, 2007

By 

Southern Gentleman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Short Course in Canon PowerShot S3 IS Photography book/ebook (Spiral-bound)

Nobody should ever write a technical manual without a thorough, alphabetical index at the end. If I want to find out about making movies with this camera, I should be able to find it in seconds by looking up the word Movie. No such luck here. The author includes what he calls an "index" on page vi, but it's actually just a table of contents, organized by page number. So, in order to answer my movie question, I have to scan through fifty entries until I come to "Capturing Movies". Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I was also irritated by the section on Image Stabilization, a feature of the camera that Canon thought important enough to include in the name of the camera (the IS part). The author tells us how to select one of the three settings for image stabilization, but gives us no clue why you would want one setting over another. I found out by reading the Canon supplied manual. Why did I buy this book again?

This manual does have some good sections and it contains many useful tips (if you can find them). However,for the whopping price of forty dollars, I would expect a much more detailed, professionally organized product than this. More of a glorified pamphlet than a user's manual.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good book, September 9, 2007

By 

M K "McNizer" (Lebanon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Short Course in Canon PowerShot S3 IS Photography book/ebook (Spiral-bound)

A very good book that taught me a lot about not only the Powershot S3 IS but also about digital photography. Put in a very systematic way and an easy to grasp way. I love the CD and their animation web site although a bit slow.
I recommend this book highly because the original user guide only explains the functions of each option. This book however explains why and what to do with that function.