Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
83 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Generally Useful, But Too Broad a Mark, May 28, 2001
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: graphicartists, 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.
|
|
|
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It doesn't get any better than this, May 17, 2004
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
|
|
|
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Photography, digital imaging, and Photoshop rolled into one, January 11, 2001
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.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Robert Hirsch
by Louis D. Giannetti
