Real World Digital Photography (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

by Katrin Eismann (Author), Sean Duggan (Author), Tim Grey (Author)

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

Whether you're just making the transition from a lifetime of traditional photography or are looking to bring your digital photography skills in line with today¿s market, if you're serious about digital photography, you need this book. In the four years since the first edition was published, just about every aspect of digital photography has changed (often radically) -- and it's all covered in these pages. Organized in four major sections¿Digital Processing Essentials, Digital Processing Techniques, The Digital Darkroom, and Output and Presentation -- the focus here is on getting great pictures and spectacular printed output through a combination of smart techniques and the right equipment. As with all of the titles in the Real World series, the authors here realize that this entails learning not just techniques but the concepts behind them. For a professional-level understanding of the digital photography process -- from how a digital camera works to advice on buying cameras and accessories, choosing hardware and software, downloading and outputting images, and more -- this is the place to turn.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 712 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 2 edition (November 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321223721
• ISBN-13: 978-0321223722
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 85 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

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.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It doesn't get any better than this, May 17, 2004

By	Dennis L. Chamberlain (Corrales, New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

34 of 34 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.