Mastering Digital Wedding Photography (Paperback)

by James Karney (Author)
Key Phrases: slide list, classic albums, work queues, Mastering Digital Wedding Photography, Mark Ridout, Bibble Pro (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Mastering Digital Wedding Photography serves as a practical guide to the unique art, craft, and business of wedding photography in the digital realm. Succeeding as a wedding photographer requires more than the ability to take excellent pictures under pressure. You must also develop a solid business and marketing plan that makes you stand out from the crowd in this highly competitive industry. This book addresses each of these fundamental skills. You will conquer hands-on techniques for the shooting of documentary events, making great portraits quickly, and maximizing the quality of your images after they have been captured. You'll also cover the essential topics of workflow and file management and important marketing techniques that will expand your services and grow your business. Whether you are a novice photographer, a seasoned professional adding weddings to your assignment list, or a film photographer transitioning to the digital realm, Mastering Digital Wedding Photography will help you develop the skills you need to capture the magic of each wedding you photograph.

About the Author
James Karney has over 30 years experience as an award-winning professional photographer and teacher. He started as a wedding apprentice in high school and has worked as a photojournalist, medical photographer, studio photographer, and served four years as a US Marine Corps photographer. He developed and taught the 18-month photography certificate program at South Georgia Tech. He is an accomplished computer journalist, whose work has appeared in PC Magazine, Windows Magazine, Computer Shopper, and Internet World. His books include The Official Photodex Guide to ProShow, Mastering Digital Wedding Photography (Named a Book of the Year by Shutterbug Magazine), the Golden-Lee bestseller Upgrade and Maintain Your PC, The Power of CorelDRAW, and the Microsoft Press Training Kit for A+ Certification. He is a graduate of the US Navy Photographic School, and holds a bachelors degree in Communications from Excelsior College as well as a master of science in Computer Technology from Nova Southeastern University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (June 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598633295
• ISBN-13: 978-1598633290
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #333,405 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #63 in

  Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Professional

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for beginners, July 3, 2007

By	Bakari "Wedding & Event Photographer, Mac User" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

I generally like books from the Thomson's digital photography series. Their books are typically lucid, well illustrated, and informative. Karney's book fits well into the Thomson series. He brings his expert, professional knowledge to the craft of wedding photography, focusing primarily on the technical aspects of the profession.

But keep in mind Karney's book is a general guide about wedding photography. If you already have such a book, you probably won't learn too much different in this one. He introduces the basics of choosing camera and software related equipment, setting up and carrying out a wedding shoot, and processing the photos after you've shot the wedding.

Specific chapters include: Equipment Matters, Computers and Software (main focus on PC and Windows users. No Mac examples present), Setting Up a Website, Getting Ready for the Big Day, Making Creative and Fun (this section could be expanded), and Proofing, Selling, and Printing.

He primarily shares and explains the tools he uses, such as iView Media Pro iView MediaPro 3 (Win/Mac) and Photodex ProShow. He doesn't delve into the latest popular software like Adobe Lightroom Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 Win/Mac or Apple's Aperture Apple Aperture 1.5. But the workflow process he introduces could apply to almost any digital management system.

The book is well illustrated and even contains a few useful camera tutorials that every photography should either know about or learn. In fact, it would be great to see Karney write an entire book of these types of tutorials.

Cons: The book is lacking in a few areas. I felt he should have spent more time on photo technique and style. You will certainly need to check out other books on this subject. And many of the photos included in the book, while very nice, don't always illustrate the points he's making on a particular page. For example, all the tutorials could have used photos to illustrate what he is instructing readers to do. I also think he could have included more about how Photoshop actions useful to wedding photographers. PS actions are huge time savers for anyone in the business. And finally, the business aspects wedding photography are not well introduced in this book, but again you can find more information in other books about this topic. Check out Best Business Practices for Photographers

Overall, though, the book is one of many that a serious beginning photographer should read. I've read better ones than this, but I do appreciate the information and experience Karney shares in his book. I highly suggest getting this or a similar book if you're just starting out in the profession and you're looking for ideas and suggestions from a pro.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mastering Digital Wedding Photography, October 6, 2007

By	S. C. Skinner (Macomb, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There is a lot of good information for the beginning photographer getting into the wedding business. I like the way that the wedding day is broken into segments and details what the photographer and crew need to do to stay on top of the event. I would like to see more alternative programs or methods to accomplish the finishing touches. The book compares iview and lightroom and gave good coverage to both. There was limited coverage to the use of the internet to share photos. The mention of fotofusion as an alternative to using photoshop for collage layouts is good advice.
There are some typos in the book but they do not take away from the overall message in the book. I am now just getting back into wedding photography after an absence of several years. The book has been great in detailing how the art of the wedding photographer has changed.
I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get an in depth overview of wedding photography as an occupational choice.

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, January 25, 2009

By	James Andrion (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Teaches the beginning wedding photographer much of what they need to know to break into the business of wedding photography.