The Digital Photography Book: The Step-by-Step Secrets for How to Make Your Photos Look Like the Pros, Volume 1 by Scott Kelby

The Digital Photography Book Scott Kelbyby Anonymous

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June 25, 2009: Scott has written a very fine book. I refer to this book often, have recommended it to friends, and have purchased it for gifting. The intended readers are AMPs -- that broad range of photog buffs from AMateur to near-Professional. Beginners may benefit from the book but are apt to need additional self-study of basic info on ISO, white balance, focusing, f-stops, and similar mechanics. As stated by the author, this book was not written to explain these mechanics but how to use them to get great shots. Each of the 11 chaps treats a general subject (e.g., Chap 4: Shooting Landscapes like a Pro), and each page within the chap describes a technique to improve your shots (e.g., p. 68: Where to Put the Horizon Line). The explanations are clear and concise, and better yet, each page has a crisp, colored photo illustrating the discussion. Chap 11 brings together ideas from the previous chaps and gives recipes on how to get The Shot. The color photos are beautiful, comprising shots of people, autos, flowers, water-ways and such, and the detailed info is rich (Scotts talents are well displayed here). I love this chap, and know it will increase your creative juices. Sprinkled throughout the book, Scott describes and recommends pieces of gear such as ballheads, cable releases, lens filters, and so forth. And he gives sound reasons why you should add certain pieces of gear to your photog inventory. In a number of recommendations, Scott lists gear prices for folks with low, medium, or high budgets (humorously describing high-budget folks as: doctors, senators, and venture capitalist -who do not really have a budget!). While it is fun to window-shop, some careful thought is needed here on what price gear you need to purchase to truly improve your skills. For example, a high-end ballhead, described as Really Right on p. 9, is listed for $455 - not the tripod plus ballhead, just the ballhead! Candidly, I got sticker shock! Let me explain by a personal example: I recently enjoyed a shoot at Yosemite Park using a tripod-plus-ballhead that totaled $140! Now, would I like that $455 ballhead? You bet! Would it have improved my Yosemite shots (over using my $140 rig)? Don't think so. From this AMPs perspective, I did note a caveat: On p. 182 Scott debunks the current sales trend to push large Megapixel (Mp) cameras. Technically, what he describes about linking Mp to desired photo print size is true (e.g., a 4-5 Mp camera can yield an 8-by-10 inch print). Practically, however, this is seldom the case; as AMPs we often need cropping to improve our shots. A personal example in is order: Recently on a hike in Yosemite Park -- on a gloomy day -- the sun briefly peered between clouds and shone on Yosemite Falls. I had scant time to whip-out my 8 Mp camera, judge the available light, choose an aperture value, focus, and shoot. Later upon careful review I noted that this somewhat-standard shot would blossom into a great keeper upon cropping from 8 Mp to 4 Mp. Should I have been more skillful? I suppose. But by cropping I now have a great 8-by-8 inch photo of Yosemite Falls. (Good enough for bragging rights!) Lesson learned: AMPs may not always take such great shots that every Mp contributes to the photo. My advice: purchase a larger Mp camera, say 10 Mp, and while learning your craft, be able to crop as needed. Having said that, caveats for this book are very, very few, while the advice, tips, and techniques are abundant. Summary: Very Fine Book!

Simple title, tells exactly what the book is aboutby Rclseaman

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June 13, 2009: I especially enjoyed this book. It was clearly written, with humor, and had reams of very practical and useful pointers on how to improve my

photography. I did not contain a lot of theory, just basic how to get better pictures. This is a very good book for beginners as well as advanced amateurs.