Save 39% Off: Your Camera Loves You: Learn to Love It Back Review &Ratings

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Your Camera Loves You: Learn to Love It Back Review

I just received my copy of "Your Camera Loves You - Learn to Love it Back" today. What a fantastic resource! It's tailored to any skill level, but it's especially useful for someone like me who is a total novice at photography. I don't know how to do much beyond automatic mode, and this makes it easy to significantly improve my photo-taking skills without slogging through my Canon SLR's manual, with all of its dull, tiny, black and white print. Author Khara Plicanic writes in a fun, easy-to-understand and digest manner; she really "gets" what the average person needs out of a photography resource. Plus, the images that accompany the book show stunning "before and afters" that really bring to life why you should make an effort to use your camera beyond auto-mode. Own a digital camera? You want this book. It would also make a great gift for just about anyone!

Your Camera Loves You: Learn to Love It Back Overview

Wait–what!? You're not thrilled with the photos you're getting from your digital camera? The answer isn't a new camera–it's learning to use the one you've got! After all, it's not the camera that takes great photos–it's the person behind it. With Your Camera Loves You: Learn to Love it Back, photographer and instructor Khara Plicanic teaches the basics of photography and digital camera functions that you can apply to any camera, anywhere, any time–answering questions like: What do all those different modes mean and when do I use them? What's a megapixel and why should I care? Follow along with Khara's simple explanations of shutter speed, aperture, and shooting modes to get comfortable handling your camera (even bossing it around a bit!), learn to shoot images that tell a story, and understand the thought process involved in making a great photograph. Along the way you'll learn techniques for improving those yellow dingy photos of your kids' indoor sporting events, fixing exposure on shots that are too dark or too bright, avoiding the dangers of over-cropping, and much more. By the time you're finished, you'll know how to best use the features of whatever camera you already have–whether it's a high-performance DSLR or a basic point-and-shoot camera. Get ready to fall in love with your camera (and photography) all over again! With Your Camera Loves You, you will: • Move beyond "Auto" mode to take advantage of more of your camera's features and settings • Discover that the key to getting great images isn't by using a fancy DSLR but by learning your way around whatever camera you have • Learn from Khara's fun, friendly voice and techno-babble-free explanations how to easily improve your photos And as you learn, share your progress by posting your photos on Flickr.

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Save 63% Off: The Digital SLR Expert Portrait Photography Review &Ratings

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The Digital SLR Expert Portrait Photography Review

My first thought on getting Amazon's promo email for this book is that it is probably redundant over most portrait technique books. This suspicion is heightened by the list of subjects covered in the editorial review, none of which seems unique to digital SLRs, the supposed focus of the book.
BUT WAIT - there is one subject listed I've never, ever seen covered by another book: "weeding photography."
So if you aspire to shoot for the Smith & Hawkins catalog, this is the book for you!

The Digital SLR Expert Portrait Photography Overview

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Save 34% Off: Black and White Digital Photography Photo WorkshopReview & Ratings

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Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop Review

I thought that my photographically-inclined high school kid could get something out of this book, but my husband and I have both found ourselves referring to it in our professional life. Beautiful examples and very cleanly-discussed direction. I really enjoy the tone of the author and the sheer volume of photos to learn from is impressive. "The digital darkroom" is a new thing to a lot of people, but catching on strong as we realize how much flexibility is built into the files if you do it right. This book does a great job of showing you how to put the most into the image in-camera, and then how to push it even further.

Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop Overview

How to create stunning black and white photos in a digital format
Shooting pictures in black and white presents unique challenges for beginners and experienced digital photographers alike. A strong understanding of photography's fundamentals is crucial to capturing great black and white images, and factors such as contrast and lighting are much more integral to black and white photography than to color. Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop teaches digital photographers the skills they need to master black and white photography.
Focuses on the rules of photography and how they apply differently to black and white photography
Offers guidance for properly uploading digital images to a computer
Explains insider tips and tricks for using Photoshop and Lightroom to successfully enhance black and white images

Black and white photography presents different challenges than color photography. In Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop, photographers learn how to identify great opportunities for black and white photographs and how to turn those opportunities into stunning monochrome images they can be proud to display. From the Author: Sample Photos and Their Stories One vital element of good black and white photography is lighting and how the light affects your subjects. I believe that many of the black and white images that I shoot are light driven, meaning that many times I will see how the light and shadow are interacting with the subject in front of me, and will use the tones and contrast there to determine if it should be a color or black and white image. This can happen whether there is the bold contrast of big areas of light and shadow, or the subtle tones of gray, smoothly fading towards bright and dark areas. Pay attention to the shapes and textures of the scene in front of your camera, and start to engage your brain in trying to learn how the colors of real life will convert into tones and textures in monochrome. In your home, on a walk or even on your commute, begin to see the tones of light and dark all around you to help visualize how the contrast of the light is creating the emotional tone of the scenes in front of you. Ask yourself questions about the light always helps in visualizing-is this a bright or dark scene? Is the interaction of the light and dark areas of the scene hard and abrupt or is it soft and gradual? How does this light fit the scene? And finally' how does the light in the scene make me feel? Spend more time trying to visualize how light is creating the shape, texture and contrast in the scene in front of your camera and the feel that you are attempting to share in your black and white photographs, than worrying too much about a lot of technically perfect settings. Imparting the feel and emotion of the scene in front of you will be far more impactful to the viewer than making sure you had just the right f/stop. Commuter(see story below)

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Save 27% Off: Rick Sammon's Digital Photography Secrets Review & Ratings

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Rick Sammon's Digital Photography Secrets Review

I have no idea what the people who rated this book as 5 stars are talking about. I have used Amazon since the website was open this will be only the second book I ever returned!
This book is ONLY good if you have purchased your first digital camera and need some introduction to digital photography after you have read the manual with the camera -- for anyone else -- it is a joke!
Most of the book is used to help sell Canon or Westcott equipment. Most of the supposed secrets are 5 sentences or less with no real substance.
The DVD is mostly pointless and the paragraph intro to the DVD is basically trying to sell you his other DVDs. I have seen reviews of this book in photo magazines and everyone must be on lets make Rick Sammon's money band wagon because the information listed in this book is fairly useless to anyone outside of a pure novice.
I cannot tell you how dissappointed I am in this book -- it puts me off to anything else he may produce or write.
The secret of this book is there are no real secrets and fool and his money are soon parted!

Rick Sammon's Digital Photography Secrets Overview

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Save 35% Off: How to Do Everything Digital Photography Review & Ratings

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How to Do Everything Digital Photography Review

This book has taught me to take amazingly better photos and easily get them out of my camera for all my family to enjoy.
It is THE "A TO Z" book on digital photography for both novices and semi-pros. I found this book easy to read and understand as it unlocks the secrets and techniques of digital photography. You will not regret this purchase.

How to Do Everything Digital Photography Overview

Take Great Digital Photos Every Time!
Filled with high-color photographs, How to Do Everything: Digital Photography shows you how to capture professional-quality photos using any digital camera--from a smartphone or point-and-shoot camera to an advanced digital SLR camera. Learn how to take better pictures right away using a variety of techniques for photo composition, lighting, and creativity. You'll also get tips on photo editing, printing, and archiving, as well as avoiding common mistakes that result in poor-quality images. Improve your photographic skills in no time with help from this comprehensive, hands-on guide.

Learn digital camera basics and select the best camera, equipment, and accessories for your needs
Master the fundamentals of photo composition
Use professional lighting and flash techniques
Shoot eye-catching outdoor photos in any weather condition
Take portraits and candid shots of people and pets
Capture stunning vacation photographs
Take professional-quality photos of sporting and action-oriented events
Shoot digital video and publish it online
Transfer digital images to your computer
Digitally fix, edit, and improve your images
Use photo editing software, as well as plug-ins, add-ons, and accessories
Print high-quality photos or publish your work on the Web
Catalog, organize, back up, and archive your images


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Save 34% Off: Canon EOS Digital Photography Photo Workshop Review &Ratings

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Canon EOS Digital Photography Photo Workshop Review

This is a pretty good comprehensive book about Canon cameras, lenses, speed flashes and accessories. If you're a frequent buyer of Canon equipment or if you looking to build a Canon system, this book will answer many questions you might have, including some information about Canon's digital processing software that comes with their cameras. Some parts of the book may be too technical for beginners, and I would not recommend this book for those looking for detail information about taking quality photos. This book is more for learning the technical side of photography, helping you understand camera settings, functions, and differences between the various camera and lens models that Canon offers. The book does not cover the recent Canon models--the Canon 50D and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The writing in this book is very accessible, and includes assignments/exercises that reflect information presented each chapter. The included video tutorials (not presented by the author, but by another photographer) on a CD-ROM, included with the book, seemed okay, but I think the tutorials are little too fast paced, glossing over techniques rather than going into depth on various topics. The ending chapters of the book provide a nice list of online resources, a glossary of digital photography terms, and an index for quick referencing. The companion website for the book is also useful.

Canon EOS Digital Photography Photo Workshop Overview

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Save 45% Off: Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for DigitalPhotographers Review & Ratings

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Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers Review

Once the setting of aperture, shutter speed and ISO to get an exposure is learned by a photographer, a major problem of exposure is getting the larger range of light seen by the human eye to fit into the more limited range of light seen by a camera, so that the details the eye sees in shadow and bright areas appears as something more than the black and white shown in the image created by the camera. This was the problem that Ansel Adams tried to conquer in the development of the zone system. Many digital photographers are happy just to keep the camera's histogram to the right and manipulate the sliders in software to recover as much data as possible. In "Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers", Lee Varis offers his somewhat unusual update to the problem.
After a few brief words about workflow and Lightroom software, Varis offers his interpretation of some of Adams' theory, using a black to white tonal scale. Next he discusses camera tonal calibration so that the photographer can set exposure compensation before taking a single image, and then calibrating Lightroom for accurate colors. In the next chapter he presents several images, some in color and others in black-and-white, with his considerations in selecting his exposure. He follows this with a chapter on post-processing, with a heavy emphasis on using LAB color to create pictures that I would characterize as having a lot of visual "pop". There is a chapter on High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing which he refers to as the fine art of cheating, and then he finishes with some speculation on what direction photographic technology will take.
Varis is not for beginners. He assumes the reader will know the relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO. He assumes the reader will understand what all of the sliders and buttons in Lightroom and Photoshop do. He even assumes the reader will understand the LAB color space, although I confess that I have found understanding this space difficult (and to my way of thinking, not very useful.) The chapter on HDR covers the facilities in Photoshop and Photomatix Pro in a cursory fashion that will not help most people to understand the use of either software, but which Varis uses as a springboard to further application of LAB color.
The way that Varis is not for beginners is typically shown in his discussion of color calibration. The author almost glosses over the fact that each digital camera, even within the same model line, varies slightly in the accuracy of the color it captures, and indeed, there are some colors that it are beyond the capability of many cameras to capture accurately. To compensate for that Adobe in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw provides a color calibration facility. Bit even the profiles provided by Adobe reflect only certain averages for cameras and are not usually accurate for the individual camera. To come as close as possible as the actual color of subjects, Varis recommends calibrating the processing software to the individual camera. (Indeed, for certain uses such as product photography it may even be necessary to calibrate the camera for the individual shoot. That's why manufacturers like X-rite sell color charts to aid in accurate calibration.)
Most photographers are happy enough with the profiles provided by Adobe, if they even care about calibrating their camera. But for those who do care for a greater degree of accuracy Varis provides instruction in the proper way to color calibrate an individual camera.
Ultimately all of this calibration only moves the image to a few parts of a stop greater range and many photographers may not think it worth the effort. Add to that that Varis occasionally offers unusual advice like setting the contrast slider in Lightroom to zero to start with rather than Adobe's default setting of 25 and readers may wonder about his advice.
Still there is an audience for this work. The skilled photographer who is not satisfied with the standard RGB color space and is interested in exploring some new techniques which may or may not prove helpful may wish to explore this book.

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Save 25% Off: Get The Most From Your Digital Camera Review & Ratings

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Get The Most From Your Digital Camera Review

This book is great if you have no experience with professional photography. I recently bought the Canon g10 and wanted to be able to successfully use the many controls it has. This book (when used in conjunction with my camera manual) has helped me to know what each and every option on my camera is for and how to use these to take great photos. I highly recommend this easy to read book for anyone who wants to get the most out of their camera and begin finally taking photos worthy of framing!

Get The Most From Your Digital Camera Overview

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Save 35% Off: Focus On Composing Photos: Focus on the Fundamentals(Focus On Series) (Focus on (Focal Press)) Review & Ratings

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Focus On Composing Photos: Focus on the Fundamentals (Focus On Series) (Focus on (Focal Press)) Review

My spouse used to be a professional photographer: He owned a photo studio in the 70s, worked as a darkroom manager in the 80s, and I won't tell you how many cameras we own. He's a serious "prosumer" these days and can spend hours on HDR and other fiddly stuff. However, he has been a photographer for so long that he can't always externalize his knowledge well enough to instruct me (not to mention the marital blurts, "Jeez, Esther, how could you _not_ see the lamp post coming out of his head?"). While my own photography skills have improved over the years, I long ago acknowledged that I am merely a snapshot photographer. But I want to be a *good* snapshot photographer. (Really, how *did* I fail to see that lamp post?)
Which is why I was glad to find Focus on Composing Photos among my Amazon Vine selections. In a series that promises "focus on the fundamentals," I hoped, it would help me do a better job as I capture the moments I most want to cherish. Without having to get serious.
Chapters are devoted to each element of composition, such as light, shadow, color; viewpoint and perspective; leading lines. Each chapter ends with an assignment, such as several To-Do items for Color. ("Pick a favorite color and spend a day photographing this color everywhere you encounter it. Look for your color's complementary and analogous colors to pair with it.") I'm tempted to say that the text offers "the least you need to know" about each of these subjects, but that implies a slapdash overview, while Peter Ensenberger goes into a bit more than that. Perhaps a better way to express this is that he doesn't try to tell you EVERYthing; just enough to get the point across. It's a good balance of theory and practical instruction.
I do wish he had more examples of "Don't do this" or "Compare these." The myriad examples (at least one on every other page) are very pretty, but I wish he'd showed, "Here's the image I think is composed well. Now compare it to this one, which broke the rules I just told you about the rule of thirds." There are a few of these, such a set of pictures showing marbles photographed at different focal lengths; I would like more.
This is a serious book. It doesn't have a lot of personal voice, in which the author makes you feel as if he's speaking right to you, standing at your elbow and suggesting, "Look over there." It doesn't try to charm you into knowing the material. If I were to take a community college class in photography it would be an excellent accompaniment. As it is, I'm slowly working my way through the book, trying to apply one bit of knowledge at a time. I haven't had any "Aha!" moments yet, but I expect they will come in time.

Focus On Composing Photos: Focus on the Fundamentals (Focus On Series) (Focus on (Focal Press)) Overview

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Save 24% Off: Mastering Your Digital SLR: How to Get the Most Out ofYour Digital Camera Review & Ratings

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Mastering Your Digital SLR: How to Get the Most Out of Your Digital Camera Review

This book is an expansion on his book - '500 Digital Photography Hints, Tips, and Techniques: The Easy, All-in-One Guide to those Inside Secrets for Better Digital Photography (Paperback)'. This is the best digital photography book I bought. The writing is very clear and full of tips. I especially like the topic on exposure compensation and white balance and certainly benefit a lot from the book while exploring the features on my Canon 350D. The pictures are very good (beautiful). I strongly recommend it for those new in DSLR. The book is published on very high quality gloss papers and certain worth the price as it is a very durable hard cover book.

Mastering Your Digital SLR: How to Get the Most Out of Your Digital Camera Overview

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Save 45% Off: Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Second EditionReview & Ratings

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Mastering Digital SLR Photography, Second Edition Review

It's about time we had a book of techniques for using digital single lens reflex cameras. For a long time, only the pro photographers could afford a digital single lens reflex, and they mostly already knew everything they needed to about photography. But now that the Canon Digital Rebel is available for less than $1000, and the Nikon D70 costs only a few hundred dollars more, there are millions of serious amateur photographers who are moving up to a digital SLR and who need some tips on how to use them.
For example, I was completely in the dark about some funny spots on my photos, and I learned from this book that they are dust on the sensor and how to remove them. I also wondered about sports photography because shutter lag with my old Minolta digital camera made shooting action almost impossible. I got some great tips about action photography from this book and have already taken some great pictures at my son's basketball games.
I like that this book is aimed at the SLR owner, who is likely to be very serious about photography. It offers lots of tips and tricks that go beyond the mundane and show you how to use a digital SLR to take better pictures. Although the explanations are not complicated, the author goes into lots of depth, making this book very comprehensive. I purchased his previous book on Mastering Digital Photography, and found that this one had not much overlap, so I could enjoy both. It covers the topics with more of an SLR slant.
SLR photographers who are shooting digital must have this book to learn how to get the most from their cameras, and to pick up some valuable photography advice. I recommended it highly.

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Save 32% Off: Focus On Apple Aperture: Focus on the Fundamentals (Focus On Series) Review & Ratings

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Focus On Apple Aperture: Focus on the Fundamentals (Focus On Series) Review

I have had Aperture for some time, but have found it frustrating to use in some respects compared to Adobe Lightroom. This book was helpful for me learning how to navigate Aperture's features and tools and accomplish some actions (like applying some settings to multiple pictures) as well as adding keywords to groups of images. This book enabled me to do a fair amount of editing within Aperture allowing me to process images and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of Aperture compared to Lightroom.
This is well suited to novice Aperture users and explains the processes and tools of this powerful program. I won't say this is the most elegantly written book, it did serve (and will continue to serve) as a reference and guide to my use of Apple's program.

Focus On Apple Aperture: Focus on the Fundamentals (Focus On Series) Overview

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Save 34% Off: Fine Art Photography High Dynamic Range: Realism,Superrealism, and Image Optimization for Serious Novices to Advanced DiReview & Ratings

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Fine Art Photography High Dynamic Range: Realism, Superrealism, and Image Optimization for Serious Novices to Advanced Di Review

Tony Sweet has long been admired for his imaginative approach to photography. In this book he turns his attention to HDR processing.
Although the book can be studied as a lovely portfolio, I found that Sweet's discussion of how he processed each image (or since this is HDR photography, series of images) added to my knowledge of this subject. Sweet discusses the use of two different pieces of software: HDR Soft's Photomatix and Nik's HDR Efex Pro. His discussions of each piece of software appear similar at first, but close examination shows a slight variation. For Photomatix he first describes the software itself, including a brief description of the effect of each slider. (His description of each of the functions is just different enough from the description the software itself provides when one rolls over a particular control to provide additional insights into its purpose.) He then provides a number of photographs, indicating in a chart the settings that he has changed from the default with his reason for the change. For example, for a particular picture, he states "Saturation: Default is 70, Set to 100 to add color to a very drab scene." Next he discusses the post-HDR processing that he used on the image, relying heavily on plug-ins like Nik Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast and Viveza. Each example includes a film strip of the images captured, the picture as it emerges from Photomatix and a large picture of the image after post-HDR processing.
For HDR Efex Pro he changes his methodology a bit, using a narrative form rather than a chart of the changes that he made to the software default. I found this approach a little harder to understand, but that may have been because of my experience with Photomatix. (I was unable to follow his efforts as well as I would have liked because I was unable to successfully install the trial version of HDR Efex Pro on my Windows 7-64 bit machine; try the trial version before buying the software.) Even though the narrative alone did not seem as effective as the chart of changes, it should still prove useful in learning to use this software.
Sweet covers the full range of outcome from realistic to slightly surrealistic, but not all out surrealistic. His main emphasis in Photomatix is on Details Enhancer although there is an image processed in Exposure Fusion. Individuals who feared that the Details Enhancer could not provide realistic images should be able to achieve that goal after reading the book and may find that that Detail Enhancer offers a degree of control not found in Exposure Fusion.
The combination of the basic description of a function and the changes made, with an explanation of the reasons for the change worked for me. For example I never fully realized how the Photomatix microcontrast slider brought out details. As a result of his discussion about using Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast, I decided to try that plug-in and now I am a confirmed believer.
The only thing I wish the book provided was a way to download a few of the images to follow along with the process described in the book, but even without this feature I found this book extremely helpful in honing my HDR skills. Even experienced HDR photographers may benefit from reading this book.

Fine Art Photography High Dynamic Range: Realism, Superrealism, and Image Optimization for Serious Novices to Advanced Di Overview

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Save 38% Off: Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for DigitalPhotographers Review & Ratings

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Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers Review

As Harold Davis so aptly demonstrates in this brilliant book, the modern photographer has to be "one part artist and one part photographer." Thus, it falls on the photographer to have a strong understanding of light and exposure in order to create memorable works of photographic art.
For newcomers, this book can provide a wealth of information about how it is not the camera, nor the lens, but the use of light that separates the amateur from the pro. Mr. Davis has written this book with the digital photographer in mind, and it surely will become the classic treatise on the subject for digital imagery.
The book is richly illustrated with great photography by the author, but what I really enjoyed was that each of the subjects - white balance, creative exposure, shutter speed, etc. - was explained in detail and then a representative photo was used to "show" the effect of decisions that the photographer can make as they compose the shot. Whether you are a visual learner or prefer to read well written prose, this book delivers each in a well thought out manner that is easy to understand.
I also found the author's discussion of how to use the RAW digital format to capture the true nuances of light and color to be particularly informative. Initially, the RAW format can seem mystifying to a digital photographer who has not experienced the power that RAW can bring to a situation, and this book does as fine a job as any I've ever encountered at explaining how to harness RAW for best effect.
Additionally, I found that the three chapters on front, back and side lighting to have the best explanations I have ever read on the differences each of these lighting situations brings to an image.
I would heartily recommend this terrific book to any photographer - from the newcomer to digital imagery to the advanced pro - because it captures wonderfully the true building block steps that can turn a simple image into a true work of art.

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Save 34% Off: Creative Shutter Speed: Master the Art of Motion CaptureReview & Ratings

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Creative Shutter Speed: Master the Art of Motion Capture Review

Beginning right on the cover, Creative Shutter Speed invites, instructs, entertains, and sets the stage for rapid progress with personal photography that can quickly assist almost any photographer to raise their level of satisfaction with exciting pictures and even might transform simple camera shots into art form. Derric Doeffinger is an accomplished, published, and engaging career instructor in maximizing the potential of cameras and photographers. Personal results come quickly from following the entertaining, sometimes humorous, always engagingly simple suggestions from an obvious master who liberally appoints his book with tremendous photos the reader is confidentially told and completely aware of exactly how the magic was created. Derek has a voice that is akin to your friendly next-door neighbor confessing his photography adventures and aspirations; yet he obviously has achieved success far beyond amateur experimentation. The pictures made me think, "I can do some of this! I might even develop some artistic scenes...easily, results right away!"
I'm a SLR refugee from the 1960s, washed up on the digital shore, longingly thinking about how I need some new, simple ideas to rekindle my love affair with photography before I'm afraid to even think digital can't be for me. I want to fall in love with the experimenting I loved just out of college, in those psychedelic days, when my thinking was, anything could be a cool picture and my camera went everywhere with me like a reason to stare with a smile. Soon after starting Shutter Speed, I knew I had become bored with an interest I really hadn't understood as well as I thought. I knew about how to freeze the action of some object and put some "interesting blur" on speedy things, but it never occurred to me why my camera had so many shutter speeds. I had a ten-speed bike and, like my bike, I just skipped many of the gears dimly aware each might actually have a specific application. The shutter speed control never interested me much beyond, "OK. I think I know about that." I never really was creative with it at all. The piece,"Evaluating pictures as you take them," suddenly snapped me into the twenty first century. Derek continually, gently and with wry humor at times, reminds us about the great versatility of the equipment we have, and in my case, never thought about in terms of creativity literally instantly available and never used. I was looking out of my camera too much and not looking at my camera with understanding enough. It was always about the right image, not about working some simple adjustments to create art from any image. This is just what I needed and I expect a new generation of digital aficionados will concur.
Creative Shutter speed is the yellow brick road to follow to get me to the destination of happy romance with my camera. I am assured over and over again I do not travel alone and can take heart because I don't even need a highly evolved brain if I listen to Derek and laugh along with his coaching. I even thought that I could come away from this experience with some work that people would enjoy as well as personally learn much more about the camera I thought I knew and had grown bored with. This is a complete, detailed, precise step-by-step narration, including historical asides that have left me feeling a level of professional preparation I've not run into in a single book. The helpful glossary actually assisted me in understanding some of the necessary terms that are used. Like a carefully orchestrated stop action photo, each component of this shutter speed artistry is sharp, clear and you can't wait to get into motion with that camera. Yeah, I've made some exciting pictures and I'm in love.

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Save 32% Off: Digital Exposure Handbook Review & Ratings

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Digital Exposure Handbook Review

Exposure is both a very important and a very challenging part of learning photography, a topic that can be approached from many perspectives. This probably explains why so many books about exposure are available. Having read quite a few of them, Ross Hoddinott's "Digital Exposure Handbook" was a very pleasant surprise. I recommend it to anyone looking for a solid introduction to the fundamentals of exposure plus a little bit more. It also makes a good "refresher book," which is why I picked it up.
Hoddinott is a straightforward, engaging, and effective writer. No compulsive attempts to be funny or with it, no wandering around the landscape trying to cover everything. He just gets down to business and in a little under 200 pages delivers all the content you need, in fact more than you get from many much longer books.
There are six chapters: The basics of exposure, Exposure in practice, Ambient light, Flash light, Filters, and Exposure in the digital darkroom. A glossary and list of websites are provided. Chapters are divided into self-contained discussions of specific topics, usually about two to three pages long. You can read these in sequence or search out something of particular interest. Hoddinott provides page references to related discussions elsewhere in the book, so if you encounter something unfamiliar, it's easy to find the background information you need. Though organizing the book this way leads to some repetition, I didn't find it at all bothersome and credit Hoddinott for his thoroughness and clarity.
The book is extraordinarily well illustrated, mostly with Hoddinott's own work, which not only enriches the discussion but shows that he knows very well what he's talking about. The intent of each photo is identified and equipment/exposure information provided -- very helpful. The book also includes discussions of technical points, set inside "boxes" so the flow of the text is not disrupted. I found the supporting illustrations and "boxed" discussions some of the most useful material in the book -- there was no stinting here.
The book's small format is deceiving, by the way. The pages are double-columned and the type fairly small, something I did find annoying. There is a lot more content between the stiff covers than you'd first expect.
All in all, this is one of the few exposure books that will stay on my bookshelf, alongside Michael Freeman's "Perfect Exposure." Two very different approaches to a fascinating subject.
For the record, I'm a semi-professional photographer (which means I make a little money at it but not enough to quit my day job) and shoot mostly landscapes with some street/urban work.

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Save 34% Off: Digital Photography Lighting For Dummies (For Dummies(Computer/Tech)) Review & Ratings

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Digital Photography Lighting For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Review

There are a number of books on lighting produced by world-class photographers. One very popular example is The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes. However, as interesting (and unquestionably worthwhile) as those books are, not many of us typically roll up to a job with a half dozen TTL flashes, cases of light modifiers, and a group of assistants/groupies to setup and hold stuff. The examples provided are not directly or immediately useful and must be "extrapolated downward" to situations we are more likely to face.
The writer of this book, Dirk Fletcher, is a skilled photographer and accomplished instructor. That combination allows him to present real world advice that is actionable and methods that are accessible to photographers working alone within somewhat smaller budgets than would allow reserving football stadiums or renting elephants (that never got used). He is also the author of numerous books including Tall Timber Trollop (Spur Giant Special Edition), though I suspect that's a different Dirk Fletcher. However, *this* Dirk Fletcher is, in addition to being an accomplished photographer, an excellent writer and teacher. This combination has resulted in a great introductory book on lighting. It is also a book that the accomplished photographer would find valuable.
The book starts where all books on lighting should, describing light, the different kinds of light and how to use it. Following that is a discussion of equipment, everything from flashes to put in front, behind, and on top of them. In this section, as well as elsewhere in the book, I liked that many or the recommendations were for "simple things" that work well but don't cost a lot. There are also some recommendations for specific products and I would have liked to see more of that.
There are several detailed sections on measuring, adjusting, and creating exposures with a fair number of examples to demonstrate these principals. One of the things I likes was where the author used before/after examples to demonstrate the principles he was discussing. One of the shortcomings of this book was that I wished he had done that a lot more and that the examples were available on line for increased clarity.
Next comes sections on lighting specific situations. It covers things like events, interiors, sports, night, the "Magic Hour" (when I'm either sleeping or eating supper), and a bunch more. I particularly liked the section on portrait lighting where you get a rough layout of light positions and subject positioning to cover most of the classic portrait configurations.
Bottom line: A must read for anyone new to photographic lighting and even some experienced photographers.

Digital Photography Lighting For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Overview

Improve your lighting technique to produce better quality photographs
Digital Photography Lighting For Dummies features the tools, concepts, and steps you need to give your subjects a high-quality look and feel. Everyone from advanced beginners to aspiring professional photographers will improve their understanding of lighting basics as well as the parts and functions of their camera.
Explains the different kinds of lighting that different situations require and guides you through changing the settings on your camera
Shows you how to set up equipment to capture the photograph you want with the proper amount of light and shadow
Offers information on the latest lighting equipment and accessories
Includes techniques and skills used by film photographers like David Bailey, Ansel Adams, and Annie Leibovitz

Reach for Digital Photography Lighting For Dummies and take your knowledge of lighting and photography to the next level!

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