Complete Digital Photography

Complete Digital Photography Review

Complete Digital Photography Feature

• Walks readers through all aspects of digital photography
• Includes detailed tutorials with accompanying media
• Teaches the artistry of photography, as well as the techniques
• Written by an experienced photographer and author who has lectured on the subject worldwide

COMPLETE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, SIXTH EDITION guides you through every aspect of digital photography, from shooting through postproduction and printing, to help you master the theory and technical skills required of a great photographer. In an easy-to-understand format, you'll uncover the fundamental photographic knowledge you need to solve common dilemmas and challenges and advance your photographs to a new level. You'll learn everything from how a camera works and how to choose the camera that's right for you, through shooting, image editing, output, and workflow. You'll also explore the basics of artistry in photography, including finding a subject, composition, lighting, and more. This sixth edition features new material covering Photoshop CS5, Camera RAW, Micro Four Thirds cameras, and post-production, and a revised and more user-friendly organizational structure. Tutorials and exercises throughout the book will help you practice the techniques presented in each chapter.

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Bonus Chapter Excerpt

Five Key Steps to Choosing a Digital Camera

1. First, determine how much you're willing to spend. Your goal is to get the best camera you can for your budget. Best is defined as the balance of features that serves your particular needs.


2. Next, decide whether you are looking for an SLR or a point-and-shoot camera. If you can't make this decision right away, that's fine. It will probably become apparent pretty soon after you start comparing cameras, or maybe even as you read further into the chapter.


3. Next, determine what resolution you need for the type of output you're creating.


4. Among the cameras with the right price and resolution, select the ones that have the shooting features and controls you want.



5. Of those cameras, make your final choice based on which model delivers the best image quality.

   This last point will be your most crucial criteria. If you've narrowed your choice to two cameras, and one has great features but the other produces better pictures, you should go with the second camera. Of course, it's frustrating not to get everything you want in a camera, but you can work around most feature deficiencies. Trying to work around bad image quality is much more difficult.

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Download the full bonus chapter of Ben Long's Complete Digital Photography. [PDF]

Low Cost High Impact Photography

Low Cost High Impact Photography Review

A collection of previous columns and original writing about photography. The overriding theme is that the eye is more important than the camera therefore photography does not have to be prohibitively expensive.

The major sections, each consisting of around half a dozen articles are, Introductory pieces, equipment, technique, aesthetics, photo essays and a wrap up.

The articles are anything from 600 to 2,000 words in length and many seek to challenge conventional photography wisdom. Discussions range from advice on camera purchase to whether the whole idea of beauty needs a makeover to cheap ways to get into product photography. This book goes from the extremely practical equipment and technique based writing through to the much quirkier, e.g. how to photograph a flaming Christmas pudding or a description of getting landscape shots in sub zero temperatures with a 20 mph wind.


The book is fully illustrated with over 100 photographs, all taken by the author, Steve Johnson, chosen to make the viewer think about their own relationship to the visual and to photography.

Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites

Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites Review

Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites Feature

• Speedliter's Handbook Table of Contents:
• 1 The Nature Of Light
• 2 The Speedlite Family
• 3 Speedlite Control
• 4 Exposure Exposed

Getting your Canon Speedlite to produce the light you need can be a real challenge. For those new to flash photography—or for anyone who has previously given up out of frustration—Speedliter’s Handbook is a revelation. Photographer Syl Arena takes you on a journey that begins with an exploration of light and color, moves through a comprehensive discussion of the Canon Speedlite family and all of the accessories and equipment available to the Speedliter, then settles down to crafting great light in one photo shoot after another. Whether you want to create a classical portrait, shoot an event, or simply add a little fill light to a product shot, Speedliter’s Handbook shows you how.

A fantastic in-depth resource illustrated with over 500 images, Speedliter’s Handbook covers:

• how to see the various characteristics and properties of light itself, as well as the differences between how your camera sees versus how you see
• all the buttons and dials of the entire Canon Speedlite family
• the basics of on-camera flash…and the necessity of getting your flash off the camera
• how to beautifully balance flash with the existing ambient light
• all the equipment necessary for great Speedlite shots
• how to get amazing shots with just one Speedlite
• how and when to use E-TTL versus manual flash
• the use of color gels to balance color, as well as create dramatic effects
• how to tame the sun—or any really bright light—with hi-speed sync
• and much, much more

Whether you’re shooting portraits, events, or sports, Speedliter’s Handbook is an essential resource that teaches you how to craft the light you need for any type of shot you want.

Exposure Photo Workshop: Develop Your Digital Photography Talent

Exposure Photo Workshop: Develop Your Digital Photography Talent Review

Named One of Shutterbug Magazines Top Digital Imaging Books of 2008!

Capturing an image and getting the right exposure is critical and Jeff Wignall recognizes exposure as the secret for creating an image that captures a vision and shares it with the world. When you apply his techniques with patience, experimentation, and a focus on the outcome, you will begin creating images that reveal not only what you saw, but how you felt when you saw it. In fact according to Shutterbug magazine Exposure Photo Workshop “may be the best book yet written about exposure.” By learning to work with natural light as well as when to use flash you will confidently capture action, night scenes, rainbows, sunsets, and reflections like never before. With stunning images, Jeff Wignall shows you how to perfectly expose pictures in even the most challenging existing light conditions, including poor weather, using a flash, and even a section guiding you through using multiple wireless flash units. You can upload your own images to Photoworkshop.com and get feedback from other photographers.

Wignall starts by explaining the fundamentals of exposure and why it’s important. This leads into learning the basics of exposure controls. By the end of chapter 2, you will know how to control the exposure on your point-and-shoot or digital SLR camera. Chapter 3 walks readers through measuring light using just about any light meter and Chapter 4 delves into lens apertures and depth of field. The focus moves to shutter speed and subject motion. After Chapter 6, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to turn off your camera’s automatic settings and take manual control. Wignall then examines natural light exposures, discussing the intricacies of light quality, light direction, and time of day. As you approach more advanced exposure options, you’ll need the troubleshooting advice provided in Chapter 8, covering difficult situations such as metering challenges, handling contrast, and creating dramatic silhouettes. With more advanced techniques mastered, you can then approach night and low-light conditions and then examine special considerations such as the weather and natural phenomena. The book finishes strong with a comprehensive look at all things flash photography.

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera Review

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera Feature

• ISBN13: 9780817439392
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.

In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, including how to achieve successful exposures in seemingly difficult situations. You’ll learn:

• Which aperture gives you the greatest contrast and sharpness, and when to use it 
• Which apertures guarantee the background remains an out-of-focus tone 
• Which one aperture—when combined with the right lens—creates an area of sharpness from three feet to infinity 
• How to creatively use shutter speed to either freeze an action or imply motion 
• Where to take a meter reading when shooting a sunset, snow, or a city at dusk

With new information on white balance, flash, HDR, and more, this updated classic will inspire you to stop guessing and take control of your settings for better photos anytime, anywhere, and with any camera.

Digital Photography: Advanced

Digital Photography: Advanced Review

"Digital Photography: Advanced" features Digital Photography Expert, Andy McKee, as he walks you through all the steps of becoming a Digital Photography Pro. This Vook features 8 amazing videos that teach you everything from Advanced Photoshop Skills to Customizing Your Digital Camera Features. If you have ever wished you could wow your friends with your Digital Photography skills, this Vook is for you.

Kevin Kubotas Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups for Digital Photographers

Kevin Kubotas Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups for Digital Photographers Review

Get professional advice from one of the world's top wedding photographersCreative use of lighting is a hallmark of quality photography. Kevin Kubota has been listed among the world's top 10 wedding photographers by American Photo magazine and named a Legend Behind the Lens by Nikon. This guide features dozens of his unique lighting and post-production recipes and techniques, each illustrated with a spectacular image.

• Author Kevin Kubota enjoys a cult-like following among professional photographers and has earned numerous accolades for his talent
• Includes the author's unique lighting and post-production recipes and techniques that reinforce the theory that good lighting is the key to quality photography
• Presents a number of shooting scenarios with behind-the-scenes setup, a description of the photographer's objective, the equipment used, and the resulting image for each
• Features a companion app that will enable the photographer to search and find lighting suggestions by subject, style, budget, equipment, and other guidelines, all while in the field

Kevin Kubota's Lighting Notebook for Digital Photographers is almost like having the famous photographer sharing his secrets with you one on one.

Truth and Photography: Notes on Looking and Photographing

Truth and Photography: Notes on Looking and Photographing Review

Pictures made by a lens are inextricably linked to the real world—the world the photographer not only sees but lives in and thinks about. The most ambitious photographs (in an earlier time one might confidently have said the greatest photographs) recognize that an understanding of the identities of things, and of their relationships, is as important as the harmonious combination of the shapes these things make when projected by a lens onto a flat surface. Starting from this premise, and in elegant and incisive prose, Jerry Thompson in Truth and Photography explores the many-leveled relationship between seeing and thinking. The book reproduces (in duotone) and the essays discuss some twenty photographs—some as well known as any the medium has produced, some more obscure, and some never before published. Mr. Thompson's discussions of pictures and picture-taking occasions are not strictly historical, nor are they concerned only with theoretical considerations. They do not rely exclusively on the author's thirty-year experience as a working photographer, nor are they confined to the medium of photography. Rather, Mr. Thompson employs multiple perspectives, usually in the same essay and often on a single picture. His examinations are penetrating, sustained, allusive, and frequently thrilling. They represent not settled explanations but living thought.

On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography

On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography Review

With this guidebook, photographers learn how to create stunning, professional images while avoiding the common pitfalls of using an on-camera flash. Techniques for using simple accessories—such as bounce cards and diffusers as well as how to improve a lighting scenario by enhancing it rather than overwhelming it—show photographers how to master this challenging aspect of portraiture. For wedding and environmental portrait photographers who must work in ever-changing lighting scenarios, executing these tips to evade flat, lifeless images with harsh shadows, washed-out skin tones, cavernous black backgrounds, and other unappealing visual characteristics results in not only better images, but happier clients and more sales.

The Art of Children's Portrait Photography

The Art of Children's Portrait Photography Review

The Art of Children's Portrait Photography Feature

• Understanding your subject and tailoring your photographic approach to their unique personality
• Lighting techniques for studio and location shoots
• Adopting an organic approach to posing, where simple coaching from the photographer creates natural, photogenic moments
• Using outdoor environments to best effects and creating a wide variety of studio images with simple sets
• Tips for effectively and efficiently organizing your business

Contemporary photographs that cleverly capture a child’s mood or personality—whether that’s a big, toothy grin or a teary tantrum—are easily created with the tips and techniques explored in this in-depth handbook. Often called “lifestyle photography,” modern techniques such as tightly cropped close-ups, vignettes, wide angles, and shallow depths produce images that are markedly less stiff and more expressive than traditional portraitures. From capturing great expressions and body language to integrating meaningful locations into the shoot to further express the subject’s personality, this guide thoroughly explains how photographers can develop their image-storytelling skills to develop stunning portraits. Advice on creating platinum and chocolate hued prints, vibrant color scenes, simple grayscale images, and utilizing unusual textures or effects is also included.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Photography Essentials

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Photography Essentials Review

Don’t be camera shy!

The focus is on the basics.

Presented in concise, intuitive style, this guide has everything amateur photographers need to know to produce great images—whether shooting in digital or film. Best of all, each chapter includes FAQs and full-color visual examples to turn good shots into great shots. Professional photographer Mark Jenkinson shares tips and tricks for:

• Understanding how the features and controls affect Photographs
• Making the best use of manual, aperture priority, and shutter priority settings
• Shooting moving objects
• Shooting in bright light or nighttime settings
• Adjusting depth of field
• Improving composition and lighting
• Choosing the best format for storing digital images

History and Practice of the Art of Photography

History and Practice of the Art of Photography Review

History and Practice of the Art of Photography is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Henry Hunt Snelling is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Henry Hunt Snelling then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot Like the Pros

LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot Like the Pros Review

Photography has been the business and the passion of LIFE since the original weekly magazine's inception in 1936, and it continues to be the business and passion of LIFE Books and LIFE.com in the new millennium. But photography has surely changed during these many decades. The rigs and gear of old have given way-first slowly, then all at once-to sleek miracle machines that process pixels and have made the darkroom obsolete. The casual photog puts eye to lens, sets everything on auto and captures a photograph that is . . . perfectly fine.

One of LIFE's master shooters-in fact, the final in the long line of distinguished LIFE staff photographers-was Joe McNally, and he has always believed that with a little preparation and care, with a dash of enthusiasm and daring added to the equation, anyone can make a better photo-anyone can turn a "keeper" into a treasure. This was true in days of yore, and it's true in the digital age. Your marvelous new camera, fresh from its box, can indeed perform splendid feats. Joe explains in this book how to take best advantage of what it was designed to do, and also when it is wise to outthink your camera or push your camera-to go for the gold, to create that indelible family memory that you will have blown up as large as the technology will allow, and that will hang on the wall forevermore.

As the storied LIFE photographer and photo editor John Loengard points out in his eloquent foreword to this volume, there are cameras and there are cameras, and they've always been able to do tricks. And then there is photography. Other guides may give you the one, two, three of producing a reasonably well exposed shot, but Joe McNally and the editors of LIFE can give you that, and then can show you how to make a picture. In a detailed, friendly, conversational, anecdotal, sometimes rollicking way, that's what they do in these pages.

Prepare to click.

Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with Or Without a Macro Lens

Understanding Close-Up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with Or Without a Macro Lens Review

In his sixth book, renowned photographer, popular instructor, and best-selling author Bryan Peterson challenges and inspires us to see close-up photography in new ways when we view it through his eyes. You’ve seen the dewdrops, but what about dewdrops on a bird’s wing or raindrops on a car windshield? You’ve seen the bumblebees on vibrant flowers, but what about the fluid edge of just one petal or the colorful rusting metal at industrial sites? Even when Peterson does capture the more traditional subjects, it's done in untraditional ways–and often with minimal specialized equipment! Most important, he moves beyond the commonplace to inspire new ways of getting close, using your lenses, and discovering unconventional subjects.

Early Travel Photography: The Greatest Traveler of His Time - Burton Holmes (25)

Early Travel Photography: The Greatest Traveler of His Time - Burton Holmes (25) Review

Wanderlust: Burton Holmes, the man who brought the world home

"All the delights of travel for those who stay at home."

It was the Belle Époque, a time before air travel or radio, at the brink of a revolution in photography and filmmaking, when Burton Holmes (1870–1958) began a lifelong journey to bring the world home. From the grand boulevards of Paris to China's Great Wall, from the construction of the Panama canal to the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Holmes delighted in finding "the beautiful way around the world" and made a career of sharing his stories, colorful photographs, and films with audiences across America. As a young man, Holmes was mentored by John L. Stoddard, a pioneer of the U.S. travelecture circuit, who passed on his well-established mantle when he retired. Holmes roamed the globe throughout the summer and traversed the United States all winter, transforming the staid lecture tradition into an entertaining show. He coined the term "travelogue" in 1904 to advertise his unique performance and thrilled audiences with two-hour sets of stories timed to projections of multihued hand-painted glass-lantern slides and some of the first "moving pictures."

Paris, Peking, Dehli, Dubrovnik, Moscow, Manila, Jakarta, Jerusalem: Burton Holmes was there. He visited every continent and nearly every country on the planet, shooting over 30,000 photographs and nearly 500,000 feet of film. This book represents the best of the Holmes archive, brimming with brilliant color photographs. A rare window on the world of 100 years ago, Burton Holmes Travelogues will transport you to a time that has all but evaporated, and inspire you to strike out on a journey of your own.

25 Lessons I've Learned about Photography...Life (Volume 1)

25 Lessons I've Learned about Photography...Life (Volume 1) Review

25 Lessons I've Learned about Photography...Life (Volume 1) Feature

• ISBN13: 9781456572013
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

ABOUT THE BOOK 25 Lessons Lessons I've Learned about (Photography) Life! has been the #1 best selling photo essay on amazon.com for both 2010 and 2011. It is also a best seller in the Arts & Literature Biographies & Memoirs, Self-Help, Inspirational and Spiritual categories. In his best-selling book, Lorenzo describes how the deceptively simple rules of photography can also be applied to the art of living. Inspirational and poetic, this book will not only spark readers' creative energies, but also reawaken your passion for life. In 2005, as a husband, father, and corporate employee - Lorenzo's life revolved around home, work, and his daily commute from the suburbs to the city. Then, one day, he found himself staying at the Little Church in midtown Manhattan in the wake of a marital separation. Living in virtual isolation for three months, he had a rare chance to re-examine his life. Quite unexpectedly, he found himself wandering around the city to take photographs, a passion he had let slide in the years of pursuing a career and starting a family. During his nightly sojourns through the streets of New York City, he was reminded of some important life lessons-lessons too easily forgotten in the blur of everyday existence. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING "The book has been the best investment in my life." PD, New York "I don't think I've ever read as moving a piece on the craft of photography in my life. Most pieces on photography are more tech manual in approach, this one really touches my soul...it's going to really impact my life." Phyllis Johnson, photojournalist and author of Being Frank with Anne "We received our copies of 25 Lessons today and began reading it as a class - it is truly amazing." Paul Scott, Head of Photography, St. Boniface's Catholic College in Plymouth, UK "In many of my conversations on great photographers, I frequently mention Lorenzo's work. His sequential photographs...are nothing less that a visual urban poem. It has been my pleasure to watch Lorenzo's rapid growth as a leading photographer of our time." Jim Van Meter, Rochester, NY, USA "Lorenzo is a master. His body of work is some of the very best online and may very well be some of the best being done in the medium today. His street work follows in the tradition of Paul Strand, Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand and Larry Friedlander. Lorenzo's 25 Lessons are...as seminal as Ansel's dissertation on the zone system. I found them to be reenergizing, perceptive and extremely useful. I have been touched by his story, his writings and by his work. I can't imagine anyone not being so." Barry Shapiro, Los Angeles, CA, USA "Lorenzo...has a passion for life, photography and writing. He is a linguistic genius, a storyteller through words and pictures. He captures with his camera the world as he sees it, its feelings, love, beauty and all it has to offer..." Brenda George, Adelaide, Australia "As an oncologist, my primary job is not only to add days to people's lives, it is to add life to people's days. Lorenzo's book has provided me with a great instrument through which I can further become the counselor, healer and confidant my patient's demand. It has reignited in me the passion, warmth and compassion which are sequential for me on a daily basis to be the best physician and person I can be and I've encouraged all of my patients and families to share in his masterpiece as laughter, love, and imagination are the ultimate weapons against grief and despair. Secondary to Lorenzo's great influence in my life, I continue to use his writings and photography as a means to inspire my patient's to express their deep inner emotions as a way to reflect on their understanding of disease and in developing goals of therapy. I recommend his book to all." Mike Rotkowitz, MD, New York City

Photography: The 50 Most Influential Photographers of All Time (Icons of Culture)

Photography: The 50 Most Influential Photographers of All Time (Icons of Culture) Review

In addition to profiling the most important photographers of past and present, this book presents a capsule history of photography and explores significant trends and developments in the field. Brief biographies with identifying photos include Matthew Brady, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe, Annie Liebovitz, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and 40 other major figures in portraiture, fashion, photojournalism, documentary, landscape, and photographic art. Small in size but filled with information and insights, each Icons of Culture title is a collection of brief, pithy, and enlightening biographies of men and women who have made their mark and left lasting influences in the lively arts. Scattered among these capsule biographies are two-page overviews that examine various aspects of the art. Handsomely designed and accessible to laypersons, these books make fine quick-reference sources while also providing enjoyable reading for inquisitive minds. Illustrations in color and black and white on most two-page spreads.