There are many skillful digital photography Good Book available in the market today . Not only are there updated versions of traditional classics ( like Bryan Peterson’sLearning to See Creatively ) , but there are amountainof books from people who grow up with Adobe Photoshop and waited , sometimes impatiently , for digital cameras to come of age . Two books that I have establish to be particularly good are Scott Kelby’sThe Digital Photography Book($20 , Peachpit Press ) , andComplete Digital Photography , from Ben Long ( $ 40 , Charles River Media ) .
If you ’re looking for a dissimilar character of book on the topic , however , it ’s worth seek outStephen Johnson on Digital Photography($40 , O’Reilly ) , which recently made it to the top of my reading pile . The Word is part history , part photographic philosophy , and part tutorial , all delivered in Stephen ’s inimitable style . At first glimpse , it might appear to be more like a fine - graphics book than a tutorial / mention piece of work , but it really is worth dig into .
I have knownStephensince my twenty-four hour period atMacWEEK , when he was working on his National Parks project , and I can tell you that he truly is one of digital photography ’s trailblazer : I remember Stephen giving us a demonstration of theDicomed scanning backon a 4×5 opinion camera , back in the former nineties . As I recall , the tv camera took minute of arc to generate an image , but their otherworldy look ( andhugefile sizes ) made an impression on me long before we dumbfound to the crappy , half - a - megapixel , $ 1,000 digital photographic camera that were soon to come . ( Dicomed is long proceed , but the ship’s company that create the technology , BetterLight , continues to this day with extremely high - timbre digital backs for studio and field cameras . )
Stephen has been working at the far range of digital photography since those former Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , primarily as an artist who consistently pushed the technology line forrard to transmit his sight . The strength of that vision sometimes fray people the wrong way , but his allegiance to the art and procession of digital photography ca n’t be call into question . And , while I never saw myself using the high - oddment cogwheel that Stephen did to make his work — a 6 - megapixel digital SLR was all I was really hold off for — Stephen ’s comportment in the industry , and his work with company like Adobe , Radius , Epson , HP and Apple has helped all of us in many means , heavy and belittled .
Stephen Johnson on Digital Photographyis full of unanimous selective information and helpful tips on take away the undecomposed pictures with your camera , editing them on your Mac , and presenting them on - screen , on the WWW or in photographic print . It is beautifully illustrated , with lots of Stephen ’s photographs , as well as some from skipper like Ansel Adams . And , unlike so many other computer books , you always get a mother wit of the writer in this account book , and Stephen ’s not afraid to tell you when there is no one answer to a problem , such as he does when he talks about range sharpen . It might not become the standard bookshelf cite textbook , but I think many proofreader should find that they ’ll learn almost as much Stephen ’s book as they would from a traditional photographic text .
Fine art printing
save by Juergen Gulbins and Uwe Steinmueller , the proprietor ofDigital Outback Photo , this book cover up all of the subject necessary for you to make the best fine art digital prints potential . The authors focalize less on which printer to bribe — a heady option generate the constant flux in the market — and more on workflow , calibration technique , media selection and ink case ( which , as I ’ve noted previously , can be as important as the printer you choose ) , and how to get past the queerness of photographic print driver .
ok Art impression for Photographersis clearly write and richly illustrated with photographs , chart , and sieve slam , but it seldom suffer mired in the technical item . I know that most people do n’t share my obsession with getting the in force prints out of an inkjet printing machine ( nor should they ) , but , if you do , or you need to raise digital prints for sale , Steinmueller and Gulbins are splendid guides .
Understanding Raw
And while I ’m talking about books , I ’d be remiss if I did n’t bring up Ben Long’sGetting begin with Camera Raw($25 , Peachpit Press ) . Shooting figure of speech in in the altogether mode is a hot topic , what with the increased gross sales of Raw - capable digital television camera and the rise of workflow - centrical software like Apple ’s Aperture and Adobe ’s Photoshop Lightroom . But , as I have found when I ’ve go out into the airfield and mouth with unskilled photographers , shooting in Raw mode has a mystery that belies it ’s use , and it should n’t be that means . Ben ’s Good Book , which has been out for over a year , is targeted at this character of shooter , and is wondrously free of jargon and tech - speak . It might not be the most technical and most comprehensive book on Raw photography — that title would go to Bruce Fraser’sReal World Camera Raw with Photoshop CS2($40 , Peachpit Press ) , also a hunky-dory Christian Bible — but Ben does a with child task for those of us who just want to learn how best to employ Raw in our day-to-day work .
[ Disclaimer : Ben ’s been write forMacworldfor days , and is a ripe protagonist of mine . While I can extremely recommend the books mentioned here with a clear moral sense , I would also urge you to stay off from any of his books on theGreat Malvern railway line post , which are actually quite boring and , thankfully , long out of mark . ]
