Digital Photography Books

A book filled with dull, boring and unimaginative portraits of pretty women and rehashed Photoshop techniques that have been commonplace for nearly a decade. Also, the thin content is presented in a typographic format that is nearly unreadable.

You'll get a much better insight into "The Art of Photographing Women" by reading the latest edition of Maxim magazine.

This book is great. At times a little hard to follow from one task to the next but I find it to be very in-depth and useful. The book covers so many tricks I would never have thought of. Ordering books to be shipped to Australia can be very much hit and miss, but this book is a A+++ buy.

I really wanted a good book for people in general. This book had some positive reviews elsewhere so I gave it a shot. I was not disappointed. Most of the rules and examples provided could be used on anything: humans or animals. Its about using photoshop to make images look beautiful. The book's layout, format and illustrations are also top notch and help with the teaching.

This books is based on the old saying, "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." It teaches you how you can make changes to your 'raw' pictures into works of art. It emphasized the concept that can actually be applied to any type of photography. Personally, I like to take Portrait, Street Life, and Candid. This book really hope me to think more of how and what I want to have as my final result from the pictures I take. I used to think that postproduction of a picture is pointless but the more I learned from this book. It became more evident that that is not the case. It is an essential part of digital photography. Now, I can make the pictures I take to come out exactly the way I intended it to be.

A practical guide to understanding and using lighting to capture the image as well as many useful techniques for improving images of people, especially women.

Digital Photo Art: Transform Your Images with Traditional & Contemporary Art Techniques
I loved this book, and although I am not a traditional or professional photographer, it gave me a ton of ideas of how to improve my photography skills as well as what to do with the photos as far as effects and printing methods.
I would say that one thing to know about this book is that it is really geared toward serious photographers as far as equipment goes. The author talks about filters and lenses and if you are like me and have a cheap point and shoot digital camera, and don't plan on camera equipment upgrades, it is meaningless.
Don't let that discourage you however, the images were inspiring, the printmaking techniques intriguing and the software manipulation ideas really fun! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Photo Art.

I have been a photographer for 50 years, and a Photoshop user for 15. I read several reviews before purchasing this book. I noted negative some opinion that claimed this book was inferior because it was not a great Photoshop book. I have to take exception to this. reading this book inspired me to push myself beyond the confines of "Photoshopping" images.
There is so much more to photography as an artistic medium, than simply cleaning and perfecting an image, and then printing it on white paper.

This is a fabulous, creative treasure chest!!!! She gives step by step instruction for each of her works. Each one turns out uniquely different from the original photos. They become one of a kind art pieces. She lists all of the products she uses, the vendors & what each product does in detail. Artwork by other digital artists are sprinkled through as well. It's a great resource that generates inspiration & creativity!

This is a great book. I have used this book for a couple of years now and was surprised at a few of the comments of other reviewers.

For the reviewer that said there was some Photoshop in it, but was disappointed that it wasn't an in-depth how-to Photoshop book: Yes, it is fine art oriented, not a Photoshop class. Some Photoshop techniques related to fine art are explained well and clearly so you can use them without difficulty. The book uses Photoshop tools well, but it isn't a Photoshop book.

For the reviewer that said it was dated: In spite of it being published a few years ago, almost everything in the book is still up-to-date, with the exception of some references to Studio Artist. If you want completely up-to-date, get Airey's Beginner's Guide to Digital Photo Art. Don't be fooled if you are not a beginner -- this book is still for you. The techniques are clearly explained, so a beginner can follow it well -- but the techniques explained are wonderful things that an experienced fine art photographer will enjoy thoroughly. I believe it works well WITH this book, but if I had to get only one, it would be Beginner's Guide.

This form of book concept has a high potential for today's amateur artist. I'm glad I bought it because it does contain a lot of useful information. However, I will buy a few more books to complete my "schooling" in marrying digital to traditional art. I found this book offers only a small amount to that concept. Here's what I found.

Cons...
i. Too heavy in the use of 3rd party software (some only avail on the Mac). Most of the digital treatments in this book can just as easily be done in Photoshop.
ii. The book lacks step by step details on how to do certain things. If you don't know how to do it, your left guessing or going on the internet to figure it out.
iii. Way, way too much filler (repetition, photo fillers, white space etc...)
iv. The author spends way too much time on things that really do not matter and are not helpful.
v. The overall format of the book is good, but it does get disorganized here & there.
vi. Not enough follow through on why facts are presented: you get a simple "data dump" in some cases.

Pros...
i. The author has an exceptional knowledge of paper variety. Before reading this book, I knew business grade white Xerox paper & bond...
ii. The author does present some very good ideas of converging digital to traditional art.
iii. The price for the book is cheap for the info you get from it. If it saves you an hour or teaches you a technique that you use, the book has more then paid for itself.
iv. It is a high quality book (paperback, but nicely printed).

I found this book like so many available for Elements. It gives examples and the explanation how to achieve that particular effect, but not a wider description of how those effects work and can be applied to other things. So I see it as very much a companion to "The Missing Manual" which does go into greater background, but doesn't give the final examples this one does. Indeed, Amazon has them both grouped as worth buying together, which is what I did and am pleased I did!

I'm a complete newby at anything photoshop related. I found some of the instructions lacking and hard to follow, but with a little work, I was able to get everything to work properly. I wouldn't want a book that led me through each step by the hand, a good tutorial should inspire you to think through the problems, and this one does. I received amazing support from the readers forum and from the author when ever I needed it. I learned so much from this book that I just ordered How to Cheat at CS3.

This book concentrates on techniques for creating photomontages, and it does it really well. Although it's a fairly specific use of Adobe's `baby' photo editing application, the subject is covered excellently by two authors who clearly know their stuff.

The book is based around Elements 6 for Windows (all the keyboard shortcuts refer to a Windows keyboard). I'm not sure whether there'll be an update when the upcoming Mac version is released but as a user of the current beta on a MacBook I didn't find it too much of a problem to use all the techniques, and they can equally be applied to CS3 if you're lucky (or rich) enough to be running that on either platform. However, the authors make it clear that the techniques work equally well with all versions of Elements from 3 onwards.

This is not necessarily a book for newcomers to Elements - it does assume some basic knowledge, although the first sections cover some more basic photomontage techniques such as selection operations, layer masks, and levels, but if you want to learn how to use the application you're better off looking elsewhere.

I like the layout a lot -- each work-through is presented on a double page spread which is great for working with the book alongside your monitor.

The book is split into 12 sections divided into individual work-throughs with the first 4 covering some basic techniques, leading through to the creation of some pretty complex images.

It's great for dipping in and out of and includes `interludes' at the end of each section covering various topics of interest to digital artists, photographers and general Elements users, and `hot tips' alongside each work-through highlighting related Photoshop techniques.

A CD is supplied which is nicely put together with high quality psd images as starting points for the work-throughs and QuickTime movies to illustrate many of the more complex techniques. Where these are provided for a work-through a symbol appears on the page. The CD is generally easy to navigate and includes some useful extras.

There's a dedicated web site with readers forum to discuss the content of the book with the authors and other Elements users - it's nice that the authors seem to dedicate their time to answering queries and providing assistance to their readers.

Although I've not really done a lot of photomontage work before, this book has fired my imagination and introduced me to some useful general techniques for use in both Elements and CS3.

Look out for some of my photomontages on Flickr soon!

Great step-by-step instructions. The illustrations and presentation of material are clear. The book layout is very inviting. This book gives you instant gratification. You can create and modify digital images quickly. The results are stunning. Highly recommend this book.

It became apparent on Page 10 where the authors referenced the "Magic Selection Brush" instead of "Quick Selection Tool" that they didn't look at Photoshop Elements 6 when writing their book "How to Cheat...". As a new user of Elements 6 I put the book down after this frustrating experience. "How to Cheat..." is an appropriate title, for this wasted purchase. Two stars is generous.

This book has lots of information in easy-to-understand and well-written English.

Great for parents shooting DV for the first time: the class play, kid's first steps or softball game.

And when the kids are in 5th grade, they'll use this book for ideas on how to shoot the class English project in DV and how to edit it.

And when the independent filmmaker wants to learn about shooting in DV and transferring it to film, this book has lots of information.

Recommended for for beginners and intermediate filmmakers planning to shoot in DV.

Lots of excellent information and help on how to choose a DV camera and how to use it. An easy read. The material was presented in a way that was never dry or boring. It's written from the perspective of a film cameraman venturing into the world of video--and avoids the usual technical jargon and preconceptions found in many other books. Concise and valuable information for documentary filmmakers, event videographers, students, prosumers and home users. Highly recommended.

I'm a big fan of Jon's books on Arri film cameras. I' m deeply disappointed by this book, which proves again that filmmakers don't necessarily make for qualified video experts.

I found the book to be full of erroneous errors of fact and ill informed conjecture, particulary the discussions about color space, sampling and compression. Many of the explanations were just plain wrong or wrapped up in vague summaries that create more confusion than solutions.

Jon's discussion of the "film look" reveals a bit of film snobbery cloaked in outright misinformation. He dimisses aspects of psycho-optic theory that indeed contibute to the "film look" yet he claims exposure latitude as the one and only factor involved. Simply not true.

And by the way, countless non-linear editors are using Firewire Drives, contrary to the numerous reminders in the book not to use them.

I knew little about video production and editing before this book; I looked and looked for a book or two that I could purchase to guide me through the basics of video recording and editing. This book got to the basics and explained them well. I made my equipment purchases after reading this book and felt significantly more confident in the decisions that I made. This book was by far the most useful book of three that I finally purchased. I have read it cover-to-cover, a couple of times. It now sits nearby as a frequently accessed reference material.

This book is a waste of money. You would be much better off doing a google search on equipment. Much of the technical detail on cameras is out of date and there is no information about how to shoot digital video, kind of a surprise based on the title. It is filled with endless close up photos of equipment which you don't own with explanations of how to use cameras that you don't own. It looks like the a pay back book from manufactures of the name brands that he writes technical manuals for. Skip this book and hope that he wrote the manual for the camera you do decide to buy at least then you would not have wasted the $25 bucks.

The information in this book is a must have for anyone who takes more than just a few snapshots. Workflow is a major consideration for digital photography and this book helps you make sence out of it.

We own a full-service photography studio in the Midwest. Each holiday season, we give ourselves a book or books on photography. This year, we decided to get two books by the same author(s): Total Digital Photography and Digital Sports Photography. We bought these after reading the reviews and looking at them at a local bookstore.

We converted from film to digital about three years ago, and workflow has been an issue for us as we've expanded and grown our studio, and dealt with all the factors involved with adding computers, archiving, etc. We do commercial, sports, and portrait photography so these books were right in-line with what we were doing.

Normally we have not written reviews on books in the past, but we felt it only fair to give these books a synopsis that we think more accurately matches the audience for which they are intended - and not all the reviews do that.

Reading the other reviews of these books, most of the complaints seemed nit-picky and not very substantial, and the overall impression was positive. A few of the technical points are well-taken, but seem a bit out of proportion to the overall spirit and gist of the books - which aren't intended to be deep technical works. We've used the books now for a bit more than a month, and we've found them both to be, for the most part, technically accurate, well-written, and very helpful for our work.

A few of the reviewers questioned the authors' use of fencing images, but we found these to be an interesting way to take an unusual and interesting subject, describe personal experience, and apply it to a variety of sports. And the images of all types were well done - good examples, well-composed, and applicable to a variety of photographers. We liked the use of a wide variety of sports photogrpahers' images in the sports book.

We must point out that these books aren't meant to be coffee-table books. One reviewer said many images are like snapshots. We disagree - they are like standard, everyday professional shots we might take, and aren't meant to be "haute" art photos. A few are of this caliber, but it's clear the authors' are attempting to reach ordinary photography enthusiasts and working professionals, not gallery artists.

One of the things we liked most was how personal and readable the books are - way more than just a reference where you'd read a snippet or two from various pages. These books have helped us understand digital photography much more deeply, and put into place a workflow and method for managing our studio more efficiently and profitably. We recommend the book to anyone seriously interested in photography as a regular pursuit-whether you're in it for the money or just as an active pursuit.

Trying to find a good book on digital workflow, I read the other reviews posted here. After reading the book, I tend to agree with the one reviewer that says the best picture is the cover. If several shots of fencers in action shot under existing light is your cup of tea, then this is your book. When explaining the rule of thirds, the author's sample grid is skewed so far right that that it's almost the rule of halves. The author spends an inordinate amount of time covering fencing, definitely a difficult sport to shoot given the speed and constraints, but too much of the book is dedicated to this subject making it seem too one-dimensional. Most of the other shots are uninspired shots, many of which seem vacation snapshot quality.

As for the text, more time should be spent on the post capture portion. While the author goes into monitor profiles, archival and printing, not enough time is spent on these steps which are just as important to final printing as the image capture itself. Rather than trying to be generic with the type of camera, the author overly uses his example of Canon 10D which dates the text immediately. The steps outlined are useful enough until the next generation software becomes available, don't date yourself immediately by mentioning cameras that become obsolete immediately after publication. The author misses one key point in editing: Never edit the original! Always make a copy since you can never go back to what the original shot looked like. This is especially critical with JPEG since every save of the file causes further loss of data with compression.

I was looking for a book to better understand how to maintain an effective workflow from start to finish without wasting time at each stage. Key for me was getting a better understanding what was necessary at each stage (procedures and tools to accomplish them) vs. what was optional or simply unnecessary. This book did an excellent job of that. It was quite readable, which I did over a couple of weeks time in many short reading sessions. While the book tries to deliberately avoid being another Photoshop book and tries to be balanced, presenting comparable aspects of other programs, it does describe key actions where Photoshop excels.

Most of the book is on post-processing. This book assumes that you already have some idea of how to work your camera. Instead of really telling you how to do things, it focuses on how you can make things more easy on yourself.

It discusses the preparation, the shoot itself and post-production of the images. It doesn't tell you how to shoot perfectly, because in many conditions this just isn't possible. It does discuss how you can deal with those circumstances, making them work for you instead of you work for them all the time. It's general in its guidelines, but in-depth enough to show you how to do things for yourself.

This book assumes that you're a bit creative (which you really are, don't worry) and then helps you develop this creativity.

There's a lot in there, too much to put in here. (And it's all highly organised and easy to read.)

If you enjoy textbook-style books, you will like this one. The author teaches the subject at a college and the influence of college textbooks is evident in this book.

Biggest pluses of this book are its rather comprehensive coverage of digital photograhy, lots of text, and very few pictures as space fillers. This should be viewed as of a technical book of with emphasis on the digital aspects of ...digital photography.

i was so happy to get it haveing read the other reviews of the book. ok so i got it i fliped though the book WHAT A LET DOWN. this is way out dated i wanted to know about things like work flow and histogram and other things i dont know much about but there is nothing in the book about histograms and a page about work flow this book is not for me

Understanding Digital Photography has a very interesting approach to explaining digital photography. It is not the usual general photography book with the word "digital" thrown in for marketing. I like the way the author compares traditional photography with digital photography to explain the way things work in a logical way. This book is also not just a computer or technical book. It is easy to read, and I like that you do not need to read the chapters in order to understand the information.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who really wants to understand more about Digital PHOTOGRAPHY.

As an instructor of Photography and Digital Imagaging, I have found it difficult to recommend texbooks that incorporate ALL the most important points of capturing, transmitting, printing, storing, archiving and copyright of digital images. I generally need to list several titles to cover these various topics. Understanding digital photography covers these in a very concise, logical and easy to comprehend manner. This book is timely, informative, accurate and thorough. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to jump into to the art and technique of digital photography. I especially praise its use for instructional value. I am replacing next year's text with this one.

This book is a very practical introduction to digital photography. I teach photography and use it as a text book. As for the one negative feedback item I see here, "A disaster", I would suggest you weigh the value of all of all of the other positive feedback items.

My students find the book to be quite easy to understand, and have expressed their pleasure with the constant comparisons between traditional and digital photography. They believe that this author's approach to digital photography allows for an easy understanding of the media, in context with photography as a whole. Also, I know of a number of other photography instructors that have chosen to use this book as their text at the College and University levels!

This book is a solid work for the budding digital photographer.

As the author stated at the beginning of this book, I was able to read the whole book in less than 2 hours. The material in the book gives a fast introduction/overview of the subject but certainly leaves one lacking for more detail more often than not. The text, particularly in the charter on color spaces is quite repetetive, to the point that I from time to time felt the editor has mistakenly repeated a section of text.

The author offers, throught the text, references to the books website which usually is an enhancement to a book. In this case, the web site is diffinately lacking. The only available item is the PDI target. The Macbeth color checker is NOT available as advertised (p.72). When I attempted to download the document on multiple exposures for the web site, I ended up at a broken link. The about the author section came up in Japanese when I tried it. A complete web site is the expected way to add to technical books these days and if one is offered it should work (especially since the book was published in 2007, but probably written in 2005-2006, and the equipment recommendations in the book have become rather outdated.)

I also agree with one of the previous reviewers that the price is a bit high for the content. Other books, such as Fine Art Printing for Photographers, offer more in depth information. For example, the chapter in this book on monitor profiling is a scant 3 pages plus the intductory paragraph. It takes more than this to cover this very important topic.

The beginner may get some information out of this book, but I think they will be left with the need for a more in depth treatment in order to really apply the 10 steps to their own digital printing. A person with more experience with the subject willI think be left with the impression that they didn't get their moneys worth here.

This book is short, and is mainly information that is better explained in other books. See the Rocky Nook book about photographic fine art prints. The material is sound, but should represent one chapter in a bigger book about printing.

I found this book well written ,easy to read and helpfull in a general way ,the information was organized and presented a logical manner .However the subject matter seems somewhat dated and lacking in the depth that I was looking for

My color experience is from being a long time film photographer. Digital color management principals were new to me before this book. Having completed it, I feel that I understand the fundamentals and have made some excellent color prints using Photoshop CS3 on my Intel MacMini printing to my HP B9180 archival printer. These prints are as good or slightly better than any I've made using traditional chemical color printing processes. If you want to make better prints on any inkjet printer, this is a great handbook!

What you see is seldom what you get when you make the arduous journey from digital image file to hard copy. It's a royal pain in the ASCII.

Most of us pass off the color difference between what we see on our monitor and what we get in our prints with a shrug of the shoulders. It's just one of those vagaries of computing, right?

Generally, that's a healthy attitude for the casual computer user/digital photographer. There are enough hassles in life without looking for new ones. On the other hand, if you're trying to make a living in graphic arts/photography, color management looms large in your professional life.

Some days, when I'm working on several computers, each with it's own color quirks, it gets frustrating. The book nicely bridges the color management gap with thorough explanations of color space and how to calibrate and profile your monitor.

Obviously, a good monitor is going to be an important component of the management process. Hinckel covers the related subjects as well as making some specific recommendations. He also looks beyond the monitor and discusses a good work environment.

There are specific software packages like Monaco OPTIC and Monaco EZcolor that are more powerful than the color management programs that come with printers and photo/graphic editing software. There is a good explanation of how these work.

Hinkel explorers numerous printing option, tells how to test your system, and then he moves into Advanced Printing.

This book presents a comprehensive, easy-to-understand overview of color management. Hallelujah. This book may actually inspire all of us color-management-procrastinators to jump in and get this vital area of graphic arts under control.

The book should be updated as most digital cameras - point and shoot and DSLRs have more than 2 or 3 megapixels. A lot of the info is pertinent no matter the megapixel size when it comes to correcting the photos with computer software.

I bought the book yesterday and already read half of it. The content is great, very helpful and easy to read BUT the book binding is awful. This disappointed me a lot. I am wondering if all 'Alpha' books have same 'quality' of (un)binding...

Except this problem, the information provided is really helpful and written in a friendly & clear manner.

I enjoy a lot the author's style and personally I would like to see another Steven Greenberg's book, more detailed on Part 3 of the book ('Let's Take Pictures').

I read this book two years ago after buying my first digital camera. I gave it away after reading it, so maybe it's not a keeper as a reference, but even so, I have to praise this book very highly for the insight into digital photography that it's given me. I've bought two other digitals since, and find that the lessons that I learned from this book are with me even to this day. If you're a beginner, and wish to understand this technology, buy it!

I have had a digital camera' a Kodak DC280 for many months now. I have ben a 35MM amature for over 30 years and this book has helped me make the transition to digital photography better than anything else I could have done.Before I got this book, I had many problems with doing this as the manuals on the software were very poorly written and had many things just skipped over or missing entirely. Before I got halfway through the Book there were many things that helped me greatly That were just not in the manuals that came with the software. It has made everything much easier and faster. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is just starting in digital photography.

Unfortunately this book is too far out of date to be of any significant value. The section describing the various types of cameras is no longer accurate and information regarding software, files sizes and formats is of little use.
If you are looking for a guide to using your digital camera this book will only give you basic definitions of the terminology and process involved in digital photography. The sections on composition and lighting are good.
There is a primer on Photoshop Elements. Again this section is out of date as it refers to Elements. 2.0. (At the time of this review Elements is currently in version 4.0) While this section does provide an adequate introduction to the various capabilities of Elements, most of what is found in this book can be found on Adobe's own descriptions of the product.
I have never returned a book to Amazon before but I will be returning this one. It is simply too far out of date and too introductory to be worth the cost.

Although most of the images in the book are truly abstract, few are "true" macro photography. And as other reviewers have stated, the author uses Photoshop plug-ins on most of the images. In fact there were so many plug-ins used, I thought the book might've been published (or sponsored) by some association of companies that offer Photoshop plug-ins. The plug-ins that the author uses throughout the book are:
1.Corel KPT Collection (Color Equalizer, Channel Surfing filter, Reaction, Screen Norm blend, Collection Blur, Gel, Lens Flare, Notch Blur, Spin Blur, Zoom Blur, Fiber Optic)
2. Imaging factory (Color Correction & Color Equalizer)
3. Color Efex Pro (Infrared, Sepia, Bi-color, Pop Art filters, BW Dynamic Contrast, Pen tool)
4. Power Retouche (Sharpen & Color Editor, Edgeline)
5. Flaming Pear (Glitterato, Aetherize, Glow, Glare)
6. Dfine (noise removal)
7. USM (sharpening)
8. Auto/FX (Auto Eye, Mystical Lighting Enhance Strength, Mystical Tint Tone & Color (Antique Photo
Sepia, Soft Posterize, Color Mixer)
9. Corel Painter(Lighting, 3D Surface Texture)
10. Focal Blade Pro (sharpening)
11. Buzz Pro 3 (watercolor filter, Edges Color)
12. Andromedia (Reflection, Scatter Light, Star, Velociraptor, Etch filters)
13. Xaos Tools (Paint Alchemy Abstract, Segmation)
14. Alien Skin (Xenofex 2 Constellation filter, Edges, Diamond Plate, Bevel Boss)
15. Fred Miranda's (Highligh/Shadow)
16. Neat Image (Noise Removal)
17. Photo Wiz Focal Blade (sharpen)
18. Eye Candy 4000 (Water drops, Fire, Drip, Bevel Boss, Nature, Swirl)
19. Photokit (Sharpener)
20. Movie Prime (Lens Flare)
21. Grain Surgey (Noise removal)

However, many of the above effects that are done with these plug-ins can be accomplished with the tools and filters provided in CS2 or 3.

If you set aside all of the negatives, you will find the book to be inspiring. There are a few images in the book that say "wow!" and are well worth the price of the book. If you are a creative person, it's an absolute must buy.

This book has beautiful full color abstract photos and some general ideas on how to create them. The problem is (as stated by the author in the introduction) that he uses a number of 3rd party filters and tools which can be quite expensive for the non professional. Most of these effects can be achieved with Photoshop alone and the book would be much better if he described those methods in addition to the 3rd party techniques.

While it would be correct to say that most of the photographs in this book are abstract, it would be more accurate to describe them as poor and overprocessed in photoshop, with instantly recognizable digital effects such as edge detect, posterize, charcoal, glowing edges, wild tinting and colorization, etc. Gratuitous applications of various fringe filters, ilke Photo Wiz Focal Blade or Xaos Segmation, abound.

In the "Salsa" photograph, you can clearly see the accidental click with a photoshop brush (it happens on Windows when you try to bring a window to the front and accidentally plant a blotch of foreground color).

What the author has done, for the most part, is taken the most average-looking, uninspired photographs, like that of the bottom of his sneaker, and tried to make them work by applying "interesting" effects. The problem is that abstract or not, a picture needs an idea to give it a reason to exist.

To be fair to the author, the very first few photographs look very reasonable and are done in taste. But once the author exhausts the repertoire of contrast, sharpen, and curves, it seems that he begins to grow increasingly desperate trying to fill the rest of the book with content.

The macro section is particularly disappointing: featuring just nine photographs out of the total of over a hundred, with almost non-existent depth of field, and instances of dirt, hair, cigarette butts, magnified slime, sprinkled generously with magnified digital noise, it's underwhelming considering that Macro is in the title of the book.

Not only is this book an inspirational, it is also chock full of easy to follow techniques. What struck me about this book was that theinformation is not your run of the mill Photoshop, boring, overused techniques. Rather the author comes up with many techniques that differ from what everyone else is doing. I am a graphic designer who is learning to do his own photography so I will have more control over the final product. I am glad I purchased this one and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to do some awesome photographic technques.

As a Web Designer I am always looking for inspiration and creative ideas. It's easy for me to whip up a Web design but there are times when I need something truly inspirational and unique. I am sometimes "creatively challenged" and need outside inspiration. Ken's book is pure inspiration. The book is what it says it is, a book which is "meant to inspire with its images"

I recommend this book to any creative person who needs that spark of inspiration or to anyone who wants to expand the possibilities with their digital imagery.

Up until this last chapter this is a basically just another how-to digital photography book. Nothing that 10 other books don't already have. However the last chapter covers the "photo-essay" which is almost worth the price of the book. This chapters covers a lot about making a photo-essay that I have not seen in other books.

First and foremost, this is an attractive book as every book on photography
should be. It is rich with relevant and interesting color photographs on each page.
It is not just a book about digital photography but one that shows how to use digital
photography to capture and manipulate images. If I were still teaching and teaching
a basic course in photography this certainly would be a book to consider. A well
written, well illustrated and engaging book

I do agree with several of the reviews written on the misleading title. A book should not be judged by it's cover, make sure you do your research. This book does a great job of breaking down the fundamentals of photography. Explains simple rules, and formulas that produce quality photos, however explains the benefits of breaking the rules for creative results. I like how much of the book is not so much focused on the functions of the camera but rather how to capture moments. Not the greatest book about lighting, but the content for technique is great.

The authors of this book should be fined for false advertising. This book is NOT about available light photography. There is not a single chapter on available light photography. This book has a chapter on picking out a digital camera. This book has a chapter on using a FLASH and picking out a FLASH. This book discusses using reflectors and LIGHT MODIFIERS to beautify your pictures. This book is a basic, generic, all encompasing book about digital photography. I have read dozens of books that have nearly the exact same information as this book, which is probably why the authors tried to sell the book under a missleading title. If they tried to sell the book under an accurate title. . . "A beginners guide to digital photography." it would have dozens of other books with the same information and premise to compete with.
As a generic digital photography book, it is not bad, though not at all original. If you are looking for a generic digital photography book, you may whant to buy this book. If you want to buy a book on available light photography, you should not waste your money because there is not a single sentence in this book dedicated to photography using only available light.

The previous reviewers who commented on the lack of substantive information about available light shooting techniques, are correct. I've looked through this book carefully and it is like a dozen other beginning photography books I've seen, and that's how it should be titled. Sadly I believe the assertion that this book was mis-labeled intentionally, because there is so little inside that actually relates to available light shooting. This book, while it has some good information for beginners, is another inch deep, mile wide digital photography overview. When what it should be is mile deep, inch wide, pertaining mostly to working with available light indoors and out. A chapter on reflectors or flash is OK but as an extra, not the "meat".

Unless you're new to digital photography, look elsewhere. Focal Press should know better. They usually produce outstanding titles. This one OTOH, is average in every way except the photographic examples provided. But examples without detailed context, are useless.