Digital Photography Books

This book was extremely useful in helping me clean up many old family photos, some more than one hundred years old. The instructions were clear and I was able to do a good job (with practice) of restoration without fear of doing further damage to the originals. Thank you Laurie Ann Ulrich!

I am reasonably new to the world of digital photography and restoration of old photos, and have been searching for "the" book that will guide me as to the best way to approach certain situations in restoring my old photos. I found exactly what I was looking for in this book. This book is not about Photoshop Elements generally, but specifically addresses the restoration and retouching of photographs. It is the perfect resource that I have been searching for.

I have been retouching photos for awhile now and recently bought this book just to check it out. I found myself not being able to put it down. From beginning to end Laurie has done an oustanding job presenting each step in simple easy to understand steps. I dont think anybody will be dissappointed buying this book.

I usually search the web and ask friends for help when I have to learn software, but the cover of this book made me want to check it out, and I'm glad I did. This is a great book!!! Laurie Ulrich really knows about retouching and restoring photos and you can tell she really cares about her readers and has a feel for the kind of stuff people want to do with their family photos, old pictures, and so on. The book is fun to read and is written in a very easy friendly and readable style. She doesn't talk down to you and she doesn't make a lot of jokes (like in a Dummies or Idiots book) to make her point. The author respects her readers and what they want to accomplish and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to really learn Photoshop Elements and start making use of all those photos you have lying around or the really damaged ones you thought would never be useable again. GET THIS BOOK!

This is my third book by Laurie Ulrich on Photoshop and Elements, and it's great. I got the Elements Bible, and had her Complete Reference on Photoshop, and they're both great. This author is GREAT at explaining things, and gives really realistic examples that make sense. I wrote to her with a restoration question after I got the Bible, and she not only answered the question, but she retouched the photo I sent her and told me how she did it. That made me want this book so Icould do what she did without help, and it's been a great investment. GET THIS BOOK!

I paid for overnight shipping and did not recieve the product for 3-4 days. The product was in great condition though. Very pleased with the book itself, just not my waste of money on shipping!

A very highly recommended instruction guide and reference work for filmmaking students and aspiring filmmakers, Practical DV Filmmaking by Russel Evans (Film, Video and Multimedia Lecturer, internet broadcasting advisor and freelance writer on video production) is an informed and informative guide to minimal-budget film making, including all of the diverse "tricks of the trade" involved in the production a marketable film. Enhanced with an accompanying CD, Practical DV Filmmaking is sure to enable even the most novice filmmaker to attain a mastery of the filmmaking process for the low-budget end of the entertainment or documentary market.

The book itself is excellent and answered most of my questions. The depth of the book is in the supporting material. So many internet links to great content can take you months to read if you wanted to spend the time. Very intelligent in the layout. It gives you exercises to complete before you go to the next step and the exercises are designed to get you to know yourself as film maker and to get to know your equipment and tools (ie limitations). This book goes a long way in helping you realize yourself as a DV film maker.

This book is just filled with great advice for newcomers to video/film making.

It fully meet my needs as a starting point to clearly layout basics that one needs to take into consideration not start out blind, it really saves you time by focusing on the esential quickly.

It also helps by defining many concepts one perceptivelly understands or thinks one does.

I have bought several of the cinematography/videography books on top of the "must have" lists and by far, this is the one I can hardly stop reading.

Highly recomended, go for it, you will not regret it.

The CD included is of very little value, trial versions of software and transcripts in Word format instead of a nice multimedia just sucks.

Next time Mr Evans, have your editors work harder if they want to "include" something.

Include printable forms like storyboards and frames with the thirds rule and alike with real practical value for begginers.

Maybe spreadsheets with basic calculations...be creative, the files included are very boring, more so after going through such an entertaining and educational book.

This book is fantastic. Evans outlines everything from the direction that audio waves are received depending on which external mic is used, to the compression rate for web movies. The book is incredibly up to date, as it should be considering it just came out. The set up of the book is very much like the 'for dummies' series, considering that there are projects along the way for you to undertake to sharpen your skills, along with info and ww link boxes. Most other books out there just outline what you need to do but don't tell you how to do things. This book really tells you what is going on when your making a film, and just doesn't say, if you do this then the picture will look pretty. He gets technical, and that's what needs to be said to give people getting into this a better understanding of what they are doing . He starts off with a great intro, for those who are just getting into digital filmmaking it really outlines what needs to be done to succeed. He identifies each technical aspect that he is going to cover, and then goes on to explain how you need to get to know your camera. Its obvious that a ton of research has been put into this book, as it really tells you everything you could possibly need to know. If you buy this book first then there really is no need for any other book out there. I've read this book cover to cover 1 time so far, and plan on reading it 2 more times.

Excellent book for those wanting to set up colour workflows. In depth explanations based on practicle applications. This is not a step by step guide for those wanting to learn photoshop

Very in-depth explanation of Photoshop CS3. A lot more detailed and advanced than most Photoshop books. This is really a resource or reference book and not a book that you can just sit down and read through like Scoot Kelby's book on CS3 for digital photographers, but it is far more informative and in-depth than Kelby's book.

There's nothing else out there that comes even close to this book as an encyclopedic reference to Photoshop CS3. Losing Bruce Fraser is a terrible blow to all of us who've relied for decades on his ability to make complicated subjects understandable, but David Blatner is keeping up the tradition and it appears that Conrad Chavez is a valuable addition to the lineup.

The chapter on color settings in this book is worth the price of admission all by itself. If you do serious work with CS3 you NEED this book. Sit down and read it all the way through, highlight revealing passages, and make notes on the blank parts of the front pages. When you finish you'll have the whole story at your fingertips. Like most CS3 users I work with a subset of Photoshop most of the time, but when I'm faced with an unusual problem I can dive into this book and come up with the solution in a minute or two. Once you've done your homework on the book you won't want to be without it.

This book is so much more than a list of Photoshop options. It tells you how to do the things that as a photographer you will probably be doing a lot of, not all kinds of theoretical stuff that you will probably never even think about doing. That said, there's too much pre-press and print industry material for my taste. But the photography-relevant material is first-rate.

This book surpassed all my expectations, it was made for serious professionals, and that's what I wanted. Although I'm only an amateur photographer and Photoshop enthusiast, I'm enjoying the book, but because I'm very curious and exactly because I love Photoshop so much I wanted to understand everything about it.

If you are also an enthusiast/amateur but don't care about how this marvelous program works, you better get an easier book with canned "how toos". This book also has step by step guides, but on the top of it they explain every single detail of how everything works.

The authors give very in depth explanations on color theory, color management (I had a hard time on this), color spaces, exactly what is a digital image, etc. Although I found this all fascinating, as I already said I had a hard time trying to understand some concepts about color management, but my guess is that if you are a professional you will understand it better.

They also explain Bridge and Camera Raw. I understand why they included these 2 programs in the book (they work together, although CR is actually a plugin), but I could live without it, mostly because there are more in depth books about CR, like Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Real World), by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe (I love this guy, check out his videos on CR at the Luminous Landscape website). If you don't plan on buying a specific book on CR, then the chapter about it is a good introduction.

The most fun part is of course on Photoshop itself, covered in a brilliant, flawless way, with everything you could wish for and more.

The book is massive, more than 700 pages, and is written in a nice, light but serious way. They won't waste your time and patience on endless silly jokes like Scott Kelby. For someone like me, whose mother language isn't English, I could understand everything and the reading flowed smoothly.

Quick and to the point. Very helpful. I use it for post-processing wedding shots.

I got my copy a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed working through from cover to cover.
The book is easy to read and has really gotten me up to speed in Lightroom 2 a heck of a lot faster than I expected!
I am familiar with Chris Orwig's Lynda.com video training materials and was curious to see if he could communicate in print with the same passion as he does in video.
Not only is the passion there but it is presented clearly and succinctly.
Totally worth the $$.

I just got my copy of the book this past weekend and already it has already paid for itself! As a new photographer, familar to other Adobe products but new to Lightroom this book is perfect. I find it is easy to simply flip around to the different sections, learn something new and can begin using it right away. Plus no long winded, how-to sections that you don't need or read anyway....
Adobe Lightroom is such a powerful tool and the more I learn the more impressed I am - and for me this book is now one of those essential for learning how to really use and get the most out of it.

I'm always in need of succinct resources that are easy to navigate and which deliver the message in direct and easy to grasp ways. This book really does it for me. I strongly recommend it. Chris has a natural talent for relating to users and communicating in a very effective way. I'm a big fan.

Experienced and intermediate Lightroom users will find this a great reference. It's an excellent support tool, topically organized, in the order of Lightroom's modules and tools. If you need help with a particular tool, like the new gradient filter, it's simple to go right to that section, without having to dig through the index. Also, each section gives me just enough to get going on my own, without a lot of extra verbiage, which might be fun to read, but it's becomes more time-consuming when you just need something quick. This was the first book available, and well priced. I'll probably get his Photoshop book, too, when the CS4 version becomes available.

The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction

If you've ever tried to color correct in your NLE and have no idea of what all the adjustments mean (such as "input Black") and have been trying to teach yourself the software by just moving the knobs and looking at the results, then this book is for you. I am amazed after reading the first third of the book how much I have learned and how to use the built in scopes that come with most software. I may never become a colorist, but it sure makes my in-house projects far better. And when the day comes that I need to hire a colorist, I feel like I will be better prepared to speak the language. This will be another reference book that will be worn out from daily use.

Before you read this review you should know that I have not actually read the book in question. I'm writing the review specifically for people who are looking online for a book on color correction and don't have access to a copy in person to get a closer look.

I read the TOC for this book here on Amazon and then went to the local book store, where they happened to have a copy, because I needed to look closer before buying, so I'm passing what I learned on to you.

First, this looks like a really cool tutorial for anyone interested in a career in color correction and prepared to get the professional tools to follow that path. I also think in a few years I will be coming back to this book to learn more theory, because it looks strong there, too.

It also looks somewhat (if less) useful for those learning to color correct using either Avid or Final Cut Pro (which is, I know, the majority of practitioners).

However, if you are looking for a tool to learn how to color correct your own digital videos and you use the Adobe suite (Premiere Pro and After Effects), this author does not seem to feel that you have a fighting chance doing color correction at all, so you are out of his loop. I'm pretty sure that there are ways to color correct using these tools, though, especially with Photoshop CS3, so I, for one, am not going to go out and buy more software just yet. When I find the right book for us Adobe people I will post a review of that, too.

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure this book will be wonderful for the rest of you (especially if you own a Mac).

I 'searched inside this book' and after reading the table of contents and the first few pages I decided to buy it. I had my reservations - not because of what I had read in the intro, but by the last few DV books I had purchased on Amazon. I am, I suppose, something in between a novice and an intermediate editor, and I edit on Sony Vegas Pro. This I have found puts me in a rather awkward category. In the past, all of the 'how to' books I've read have been far too basic or software specific.

What I really appreciated was the tone and pitch of the book. Most of the time, I find introductory books condescending - they seem to assume your inexperience equals a lack of intelligence (and corny jokes are unbelievable).

Before I read the Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction, I new more or less nothing about colour correction - my former corrections, dare I say it, were largely made using the contrast/brightness control - but this book made perfect sense to me. Steve Hullfish writes enthusiastically and encouragingly, and the book I believe would suit novices and pro's alike. The clear definitions in the margins are an excellent idea and are perhaps the key to the book's ability to transcend the novice/pro divide. If you understand the terminology move on, if you don't the explanations are right there.

Although the book does not give examples from Vegas. It explains colorist parlance in useful analogies, and offers suggestions about where to look for color correction tools in NLE's other than Avid and Apple Color. By in large, I found Vegas had most of the tools, scopes etc, and although I love Vegas, after seeing what Apple Color can provide, I do have a little 'application' envy.

One last thing... here's a small anicdote: I recently made a short film on HDV and showed a couple of people who liked it and before I new it, I was being mentored by a large post production studio. I asked them for some advice on corrections. I ended up sitting down with their senior colourists, watching the film on the big screen and talking shop with them for a couple of hours. We were talking about masks, vignettes, secondaries, colour casts, gamma and all sorts of things that, to be honest, I new nothing about until I read this book. It seems there's no substitute for experience, but because this book is full of advice from colourists with many years of experience, why not learn from your mistakes before you make them!

Glen Maw
Wellington, New Zealand

I disagree with the reviewer who said that the book claims that it's impossible to color correct with Adobe products. The MAIN readers of the first color correction book by the author were After Effects users, many of whom followed the advice of noted After Effects gurus, Trish and Chris Meyer.

American Cinematographer magazine's reviewer said this about the book: "likely to become the definitive text on the subject. Sensibly organized, lavishly illustrated and varied in perspective, it's a dense but highly readable summary of the current state of the art."

The cool thing about the book is that it is NOT platform or product specific. The author sat in on sessions with more than a dozen colorists around the country as they all graded the same images. The book walks the reader through those corrections from the viewpoint of these master colorists, instead of from the solitary viewpoint of the author. That's the value of the book. You are literally sitting in with people who have graded TV shows like "24" and "Desperate Housewives" and "LA Law" and "48 Hours" and movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Spiderman" or those beautiful NFL Films.

This is a book for anyone using any software product. It is a book that is more about "why" to do the things you need to do than about "how" to do them with a specific piece of software.

I originally wrote this review for my blog and decided to post it here since I think it'll help potential buyers decide if this book is for them. Enjoy...

First question: Is The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction worth reading?

Answer: Yes! Absolutely.

Second question: Is it targeted at newbies or advanced users?

Yes. To both.

The first two thirds of the book "Primary Color Correction" and "Secondary Color Correction" deals with the fundamentals of our toolsets: monitoring, understanding waveform monitors and vectorscopes, balancing shots, vignettes, HSL isolations, and more. While this part of the book can be safely skipped over by more advanced users to whom all that info is second nature, Steve Hullfish does a nice job of surveying how different software apps approach the same concepts. And when a particular software package has a unique tool for achieving a particular task, he breaks it down for the reader.

The upshot: Even if you're experienced colorist on a Symphony you'll walk away with a strong understanding how other software apps work and what you might be missing (or what advantages you may have that you didn't realize). My advice, advanced users should at least skim through these parts paying particular attention when Steve takes a moment to pull a quote from the working professionals he features in the last third of the book. There are some great tips in these sections - especially on how different colorists set up multi-display scopes to help them nail black balance or tweak color values. I ended up changing some of my displays and found a few new setups that I really like.

Overall, the first two parts are not a dumbed down discussion. While Steve starts by laying down the ground-work emphasizing monitoring and external scopes (the latter being a deep discussion that permeates the entire book - which I very much appreciate), he seems to anticipate some of his readers finding material redundant and thankfully breaks out basic terminology to sidebars. Appropriately, those early chapters work through the subject matter in the same order a colorist will typically approach their problem-solving.

The final third of the book "Pro Colorists" is likely where the advanced users will want to begin. Why? That answer leads us to our third question...

Third Question: What makes this book different than other color correction books (or DVDs)?

The soul of this book is contained in the last few chapters and on its supplemental DVD. Steve sits with over a dozen accomplished, professional colorists and puts them in front of a common software color grading platform, Apple's Color (at the time called Final Touch HD), with a Tangent control surface. He gives them all the same set of footage (also provided on a DVD), presses 'record' on a DV camera and grills the colorists about the approach they are each taking to color correcting those images. The result is the author presenting up to three colorists approaching the same shot using different techniques. Or the same technique being used on different shots. Usually in the words of those colorists. It's a great education.

Even better are the transcripts Steve provides on the DVD that didn't make it into the book but he thought were informative. I've just started to read those and already I've gotten some new ideas about different approaches to common challenges.

Another thing that differentiates this book is its largely software-agnostic approach. Color, Avid Symphony, After Effects, Color Finesse, even Photoshop are all featured in the first 2 Chapters alone. Where interfaces are similar, Steve picks a software package and follows it through - pointing out where users of other apps might find things different. I suspect that if iMovie had a color correction module Steve would have a found a place to feature it.

Fourth Question: Any final thoughts?

This is clearly a book about concepts, not tools. As much as it necessarily covers the How To of working with color correction software, it's the Why Do that is emphasized.

In fact, Why Do is the whole point of the book.

Read it. Live it. Learn it.

'Digital Photography from the Ground Up: A Comprehensive Course' is EXACTLY what the title says. Perfect for anyone new or learning about the digital photography field, you will get everything you need out of this text. From the basics of what digital photography IS, how it differs from film, settings and options, organizing pictures, editing/cropping, this book has it all. With a pretty layout and FULL COLOR throughout this text, the pages are printed on nice paper and it's good sized. The writing is excellent and this is a very easy book to recommend. If you are new to digital photography and want to learn more about how to get the most bang out of your digital camera or you know someone that would like to learn more this book is a perfect learning resource.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Digital photography is covered in a bare-bones, basic guide for novices which will help such an audience begin with a solid foundation in photography principles. Most digital photo books focus on photo editing techniques, but this covers everything from workflow and image capture to print and storage. From the basics of how imaging occurs in digital cameras to what to look for in a new camera and how to improve image shooting as well as editing and presentation, DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE GROUND UP is a fine beginner's title perfect for either photography or general-interest lending libraries.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is indeed a great book. Like it says, "From the Ground Up) It covers every phase of digital photography. From the beginner to the seasoned professional.

This is a great book for the novice to intermediate digital photographer. There are no major issues that are not addressed. The book starts with chapters on equipment, with tips on choosing a camera. It then proceeds to chapters on composition, and a number of short sections on shooting topics such as animal photography, landscape photography, night photography, and others.

Appropriately, the longest section (over 100 pages) covers image editing software, with representatives from the world of MacOS, Linux, and Windows. While the level of detail doesn't approach that in a book dedicated to image editing such as Managing Your Photographic Workflow with Photoshop Lightroom or Art of RAW Conversion: How to Produce Art-Quality Photos with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Leading RAW Converters by Juergen Gulbins and Uwe Steinmueller, it has adequate detail for the newbie to use to become acquainted with the various features of image editing software. It gives detailed instructions (including screenshots) about the use of many of the most important features.

There is a short chapter introducing the RAW format, and then a chapter on printing presentation quality pictures with ink-jet printers. There is special emphasis on the shareware program Qimage, a print application that provides excellent quality prints from even medium resolution photos. The image quality from this program in many instances even exceeds the quality obtained from printing directly from Photoshop. I was pleased to see credit given to this program, which I have used extensively over the last eight years and found to be invaluable in printing high quality ink-jet prints.

There are short sections on choosing and using a scanner, image management, and finally a brief description of Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom, popular all-in-one programs.

This book is a complete introduction to digital photography. It does not provide new information for the experienced photographer, but it does provide answers to questions that neophytes may not know to ask, and will refresh the memory of intermediate photographers about techniques they may not have used for years.

Highly Recommended.

Most photographers I know are self taught through lots of reading and plenty of practice. Anyone getting started is usually looking for a simple source to explain the basics about photography so they understand at a level that helps them get better, quicker.

Digital Photography from the Ground Up provides a solid overview on essentially all things related to digital photography. This book is definitely targeting the beginning user or one that may have been trying things out for awhile and would like to get a better foundation behind their hobby.

With this in mind, the advanced user likely knows most of what is covered in this title, but could use a copy to lend out to those that are always asking them questions! The concepts do get a little more advanced in some sections, but the concepts are clearly and simply explained to make them approachable and understandable for anyone. Because this book covers so many topics, each is only covered in a concise manner. For example night photography, which could be a chapter long is covered in one page. This is what beginners need though; a good explanation of how to best approach a type of photography including the potential mistakes and how to best set your camera to get good photos.

Though not a title that is going to take you from beginner to master, rather it is a wide reference doing exactly as the title suggests. Readers are taken from the ground up to a good understanding of all the areas they need to know to excel at photography.

I bought this book with an Idea I might learn quickly some of the attributes and controls of My Fuji9500 and I have to say its a great help. It was worth the wait and I would recommend it to anybody with a Digital Camera, I even found the answer to a "Ghost" effect a friend experienced ,a question that has baffelled a lot of Amateur Experts. I would definitly say that this book should be supplied with every Digital Camera, it is a Great Purchase and wont ever be lent to friends, they can buy their own.

If your in the market for an all around excellent book on everything from picture composition, calibrating the color on your monitor, using photo software and anything else you may need, this is the one for you.

This book will be tremedously helpful to the beginning or intermediate digital photographer. It covers taking and editing images and explains complicated procedures clearly and concisely. It is an attractive book, copiously illustrated in color to make its points. I bought it based on two reviews (thank you, reviewers) and I wanted to add my positive comments. You can't go wrong with this book for adding useful information to your knowledge of digital photography and it is certainly priced right!

This book is a great way to start using your cameras full potential in the least amount of time! Plus it's in full color. I find black and white photography books to be nearly useless! It guides you through a cameras features and helps you select a camera or an upgrade but moves quickly into how to take the best shots.

This book is heavily illustrated so I could see the difference that a white point setting had or the difference of a low or high f-stop setting. Mr. Sahlin explains with pictures how to setup your shoots, how to get the best portrait or landscape, motion (waterfalls and sports) how to correct and a ton of other things. There are a lot of tips and cautions along the way. If you want to put your digital camera to full use then get this book...I don't know how they can sell it for so little and teach such complex settings in a way anyone can understand!

I picked up this book a couple of weeks ago along with 3 other books on digital photography and one on Photoshop. I am a professional desiger and I just bought a decent digital camera to be able to shoot my own photos instead of having to hire a photographer whose hourly rate is very expensive. Out of the 5 books I purchased I have to say that this Quickstep book was the easiest to read and got me up and running taking pictures immediately. I was very intimidate by this camera at first (Canon EOS ) but this book was the most helpful in explaining really complex techniques in a simple way. The other books, although helpful, were a little wordy for someone who wants to get down and start working right away. Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography is good too but dwells way too much on things in Photoshop and there are a million Photshop books all the same out there. To put my 2 cents in, I highly recommend this Digital Photography Quicksteps book..

Helpful and good information this book will get you up and running with scanners in no time.

I can take a picture using my digital camera and I can even use the software, but the pictures looked horrible. So I broke down and bought this book. Wow! Now I know what I was doing wrong - lots! It's the technical information about resolution and working with the software that makes all the difference in your pictures. This is a must buy. If you've spent the money to buy the camera, spend a little extra, buy this book, and do it right.

I recieved this book as a gift and I snickered, thinking I already knew a lot about digital photography. Boy, was I wrong! This book is full of great information about things that really matter (resolution for example). This is a must buy for anyone scanning or using a digital camera. Really, there's a lot to learn!

Want to know the difference between image, monitor and printer resolutions? This book is a great intro to the world of digital graphics. The author writes in a witty, nontechnical manner, and manages to make even a technical topic a joy to read. The chapter on Internet images, however, lacks coverage of online photo albums such as ecircles and clubphoto. Perhaps the accompanying Web site at wambooli can pick up the slack.

I don't own a digital camera (35mm buff) but just couldn't get the hang of achieving even decent scans of my 35mm shots. This book follows Adobe Photodeluxe to the "T" but is very useful for anyone with a scanner. Changed everything and frequently use the book as a reference tool. Best bet for the price!

A must read for students. This is the base of so much of our "art" and so few people understand it, its nice to see someone bring it back out! I wish there had been more dedicated to digital however.

Dr. Glenn Rand's FILM & DIGITAL TECHNIQUES FOR ZONE SYSTEM PHOTOGRAPHY tells how to take control of photographic results using the Zone System which emphasizes black and white photography and is based on the techniques of Ansel Adams. This is an unusual systematic approach which offers tips for using the system, identifying its place in typical workflows, and honing techniques for using with the Zone System. Photography libraries catering to practicing professionals and neo-professionals need this.

Of the many factors involved in the finished black and white photograph, the zone system deals with the technical process. How to best incorporate the widest tonal range possible into black and white photography is a core fundamental that is illustrated with clarity. Using the tools this book offers will help the film and digital photographer achieve optimal results in the images produced.

This is a simple and easy to follow explanation of the zone system. The author is a true expert in the field and his teaching experience is evident in his ease in explaning this important and fundamental examination of exposing the perfect image - be it with film or digital.

As in other critiques, I like to start by saying that I am a BIG fan of Amherst Media books. They are concise and informative. I am a regular "textbook" reader and Amherst Media seems to offer the best selection of photography books available. I am extremely impressed with their products. EVERY book I have offers SOMETHING worthwhile!!!

"Zone System Photography" was a very interesting read. I actually went through it twice! It might be due to the technical nature of the book, but anyone familiar with the topic knows that Zone shooting IS technical. I'm a huge fan of beautiful Black and White photography and for those "purists" still shooting film and developing their own work, they NEED to get this book. It is a complete, step-by-step guide to beautiful B&W images.

The book itself obviously goes into great detail about the Zone System, proper placement of zones, expansion and compaction, paper and film selections, etc. For anyone wanting to learn more about the subject, this book will certainly provide that. However, FOR DIGITAL SHOOTERS, only a small portion of this text is devoted to the "pixel people" of the photography world. If you're reading this critique, then you should already know why there is such limited discussion.

The images in this book are absolutely amazing. I just wish I had this text prior to taking my P.P.A Certification exam. Maybe I wouldn't have flubbed two questions on Zones!

This is a GREAT reference book. I highly recommend it to anyone who might want to see the world in Black and White!

The Missing Manual series has been around for quite some time, but I have never felt the need to buy one until I started doing some serious work with iPhoto. iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual was a good volume to assist.

One of the things I like about Apple's iApps is that they hide a great deal of complexity behind a simple interface; they do indeed make the complex simple. The drawback to this is that I often find myself ignoring the more powerful aspects of the application and never using it to its full. It was here that the Missing Manual came to my help.

The target audience for this book would probably be a little less technical than myself, however when I find myself in a field I don't understand well I don't mind a little stuff for the absolute newbie. This book has an entire first section that deals with photography and digital photography in particular that may be a total repeat for some, I found it a welcome reminder of how to get a good photograph along with some extremely useful hints about the new technology and choosing a camera. It covers such topics as composition and lighting for a host of different situations such as landscapes, night, portraits, children and sports.

It then goes on to a section of similar size on the basics that covers getting the photos from your camera to the Mac, organising the photos using albums and keywords and then editing your shots.

A third section covers the various ways of publishing and showing your photos such as printing, CD, and web pages, and a final section with some tricks and tips on things like managing your libraries. There are two appendices: one very useful troubleshooting guide, and a menu-by-menu look at iPhoto 2.

I particularly appreciated the thorough treatment of how to get the most out of iPhoto when printing photo books and creating web pages in the third section; it was here that I really discovered how little I knew from just `playing' with the application. The book is peppered with useful information and tips that take you beyond the level that most of us discovered when we ran and used the program. The authors have also provided some marvelous explanations of what is going on, the "why" as well as the "what."

The book is well written with a readable, light, almost witty style that somehow deceives the reader as to the depth of the material being covered. It is only when I reflected back on how much the book taught me that I realised how well it had done the job.

O'Reilly have their usual web page for the book with a sample chapter, Table of Contents and Index. Pogue Press have a neat idea - they have a page that features all the software mentioned in the book. A neat idea that I liked a lot.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to everyone who is serious about digital photography on their Mac. If you have used iPhoto for a long time you may think the book a waste, but I'd be surprised if even long-time users didn't get their money's worth out of this book. I much preferred the style of this volume to IDG's iPhoto 2 for Dummies, the only other real competitor for this volume was iPhoto 2 for Mac OS X: A Visual Quickstart Guide, and that is a shorter volume with less depth and less advice for photography and nothing on the camera technology, though I think Engst's writing seems a bit clearer at times.

I wouldn't buy a "Missing Manual" for every iApp or the operating system, but if you take the slogan for the series seriously, "The book that should have been in the box" (for the box is entirely devoid of books), I think they are a marvelous help for becoming a true `power user.

Can you imagine a software manual that makes you feel smart, not dumb? David Pogue's iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual does just that. It's written in a way that's easy to understand without being condescending. The straightforward style is well organized, sometimes humorous and always informative.

I'm new to Mac and iPhoto. Some things come easily but the details are often evasive. The Missing Manual fills in the blanks. I was hooked from the first chapter. The discussion of digital cameras and their use has opened my eyes and was a terrific intro to using iPhoto.

The Missing Manual is a reference book that's enjoyable to use.

At first I wondered how an entire book could be written about iPhoto--this one is packed with useful information. I had no idea how much can be done with this application. I own a number of Missing Manuals, and they're all very good.

I've had iPhoto for about a year, but wasn't familiar with any of the features save importing my photos from my camera. After a few hours with this book, however, I've mastered the program and received a lot of kudos on the improved quality of my shots.

The first section is on how to take better pictures. As I've never taken a photography class, this section was particularly useful for me. It breaks down the different types of pictures (portraits, action shots, close-ups, night shots, etc...) and tells you how to get the best shot.

The meat of the book is in the second section though - that part details how to use iPhoto, from importing pictures to touching them up and eliminating red eye. I primarily use my photos for my website. As such, I wanted to crop them, touch them up, and eliminate red eye. All three of those functions are easy to use after reading this book. It takes me a minute or so to turn my original, off-centered, dark, photo into something worthy of going online.

The Missing Manual goes through each function in order, explains what it does, and what the potential drawbacks are. It also goes into file management - I had no idea that iPhoto stored a copy of the original of any image I altered, even if it was just to rotate it. I followed a suggestion in the book, downloaded a piece of freeware, and was able to open up a lot of space on my hard drive by eliminating these unnecessary duplicates.

The Missing Manual also details how to edit photos in other programs (such as Adobe Photoshop) without causing problems in iPhoto. As I occasionally have to resize pictures based on the DPI, this information was quite useful.

The third section describes how to show off your photos. As I usually just upload them to my website, I only perused this section. It looks to contain some useful information though - how to make a slideshow with a soundtrack, turn the slideshow into a QuickTime video, back up your photos on a DVD, upload them as a photo album to a website, print out a photo album, e-mail them, and more.

Apple Computer markets a concept they call "the digital hub" representing its integrated hardware and software combinations, especially the iLife package (iPhoto2, iTunes, iChat, iMovie, and iDVD). Beyond Apple's traditionally elegant and harmonious hardware-software integration, the iLife programs are brilliantly designed to allow users to easily enjoy important non-computer things in their lives - photos, music, home and family and recreational video, etc. - while benefitting from the enormous background power of computer applications.

With iPhoto2, for example, images (scanned or from a digital camera) can be easily imported into the computer, viewed, printed, burned to CD or DVD, emailed, posted to websites, or composed in professional quality albums with only a handful of clicks. Other than acquiring the images themselves, iPhoto2 and the Mac can facilitate an enormous depth and breadth of enjoyment of photo images without great effort or computer knowledge. The iLife idea is to have the computer aspects work seamlessly and near sub-consciously in the background allowing the user to enjoy his or her photos.

In essence, Apple has designed and created a hardware-software combination which, in itself, does virtually everything a non-professional needs to fully enjoy photo imaging. All of the iLife applications are designed with the "hub" concept - put all the tools needed into one easily learned and implemented application; - in other words, think of what people need and give that to them in an integrated and elegantly-designed package.

As easy as the iLife applications are to use, like all computer aspects, ease of use is relative - there is no real "easy" computer or application - it's an issue of something only more or less easy to use than another thing. Consequently, there is still a need for focused documentation and instruction to allow users to better and more fully utilize the features and power of the applications. This is where "iPhoto2: The Missing Manual" becomes useful. "iPhoto2" is part of the acclaimed "Missing Manual" series published by Pogue Press/O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Like all of the other "Missing Manuals" it is a comprehensive, systematic, well-written paper manual where Apple provides none.

Whether intentionally designed, or not, "iPhoto2" mimics the "hub" concept - bringing together into one elegant unit all the information and tools needed to productively enjoy digital imagery. "iPhoto2" contains five parts - an opening section on how to select and buy a digital camera, and sections on

how to use a digital camera, iPhoto2 basics, how to create and produce photo projects like slideshows, prints, web galleries, photo CDs, etc., and a section on how to take advantage of specialized iPhoto2 features like making screensavers and desktop images and using Applescript. Also included is a separate set of appendices about trouble shooting, a menu-by-menu description of iPhoto2 features and commands, and a small section describing where to find additional digital photo resources.

The trio of authors are David Pogue, noted writer, NY Times computer columnist, and wit; Joseph Schorr, established Macworld writer and author of "Macworld MacSecrets"; and Derrick Story, author of "The Digital Photos Pocket Guide" (which was reviewed here favorably a number of months ago).

This book is structured into two overarching themes - as an iPhoto2 manual and as basic instruction in near-professional quality photography. Overlapping some material from "The Digital Pocket Guide", part one of this book covers basic digital camera concepts: resolution, memory cards, batteries, controls, etc. It then continues with guides on image composition and tips and tricks on how to obtain good quality photos in a large set of situations: portraits, travel, sports, night scenes, and the like. It does no good to have the ability to easily view, print, and e-mail bad photos. Learn how to take a good shot. These sections of the book will help a lot.

The iPhoto2 parts describe how to get your "good" images into the application, how iPhoto2 is structured on the hard drive with its designated Library, for example, and its organizing concepts - "Albums" and "Rolls." Other application features like editing, copying, and archiving images are well- explained and detailed.

The most interesting chapters are 7-12 detailing how to get quality and efficient production from the program.Features like the "One-click Slideshow" and how to make Quicktime movies from a folder of images are highlighted.

All in all, this is another well-done publication from Pogue/O'Reilly.