By Derrick Story
First Edition
March 2008
Pages: 230
ISBN 10: 0-596-51766-1 |
ISBN 13: 9780596517663
Press Release
(Average of 2 Customer Reviews)
Ready to take photos that reflect your creative spirit, rather than just another set of snapshots? The Digital Photography Companion gives you creative tips and technical advice for taking top-notch digital photos in a wide range of conditions, and for a variety of occasions. You also get a complete rundown on camera features, tips for sharing and printing, and an overview of photo management applications.
Full Description
Professional photographer and teacher Derrick Story, whose online tips and podcasts at The Digital Story (www.thedigitalstory.com) have made him a popular photography blogger, gives you plenty of examples of how to capture great shots of people, places, landscapes, and more. He also provides a complete summary on camera features, tips for printing, sharing your images, and an overview of photo management applications.
Chapters include:
- What is It? -- Choose the right camera (DSLRs, compact cameras, or hybrids) and get a rundown on all of the typical features they offer, such as face detection, image stabilizers, diopter adjustment, focus assist light, RAM buffer, and more.
- How Does it Work? -- This A-Z guide of digital camera controls explains everything from Aperture Value (Av) Mode and Autoexposure to White Balance, the Zoom/Magnify Control, and everything in between.
- Shoot Like a Pro -- Advice for a variety of photographic adventures, such as capturing existing light portraits, creating powerful landscape images, and shooting fireworks, underwater portraits, infrared photos, and more, along with lighting and filter tricks.
- I've Taken Great Pictures, Now What? -- You get complete advice for sharing your photos, converting from color to balck & white and more, plus an overview of photo management applications, from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to Apple iPhoto.
- Printing Made Easy -- Printing doesn't have to be a painful experience. Learn various options, including direct printing without a computer, ordering out, and selecting the right inkjet printer for home (and what to do with it once you get it there.).
The Digital Photography Companion offers you friendly advice so you can try techniques that may never have occurred to you -- approaches that will bring you more of what you're looking for when you click the shutter: Great looking pictures!
Cover | Table of Contents | Index | Sample Chapter
Featured customer reviews
Digital Photography Companion, May 01 2008
Digital cameras are great, but they won’t do your thinking for you. To get beyond simple point-and-shoot, some knowledge is necessary. This new book by Derrick Story has just the right depth of information for the typical amateur. If you haven’t yet bought a camera, the opening chapter has some good advice on camera selection. Among others features, face detection and image stabilization are mentioned as the hot new features to look for.
The book can be read in two evenings. Mastering the techniques presented will take a good deal longer, as you gain experience with your camera. You get pointers on how to shoot portraits, landscapes, wedding pictures, architecture, panoramas, and even infrared images and video. There is a good overview of photo management software programs, including the widely-used Photoshop elements and Apple iPhoto. There are numerous tables throughout the book, which provide recommendations on camera settings, file formats, memory card capacities, and other useful information.
The last chapter is devoted to printing and distributing your pictures by email or web, with recommendations on choosing a printer. The book contains five chapters in 230 pages, with an appendix and index. It is designed to be a handy reference, and is small enough to fit nicely into a camera bag.
Digital Photography Techniques Made Easy, April 23 2008
This super book is an excellent introduction to the world of digital photography, and will appeal to readers who have had some experience with their digital camera and are ready to embark on more sophisticated uses of their hardware. The book is succinct in its approach and the author makes sure to not overload the reader with extensive, detailed material. Instead, the focus is on the most common, most likely questions asked by digital photographers, especially amateurs who use their digital camera as a hobby or for fun. This title also nicely serves as an introductory companion to Ken Milburn's Digital Photography: Expert Techniques, also available from O'Reilly.
Media reviews
"Derrick Story has a unique gift for creating order out of chaos. Digital photography turns things upside down and even seasoned shooters need help. Whether you are a complete beginner or a photographer with experience, Derrick is the go-to guy. His new book The Digital Photography Companion fits perfectly into my camera bag and is going with me on all my assignments from now on."
-- Rick Smolan, Photographer, Creator of "Blue Planet Run" and "America at Home"
"By the time you've experimented with the techniques contained in this excellent book, you'll have journeyed well beyond your peers. But, more importantly, the pictures you take now will not only become personal treasures, they will also be admired by others."
-- John R. Vacca, Amazon.com
"Derrick Story has done an outstanding job of beginning at the beginning, taking you to the end without complicating the topic with a lot of jargon and simply presenting what you need to know. Think of it as your cousin Derrick showing you how to use your camera to take pictures."
-- T. Michael Testi, The Enlightened Image
