David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Introduction

Digital photography is just about the only kind of photography left these days. At this point, 99 percent of all cameras sold are digital. Yes, it's taken awhile—the first consumer digital camera came out in 1994—but film photography has been reduced to a niche activity. No new film cameras are being designed, and very few companies still sell film.

It's easy to understand why digital has taken off.

• The quality is there. Practically nobody is still arguing that film photos look better than digital ones. The color, the tonal range, the resolution—it's all caught up with and even exceeded film.

• It's free—and freeing. When you shoot digitally, you don't pay a cent for film or photo processing. You can shoot dozens of variations of a shot, experimenting with angle, camera settings, lighting—and then throw away all but the winners.

  That's incredibly liberating. You'll become a much better photographer much faster, because you can experiment forever without spending any money.

• Feedback is instantaneous. You can examine a photo on the screen a second after taking it. If something bothers you—like the telephone pole growing out of your best friend's head—you can just delete it and try again.

  Digital photographers sleep much better at night. They never worry about how the day's pictures will turn out; they already know.

• You can be your own darkroom tech. Even an amateur can retouch and enhance photos, experiment with cropping and effects, and make prints and enlargements right at home. ...