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Digital Photography Books for Beginners?

yojitani

yojitani

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 28, 2005
1,858
10
An octopus's garden
I'm wondering if anyone here can recommend a good book or two on digital photography for beginner/intermediate enthusiasts. The book would be for my wife who has gotten into using her Lumix so much over the last year that she may be due for an upgrade already. Something that would explain how best to take various shots, that sort of thing

She's been using iPhoto but has recently complained that it is too limited. She downloaded the trial of aperture but really didn't know what to do with it...

at any rate, some recommendations would be great. The local bookstores don't have anything that looks good and I don't really know what I'm getting from Amazon so...

Thanks!
YT
 
Back in the days (OK 4 years ago, when I was still into film), I picked this up:
http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Diges...ef=sr_1_5/102-6470859-8578509?ie=UTF8&s=books
It's straight-forward, and does an excellent job of explaining the basics, and methods for improving your technique. I've also found it to be a useful reference manual as well. The book is mainly focused of film, with a small section on digital (she's actually using OS 9 to arange her digital images), but if you're looking for technique, this one isn't bad. I'm sure there's some better ones out there though.
 
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yojitani said:
I'm wondering if anyone here can recommend a good book or two on digital photography for beginner/intermediate enthusiasts.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about books- especially with digital in mind (the photography basics are the same as with film)- but Ron Reznick's DVD set is excellent for technique and apparently has some good Photoshop/workflow stuff too. It's about $90, but that's a lot less than most seminars, and he explains a lot about composition as well as the normal stuff.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding..._bbs_sr_1/002-3837517-4422426?ie=UTF8&s=books

Understanding Exposure - Bryan Peterson

This is one of the most frequently suggested books out there. It explains the triangle of obtaining a perfect exposure- ISO, shutter speed, and Aperture. It is a fantastic book, and has many exercises for you to do so that you can understand what Bryan has written, not just read it on the page.
 
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the best thing u can do is play around with f/ stop and shutter speed and all the good stuff


thats how i learned:cool:
 
compuwar said:
That won't teach someone about composition, histograms, PP, etc.

Looks like Reznick's DVD set is now $60:

http://www.sureshotsystem.com/about.html

Bottom set is the complete $59.99 package.

Despite the hokey name, it's well-worth the money.
Click to expand...

ok ill go with that, but I did read up on composition.. I was just alkin about the essence, ISO, F stop, and shutter speed. It helps to memorize it if you learn it by yourself.
 
b0tt094 said:
ok ill go with that, but I did read up on composition.. I was just alkin about the essence, ISO, F stop, and shutter speed. It helps to memorize it if you learn it by yourself.
Click to expand...

Oh, there is indeed no substitute for experience, but you can enhance it with learning. You *could* go to art museums, study advertising photos, etc. But you'll spend more in time and might miss things compared to having someone who already knows point it out to you.
 
compuwar said:
Oh, there is indeed no substitute for experience, but you can enhance it with learning. You *could* go to art museums, study advertising photos, etc. But you'll spend more in time and might miss things compared to having someone who already knows point it out to you.
Click to expand...

lol good point:cool:
 
Excellent! Thanks for all the great suggestions. The DVD set sounds good since just today she was bemoaning the fact that she doesn't have time to take a course.

As for experience: she's been using the camera daily for her blog for the last year..but the problem with her approach is that she doesn't want to experiment very much because bad pictures would 'ruin her blog' (sigh). I bought her a book on iPhoto about a year ago and she's just starting to use it now - I figure now is a good time!

YT
 
yojitani said:
Excellent! Thanks for all the great suggestions. The DVD set sounds good since just today she was bemoaning the fact that she doesn't have time to take a course.

As for experience: she's been using the camera daily for her blog for the last year..but the problem with her approach is that she doesn't want to experiment very much because bad pictures would 'ruin her blog' (sigh). I bought her a book on iPhoto about a year ago and she's just starting to use it now - I figure now is a good time!

YT
Click to expand...

Please let us know how she gets on, and what you ended up choosing!

Edit:

Better yet, try to have her blog the experience and point us there...
 
compuwar said:
Please let us know how she gets on, and what you ended up choosing!

Edit:

Better yet, try to have her blog the experience and point us there...
Click to expand...

haha.. sure, though it's in Japanese!

I just ordered the Peterson book on Amazon and over dinner tonight I'm going to see what she thinks of the DVD course. Looks like it's going for a good price right now, so...
 
yojitani said:
haha.. sure, though it's in Japanese!

I just ordered the Peterson book on Amazon and over dinner tonight I'm going to see what she thinks of the DVD course. Looks like it's going for a good price right now, so...
Click to expand...

Oh, um enpitsu! (Yep, pencil is about the limit of my Japanese!)

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?

Trilingual!

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?

Bilingual!

What do you call someone who speaks one language?



American! :)
 
compuwar said:
Oh, um enpitsu! (Yep, pencil is about the limit of my Japanese!)

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?

Trilingual!

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?

Bilingual!

What do you call someone who speaks one language?



American! :)
Click to expand...

lol, thanks... Yes i am horrible at Spanish because my teachers suck and cant be fired, Sigh Union :p
 
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