Understanding Photography Field Guide by Bryan Peterson ★★★★★

This is a great little book that I mostly skim-read. Peterson writes well, and covers a plethora of subjects in the small soft bound book. There are several things that make this book a good read. First, the book is loaded with little gems to make your photography easier and better. It is not a comprehensive manual on how to take special types of shots, but simply offers the best advice for just about any circumstance, whether it be macro photography, night photography, people pictures, etc., etc. The second thing I really appreciated with the book is how Peterson would often show a very bland shot, and then show the same shot taken with a few tweaks that turn the scene into a phenomenal photograph. He tells you exactly what he does, giving all the camera setting information for you to know the precise conditions of the photo. It is a fun read, not the best book for a photography novice, but a very helpful read for a middle of the road photographer.

This book is a compilation of advice from five accomplished photographers addressing the issue of nature photography. It is a practical book, and, except for the chapter on black and white photography, was focused on advice for obtaining the shot. Thus, advice about composition, lighting, timing, camera settings, lens usage, and special siruations were at the forefront. Multiple examples of photographic images were given, and it was helpful to know what settings and lenses were being used to obtain the photos. The B&W chapter offered much easy to follow photoshop advice on converting your photos into B&W or duotone specimens. This book was a fun and inspirational read.

I needed to explore how to better use my flash with my Canon camera, and so I purchased this guide. McLernon adeptly covers the functions and settings for the flash and shows how to program the flash system for the utilization multiple simultaneous flashes illuminating the scene, including discussions of what equipment and supplies would be helpful to best utilize a flash system in a creative manner. McLernon discusses well the various lighting scenarios for various portrait and still life scenes. He is much briefer on technical topics, such as the use of flash sytems with macro lenses in technical photography. Looking over McLernon’s photos in this book and on his website, there is much to commend for this usage of innovative flash setups. There were several problems that I noted with the book. 1. McLernon should have given better illustrations of floor setup of the flashes. From a schematic view, where was he placing the flashes, how was he pointing them, how were the flashes configured to obtain the effect that was being illustrated? He describes various portrait lighting modes, such as the Paramount and Rembrandt, but does not tell the reader exactly where flashes are placed to obtain those effects. Thus, the descriptions were near useless. 2. McLernon spends much time discussing basic photography rules and compositional techniques. But, I didn’t purchase the book to learn basic photography rules. As an example, he discusses sports photography, and includes photos that did not use a flash. Perhaps he could have utilized flash/non-flash comparisons of various scenes to demonstrate how flash photography adds a different dimension to the photo, but that is never done. Thus, the book deviates from the objective of simply teaching flash photography. It is still a useful book for understanding the Canon flash system, but bloated with off-topic discussions and lacking in useful information to guide the amateur flash user in the art of flash photography.

Having worked through the similar textbook on Dreamweaver and liking it, I decided to run through this text, hoping to improve my Photoshop skills. I certainly learned a few things from the book, in that no instruction book could be completely comprehensive, unless it was a meter thick. This text had a companion DVD which provided the images for the projects in the book, as well as videos by J Smith explaining portions of the text. The book was simply too simple for me, and my only benefit was to learn some functionality, like 3D rendering, which is usually not included in regular photographer’s texts on Photoshop, since they are interested in the image, and not in the fact that you can paste your beautiful scene from Yosemite on a pop can. All the same, the text is simple, easy to follow, so I could not downgrade the stars for the book’s simplicity. It is not as comprehensive as Photoshop Classroom in a Book, and the presentation is a little sloppier, but it has a very easy style to it, making it a reasonable first textbook for the total novice on Photoshop.

This is probably one of the best skills textbooks that I’ve read so far on Photoshop, covering a broad range of topics from photo touch-up, montages, landscape photography, portrait photography, panoramas, and the works. There were some topics not covered, such as 3D work, but the text did not intend to be a comprehensive coverage of all that photoshop offers. The book is arranged to be read with an accompanying DVD, containing many movie files, as well and sample photographs that will be used in projects in the book. Typically, a set of movies would first be watched, and then the projects shown in the movies worked through in the accompanying textbook. The authors assume that the reader is learning, and thus make short cut descriptions of how to do things, as you get deeper into the text. The example projects provided are very sensible images that any amateur photographer would usually be working with. Through the use of repetition and ever expanding skills, you cover most of the standard functionality of photoshop. The text is very good at showing how something may be done in a number of ways, and also explaining the various choices that Photoshop offers. This is not a beginners book, but a very good transition for someone who has read a beginning book on Photoshop, or at least is familiar with the functionality and various uses of layers and channels, etc. I would compare this to the text Photoshop Classroom in a Book, which is produced by Adobe, and is excellent for taking a raw beginner through all the things that Photoshop can do. Unfortunately, it will not teach one how to use Photoshop, as you spend your time following detailed instructions, but rarely ever told why you are doing it. This book is highly recommended as a “next-step” text for the Photoshop photographer.

Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers, by Ellen Anon and Tim Grey ????

This is a well-written book on using Photoshop when taking scenic photos, like, most of what I do. It starts out rather slow, belaboring the use of Adobe RAW and Adobe Bridge, before getting into details of how to make nature photographs look better. There is an accompanying CD (which I did not use) that allows you to practice your skills on some provided nature photographs. This book is very well written, and provides sage advice both for the photographer in the field, as well as the photographer at the computer, trying to improve on the “excellent” field techniques that were used. It has convinced me to take all my photographs in RAW format, as well as to use a tripod almost always. Unfortunately, that means that backpacking will not be my main source for prize photos, but rather, when I cycle tour, since only then can I lug along a wealth of photography supplies.

The Digital Photography Book, by Scott Kelby ????

Kelby is a fairly well known photography, author and personality in the digital photography circuit, having not only written several books on digital photography, he also has published books on photoshop techniques and is found on AdobeTV and in numerous podcasts from the Apple site. Kelby is more a hands-on author, describing how he does things, rather than why he does things. Thus, he offers much concrete advise, mostly all good, regarding practical aspects of how to take a good photo, and then process it for publication or personal use. Reviewing other books in this series, there tends to be much repetition, thus, I will probably not purchase those books.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Classroom in a Book, by Adobe Systems ???

This is an introductory text and workbook for learning Adobe Photoshop. It intends to take the beginner and provide the variety of possibilities as to what Photoshop can do for you. It is easy to read, and with few mistakes. The book provides a very broad spectrum of the functionality of Photoshop, including such things as publishing issues, 3D modeling, vector drawing, and working with scientific drawings, as well as working with usual landscape, portrait, and street-photography. This is the strength of the book, in that one finishes this book realizing that there is a vast amount of possibility in the manipulation that one could do to a certain photo, and provides a wonderful artistic tool to express the imagination. The book is very weak in making one competent at Photoshop. One is directed through a number of projects, but rarely ever given an explanation as to why you are doing that, or given an explanation as to how you plan out a project to accomplish your tasks. On the many tools, you are simply given the settings, without being told what all the various settings do. They lead you quickly through channels, layers, masking, etc., without giving you a clue as to how to use these modalities for your own projects. Thus, the book falls seriously short of instilling basic Photoshop competence, and acts more as a Photoshop showcase. Coming from Adobe, they should be ashamed at what they have published, especially for the high price that they charge for this book. You will definitely need to read another text in order to gain Photoshop competence.

Canon EOS Rebel XSi Digitial Field Guide, by Charlotte Lowrie ????

This is an introductory guide on the use of all the features of this camera, as well as a reference for the use and settings of the camera in various situations. It is well written, and well illustrated. Ultimately, a combination of continual reminder of camera features and functionality, coupled with regular use of the camera, allows one to get the most out of such a camera. It is a very good introductory text for those new to either photography, or to this camera.