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See more book reviews on the Reviews page.
Member of Springfield Photographic Society O’Reilly User Group Program DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY POCKET GUIDE
SECOND EDITION Author: Derrick Story Derrick Story has written an excellent
user’s guide for digital photography – “Digital Photography Pocket Guide Second Edition”. It’s the perfect size for carrying with your digital camera and equipment. It contains tips from basic photography to the workings of the digital camera. I recently received a digital camera as a gift and was basically clueless on how to work it. Along with my camera manual, I carry the Digital Photography Pocket Guide.
It has helped me take some pretty decent photos in some not so great circumstances.
It has helped me work with lighting, composition, exposure compensation and digital settings. I was very impressed at the end of the book to find information on resizing photos for sharing via e-mail. It’s great information for that not-so-knowledgeable computer operator. It even has a quick reference table for various camera settings. It’s very user friendly! I think this book is great for amateurs
as well as professional photographers. It’s easy to read and is surprisingly
detailed for a small pocket guide. It gives tips for every style of photography
from landscape to sporting events. I do not take digital photos without it close
at hand. It’s a great value at $14.95! I owe a great deal of thanks to Derrick
Story for helping me take better digital photos. Thanks Derrick! Subject: Book review by Jerry
Nardi Photo Retouching with Photoshop: A
Designer's Notebook Translated by Marie Laure CLEC'H Publisher: O’Reilly It is difficult to claim that you know
all that you need to know about digital editing before reading this book. After you skim through this book you know you need
to know more. After reading it, you know you’ve learned a great deal. The information contained in “Photo Retouching
with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook “does a good job of getting the reader into the “pro” level of thinking.
The details are elaborated and basics are duly considered superfluous. Don’t expect to be hand-lead though click-this-button
and double-click that. Instead read this from a level that asks “what is the goal?” and “what tools get
me there?” The
book consists of articles written by various digital artists from If you are experienced with Photoshop
and know where to find the tools, then this book certainly will show you how to best use them. The technique of adding clouds
to the sky and shadows to the building was beautifully illuminated in the T. Granier article “Bloody Mallory”.
(You can read this article online at the O’Reilly website.) There are gaps in my digital-photo
skills that made me frustrated at times, and partly awe-stuck, about some of the articles in this book. The delicate nuances
about color balance and tone in V.Risacher’s “Beauty Institut” made me blush to know how little I now know
about the elements and the psychology of a good portrait. The F. Quinio article about stitching together photos to make a
larger panorama left me baffled and challenged. From this article, two antipodal conclusions were evident for me: 1)
the auto-stitching tools are good enough (for now), and 2) I have resolved to try and retry his technique in Photoshop until
I can understand and master these beautiful, seamless panoramas. One or two challenging articles and
six others that are lucid and informative is, to me, the sign of a good book. If you still do not know where Photoshop hides
“perspective” or “Darken blend mode” then don’t buy this book (yet). But if you do know, and
you want to learn more, and you want a glimpse at how the professionals are thinking, then this is a mandatory book for your
digital-photo collection. Title: CREATING
PHOTOMONTAGES with PHOTOSHOP Publisher: O’Reilly
First, I have to say that this book overall is very detailed to a person with knowledge of Photoshop. This is a book
for the advanced to professional who likes to be inspired by how other photographers like themselves can accomplish various
projects to make the impossible seem possible once they read this book. It is a well layed step-by-step book with excellent
illustrations and narration. It’s great to see how a professional executes a project that has been given to him or her.
It’s like going in their mind and sees how their artistic mind works. I would definitely recommend this book to be part
of any Photoshop user’s library. There is one addition if possible to include inside this book is a CD. I believe that
by including this CD and showing step-by-step processes you will capture a wider audience all the way down to armatures to
read this book.
Subject: Book review by David Bowman Title: Adobe Photoshop CS (one-on-one) Author: Deke McClelland Publisher: Deke Press/O’Reilly Date: Dec. 2004 It is a pleasure to read this book, both
because it is clearly written, and because it contains an ample supply of visuals, graphics, and other useful illustrations.
This more than meets the expectations a reader would have on a textbook designed for students new to Photoshop. It includes
an array of illustrative techniques to help guide the student through the book’s many and varied topics. Deke McClelland
has presented the material so concisely that there is no ambiguity in his coverage of the techniques and tools encountered
in Adobe Photoshop CS. In addition, again as one might reasonably expect, the book comes with a CD-ROM, which provides a video
lesson for each of the twelve lessons, one per chapter. The CD-ROM video lessons are carefully explained in the text, in a
step-by-step fashion, with very well printed graphs that clearly differentiate even the finest of details. To assist the reader working through the
various topics in each chapter, the author includes several very helpful study techniques. The “Pearl of Wisdom”
technique provides additional material to help the reader expand on the concepts being covered. Although this material is
not essential for the understanding of the core material of the book, it does expand the reader’s horizon. There are
“extra credit” sections which do not need to be read, but if read stretches the reader to achieve a greater understanding
of the topics. Very important conceptual material is presented against a colored background in order to clearly differentiate
it from that portion of the text material, which corresponds to the step-by-step lessons.
In addition, each lesson contains, of necessity, detailed steps or actions corresponding to the numerous commands available
with Adobe Photoshop CS. These steps are clearly numbered sequentially, printed in blue type, followed by black type explaining
each step. As a result it is quite easy to visually work the lessons, apply the tools as needed with the CD-ROM illustrations,
and understand the purpose and techniques of each lesson. Throughout these lessons the author has incorporated illustrations
of the monitor screen, as it will appear to the student indicating the selections to be made from the Adobe Photoshop CS commands. The student that masters the material in
this book will have good foundation in the powerful tools of Adobe Photoshop CS. As a result all of the basic actions one
might wish to take on a photographic image will be known and experienced. It will provide the student with the background
needed for more advanced work in Photoshop. In addition the book will be a good reference source for reviewing commands when
necessary. Due to space limitations, or perhaps because
the book is geared to students new to Photoshop, some topics are omitted which on might hope would in fact be included, if
only briefly. Lesson 12 covers Printing and Output. However it provides little insight into the complex issues of color management,
and the attendant problems of color space as applied to computer hardware. For the student new to producing computer output, there is a need to guide through the maze of paper, ink, and printer options available
on the market today. Another topic which the student will need to address at some point in more detail than available in this
book concerns the issue of optimal scan sizes and file sizes, both for working in Photoshop, and in the prints to follow.
However these omissions are not critical to the basic goal of the author in writing a textbook which will provide a strong
foundation it the power of Photoshop. This he has done very well. Dave
Bowman is the owner of J. David Bowman Photography which he established in 1995. Prior to that he was an associate professor
first at SUNY Oswego for 14 years, and then at Western New England College for nine years. He is a member of several professional
photographic organizations, including the Connecticut Professional Photographers of America; the Professional Photographers
Association of New England; and the New England Institute of Professional Photographers. He has received numerous awards for
his portrait and fine art photography.
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