Complete Digital Photography

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video

Complete Digital Photography Details

Amazon.com Review Bonus Chapter Excerpt Five Key Steps to Choosing a Digital Camera First, determine how much you're willing to spend. Your goal is to get the best camera you can for your budget. Best is defined as the balance of features that serves your particular needs. Next, decide whether you are looking for an SLR or a point-and-shoot camera. If you can't make this decision right away, that's fine. It will probably become apparent pretty soon after you start comparing cameras, or maybe even as you read further into the chapter. Next, determine what resolution you need for the type of output you're creating. Among the cameras with the right price and resolution, select the ones that have the shooting features and controls you want. Of those cameras, make your final choice based on which model delivers the best image quality. This last point will be your most crucial criteria. If you've narrowed your choice to two cameras, and one has great features but the other produces better pictures, you should go with the second camera. Of course, it's frustrating not to get everything you want in a camera, but you can work around most feature deficiencies. Trying to work around bad image quality is much more difficult. Download the full bonus chapter of Ben Long's Complete Digital Photography. [PDF] Read more About the Author Ben Long is a San Francisco-based photographer, writer, and teacher. The author of more than two dozen books on digital photography and digital video, he is also a senior contributing editor to Macworld magazine, a contributing editor at CreativePro.com, and the author of several best-selling Lynda.com photography courses. His photography clients have included 20th Century Fox, Blue Note Records, Global Business Network, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Pickle Family Circus, and Grammy-nominated jazz musicians Don Byron and Dafnis Prieto. He has taught and lectured on photography around the world, including workshops at the Santa Reparata International School of the Arts in Florence and a class for imaging engineers at Apple, Inc. He occasionally dabbles in computer programming and has written image editing utilities that are used by National Geographic, the British Museum, and the White House. Read more

Reviews

In 2011 alone, I've purchased the entire Kelby collection, an assortment of Peterson's books, Freeman's collection (which, to be fair, are geared more toward the "art and psychology" side of photography than meant as any sort of style guide or how-to), and a host of others, but Long's Complete Digital Photography is easily my favorite book of the lot of 'em. It's more than just a basic photography book - this thing is a DSLR Bible that covers virtually every aspect of the art and science of digital photography. Prior to receiving this book, I'd watched a series of videos featuring Long, and really enjoyed his plain-English teaching style as well as his infectious sense of humor as it makes going back over the "basics" (I actually studied photography in college, back in "ye ol' film days")a breeze, and learning more advanced techniques less daunting. While several of my books from some of the "bigger" names in photography have either been returned for store credit at Amazon or given away to fellow noobs to the world of DSLR photography, Long's book is one I'll be sure to keep around for regular reference, and it's the one I recommend to anyone who asks me what I think is the most comprehensive-yet-user-friendly resource on the subject. If you're new to the field or, like me, have been away so long that technology's passed you by, this is the book you need!

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