DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, Pocket Guide
Second EditionBy: Barbara Koops
This compact guide to using digital cameras is very thorough, concise, and well-organized. It is an improvement over the previous edition, which had black and white pictures. Photographs in this edition are in brilliant color. Derrick Story is the author and photographer.
The guide is small enough to put in a pocket, a camera bag, a laptop case, or a briefcase. It is a quick reference and explains the camera’s components. It defines what each part does and helps the user choose the correct settings. It covers the basic, intermediate, and advanced features.
The book is divided into three chapters. The first, “What Is It?” explains all of the exterior components of the camera. Then, it goes inside the camera and examines each part in detail.
The second chapter, “What Does It Do?” teaches helpful techniques to master each component. For example, eliminating busy backgrounds, “rule of thirds”, getting close, and simple is better, are taught. It also delves into the movie mode, panorama shots, resolution, self-timing, and much more. It is organized alphabetically from Aperture Priority through Zooming.
Chapter three, “How Do I . . .?” shows how to put this knowledge to work. It gives tips and tricks for both shooting and also sharing your pictures, including how to send them via e-mail.
The appendix has several helpful tables, including: exposure compensation reference guide, flash mode settings, white balance settings, camera modes with explanation, metering modes with explanation, exposure starting points for sunset and astrophotography, megapixels to print size reference, number of pictures to capacity of memory card reference, and color temperature chart in Kelvin.
I highly recommend this useful pocket guide to all amateur photographers. This is another winner from O’Reilly.
Digital Photography Pocket Guide
By Derrick Story
Copyright 2004
O’Reilly & Associates, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472
800-998-9938
www.oreilly.com
Retail - $14.95, 113 pages