[.ca] Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (ISBN 0470037431)

I'm using this as a textbook in my classes.:
I teach digital photography at a community college, both for college credit and in evening adult education classes, and have found this book to be the perfect textbook for my beginner and intermediate courses. The first Overview book is about 82 pages long, and provides a good introduction to digital photography. My students learn a little about digital equipment, how to acquire photos, do simple editing, organize them, and make prints. I generally either skip the second book or assign it for extra credit, because it talks about choosing a camera and accessories, setting up a computer, and working with printers and scanners. The Taking Great Pictures chapters in the third book are the core of my curriculum for both the beginner and intermediate classes, as the content is easy to understand, explains photographic techniques clearly, and can be applied by any digital photographer. The beginner classes simply receive less challenging picture taking assignments, as they work with composition, close-ups, portraits, and sports photography. They also get a lot of use out of the section on scenic photography, as the landscapes here are spectacular. The beginner classes stop when they finish the fourth book on the Basics of Image Editing. The more advanced image editing chapters, which use Adobe Photoshop Elements, are reserved for the intermediate classes. I do put both groups to work learning to restore old photos, because everyone seems to enjoy this. All in all I have found this book to be a wonderful learning tool, and like it better than traditional textbooks for teaching digital photography.

More like 3 books in 1, but all are good!:
This book purports to be "7 books in 1" but that's stretching it a bit. There are actually three solid books within its 686 pages, all of them pretty darned good. One deals with getting started in digital photography, with lots of information on selecting a camera, setting up your computer, getting photos from your camera into your computer, and using accessories including tripods, scanners, and printers. The second book is a thick collection of chapters that deal with basic photography. Beginners will love this introduction to picture taking techniques, with how-to advice on close ups, sports, portraits, travel, and other topics. The third book deals with image editing, primarily using Adobe Photoshop and Elements, but also mentioning some competing programs so you can decide which one is best for you. All three "books" are very complete and written in the usual entertaining Dummies style. After you've gone through this material, you'll probably want a more advanced book to really immerse yourself further, but I felt that this Desk Reference lived up to its name. It's a great volume to have sitting on your desk when you want to refresh yourself about a particular topic.

Excellent whether you're a beginner...or not.:
This book is easy to read, has plenty of examples, tells you what to do to get good composition, talks about how digital cameras can get great photos, and much more. I have read the "Complete Idiot's" version of Digital Photography and while that book was OK, this one covers more information that I was looking for, particularly how to store and archive/organize digital photos as well as go into impressive detail on a lot of basic photography stuff. While this book isn't perfect, it's very, very good for a beginner to intermediate user and is fun to read. I have learned a lot so far. Also, it helps to have different books to read on the same subject of digital photography and this is a welcome edition to that learning "package." I've looked at other books besides the Dummies and Idiots guides, and this may be the most complete reference to date for digital photography. There's lots of stuff in the book that pertains to ANY kind of photography. If photographers use the book the way Dummies books are really meant to be used--by turning to the topic that most interests them at the moment, or the part that will help them with a specific (photographic) problem--they'll find plenty of valuable information. One thing they won't find, however, is much about setting f-stops and shutter speeds (though there's quite a bit about the connection between film speed and shutter speed). But then most digital photographers just put their cameras on "P" (for program) and let the camera make those settings for them! While the reading and presentation is easy, the depth of material is actually surprisingly thorough. Beginning, or even some advanced photographers, will be referring to this book more than once, over time.. Hey, where was this book when I started in photography?

Just what I needed. It's all in there!:
As an advanced film photographer, I've had my eye on the recent advances in digital photography for quite some time, and this book will help anyone, experienced or beginner grasp a good thorough understanding of what digital photography encompasses. This writing does not go into the specifics of all the digital cameras in today's market, there are plenty of equipment review sites online to handle that task. Instead, the book provides excellent material regarding how digital cameras work; what components are common and present in the various models; how to match a camera to your particular shooting requirements; the "similarities" and the "differences" between digital photography and traditional film-based photography. It further gives a good basic understanding of photography fundamentals which apply to picture taking in any medium. There are some excellent Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements image editing lessons included. This is BEST digital photography book I have read and I have purchased over 10 different books on the subject. It is comprehensive and covers not only digital photography but also the principles of photography in general. It is complete! I am totally impressed by this book. I could ramble on, but let me just summarize and say that if you are serious about digital photography and/or are interested in making the transition from film to digital photography or just want to get the very best results from your digital equipment, this book should greatly help you achieve your goals.

Less useful than I hoped - a follow up:
I am writing this as a follow up to my Much Less Useful Than I Had Hoped review below, as I maxed-out the 1000 word limit and cannot edit it to address any of the points that subsequent reviewers have made. First, though, I think some comments about assessing the usefulness and credibility of reviews may be in order. I've noticed some characteristics in common with many/most of the reviews I've found helpful and I've also noticed characteristics in common with many/most of the non-helpful reviews. See if you agree with the following: HELPFUL REVIEWS: - Use proper grammar and spelling. - Are respectful of other reviewers except those who are blatantly juvenile. - Provide detailed explanations for both why the reviewer liked aspects of the reviewed subject and why the reviewer disliked the reviewed subject - the reviewer uses facts, logic and reason to justify his or her opinion. Reviews are much more candid and credible when they discuss both the pros and the cons. - Provide examples or quotes to illustrate the praise or criticism. - discuss most or all aspects of the subject of the review, not just a minimal sampling - compare this subject with other similar subjects to give the reader some reference point - provide some background in order to understand the reviewer's point of view NON-HELPFUL REVIEWS: - Use juvenile and deficient spelling and grammar and/or are disrespectful of other reviewers - Make very conclusory statements without supporting the opinions with facts, logic or reason. e.g "It sucks!" It's kewl and rad, dude!" "It's just so wonderful and I loved it!" etc.... - Provides only a cursory description of the overall subject and does not give the reader a clear idea of the full product - Fail to give the reader any understanding of the reviewer's point of reference. OK, so now that I've hopefully got you all thinking about how to evaluate a review, I want to address some of the gung-ho! five-star reviewers' points on this book. Please note that I don't own any other digital photography books and have no agenda to promote any particular competitors of this book - I'm just commenting on a book that I own (and even bought off Amazon). First, compare the level of detail and in particular the examples each reviewer has in his/her review. Some of the five-star reviewers do get fairly detailed, but most do not - they make statements of great praise, but fail to justify that praise. In my review, in contrast, I tried to provide details and examples from the book to illustrate my points and my view point. Next, I'd like to address the opinions that this book is "jam-packed" with tips on photography. If the reader is new to photography, this book may give that appearance. However, I still maintain that except for doing studio portraits of people and doing macro-photography, this book has very basic information on actual picture taking and those several chapters comprise only a small fraction of the book. Please, look at the book itself - the actual table of contents illustrates this point. Compare this book's picture taking chapters with those of the average regular photography book and you should see my point - actual using-the-camera-in-your-hands text in this 7-in-1 book is not particularly detailed. Let's look at what the book really contains. Count the sections on intro to digital photography, selecting equipment, using Photoshop, restoring old photos and how to publish and market your photos. They take up at least two thirds of the book, maybe more than that. I did not find those hundreds of pages to have any use to me - will those subjects be useful to you? I think the old adage "jack of all trades master of none" applies very fittingly to this book. I'm guessing that many if not all of the "not helpful" ratings my review received are from people who already own this book and whose opinions (and most likely points of reference) differ significantly from mine. If any of those people read this review, I'd like them to follow up and support their own opinions. I'm not trying to preach to the choir - I'm sharing my views with the hope of helping other people make informed decisions when they are shopping for a digital photography book. Again, I'll conclude with the best advice on digital photography books that anyone can give: plan on spending some reasonable amount of time in an actual bookstore reviewing not just this 7-in-1 Dummies book, but several others too. I wish I had. Look to see if you agree with several of the points I've made or that other reviewers of this book have made. Look to see if there is substantial text in the book that addresses the areas where you have questions or need more information. Read some of it carefully to make sure that it makes sense to you and the author's writing is clear. Then, make up your own mind. Finally, don't hesitate to make some use of the internet, though, because some of the best websites of any sort that I've seen online are the digital photography websites -they really are exceptionally useful reference sources. Last but not least, enjoy your digital camera.