Book Review: Digital Art Photography for Dummies by Matthew Bamberg - Page 3

Now for the bad news. Perhaps the biggest strike against the book is that there really is a lot of information you may not need (and those sections could be different for different people). When I think of the phrase "digital art photography," I think more of taking an artistic, compositional approach to how I capture my photos. I personally have no desire (or time and money) to go through the process of framing my prints for either the home or gallery user. I might do that once or twice, but at that rate I'm probably better off having someone else do it for me and saving some time and energy. The pictures I take are for enjoyment, posterity, emailing, and little more. I have a feeling this is also more the attitude of the general populace. And for those who do wish to take their craft into a more marketable direction, I have my doubts that they're green enough to benefit from chapters on selecting a computer, scanner, and camera. At the end of the day, I got a lot out of about half the book and really had no need for the other half. I might have been better off finding one whole book I could really dig into. If the niche of digital camera newbie who wants to frame their own prints is you, then you've definitely found your book, hands down. But for most other people, I'm afraid it might be too narrow to derive 100% usefulness from the text.

Perhaps a smaller gripe is the monetary investment you're expected to make. For cameras, he is pretty fair and clear that a digital SLR is going to give you the best (possibility of) quality prints, as well as the customization options needed for such. But he also gives you pointers for mid- and higher-end point and shoot cameras, if that's more your speed. For software, however, the book often comes across as an unsolicited advert for Adobe Photoshop CS2. Granted, it's the king-daddy of digital imaging software, but there are other, and cheaper, players on the court that offer many of the same options as Photoshop for a fraction of the price (although you could also consider the less-robust and cheaper option of Adobe Photoshop Elements). In the interest of equal time, here are a couple you can consider: GimpShop (a customization of the popular Gimp software package, which offers most of Photoshop's functionality, and is also laid out in a very similar fashion), which is free; and Pixel (a newer, but very capable and full-featured imaging application), which costs about US $32. Both are multi-platform.

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