Are you familiar with every feature of your digital camera? If you are like most of us, the answer is no. That's a shame — especially when help exists to make the most of your photo-taking experiences and create snapshots that will preserve special memories and make you proud. The third edition of O'Reilly Media's Digital Photography Pocket Guide by Derrick Story is tiny — the book literally will fit into your pocket — but it is packed with valuable information that can make a tangible and positive difference for amateur shutterbugs and professional shooters alike.
The guide features clear, logically organized material designed to get any photographer on the road to taking quality pictures. First, it offers a tour of your digital camera, offering detailed anatomies of compact point-and-shooters, advanced amateur models, professional-quality cameras, and hybrid devices like the über-popular camera phones. Using this book along with your owner's manual, you will be able to locate every part of the machine and learn why it exists and how it is used.
Particularly useful is an alphabetical breakdown of digital-camera controls: The heart of the book addresses aperture value to file formats to zoom control and everything in between. A compendium of shooting tips is also immensely valuable (even for non-digital picture-taking). Whether you are planning on taking outdoor shots, looking to prevent the dreaded red-eye, shooting photos from the stands at the 50-yard line, or creating panoramic vacation shots, the guide presents easy-to-understand tricks to help you shoot like a pro (or, if you are a pro, to help you become even better).
You'll even find special and specific situations addressed. Do you need to learn how to find the right horizon line to show your subject to best effect? Are you taking pictures to be seen on a Web site? Do you need to shoot your own passport photo? Do you need to get photo files optimized for e-mailing? Do you need to compile a slideshow? Are you hankering to give your camera's till-now-ignored video-making capabilities a whirl? This guide has all this covered and more, including how to shoot compelling wedding photos, how to deal with taking individual and group portrait shots, even how to capture a waterfall depending on whether you want a dreamlike effect or to see individual waterdrops seemingly suspended in air.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
Excellent review of this concise guide, Natalie!
2 - Joanie
Sounds like it's worth checking out. To be honest, I have read the two manuals that came with my camera cover-to-cover many times and am still perplexed how to access one of the features listed. Maybe the answer's in O'Reilly's book instead.