Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

reviewed by Mike Hubbartt

Interest in digital photography is growing at a remarkable rate. Digital cameras, point-and-shoot and SLR, are becoming more affordable and image quality continues to improve each year, yet many people purchasing this equipment are new to digital photography. The authors of Digital Photography: The Missing Manual want to answer questions often missing in camera and image editing software manuals: specific procedures or guidelines to produce decent quality photographs.

This 403-page book is divided into four sections: Digital Camera Basics, Organizing Your Photos, Editing Your Photos and Sharing Your Photos. Each section in turn has three or more chapters. Mac-users will find chapters 1 – 3, 6 and 8 – 17 helpful and worthwhile reading. Chapters 4, 5 and 7 are strictly for PC owners.

Photography novices and digital photographers should start at the Introduction and read through Chapter 3. Chapter 1 introduces basic concepts and chapter 2 covers basic image composition: how to setup portrait and landscape shots. Chapter 3 covers the procedures and suggested settings for: action and sports, portrait, landscape and nature, kids and performances, weddings, sunset and nighttime, underwater and objects. Good information for people new to film or digital photography. Jump to chapter 6 for coverage of websites that provide online photo storing services, with warnings about possible issues with each site. And read chapter 8 to see how to use AdobeÕs Photoshop Elements for organizing and backing up photos.

Intermediate level photographers will want to skip directly to Chapters 9 and read through Chapter 13. Chapter 9 goes into basic photo fixes with EasyShare and Picasa, but Picasa does not have a Mac version of software, so ignore that section. Chapter 10 covers procedures to rotate, resize and crop images with Photoshop Elements – good tips for resizing images for e-mail, displaying on the web or printing. Chapter 11 addresses Photoshop Elements Quick Fix tools, with good explanations how to fix shadows and highlights problems.

Chapter 12 is Advanced Photo Retouching with Elements and it covers situations Quick Fix default settings canÕt address adequately. The authors stress the importance of the Level and Unsharp Mask tools and include photos showing the effects of both tools before and after. The area of the chapter devoted to fixing blemishes goes into using tools and filters to improve old or damaged photos - very useful material. One other nice item (if you donÕt use an LCD monitor) covered in this chapter: how to calibrate the colors on your monitor.

Chapter 13 is Creating Special Effects and it covers EasyShare and Elements. EasyShare has 10 special effects, while Elements has 90. Elements effects include: cartoon drawing effect, coloring book effect, colorize black and white photos, convert to black and white, film grain effect, fisheye distortion, glow, graduated tint, sepia tone, soft focus, and spotlight. An impressive number and range of effects! In addition to special effects, this chapter lists procedures to create impressive looking panoramas.

Conclusion

The material in this book is organized so novices and intermediate users alike will find it useful and interesting. The procedures are easy to follow, the tips are useful, and the writing flows well. The chapters covering image editing are excellent and an excellent reason to buy this book. The information on Photoshop Elements will prompt more than a few readers buy that software, as well as order a copy of Barbara BrundageÕs Photoshop Elements 4: The Missing Manual.

Recommendation

It doesnÕt matter if you own a Mac or a PC, get this book if you own or plan to buy a digital camera in the future.