50 Fast Digital Camera Techniques [With CDROM]

This is a great book for someone who knows little about photography except how to push the button and maybe get the pictures on their computer. Its filled with lots of information in easily digestible amounts. The first "technique" simply is a form to fill out with all the settings your camera can set, how high and low each can go, if it applies to your camera, and where in your camera's manual the topic is discussed. This sounds rather dull at first but believe me you will be thankful later when you know exactly what your camera is capable of and know how to quickly find the information again when you need it. I'd say the first 15 "techniques" (I prefer mini-chapters) are great to get you up to speed with the basics of what you need to know about photography and how to really USE all your camera's features. The rest of the book is essentially bonus material to expand your knowlege of certain types of photography. This book is clearly written for people who own point-and-shoot digital cameras, which is pretty much most people. If you have a Digital SLR, this book is not for you, but then you probably are either a serious hobbyist or a professional and don't need this book.

I bought this book to take on a trip with me with my new digital camera, to have a quick and thorough reference -- I wanted to learn ASAP so as to put my camera to the best use in the shortest time possible. I read the first few chapters in chronological order to get the basics, then jumped around as my curiousity and experience dictated. I found the book's contents immensely helpful to get a basic understanding of techniques that I could then go out and practice using in my daily shooting. Each technique is short enough to be able to digest and even re-read fairly quickly, yet pithy enough to give you plenty to put to use. My pages are all dog-eared and underlined at this point -- the sign of a book being put to good use -- and some weeks later I know there's still a lot more to be gotten from it.

This book resolved numerous unanswered questions I had about my 'prosumer' Canon PowerShot G3 (see review). What benefit is the histogram, for instance? Now I know not only what it's for, but how to use it for proper exposure - that alone was worth the reasonable admission price. I learned about exposure lock, focus lock, exposure (and flash) bracketing, why results with the built-in flash may be disappointing, why fast-action sports photos require a fancier (SRL) camera, the pros and cons of the red-eye prevention pre-flash, and dozens of other tips and features that the camera's instruction manual describes in detail, but leaves it to you to find out the why's and the how-and-when-to-use-it's.As expressed by some disappointed readers, this is NOT a book for point-and-shoot photographers and/or cameras [you'd be better served by one of the "Dummy" books]. It is meant for the more richly endowed cameras with many selectable functions, some of them mysterious. The title certainly falls short in not making that difference clear. But I found the contents enormously helpful in grasping the camera's potential (even though I couldn't tell apart the black-and-white original and edited vignettes that start each section). The enclosed CD has full-sized color photos that you can edit in graphics software, and a 'slide-show' that shows each and every book illustration in color (albeit compressed to web size). Also on the CD is a protected Acrobat version of the entire book [ie, you can view, but not print individual pages - using PrintScreen, you can copy a page to the clipboard, paste it in Word, then print the page].Overall: a superb guide to familiarize the reader with the arcane buttons, dials and menus of a complex digital camera. Other books might better serve snapshot photographers.

This book has been a great help to me. I am on my 4th digital camera but the first three worked fine in Auto mode and I never challenged myself to learn how to use all the features of the cameras. Having no photography background with advanced film cameras, I was not familiar with using white balance, f stops, depth of field, etc. This book has helped me to understand how to really get the most out of my more advanced "prosumer" camera and it is also full of tips and techniques for taking better photos of all types from landscapes to portraits, panoramas, pets and kids, using off-camera lighting and tripods. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to take better digital photos!

As an experienced 35mm user just switching to digital, I found this book to be the perfect complement to my camera's instruction manual.In a clear and straightforward manner, it addresses a wide multitude of picture-taking situations and accessory choices, from the most basic to the more complex. Each of the 50 techniques is concisely explained and extremely well illustrated in a most logical progression of sections ranging from 3 to 10 pages each. The table of contents and index are wonderfully comprehensive and make finding what you want as simple as possible. The included CD-ROM and associated web site are a beautiful bonus. My only wish is that more of the illustrations were in color, but at the price that would have been too much to expect. All in all, most highly recommended for both the beginner and advanced user.