Digital Photography [With CDROM]

If you're ready to get a digital camera, or if you've just purchased one, "Digital Photography, I Didn't Know You Could Do That..." is a very good book to get you started. It includes a solid, basic photo-manipulation software program (Adobe PhotoDeluxe) and covers a surprising number of topics. Don't let the simplicity of the explanations fool you. Erica Sadun is giving you a lot of valuable information.The first section covers the basics of taking pictures of people. Sadun explains the fundamentals of photography, including perspective, angle, the rule of thirds, and depth of field. She describes why it's important to get close to your subject and keep the background simple. She covers the basics of selecting appropriate lighting, posing, and even some information on setting up your own little home studio. If you don't know what all of this means, the book will be worth the cost just to get a clear, 45-page explanation of these issues. Professional photographers can skip this section, but everyone else will learn a lot of material here to help you produce better pictures for your friends and your family album.In the second section, Sadun continues in her easy-to-understand but thorough style, covering the basic technical matters that you need to understand about digital cameras in general. If you're already an electronic gadget nerd, you don't need this section, but for everyone else, there is helpful advice in here.The third section covers using PhotoDeluxe, software that comes with the book for free. If you don't already have a decent photo editing program, this section and the software are easily worth the cost of the book.Sections four through eight describe various image manipulation and photography projects. Depending on where your interests lie, you can learn about special effects, digital retouching, 3D, panoramas, and crafts.The last sections cover what to do with the images, how to make prints or use services to have prints made, and how to show your images to others. There are demos for a lot of cool programs, including Genuine Fractals, which lets you create much bigger prints with your digital images.The way to become a good photographer is to take pictures, evaluate your results (if you are lucky, find someone who can give you good feedback on them), take some more pictures, look at your results, and so on. The digital camera is the ideal tool for learning to become a better photographer because you can see each image right after you take it. Since there is no per-picture cost, as there is with Polaroid, you can experiment cheaply."Digital Photography, I Didn't Know You Could Do That..." is a wonderful guide for anyone new to the world of digital photography. I would recommend this book to anyone who has or is considering a digital camera. Erica Sadun has done an excellent job.

I have to disagree with a previous reviewer who said not to buy the book unless you own or plan to buy the same camera and software that the author uses. For one, you don't have to buy the software the author uses because THE SOFTWARE COMES WITH THE BOOK. Yes, free software! And that software is PhotoDeluxe from Adobe -- not a bad place to start! The techniques you learn will get you ready for whatever editing package you want to work with. Furthermore, the book is designed to work for anyone new to digital cameras, regardless of your equipment. It teaches techniques for taking better photos, gives brilliant tips for using your digital camera to do things like comparison shop or document a move, and it shows all the ways you can share your pictures with friends and family. The combination of great information and free software make this book an excellent value.

I just started reading this book today, and I'm already on page 77 and I must say, I'm very impressed. This book is easy to read, has pictures 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 very good, 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." The full version of Photo Deluxe makes it a very good value. To close, I must say that this book will be very helpful for the reader who wants to learn more about how their camera can work to give them more pleasing shots and ease the use of digital photography. Buy the book.

Not only is the text excellent, but it includes a full version of Adobe Photodeluxe, which if you went to a computer store to buy, you would pay about $50.00 just for the software. Why do that when you can get the software AND the text for less than $20.00? Also, I have high-end photo programs (Corel and Photoshop), but I do almost everything using just the program this book gives you. It not only is an easy program to learn, it is also a powerful one.

Whew, finally I can use my digital camera and know what I am doing! This book was a lifesaver. I can't recommend it too highly. It also had alot of good ideas for getting the most (and most practical) use out of my camera. After spending so much on the camera itself, the book was a good investment and a bargain to boot!