How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures from Your Digital Camera

I own a lot of photo books and this is certainly one of the best. This book has info for beginners, novices and advanced photographers--so anyone wanting a guidebook to use as your skill level improves will value this book. I enjoyed it so much I took it to our local camera club for show and tell. I think some of the other members planned on buying this book as well. One thing I particularly like about this book is that the text approaches "bullet point" or outline format. There is not a lot of extraneous verbage, just interesting and valuable snippets of information with photos to illustrate. I highly recommend this book!

Tom Ang is the man. The thing about most photography books is that they take a chapter to explain what can & should be done in a few sentences or a paragraph. They also suffer from a dearth of photos illustrating the concept they are trying to teach. Tom Ang really does teach how to photograph absolutely anything. Every two to four pages there is a new concept with at least a dozen photos illustrating the technique. There are bullet statements on steps to follow and what to look for when setting up the shot. I love it: one page, one technique, several pics. That's the way a photography books should be done. I also enjoy the fact that he doesn't get involved with any computer software or digital editing. All of his techniques can be done in camera. Tom Ang also uses compact or point and shoot cameras without any fancy lenses or accessories. This book is for beginners and hobbyists, not for professional photographers. Buy this book and several of Tom Ang's other publications. You will not be disappointed.

Tom Ang's credentials as a photography instructor is unquestionable. In this book, he managed the tricky balance between appeasing the novices and keeping the veterans interested. His goal is simple but ambitious: he wanted to make a book full of tips to at least get the newbies started in as many photographic settings as possible. This book is full of examples of how to take interesting and good photos in all sorts of situations, well-illustrated and narrated to give a decent sense of why and how. It is also full of useful little tricks that are wonderful to learn, that one usually has to luckily discover oneself, or hear from a more experienced photographers. The unfortunate thing about this book is that it does not cover enough technical details. In many cases I wish that Ang had said more than just "high ISO, wide-open aperture." I realize that numbers are just numbers, but some instructions leave me wondering what range of numbers he is talking about. There are plenty of things to benefit the novice and intermediate photographers alike, although the value diminishes with the reader's expertise, as expected. For the newbies, this book is especially appealing because Ang took most of the photos with a simple digital point & shoot, again highlighting that it's the technique and art that matter most, not the gear.