Mastering Digital SLR Photography: The Serious Photographer's Guide to High-Quality Digital SLR Photography

There aren't too many good D-SLR guidebooks out there -- and most of them appear to be written by this author. I checked out his "Quick Snap Guide to D-SLRs" and it was very good, but too basic for me. The same could be said for Busch's "Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies" although it did go into more detail. This book was just right, with lots of in-depth material about using digital SLRs, as well as tips and techniques I could apply right away. This author also has more advanced books on D-SLRs, and I will probably check them out after I've had a chance to learn everything in this book.

I am an amateur photographer and was into serious photography after buying my Digital SLR a year ago. Till then I was looking for a serious book on Digital SLR photography. Finally I got one. I have spent several hours at Borders to find a good book. After refering several books, I chose this one as the best available. David Busch is offering everything a Digital SLR photographer is looking for. The best thing I liked about this book is it is not spending too much time on explaining how to correct your pictures using Photoshop or other image tools, while most of the other books use several chapters in explaining it. The photoshop technic is available all over the web and it is not what a photographer is primarily looking for. The following is important notes for this book. 1. If you are a regular photographer not wanted to go too much into technical, donot buy this book 2. If you are looking for enhancing your pictures using imaging tools, do not buy this book 3. If you do not have a Digital SLR do not buy this book. This is not for point and shoot digital camera owners. 4. If you do not understand the technical terms in the field of photography, you better understand them before reading the book. 5. Several Technical references are available in this book. So you will experience a technical reference book while reading. 6. The author seemed to be a master in his art and a veteran in photography. 7. It gives you an idea about accesseries of SLR with a cost effective comparison. 8. It tells you about Sports photgraphy, exposures, taking protraits. I am planning to read this book at least three times before reading any other books in this area. It gives me the pain of being too technical at times, but it is worth. Nandu

The thing I liked best about this book was that the author focused tightly on digital single lens reflex photography, explaining exactly how to get good pictures with an SLR, and with lots of detail explaining the strengths and weaknesses of the digital SLR compared with electronic viewfinder cameras and other types. He really went into a great deal of depth on the topics and, unlike some of the other books I checked out, didn't try to make this a general digital photography book. It's DSLR all the way. I've purchased some of the author's other books, and was glad that there was so little overlap among them. For some topics, he provides quick summaries with the most important, most essential information, then cross-references to his other books if the reader wants more detail on that topic. That's a great approach. We're never bogged down with too much detail on peripheral subjects. But we do get lots of detail on the things we're really interested in, including how to use the power of the DSLR to shoot great sports photos, macro pictures, etc. There's a whole chapter on choosing lenses and another on special DSLR features and techniques like image stabilization, infrared photography, time lapse photography, using histograms and so forth. This is truly a meaty book, with absolutely gorgeous illustrations. The author also didn't waste a lot of space comparing different digital SLR cameras like Canon or Nikon, or showing how to fix your photographic errors in Photoshop. He explains how to get good pictures the first time around, in your camera. Recommended.

First three comments on what this book is NOT. 1. This is NOT a book on using Photoshop to fix digital images to get what you want. 2. This is NOT a book on the do everything automatically point and shoot digital cameras. 3. This is NOT a feature comparison of all the different models of Digital SLRs. This book IS a book on the general features and capabilities of digital SLRs as opposed to the point and shoot cameras. And it IS on how to use these features and capabilities to their best advantage so you can get the best possible picture in the camera rather than in the computer. When I first looked at a "real" digital camera for the industrial pictures I was taking at the time, people were talking in terms of numbers starting at $5,000. And then there were the new lenses. I kept using film. Now the situation has changed. New camera bodies, some of which can still use older lenses (although not quite as automatically), have come out to completely change the picture. This book is very timely, and covers a subject that has been lacking.

It's about time we had a book of techniques for using digital single lens reflex cameras. For a long time, only the pro photographers could afford a digital single lens reflex, and they mostly already knew everything they needed to about photography. But now that the Canon Digital Rebel is available for less than $1000, and the Nikon D70 costs only a few hundred dollars more, there are millions of serious amateur photographers who are moving up to a digital SLR and who need some tips on how to use them. For example, I was completely in the dark about some funny spots on my photos, and I learned from this book that they are dust on the sensor and how to remove them. I also wondered about sports photography because shutter lag with my old Minolta digital camera made shooting action almost impossible. I got some great tips about action photography from this book and have already taken some great pictures at my son's basketball games. I like that this book is aimed at the SLR owner, who is likely to be very serious about photography. It offers lots of tips and tricks that go beyond the mundane and show you how to use a digital SLR to take better pictures. Although the explanations are not complicated, the author goes into lots of depth, making this book very comprehensive. I purchased his previous book on Mastering Digital Photography, and found that this one had not much overlap, so I could enjoy both. It covers the topics with more of an SLR slant. SLR photographers who are shooting digital must have this book to learn how to get the most from their cameras, and to pick up some valuable photography advice. I recommended it highly.