Shooting Digital: Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera - Softcover

Aaland, Mikkel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470042877 ISBN 13: 9780470042878

Publisher: Sybex, 2006

Synopsis

A unique, full-color guide to the art of taking amazing photos with a digital camera

Aimed at photographers of all levels and ranges of interest, this new edition of Aaland's popular guide takes readers beyond the technology of the latest cameras and equipment to teach them the unique aesthetics of the digital image. Helpful examples explain how to take full advantage of RAW file formats, JPEG 2000, panorama automation, and more.

Mikkel Aaland (San Francisco, CA) is an award-winning photographer and author whose photography has been published in magazines and exhibited around the world.

About this title

Review:

A digital camera is functionally identical to a traditional film camera in all respects except image storage, right? Not at all, and Mikkel Aaland shows exactly why in his excellent Shooting Digital. He shows why digital cameras--the point-and-shoot variety as well as fancier models meant for professional photographers--are overall neither better nor worse than cameras of older design, and goes on to show you how to take advantage of their special traits. He shows how to compensate for their shortcomings, too, notably shutter lag (for which he documents a useful testing procedure) and color fringing. Though there's some coverage of creating animated GIFs, this book generally sticks to shooting time and leaves editing to other volumes.

Aaland never forgets that digital cameras should be more cameras than digital, and his book serves as an excellent photography text for hobbyists and aspiring professionals. The author's advice in this area is both technical (how to light a still life and how to best a strobe to eliminate shadows) and artistic (why kids should be encouraged to photograph other kids, and how you can use perspective to create weird effects). He's an accomplished photographer who obviously loves his work, and his enthusiasm for making art with a camera--and, for that matter, just playing with one--come through brilliantly. --David Wall

Topics covered: Photography--of objects, people, places, action, nature, and other subjects--as accomplished with a modern digital camera. Emphasis falls on the relationship between camera and subject, as defined by focus, lighting, composition, and motion. Further attention goes to image manipulation accomplished via camera settings (like white balance and exposure, and, a little bit, to post-shoot processing with image software. There's also nice coverage of the differences among various image file formats.

From the Back Cover:

"Be part of the revolution."
—Leo Laporte, This Week in Tech

Go beyond the basics to mastery of the art and craft of digital photography in this new edition of the landmark book from award-winning photographer and author Mikkel Aaland. Aaland draws upon his thirty years of experience in the field, plus the wisdom of more than two dozen contributing professional photographers, to provide authoritative coverage of the latest technologies and best photographic practices. You'll find a wealth of pro tips, shooting techniques, technical recommendations, and step-by-step examples accompanied by stunning photographs that illustrate the practical aspects as well as the aesthetics of digital photography. Build your skills and get inspired with this striking and practical book.

• Capture high-impact images of people, landscapes, products, and more
• Shoot RAW and get the most quality and flexibility out of your digital camera
• Create stunning black-and-white photographs
• Learn to compensate for the main drawbacks of digital cameras
• Photograph underwater, from the sky, beyond visible light, and at night
• Use JPEG 2000, panorama stitching, and other new editing tools
• Focus in depth on technical topics such as histograms and sensors

Stop the action, blur the scene, convert to B&W all in camera or on your computer.

Shoot better so your images will need less editing.

Tag, sort, store, and find your photos more efficiently.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sybex
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0470042877
• ISBN 13: 9780470042878
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 287