I’ve decided as a new year’s resolution to start taking better pictures. Having gone through three digital cameras (one was stolen) I am down to two I use on a regular basis. A Canon SD300 and a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX5. Rather than spend money this year on buying another camera I’ve decided to do the best with what I’ve got and learn to take better photos instead.
Doing some after new year’s shopping online, I came across an ad for an ebook offering digital photo secrets.
I’m usually pretty apprehensive about buying ebooks online. You never get to see much inside the book and there is no book flipping before purchase.
But it was midnight the day after new years and I wanted info now! Where was I going to go? I took a chance and am glad I did.
The purchase went through petty painlessly. I paid with Paypal and downloaded the books (there are actually several bonuses with the order).
I found the book easy to read and the tips were concise and well presented. There is usually a before and after photo demonstrating the result which I found very useful. Nothing like seeing the tip in action to really “get” it. I will give a brief review of the book in sequential order.
The book is broken up into 14 chapters and gets right to the point on how to improve your digital photos. There is very little on the history of photography, how to interpret famous photos or things of that nature. There’s nothing wrong with those topics and I took evening courses covering them myself but this book is primarily about helping you take better pictures immediately.
The 14 chapters are:
* Introduction
* Top 21 Tips To Using a Digital Camera
* Digital versus Film Cameras
* Better Looking Pictures
* Composition
* Special Occasions
* Zoom
* Using Manual Modes
* Image File Formats
* Coverting from Film to Digital
* Which Digital Camera Should I Buy?
* Caring for your Camera
* Printing Your Images
* Miscellaneous Questions and Answers
The Top 21 tips gets you taking great pictures right away. Solving the most common photography problems. There areplenty of useful nuggets I will try to incorporate into my future photography, but the biggest tip of all is the last one, try to incorporate ALL the other tips every time you shoot and you should get some amazing results.
Digital photo secrets covers some of the other major problems hobbyists like me have. That is white balance, is with white balance, use of filters, focusing and metering. All that is explained better than whatever tiny manual that comes with most cameras.
The digital photo secrets book covers film cameras in the “Digital versus Film” section and while I was expecting the author to bash film cameras, he actually gives a very balanced view and covers the pros and cons of each. That’s a pleasant surprise because I still occasionally like to take a few shots with an old Pentax purchased in a garage sale a few years back just for the thrill of getting them back from the drug store.
I have purchased printed books that were not as useful and that’s even after I had a chance to flip through them. I don’t regret finding the digital secrets book site for one instance. It is well worth the money and the bonuses are just as valuable.
