Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: The Digital Photography Book Volume 2
Iain Laskey likes the latest volume of Scott Kelby's handy sized books for photographers...
| Product | The Digital Photography Book volume 2 |
|---|---|
| Company | Peachpit Press |
| Web | www.peachpit.com |
| Price | From £13.99 |
| We like | Studio and flash sections, snappy style |
| We don't like | A little too terse in places |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
We recently looked at The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby which has now morphed into volume 1 with this new book joining it as volume 2.
Whereas volume 1 was fairly general in its advice, this volume is more targeted with content covering flash, studio work,weddings, portraits, travel, macro and landscapes. The final chapter is more general though with a grab bag of general tips for better photos.
As with volume 1, it is A5 sized and based around one tip per page with an illustration taking up the top half of the page and a paragraph or two on the bottom. As the author himself notes, the style is designed to read like a friend giving you tips on an actual shoot with none of the usual detail and technicalities. Instead it is full of straightforward solutions. 'How do I get a twinkle in my subjects eyes?' 'Use the white bounce card built in to your flash gun's head'. Brilliant!
The result of this style is that you have a compact book you can carry in your camera bag and refer to whenever you need any guidence whilst out and about. No need to wade through pages of prose, just short snappy answers.
We particularly liked the chapter on studio techniques - most of which are cheap enough to achieve and often easy too. Scott is a great believer in getting the light right whether it's at home in a studio or out in the field and this chapter plus the one on flash shows just what a difference a little extra thought and planning can make when it comes to taking your photography up a notch or two.
The section on wedding photography was quite interesting with ideas on kit to use as well as more specific areas such as how to position the brides feet so as to get more flattering results. With this and many other tips, the author goes out of his way to say who gave him the tip which makes a nice change.
We did feel that the odd item was really just included to make you aware of something rather than actually being really useful such as the page on adding a GPS unit. Yes, it says you can add them to your camera or PC and get the details recorded along with the shot but this was one of the areas where more informationn was definitely needed and as such isn't such a good candidate given the book's syle.
We thought the section on travel photography was a bit too brief and hope that any later volumes would expand on the limited content here. That said, some of the ideas were good such as photographing the food and people as well as the sights to give a much better flavour (ed: food? flavour? sheesh) of a foreign country. We also thought the idea of presenting travel shots under a theme such as an array of signs was great and well worth trying.
Conclusion
As with volume 1, we thought this was a great little book. With so many photo books being great big lumps that really need to stay at home, we think Scott has hit on a great idea with these A5 sized books and the one tip per page style. The layout works well, the illustrations cover each item nicely and the price is again right, especially with a little shopping around.
Don't let the DSLR on the front page put you off, even the humblest point and click camera user will find lots of useful and inspiring ideas here. All in all another great book from Scott Kelby and one we can easily recommend.
