Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: blue pixel Personal Photo Coach
Iain Laskey is unimpressed by this guide for digital photographers.
| Product | blue pixel Personal Photo Coach |
|---|---|
| Company | Peachpit Press |
| Web | www.peachpit.com |
| Price | £18.99 |
| We like | Wide range of topics, photographer's anecdotes |
| We don't like | Layout, errors, folksy style |
| Rating | |
| Requirements |
Maybe it's the folksy American style of prose. Maybe it's the wide angle photos of gurning people giving two thumbs up every few pages or maybe it's the lack of useful illustrations. Whatever it was, I couldn't put this book down quick enough.
The book tries to cover all the bases within its 296 pages. The index looks promising with chapters on composition, flash, usage of aperture and speed and various special camera modes. It then moves on to downloading your photos on to your PC or Mac, tweaking and printing the best ones as well as showing different ways you can share them with friends and family. Later chapters focus (sorry) on family, sports and artistic images and the special needs of each type.
For the novice, there are some useful things here although many of the explanations really need some simple illustrations. The size of aperture is explained in terms of a pack of cards fanned out in to a circle. A simple line drawing or two would have helped here. There were many other areas where the descriptions seemed awkward and cried out for a simple illustration or photo to explain or enhance the message.
More worryingly, some items are just plain wrong:
"This photo was taken at the same shutter speed and f-stop as the other one but this time the ISO was bumped up to 400 to eliminate the camera shake".
Upping the ISO will enable you to choose a higher shutter speed and thus reduce camera shake but in itself, it isn't going to miraculously do anything other than result in an over exposed image if the f-stop and shutter speed are unchanged. With the author's pedigree this sort of error simply shouldn't be here. It may be the result of an over-zealous sub editor but it does make you wonder about the accuracy of the rest of the text.
After the first 20 pages or so I was starting to get a knot in my stomach as I turned the page in case one of the deeply irritating but supposedly amusing illustrations of a photographer grinning maniacally with one or more thumbs held aloft awaited me. Equally, headings like "IPTC, EXIF and Bears, Oh My" did little to impress.
On the plus side, it does mention online services such as Shutterfly and Ofoto as ways to share your images. It also uses Paint Shop Pro and PhotoShop Elements for some of the examples which are far more likely to be the tool of choice for amateur photographers who can't stretch to things like the full PhotoShop program. Some of the tips such as keeping copies (on CD) of important photos offsite or forcing the wrong white balance to get interesting effects are also genuinely good. For me, some of the best sections were anecdotes by other photographers of how they got particular shots.
Conclusion
Whilst there are some useful tips here, the whole thing is too high level to be really useful and in many cases just gives a taste of the options and possibilities. There are better books out there that cover this material and most are rather less cheesy.
