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Coincidentally, on the day I picked up this book, the author, Matthew Bamberg left me a note on this blog saying I should check out his book.

I suppose it was by fortune that I was able to obtain this book, having only been published this last December, and it was found in the normal photography section of the library and not the new section, where I'm sure it would have been snatched away the instant it appeared (as all new digital photography books do at the MVPL).

Everyone probably has seen a "For Dummies" book at this point, with it's yellow cover, black and white text inside punctuated by cartoons, and the ocassional black and white copy of a diagram or a photograph. While it does have the yellow cover, Digital Art Photography For Dummies is produced in FULL-COLOR. Yes folks, full-color on nice paper for a Dummies book. What better way to teach photography than to have color photographs on every page showing the different examples?

Digital Art Photography for Dummies is broken down into 5 sections:

The Art of a Digital Picture

The first part of the book covers how to take a picture. It's useful for those who have never taken a photography class in their life, because it introduces the concepts important to photography like composition, like color, like the rule of thirds, and so forth. It's an excellent primer and should fill the reader's imagination with ideas. The next two chapters are devoted to digital matters such as using your digital camera, how to calibrate your workspace, how to hook up the devices and so forth. The fourth chapter covers something that I don't think any photography book I've read has detailed yet, and that's figuring out what kind of photographer you want to be.


The Photo Shoot

Basically, how to shoot indoors, how to shoot outdoors, how to control lighting, how to shoot black and white, how to shoot people and animals, and how to use filters. It's a really useful chapter to read.


Photoshop Art: Using Software to Enhance or Create Art Photos

What do you do with old photographs? How can you bring them back from the faded state you found them in the shoebox? This section shows you how to do that, as well as how to fix photographs with all the filters and tools found in Photoshop. I normally hate Photoshop tutorials within books, but within this book, because it's more of a general overview rather than giving detailed step by step instructions by example (he does do this, but it is in manageable amounts for things that matter). I wish other authors would follow this example of how to do a Photoshop chapter. Major kudos for finally getting a Photoshop chapter done right.


The Final Output: Gallery-Worthy Prints

This chapter lays out how to get your photographs into the condition where it can be published or hung on walls or sold. He also covers RAW and file organization as well.
The Part of Tens
In every "For Dummies" book, the author lists ten rules to follow, which summarize the subject matter. In this one, he also offers 10 digital tricks to create better photographs.
Digital Art Photography for Dummies is what I've been looking for as a perfect introductory book on the subject which also had advice and tips for how to actually make work marketable. It's a great book, don't let the "For Dummies" title fool you -- if you manage to absorb all the the information in this book and make use of it all, you'll be regarded as an expert.

Posted by Michael Huang on February 15, 2006 06:06 PM | Permalink