Are you ready to take photos that reflect your creative spirit, rather than just another set of snapshots? Then you want this book in your camera bag. Well-organized so you can look up topics quickly, The Digital Photography Companion gives you creative tips and technical advice for taking top-notch digital photos in a wide range of conditions, and for a variety of occasions. In other words, this book will help you make pictures that look better than everyone else's. Professional photographer and teacher Derrick Story, whose online tips and podcasts at The Digital Story (www.thedigitalstory.com) have made him a popular photography blogger, gives you plenty of examples of how to capture great shots of people, places, landscapes, and more. He also provides a complete summary on camera features, tips for printing, sharing your images, and an overview of photo management applications. Chapters include:

• What is It? -- Choose the right camera (DSLRs, compact cameras, or hybrids) and get a rundown on all of the typical features they offer, such as face detection, image stabilizers, diopter adjustment, focus assist light, RAM buffer, and more.

• How Does it Work? -- This A-Z guide of digital camera controls explains everything from Aperture Value (Av) Mode and Autoexposure to White Balance, the Zoom/Magnify Control, and everything in between.

• Shoot Like a Pro -- Advice for a variety of photographic adventures, such as capturing existing light portraits, creating powerful landscape images, and shooting fireworks, underwater portraits, infrared photos, and more, along with lighting and filter tricks.

• I've Taken Great Pictures, Now What? -- You get complete advice for sharing your photos, converting from color to balck & white and more, plus an overview of photo management applications, from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to Apple iPhoto.

• Printing Made Easy -- Printing doesn't have to be a painful experience. Learn various options, including direct printing without a computer, ordering out, and selecting the right inkjet printer for home (and what to do with it once you get it there.).

You also get an appendix with Quick Reference Tables, as well as other useful tables scattered throughout the book. The Digital Photography Companion offers you friendly advice so you can try techniques that may never have occurred to you -- approaches that will bring you more of what you're looking for when you click the shutter: Great looking pictures!

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 18 Ratings

The digital photography review - 2009-08-30
Reviewer Rating:
Excellent book to carry with you as a companion while learning digital photography. I know I will wear this one out and will have to get another, so It's well worth the price. Couldn't get along without it!

For novices - 2009-04-19
Reviewer Rating:
Hi, this book is too basic. it does not explain things in detail and all explanations are too general. Maybe a book if you have just bought your first camera. I would not recommend this book to a friend and I had had the chance to preview it better I would had bought another one.

really excellent overview - 2009-01-14
Reviewer Rating:
This book provides an excellent, clear overview of digital photography basics. The writing style is clear and engaging, and the very knowledgeable author comes across as an enthusiastic friend offering his best advice, rather than a condescending expert. The book presents information with both digital SLR users as well as compact, point-and-shoot cameras in mind. (You will end up wanting to own one of each.) It covers basic camera functions, photo composition strategies, processing images on the computer (with Photoshop, etc.), and printing, distributing and storing your work. Each topic is covered with just the right amount of detail. There are a lot of very practical "insider" tips for getting excellent photos, and the ones I've tried have been very effective. The chapter on camera functions is organized like an encyclopedia, with alphabetical entries. At first I was doubtful about this approach, because it seemed to make more sense to discuss camera functions in a more thematically organized way. However, the author's approach does make the book very easy to use as a quick reference, and when reading later parts of the book, it was easy to flip back to relevant entries to refresh your memory about a given camera function. The book does NOT provide detailed information about how to use Photoshop (or any other specific image processing software), instead favoring some general principles that are useful with virtually any program. You will want to get a separate book to learn the ins and outs of particular computer programs, but this book does give a great basic orientation and some general strategies for making these programs work effectively. I read the book eagerly and learned a lot. I'm sure I'll be referring to it often.

The Digital Photogrqphy Companion - 2009-01-13
Reviewer Rating:
Book is a very good reference for those who have some knowledge of the availability of settings to program into the bigger digital cameras. It will also provide newcomers with a better understand of all that their camera can do in photography. Many good information tips are also included. The author also suggest the use of the book as a traveling companion for information you might want to use when you are traveling with your camera.

Keep it handy - 2008-12-16
Reviewer Rating:
This a super book to keep handy. I gives good information on almost any shooting situation. I plan to carry it in my bag. Very easy to read an helpful.

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