Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies [Paperback]

I've looked at other books besides the Dummies and Idiots guides, and this may be the most complete reference to date for digital photography. There's lots of stuff in the book that pertains to ANY kind of photography. If photographers use the book the way Dummies books are really meant to be used--by turning to the topic that most interests them at the moment, or the part that will help them with a specific (photographic) problem--they'll find plenty of valuable information. One thing they won't find, however, is much about setting f-stops and shutter speeds (though there's quite a bit about the connection between film speed and shutter speed). But then most digital photographers just put their cameras on "P" (for program) and let the camera make those settings for them! While the reading and presentation is easy, the depth of material is actually surprisingly thorough. Beginning, or even some advanced photographers, will be referring to this book more than once, over time.. Hey, where was this book when I started in photography?

Book I, A Digital Photography Overview, is actually both a summary and a preview of the books to come. If you're interested in the basics of digital photogaphy and equipment, or need to know right away how to connect your camera to your computer or whether you can share or print your pictures, you'll find short, easy-to-digest chapters on each of these here. Longer treatments of the topics can be found later in the book.

Book II, Building Your Digital Photography Studio tells you everything you need to know about choosing a camera, setting up your computer, importing pictures, using printers and scanners, and what key accessories are needed.

Book III, Taking Great Pictures has a lot more about photography than you find in nearly every other digital photography book, with complete chapters on composition, macro photography, portraiture, taking pictures for publication, sports photography, and travel Photography.

Book IV, Basics of Image editing provides a good introduction to choosing a good image editor and learning the basic functions.

Book V, Editing with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, explains how to do the most common tasks using these two popular image editors.

Book VI, Restoring Old Photos, actually deals more with using scanners, but has a chapter to fixing vintage pictures.

Book VII, Printing and Sharing Your Digital Images has good chapters on printing pictures and sharing them on the Web.

The most important part of the book is Book III, in my opinion, and is worth the price all by itself. Books I and II summarize everything you wanted to know about digital cameras and equipment, too. The last third of the book on image editing is very good for those who are wondering what they can do and how to do it. I liked this book.