Customer Reviews

Rick Sammons Complete Guide To Digital Photography

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a photographer of ten years, and I was looking for a good liasion to the digital format from film. This book tries too hard to be everything to all levels, and it ends up getting in its own way most of the times. What pretends to be a good overview for beginners and pros, stadles the two and inevitably caters to the lowest common denominator.
If you have any photography experience, understand how to expose a negative, etc. avoid this book. The pictures he uses are not that good or just plain cheesy. It makes me wonder how he got to this point.

I have just made the switch from film to digital and I found this book very helpful in propelling me along the way. I have bought 3 books and this is the one I keep coming back to. It is written in a friendly, conversational style and the pictures are excellent. The short lessons help me to put the book down and try things or to think about what has been said. Sammon's commentary is helpful without being overbearing. ("I like this alternative. What do you think?") The heavy paper does justice to the photos and the spine has not broken yet!

While I give the book highest marks for "presentation", I think there might be improvement in the organization. The content choice appears arbitrary. Nonetheless, it is fun to read. I love looking at the examples. For this middling amateur, the "lessons" have been interesting, inspiring and informative. This is the book I will take with me this summer. I highly recommend it to others who, like me, are responding to the new challenges and possibilities presented by the digital age in photography.

This book is well written full of interesting facts and nice pictures. It is geared toward the Apple Computer user and Photoshop photoediting. If those are your system give this book a fourth star. But there are better choices for less money if you are using a PC for editing and any photo-editing software including Photoshop, MS Digital Photo, Camedia etc etc.

My personal favorite is K.I.S.S. Guide to Digital Photography which is ten bucks cheaper, better written, more informative for the beginner and all around better instruction for the beginner to digital photography.

The book is beautifully illustrated. The specific examples are good for those who already know more than the basics in photography. In order for this to be a great book, it would need more elementary information so that a novice could pick it up and apply the techniques discussed. While I would recommend the book for someone who already knows how to use a camera, I do not think it is a 'complete guide to digital photography.'

A very highly recommended contribution to both novice and professional photography reference collections, Rick Sammon's Complete Guide To Digital Photography is a comprehensive self-teaching tool featuring 107 individual lessons covering all aspects of effectively taking, editing, storing, printing, and sharing high quality digital images. Full-color illustration enhances a meticulous text which offers detailed walkthroughs, tutorials, and more to fill the pages of this superbly organized and presented "how-to guide" written especially for photographers adapting their visual media to the diverse complexities and challenges of the Information Age.

If you are interested in digital photography, this is the best book available out there for this price, Period! I have read several books about digital photography and this books has it all. It is not so basic, yet it is not so advanced that you wouldn't understand what the write is saying. I was very impressed by Mr. Sammon's way of illustrating his points with sample pictures he has personally taken over the years. If you are an absolute beginner (if you have never used a 35mm SLR or a digital camera and a photo editing software before) I do not recommend this book for you. This book appeals to anyone who has a basic understand of digital photography and are interested in learning more about photo shooting techniques and digital darkroom (editing) software. Let me tell you-- you will not be disappointed by this book.

Rick has done a great job of gathering together a huge amount of material that is often scattered across many books. Rick's teaching style makes many fairly complex activities clear, and gives the reader something to build on and experiment with. Great stuff!

I am (or after reading this book should I say "was") a novice to photography and the digital darkroom. This book is a great starter and covers ever major aspect that comes with digital photography deeply and comprehensively.
Generally this book has two part: How to make/take a picture (yes, Rick also teaches you how to "make" a picture) and how to work it. It is obvious that Rick is a great pro Photograhper and he shares all his awesome photographic techniques with you. Still, his writing style is easy and even understandabel for the beginner. After reading this book your pictures will improve whether you are a beginner or advanced -Guaranteed!!!
His digital darkroom techniques require some basic knowledge about Photoshop. This is no tutorial how to use the different options and tools of photoshop. But a great book teaching you how to use them effectively. His approach is totally outcome oriented - the production of digitally enhanced pictures. Coherently he covers standard situations how to improve a picture and being creative, like redeye, overexposure, black and white, color management, creating more impact on the picture, preparing for print, etc. His procedures are easy to understand yet overwhelmingly efficient. The great illustrations let you retrace what has happened and how the effect will look like.
To get to that basic knowledge about Photoshop you either have to struggle through the borring help programm of the software itself. Or you get yourself a separate book. Another very convienent, yet more spendy way to probe the potential of Photoshop, is partially included on the CD which comes with this book - a virtual software tutorial. The one on the CD is great but is only on small section out of the whole tutorial, which you can buy seperatly. The whole series from Julieanne Kost runs about 200 $ but there a also cheaper tutorials out there for slightly over 20 - check with ebay. These are not so good in sound and maybe not as nicely stuctured but still a very convenient alternative to a book.
Finally, the printing quality, the binding and the illustrations reflect the thoroughness and love for the detail with wich this book was writen.
This book you will find fun to work and read through.

This lushly illustrated beautifully produced book of over 500 pages attempts the daunting task of offering a complete guide to digital photography in 107 Lessons. After completing the first 3 sections on digital photography, composition, lighting, exposure, to flash-or-not-to flash and other professional insights -- including a truly outstanding PowerPoint photography course on the enclosed CD, I was ready for a 5-star rave review. That is, until I hit the section on digital image processing. That the gorgeous illustrations were taken with a pro camera, expensive lenses, etc is understandable. What is NOT acceptable is to assume that beginners (no pro would buy such a general book) would have full-version Photoshop plus special plug-ins, AND a full portfolio of pictures from which to pick material for the various examples. Rather than putting demo's, A-V lessons and what have you on the CD, the author could have matched on the CD - chapter by chapter - the photos used for Photoshop technique illustrations. For instance, gorgeous shots of the Hearst castle - one exposed for the white marble highlights, the other for the deep shadows of the outdoor pool - were overlapped as layers to give a full-exposure view from deep dark to bright white. Not to include those learn-along images (not even on the website!) demonstrates a lack of teaching experience outside of the workshop classroom environment, if not disregard for the self-teaching student's needs who might use the more popular lower cost digital imaging software titles such as Paint Shop, PS Elements or Photo Impact.

Other books do a far better - albeit less visually spectacular - job of fully explaining the hows and why's, with full-size images on a CD -- and at much lower cost to boot. Might mention Mikkel Aaland, Greg Georges, Rick Lynch and Scott Kelby [no CD, but at least you can download every one of his images]. For just-starters, nothing thus far has beat the outstanding Tutorial of PSE2 and its "recipes" for quick image correction.

Rick Simmon did a fabulous job in attractive product packaging; he writes in a fluid easy to follow conversational style, and obviously is a gifted photographer. If only he stayed with what he knows and does best, and left the teaching of imaging to others he would have a tighter, lighter and cheaper book to offer.

I have just begun reading this book that I received as a gift. WOW! So much information. I can't belive how understandable Mr. Sammon make digital photography

I can't wait to buy it for my friends!