Shooting Digital: Pro Tips for Taking Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera

by Mikkel Aaland

A unique, full-color guide to the art of taking amazing photos with a digital camera Aimed at photographers of all levels and ranges of interest, this new edition of Aaland's popular guide takes readers beyond the technology of the latest cameras and equipment to teach them the unique aesthetics of the digital image. Helpful examples explain how to take full advantage of RAW file formats, JPEG 2000, panorama automation, and more. Mikkel Aaland (San Francisco, CA) is an award-winning photographer and author whose photography has been published in magazines and exhibited around the world.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

287 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2003

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a pretty well-balanced book that is targeted at amateur photographers that are trying to take their photos to the next level. The book is technique driven rather than focused on the hardware. Because the chapters are organized topically, it's easy to skip over some to get down to the meat of what interests you -- for example, I skipped over the portrait photography chapters to move on to the landscape/nature photography and techniques for night shots. The book is full of good tips and is fairly accessible, reiterating certain tips in-context, re-covering some basics even though the introduction says that it assumes you (the reader) will already know about them.

The book's biggest strength is definitely that it is topically driven -- having the focus on the techniques means that most of the tips will apply to you regardless of if you're shooting with a pocket-sized point-and-shoot, a "prosumer", or high-end DSLR.

It also does a decent job of covering "digital darkroom" work such as creating HDR images, re-touching white balance, etc.

The frustration I experienced with this book was that I was looking for more information about when to use specific aperture/shutter speed combinations and what kind of lenses work for specific situations. That said, the introduction does specifically state that it expects that you already have a decent background in photography and working knowledge of those techniques. To the author's credit, while he does not dedicate a chapter to apertures and shutter speeds, he does bring up "recommended settings" in context with detailed explanations of why he recommends them. There is also a few pages that detail "focal length equivalents" with respect to lenses.

[Myra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tips for taking photos of different subjects and such. As the author says in the introduction, this is not a book on how to use you camera, but a book on how to get the best shot in certain situations (eg. landscapes, group shot, children, pets, etc.)

I found some of the chapters pretty good. Sadly, others were not. Overall, the book was very inconsistent. For example, the chapter on children and pets was more of a "this is how this talented photographer did this one particular shoot on this one specific day" than a "here are some good tips for how to take great pictures of pets and children in any situation." Yet the chapter on landscapes was pretty good.

So, worth a quick read, but not something to devour word-by-word.

[BrightSideofDeath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent photography book for advanced-beginners to intermediates. It covers a range of topics very well. It also uses better photo examples than other books in this category, but I wish they were better yet. It'd be nice to be inspired, not just have a good to decent photo that fits the topic.

[HomeInMyShoes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though I haven't taken any classes or read much literature on the subject, having taken photos for twenty years made this not the most useful guide for me. I would be wary of purchasing this if you are past the just starting out point.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another book on digital photography. Nothing new, nothing special, just like any other. This second edition is quite dated and unuseful if you don't plan to give your hard earned cash to Adobe. Two stars as it's nothing wrong with it.

[Renee]

A little advanced for a beginner.