Perfect Digital Photography: Brilliant Pixels from the Digital Darkroom

by Jay Dickman

Written by photography experts--including a Pulitzer-Prize winning National Geographic photographer--this full-color book is a must-have for amateur photographers serious about improving both the quality of their photographs and their proficiency in the digital darkroom. The book is the perfect combination of a technical treatise on digital imaging and an artistic exploration of light, composition, and form, allowing you to glean the essential techniques needed for digital photography without losing sight of the artistic and aesthetic aspects of the craft. Using an easy-to-follow approach, the authors explain the image conceptualization process through shooting, editing, and image correction to finished print. In addition, top photographers from a variety of disciplines offer real-world advice on how they use digital photography to create compelling images for high-profile magazine articles, advertising campaigns, and fine art prints.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2005

Reviews

[April]

I did learn a few things from this book, but like many photography books I've read it seems to be geared toward people who have the money to purchase expensive equipment. I have a DSLR, but's not high end and I only have the kit lens that came with it. While I'd love to have a couple more lenses and some other equipment, it's just not in the budget right now. However, this book did encourage me to experiment with manual settings more instead of leaving my camera on auto. If nothing else I enjoyed looking at the author's photos. He's very talented.

[Erin]

This is the best overall photography book I have read. And I have read a lot of them. Each chapter gave great tips on how to take certain kinds of photos. Then the last part breaks down editing. The part on Lightroom (albeit LR 2) is excellent. It goes into detail about so much more than other books gave done (workflow, collections, curves!!! and more). I wish that they did an update. You should have a good working knowledge of your camera, which lens to use when, and how to use LR. This is not for a beginner IMO.

[Jaq Greenspon]

To be honest, I only read the first half on shooting pictures and not the digital darkroom stuff. I'll get back to that when I have the time and own the software.