Book recommendations?

The internet is your best friend when you are first learning! Websites like Flickr and Digital Photography School help so much with technique and even have more to offer you when you get better. Unfortunately, I do not know of any books that are good. I've rented random books from the library. That may be a good start. One of the biggest things to learn/study is the Rule of Thirds. It's a good think to start with. Another thing that is immensely important is understanding light. Even without a DSLR, it's very important to understand how to properly balance light.

Sorry that I couldn't give you any specific book names. But at least you have things to keep in mind when you look for books. One last thing, there isn't anything wrong with getting books with just photographs in them in order to try and mimic them. ^_^ Good luck!

 

An often recommended book is the "Understanding" series of books by Bryan Peterson--particularly the 1st one, Understanding Exposure. The author runs an online photography school called the Perfect Picture School of Photography. (They charge tuition.) Disclosure: I do not actually own this book, I am mentioning it because of its popularity and reputation.

Another popular choice is (famous landscape photographer) Ansel Adams's series of instructional books: The Camera, The Negative and The Print. These were written with film cameras in mind, but still covers concepts relevant today and are highly regarded--plus it's useful if you ever feel like using film someday. I only own The Negative, and I still don't "get" the Zone System.

An interesting book that covers the art side is Molly Bang's Picture This: How Pictures Work. She uses simple shapes and colors to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and explains why she made those choices. This I own. It's quite unique and powerful. I believe it's marketed as a children's book, but I didn't really get that vibe. (Maybe I'm a kid? Or parental bonus on steroids?)

 

Ooh!


I definitely recommend the Digital Photography How To Series. It's great. The author, Scott Kelby, talks in plain, simple English with minimal photography mumbo jumbo. The concept of the series is, you and Scott are out on a shoot, and you ask him questions land he gives you answers. His advice is straightforward and practical. The series is really good, and this book set is a really good investment.

I also have websites to share. A basic in photography is to understand the relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture. I suggest SimCam and CameraDemo. They're both online camera simulators, and they're a great way to learn about the three since you see pictures reflecting how one effects the other.

And for another website resource, Digital Photography School is comprehensive!

Good luck and have fun!

 

I must definitely, strongly and most vehemently second delgadina's recommendation!

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 1
The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2
The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3
The Digital Photography Book, Part 4
(first three also available as a boxed set)
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Scott Kelby's books are, simply and in one word, brilliant.

If you read through the whole series (four books as of this writing - and yes, Kelby has changed the numbering from "volume" to "part" ... don't ask) you will find some of his tips being reiterated, but not to any great degree.

Most of all, he is very hands-on and down-to-earth in his tips and recommendations; anyone will be able to put what he says to good use - and his familiar language (and totally bonkers sense of humour!) make his books well worth reading for entertainment value alone.


A second recommendation, both for valuable tips and for a good read, would be the books by Scott Kelby's good pal Joe McNally:

The Moment it Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters
Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes
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Here's another complete madman with an absolutely wonderful sense of humour.
His approach is rather more technical, and his particular concern is the light in images. The second book - Hot Shoe Diaries - is all about achieving great lighting on location just by using Speedlights.

Anyone with any kind of a digital camera can find valuable information in Kelby's books, but in order to get the most out of them you do need a DSLR.
McNally's books are valuable to anyone simply for inspirational reading, but the technical information is useful only for DSLR users with one or more hot-shoe flashes.

 

I actually loathed The Digital Photography Book. While the advice can be handy I find Kelby's writing style so abrasive that even though I own the book I'll scour the internet and spend hours on trial-and-error before I resort to it, because the writing just straight-up makes me angry (I found the "jokes" condescending and a waste of time, and they really tick me off -- really, you need to spend a paragraph telling a transparent lie about what "tack sharp" means just to joke around?). Also, while he does give practical answers to problems, his books aren't great if you want to develop an understanding of camera basics like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

So basically if what you want is a book that tells you how to do specific things without explaining why it works, it might be the book for you, but only if you can handle his writing style. Definitely take a flip through before you buy if you can, especially if you're a little fussy like me.

I found that The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography gives a really lucid, easy to understand primer on basics like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and manipulating depth of field, but it doesn't really go beyond that. I'm still looking for an intermediate book I like.

 

Heh. Well, there is a Western Swedish proverb that goes "smaken är som rôven, klôven" ... which, unfortunately, doesn't translate well into English. Basically, it's equivalent to "there's no accounting for taste", but more colourful, and more applicable in this case.

It's a matter of personal taste and sense of humour, and me, Kelby has ROTFLMAO much of the time — while on the other hand, I also do find his advice highly useful and inspirational.
Nor do I find it too hard to figure out why what he says works, even tough he doesn't spell it out for me. Actually, in some perhaps perverse fashion, I appreciate the fact that he doesn't.
But yes, that "reverse engineering" of what he says does require the reader to have some previous grasp of the nuts and bolts part of things. Perhaps that's why I don't want him to spell it out; I enjoy figuring things out.

On the other hand — and I believe this is the main selling point of the series — you don't have to understand all the photog technobabble in order to just use the tips given in the books. The book tells you what to do and how to do it in very simple and straightforward terms, and you can implement it straight off the page, with no previous deeper knowledge.

So in the end, I must agree with chibaraki in that intermediate-level books these aren't, really. They're useful for the raw beginner to quickly learn lots of useful techniques, and they're convenient for intermediate and advanced photographers (who can bear the sense of humour, granted) who find having so many techniques compiled in such compact package useful, but books for intermediate or higher level learning and instruction ... they are not.


As a prime example of Scott's (and Joe McNally's) ... peculiar humour, here is a video for general enjoyment (flip it to full-screen 720p HD, if you can). Scott is the guy who doesn't get to eat his double cheese burger.
(It's a spoof on this commercial, for those who haven't seen it, or don't remember.)


EDIT: I also second chibaraki's recommendation to flip through any book you consider before buying it. For this purpose, the links to the Digital Photography Books in my post above are useful — each of them gives "look inside" links for the book in question.

 

I am just getting back into SLR photography after about a 10 year absence, as well as making the jump from film SLR to dSLR (with normal point-and-shoot digitals in between, lol). I felt VERY lost and intimidated by my Nikon D3000.

However, just this Monday I spotted 'Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies' on the shelf at best Buy. Eagerly, I snapped it up, because I desperately needed those silly introductory steps.

I LOVE THIS BOOK.

I'm devouring it. The comments are cheerful and encouraging, the terminology is simple. You might laugh at the 'for Dummies' books, but they do their job; I'm prepared now to step up to the more traditional SLR intro books. Tons of examples, charts, and icons that denote tips and tricks make it so much easier to read.

While you're thinking about getting the camera of your dreams, this book will help you understand WHY things are done the way they are.

Good luck!!

 

Thank you so much for sharing this! I will check out every link here. It's important to me to understand WHY things work like they do also. I will definitely try Scott Kelby's books as well, as I have seen them around, and heard of them before. I guess someone would have mentioned it already if they knew, but I'm asking anyway: Does anyone know about any books that has special advise and training in photographing miniature environment, like doll houses, dolls and so on?

 

Pat Henry, the editor of FDQ, has a photography book especially for taking photos of dolls. It's called FDQ: In Focus. You can get it online at FDQ http://fdqmedia.com/Book.html
It's got some great tips about lighting, setting up shots, etc.
Nancy

 

Thank you so much! I will order it as soon as I can!

 

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if you guys thought it was important to have a book that explains basic explanations about f-stop and ISO, etc. I know it's very much dependent upon personal preference, but I have to do photography for a wide range of things, and am expected to know what I'm talking about (I digitize museum collections as part of my job). The trouble is, I really don't get any of this stuff. So I'm a bit leery of ordering the Kelby books, simply because I sometimes feel like I need to be able to speak precisely about lenses, lighting, etc.

I just ordered my first DSLR - a Nikon D80 with two Nikkor lenses: 28-80mm and a 70-300mm. I also have an older Nikon SLR I'd like to use at some point, too (it's in storage, so I can't say what lens and make it is). Because I have these two different cameras, can I learn what I need to learn from a Digital Photography book, or is it better to get a handle on the basics?

 

Isara: I would say a little of both or reading and experimenting. Try to understand the basics first, like how aperture (f-stops) affects the exposure, how shutter speed affects the exposure, and how ISO affects the exposure. Then go further into how all three relate to each other. Then, learn how aperture affects the depth of field, shutter speed affect ambient light, and how shutter speed affects noise. I know I was guilty of trying to take everything in at once without really understanding anything (even after I got my camera). Once I took a class (and was forced to go step by step) a lot of things were cleared up.

In short, I'd suggest you get a book that does go step by step and try and do a little assignment with every few steps (pretend it's a class or something). Last, things like composition and "artistic" photographs come later. If you can't get a properly exposed picture or a sharp subject, then a good composition really doesn't matter. If I've confused you about anything, feel free to PM me ^_^ Good luck.

Edit: I realized that I didn't fully/directly answer your first question. I read books about photography, but I don't own any. (I didn't even buy the recommended reading for class). But, since you need the basics, I think it's a good idea to find a book that has everything you need so you can refer to it as much as you have to. Honestly, all of that stuff is online.

 

Thank you for the wayfinding, xobrittuhox. That's very helpful

 

Does anyone have a copy of this book? Please post about it, I'm really interested in it! If you have a copy, is it worth it?

 

I do have it, and ... well, here's my personal view:

What you get for you money is an American A4 format softcover book, 146 full colour pages from cover to cover.
The book has twelve chapters covering various aspects of doll photography, ranging from camera basics to lighting, props, composition, editing, and so forth.

FDQ as a publication is of course mainly concerned with fashion dolls and 1/6 scale; BJD's only being a minor component. This book has a similar topic. Almost every doll shown in it would be off-topic on DOA.

Most of the chapters are written from a doll photography perspective, but not always to the extent one might expect. For instance, the chapter on Copyright and the Law has a lot more to say about photographing subjects such as the Eiffel Tower and Angelina Jolie than the legal implications and limitations pertaining to the publication of images of dolls, whose design usually falls within some entity's IP.

Some chapters are very useful, and almost exclusively relevant to doll photography. I particularly appreciate the Styling and Composition chapters, wherein many valuable, even vital, tips on what to bear in mind when setting up a shoot are given.

Other chapters however cover important topics, but almost entirely fail to present the most pertinent information in an instructive manner. The lighting chapter for instance covers perhaps the most important topic of all, but has e.g. no graphical presentation whatsoever of what the basic lighting setups look like, and how they affect the result in the final image.
The one image there is of a setup is of little use — it even erroneously designates "fill lights" as lights that illuminate the background...

FDQ provides a PDF preview here.


All in all, it has some useful information, but also fails to provide much of the information that many of us who post here in DOA's Photo Tips category take for granted. Reading it, I almost get the feeling that Fashion Doll Photography and Asian BJD Photography are two entirely different pursuits, with only occasional overlaps — which of course is utter nonsense.

Leaving all that aside though, my biggest gripe with this book is the style in which it is written: the first chapter begins with the sentence, "My husband never reads instructions." I'm afraid that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the book...

Rather than conveying useful information to the reader in an accessible, condensed, informative manner, most of the book is witten either in an indifferent anecdotal style, or worse (and more frequently), as an interview article in a magazine: " 'I prefer this and this,' says my friend XXX. Editor YYY agrees and adds, 'blah blah blah...' [repeat ad nauseam]."
The style gets very old, very quickly. It seems like the goal has been more to fill the maximum number of pages, rather than to make each page count. The incessant name dropping doesn't help.

The same goes for the images. The lasting impression is that it has been more important to use the space to show off pretty doll fashion photos than to illustrate whatever points are made in the text as clearly and perspicaciously as possible.

I have the nagging feeling that if one were to distill all the actual information from the book, the end result would be less than forty pages. With images. And the chapter title spreads.
As it is, I'm sorry to say, I find it rather tedious to read.


So, what's the value you get for the money, compared to something you might choose to spend it on instead?
It costs about the same as the three-volume Scott Kelby boxed set I've mentioned earlier.
Do you get a comparable amount of bang for your buck, then?

Err...no. Nothing like it.

As far as collecting valuable tips and tricks for photography, doll or otherwise, my feeling is the FDQ book comes nowhere near one of the Kelby volumes, let alone the collection of all three of them.

If you have the money and already own all the other titles mentioned in this thread, by all means, go ahead and buy it — it's by no means useless. But it does have severe limitations, and the value you get for the money is far from what it ought to be.

Hope this helps!

 

The Dragon I also had the same question about the book, and I can't thank you enough for posting your review. Now I can close that tab and happily continue on with the other books I got.

 

Kelby's books are great. I read his blog regularly, too. (At scottkelby.com)

As for Joe McNally... I'm a huge fan, and I love his books, but I'm not sure how useful they are to most of the people here. Pick one up, and enjoyable and enlightening as they are, you'll spend much of the time saying "wow, I could do this if I could afford 10 flashes!". They're also very Nikon-oriented, much of the talk refers specifically to Nikon functions and features.

 

That depends much on which book, I'd say. I find The Moment it Clicks valuable mainly as inspirational reading, not so much for its technical information content.


Hot Shoe Diaries however ... is a whole different animal! Here's a quick low-down on what McNally talks about:

• The first 43 pages talks about the basics of hot shoe flash lighting, from the equipment, the whys and wherefores thereof, including gels, reflectors, and a variety of light modifiers, moving on to talk a bit about the light itself — colour, quality, direction, and so on. A lot of basic, truly useful information.

• The second part of the book — 114 pages — describes a number of photos he's shot using one flash only, in great detail.

• The third part, 80 pages long, describes shoots using two, or occasionally three, flashes.

• The final 50 page part describes a number of really weird shoots he's done, where he's had to really litter up the location with Speedlights, using anything from four to forty-seven(!) flashes.

• The seven-page appendix deals specifically with how to set up various Nikon flashes (SB-900, SB-800, or built-in DSLR flashes) to act as CLS Masters.

The thing with McNally, and the reason why I believe this particular title can be very useful also for doll photogs, is that what he talks about isn't how many flashes you need to do this, or that, or the other. Rather, he talks about moulding light, something everyone can benefit from.
He lets you understand how you can use quite simple tricks to shape the light — and thereby the atmosphere, and thereby the message — in a shot, by controlling the colour, direction, and quality of light, and he gives you very concrete, detailed examples of how he's applied his philosophy in the real world. He talks about faking the effects of "available" light, only making it better, by making it controllable. He talks about how to use a variety of gobos to shape the quality of light. And so on, and so forth.

The subtitle to the book, Big Light From Small Flashes, really sums it up. The book is all about conveying a certain understanding, and some deceptively simple techniques, helpful for achieving really epic scale results using just one or two Speedlights.

It is my firm conviction that this knowledge is something doll photographers — among whom I sadly find the attitude that "flash is Evil" all too widespread — can benefit from.

 

don't know if anynes recomended it yet butthe one im currently reading about photography is digital photographer's handbook - Tom Ang its really good from what i've read so far

 

The National Geographic Photography Field Guide is a really great source!! It taught me practically everything about settings, composure, and the rules of getting good shots!

 

To add to my previous endorsement of Joe McNally's books, here's another one:

The Life Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot Like the Pros

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This title really covers just about everything about photography, from the ground up, only in NcNally's inimitable style! It starts by explaining all the nuts and bolts about exposure (f/stops, shutter speed, and ISO, when and why to overexpose or underexpose, and so on), going on to dissect the lens, i.e. what DOF, focal lengths, macro, and all that is about, and then finally spending the latter half of the book delving into the really important stuff: the elements of design, colour, and composition that make up a really good photo.

The book is (of course) beautifully illustrated, and liberally sprinkled with real-life examples from McNally's own considerable history as professional photographer for National Geographic, Life Magazine, Time, and many more.
If I were to compile a list of just five essential photo books, I am fairly confident this one would merit a place on it.