Category: Books

Posted on

Recommended reading for the weekend

I had a blast reading Scott Kelby’s "The Digital Photography Book" volume one. I learned a ton of great tips that have greatly improved my photography. Well, he’s written a follow up book and yes you’ve guessed the title "The Digital Photography Book" volume two. This one picks right up where volume one left off.

I found both titles to be easy reads and not biased towards one brand of camera or another (provided you’re shooting with Canon or Nikon 🙂 ), all kidding aside, there are tips that can be used by digital photographers at all levels. The new book is the same format as the last one where there is one photo and one tip per page. The 217 page book is a must read for those of you looking to improve your skills behind the camera. There is very little mention of Photoshop, so it’s not a Photoshop how-to book. Instead Scott aims to have you get it right in the camera so that you don’t have to do a lot of work in Photoshop. Scott wrote this book as if you and he were on a shoot together and you asked, "how would I shoot this?" Rather than give you a lot of technical jargon and the history of photography, he would just tell you what to set your camera and how to compose the shot. I devoured the first volume in a couple of days and couldn’t put it down. However, due to time constraints I’m only half way through this one so far. I have already learned a lot, but what I’m realizing is that this stuff is starting to sink in. The reason I say this is that while the book is packed with all NEW tips and techniques, there aren’t nearly as many "aha" moments for me this time around. This means that I’ve learned a lot since the first volume and it’s sticking. I can’t wait until my next shoot to put some of these new techniques to use. This book is another winner!

The weekend is here and hey, you need a new book to read anyway. So check out The Digital Photography Book volume two. Amazon has it for $14.99. There’s probably a copy available at your local book store as well.

Posted on

#1 Editor’s Pick on Amazon for 2007

It’s one thing to write a book about a product you love and it’s another to have that book be picked as the Best of 2007 #1 Editor’s Pick for Books on Computers and Internet by Amazon! I co-authored The iPhone Book with my buddy Scott Kelby (number one selling computer book author in the world 3 years in a row!) and last night he called me to tell me that our book was selected as the Editor’s #1 Pick for 2007 of all Computer Books. I was elated and overjoyed (read: psyched out of my mind)! So thanks to all of you who bought a copy, thanks to Peachpit Press and the staff at Kelby Training for the wonderful job on the book layout and editing, thanks to the Amazon editors, and thanks for your continued support of this blog and my efforts. And if you haven’t bought a copy yet, well…


Posted on

Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers Book

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book For Digital Photographers

Scott Kelby has updated his insanely popular Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. Although this book has been available for pre-order for a while, it just started shipping. Like the previous incarnations of this great book, Scott makes Photoshop look easy with tips and techniques that any digital photographer who uses Photoshop CS3 could use EVERY DAY!

As usual the book is beautifully illustrated with real world practical information and photos taken by Scott himself. Sometimes Scott gets beat up for his humor. If you read some of the comments of the past you would think it’s just one big joke book based on the comments. Not only is that far from the truth, I actually find his humor refreshing (and very funny) to what could sometimes be very dry material. Also Scott usually limits the humor to just the intro pages. So if humor is not your thing, simply skip the intro pages and go right the lessons.

In this book you’ll find step-by-step lessons to make your shots stand out. Simple techniques to showcase your work and take your images to the next level. Scott has added several never before seen techniques as well as he has refined some of his existing techniques to take advantage of the new features of Photoshop CS3. The book even includes a gray card in the back for color correcting your images using Levels or Curves.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers is available from Amazon for $32.99. If you are a photographer (or play one on TV) and you use Adobe Photoshop CS3, then you want this book!

Posted on

My Favorite Things…

FavoritesPeople ask me to recommend products and services to them all the time. Sometimes they take my advice, sometimes they don’t. But that’s besides the point. Rather than having to constantly go back and dig up a link to a product that I like, to send it to them, I’ve decided to put it all in one place, here on my tech blog. This way you will always be able to tell which products and services I’m currently recommending at any given time. The products and services listed here are the ones that I actually use (or have used in the past) and I don’t get paid to recommend them (other than Adobe products of course. Although I was using and recommending Adobe products long before I worked for the company.) Most of these companies don’t even know that I exist.

So the next time you’re looking for a hot gadget recommendation or you’re wondering what I use in any given category, you can just take a peek at "My Favorite Things" to find out. I’ll keep the page updated as I swap out my gear over time.

Posted on

New Photoshop Lightroom Book

My buddy Scott Kelby has just released his New “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers.” This new title is 394 pages and covers Lightroom from A-Z. I’m a big Lightroom fan and while I know the program quite well, I can always learn something new. The way Scott walks you through Lightroom is by doing it the context of a photo shoot. He shows you everything from bring the shots in, adjusting them, adding metadata and output to print, web and slideshows. Scott teaches you Lightroom in a fun way as he does with most of his classes, books and videos. If you use Lightroom, you’ll want this book!

Well worth the cost of admission! $26.39 ($39.99 list) at Amazon.com.