Digital Photography Beyond the Camera [BOOK REVIEW]

“Beyond The Camera” … strange title!

Of course we’re talking about post-processing, twisting and tweaking digital pictures … all done with the magic of Adobe’s favorite offspring.

The sub title is “Expert photography and digital know-how for top-quality images and prints.” Author Farrell makes the point early on that “Affordable consume digital cameras have been available for less than ten years … with the introduction of inexpensive, user friendly software packages, which run on the most basic of computers and allow photographers to take control of how their pictures look after they’ve been conceived in camera.”

The book is organised into six sections: getting started; basic adjustments; digital manipulation; digital black and white; outputting; and finally, the next steps. The latter section is an obvious tilt at the pro or highly experienced user, giving advice on how to set up a work flow, cross processing etc.

There is detailed help on how to set up your computer, the transfer of images from camera to computer and the role of card readers, backing up to hard drives and other media. I found one piece of advice a trifle controversial though: Farrell thinks that current online storage services offer a safe home for your images. Not for me!

Then it’s head first into Photoshop: calibration of the monitor, screen layout, windows, palettes, dialog boxes and more.

The challenges of working with RAW format receive detailed attention. With this subject, it’s good to see Adobe’s Lightroom and Apple Aperture get a mention but I felt the info offered was too scant. Will there be another book on this useful duo, Mr Farrell?

The impressive factor about this book that it focuses on image treatment, devoting less space about the mechanics of driving Photoshop than to successful and pleasing outcomes.

There are plenty of you out there, bamboozled by the myriad charms and sometimes unavoidable complexities of Photoshop, who will relish this book. A large factor in its useful layout is the large size of sample images and associated screen grabs.

Grab a Copy of Digital Photography Beyond the Camera at Amazon.