Digital Photography Q&A – Book Review
In its layout, author Davies’ book is less a primer on digital photography and more a publication that addresses the many puzzles the technology of the pixellated picture has thrown up in its short history.
Lavishly illustrated, Paul Davies’ book Digital Photography Q&A faces the task by saying “There’s no doubt about it, a digital camera can introduce you to a fascinating world of recording images — but it’s not long before the questions start.” Davies figures the book’s contents will be of interest to (both complete beginners and more experienced photographers ….”
The topic list runs from understanding a digital camera on through the actual taking of digital photos and closes in on the methods of taking images from camera to computer. The latter is of course the beating heart of the whole business and an area that often confounds the newcomer.
Some Q&A examples:
Q. How many pixels do I need?
A. Think about how you are going to use the images. For email you’ll need only a one megapixel camera; for bigger prints, look for an eight megapixel model.
Q. What is digital noise?
A. Comparing image noise to hifi amplifier hiss Davies explains that the former comes from random movements of tiny electric charges in the camera’s circuitry.
Q. Can I change a file into a different format, sch as JPEG or RAW?
A. Software can do this; simply choose the option, specify the file type you want, then save.
The book takes a novel and useful approach. The text is clear and easy to understand; numerous picture examples make this book ideal for the beginner — or the nervous photographer, lacking the courage to experiment.
Author: PH Davies.
Publisher: Lark Books.
Distributor: Capricorn Link.
ISBN 978 1 60059 483 0
At the time of publishing this review Digital Photography Q&A is available at Amazon for $15.56 (22% off)
7 Responses to “Digital Photography Q&A – Book Review” - Add Yours
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 am
It looks a good read I might purchase it!
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:34 am
Are any of those really full answers? If that’s the full text of the answers to any one of those questions, it seems exceptionally un-useful and totally lacking detail…
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Of the three samples one contains an absolutely wrong answer (about saving as RAW possible), I wouldn’t recommend such a book.
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 am
I agree. It doesn’t sound very promising based on the examples listed. First of all, I wouldn’t recommend a one megapixel camera to anybody. They haven’t made 1MP cameras with decent lenses since the very beginning of digital photography. So any 1MP camera (if you could find one) out there is nearly guaranteed to take terrible photos.
Second, the explanation of digital noise isn’t actually helpful. Explaining it to a novice as “random movements of tiny electric charges in the camera’s circuitry” might as well be calling it fairy dust.
And lastly, as explained above, you can’t change from JPEG to RAW and it’s misleading to let someone think that they don’t need a camera that shoots RAW because they can just convert it to RAW later.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:35 am
This is true – it’s not possible to convert a file to raw… it’s possible to edit a jpg in Adobe Camera Raw, but you’re still missing the valuable light data, which is the benefit of shooting in raw to begin with.
It seems to me that most of the information in this book could easily be found online or by reading the manual (e.g. “how to transfer images from camera to computer”).
September 26th, 2009 at 3:20 am
In regards to the comment on digital format. RAW images can only be produced in the camera. I can not save a JPEG as a RAW file, but I can save a RAW file as a JPEG or anyother format. I wonder how many more inaccuracies can contained within this book?
October 17th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Sweet! Did you guys see the new Nikon D60? Popular photography just ranked it one of the best prosumer dlsr cameras out there.
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