Lark Photography

This volume, from a contributor to The Joy of Photography (2000), is glossy enough to be a coffee-table book yet packed with information useful for anyone interested in digital photography, from parents who simply want to e-mail photos of their new babies to aspiring photographic artists. Technology and artistry are both addressed: clear explanations of pixels, jpeg and tiff formats, types of digital cameras, and how to use a camera together with a personal computer, among other topics, are nicely balanced with suggestions for composing attractive shots, enhancing images, and adding special effects. Numerous clear, bright full-color photos provide attractive examples of techniques and results discussed in the text, which is suitable for beginners yet detailed enough for those more familiar with technology, photography, or both. Unfortunately, black-and-white photography is given short shrift here, except for a brief section on retouching old photos that have been scanned. A glossary, index, and list of Web sites round out this complete, well-designed guide.

Nice photos. Good binding,good fonts and layout.Enthusiastic prose. For me it was maybe a little too basic compared to other intros. A reasonable introduction to digital photography from Lark Press and a good value for sure,but there are other choices. My preference would be for anyone who wants to get seriously,not skimmingly,an introduction and more enticing details, into digital photography would be to check out the four soft- cover series (also from Lark/Sterling) by Michael Freeman. Freeman’s “Complete Guide to Digital Photography” ISBN1-57990-534-X,first volume, was,in my evaluation, a superior introduction to the canvas of topics. And Freeman has two or three other books in the series (caveat: the others have a hard to read light font), all under twenty dollars from FantasticShopping, an Amazon affiliate. Buy the Freeman Complete Guide and the above volume and use the two as you gain confidence and want more meat.