Digital Art Photography

How This Book Is Organized

Digital Art Photography For Dummies is split into five parts. You don’t have to read parts sequentially; you don’t have to read each chapter in each part; and you don’t even have to read all the sections in any particular chapter. (But I think that you’ll want to look at every picture. . . .) You can use the Table of Contents and the index to find the information you need and quickly get your answers. In this section, I briefly describe what you’ll find in each part.

Part I: The Art of a Digital Picture

This part serves as an introduction to the world of art photography and how it relates to digital photography. In Chapter 1, I detail the five essential steps to creating a digitized masterpiece and provide a few essentials of composition. Chapters 2 and 3 cover the digital side of digital art photography; I have to admit, this information can get a little dry and techy. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you.) When it comes time to purchase a new digital camera or to upgrade your computer to handle all the heavy-duty graphics work you’ll be doing, however, you’ll be glad you have these two chapters by your side. In Chapter 4, things get fun again while I brainstorm with you to decide just what kind of digital art photographer you want to be.

Part II: The Photo Shoot

Part II is all about getting great shots, and so I dive right into ISOs, f-stops, exposure settings, and when to use a flash. This part runs the gamut, from shooting great photos outdoors or indoors (Chapters 5 and 6) to photograph­ing people and animals (Chapter 7) to shooting for great color or outstanding black and white (Chapters 8 and 9) to capturing stunning nighttime images (Chapter 10) to achieving wonderful effects before you ever get to Photoshop (Chapter 11) — whew! That’s a lot of photography!

Part III: Photoshop Art: Using Software to Enhance or Create Art Photos

If you’re anxious to repair or jazz up some old photos, use Chapter 12 as your guide. In that chapter, I discuss various Photoshop tools and techniques that can bring back vivid color to images 50 years old or eliminate annoying scratches and dust. Chapter 13 is where you can find out how to merge images into one giant photograph, and Chapter 14 gives you the lowdown on using Photoshop layers (a great tool for creating digital art photography). I couldn’t not discuss Photoshop’s filters, so I include a whole chapter on them (Chapter 15).

Part IV: The Final Output: Gallery-Worthy Prints

Drum roll, please . . . the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Just itching to click that Print button so you can hold your masterpiece in hand and admire it lovingly? This is the part for you. In Chapter 16, I discuss all things that have to do with managing electronic files (a tedious albeit necessary part of digital art photography), and Chapter 17 covers printing prep and printing. Then comes the really fun part: matting and framing. Chapter 18 has all the information you need to make your art presentable to the world (and paying customers).

Part V: The Part of Tens

I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t include a Part of Tens. So here you’ll find ten rules — or if you prefer, guidelines — of digital art photography (Chapter 19) and ten snappy digital art tricks (Chapter 20).

On the Web site

I had so much to tell you about this exciting topic that I couldn’t fit it all into the book, so you’ll find two bonus chapters at www.dummies.com/go/digital artphotos. Bonus Chapter 1 discusses photo sets, which are a great way to present, package, and reuse your saleable art. For example, if you have a slew of dog images — say, several huskies — frame them as a set to create a col­lection that husky-lovers will sit up and beg for. Bonus Chapter 2 covers using text to enhance your art photography. Here I discuss manipulating text in both Word and Photoshop and adding text to your image to create an entirely new piece of art, like a poster, invitation, greeting card, business card . . . you get the idea.
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