Wow! What a year we’ve had! The Canon EOS Digital Rebel (or 300D outside the US) brought digital single lens reflex (dSLR) photography to the masses at a sub-$1,000 price that was less than what many serious photographers had been paying for fixed-lens electronic viewfinder cameras. The Nikon D70 brought near-professional-level capabilities to anyone with $1,299 to spend. Konica Minolta finally unveiled its Maxxum 7D at a price only a few hundred dol¬lars higher. Affordable upscale digital SLRs were offered by Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Fuji, and Sigma.
If your budget was $5,000 or more, true pro cameras like the Nikon D2x, Canon 1Ds Mark II (with 16.6 million pixels!), or the Kodak DCS SLR /c or /n could do everything the prici¬est film camera could do—and a lot more. For the first time, every serious amateur, photo hob¬byist, and part-time professional can easily afford a fully featured interchangeable lens digital camera, and the professionals have a lot more to choose from.
These exciting new cameras were introduced at a time when glorified point-and-shoot digital cameras with fixed lenses and optical viewfinders could cost $1,000 or more. Such a low price point suddenly made digital photography more attractive to the millions of serious photogra¬phers like you who would settle for nothing less than an SLR, but who couldn’t afford the $2,000 tariff on even the least-expensive models.
What’s in This Book?
Photography with digital SLR and “SLR-like” cameras isn’t exactly like conventional film SLR photography. Nor is it exactly like digital photography with non-SLR cameras. The dSLR has special advantages, special features, and special problems that need to be addressed and embraced. In addition, those of you who work with these cameras tend to expect more from your photography and crave the kind of information that will let you wring every ounce of cre¬ativity out of your equipment.
Some of your questions involve the equipment. What are the best and most cost-effective acces¬sories for digital SLRs? What are the best lenses for portrait photography, or sports, or close-ups? What’s the best way to deal with shutter lag—or doesn’t it exist with dSLRs? Is it possible to use accessories accumulated for a film version of the same vendor’s camera?
Other questions deal with photography and how to apply the advanced capabilities of dSLRs to real-world picture taking. What are the best ways to use exposure features creatively? How can pictures be better composed with a dSLR? Selective focus is easier with digital SLRs than with other models; how can it be applied to improve compositions? Now that digital cameras with almost zero shutter lag are available, what are the best ways to capture a critical moment at an exciting sports event? How can you make your family portraits look professional? What’s the best way to create a last-minute product shot in time to get it on your company Web site? You’ll find the answers in Mastering Digital SLR Photography.
This isn’t a general digital camera book. It’s a book about digital SLR photography: how to take great pictures with the newest cameras and make great images that leverage the strengths of computer technology, while taking into account the special needs of digital cameras. Minutes after cracking the covers of this book, you’ll be able to grab action pictures that capture the decisive moment at a sports event; create portraits of adults, teens, and children that anyone can be proud of; and understand how to use the controls of your dSLR to optimize your images even before you transfer them to your computer. This is the book that will show you how to explore the fascinating world of photography with digital technology.
The heavy hardware discussions enrich the introductory material in the first few chapters, giv¬ing the basic information needed to choose and use a digital SLR camera and to satisfy curios¬ity about what goes on inside. Readers don’t need to understand internal combustion to drive a car, but, even so, it’s a good idea to know that an SUV may roll over during hairpin turns. The nuts-and-bolts portions of this book won’t teach readers about internal combustion, but will help them negotiate those photographic hairpins.
I’m especially proud of the hefty illustrated glossary I put together for this book. It’s not just a word list, but, instead, a compendium of definitions of the key concepts of photography. You’ll find all the most important terms from this book, plus many others you’ll encounter while cre¬ating images. I’ve liberally sprinkled the glossary with illustrations that help clarify the defini¬tions. If you’re reading this book and find something confusing, check the glossary first before you head to the index. Between the two of them, everything you need to know should be at your fingertips.
Why This Book
There haven’t been many books on digital SLR photography because dSLRs are only now becoming practical for vast numbers of photo enthusiasts. Until now, you’ve had to rely on books on the shelves that concentrate only on the gee-whiz aspects of the technology and stuff that’s only peripherally related to picture taking. Many of the other books have only three or four chapters that actually deal with digital photography, prefaced by chatty chapters explain¬ing the history of digital photography, the pros and cons of digital cameras, and acronym-hobbled discussions of CCD, CMOS, and CIS image sensors. There are thick sections on selecting storage media, and each have perhaps half a dozen chapters on image editing.
I’ve covered some of those topics in this book, too, except for image editing. I figure that if you want a Photoshop book, you will probably buy a Photoshop book, so there is no discussion of image editing in this book, except in passing. This book concentrates on creative techniques for the digital SLR photographer. Anyone who has a Windows PC or Macintosh and a digital SLR camera (or plans to buy one), will find the advanced techniques in this book very useful. If you’re looking for image-editing advice from a photographer’s viewpoint, I recommend Adobe Photoshop CS: Photographers' Guide and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0: Photographers’ Guide, both from Course Technology.
I’ve aimed this book squarely at digital camera buffs and business people who want to go beyond point-and-click snapshooting to explore the world of photography to enrich their lives or do their jobs better. For anyone who has learned most of a digital camera’s basic features and now wonders what to do with them, this is a dream guide to pixel proficiency. If you fall into one of the following categories, you need this book:
■ Individuals who want to get better pictures, or perhaps transform their growing interest in photography into a full-fledged hobby or artistic outlet with a digital SLR.
■ Those who want to produce more professional-looking images for their personal or busi¬ness Web site, and feel that digital SLRs will give them more control and capabilities.
■ Small business owners with more-advanced graphics capabilities who want to use digital SLR photography to document or promote their business.
■ Corporate workers who may or may not have photographic skills in their job descriptions, but who work regularly with graphics and need to learn how to use digital images taken with a digital SLR for reports, presentations, or other applications.
■ Professional Webmasters with strong skills in programming (including Java, JavaScript, HTML, Perl, etc.) but little background in photography, but who realize that digital SLRs can be used for sophisticated photography.
■ Graphic artists and others who already may be adept in image editing with Photoshop or another program, and who may already be using a film SLR, but need to learn more about digital photography and the special capabilities of the dSLR.
■ Trainers who need a non-threatening, but more advanced textbook for digital photogra¬phy classes.
Chapter Outline
Chapter 1: Digital SLR Photography Now and in the Future
This chapter focuses on the rapid convergence of conventional photography and digital pho¬tography in terms of features, capabilities, techniques, and price considerations, and examines the changes that will be made now that digital SLRs have become affordable. It outlines the skills SLR-slinging photographers already have that are directly transferable to digital SLR pho¬tography and shows how those skills actually become enhanced given the special features of digital cameras.
Chapter 2: Digital SLR Technology Made Easy
This chapter provides an inside look at how digital cameras work now, and some information on how they will work in the very near future when breakthroughs like the Foveon sensor, “Four-Thirds” designs, 8-megapixel-plus cameras, and other innovations become more widely used.
Chapter 3: Mastering Your dSLR’s Controls
Although every camera uses different buttons and menus to control key features, nearly every digital SLR image-grabber includes some variation on the basic array of controls. This chap¬ter provides an overview of the controls a digital photographer must master, and includes descriptions of how these controls differ between digital cameras and film cameras.
Chapter 4: dSLR Quirks and Strengths
This chapter shows how to take advantage of the strengths of the digital SLR and deal with the quirks. You’ll learn how to use scene modes and protect your sensor from dust bunnies.
Chapter 5: Working RAW
The average amateur photographer with a digital camera just points and clicks, without a thought about which file format, from among those offered by a particular camera, is the best. More serious photographers will want to know why optional formats are offered, and how to choose the right one for a particular shooting session.
Chapter 6: Working with Lenses
Digital SLRs present pixel photographers with a new option: choice of lens. This chapter deals with selecting the most versatile complement of lenses for various categories of photography and how to use those lenses to pull in distant objects, apply selective focus, shoot close-ups, and create special effects with zooms and other tricks.
Chapter 7: Close-Up Photography
Learn how to use your Digital SLR’s macro capabilities to capture views of exotic or mundane objects, up-close and personal.
Chapter 8: Capturing Action
Whether it’s your kids’ Little League or soccer teams, or the company picnic or bowling tour¬nament, you’ll need these tips on grabbing fast-moving subjects. You’ll learn how to stop action, choose your spots, and use flash.
Chapter 9: Composition and dSLRs
Digital SLRs offer the most control over composition because they show exactly what will be imaged in the digital file. Or do they? This chapter explains why what you see may not be what you get, along with basic information on composition and how to apply compositional rules to portraiture, publicity, architecture, and landscape photography.
Chapter 10: Mastering dSLR Special Features
Digital SLRs have loads of special features, most of which will be new to photographers migrat¬ing from film photography or point-and-shoot digital cameras. This chapter explains features like image stabilization, infrared photography, time-lapse photography, and how to use them.
Download
http://rapidshare.com/files/133298581/Thomson_.Mastering.Digital.SLR.Photography._2005_.LotB.pdf
or
http://tinyurl.com/54uyhd
If your budget was $5,000 or more, true pro cameras like the Nikon D2x, Canon 1Ds Mark II (with 16.6 million pixels!), or the Kodak DCS SLR /c or /n could do everything the prici¬est film camera could do—and a lot more. For the first time, every serious amateur, photo hob¬byist, and part-time professional can easily afford a fully featured interchangeable lens digital camera, and the professionals have a lot more to choose from.
These exciting new cameras were introduced at a time when glorified point-and-shoot digital cameras with fixed lenses and optical viewfinders could cost $1,000 or more. Such a low price point suddenly made digital photography more attractive to the millions of serious photogra¬phers like you who would settle for nothing less than an SLR, but who couldn’t afford the $2,000 tariff on even the least-expensive models.
What’s in This Book?
Photography with digital SLR and “SLR-like” cameras isn’t exactly like conventional film SLR photography. Nor is it exactly like digital photography with non-SLR cameras. The dSLR has special advantages, special features, and special problems that need to be addressed and embraced. In addition, those of you who work with these cameras tend to expect more from your photography and crave the kind of information that will let you wring every ounce of cre¬ativity out of your equipment.
Some of your questions involve the equipment. What are the best and most cost-effective acces¬sories for digital SLRs? What are the best lenses for portrait photography, or sports, or close-ups? What’s the best way to deal with shutter lag—or doesn’t it exist with dSLRs? Is it possible to use accessories accumulated for a film version of the same vendor’s camera?
Other questions deal with photography and how to apply the advanced capabilities of dSLRs to real-world picture taking. What are the best ways to use exposure features creatively? How can pictures be better composed with a dSLR? Selective focus is easier with digital SLRs than with other models; how can it be applied to improve compositions? Now that digital cameras with almost zero shutter lag are available, what are the best ways to capture a critical moment at an exciting sports event? How can you make your family portraits look professional? What’s the best way to create a last-minute product shot in time to get it on your company Web site? You’ll find the answers in Mastering Digital SLR Photography.
This isn’t a general digital camera book. It’s a book about digital SLR photography: how to take great pictures with the newest cameras and make great images that leverage the strengths of computer technology, while taking into account the special needs of digital cameras. Minutes after cracking the covers of this book, you’ll be able to grab action pictures that capture the decisive moment at a sports event; create portraits of adults, teens, and children that anyone can be proud of; and understand how to use the controls of your dSLR to optimize your images even before you transfer them to your computer. This is the book that will show you how to explore the fascinating world of photography with digital technology.
The heavy hardware discussions enrich the introductory material in the first few chapters, giv¬ing the basic information needed to choose and use a digital SLR camera and to satisfy curios¬ity about what goes on inside. Readers don’t need to understand internal combustion to drive a car, but, even so, it’s a good idea to know that an SUV may roll over during hairpin turns. The nuts-and-bolts portions of this book won’t teach readers about internal combustion, but will help them negotiate those photographic hairpins.
I’m especially proud of the hefty illustrated glossary I put together for this book. It’s not just a word list, but, instead, a compendium of definitions of the key concepts of photography. You’ll find all the most important terms from this book, plus many others you’ll encounter while cre¬ating images. I’ve liberally sprinkled the glossary with illustrations that help clarify the defini¬tions. If you’re reading this book and find something confusing, check the glossary first before you head to the index. Between the two of them, everything you need to know should be at your fingertips.
Why This Book
There haven’t been many books on digital SLR photography because dSLRs are only now becoming practical for vast numbers of photo enthusiasts. Until now, you’ve had to rely on books on the shelves that concentrate only on the gee-whiz aspects of the technology and stuff that’s only peripherally related to picture taking. Many of the other books have only three or four chapters that actually deal with digital photography, prefaced by chatty chapters explain¬ing the history of digital photography, the pros and cons of digital cameras, and acronym-hobbled discussions of CCD, CMOS, and CIS image sensors. There are thick sections on selecting storage media, and each have perhaps half a dozen chapters on image editing.
I’ve covered some of those topics in this book, too, except for image editing. I figure that if you want a Photoshop book, you will probably buy a Photoshop book, so there is no discussion of image editing in this book, except in passing. This book concentrates on creative techniques for the digital SLR photographer. Anyone who has a Windows PC or Macintosh and a digital SLR camera (or plans to buy one), will find the advanced techniques in this book very useful. If you’re looking for image-editing advice from a photographer’s viewpoint, I recommend Adobe Photoshop CS: Photographers' Guide and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0: Photographers’ Guide, both from Course Technology.
I’ve aimed this book squarely at digital camera buffs and business people who want to go beyond point-and-click snapshooting to explore the world of photography to enrich their lives or do their jobs better. For anyone who has learned most of a digital camera’s basic features and now wonders what to do with them, this is a dream guide to pixel proficiency. If you fall into one of the following categories, you need this book:
■ Individuals who want to get better pictures, or perhaps transform their growing interest in photography into a full-fledged hobby or artistic outlet with a digital SLR.
■ Those who want to produce more professional-looking images for their personal or busi¬ness Web site, and feel that digital SLRs will give them more control and capabilities.
■ Small business owners with more-advanced graphics capabilities who want to use digital SLR photography to document or promote their business.
■ Corporate workers who may or may not have photographic skills in their job descriptions, but who work regularly with graphics and need to learn how to use digital images taken with a digital SLR for reports, presentations, or other applications.
■ Professional Webmasters with strong skills in programming (including Java, JavaScript, HTML, Perl, etc.) but little background in photography, but who realize that digital SLRs can be used for sophisticated photography.
■ Graphic artists and others who already may be adept in image editing with Photoshop or another program, and who may already be using a film SLR, but need to learn more about digital photography and the special capabilities of the dSLR.
■ Trainers who need a non-threatening, but more advanced textbook for digital photogra¬phy classes.
Chapter Outline
Chapter 1: Digital SLR Photography Now and in the Future
This chapter focuses on the rapid convergence of conventional photography and digital pho¬tography in terms of features, capabilities, techniques, and price considerations, and examines the changes that will be made now that digital SLRs have become affordable. It outlines the skills SLR-slinging photographers already have that are directly transferable to digital SLR pho¬tography and shows how those skills actually become enhanced given the special features of digital cameras.
Chapter 2: Digital SLR Technology Made Easy
This chapter provides an inside look at how digital cameras work now, and some information on how they will work in the very near future when breakthroughs like the Foveon sensor, “Four-Thirds” designs, 8-megapixel-plus cameras, and other innovations become more widely used.
Chapter 3: Mastering Your dSLR’s Controls
Although every camera uses different buttons and menus to control key features, nearly every digital SLR image-grabber includes some variation on the basic array of controls. This chap¬ter provides an overview of the controls a digital photographer must master, and includes descriptions of how these controls differ between digital cameras and film cameras.
Chapter 4: dSLR Quirks and Strengths
This chapter shows how to take advantage of the strengths of the digital SLR and deal with the quirks. You’ll learn how to use scene modes and protect your sensor from dust bunnies.
Chapter 5: Working RAW
The average amateur photographer with a digital camera just points and clicks, without a thought about which file format, from among those offered by a particular camera, is the best. More serious photographers will want to know why optional formats are offered, and how to choose the right one for a particular shooting session.
Chapter 6: Working with Lenses
Digital SLRs present pixel photographers with a new option: choice of lens. This chapter deals with selecting the most versatile complement of lenses for various categories of photography and how to use those lenses to pull in distant objects, apply selective focus, shoot close-ups, and create special effects with zooms and other tricks.
Chapter 7: Close-Up Photography
Learn how to use your Digital SLR’s macro capabilities to capture views of exotic or mundane objects, up-close and personal.
Chapter 8: Capturing Action
Whether it’s your kids’ Little League or soccer teams, or the company picnic or bowling tour¬nament, you’ll need these tips on grabbing fast-moving subjects. You’ll learn how to stop action, choose your spots, and use flash.
Chapter 9: Composition and dSLRs
Digital SLRs offer the most control over composition because they show exactly what will be imaged in the digital file. Or do they? This chapter explains why what you see may not be what you get, along with basic information on composition and how to apply compositional rules to portraiture, publicity, architecture, and landscape photography.
Chapter 10: Mastering dSLR Special Features
Digital SLRs have loads of special features, most of which will be new to photographers migrat¬ing from film photography or point-and-shoot digital cameras. This chapter explains features like image stabilization, infrared photography, time-lapse photography, and how to use them.
Download
http://rapidshare.com/files/133298581/Thomson_.Mastering.Digital.SLR.Photography._2005_.LotB.pdf
or
http://tinyurl.com/54uyhd
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