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The Better Digital Photography Guide to Landscapes, Seas and Skies (Better Digital Photography Gde) | 
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| Author: Michael Busselle
Publisher: Aurum Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $3.86
You Save: $16.09 (81%)
New (19) Used (7) from $3.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 2422435
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1902538412
Dewey Decimal Number: 775
EAN: 9781902538419
ASIN: 1902538412
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Condition: New, unused book.; bkcsd
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
To landscape photographers, digital offers previously undreamed of possibilities for enhancing their work or eliminating snags that were not apparent at the time a pictures was taken. Telegraph lines can be removed, skies can be improved, and light and shadow effects that didn’t quite work can be strengthened. In short, photographers have a second chance to produce a print that more fully reflects the vision they had in mind at the point of capture. Each of Michael Busselle’s stunning images, which he uses to demonstrate the ways in which landscape photographers can use digital techniques to improve their work, is accompanied by instructions broken down into three phases—Capture, Enhance, and Print—which explain his original intentions and the ways in which they were finally realized. Inspired by these examples, amateurs will quickly discover the immense creative possibilities opened up by the new technology.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nice Pictures, Little Content August 17, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you are looking for a coffee table book with nice pictures of places that you may not get a chance to visit, then this may be a good book for you. However, this is in my mind, NOT a book that lives up to its title. It did not give me any insights on "better digital photography", nor any real tips on photographing "landscapes, seas and skies."
What this book did appear to be was a nice way to showcase all of the fabulous places that the author has visited and photographed. Where I might have expected an insight on how he managed to pick the right time of day, or other "tip", I instead read the name dropping of far away places. When I expected a photoshop tip, I instead was told to "play with levels or curves".
The biggest tip that the author provides, which he refers to in a large number of his pictures, is on pages 64-65. This is how to "replace skies". The short essence of this tip is: if you don't like the look of a sky, use Photoshop to replace it with a better one. Again, this is in the book "The Better Digital Photography Guide to Landscapes Seas and Skies". This is not the type of tip that I was hoping to learn.
 How-to-itis May 1, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Michael Busselle is one of the world's great landscape photographers. One would expect that this book would provide a complete guide to digital landscape photography with an emphasis on seas and skies.
The book is divided into four parts. The first is called "Nineteen Steps to Capturing Images". Rather than being a process for digital landscape photography, this is a series of random tips, with accompanying photographs, for landscape photography. The next part is called "Ten Steps to Enhancing Images" and this provides tips on digital post processing. The third part is a gallery of the author's images with a brief discussion of the circumstances of the capture and sometimes, of the digital post-processing. The final part is a brief discussion of equipment.
This is another example of what I'm beginning to think of as "how-to-itis". This is the circumstance when an author or publisher decides that the photographs available from the photographer are unlikely to sell as a picture book, so they cloak the pictures in the garb of an instructional manual. (A related disease is "digital-itis". This disease is related to the fact that many photographers are now seeking help in using their new digital cameras.) How-to-itis sometimes works as an instructional manual when the pictures are organized in a pedagogical way with well organized teaching points made strongly. Sometimes these books work as picture books when the pictures are somehow related and are really of the best quality.
Unfortunately, this book meets none of these tests. The tips and related pictures are presented in a random way and the depth of instruction is quite shallow. During the discussions of capture there is nothing that tells how taking a picture with a digital camera requires more than pointing and shooting. The digital tips will only be understood by those who understand how Photoshop tools work and they probably will not need the skimpy instruction provided. As a photo book, the pictures are quite small and are not related in any way so there is no synergistic effect.
Finally, there are a few annoying characteristics. For example, Busselle loves to insert turbulent skies from one picture into another picture. One quickly tires of the repeated comment that the sky was added "using the method described on pages 64-65." This is made even more irritating when one looks at the description on pages 64-65. It would have been nice if there had been really detailed instruction on inserting a new sky in a picture. I would have liked to see a discussion of how Busselle considers cloud formations to make sure the lighting is consistent with the landscape below.
There are some excellent pictures that prove the author's skills but the presentation is not designed to make the book interesting as a picture book or as an instructional manual.
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