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 enlarge | Author: Scott Kelby
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $14.11
You Save: $10.88 (44%)
New (42) Used (15) from $14.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  125 reviews
Sales Rank: 116
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.5
ISBN: 0321524764
Dewey Decimal Number: 775
EAN: 9780321524768
ASIN: 0321524764
Publication Date: January 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great writer, sloppily wasting his talent May 25, 2008
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
I always want to like Kelby's columns and books. He is a fantastic writer. He knows how to break things down simply. But perhaps in his mad rush to produce so many books and magazines and such he has not always attended to the details. I did not read Digital Photography volume one and chose instead volume 2.
I read it cover to cover, twice! I really liked the samples, lay out, and coaching. But then as I tried out a few items I noted he often did not provide enough detail to replicate his technique. When shooting a backlit subject he suggested adding a bit of flash. Are we talking manual exposure? Is he using flash compensation to reduce flash output? Is he just shooting in auto with ttl flash? It would be helpful to know more details.
I suspect, given his bibliography that many images are farmed out to others and this is why the writing is not as detailed or informed as it could be. This detracts from his ability to teach.
I originally wanted to give him 5 starts, but took off 1 star for lack of detail or specifics. Then I tried a photoshop technique that appeared in a column. Again, great idea for correcting color, but leaves out enough details that I eventually gave up trying to get the same effect on one of my photo images. So, I'm taking off another start...down to 3.
Then I looked under the hood. When I like an author, I like to read about him and see what he says in his bio or acknowledgements. The acknowledgements section runs 2 pages. Ah, details and specifics at last. Only here, it is unwarranted. Lose a half star. But then it ends with thanking "God and his son Jesus Christ." When I want ol' time religion I'll by the Kelby book on that, but I sure found it offensive to see it in this book. And for you bible-thumpers, imagine if he had thanked Allah and the Koran? Would it have taken away from this author's effort?
Lastly, he repeatedly states he is not promoting products. And I bought that line until the end of the book. The last 4 pages contain ful page ads promoting specific products he is linked to. Now come on, even Jesus would call that hypocrisy. Sorry, fella, you just lost another star.
This will be the last Kelby book I buy. I hate to see such a talent wasted.
 Short Cuts May 23, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
A photography tip is a short instruction on how to do something in photography - "put the softbox as close as possible to the subject for the softest light" - without trying to put the instruction into any larger context.
This is a short book of photography tips that contains tips on using flash, studio photography, portraits, landscapes, weddings, travel, macro, and what should probably be called miscellany. There is a final section in which Kelby shows particular pictures and indicates his considerations in taking them. Each tip is less then a small page in length and includes an illustrative photograph.
Kelby is a Photoshop guru turned photography guru, and his images while nice, certainly are not inspiring. Be warned: many people are put off by his sophomoric sense of humor, which he displays throughout the book (e.g., the Committee for Creation of Complex Sounding Studio Gear Names).
I dislike tip books because they don't put photography technique within a larger context so that the reader learns a principle which he can apply to any circumstance. "Give a man a fish...." might have been written about tip books. For example, in the space of a few pages, the author tells us to shoot portraits with wide angle lenses and then tells us to use telephoto lenses. What might be called a comprehensive book would help us to understand the considerations involved in making a choice of focal length for portraits.
Most of the tips that Kelby provides are really quite basic, and will be familiar to anyone who has spent any time at all learning techniques. (I acknowledge there is some value in being reminded about a small technique, although one could be reminded as well by reading a more comprehensive book.) Some of the tips are repeated, like telling us to keep shooting after sunset, or to buy a fast normal lens to shoot in dim places where you can't use flash. Some of the tips are even contradictory, as when he tells the reader not to cut off the chin in a close-up portrait and then does just that later on. I particularly resented a so-called tip to buy a book that Kelby just happens to have edited and which I found to be interesting but not essential reading.
On the other hand, this is a book that you can pick up, read for a few minutes, and then put down. If you feel that's an essential quality for an instruction book, this certainly fills the bill.
 wanabe photographer May 20, 2008
Wow, what a great book packed with so much information in such a small amout of space. It is user friendly and easy to understand. There are so many great tips for "how to" situations and they really work. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover
 More terrific tips May 20, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book continues where the first left off to provide great tips and tricks for the average and not so average person.
I have just started using my Nikon D80 and the advice provided by Scott has been superb. I didn't know I needed these tools and attachments, but now find that not only do I need them, but I need them NOW!!
Scott makes learning my camera fun and easy to understand!
Photo hints for friends May 19, 2008
Was like talking to an experienced photographer and him giving you friendly advice. He tell's you how to do it for cheap or expensive. I took his advice and bought a new lens that he recommended for wedding photography for my camera... I have a Canon 30D with a 17-85mm lens and I bought a 50mm 1.4 lens
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