a generally useless book

Home ยป The Digital Photography Book, Volume 1

Matthew Burgoon @ 2008-12-27

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 1

$19.99
I purchased this book hoping to learn a bit more about the basics of photography. Unfortunately, this book seems to be more about the author making a horrendous attempt at being humorous and general style tips for photography: how to shoot weddings, wait for the rain, don't plan on changing lenses at sports events, tripods are good, etc; as opposed to actually explaining the basics of photography. If I had a better grasp on depth of field, aperture, ISO, exposure and all of the combinations therein, then some of these tips may be useful for the creativity side of things, however I wanted a book to explain the basics that I could work from in a factual credible way, not a book filled with annoying sad attempts at being cute in order to self-validate a mistaken perception of comedic talent while stating what I feel is reasonably obvious when it comes to photographic style.

If you're looking for a book on style and creativity, then this book may hold some basic tips for you, however I would imagine you'd get a lot more in depth views, explanations and details from another book than this one. None of the tips go beyond a paragraph with a half page picture example illustration, and none of the pictures contain any sort of detail as to how they were taken.