Digital Photography For Dummies Paperback – March 27, 2012

70-200mm lens at 200mm, ISO 125, 1/3 sec. at f/10I would describe myself as a budding enthusiast. I've had a Canon Rebel T1i for about four years, but have never really gotten beyond full auto, and sometimes struggled even with that, particularly at night. I was looking for a book to explain three basic things:1. Camera bodies (dSLRs vs. mirrorless Micro Four Thirds, crop vs. full frame, etc.)2. Lenses (focal length, zoom power, and aperture, plus the impact of crop factor)3. Technical basics (aperture, ISO, and shutter speed; what PPI and DPI really mean in practical terms; the difference between JPEG and Raw; what Landscape and Portrait and other preset modes on your camera are actually doing).All of these questions were basically answered in the first few chapters and ~100 pages of the book, and in a pretty easy read. After reading those first few chapters, I found myself able to fairly competently browse photography website and magazines without being completely lost. I can tell you what f/2.8 is (the aperture), what 1/500 sec. refers to (shutter speed), and what a photographer means by ISO 100 and 70-200mm at 200mm.Much of the middle of the book (chapters 4-7) deal with the basics of photography and composition, and is probably not any better or worse than other entry level books on photography. The remainder of the book deals with fairly basic (for dummies) material on downloading and printing pictures (chapters 8 and 9), and stuff like creating desktop wallpaper and slide shows (chapter 10).Overall, I think the book is a pretty good value for $15. Personally, I've shied away from the "For Dummies" line in the past, as I've found that there are better books for many of the subjects that I have been interested in. But if you're like me and are at a level where you're even considering a "For Dummies" book -- and if you're reading this review, I suspect you are -- then this book should do the trick, and my guess is that Digital Photography For Dummies is probably exactly the book you are looking for.

Most of the first half of the book deals with selection of a digital point-and-shoot or DSLR, an area that I haven't seen addressed elsewhere other than in comparison tests in popular magazines. The treatment in the book is easily accessible by beginners, unlike much of the meat of the comparison articles which are performance parameter comparisons.The second half of the book is a tutorial on effective use of a digital point-and-shoot or DSLR right out of the box. I bought this book as a gift for a very intelligent fellow who has had some difficulty in effective use of a great DSLR, and this part of the book could have been written for him and his family. The book ends with a chapter that is action-packed with excellent tips on using the camera, getting the pictures out of it, sending them by e-mail or putting them on a blog or whatever, and printing them through web services, at CVS or whatever, or at home. Thus the all-important step of how to get great prints from a great camera is the ending of the book.For those who shoot for Facebook or other blogs or to display their cameras in e-mail or on smartphones, or even those who simply use the great miniature cameras that come with some newer smartphones, this book is an excellent tutorial and reference for getting pictures that display well on computers, tablets, and smartphones. Except for the number of pixels (you need lots more pixels for sharp prints), it's the same art and science.

This book provides a great introduction to the basic techniques of serious digital photography. This was wonderful for me as I had literally NO idea of how to operate a digital camera correctly (I was the stand-point-shoot kind of guy) and I'm training to become an Archaeologist, so I really need to know my way around Photography (also, I love animals -especially bugs- and spend lots of time chasing them down and taking pics of them). This book got me from not knowing why even my stills got blurred (I have shaky hands) to actually getting almost exactly the pictures I want every time. I say "almost" because my point-and-shoot camera is only one step above "basic", but I'm sure as soon as I get my hands on a nice SLR I'll be able to nail it because of this book.The computer chapters take you through the very basics of viewing, downloading, printing, making minor edits to your pictures and even creating screensavers on common software and platforms (for example, Windows Live Photo Gallery), which is great, because the author doesn't assume you have gargantuan pro (or semi-pro) software for photo edition. The only thing lacking, in my oppinion, is too few info on lenses (that would've made it perfect), but then again, the book is aimed for laymen, which don't necessarily own SLRs (I don't) and probably won't need to much info on lenses. Still, make no mistake: you'll have the fundamental data on lenses here and learn what (and where) to look for when you decide to take the SLR step and buy lenses.I must stress, though, that this is aimed for the very beginners. If you already know about illumination, manipulating ISO, shutter speeds, balancing colors, composing images, digitally retouching pics and stuff, you may find it too basic. Again, if you know nothing about these subjects, this book is a great place to start. If you don't even have a camera but are considering getting one, this is for you: you'll feel quite satisfied when you get the most juice from your camera no matter how simple it is.