The Beginner's Photography Guide

This is an excellent beginners (or a refresher) guide to getting the most from your camera. It covers every setting and how and why to use it.

I've done film photography since the 1970s and know a lot about the photographic principles and processes. In the digital era, I got lazy and had never really learned how to translate my pre-digital photo knowledge into setting up and using digital cameras effectively. I mostly stuck to Auto, I'm sad to say. Camera manuals are pathetic, so what I really wanted was to learn exactly how digital cameras do what they do, and learn to use my digital cameras' settings more creatively than you can do on automatic. As one example, Gatcum explains beautifully the differences between all the possible settings such as Auto vs. Program, and what the benefits and limitations are for each one. This is one example of a topic the limited and badly translated camera manuals are silent on. This book assumes limited photographic knowledge so it would be fine for photo newbies, but it's actually extremely well laid out with brief but useful explanations and really great illustrative photos that anyone could learn and benefit from. I got a lot of good ideas from the various subjects the book. Another good point is that the topics and descriptions are clear, precise, but not too wordy. Just enough to illustrate the subject well both in description and with visuals. I have recently bought several similar books and this one is my favorite and I learned what I wanted to learn. Very useful for those in my situation as well as for total beginners, and highly recommended.

Informative book

This book is invaluable for a person just starting out. It explains things i.e. camera jargon, camera settings etc., in an easy to understand way. Highly recommend.

Super cool book with a lot of great tips!

I love how easy this book is to follow. You can follow along with your camera as you learn each step. The examples included are excellent. Highly recommended.

I have a camera. As a matter of fact, I have many cameras. My first expensive camera was a purchase I made in Australia…Sony NEX7. The advance from the Sony sales rep was to learn about photography and your camera, by taking pictures. So I did…in Australia, Fiji, South America, Europe…but I still did not learn as much as I did with this Kindle download. It is sad that I did not take full advantage of all the bells and whistles of that beautiful camera. I still have it but now I have my sites on another camera. This time I will be prepared.

This book has excellent color pictures with the applicable DSLR settings for various backgrounds. I have a Nikon, but examples are applicable for most DSLR cameras, Canon and Nikon models in particular. You may find some settings not available for your camera if you don't have a lens that supports a setting (such as aperture f/1.8 if your lens will only go to f/3.5, but you can work around with faster shutter speed, exposure, etc.) Very nice addition for camera library.