Rating: 
Summary: I'm using this as a textbook in my classes.
Review: I teach digital photography at a community college, both for college credit and in evening adult education classes, and have found this book to be the perfect textbook for my beginner and intermediate courses. The first Overview book is about 82 pages long, and provides a good introduction to digital photography. My students learn a little about digital equipment, how to acquire photos, do simple editing, organize them, and make prints. I generally either skip the second book or assign it for extra credit, because it talks about choosing a camera and accessories, setting up a computer, and working with printers and scanners.The Taking Great Pictures chapters in the third book are the core of my curriculum for both the beginner and intermediate classes, as the content is easy to understand, explains photographic techniques clearly, and can be applied by any digital photographer. The beginner classes simply receive less challenging picture taking assignments, as they work with composition, close-ups, portraits, and sports photography. They also get a lot of use out of the section on scenic photography, as the landscapes here are spectacular. The beginner classes stop when they finish the fourth book on the Basics of Image Editing. The more advanced image editing chapters, which use Adobe Photoshop Elements, are reserved for the intermediate classes. I do put both groups to work learning to restore old photos, because everyone seems to enjoy this. All in all I have found this book to be a wonderful learning tool, and like it better than traditional textbooks for teaching digital photography.
Rating:
Summary: Very pleased with this book.
Review: I was very pleased with with book. I'm a beginner photographer and found the information complete and detailed, and exactly what I needed. I really enjoyed the approach the author took of providing introductions to the most important topics in Book I, and then expanding on each of them in later books. That allowed me to quickly get up to speed on image editing, digital cameras, and other subjects. Once I was comfortable with the introductory material, I was able to move on to the more detailed explanations later on. Book III, which explains finer points of taking photos in several different categories was a revelation all by itself. I'm glad I bought this book.
Rating:
Summary: Report from a Digital Dummy
Review: I'm very willing to admit that I may be the perfect customer for Dummy books that have to do with digital anything or computerized anything. I often feel hopeless. However, I have bought Dave Busch books before and now I look for them. This one is great as it combines Busch's wonderful way with explaining things to newbies with the Dummies format. I'm writing a book that has required me to work with old photos as well as take ones that can be used by publishers and transmitted by computer, too. I've had to learn to be a better photographer and also a better technician. This book addresses all the things I need from composition of good photographs to image manipulation with Photoshop and producing finished copies at home. I'm sure there's more to learn, but this book contains all the information for basic operations, and you can ignore the more advanced stuff or go on to it. Busch is also the best author out there for making an amateur like me feel confident about learning new skills.
Rating:
Summary: No computers here, just solid photography information.
Review: This book has practically nothing on actual photograhy. It does has a tremendous amount of information on what to do with your pictures once you've taken them though. If you're looking for a book to improve the initial qaulity of your photos, this isn't it.
Rating: 
Summary: Computer how to book
Review: This book has practically nothing on actual photograhy. It does has a tremendous amount of information on what to do with your pictures once you've taken them though. If you're looking for a book to improve the initial qaulity of your photos, this isn't it.
Rating:
Summary: Much invaluable information in this book.
Review: This book is divided into seven subbooks, actually minibooks ranging in length from about 80 pages to several hundred pages long. This is good, because you can find a topic you are interested and read everything that's important about that topic in one minibook. Book I, A Digital Photography Overview, is actually both a summary and a preview of the books to come. If you're interested in the basics of digital photogaphy and equipment, or need to know right away how to connect your camera to your computer or whether you can share or print your pictures, you'll find short, easy-to-digest chapters on each of these here. Longer treatments of the topics can be found later in the book. Book II, Building Your Digital Photography Studio tells you everything you need to know about choosing a camera, setting up your computer, importing pictures, using printers and scanners, and what key accessories are needed. Book III, Taking Great Pictures has a lot more about photography than you find in nearly every other digital photography book, with complete chapters on composition, macro photography, portraiture, taking pictures for publication, sports photography, and travel Photography. Book IV, Basics of Image editing provides a good introduction to choosing a good image editor and learning the basic functions. Book V, Editing with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, explains how to do the most common tasks using these two popular image editors. Book VI, Restoring Old Photos, actually deals more with using scanners, but has a chapter to fixing vintage pictures. Book VII, Printing and Sharing Your Digital Images has good chapters on printing pictures and sharing them on the Web. The most important part of the book is Book III, in my opinion, and is worth the price all by itself. Books I and II summarize everything you wanted to know about digital cameras and equipment, too. The last third of the book on image editing is very good for those who are wondering what they can do and how to do it. I liked this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent whether you're a beginner...or not.
Review: This book is easy to read, has plenty of examples, tells you what to do to get good composition, talks about how digital cameras can get great photos, and much more. I have read the "Complete Idiot's" version of Digital Photography and while that book was OK, this one covers more information that I was looking for, particularly how to store and archive/organize digital photos as well as go into impressive detail on a lot of basic photography stuff. While this book isn't perfect, it's very, very good for a beginner to intermediate user and is fun to read. I have learned a lot so far. Also, it helps to have different books to read on the same subject of digital photography and this is a welcome edition to that learning "package." I've looked at other books besides the Dummies and Idiots guides, and this may be the most complete reference to date for digital photography. There's lots of stuff in the book that pertains to ANY kind of photography. If photographers use the book the way Dummies books are really meant to be used--by turning to the topic that most interests them at the moment, or the part that will help them with a specific (photographic) problem--they'll find plenty of valuable information. One thing they won't find, however, is much about setting f-stops and shutter speeds (though there's quite a bit about the connection between film speed and shutter speed). But then most digital photographers just put their cameras on "P" (for program) and let the camera make those settings for them! While the reading and presentation is easy, the depth of material is actually surprisingly thorough. Beginning, or even some advanced photographers, will be referring to this book more than once, over time.. Hey, where was this book when I started in photography?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent whether you're a beginner...or not.
Review: This book is easy to read, has plenty of examples, tells you what to do to get good composition, talks about how digital cameras can get great photos, and much more. I have read the "Complete Idiot's" version of Digital Photography and while that book was OK, this one covers more information that I was looking for, particularly how to store and archive/organize digital photos as well as go into impressive detail on a lot of basic photography stuff. While this book isn't perfect, it's very, very good for a beginner to intermediate user and is fun to read. I have learned a lot so far. Also, it helps to have different books to read on the same subject of digital photography and this is a welcome edition to that learning "package." I've looked at other books besides the Dummies and Idiots guides, and this may be the most complete reference to date for digital photography. There's lots of stuff in the book that pertains to ANY kind of photography. If photographers use the book the way Dummies books are really meant to be used--by turning to the topic that most interests them at the moment, or the part that will help them with a specific (photographic) problem--they'll find plenty of valuable information. One thing they won't find, however, is much about setting f-stops and shutter speeds (though there's quite a bit about the connection between film speed and shutter speed). But then most digital photographers just put their cameras on "P" (for program) and let the camera make those settings for them! While the reading and presentation is easy, the depth of material is actually surprisingly thorough. Beginning, or even some advanced photographers, will be referring to this book more than once, over time.. Hey, where was this book when I started in photography?
Rating:
Summary: More like 3 books in 1, but all are good!
Review: This book purports to be "7 books in 1" but that's stretching it a bit. There are actually three solid books within its 686 pages, all of them pretty darned good. One deals with getting started in digital photography, with lots of information on selecting a camera, setting up your computer, getting photos from your camera into your computer, and using accessories including tripods, scanners, and printers. The second book is a thick collection of chapters that deal with basic photography. Beginners will love this introduction to picture taking techniques, with how-to advice on close ups, sports, portraits, travel, and other topics. The third book deals with image editing, primarily using Adobe Photoshop and Elements, but also mentioning some competing programs so you can decide which one is best for you. All three "books" are very complete and written in the usual entertaining Dummies style. After you've gone through this material, you'll probably want a more advanced book to really immerse yourself further, but I felt that this Desk Reference lived up to its name. It's a great volume to have sitting on your desk when you want to refresh yourself about a particular topic.
Rating:
Summary: More like 3 books in 1, but all are good!
Review: This book purports to be "7 books in 1" but that's stretching it a bit. There are actually three solid books within its 686 pages, all of them pretty darned good. One deals with getting started in digital photography, with lots of information on selecting a camera, setting up your computer, getting photos from your camera into your computer, and using accessories including tripods, scanners, and printers. The second book is a thick collection of chapters that deal with basic photography. Beginners will love this introduction to picture taking techniques, with how-to advice on close ups, sports, portraits, travel, and other topics. The third book deals with image editing, primarily using Adobe Photoshop and Elements, but also mentioning some competing programs so you can decide which one is best for you. All three "books" are very complete and written in the usual entertaining Dummies style. After you've gone through this material, you'll probably want a more advanced book to really immerse yourself further, but I felt that this Desk Reference lived up to its name. It's a great volume to have sitting on your desk when you want to refresh yourself about a particular topic.
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