Rating: 
Summary: Tips for the serious amateur
Review: "Digital Photography Hacks" can be viewed as a supplement to the author's 2003 book, "Digital Photography Pocket Guide". While "Pocket Guide" is a basic introduction to digital photography, "Hacks" is a collection of real-world tips and solutions to everyday problems encountered by digital photographers. It is another addition to the growing set of "Hacks" books published by O'Reilly Media.The 100 tips and tools are organized into 8 chapters covering camera attachments, daytime and nighttime photo secrets, flash photography, photo projects, computer-based photo processing and organizing, and a special section on camera-phone photography. A number of hacks cover traditional photographic techniques not new to digital photography but useful to any photographer who wants to improve one or two steps above mere snapshooting. The bulk of them, however, relate specifically to the new digital photography world. The most interesting are those pertaining to camera-phones which have outsold regular digital cameras in 2002. The author demonstrates how to get the best use out of camera-phones despite their limitations in resolution, power, and features. Hack #75 explains that the prime value of camera-phones is in their immediacy allowing unique opportunities to obtain images. This hack reinterprets the traditional photography maxim that the "best camera" is the one you have in your hand when a special event is occurring. Hack #79 cleverly shows how one can communicate in a foreign country by displaying pre-loaded images in your camera to the natives in lieu of learning and speaking a foreign language. Everyone will understand the meaning of the photos. Load up your disk with images of toilets, taxi cabs, and cheeseburgers! #83 discusses how to set up and run a photo mo-blog - which is the mobile version of a traditional blog site. Portrait-taking amateurs will learn how to improve their people shots with pro-style lighting effects (#41-43) and Photoshop manipulations like whitening teeth and eliminating red eye and skin blemishes (#16, 69-70). Learn how to add music to movies and slideshows (#61) and analyze meta-data (EXIF format) contained in most digital photo formats (#28). This book doesn't have the natural writing flow of Mr. Story's "Pocket Guide", as the Hacks were contributed by a large handful of experts, but it is a nice resource for those many digital photographers who need guidance or inspiration in using their cameras.
Rating: 
Summary: A Decent Book, depending on your background
Review: "Hack - a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well." - the new Hackers Dictionary. This book is another in the series of O'reilly 'hack' books, this time on the subject of digital photography. Some may take issue with the fact that many of the techniques described in the book are not really hacks at all. Its clear the author does not know the meaning of the word hack. In fact, the book would be more aptly titled 'digital photography techniques'. As such, although I would consider about a third of the techniques to be 'hacks' in the hackers dictionary sense, the book is more about photography techniques that you can apply to your digital camera.
The book is organized into a series of 100 'hacks', divided into chapters, organizing the techniques. The first chapter covers attachments you can buy for your digital camera. Depending on your situation, you will find some of these useful and some not. Some of the 'hacks' are quite obvious advice - buy a tripod for example.
Other chapters contain info on daytime photography, nighttime photography, flash photography tricks, computer tips, photoshop tips, camera-phone tips, and weekend photo projects. These chapters were the highlight of the book for me, containing information about photography techniques applied to digital photography, plus some digital techniques perhaps not available using traditional film photography. These chapters show the author's good experience with photography and will be quite useful for beginner photographers.
While the daytime, nighttime and flash photography chapters were interesting. People with computer knowledge may find most of the computer tips chapter a waste. Linux users will be disappointed that the book does not cover any image processing techniques available on linux using the Gimp. While I am no photoshop or gimp expert, I do know enough about the gimp to know that many of the techniques described have equivalents in the gimp. Besides that, the gimp is free, available on linux and windows, while photoshop costs a lot of money. You would think a book with a true 'hack' spirit would cover free software for use in digital photography (to be fair, it is briefly mentioned on one page in the camera phone tricks chapter).
The last two chapters, the camera-phone and weekend photo project chapters, discuss some ways to use your digital camera you may not have thought of. The camera phone chapter has a bit about cleaning up those low quality camera shots, something generally useful for any camera if not all of your photographs are professional quality. I also appreciated the information about panorama techniques and image stacking found in the weekend photo project chapter.
Overall, I would recommend this book for certain types of readers. If you are an experienced photographer who is familiar with most photographic techniques, then this is probably not the book for you. If you don't know a whole lot about fancy photography techniques and you are looking to get more out of your digital camera, you will find value in this book. If you are already an expert at using photoshop to enhance your digital photographs, a majority of the computer techniques in the book will probably not help you. If not, you may learn something. Gimp users should look elsewhere, however the general techniques shown for photoshop can probably all be applied to the gimp if you can figure out what the equivalent functionality in the Gimp is.
Rating: 
Summary: Great resource for the amateur photographer
Review: "Hacking" has a different meaning to the photographer than it does in the computer world. This book is about hacks the way it is used in the world of photography and not the way it is used in the world of computers. When a picture doesn't come out quite like a photographer intended they often make changes in the darkroom via masks, burning, and other techniques. This is photographic "hacking" - enhancing and changing your digital photographs in ways you may not have thought possible to achieve the results you want. The first chapter focuses on digital camera attachments and how to use them to produce better results. From there the author leads the reader into various techniques of outside photography, nighttime photography, and flash techniques. Once you understand how to get the best picture it is time to change it into a work of art. For this process the author discusses the magic of Photoshop and how it can be used to achieve almost any effect you can imagine. This is a book for the amateur digital camera user who wants to create a professional looking result. If you are an advanced Photoshop user the part of the book about camera use could be helpful but the Photoshop portion doesn't cover even a tenth of what Photoshop is able to do. "Digital Photography Hacks" is highly recommended for the amateur digital photographer and anyone else interested in creating photographs instead of taking pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Great resource for the amateur photographer
Review: "Hacking" has a different meaning to the photographer than it does in the computer world. This book is about hacks the way it is used in the world of photography and not the way it is used in the world of computers. When a picture doesn't come out quite like a photographer intended they often make changes in the darkroom via masks, burning, and other techniques. This is photographic "hacking" - enhancing and changing your digital photographs in ways you may not have thought possible to achieve the results you want. The first chapter focuses on digital camera attachments and how to use them to produce better results. From there the author leads the reader into various techniques of outside photography, nighttime photography, and flash techniques. Once you understand how to get the best picture it is time to change it into a work of art. For this process the author discusses the magic of Photoshop and how it can be used to achieve almost any effect you can imagine. This is a book for the amateur digital camera user who wants to create a professional looking result. If you are an advanced Photoshop user the part of the book about camera use could be helpful but the Photoshop portion doesn't cover even a tenth of what Photoshop is able to do. "Digital Photography Hacks" is highly recommended for the amateur digital photographer and anyone else interested in creating photographs instead of taking pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun!
Review: Any book that gets you to put it down several times to immediately try out some of the hacks is a good book in my opinion. I set the book down for Hack #25 - Painless Infrared Photography. I grabbed my digital camera and a TV remote and 10 seconds later I discovered I have a camera that can take infrared photographs. Cool! There's also a cool hack that inspired me to make my first QuickTime VR movie (albeit not a very good one) by stitching together a bunch of panoramic shots with Photoshop. There are plenty of fun ideas from using everyday objects as lens filters to flash hacks. The hacks are all over the map, too. Hacks for Camera Phones, camera attachments, Photoshop hacks, Fax from your digital camera... If you're looking for a fun book that is bound to inspire you to come up with your own hacks, this is your book!
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun!
Review: Any book that gets you to put it down several times to immediately try out some of the hacks is a good book in my opinion. I set the book down for Hack #25 - Painless Infrared Photography. I grabbed my digital camera and a TV remote and 10 seconds later I discovered I have a camera that can take infrared photographs. Cool! There's also a cool hack that inspired me to make my first QuickTime VR movie (albeit not a very good one). There are plenty of fun ideas from using everyday objects as lens filters to flash hacks. The hacks are all over the map, too. Hacks for Camera Phones, camera attachments, Photoshop hacks, Fax from your digital camera (what???). If you're looking for a fun book that is bound to inspire you to come up with your own hacks, this is your book!
Rating:
Summary: Great book, well worth the price
Review: I can't recommend this book enough. In 300 pages the author takes you all the way from how to take great shots with cheap cameras, to how to store, edit, and get them printed. There is a lot of practical low-cost advice on taking quality shots through different mounting and filter techniques. There is also practical advice on how to do the standard photo editing work that most books take hundreds of pages to explain in just 50 pages or so. He also covers managing the little movies the cameras can take, and the working with the crummy photos cell phones take. A well written handy resource for any photographer. Couldn't be happier with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful and fun to read
Review: If you haven't picked up a book from the O'Reilly "Hacks" line, then you're doing yourself a disservice. Each book contains 100 or so tips on the subject of the book. Depending on the subject matter, some of these are actual hacks, while others are simply really cool tips. Like the other "Hacks" book, this one is not only fun to read but very well worth the tips it provides. In what I found to be a very welcome step, the authors have provided only a few Photoshop hacks. Instead they have opted to concentrate on the many various other issues involved in digital photography. Some of the hacks you might find interesting include how to un-erase an erased CF card, how to use various filters and gels to make photos with impact, and how to use your iPod to store your photographs. While there are a couple of hacks involving Photoshop, they are totally appropriate for this type of book (which include tips for resampling and sharpening) and are not simply a rehash of what you might read in other digital photography books. The hack I most enjoyed reading was #25 (Painless Infrared Photography). Having done a fair amount of traditional infrared photography (it's a pain), I was pleased to read just how easy it is to do with a digital camera. Some other hacks I enjoyed include #74 (Hand Color with the History Brush) and #55 (Virtual-Reality Movies from Your Digicam). This is a really fun book to read and has a lot of very useful and interesting digital photography information that I haven't seen in other books. This is definitely a book that digital photography enthusiasts and traditional photographers who are turning to digital will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful and fun to read
Review: If you haven't picked up a book from the O'Reilly "Hacks" line, then you're doing yourself a disservice. Each book contains 100 or so tips on the subject of the book. Depending on the subject matter, some of these are actual hacks, while others are simply really cool tips. Like the other "Hacks" book, this one is not only fun to read but very well worth the tips it provides. In what I found to be a very welcome step, the authors have provided only a few Photoshop hacks. Instead they have opted to concentrate on the many various other issues involved in digital photography. Some of the hacks you might find interesting include how to un-erase an erased CF card, how to use various filters and gels to make photos with impact, and how to use your iPod to store your photographs. While there are a couple of hacks involving Photoshop, they are totally appropriate for this type of book (which include tips for resampling and sharpening) and are not simply a rehash of what you might read in other digital photography books. The hack I most enjoyed reading was #25 (Painless Infrared Photography). Having done a fair amount of traditional infrared photography (it's a pain), I was pleased to read just how easy it is to do with a digital camera. Some other hacks I enjoyed include #74 (Hand Color with the History Brush) and #55 (Virtual-Reality Movies from Your Digicam). This is a really fun book to read and has a lot of very useful and interesting digital photography information that I haven't seen in other books. This is definitely a book that digital photography enthusiasts and traditional photographers who are turning to digital will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Digital Photo Hacks, very handy book.
Review: O'Reilly has released another pretty handy book by Derrick Story called Digital Photography Hacks, 100 Industrial Strength Tools and Tips. The Book is broken into 8 chapters that cover different types of hacks & tips. I have highlighted points from a few of my favorite chapters.
Chapter 1 covers attachments for your digital camera. This chapter has 15 hacks that cover different types of tripods, making a walking stick into a monopod or monopod into a tripod, along with flash brackets.
Chapter 2, Taking photos in daylight. The 13 hacks featured in this chapter are some of the best hacks in the book.
Chapter 3 goes into 10 notable hacks on nighttime photos. What I liked about this chapter is how he explains some easy ways to get some great pictures after dark.
Chapter 4 gives up Hacks 39-46 called "The Magic of Flash". Most snap shooters wouldn't even think of using the cameras flash on a bright sun shiny day, yet that flash helps a lot with shadows that are caused by a bright sun.
While this book isn't really Photoshop "How to" book, Chapter 6 makes it clear that Photoshop can be part of your digital camera lifestyle. The tips in this chapter are very easy to follow, making a complex program like Photoshop easier to use.
Seems that 2003 was the year of the camera phone. The 10 hacks in Chapter 7 cover tips that will help you get the most out of your camera phone, for better or worse.
While Mr. Story is mainly a Macintosh user, the book is also useful for Windows users too. If you're interested in improving your photography skills, I would recommend that you purchase this book.
Dave Birdsong - Michigan Apple User Group
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