Photography Book Reviews

Here you can find brief reviews of books that I have read associated with photography.

	Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 by Scott Kelby One of the challenges I have found is finding a workflow to use when editing my photographs in photoshop CS3. Scott has found the answer! The 7 steps are simple and the book teaches you them by getting you to edit various photos over and over again. As a result you have an easy to remember workflow that you will follow each time you use photoshop.
	Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers by Martin Evening Quite simply my bible for Photoshop CS3. Its a big book to say the least, but it covers everything that is essential for using photoshop. A must for any photographer considering using CS3.
	The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening Having recently bought Adobe Photoshop Lightroom I was after a book that would walk me through the workflow of the application using example images to show before and after edits. This book provided just that. Martin explains all the functional areas of the application in great detail. A worthy companion to those using Lightroom.
	How to Start a Home-Based Photography Business by Kenn Oberrecht A book that I refer to on a regular basis. It covers all aspects from getting started, to financial planning, to record keeping and managing your business. It really brings home the fact that running a photography business is more about running a business than it is taking photos! A worth-while read for anyone embarking on selling their work.
	Mastering Landscape Photography by Alain Briot Another excellent book on the subject of landscape photography. However, this one is slightly different as it provides advice and help on going into business as a landscape photographer. The author, Alain Briot, provides his own account of how he made it from amateur to pro and how he built the business that he runs today. A great read for these looking to take the hobby to the next stage.
	Fine Art Printing for Photographers by Uwe Steinmuller, Jurgen Gulbins If you have ever wanted to know more about colour management then you should read this book. The authors provide a good explanation of colour management, ICC profiles and how they work between different devices. In addition they provide examples of printing workflows that ensure you create a printed image that is as close to the original as is possible. Other finishing techniques are also discussed such as mounting and framing.
	The Perfect Exposure by Jim Zuckerman A book that covers how to meter in various situations, what to meter off and why. It discusses the concept of 'middle gray'. Jim then goes on to discuss metering in a number of scenarios (such as backlighting, flash photography, macro photography etc.). This is a good book that is full of photos to help illustrate the concepts etc.
	The Complete Guide to Night and Low Light Photography by Lee Frost An excellent book for anyone wanting to get into low light photography. It explains the concepts in excellent detail and provides a point of view on handle many different low light situations. It also provides a great overview of exposure and how to read the correct exposure. This book is high up there on my list of re-reads.
	Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson Another great book by Bryan. This goes into a lot of detail about exposure and how to be best read the exposure for many different situations. A great read on this particular subject.
	Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson This is the best book I have read to date. One of the biggest challenges I am currently facing is how to spot those 'unique' images. This book covers elements of design that make up the images and also different compositional methods that really help to transform photos. Finally it looks at 'light' and how important it is to understand its direction and colour. As you can imagine there are some excellent images to look at as well which only helps to inspire the reader more.
	Landscape Photography by Peter Eastway (lonely planet) I read this whilst on vacation and found it a great introduction to landscape photography. Again it covers some technical elements such as exposure, composition and light before going on to look at different landscape scenarios. A good book to have in your bag to refer to when on the road.
	Light & Lighting by Michael Freeman This book covers the subject of 'light' in a lot more depth than the others. It first discusses what light is and the facts surrounding it before going on to look at natural light, available light and photographic light. Light is one of the photographers most powerful tools and this book helps the reader understand why.
	Photos That Sell by Lee Frost I am particularly interested in understanding how photographers get to sell their images and the vehicles they use. This book gives a good summary of the main methods of selling your photos and then looks at individual subject areas (such as landscape or people etc.) and how a photographer should approach selling within that subject area. It also includes real examples of what and how other photographers have sold.
	Digital Photographer's Handbook by Tom Ang This book is a great starting place for any digital photographer. It has been the bible for me as it covers pretty much everything to do with photography.
	The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby Every digital photographer will need some kind of photo-editing software. Given that I am still relatively new to photography I have started out with Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0. Although the manual that comes with it is fairly comprehensive I wanted a book that would provide me with more detailed 'walkthroughs', to ensure that I get the most from the software. This book does just that and in a very easy to understand way. Highly recommended for anyone starting out with Elements 4.0.