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Digital Photography Hacks

Sunday, June 20th, 2004 at 9:42 AM Category: Books, Meryl's Notes Blog, Reviews, Tech No comments

My five-year-old finds the old camera with batteries still in it, but no film. He flashes away at everything in the house making us all blind. I plan to get him and his older sister a digital camera with a memory card, so they can take as many pictures as they want and nothing is wasted. Bad photos don’t die, they just get deleted and don’t cost a dime except they use “battery energy.”

This book from the O’Reilly hack series differs from the other in that it has color images. Since there are colored images, the headers are blue instead of traditional black and that’s why the book costs a tad more than the other Hacks books. The landscape photos are spectacular, so you get a little bit of art along with instruction in the book.

Straight lines and I don’t get along. The only way for me to draw one is to have a ruler, but it can still be slanted unless I do other precise measuring to ensure it’s straight from end to end. The first series of hacks covers tripods, travel-sized to one made for a bike. As expected, learn how to capture magic with flash and take professional portraits with a two flash-setup.

The hacks aren’t just hardware-related. Receive tips on taking daylight and nighttime photos with and dealing with kids, whiteboards, passport photos, panoramas, and other objects. (Kids aren’t objects, mind you). Almost 100 pages cover using the computer and software like Photoshop to manipulate images.

A chapter covers camera phones, providing creative ideas for their use. The chapter is brief, so those without an interest or a camera phone won’t feel like a few bucks have been wasted. The next time you’re bored, go to the projects section near the end of the book for ideas on what to do with photos. Such projects are guaranteed to keep you busy for hours and having fun in the process; maybe with a little frustration thrown in as what good project ever works perfectly?

Who will benefit from the book? Those who want to learn the things the pros do without spending time experimenting. Those who aren’t afraid to experiment or try new techniques. Those who want to make a camera do things without buying expensive equipment like professionals use. Traditional photographers making the move to digital will benefit. The group that won’t benefit are the folks who use a camera on vacation or on special occasions and snap at everything in sight without a worry about how subject is lined up.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Digital Photography Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools
AUTHOR: Derrick Story
PUBLISHER: O’Reilly & Associates
PUBLICATION DATE: May 2004
ISBN: 0596006667
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 332
PRICE: US$29.95