The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography (Amphoto Guide Series) by Jim Miotke Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography (Amphoto Guide Series)
Book Review: Great book despite talking about point and shoot cameras
Summary: 4 Stars
This book was really helpful. I've been into photography for a couple years now. I enjoyed the time spent on composition and technique a lot. He spent some time going over the basics, which was a good review, but the creative side of the book (although smaller) was much more helpful.
Definitely a book I will come back to over the years.
Book Review: Wonderful Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is really great for beginners. Very easy to read and follow the instructions! Book Review: Competent but Mediocre
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this book--my first about photography because--because of all the positive reviews. The writing is clear and competently explains the most basic concepts of photography. I think those explanation would make useful primer for someone wanting to exploit the capabilities of a point-and-shoot camera. But for anyone wanting more help understanding the greater potential of a dsrl, or even to do interesting stuff with a point-and-shoot, the book is embarrassingly simple.
On the up side, it includes many photographs illustrating such photographic princles as are covered. On the downside, those photographs are uninspired, dull, predictable, and bland. Implicitly, the photographs Miotke uses show us novices what we can achieve if we apply his principles. But those photographs look like what a lot of people produce with ordinary point-and-shoots and without reading any books, so what does Miotke offer?
Not that these photographic principles are themselves eye-opening. Miotke spends some time, for example, explaining that sometimes to improve the framing of a subject, we should get closer to it. Wow! He illustrates this with a picture of a cowboy putting a saddle on a horse. He points out that that picture is kind of ordinary, so his inspiration is to take a tight shot of one of the studded leather saddle straps. Now, that studded strap did look cool, but a better picture? I'm not so sure about that. They both looked pretty point-and-shooty, pretty daddy-playing-with-the-camera-on-the-family-vacation to me.
So much of the praise for this rather ordinary book is so extravagant and uncritical that my suspicion is that at least some of those 5-point reviewers are shills from the "Betterphoto" enterprise. I mean, the book ain't that great.
Book Review: Not as good as expected
Summary: 3 Stars
This book had a 5-star average review on Amazon when I was deciding which books to buy, and for that reason (and that reason alone), I bought it. I must say I'm a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong --- this is not a bad book. But it's certainly not a 5-star book. If you want a a really good book on digital photography, try Scott Kelby's Digital Photography book. This one is more pedestrian. It's a valiant effort, but most of what's inside can be found (at no charge) on the Web. It's also a chore to read. I find myself browsing rather than reading (by way of comparison, I read Kelby's book more or less cover to cover in one sitting).
All that having been said, it's a better book than Tom Ang's Digital Photography (published by DK).
Book Review: Great Intro to the Basics!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book gives a great introduction to the fundamentals of (digital) photography. Concepts are clearly explained and supported with very useful example photos. The writing is very engaging and "readable". There are even "assignments" after each chapter to get you practicing. I think it's good to read the book BEFORE buying a new camera, as it gives you an idea of what to look for in a camera (however, you'll be itching to try out the techniques you've learned, which is frustrating if you have not bought a camera yet!).
The only suggestion for improvement - I'd like to see a summary of all the concepts ("things to remember" while taking pics) that could be used as a quick reference.