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Still learning photography? Check out these books and free photo editor.
By Jacob Vorpahl | August 14, 2008
I got into photography back in July of 2007. Before that, the only experience I had involving photos was with my Canon SD400 point and shoot camera. I didn’t even change shooting modes with that camera. Seriously. I didn’t understand what each thing did, and I was happy enough with the results that it didn’t matter. Fast forward to today and I can manipulate almost all of the little settings on the my Nikon D80 and I shoot in manual 90% of the time (I use Aperture and Shutter Priority modes the other 10%). For some people out there, they’re probably saying “oh, I can easily do that. No biggie.” But then right down the line there is someone deeply afraid of taking their camera off of auto because they don’t understand even remotely what all of the various camera settings do. I was in that spot once, and thanks to some books I picked up to learn just what in the world the different meter settings actually did, I now can use my camera the way it was meant to be used and my photography skills have improved because of it. Think about it, for all of you veterans out there, could you image taking pictures using whatever aperture the camera decided to give you in auto mode? You’d have little control over your shot besides composition and even then the camera could make your composition look like compost (you see what I did there?).
So, what I’ve got here is a … starting place for anyone who was in my position over a year ago, i.e., you don’t have any idea what most of the buttons on your camera do. I’ve put together a list of books that I’ve personally gone through myself, in the order that I’ve gone through them, to help you along in developing your photography skills. Granted, I’m still learning myself (and I have a lot of it to do), but that doesn’t mean I can’t share what I’ve already learned. Also, be aware that these books go beyond just a specific model or brand. Nikon or Canon, these books offer a lot for any camera model.
(On a side note, all the pictures of the books link to the Amazon page for the listing for easy buying. Also, if you click through from here and purchase it’ll help throw a little funding my way from Amazon which will help with server costs.)
#1: Know your camera
No matter what, no photography book you pick up is going to help you if you don’t know what in the world you’re doing with your camera. When I first picked up my D80 and realized I was clueless, I went to my local book store and perused through the photography books until I found one that made sense to me. That book was the Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide written by a man named David Busch. While flipping through the pages, I could actually make sense of what he was saying coming from the stand point of knowing nothing beforehand. He goes through and, in a rough sense, explains what aperture and shutter do to the photo while explaining to you very clearly how to adjust and control those things on your camera. He does this with everything on your camera, then goes on to explain many of the effects of the different settings on the camera and provides full color photos to illustrate what he’s teaching so you see the effect and have a reference of it in your head. In the last part of the book, he goes through scenarios (portrait, fireworks, etc.) and gives you a photo with his setup and recommendations on how to best tackle it. This was definitely one of the most helpful books I’ve found in deciphering the photographic language and making sense of everything. It’s very comprehensive and well written and, luckily, he makes these books for all of the popular cameras. His book would be a good starting point and it’s cheap, only $14 on Amazon. If you click on the picture above, it’ll take you to the book’s Amazon listing where you can purchase it. Again, I highly recommend checking out David Busch’s line of books for your camera. They’re good enough that even after learning most of what’s inside, you’ll keep it in your camera bag as a go-to reference book down the line.
#2: Learn the basics
This well written book was first published before digital cameras hit the market and since has been revised and updated to include discussion on digital photography. To understand the various parts of photography (aperture, shutter, technique, etc), look no further than Understanding Exposure. Bryan Peterson does an excellent job of explaining things in a conversational manner and he covers many of the important aspects of what goes in to taking the picture. As you can tell from the title, the main theme here is exposure. If you don’t get that right, then all of the other things the camera or lens can do is meaningless. If you’ve got an idea of how to adjust the settings on your camera, the this book is the resource you need to better understand what settings work. Also, if you’re anything like me, knowing ‘how’ things work just sets off some sort of light bulb in your head where you “get it” more so than if you just understood cause and effect. This book has many of those moments. For instance, he describes the “sweet spot” inside the lens where the light goes through and how the aperatures f/8-f/11 match up with that the best. Knowing that little nugget of information connected a number of blocks in my head so now I not only know why something happens but how, and that helps me figure out what I’m doing a whole lot more than a simple “click this and you get this” cause and effect style of teaching. Once again, this book also falls within the inexpensive category of photography books and costs $16.47 through Amazon.
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Another set of books that are a must have are The Digital Photography Book and The Digital Photography Book 2 by author Scott Kelby. Scott has been around for a little bit and offers up photography advice that covers a large range of topics that goes from lighting to technique. His books aren’t as much theory as much as they are practical application. He tells you what works and what doesn’t and he uses very concise entries so these books are another tool to keep in your bag to use as a reference. His humor isn’t always the best, but the information contained within his books will no doubt improve your photo taking abilities.
To put as best as I can think to put it, you’d probably have to scrawl the internetfor hours and hours beforeyou picked up as much information as Scott has put into his books. It’s nothing groundbreaking (a lot of it will help you greatly, though), but the information is well put together and right there in two handy dandy books. Read it, apply it, and I’d be willingly to bet that you see a great improvement in your photos. For the strobist-minded people out there, in Book 2 he even devotes the entire first section to off camera lighting (and gives David Hobby and Strobist.com a nod as well). Do yourself a favor and pick these two up at Amazon. They sell for $13.59 and $16.49 respectively so you won’t take a big hit in your wallet.
#3: Get inspired while learning
Now that you’ve got a good idea on how to use your camera and you’ve got some good information in your brain housing group on technique and tricks of the trade, it’s time to move on to something a bit more personal. Joe McNally, a veteran professional photographer, wrote this book as if he were retelling stories of shoots and photos that he’s been a part of. Most of the book is his describing the different aspects that went into the photo being made (such as a client not having much time or him overcoming some on-location dilemma), but then he also includes some information on how the shot was set up and what he used. This isn’t the same kind of book as the above mentioned “teaching” style books, but it is a great book to have if you like/love/are interested in photography. It’s a good read and makes a great coffee table book. It’s not the cheapest of all the books ($35 on Amazon), but if you have some spare cash it’s probably something you will get a good amount of enjoyment from and will come back to time and time again to get new ideas and maybe even a boost or a pick me up.
#4: Begin Post Processing
Along side his career as a photographer, Scott Kelby is widely known for his work as an Adobe Photoshop book writer and teacher. If I’m not mistaken, he’s sold more Photoshop books than anyone else out there. The reason is because his books are very good and are easy to follow, even if you’ve just started using Photoshop. I picked up this book because I realized that Photoshop was just too advanced for me to go into blind and little guidance would do me some good. I haven’t had the chance to go through the whole book, but judging from the sections I’ve spent time with, it doesn’t get any easier to learn Photoshop when using this book unless Scott came to work with you personally and verbally told you what to do. The book uses full color photos on quality paper to illustrate everything along the way, down to some of the most minute details that might confuse some readers without an illustration. It goes for $31.49 on Amazon, which isn’t cheap, but if you’re lost when you load up Photoshop, you’re going to drop some money somwhere so this is reasonable price for the information you get.
… or for those without Photoshop (or money)
There is a good alternative to Photoshop out there that will only cost you the time it takes to click on the link and download the program. It’s called Paint.NET and it’s one powerful, free photo editing program with a lot a features and zero cost. It was designed by an undergraduate college student being mentored by Microsoft to be a free replacement for Microsoft Paint. For some reason that never happened and Paint.NET has since been released as a freeware program. Inside of it, you’ll find many features that Photoshop offers, such as layers and different filter effects (blurs, distortions, etc.), as well some of its own. The best thing about this program, though, is just how simple it is to use. Like most editing programs, you have windows that contain all of the icons for simple commands, like pencil or eraser, but what is very nice about this design is that those windows are not only movable, but they become transparent when not in use. I may be simple but that makes things much less intrusive when working on a photo. It also doesn’t drain your system resources likes other photo editing programs as I’ve been able to have multiple photos open and working on them at the same time with minimal strain on my computer.
Now, it’s not perfect. Some of the more advanced features that programs like Adobe Photoshop contain are not present in Paint.NET, but some are available as downloadable plug-ins that expand what the program can do. The developers have a good forum going for assistance and new things are being added all the time, especially in the area of plug-ins. Remember to keep in mind that this program is free and easy to use. I used it before I moved up to Photoshop and I still use it today for doing smaller tasks that would take longer in Adobe’s program. Plus, did I mentioned its free? Meaning there is no monetary cost to try it out?
The End
Well, that should get you started. I’m by no means a professional, but my photography abilities have increased by reading those books and you’ll probably see similar results if you’re just starting out as well. If you’ve been doing this for a while, chances are you’ve heard of those books and know what you need to learn at this point. Either way, those books listed above will help you out and hopefully lead to better photos abroad. And do yourself a favor and check out Paint.NET, you may find a very useful application to add your bag of tools.
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