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Books

To see all the books and videos that we've reviewed to date, organized by category go to All Book Reviews.

Mastering Digital Photography and Imaging 
by Peter K. Burian 
ISBN: 0782142907 
Paperback: 304 pages

Don't let the fact that this is a Sybex book scare you off. Sybex books are typically very technical. But this book by Peter K. Burian is a great introduction to digital photography. As a longtime writer for publications such as Shutterbug, Peter knows how to write in an understandable and approachable style. As a matter of fact much of the text reads like magazine text - and that's a good thing.

Peter takes you through the basics of digital cameras, scanners, printers and image editing software. He even delves into how much computer you really need and explains how to choose your peripherals such as CD burners. 

These are the topics most digital photography books either gloss over or ignore completely. As a result they're the topics we seem to get the most questions on. After providing a good basic knowledge of the equipment you need he takes you through the process of getting the image from either a camera or scanner to outputting "exhibition quality" prints.

Unlike many similar offerings Peter truly covers his subject. The detail level is just right, providing you a sound foundation to build on, in a style that is approachable and readable.

Color Confidence: The Digital Photographer's Guide to Color Management
by Tim Grey 
ISBN: 0782143164 
Paperback: 288 pages

I thought I was pretty good at creating digital prints. Pick up Tim Grey's book on color management and you'll very quickly realize how much you don't know about digital printing and color management. 

This is no lightweight book. There is an incredible amount of information here on color management for producing both color and black and white images using Photoshop. Tim covers the basics such as always reviewing your prints under a 5K lamp and then takes you into areas of Photoshop that I was totally unfamiliar with. Do you for example, use Gamut Warning to determine what areas of your print might be outside the color gamut of your printer - I didn't think so.

The book covers all elements of digital photography including scanning, monitors and printing. But this is not a book you'll cruise through in 15 minutes, picking up tidbits from captions. To get the most from Color Confidence you'll need to devote some serious time. Time spent working through it from front to back, and time spent in front of the keyboard and at the printer working through its lessons. Do that and you'll have given yourself a master's course in digital printing.

 

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