Real World Digital Photography: Industrial Strength Imaging Techniques (Real World)

This book is aimed at neither the casual consumer nor the professional digital photographer with $50,000 to spend. Rather it is perfect for several types of professionals: graphic designers, design students, estate and insurance agents, and many others. It shows how digital cameras work (what makes both the inner workings and the output differ from that in traditional film cameras), which camera to buy for your needs and budget and how to take, edit, archive and store pictures.

Many basic terms get clarified; for example, how JPEG compression works. And there are lots of sidebar tips such as how to progressively downsample an image in a way that preserves the most detail. They explain how to print the images on inkjet or dye sub printers. (Did you know not to covert an RGB image to CMYK before sending it to the printer? Let the printer do the conversion.)

A lot of the information and explanations in Real World Digital Photography will still be useful long after the featured cameras are considered yesterday's technology. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Types of cameras and which to buy, how they work, the mechanics of digital imagery, setting up a digital "darkroom" and desktop studio, the basics of good photography, Quicktime VR, digital correction of images, preparing images for print or Web and archiving digital images.

Though the coverage is certainly comprehensive, and includes sections on how things work, how to decide what to buy, and useful tips on operating both cameras and software, it has relatively little that will interest the advanced user. Of necessity, the breadth of coverage determines that detail in some areas (like Photoshop) are limited.

The text is liberally spattered with real world examples, and includes many references to cameras that are current models (as of November '99) though these models will rapidly go out of date. McCLelland and Eismann's real world experience shines through clearly. Though they stop short of recommending actual models, it's not difficult to read between the lines as to what they like and dislike. Several years of reviewing many of the same models for both computer and photographic magazines leads me to concur with almost all their comments.

In some five years of using Digital cameras and imaging in general, this is the best all-round coverage I have seen. I just don't feel advanced users will get much benefit (as suggested by the user-ratings on the back cover).


Digital Photography is the right book at the right time   July 29, 1999
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The current zoom in digital photography has spawned literally hundreds of thousands of "new" photographers and at the same time lots and lots of questions about this new craft. The &FOTOgraphics department at graphic-design.com has received hundreds of letters with all kinds of questions on how to take better digital pictures. Real World Digital Photography is what we'll be recommending from now on! Deke McClelland and Katrin Eisman have forged what will become the BIBLE of Digital Photography -- with the answers to everyone's questions about this new way of taking pictures. I recommend REAL WORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY to anyone who wants to take their digital camera out of the realm of snapshots and into the world of industrial strength image techniques.