Deconstructing the Shot – Photo 3

This post is the third in an occasional series in which I describe the making of a photograph, from both a technical and artistic standpoint.  I’ll go through the camera settings and why they were chosen, as well as the thought processes going through my head regarding composition and the creation of the image.  These types of posts will be concrete examples of a previous post of mine called How Pros Photograph, which describes the various decisions that may be going through a photographer’s head as they work a scene and make photos.  The first post in this series can be read here, and the second post is here.

This one can be called the Aperture Edition, as you will learn below.

The Photo: The photo I’ve selected for this example is one I took in Cusco, Peru in June 2008, called Men on Avenida el Sol.  It was taken during the Cusco Week festivities, which is a series of events, dances, parades, and performances leading up to Inti Raymi, the Inca Festival of the Sun that occurs each year at the solstice.  The wonderful thing about this week of activities is that it offers so many opportunities for a photographer to capture cultural, dance, and people photos.  And because they are all public events where people expect, and even enjoy being photographed, it eliminates the difficulties and hesitations many photographers have about approaching individuals for photographs – although that is something any serious photographer needs to overcome, and it is actually quite easy.  You approach the subject, make direct eye contact, and ask, “Do you mind if I take a photograph of you?”  If they speak another language, hold up and nod towards your camera with a cheerful, inquisitive look on your face.  They will either agree or not – problem solved!

Although I took hundreds of photos of the events over the week, I selected this one for this exercise because I learned something very definitively in the process of capturing it.  More on that later.  Although great subjects and action are directly in front of you during a parade or performance, there is a bit more to capturing good photos than just clicking away.  I write a bit about that, with some tips and suggestions, in this post Cambridge Carnival.

This particular event was a parade down a main street of Cusco leading into the central plaza.  I’ve created some strips of photos to show a selection of images as I worked this scene:

The Process: I was heading back home after taking dance photos in the plaza, and made my way down Avenida el Sol looking for additional quick shots.  Most of the people and groups were standing about, waiting to move forward to perform or parade through the plaza, where the spectators were, so there were not many interesting opportunities.  However, this group of older men captured my attention due to their wonderful expressive faces and their colorful traditional outfits.  My intention was merely to capture these faces and subjects.  However, they were a bit bored, just standing around waiting, so you can see most of the images do not really stand out. 

I was using a Canon Rebel XT with a 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II lens.  I stood on the sidewalk near the group, and set my camera on Aperture Priority mode (Av on Canon, A on Nikon).  This was so I could control the depth of field and call attention to single or multiple subjects and make the background a bit blurry and less distracting.  I experimented with various aperture settings, ranging from f/4.5 to f/13 depending on if I wanted one of the men to be in focus or a row of two or three of them to be in focus.  A wide open aperture such as f/4.5 will have a narrow depth of field so that just one of the men is in focus, where a narrower aperture such as f/8 or f/11 will have a deeper depth of field so that the entire row of men might be in focus.  With the wide apertures, I focused on the eyes of the man I wanted in-focus, and with narrower apertures, I focused about 1/3 or 1/2 way into the area I wanted to be in focus, meaning if there was a row of three faces, I focused on the middle one.  The ISO was set at 200 which allowed the camera to choose fast shutter speeds of around 1/1000 s.  This is because I had been capturing dance and action scenes, and wanted to be ready for the same.  The metering mode was set on the general Evaluative Metering, which did a decent job of capturing the proper exposures.  A couple images were mysteriously overexposed, possibly due to where I locked exposure while I was locking focus – which is why I now use a back-button focusing technique and/or lock exposures separately from focus.  White Balance was set on Auto, but would have worked on Sunny as well.

As you hopefully know by now, depth of field is controlled by the aperture setting.  I write more about it in these posts Depth of Field Simplified and Mastering Depth of Field.  Since your specific depth of field in any situation will vary based not only on the aperture setting but also on the lens focal length and your distance from the subject, it is often difficult to predetermine what exactly is going to be in focus in the resulting image.  You can try using the depth of field preview button on your camera, but it is difficult to see in the tiny, dim viewfinder what the preview is showing.  You can also use your rear LCD and trial and error to view a series of experiments.  But again, this is only a small screen with relatively low resolution, so it is difficult to see the precise results.  And in many situations you simply don’t have the time for these methods.  You just have to get a feel for your lenses and their different apertures through experience and studying your results.  But one thing is certain:  to get minimum, shallow depth of field and thus maximum background blurriness with any lens, zoom in as close as you can, (for example, zoom to 200mm on a 70-200mm lens) situate yourself as close as you can to your subject while still obtaining the framing you want, and use the widest aperture possible (for example f/2.8 or f/4).  Work back from that if you wish to increase the depth of field – for example to have a slightly deeper depth of field in focus, use an aperture of f/5 or f/5.6, or increase your distance away from the subject, or remain close but use a shorter focal length like 28mm or 50mm.

As you can see, most of the images are very “busy,” with a lot of extraneous and distracting background people and activity.  I wasn’t very pleased with the images, but I continued to take basically the same image over and over.  I knew the faces, outfits, and colors were interesting, and I hoped the resulting images would be as well.  I zoomed in as close as I could with most of the images, working in the 75mm to 105mm range of my lens.  However, without a lens that had the 100mm to 200mm range, I could not zoom closer and could not obtain the “compression” I was looking for, where the more distant faces would appear to be closer behind the closest subject.

What I didn’t do that I should have been doing, instead of trying to take the same photo over and over, was to change my position and point of view.  Doing so would change the backgrounds, perhaps make them less busy or distracting (such as the spectators and the white sign), and would allow for the camera to be on the same level or looking up towards the subjects rather than looking slightly down at them.

I took a series of 60 images over a period of 7.5 minutes.  Besides the selected image, only a couple other ones are mildly interesting.  I knew I wasn’t capturing what I wanted, my companion was becoming impatient, and eventually I decided to move on.  But then I took a few final images.  My point of view had slightly changed.  I was directly to the side of the men and slightly closer.  The last image finally got what I had wanted.  It stands out dramatically among all the other ones.  It is more simple and straightforward, less cluttered, and the subjects fill the frame.

The Post Process: To create the final image, I adjusted the color and contrast in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and in Photoshop (PS).  As you can see by the unprocessed images, the color and contrast is a little dull and lifeless straight out of the camera.  The original file was a JPEG file, and the Picture Style was Standard (I hadn’t started using RAW yet).  In ACR, the Blacks were increased to about 7 or 10 to give it the nice deep blacks, which helps to make the bright colors pop even more.  Some Recovery was used to bring back the overexposed highlights on the man’s face.  Clarity and Vibrance were used to give it some, well, clarity and vibrance.  In Photoshop, the contrast was increased with Curves using the preset setting of Linear Contrast.  In Levels, the midtones were darkened to .93 to give a deeper more realistic color to the faces.  I did some additional burning on the faces to try to reduce the hot-spots.  The image was sharpened using Unsharpen Mask, probably at Amount: 85 or 100, Radius: 1, and Threshold: 4.  I may have used the Hue/Saturation to reduce the saturation and lightness of the red color, though I should have done that a little more, as you can see by the man’s face which appears too red and the rear hat where the red is blown out.  The Rebel XT sensor, and other digital SLR sensors often overexpose the color red.  It is similar to blowing out the highlights, where the color red is blown out and there is just red and not other detail in those areas.  You can use the RGB histogram rather than the brightness histogram to monitor for this on the camera’s rear LCD screen while reviewing images.  I didn’t crop the image at all, as you can see.  It is best to try to get the framing you want when you capture the photo, especially when using an 8 megapixel camera that doesn’t allow for much cropping! (A cropped image would have much lower image quality because the resulting resolution would be much less – it would not allow for much manipulation, and would appear pixellated when enlarged.)

The Final Image:

Canon Rebel XT, 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II at 93mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/1000s

The Lesson: We should always learn from our photos, so that next time we are in a similar situation, we can create an even better image.  The valuable lesson I learned in this situation, in addition to perhaps always grabbing one final frame, is to make a change when the composition is not working.  Change your perspective, angle, or point of view.  Zoom in or out to change the framing.  Don’t continue to take the same image that isn’t working, over and over again.  If the subject is interesting, there is an interesting composition that can be found to best express that subject.  Mentally envision the scene from a variety of positions and angles, and move around the scene as much as possible to see the options.  Some other improvements I could have made to this image include using a polarizing filter.  Because I was working in the bright, harsh mid-day sun at a high altitude, this could have improved the exposure, color rendition, and contrast of the original image.  Since it was overexposed a bit, causing hot-spots on the subject’s face, I should have paid more attention to my histogram and adjusted the exposure compensation accordingly, or used a different metering mode such as Partial or Spot to meter directly off the man’s face.

So hopefully you can see from this explanation and from my previous posts that photographs don’t necessarily just happen.  They are created through a combination of thought processes, a series of decisions, and the application of camera settings based on these decisions and on the situation at hand.

T2i Experience – Canon Rebel T2i / 550D User’s Guide and Tutorial

My second eBook and Canon dSLR camera user’s guide is now available!  In addition to Your World 60D, the eBook guide for the Canon 60D, I have also written a Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D book:

T2i Experience – The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation With the Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D

Looking for a Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D book to help you learn and begin to master your new dSLR? T2i Experience will help you learn how to use your digital SLR, quickly and competently, to create the types of images you want to capture. This camera is an advanced tool, and the guide explains how to use it to its full potential.  Begin to take control of your camera, the image taking process, and the photos you create.

This instant download eBook guide is for those who wish to get more out of their T2i / 550D, and go beyond Auto or Program mode and shoot in Av mode and Tv mode.  While it explains basic dSLR camera functions and exposure concepts for those new to digital SLR photography, it concentrates on teaching more advanced camera controls and operation, such as using the various metering modes and exposure compensation for correct exposure of every image, controlling autofocus modes and focus points for sharp focus of still or moving subjects, and utilizing dramatic depth of field for professional looking photographs.  Learning to get the most out of a dSLR can involve a steep learning curve, and I believe my book can help you speed up that process.

You can preview it at the following link. The preview shows:
-the Table of Contents
-the Introduction
-a sample Menu Settings page
-a sample Custom Functions Settings page
-and a sample text page.

Preview: http://www.dojoklo.com/writing/T2i_Experience-Preview.pdf

Purchase T2i Experience through PayPal here! (or click the PayPal or Credit card check-out button below)
This version is in PDF format, text-only, 8.5″x11″, which can be read on your computer screen, printed on your printer, taken with you on your laptop, and can also be read on the iPad.

Format: PDF – Instant Download
Page Count: 48
Price: $11.99 now on Sale: $5.99
(plus 6.25% sales tax for residents of Massachusetts)
Secure payment with PayPal or Credit card

or

__________

The Kindle Edition of T2i Experience is also available, at Amazon.com and the Nook Edition is available at BarnesandNoble.com.

__________

T2i Experience is a PDF guide that builds upon the information offered by the camera’s manual. In addition to covering the various settings, functions and controls of the Canon T2i / 550D, its lessons explain when and why to use them. It also describes every Menu setting and Custom Function setting, with recommended settings, including Movie Mode menus. Note that it focuses on still photography and not video except for a brief introduction to menus and important video settings to get you started.

Sections include:

• Setting Up Your T2i – All of the Menu settings and Custom Function settings, including movie mode menus, with brief descriptions and recommended settings for practical, everyday use. Set up and customize the advanced features of the T2i to work best for the way you photograph.
• Aperture Priority Mode (Av) and Shutter Priority Mode (Tv) – How and when to use them to create dramatic depth of field or to freeze or express motion.
• Auto Focusing Modes and Drive Modes – How they differ, how and when to use them to capture sharp images of both still and moving subjects. Also how and when to use focus lock and back-button focusing.
• Exposure Metering Modes – How they differ, how and when to use them for correct exposures in every situation. Also how to make use of exposure lock.
• Histograms, Exposure Compensation, Bracketing, and White Balance – Understanding and using these features for adjusting to the proper exposure in challenging lighting situations.
• Lenses – Explanation of Canon lenses and choosing your next lens.
• Composition – Brief tips, techniques, and explanations, including the creative use of depth of field.
• The Image Taking Process – A descriptive tutorial for using the settings and controls you just learned to take photos.
• Photography Accessories – The most useful accessories for day-to-day and travel photography
• Introduction to Video Settings – Some basic settings to get you started

This digital field guide to the Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D is a 48 page, PDF format text-only document, full of helpful information.

It can also be purchased through PayPal on my website bookstore, Full Stop - good writing for better photography.

Master your Canon T2i and learn to use it to its full capabilities! And if you have a Canon 60D, be sure to check out Your World 60D – The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation with the Canon EOS 60D.

Canon 50D vs. 60D

I am moving my blog from WordPress to my own website.  This post comparing the Canon 50D vs. 60D can now be read here:

http://blog.dojoklo.com/2010/10/18/canon-50d-vs-60d/

Thanks for following me to my new blog home!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

“Available Light” Book Free Give-Away!

I am giving away a free copy of an excellent book about photographing in natural light, Available Light: Photographic Techniques for Using Existing Light Sources by Don Marr!!  Read on to see how to take part in the give-away.

CONTEST CLOSED!  The contest ended Nov. 8, 2010.  I will go to Random.org and have it select and announce the winner tonight (Nov. 9).

I recently came across this book and found it incredibly helpful.  Unlike most photo books that merely tell you about front lighting or side lighting or diffused overcast lighting and then don’t go into much practical detail, this book actually explains how to seek out, modify, and use natural light – in all its forms – to take better photos.  It demonstrates that off-camera flash is not necessary for better photos, even in less-than-ideal lighting situations.  I wrote much more about this book in my Essential Digital Photography Books post.

This book can be yours! – The free copy of Available Light by Don Marr, donated by Amherst Media, photographed on my floor in the available window light.

I liked the book so much that I contacted the publisher, Amherst Media, and asked them for a copy that I could give away on my blog here.  They enthusiastically agreed, and I have just received the book from them.

How to Enter:
Just leave a comment for this post.  If you don’t see the comment form immediately below the post, look under the title of this post and click on where it says “… comments.”  Or just click HERE.  Put in whatever comment you want.  If you wish, let me know how you came across my blog (Yahoo/ Google search, Twitter, regular reader, etc.), and if you are a regular reader or plan to become one, let me know what you enjoy reading about here and what photography topics and/or equipment you would like to read more about.

I will leave this post open for comments for three weeks, until Monday November 8 at 11:59pm.  At that time all the comments will be numbered in the order they were received and posted.  They may not be published immediately as I have to approve them – in the order received – to prevent spam.  I will then use the True Random Number Generator on Random.org to choose a random number and select the winner.  Decision is final!  Contest is open to those with United States mailing addresses only! Good luck!

If you don’t win or just wish to check out the book Available Light on Amazon, you can click here or on the cover:

Also, while I have your attention, be sure to check out my new eBooks:

Your World 60D – The Still Photographer’s Guide to Operation and Image Creation with the Canon EOS 60D.  You can read more about it and purchase it in PDF format (also iPad compatible) here on my blog, or it is also available in the Kindle version on Amazon here.

T2i Experience – The Still Photographer’s Guide to the Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D.  Learn more about it a purchase it in PDF format here, or in a Kindle version on Amazon.

Number Three eBook – Wait, Number One!

I just happened to see that my eBook, Your World 60D, is number three in Kindle eBooks in the Photography – Equipment category, and number five in the Photography – Reference category!  So, I’m pretty excited about that.  OK, so they update that ranking every hour, and I’ve probably dropped back down to 15, but for that brief shining moment…!

edit (11/10/2010-12/16/2010) Actually, it has moved up to number one spot in both the Equipment and Reference categories, and pretty much stayed there over the past month!  And, it is in the top 1% off all Kindle books sold on Amazon (over 600,000 titles).

Learn about the eBook Your World 60D and how to buy it in this post here.

I’m pretty proud to be up there with the David Busch guide, which I’ve praised many times on this blog, and the On-Camera Flash book, which I pulled out to study last night and which helped me immensely on my assignment this morning in a fluorescent lit office space.  Nothing like the satisfaction of gelling the strobe properly to balance ambient light to the flash-lit subject and not having to mess with color balance in Photoshop.  Plus his advice on where to aim and bounce the flash to best illuminate single and multiple subjects is priceless.  45 degrees up and forward usually is not the best you can do.  On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography by Neil van Niekerk is definitely not just for wedding photographers, but for anyone using a flash.  His techniques can show you that multiple off-camera strobes are not necessary for good event or assignment lighting.  I’ll be starting a give-away of a similar book, about natural light, from the same publisher later this week.  If that goes well, I’m going to request a copy of this flash book for the next give-away.

Coming Soon: Photo Book Give-Away!

If you read yesterday’s post about Essential Books for Digital Photography, you will see I am pretty enthusiastic about a couple photo books in particular.  One of them that I think is really wonderful, and which really opened my eyes recently, is Available Light by Don Marr.  I discussed it in depth in yesterday’s post, so I won’t repeat that here.  But anyway, I liked it so much, I contacted the publisher (Amherst Media) and asked them to send me a copy to use as a free give-away on my blog.  And they enthusiastically agreed to this!

So stay tuned for the free photo book give-away, which I will initiate as soon as I have the book in hand, hopefully sometime around Oct. 15.

Here is a photo I took immediately after reading the book, putting what I learned to use.  Notice the amazing glow of the 100% natural, available light.  This was taken on an afternoon with bright sunlight, by placing the subject under an overpass to control the direction and intensity of the light.

Essential Digital Photography Books

There are countless books available about digital photography, ranging from general over-encompassing guides to specific texts on lighting or composition.  Many of them discuss basically the same topics, and after reading and absorbing a few, you begin to pick up only a few new tips or pieces of knowledge here and there.

But I’ve put together a list of what I think are the best books for digital photography out there.  These are the ones I believe you should read first, the ones that will give you the maximum bang for the buck, and which are consistently full of solid, useful information.  They are divided into categories of Camera Guides for specific cameras, Digital Photography Guides for general information and composition, Lighting and Flash, and Post-Production for Photoshop and Lightroom.

You can click on each title to take you directly to Amazon.com.  If you purchase through these links Amazon will reward me with a small referral fee, so I appreciate you helping to support my photography work and my effort of creating all these links!

Camera Guides

First, of course, are my e book user’s guides!  So far I have written one for each of these cameras:

Nikon D7000 – Nikon D7000 Experience
Nikon D5100 – Nikon D5100 Experience
Canon Rebel T3i / 600D – Canon T3i Experience
Canon 60D – Your World 60D
Canon Rebel T2i/ 550D – T2i Experience

You can learn about all of them at my Full Stop ebook bookstore, (www.dojoklo.com/Full_Stop/).  They are also available in Kindle and Nook versions.  Learn how to set up and customize the menus, settings, and functions of your Canon T3i / 600D, Nikon D7000, Canon 60D, or Canon T2i / 550D. Then start to learn to use your powerful dSLR to its full potential so that you can improve your photography and consistently take better photos! Download your ebook instantly and start learning right away.

 

 

Canon 7D: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole S. Young
This series of camera user’s guides is one of the few that really gets it.  They explain everything in a way that is clear and easy to understand and put to use.  They don’t get bogged down in confusing technical explanations, but instead present everything in a straightforward, user-friendly manner.  The books explain not only how to use the camera, but how to use it to take better photos.  Highly recommended for someone relatively new to digital SLR photography who wants to quickly learn to use their camera and improve their photography.

Canon EOS 60D: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole Young
By the same author as the above book.  It has not been released yet, but should prove to be just as good.  While you are waiting for guides specific to the 60D to come out, please have a look at my eBook Your World 60D, listed later in this section.

Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Jeff Revell
Another book in the above series.

David Busch’s Canon EOS 7D Guide to Digital SLR Photography by David Busch
David Busch’s camera guides are all excellent books, and will help you really get to know and understand all the features and functions of you camera.  They are clear and straightforward enough for the beginner, yet are also in-depth and technical for the intermediate and advanced dSLR user.  Highly recommended as an essential,  more comprehensive, useful, and easy to understand manual than the one that comes with your camera.

David Busch’s Canon EOS 60D Guide to Digital SLR Photography by David Busch
If you need this guide for the 60D, it has not be released yet, so make use of his 7D Guide or my Your World 60D eBook below while you wait.

David Busch’s Canon EOS Rebel T2i / 550D Guide to Digital SLR Photography by David Busch
See the description of his 7D Guide above

David Busch’s Canon EOS 5D Mark II Guide to Digital SLR Photography by David Busch
See the description of his 7D Guide above

Digital Photography Guides

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
I recommend this book throughout my blog for anyone who is new to digital SLR photography or ready to take their camera off Auto or Program and needs to learn and understand the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.  It is the go-to book to help you learn these essential settings, take control of your dSLR and image making process, and start to use aperture priority and shutter priority modes.

Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson
By the same author as above.  Once you have control of your camera after reading Understanding Exposure, you will quickly discover you need to learn how to make better compositions in order to take better photos.  This book can help start you on this process.  His best piece of advice is to think about and use different, more dynamic points of view in your photos.  Taking a photo of a flower?  What would the image look like from the flower’s point of view?  Simple but brilliant.

The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman
As I just said above, once you get control of your camera and its settings after reading some of the other camera and photo guides, you may wonder why your photos aren’t improving as quickly as you had hoped.  That is when you need to turn to this book.  It is a unique book for teaching photographic composition – which is an often difficult concept to teach beyond the basics.  Most books explain concepts such as the rule of thirds or depth of field, but this book takes it to a whole new level.  And he walks the reader through the example images describing the process and decisions he makes as he works a scene (which must be what inspired my Deconstructing the Shot series of posts!)  It is a challenging book, and it takes some experience with working at photography and applying the basic composition techniques and experiencing specific problems and frustrations before one can get the most out of this book.  So if it is too heavy for you at first reading, come back to it after you have worked at it some more.  This is perhaps my favorite photography book, and I wish there were more out there that were as helpful as this one.  I re-read it every few months to set these concepts into my brain.  Read this other guy’s gushing review to see the effect this book has on photographers!

The Photographer’s Mind: How to See and Shoot Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman
Every time I read Freeman’s The Photographer’s Eye, I lament, usually aloud, “why doesn’t he have more books like this?”  Then I did some more research and discovered an older book of his, Achieving Photographic Style, from 1984.  It blew me away – it is just as good as Photographer’s Eye, but a bit dated in many ways, as it discusses the photographic trends of that period and it is pre-digital.  Again, I lamented, “why can’t he update this book for today?”  Well, my pleas appear to have been answered.  His next book The Photographer’s Mind has just come out.  I haven’t seen it yet, but I immediately ordered my copy from Amazon.

Pro Photographer’s D-SLR Handbook by Michael Freeman
This is a comprehensive handbook for everything about digital photography from equipment, lighting and accessories, to technical explanations of settings and concepts, to post-production including Photoshop and printing.  It covers a lot of topics, but gives good, solid information.  Like its title says, it is a handbook that is extremely handy to have as a reference guide for everything related to digital SLR photography.  Essential for any serious intermediate dSLR photographer, especially one wanting to go pro.

The Digital Photography Book (Volume 1) by Scott Kelby
Scott Kelby’s series of books are good for the beginning or intermediate dSLR photographer.  Some claim that everything they know about digital photography they learned from Scott Kelby.  Other reviewers on Amazon don’t think he’s so great.  Never-the-less, he doesn’t get caught up in technical explanations, but rather just tells you what settings and equipment to use and how to do something.  The page-by-page brief topics each give starting points for anyone confused about the variety of subjects they may be trying to absorb from all the other books.  For example, every Photoshop book explains Unsharpen Mask, but then leaves you totally clueless as to where to even start with the three sliders.  Kelby simply tells you what numbers to use.  (Actually that may have been from one of his Photoshop books, but that is the type of info he provides.)  Keep in mind, all of his advice is intended as starting points.  His word is not gospel, it is to help you begin and then you can experiment and learn from your own experience after that.  These are not books to teach you the basics of digital photography, but are rather a collection of various, almost random tips about a wide variety of photo topics.  Keep in mind, his instructions are not the only way to do something, and sometimes they are actually very round-about ways of doing things that can be done much more simply.  His humor is annoying to some and the equipment he uses may be totally unnecessary for how you work, so take what you read with a grain of salt.  As a studio photographer, Kelby is especially knowledgeable about flash and lighting.  There are three books in this series, which can also be bought as a set, as seen below.

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 by Scott Kelby
See above description of The Digital Photography Book.

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3 by Scott Kelby
See above description of The Digital Photography Book.

Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 by Scott Kelby
See above description of The Digital Photography Book.

National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Secrets to Making Great Pictures, Second Edition by Peter Burian and Bob Caputo
This is a great general guide to photography, with insightful and useful nuggets of information from some of the best Nat Geo pros, like Sam Abell and Michael Nichols.  However, it is a bit dated, from the films days at the verge of digital.  But I feel it is still worth reading because the essentials of image making remain unchanged.  The updated version is below, but I have not yet seen it, and it may be all new with different content.  Maybe see if your library has this one.

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography: Revised and Expanded by National Geographic
I haven’t yet seen this updated version, but based on the previous edition as well as the Travel Photography version, it is bound to be good.

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Travel Photography by Scott Stuckey
This is an excellent introduction to most everything you need to know to work as a travel photographer with helpful information for both beginner and more advanced photographers that isn’t found in most other travel photography books. And it contains valuable contributions from several professional travel photographers like Bob Krist and Catherine Karnow. However, its title is annoying because it is not in any way a field guide.  It is not designed as a quick and easy reference to any of the topics it covers, as the term field guide would imply, but rather it is a book to read before your travels, and a book to read to learn the realities of working as a travel photographer.  It is also a book about how to take travel photos in the visual and editorial style of Nat Geo Traveler magazine.  I highly recommend this book for someone who is truly interested in becoming a commercial travel photographer, as it competently and thoroughly covers numerous aspects of this vocation – technical, logistical, and perhaps most importantly, learning how to tell a story through photographs. Or if you don’t wish to become a pro travel photographer but want to learn to capture better travel images, it will be most helpful for someone whose travel style truly accommodates the time and effort if takes to make great travel images.

Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David DuChemin

VisionMongers: Making a Life and Living in Photography by David DuChemin

Rick Sammon’s Complete Guide to Digital Photography 2.0: Taking, Making, Editing, Storing, Printing, and Sharing Better Digital Images by Rick Sammon

Rick Sammon’s Travel and Nature Photography by Rick Sammon

Lighting and Flash

Available Light: Photographic Techniques for Using Existing Light Sources by Don Marr
This is a simple, straightforward book that immediately changed the way I see light and the way I photograph using natural light. You often hear the idea of “taking your photography to the next level.”  This book doesn’t itself make that claim, yet it is one of the few photography books that can actually deliver that result. It is short, easy to read and to understand, and immediately applicable to your work.  Many books discuss light – it’s direction, intensity, quality, softness, color – and you think, “Yeah!  I’m keenly aware of different light and how it falls on my subject.”  But did that knowledge suddenly help you to take better photos?  Many books never fully take it the next step and really explain how to seek out, modify, and use this light.  You may or may not be able to then figure it all out on your own. I thought I had until I read this book.  It actually guides you in exactly the right direction and truly helps to open your eyes to the intensity, direction, and quality of natural light, and then teaches you to work with it and modify it to create the softness/ hardness, direction, color, and intensity you want, whether you are working on an overcast day, at high noon, inside, outdoors, or any other type of situation. It makes one suddenly aware of the existence and potential use of natural reflectors everywhere which will help give you the lighting you want: a wall, the ground, a pole. And it explains the important concept and effective practice of subtractive lighting, used to even-out or create the desired lighting instead of turning to flash to artificially add to existing lighting.  The concepts in this book are so obvious and intuitive I didn’t even write down a single note while reading it the first time. Then the next week I used what I learned and took one of the nicest, best lit spontaneous portraits I have ever taken.  While many are happily joining the Strobist camp, this book offers a refreshing and viable alternative to that never-ending accumulation of lighting equipment and techniques, and should be read by off-camera-flash fans as well so they can learn to look for beautiful natural lighting alternatives that will give them as-good or even better images, before setting up their lighting equipment and knocking down the natural light in order to rebuild it artificially. However the author is not against the (limited) use of flash, and certainly not against reflectors, and discusses their use in different situations.  I highly recommend this book to photographers of every level. It is a wonderful book for beginners or intermediate photographers so that they can be aware of, understand, and use these concepts from the start, and it is just as helpful for advanced photographers who may intuitively practice some of the techniques, but will certainly become aware of even greater potential and opportunities in the use of available light.

As you can see, I’m pretty enthusiastic about this book.  I even contacted the publisher and asked them for a copy that I could use as a free give-away here on my blog, and indeed they are sending me one!  Details on the free give-away coming soon!

On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography by Neil van Niekerk

The Complete Guide to Light & Lighting in Digital Photography by Michael Freeman

Post-Production

The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
Scott Kelby is the founder and head of NAPP, the Photoshop users’ organization, so I don’t have any qualifications with the Photoshop and Lightroom recommendations as I did with his photo books above.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

Adobe Photoshop CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques by Chris Orwig

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques by Chris Orwig

And of course in able to make use of the Photoshop and Lightroom books, you are going to need the software!
Adobe Photoshop CS4 and/ or Adobe Lightroom 3 are the latest versions.  Photoshop CS4 has the amazing and revolutionary content aware fill, which takes cloning and spot healing to a whole new dimension.  And Lightroom has quickly become the tool of choice for photographers to work on their images.

(Descriptions of some of the above books still to come!)

Interviews with Humanitarian Photographers

One of my favorite Friday reads is the 10Q Interviews with Humanitarian Photographers on Heber Vega’s blog.  As suggested by the title, he interviews a different humanitarian, travel, or culture photographer each week, asking them a similar series of questions and sharing several of their photos.  I was fortunate to be interviewed by him a few months ago.

It is a wonderful resource for any photographer who works in the field or especially one who aspires to do this type of work.  You can learn a great deal from the experiences of those who have been at it for awhile.  This week’s edition, with photographer Jake Lyell, is especially candid about the process of becoming and working as a humanitarian photographer.  As you can see from his responses, it is a slow, hard road requiring an incredible amount of persistence.

I encourage you to jump over there and have a look at these great interviews.

Map by Diego Gutierrez, 1562 – Peabody Museum, Harvard