5 comments about On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa.

1. This is one of the most beautiful 'coffee-table' books I have in my collection. The photos are outstanding, with clear, strong shots of the subject. The book is filled with full-page, high quality photography that will make you wish you'd bought 2 books...one to keep on the coffee table, and one to deconstruct and frame.



2. The day I got this book I spent almost an hour flipping through the pages and soaking in the beauty of these photos. It was then that I decided Nick Brandt was my new favorite photographers. He captures the African wildlife with so much power and natural beauty that it's almost unreal and his post-processing adds a whole other layer to the photos. I would suggest this book to any photo or animal enthusiast, it is quite simply one of the best photography books I have found.



3. Nick Brandt's collection of photography is absolutely stunning. His work is much more akin to portraits than traditional wildlife photography. There is an intimacy between Brandt and his animal subjects which resonates in each photo. Page after page, "On This Earth" shows us the humanity and soul of these animals. Brandt has made a brilliant case for why these creatures have the same right to live on this earth as we do.



4. This is a collection of beautiful photographs. The prints are warm, with good blacks. This made a great gift for our friends that had travelled in Africa.



5. Amazing BW pictures. Very nice and a good edition. Very interesting for all photo-africa lovers....

5 comments about Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual.

1. This book is a wonderful reference manual but it really isn't for a person who is new to PSE5. A definate must for experienced PSE5 users, but if you are looking for a quick and dirty "how to" guide then maybe this book isn't the best one for you....but you will benefit from it later when you are ready to dig deeper into the features and facilities offered.



2. This book is written so well and makes learning PhotoShop Elements much easier. If I had to depend on the instructions that came with the software I would still be in the dark. If you purchase it, you will not be disappointed.The color pictures in the book are also a welcome addition.



3. I like the book, but currently have a library copy for my reference. I have only one negative comment. When the author starts to describe an action or step, suddenly she will veer off on a tangent, leaving me wondering where the rest of the text is ....oh, there it is, 2-3 paragraphs later. She really wants you to know all she does about Elements. I will be purchasing my own copy shortly regardless as I do think it is probably the best on the subject



4. This book is the most complete manual on a very useful program. I have yet to encounter a question this book does not fully answer.



5. I bought this to help me learn Photoshop Elements. Since getting a digital camera a few years ago & not having to pay for film mistakes anymore, I have taken a new interest in photography. I decided to invest in a good quality editing program but I hate having to rely on onscreen help to get somewhere. This is a very thorough (I think) chapter by chapter explanation of Elements 5.0 & it answers most of my questions. I would hate to be without it, even though I don't use it daily. It is a large book with plenty of color illustration and written very simply. It's not 100 percent comprehensive but there is very little that isn't covered - well worth the price.

2 comments about The Complete Guide to Night & Lowlight Photography (A Lark Photography Book).

1. I really, truly wanted to love this book. I wanted to recommend it to my students, and I wanted it to finally be a useful Night Photography textbook. Unfortunately, it falls tremendously short of its potential on so many levels. As someone who has photographed at night for over 20 years, and taught Night Photography classes and workshops for 10 years, I feel qualified to make this judgement. The first and most obvious shortcoming is in the lack of inspiring, or even good Night Photographs. Most of the examples included are not only NOT night or low light images, but they are simply illustrations for the page, and not particularly good or interesting photographs. What a way to lose your audience in the first chapter.
   
   To be fair, there is plenty of useful technical information, but it is generally not very well organized. (The first thing covered in the text is purple fringing and chromatic aberration!) Unfortunately, much of the information presented is not really specific to the topic of the book. In addition, the title and summary do not indicate that this is a digital only book, and it most definitely is. Night Photography is one of the few areas where film still has some advantages over digital, and film based photography is completely excluded. This is probably a relatively minor point as digital photography is so dominant today.
   
   Probably the greatest flaw of this book is that it does not embrace Night Photography for what it is. The author seems to have no grasp whatsoever of what it is that makes Night Photography special. In a nutshell, Night Photography is about the accumulation of time and light in an image- be it film or digital, and the way that the camera can record time in ways that the eye cannot see at night. Rather than show readers how to take advantage of the magic possible with long exposures and dramatic mixed lighting sources found at night, Freeman instructs the reader how to overcome these "challenges". Night photography is unpredictable and to a certain extent uncontrollable, and rather than embrace these things that make it unique, Freeman does everything he can to help his reader eliminate any and all risks. Night photography that "stays inside the lines" is boring. It is only by breaking the rules that Night Photographers create really exciting images, and there isn't more than a couple in this entire book. Imagine a 225 page book on Night Photography that devotes exactly THREE PARAGRAPHS to photographing by moonlight, and has zero examples of photographs taken by moonlight!
   
   There are at least a dozen books on the market supposedly about Night and low light photography, and they pretty much all focus on Christmas lights, neon signs, fireworks, theatre or sporting events at night. This is not Night Photography, but simply how to extend daytime shooting methods into low light situations. Michael Freeman's extremely disappointing book is just another one added to the pile. To date, Andrew Sanderson's "Night Photography" is the best text published on the subject, but it is almost entirely a black and white film book, and therefore of limited use in today's digital world.
   
   Jill Waterman's new book, "Night and Low Light Photography, Professional Techniques from Experts for Artistic and Commercial Success" is due out in August of 2008, and should prove to be much better than anything released on the topic to date. (disclaimer: I am a contributor to Jill's book)Night and Low-Light Photography: Professional Techniques from Experts for Artistic and Commercial Success



2. Great book for night and lowlight digital photography. Well set up and delivered. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Real World Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Real World).

1. Excellent book for those wanting to set up colour workflows. In depth explanations based on practicle applications. This is not a step by step guide for those wanting to learn photoshop



2. Very in-depth explanation of Photoshop CS3. A lot more detailed and advanced than most Photoshop books. This is really a resource or reference book and not a book that you can just sit down and read through like Scoot Kelby's book on CS3 for digital photographers, but it is far more informative and in-depth than Kelby's book.



3. There's nothing else out there that comes even close to this book as an encyclopedic reference to Photoshop CS3. Losing Bruce Fraser is a terrible blow to all of us who've relied for decades on his ability to make complicated subjects understandable, but David Blatner is keeping up the tradition and it appears that Conrad Chavez is a valuable addition to the lineup.
   
   The chapter on color settings in this book is worth the price of admission all by itself. If you do serious work with CS3 you NEED this book. Sit down and read it all the way through, highlight revealing passages, and make notes on the blank parts of the front pages. When you finish you'll have the whole story at your fingertips. Like most CS3 users I work with a subset of Photoshop most of the time, but when I'm faced with an unusual problem I can dive into this book and come up with the solution in a minute or two. Once you've done your homework on the book you won't want to be without it.



4. This book is so much more than a list of Photoshop options. It tells you how to do the things that as a photographer you will probably be doing a lot of, not all kinds of theoretical stuff that you will probably never even think about doing. That said, there's too much pre-press and print industry material for my taste. But the photography-relevant material is first-rate.



5. This book surpassed all my expectations, it was made for serious professionals, and that's what I wanted. Although I'm only an amateur photographer and Photoshop enthusiast, I'm enjoying the book, but because I'm very curious and exactly because I love Photoshop so much I wanted to understand everything about it.
   
   If you are also an enthusiast/amateur but don't care about how this marvelous program works, you better get an easier book with canned "how toos". This book also has step by step guides, but on the top of it they explain every single detail of how everything works.
   
   The authors give very in depth explanations on color theory, color management (I had a hard time on this), color spaces, exactly what is a digital image, etc. Although I found this all fascinating, as I already said I had a hard time trying to understand some concepts about color management, but my guess is that if you are a professional you will understand it better.
   
   They also explain Bridge and Camera Raw. I understand why they included these 2 programs in the book (they work together, although CR is actually a plugin), but I could live without it, mostly because there are more in depth books about CR, like Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Real World), by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe (I love this guy, check out his videos on CR at the Luminous Landscape website). If you don't plan on buying a specific book on CR, then the chapter about it is a good introduction.
   
   The most fun part is of course on Photoshop itself, covered in a brilliant, flawless way, with everything you could wish for and more.
   
   The book is massive, more than 700 pages, and is written in a nice, light but serious way. They won't waste your time and patience on endless silly jokes like Scott Kelby. For someone like me, whose mother language isn't English, I could understand everything and the reading flowed smoothly.

No comments about David Busch's Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D Guide to Digital SLR Photography.

5 comments about Through the Lens: National Geographic's Greatest Photographs.

1. I came across 3 National Geographic photo books while doing some Christmas shopping. The first one a found was In Focus, which is a history of portraits. I also found this book and the Wide Angle book. After carefully researching the reviews and looking at them in a bookstore, I bought IN FOCUS. I agree with other reviewers that this book and Wide Angle are too grainy, not top quality photos. Wide Angle was actually boring photos with no information in the captions to help romanticize the photos. IN Focus has better quality photos. It will make a great gift for someone who loves National Geographic but may not impress the aspiring photographer. The captions aren't fantastic, but if you love National Geographic, you don't need someone to spell out for you what the beauty of each picture can show. My complaint is that the caption isn't always on the same page as the picture. You may have to flip forward or backward to find out what you are looking at which is some what distracting to the flow. Point is, it is a coffee table book. Would make a great book for a lobby of a business where people have to wait and need something to look at.



2. For such a large book, the images that are exceptional are few. I was disappointed, given the huge assortment of excellent NG photos from which to choose, that these were deemed "greatest." Worth the $20, but not much more.



3. Fast shipping, love the book, but the front cover was tattered on the edges. Thanks!



4. We were highly disappointed in this book. The photos were grainy and certainly not National Geographics greatest! We have seen absolutely stunning shots from them in the past and not one was included in this book. It was a great disappointment.



5. I am an aspiring photographer. I was actually in the book store the other day just browsing and I picked up this book as well as the other 2 in this series (which are on there way). I was very impressed so I came home and got on Amazon. I got mine used (in great shape) for 10 bucks shipped...How can you go wrong there.
   
   The reason I purchased this book is because I think it is really good to see what has made it to print and to get a feel for what a huge magazine deems good for print in it's pages...that alone is worth studying and again 10 bucks shipped, is a killer deal!!!!!! Also another great thing about this book is that it has photos from 80 years ago and for those photographers wanting to gain that feel in their photos, it offers a great place to reference to see how it was done in print (not on some tute from the internet).
   
   Another great aspect to this is that if you ever entertain and have this on the coffee table it is great for guests, creates conversation and also makes you look very well versed! ;-)

No comments about Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D300 (Magic Lantern Guides).

5 comments about The Polaroid Book: Selections from the Polaroid Collections of Photography (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Editions).

1. this is a fantastic photo book, the kind you want to own,
   i just love it.



2. I recently bought this book. It shows great polaroid pictures and their simplicity attraction and much more! It's worth to have one!



3. My dad bought a Polaroid Land Camera (of the peel-apart type) before I was born... to take pictures of his chubby firstborn (that would be me, BTW).
   
   Ever since, the sharp, colorful and amazingly stable little prints became part of our family's memory. My love for pictures was definitely boosted by the instant gratification offered by an SX-70 camera, which I still own and use after 25+ years, as well as a brand new Jobpro 600.
   
   "The Polaroid Book" is a must for any hardcore Polaroid fan. Lotsa pictures, beautifully printed, with absolute respect for the authors' vision (Ansel Adams, Joyce Tenneson and Bill Allard, to mention only three of them). Nevertheless, the book's greatest virtue is to prove, without any doubt, that beautiful and creative work can be achieved with the simplest tools and the sheer power of imagination.
   
   Polaroid is still alive and well, and this book is the best supporting evidence. Now, I'll just lay back and wait for that new new-old stock Polaroid Nightcam that I bought on the company's website. Let's see what that 600 film-munching baby can do.



4. WOW... words can't even begin to describe how much I love this book! It's about time they released a book like this! And the wrapper of this book is genius! It looks like a gigantic box of Polaroid film... I didn't even want to remove the cover at first... I fondled it for awhile and then I slowly peeled it off and curled up on the couch for an hour or two and looked at all the pretty pictures.
   This book is highly recommended for any Polaroid enthusiast! And if you want to see some great 'roids on the net- check out Polanoid.net!



5. This is a classic which sold out its first printing. BUY THIS NOW! You will have, preserved on your bookshelf the essence of what Edwin Land envisioned over 65 years ago distilled in one BEAUTIFUL volume. How can the Petters Group (who now owns Polaroid) dare to banish such a beautiful art form from humanity? That's right, Polaroid has stopped making instant film and the supply may barely run through the end of this year, and all expire by the end of next year. THIS IS A CRIME AGAINST ART AND HUMANITY!! Buy the book, then go to savepolaroid.com and join us all to save this incredible art form. JUST LOOK AT THE PAGES OF THIS INCREDIBLE VOLUME!!! You will be amazed!

5 comments about Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Classroom in a Book.

1. GOOD PRODUCT FOR THE PRICE.IT HAS HELPED ME WITH MY LEARNING OF ELEMENTS.IT IS A GOOD BOOK FOR THE BEGINNER



2. This book has been a great help in learning to use the software. My only complaint is that the author ocasionally assumes knowledge which I don't have. Steps are sometimes left out because of this. On the whole, however, it has helped in learning to use the software.



3. Easy to follow book, good photo examples; lets you take control and change sample pictures. Recommend



4. I, as a Mac user, was quite disappointed in this book. Unlike other editions of "Classroom in a Book" it is written strictly for Windows format Photoshop Elements. For example, "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Adobe Acrobat 8" in the Classroom in a Book series have directions for both Windows and Mac machines.
   
   Bottom line is if you are a Mac user this book is not for you.



5. This is a very powerful photo editing software and it is easy to learn and the best I have seen in a while

5 comments about Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only (For Only).

1. Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers only
   reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)
   
   Authors: Michael Meadhra and Charlotte K. Lowrie
   Strengths: Brilliant photographs highlight the tutorials and techniques. Nicely written and easy to understand. Good helpful Q&A tips (questions and answers) at end of each chapter. Easy to read and understand.
   Weaknesses: I would prefer to see the chapter numbers at the top of the page as are the titles for section/ parts.
   
   Novice/Intermediate/Advanced
   
   Rating: 5/5
   
   Introduction
   
   When most people used film cameras, it was essential to use the basics to attain good photographs. Since automation has arrived, this has become less a factor if you want just take photographs. But to produce better photos, one needs to use the elements of the camera in ways that will produce better results. Working with the lighting, exposure and more are part of the process to upgrade your skills. A great book that helps you improve your skills in a variety of ways is Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers only.
   
   The focus of the books starts with the authors and have written a book that has breadth and depth to the main topic. Michael Meadhra is commercial artist focusing on creative light effects. Charlotte K. Lowrie is a professional photographer, publisher of camera and photography books and former manager for MSN Photos. They have melded their efforts into producing a very readable and authoritative book dealing with two essential variables for photography: exposure and lighting.
   
   wiley stuff in some books
   The book is divided into four parts and 15 chapters. A multitude of nice photographs help illustrate points outlined by the authors. The authors also employ a series of highlighted noted which are highlighted throughout the chapters. These are entitled: Pro Tip (learning about photography) ; Note (terms, vocabulary and related insights) ; X-ref (points to other areas of the book to find further information). Q & A (questions and answers), at the end of each chapter, target specific techniques that can be utilized. Finding information within the chapters is aided by numbers (in green) on the outside of the left page, in the the very nice index and the glossary. The "normal eye" naturally looks at the top of the pages, first, and then works their way down. With the chapter in the middle takes extra time and is a little bit of distraction. I would prefer to see these numbers at the top as are the titles for section/ parts of the book which are outside top of the right hand page ( would have liked to see the number of the section there too). A little ideas for the next version of the book perhaps?
   
   Part 1, "Painting With Light" addresses nature of light. Learning about color of light and humans perceptions helps the understanding of the science of light. White balance is also covered.
   
   "What's Your Exposure", Part 2, main focus is the other part of the title, exposure. The intricacies of balancing exposure are noted along with how to obtain the best photo. Measuring light with your camera and other exposure devices are explained. The authors explain about the Zone System and how to use it integrate with digital photography. I really like the photo examples in this chapter. The note (p.50) entitled "The Digital Image Sensor is like a Sponge" is well done
   
   Part 3, "Put A Little Light On The Subject" keys on tool and utility use. Light systems and controlling the light intensity influence the tutorials here.
   
   Part 4, "Lighting and Exposure for Specific Subjects", has information about the different types of lighting and how to deal with them. Portraits, natural-light and also less known lighting terms (loop, butterfly, rembrant) are nicely introduced and explained.
   
   Conclusions
   
   There is a lot to "chew on" in this book. Novice,new to digital photography, may also find this book useful but they will have to learn about their camera first. This is a guide and tutorial for exposure and lighting and does not explain how to use your camera. Not only do you gain an understanding about light and exposure's intricacies but the authors nicely communicate and assist you along the way. This book is best for the intermediate photographer but the advanced user may also enjoy it by learning some new tricks. Since I am in these categories, this book will be used in my photography library now and in the future.



2. I am a professional photographer and bought this book thinking it was more technical.
   In my opinion this book is geared to the amateur enthusiast who wants to take their photography to the next level.
   
   The main difference between and average photo and a photo that just pops is lighting. So many photographers make the mistake in thinking they need the latest and greatest dSLR or a new lens or whatever.
   
   This book shows the importance of lighting and how to achieve certain styles. For someone that has never dealt with lighting, this book is perfect for them.
   
   This book does deal with mostly digital photography. For the person that said it doesnt...All I can say is where is the chapter on light meters? There is none. Instead the author focuses on using the histogram found in most digital cameras to determine if your exposure is correct.
   
   Overall, I didnt learn anything new but I think its a great book for someone wanting jump up to intermediate status.



3. This book gave me a lot of ideals to work with on my canon camera. I even coped some of the iformation down and put it in my camera case.



4. This book is for the beginning photographer who wants to learn how to capture better images. It provides a fair amount of technical information but in a way that is easy to understand. I highly recommend this to anyone who isn't happy with their "point and shoot" behaviors.



5. First I should say the title is not totally accurate as I was not familiar with the Zone System by Ansel Adams and the book has an interesting section on it. As for the rest, no truly new information is provided that could not either be provided by an experience with slide films, or inferred from digital cameras manuals. Still the text is quite fluent and provides a good refresh about known notions; moreover the pictures are stunning. I would encourage people in two groups to buy the book: big budget beginners with an interest in improving the quality of their pictures (the book in fact talks about _many_ expensive equipments), or experienced photographers wanting to have some new inspirations.