Mastering the Nikon D600 – Digital Darrell’s excellent new how-to guide – #photography #bookreview

Mastering the Nikon D600
Darrell Young
(Rocky Nook – Kindle, paperback)

Digital Darrell is at it again. This time, he has delivered an excellent how-to guide for using the Nikon D600 camera. This high-quality new digital SLR, he says, “can deliver some of the highest-quality images out there.”

Furthermore, he notes, the D600 offers “a rugged camera body designed to last. With this camera, we can return to the days when we seldom bought a new camera body and instead put our money into new Nikkor lenses. Wouldn’t you like to have some new lenses?”

As you would now expect with a feature-rich digital SLR, “the Nikon D600 is a rather complex camera, and it requires a careful study of resources like this book to really get a grasp on the large range of features and functions.”

The Nikon D600 is not recommended for total newcomers to digital photography. But it definitely looks like a rugged, yet lightweight winner for hobbyists and professional photographers alike. And it can be, the author says, an excellent choice for hiking, skydiving, underwater activities,  and other environments where camera weight and sturdiness are important.

Darrell Young’s hefty 547-page book devotes most of its pages to menu choices within the camera, plus step-by-step procedures for using features, changing settings, and picking the best settings for various situations.

Digital Darrell has written about 10 other books on Nikon digital cameras, including Mastering the Nikon D800 and  Mastering the Nikon D7000.

His new book is best read while working hands-on with a Nikon D600, getting it configured for the way you want it to work. (“Your Nikon D600, like a chameleon, can change to a different style of shooting with a mere turn of the Mode dial” once you’ve worked your way through various parts of  “an incredibly dense series of 50 functions,” Young writes.

Example photographs are kept to a minimum. If you need some basic, how-to-take-good-photographs help, add another Darrell Young book to your collection. But definitely get this one, too, if you want to get the most you can from your new Nikon D600.

– Si Dunn

HDRI, Digital Zone System, Canon EOS 5D Mark III – 3 new #photography books – #bookreview

Rocky Nook, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., recently has released three handsome new how-to works focused on digital photography and image processing.

The books are: The HDRI Handbook 2.0, The Digital Zone System, and Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

The HDRI Handbook 2.0
Christian Bloch
(Rocky Nook – paperback, Kindle)

Every chapter has been significantly updated in this new edition showing how to use high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) “to digitally capture, store, and edit the full luminosity range of a scene.”

Author Christian Bloch notes: “We’re talking about all visible light there, from direct sunlight down to the finest shadow detail.” Using HDRI, “[t]he old problem of over- and underexposure—which is never fully solved in analog photography—is elegantly bypassed.”

This is not a quick guide. Its 659 pages (in print format) cover everything from “the ideas and concepts behind HDR imaging” to tone mapping (“where you learn to create superior prints from HDR images”) to using HDR images in 3D rendering.

If you are ready to learn how to use HDRI in photographs or computer graphics projects, definitely get this well-written book. It is packed with tips, tricks, step-by-step tutorials, stunning images, and other useful information. Even if you already have some experience with HDRI, you can learn new things and improve current skills using this updated guide.

The Digital Zone System
Robert Fisher
(Rocky Nook – paperback, Kindle)

In famed photographer Ansel Adams’s Zone System for film cameras (which many people still use), the mantra is: “Expose for the shadows; develop for the highlights.” The goal is to capture more details in the shadow areas without losing too many details in the highlight areas.

Of course, much of the artistry of Ansel Adams resided also in his ability to convert his low-contrast negatives into stunning prints using photographic chemicals in “wet” labs.

The Digital Zone System is a methodology for using Photoshop, Lightroom and other digital photography tools to echo the spirit and goals of Adams’s Zone System (which he used primarily with large-format, black-and-white film).

Much of this book’s focus is on showing how to gain greater control over digital images by isolating and adjusting colors and luminance values within specific areas.

One of the important goals of teaching the Digital Zone System is to help speed up workflow and reduce the tedium caused by using traditional methods (such as layer masks) in Photoshop. Zone masks, Fisher notes, are “self-feathering,” so they can give you “smooth transitions and maintain smooth tonal gradations or transitions in your images.”

While color photography is emphasized, the author also shows how to convert digital color images to black-and-white images and apply the Digital Zone System to enhance tonal separations, sharpness, and other aspects.

“Wet lab” film purists no doubt will disagree. But the Digital Zone System described in Robert Fisher’s book can help open the way to creating and producing stunning photographs in color and black-and-white.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III
James Johnson
(Rocky Nook – paperback, Kindle)

James “Jim” Johnson’s new book is a solid, well-written how-to guide to using “the latest in the famed series of Canon EOS 5D full-frame DSLR cameras.” The book , Johnson states, is aimed squarely at “photographers who are comfortable with basic photography, but who need an understanding of the myriad features, functions, options, and settings available with the EOS 5D Mk III camera.”

The 5D Mark III, photographer Juergen Gulbins writes in the book’s Foreword, “may be used for portrait, landscape, and sports as well as for studio work.” And it offers “dramatic” improvements over the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, he adds.

The 22.3 MP resolution is “sufficient for all kinds of photography,” and it allows for print sizes well beyond 17 inches by 24 inches–”if you have a sharp, well-focused image,” Gulbins emphasizes.

James Johnson’s nicely illustrated text starts with what you’ll get in a Canon EOS 5D Mark III package. Then it moves to showing and explaining the purpose and operation of each of the camera’s buttons, connectors, switches and dials. After that, you get some pointers on digital photography, including focus and exposure, while also learning to use the camera’s rich range of menus. And the camera’s video-shooting capabilities and its in-camera photo processing features are explained, as well.

For example, in the section on Live View, the author hails it as “probably the most straightforward implementation of shooting with the LCD monitor that I’ve come across.” But he also cautions: “The LCD monitor uses a great deal of battery power, so when in Live View, you will want to watch the remaining charge level a bit more closely than usual.”

With this excellent guidebook in hand, you can toss aside the camera’s problematic instruction manual and get some real-world explanations from an experienced photographer who also happens to be an experienced technical writer.

– Si Dunn

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Panobook 2012: Award-Winning Panoramic Photographs – #bookreview

Panobook 2012: Award-Winning Panoramic Photographs
The Kolor Team
(Rocky Nook, hardback)

Beautiful.There are few other words to describe this gathering of 150 prize-winning panoramic color photographs.

The photographs were judged as the best of the 1,647 entries in the Panobook 2012 competition sponsored by Kolor, developer of Autopano image-stitching software. The software enables individual images shot with conventional digital cameras to be stitched together to create expansive panoramic photographs. 

Professional and amateur photographers all over the world submitted photos for the competition.  And, in the words of the book’s editors, the results included “[s]ublime landscapes, original compositions, artistic and technical performances …exceptional images that invite you on a unique journey around the world.”

The stunning shots range from the interior of a basilica in Krakow, Poland, to an idyllic landscape in West Virginia, to an amazing tangle of trees in New Zealand, as well as elegant city skylines, landscapes, shorelines, building interiors, and even panoramic underwater photographs.

Almost anyone who likes photography and pursues it as a profession or hobby will find many inspiring and engrossing pictures in this collection.

–Si Dunn

The Lens – A Practical Guide for the Creative Photographer – #photography #bookreview

The Lens
NK Guy
(Rocky Nook, paperback)

NK Guy’s new book is billed as “A Practical Guide for the Creative Photographer.” It is that–and more. It also is a celebration of excellent photography made possible by great glass and having several interchangeable lenses available for your digital SLR or film SLR.

Forget about megapixels vs. more megapixels. “Nothing affects the technical quality of a photo more than the glass,” Guy writes.  

And: “Lenses are at the very heart of the image-forming process. They’re not a peripheral, and they’re not an accessory.”

He notes: “Many new photographers put a lot of effort into choosing the right camera, but leave the lens as an afterthought. Lots of people rarely venture beyond the standard kit lens that came in the box.”

The Lens is a noble effort to put lenses on the minds of new and experienced photographers alike. Well written and beautifully illustrated, the book offers not only the nuts and bolts and interior workings of lens but shows numerous top-quality photographs that visually capture the essence of the technical explanations. The pictures can make you want to pick up your camera and shoot something. And add another lens to your camera system.

The 310-page book has nine chapters:

1. A Brief History of Optics
2. Bending Light
3. Lens Mechanisms
4. Choosing the Right Lens for a Project
5. Choosing a Lens by Focal Length
6. Accessorize!
7. Buying Lenses
8. Advanced Topics
9. Creative Options: Beyond the Standard Lens

There also are four appendices:

• Appendix A: Lens Mount Systems
• Appendix B: Manufacturer-Specific Lens Terms
• Appendix C: Lens Mount Table
• Appendix D: Chapter Opening Images

The book contains many useful tips, as well as information that can be surprising even to veteran photographers.

For example, Guy points out that “there are actually organisms that eat camera lenses….certain types of fungus can invade your prized possessions, gradually etching the glass with permanent tendril-like marks.” He describes how to protect against a fungus invasion and how to detect its damage in a lens, particularly a used lens you may be thinking of buying.

– Si Dunn

Mastering the Nikon D800 – An excellent guide to a very powerful DSLR – #photography #bookreview

Mastering the Nikon D800
Darrell Young
(Rocky Nook, paperback )

Darrell Young has written so many books about Nikon digital cameras (this is number eight), he is now widely known as “Digital Darrell.”

His latest, written in a friendly style and nicely illustrated, covers the powerful (and, yes, pricey) Nikon D800 and D800E.

“Few photographers will need more power than the Nikon D800/D800E can deliver,” Young contends. “With this camera, you are well equipped for years to come.”

He points out: “At 36.3-megapixel resolution, the D800 [and D800E] moves soundly into medium-format territory.” This Nikon camera “creates a 16×24-inch (40×60 cm) native print at 300 dpi (using FX format)….” And: “with careful post-processing and enlargement, the images can be made, as National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg says, ‘as large as a house!’”

Nikon D800/D800E cameras do come with a fairly detailed instruction manual. But Young’s 560-page how-to guide provides expanded coverage and explanations, clear step-by-step instructions, and many illustrations that show features and choices. He takes you literally from unpacking the golden Nikon box to initial set-up, and then all the way through the camera’s photography and video features, built-in flash and Nikon Creative Lighting System capabilities.

D800/800E cameras can offer an intimidating array of choices and settings, particularly if you are new to digital photography and have bought a D800 or D800E to be your first digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera.

But Young calmly states: “There are five specific settings you should configure when you first turn on the camera, before you shoot any pictures. I’ll walk you through the settings. Later chapters will cover virtually all camera settings in detail.”

As you tackle those later chapters and get deeper into the camera’s settings, he recommends that you go through his book “with your camera in hand ready for configuration. There are literally hundreds of things to configure on this advanced HD-SLR,” he writes.

His text includes links to downloadable resources from two websites hosted by Nikonians Press and Rocky Nook. And Digital Darrell promises: “I intend to keep on adding material to Mastering the Nikon D800.”

– Si Dunn

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide – #photography #bookreview

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide
Carol F. Roullard and Brian Matsumoto
(Rocky Nook, paperback)

The Sony SLT-A77 “single lens translucent” digital camera is a remarkably feature-rich device for shooting still photographs and HD video.

Unlike a digital SLR camera, which must move its mirror out of the light path to its sensor, the A77’s “translucent mirror technology” effectively splits the incoming beam, sending part of it up to the viewfinder and allowing the rest of the light to pass through the mirror to the sensor.

The A77’s many capabilities make it a complicated camera to master without help from a good manual. This 255-page “unofficial” guidebook was written by photography experts who use A77s. They clearly love the camera, yet they are not hesitant to point out A77’s occasional shortcomings and drawbacks, as well.

The new Sony camera has a 24.3 megapixel sensor, and its translucent, fixed mirror provides at least three key capabilities. The camera can fire multiple fast shots (up to 12 frames per second) with a single button push. There is almost no vibration when the shutter button is pressed. And the camera’s automatic focus responds much quicker than older methods while shooting video.

“The Sony A77 works effectively for all users, regardless of their level of expertise,” the authors state. “It can be used with automatic setting, so beginners can take pictures by pointing and shooting. As you become more proficient, you can alter the A77’s exposure and focus settings. Eventually, you can take full control by setting the camera to manual and disregarding its recommendations.”

The book is organized with chapters for beginning, intermediate, and expert photographers.

• Chapter 1: Getting Started
• Chapter 2: Photography Basics and the A77’s External Buttons
• Chapter 3: Managing Your Images
• Chapter 4: Automatic Settings
• Chapter 5: Customizing the Camera
• Chapter 6: Taking Control of the Camera
• Chapter 7: Manual Operation of the Camera
• Chapter 8: Additional Features
• Chapter 9: Using Accessories
• Chapter 10: Flash Photography
• Chapter 11: Recording Movies
• Appendix A: Menu Commands
• Appendix B: Common Error/Warning Messages and Resolutions

If your interests include specialized photography, the authors note that the A77 can be mounted to many types of telescopes, and it works very well with certain small telescopes “that can double for terrestrial field work.”

The A77 also offers several advantages for those who currently use single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras with microscopes. “Its live preview solves the problem of accurate focusing, giving you a bright image that can be magnified,” the two authors point out. “Because it previews the image, errors in color balance can be corrected.” Also: “Perhaps the A77’s most important feature for the microscopist is the absence of camera vibration during image capture. A fixed mirror eliminates mirror slap, and the electronic first curtain shutter is vibration free.”

One of the “additional features” described in Chapter 8 is a built-in GPS receiver. “The A77 can be set up to capture GPS information and store it with still pictures recorded at the site,” the two authors note. “The camera’s software goes further by also correcting date and time information that may have changed due to entering a different time zone. So, when you return from trips where you see a new location every day, you don’t have to try to reconstruct which pictures came from where. The saved GPS information does that for you when you view your images through Sony’s PMB software.”

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide includes numerous photographs, viewfinder shots, control close-ups, menu screens, menu steps, and other illustrations.

“The Sony A77 camera is complex and can be daunting with its scores of menu commands, functions, and options,” the two writers concede.

But their new guidebook can help you master the Sony SLT-A77, one feature, one choice, and one click at a time.

– Si Dunn

Beyond Point-and-Shoot – A good how-to guide for getting the most out of DSLR cameras & lenses – #photography #bookreview

Beyond Point-and-Shoot: Learning to Use a Digital SLR or Interchangeable Lens Camera
Darrell Young
(Rocky Nook, paperback, list price $29.95) 

Many people today are perfectly happy to point a cell phone camera at an event, friend or family member and call the resulting images “photography.”

Many others of us, however, are not so easily pleased. We like our phones to be phones, and we want our cameras to be cameras. We don’t want them to have ring tones or let us surf the web.

Furthermore, we like cameras that have interchangeable lenses and offer choices among an array of  automatic and manual controls, so we can override what technology chooses for us and get “creative,” if we want.

If you are ready to feel like a real photographer – again or for the first time – put away your phone, get a genuine camera with interchangeable lenses, and also consider getting this book.

Beyond Point-and-Shoot has gotten some solid reviews from a number of experienced photographers. I am a former newspaper photojournalist who spent many years working with 35mm film. I now use an array of digital cameras and interchangeable lenses both for pleasure and occasional photo assignments. And I am happy to add my recommendation, as well.

Darrell Young’s new book assumes that you don’t have much knowledge of photographic technology, terms or techniques. But it shows and tells you what you need to know to boldly go off AUTO. It explains the technology in basic, but clear and complete terms. And it shows how to make effective use of the many options and settings available in a digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera.

There are times, for example, when you may want to use the wrong white-balance setting, to alter the color balance for creative effect. You may want to introduce deliberate blurring into the movement of water in a stream. You may need to know how to avoid barrel distortion or pincushion distortion when using a zoom lens – or how to deliberately employ such distortions in artistic compositions.

Young’s book can help you understand the often intimidating array of choices available in today’s digital SLRs. And it can show you how to use many of the choices to great advantage.

He also cautions against putting too much stock in individual negative reviews of lenses or other photography items. “Often they [the reviewers] are simply trying to outdo other reviewers and get more traffic to their websites,” he writes. “One way to get a lot of website traffic is to talk negatively. I don’t know why people are attracted to negative talk, but it seems to be true. If you are interested in a lens, you will learn a lot more from people who are actually using the lens in real life. Talk to people and forums and read reviews that have plenty of pictures taken with the lens. You could even rent a lens for a week from a rental agency and try it before you buy it. Surprisingly, it doesn’t cost much to rent lenses.”

After reading his book, I have become a bigger, and more understanding, fan of my digital SLR’s histogram feature. “The histogram,” he notes, “can be as important, or even more so, than the exposure meter. The exposure meter sets the camera up for the exposure, and the histogram allows you to visually verify that the exposure is a good one. Together they give you the most accurate exposures you have ever made – if you use them. If your exposure meter stopped working, you could still get excellent exposures using only the histogram.”

This is an excellent and approachable textbook for digital SLR beginners.

It’s also a cool reference how-to guide for us old dogs who think we know a lot about photography. Darrell Young can teach us some new tricks, too.

– Si Dunn

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The Nikon Creative Lighting System, 2nd Ed. – Better flash photography (with electronic help) – #bookreview

The Nikon Creative Lighting System: Using the SB-600, SB-700, SB-800, SB-910, and R1C1 Flashes
By Mike Hagen
(Rocky Nook and Nikonians Press, paperback, list price $39.95)

In my many years as a photojournalist, I hated one aspect of photography above almost all others: Having to use an electronic flash in low-light situations.

Of course, that was back in the ancient days of 35mm film cameras and heavy, shoulder-bag battery packs. We had little idea how well a flash shot would turn out until we got back to the photo lab and ran the roll of Tri-X or Plus-X through the D-76 developer, stop bath, fixer, and a perfunctory wash – and prayed we had remembered to use “X” synchronization, not the outdated one (“M”) for flash bulbs.

If anything at all went wrong, there was no going back.

For that reason and many more, I love digital photography–and being able to see how well a flash shot has turned out moments after I press the shutter.

This updated second edition of  The Nikon Creative Lighting System covers both modern flash technology and some good old, no-tech techniques that still work. One of my favorites, illustrated in this book, is doing bounce flash to eliminate shadows while also using small reflector cards or just your bare hand and fingers to reflect what author Mike Hagen calls “a nice catch light” and a bit of glow into a portrait subject’s face.

Another is flash bracketing, which we used to do by manually opening up or stopping down one f/stop (typically while running along near a famous criminal or politician or movie star and hoping our flash units had recharged along enough to pop off another shot at the right exposure). “Each of the modern Nikon cameras has an auto bracketing function,” Hagen notes.

Hagen’s well-written guide covers Nikon’s newest iTTL (Intelligent Through the Lens) flash units and includes separate chapters for the SB-600, SB-700, SB-800, SB-900, SB-910, and R1C1. An iTTL-compatible camera body “meters flash output through the lens” when used with an iTTL flash unit.

In his “Case Studies and Examples” chapter, Hagen presents some excellent photographs and provides complete setup details and settings, so you can learn by trying similar shots.

Hagen’s book is a full-blown, step-by-step, technical how-to guide that likewise provides easy techniques for making better photographs in a variety of situations.

With the help of Nikon electronic flash units, of course.

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– Si Dunn is a novelist, screenwriter, freelance book reviewer, and former software technical writer and software/hardware QA test specialist. He also is a former newspaper and magazine photojournalist. His latest book is Dark Signals, a Vietnam War memoir available now in paperback. He is the author of a detective novel, Erwin’s Law, a novella, Jump, and several other books and short stories.

Mastering the Fuji X100 – A guide for photographers who are NOT beginners – #bookreview #in

Mastering the Fuji X100
By Michael Diechtierow
(Rocky Nook, paperback, list price $29.95; Kindle edition, list price $13.95)

The “premium,” meaning somewhat pricey, Fuji X100 viewfinder digital camera looks a bit like a throwback to 20^th-century film snapshot photography. At first glance, you almost expect its back to pop open and reveal a roll of 35mm Tri-X film.

But the X100 has excited many photographers both for its retro styling and for what it contains: a 12.3-megapixel APS-C CMOS high-performance sensor that enables shooting with very low light levels, an F/2 aperture lens that permits manual soft focus, and a viewfinder that can display enlarged selected image areas, so you can better control what you wish to have in focus.

These and other many features are covered in the user’s manual provided with the camera. But Mastering the Fuji X100 does more than introduce and explain key features. It also offers user tips from the author and others, plus personal experiences with the X100, which he terms “a terrific camera with a slew of features that set it apart from both established DSLRs and point-and-shoot cameras.”

And it skips the traditional basics, Diechtierow notes. “This handbook is written with the assumption that readers have some basic photographic knowledge and skill. I think it’s a safe bet that anyone who forks over $1,300 for a camera knows that an aperture is.”

He uses some of his own photographs with the X100 to demonstrate many different decisions the camera user can make, such as setting sharpness levels, choosing filters, using the macro mode for extreme close-ups, selecting normal, fine or RAW image qualities, and using flash creatively.

This well-written, nicely illustrated book by an unabashed X100 enthusiast can give you “quick entry into the practical operation of the X100” and dealing with some of its quirks. It also can help you learn how to take better pictures as you go.

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– Si Dunn is a novelist, screenwriter, freelance book reviewer, and former software technical writer and software/hardware QA test specialist. He also is a former newspaper and magazine photojournalist. His latest book is Dark Signals, a Vietnam War memoir available soon in paperback. He also is the author of a detective novel, Erwin’s Law, a novella, Jump, and several other books and short stories.

Two New Nature & Landscape Photography Books: Art & How-to – #nature #photography #bookreview

If you like nature and landscape photography and have the desire to give it a try, these two fine new books from Rocky Nook can both inspire and instruct. The books also could make good Christmas gifts for a budding nature or landscape photographer in your family.

Plateaus and Canyons: Impressions of the American Southwest
By Bruce Barnbaum
(Rocky Nook, paperback, list price $44.95)

In Plateaus and Canyons, veteran photographer Bruce Barnbaum presents 95 large-format color images from the rugged Colorado Plateau that is part of four Southwestern states.

Barnbaum is widely known as an artistic practitioner of black-and-white photography. But in this elegant collection, he has captured fine images that blend amazing colors and subtleties of light, both in deep canyons and on jagged, multi-level plateau surfaces that definitely are not flat.

Each photo is accompanied by a short essay by Barnbaum, discussing how he came across the opportunity to capture the image and why it attracted him.

For example, in a remote area known as Phillips Wash, “[t]he twisted branches of an old, fallen, silvered juniper caught my eye…[t]he nearly colorless wood against the soft tans and golds of the sandstone rocks created a wonderfully compelling array of forms.”

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Nature and Landscape Photography: 71 Tips from the Top
By Martin Borg
(Rocky Nook, paperback, list price $19.95; Kindle edition, list price $9.99)

This book contains many very good landscape and nature images, as well. But the concise accompanying text focuses on how to use important photographic composition techniques in the field.

Some of these include seeking  elevated vantage points, using the “Golden Ratio” in compositions, properly staging water reflections, making longer exposures to capture the effect of wind moving tree leaves and grasses, and challenging the basic rules of composition – after you have learned them.

The book’s author, a Swedish photojournalist, views nature as “an endless source of fascinating images.” He adds: “Images of nature affect us deeply; they appeal to our roots.”

– Si Dunn