vincent_daly Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Am looking for your recommendation as to the best book for a newcomer to photography from basics through to more advanced techniques. Have a nikon D80. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnw63 Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Try Thom Hogan's site. He has books on most Nikon bodies. www.bythom.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_k6 Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson Nikon D80 Magic Lantern Guides (book or DVD) I would read these 3 and then you could choose from a host of other books on varying subjects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_hooper1 Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 You may like this second edition as well as I enjoyed the first: http://www.photocourse.com/title-textbook.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_s__n.e._mass_ Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 The Thom Hogan e-books are terrific but really are guides to using a specific camera and not a book on photographic technique. I found "Understanding Exposure, Revised Edition" by Bryan Peterson, Amphoto books (you can get it locally or on Amazon.com) to be enormously informative and practical. It has chapters on the effects of aperture and shutter speed selection, tips on lighting angles and times of day for different effects, and special techniques (examples are shutter speeds to use for moving water and car headlight/taillight streaks). At less than $20 this is a course in photography in under 160 pages. I'm an amateur and have been shooting film for decades and recently switched to a DSLR and learned a lot from this book, but I believe it would help newcomers as well given its thorough and step-by-step approach. Peterson's written several other books which I'm reading but this is the one to start with in my opinion. Happy learning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericreagan Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 I concur with the Bryan Peterson recommendation. I have a couple others that I would recommend for a beginner in "digital" photography. See <a href="http://www.photographybay.com/2007/03/10/how-to-take-better-photos/">here</a>. <p> Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_hanley1 Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Check out Scott Kelby's Book, "The Digital Photography Book." A very good, concise, book for beginning as well as advanced amateurs. He writes the book in a way it seems he's answering questions as if you're standing there. Mr Kelby is a Photoshop afficiando and a great photographer as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsd230 Posted May 8, 2007 Share Posted May 8, 2007 Bryan Peterson books are a great start. Another vote for Understanding Exposure, it's only $15.00 on Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganlashley Posted May 9, 2007 Share Posted May 9, 2007 I've read about 20 books on digital photography in the past three or four months and one that I like is The D200 Digital Field Guild, there is one for the D80 as well...It's a hands on learn by doing style book which I like given my Chemical Engineering background... http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-D80-Digital-Field-Guide/dp/0470120517/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-7882762-4232819?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178683725&sr=8-3 For photoshop I really like the Photoshop: The Missing Manual...again very hands on....also, there are several British magazines, I think Creative Photoshop is one, that have tutorials to achieve a given effect that are very useful....I think this would be a useful forum on this website: ie here's a great photo and here's how I did it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudymerz Posted May 9, 2007 Share Posted May 9, 2007 The books from John Shaw have been a great help to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvtol Posted May 9, 2007 Share Posted May 9, 2007 Hello, Since I'm a bookseller, and I buy the books on Digital Photography for my department, I could not resist this question :-) My advice: The D80 Magic Lantern Guide by Simon Stafford to get to know your camera (which I bought yesterday and realy is great!) Photoshop for digital photographers by Scot Kelby or Adobe photoshop for photographers by Martin Evening (my top seller: sold 160 copies in my shop and over 700 in our chain in The Netherlands!!!). Have fun! Regards, Martijn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gv Posted May 9, 2007 Share Posted May 9, 2007 Thom Hogan's book is head-and-shoulders above the Magic Lantern Guides that I have used covering other subjects, but I haven't specifically read the D80 book that was recommended... The first 200-300 pages of Hogan's 700+ page book are essentially a digital photography primer, and the rest of the book will help you get to (really) know your D80. Hogan's book also a searchable index which can be very handy. All the Magic Lantern Guides I have read lack indexes of any kind, which is a serious omission in any book that calls itself a "guide." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvtol Posted May 10, 2007 Share Posted May 10, 2007 G.V. Thom's book is 700+ pages!? Stop reading, start photographing!!!:-) regards, Martijn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel_heywood Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 One more for Understanding Exposure. Great book. I wrote a brief review <a href='http://danielheywood.blogspot.com/2008/09/about-seven-years-ago-i-picked-up.html'>here</a>. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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