I’ve read three Scott Kelby books recently. Two, I borrowed, which convinced me that I liked his style and his approach to Photoshop which led me to buy this one.

My first impression was one of disappointment. The first book I read (reviewed here) was quick and snappy – easy to pick up and grab a useful tip or snippet. This felt much harder to track, to find something from.

I’d almost discarded it when desperation (my daughter wanted me to watch Dora) made me pick it up and just read it.

When you actually start on page 1 and read from front to back (I tend to flick books from back to front for some reason), suddenly lights came on – it made sense!

Since then, it’s gone from being lost in a pile of magazines to my bible for post processing.

OK, there are sections in it I have no interest in – I’m not bothered about the best way to save an image for email for example. But for every wasted section, there are four or five which are really informative and provide good insight.

I’m currently stuck in the convert to black and white section – the tips and tricks here alone make the book worth the £18 or so I paid for it.

Here’s my latest B&W conversion (using Scott’s calculations, shadowing and sharpening guides)

And this is using Lightrooms default conversion

My wife won’t let me put a bookshelf in the bathroom and this book is one of the reasons why.

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The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby

As photography books go, it’s quite lightweight. Aimed at beginners, it provides tips and techniques ranging from filters through composition and it’s all written in a light hearted approach with a few attempts at comedy.

It’s not a traditional book, in that it doesn’t really evolve from one section to another, instead it acts as something between a quick reference and a fact book. It’s this approach that works well – even though a lot of the tips are things I know (and have even blogged about) I keep stumbling upon useful little titbits or new thoughts about old ideas. As a fact book, it’s easy to pick up, read a page or a section and put it down with no need to remember where you left off last time. It’s also very engaging and you find yourself reading tip after tip or considering those failed photographs in light of the things you now know.

If I was allowed a bookshelf in the bathroom, it would be perfect for those moments when you want to stimulate your mind while nature is stimulating your...

(Edit: Typically, I somehow managed to mess up the book link. Hopefully it's corrected now!)

I've been reading The Digital Photography Handbook by Doug Harman recently.



Working from the very basics, (What's a digital camera then Bob?), through so some of the more advanced shooting techniques including motion blur etc, it gives a good basic overview of the world of Digital Cameras. Once the basics are covered, there are a series of good sections covering post processing, these include simple things like getting your pictures from your camera right up into cloning and special effects.

All in all I found it a good little read. Maybe a little patronising at times, but given it's aimed at the likes of me who knows nothing maybe I shouldn't complain about the few times it told me stuff I already knew...

The pictures in the book are all in keeping with the theme and for the most part you left feeling as if you will be able to achieve them as well (unlike some of the other books I've seen).

My only complaint is that the tutorials all appear to be for Photoshop Elements, which is a pain if you're just getting into the hobby and don't want to splash out for it on top of the camera, lenses, batteries, bags, memory cards... For such a cheap and friendly little book, they would have done well to use something like GIMP as the basis for tutorials.

Still, when all is said and done. It's a good little read for beginners and at under a fiver it's good value too...