about books

[fongi]

would like to enquire about photography books to buy. there's so many in the market. which will be suitable for a newbie like me? been going around bookshops and running a search. stil not sure. btw, i'll be buying a canon 40D soon.

is this books ok? which to choose?
David D. Busch Guide to Digital Canon 40D Photography Book
The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby vol 1
The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby vol 2

and how about this book?
The Photoshop® CS3 Book for Digital Photographers
i'm quite zero with photoshop, but would like to learn more, is this book ok for me?

tks for the advise....

[catchlights]

suggest you go to National Library, check out books under "basic digital photography"

You need to learn the basic of photography 1st,

how to use 40D is a guild book, telling you how to use a 40D, not teaching you about photography.

books about photoshop it is not a photography book, is not teaching you how to shoot, only teaching you about the post production

[lennyl]

I have Volume 2 of Kelby's book. It's a nice, easy to read book. He tells you what to do under certain situations, he doesn't explain why. With this book you get to pick and choose topics (usually 1 page long) that's relevant to you and ignore the rest till later.

I'm a little uncertain about Kelby's Photoshop book. I find it quite useful, but I already know some Photoshop before I started reading it.

For just basic photography, I suggest reading Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure. In this book he explains what exposure is all about. What you need to add for yourself is that in addition to shutter speed and aperture, you need to consider ISO as well.

[lennyl]

Oh, and don't forget the stickies in the Newbies forum

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

[h2chng]

Originally Posted by catchlights suggest you go to National Library, check out books under "basic digital photography" You need to learn the basic of photography 1st, how to use 40D is a guild book, telling you how to use a 40D, not teaching you about photography. books about photoshop it is not a photography book, is not teaching you how to shoot, only teaching you about the post production

I totally agree. I just started too. I bought a couple of books, but since have realised borrowing from Library will give you the widest selection. Book shop will most likely carry only the recently published. Beside books, lots of magazine will help too. National Geographic, times and Travel Mag.

Cheers

[fongi]

tks for the advise... i will certainly go down to the library. as for the photoshop book, which is a good read in better understandin how to use the software?

[giantcanopy]

Agree with starting with simple books teaching basics of photography. Seeing through other people's work and think and practice and see how you can achieve it.
There are so much updated dynamic online resources on photography that actually you might just get to learn everything online as well.

I have seen through Scott Kelby's books. They are pretty nice read.

Reading only and not practising is like reading a map and not sailing.
Practising and not reading up to sufficient knowledge is like sailing in unchatered waters.

Ryan

[Octarine]

Originally Posted by fongi tks for the advise... i will certainly go down to the library. as for the photoshop book, which is a good read in better understandin how to use the software?

Why Photoshop in the first place? If you don't know the basics of photography you will not know why you need PS and what to do with it. Personally, I'd rather recommend the Canon-provided software or Lightroom instead of PS. This will give you an easy start into post-processing work.

[Pokka]

I would suggest that you go to the National Library to look at some books on photography first. Leave PS and other photo editing software out first.

After a day at the library, go out for some shoot to practise.

[writing with light]

Hi, I am quite a newbie in photog as well, and would like to say that there are a few books that I've read that are quite useful. I realise that a lot of books talk about the same thing, but these ones I am recommending are quite different. A lot more explanation is given.
1) Learning to see creatively
2) Understanding exposure
3) Understanding shutter speed
4) Creative potraiture
All by the same author: Bryan Peterson.
And if you want to learn about composition, I recommend
5) The Amphoto Photography Workshop series: IMAGE: Designing effective pictures
The author is Michael Freeman. I couldn't find this book in the NLBs, the first 4 you can find them in the libraries. I bought this book 2nd hand from an overseas online book store.
As a noob, I've found that these books have helped a lot.
Hope I've helped.
Cheers

[ahbian]

I second Bryan Peterson and Michael Freeman, their books are nice easy reading.

[AlteredVision]

If you don't mind reading from the web instead, I find this site has a lot of really good info:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm

The catch is, the organisation isn't so good, so there's lots of info in between that might not be of real use to you. (Scroll all the way down to techniques might be good for a start. Other than that, there's stuff all over the site.)

[kino2]

As mentioned earlier, Bryan Peterson's 'Understanding exposure' is a good book to start with.
The library is a good source of books and its free.

[fongi]

thank you all for all the valuable advise and information... have been readin up on the stickies and other tread provided in this forum for the past mths. been very informative... went down to the library to borrow peterson's understandin of exposure, but cant find understandin shutter speed (may be next trip)... really me understandin more about exposure... will definitely spend more time there to read up. tks alot guys

[writing with light]

If I am not wrong, not all libraries have copies of each of Bryan Peterson's books.
If you really can't get "Understanding shutter speeds", do get "Learning to see creatively" first. In my personal opinion, besides "Understanding exposure", "learning to see creatively" is the next most impt book amongst his series of books.

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by fongi would like to enquire about photography books to buy. there's so many in the market. which will be suitable for a newbie like me? been going around bookshops and running a search. stil not sure. btw, i'll be buying a canon 40D soon.

don't need to buy

rather than joining the crowd in complaining about where our taxes go .. make sure you make your taxes worthwhile, do what catchlights suggested - the national library (central especially) has a wealth of books, some of which are excellent to look through and learn. F.o.c.

[catchlights]

I always visit National Libraries, been to almost all the branches, photography books section is always to first section I go, to see any collection of new books.

anyway, do you know you can search and reserved the books you want online?

[writing with light]

To me, reserve not really worth the money. I would usually rather wait it out. Heh..Al cheapo me...save money on reserving to buy film.

[fongi]

Originally Posted by writing with light If I am not wrong, not all libraries have copies of each of Bryan Peterson's books. If you really can't get "Understanding shutter speeds", do get "Learning to see creatively" first. In my personal opinion, besides "Understanding exposure", "learning to see creatively" is the next most impt book amongst his series of books.

tks bro, will definitely spend some time there to look for it.

[fongi]

Originally Posted by night86mare don't need to buy rather than joining the crowd in complaining about where our taxes go .. make sure you make your taxes worthwhile, do what catchlights suggested - the national library (central especially) has a wealth of books, some of which are excellent to look through and learn. F.o.c.

yea , totally agree... it's been a long time since i went to the library...lol