Digital Photography for Dummies: Digital Photography Made Easy

The Dummies Books from Wiley Publishing are always entertaining and informative and despite the "Dummies" in the titles, you don't have to be a dummy to enjoy the books. If you're into digital photography and want to learn more or improve your photos, a good place to start would be "Digital Photography All-In-One for Dummies" 4th Edition by David D. Busch, and "Digital Cameras & Photography for Dummies" by Mark Justice Hinton with Barbara Obermeier.

Each book incorporates four Icons that will flag information as:

A Tip - A dart board with an arrow in the bulls-eye shows that it is something interesting and useful on the topic.

Something to Remember - A finger with a string tied around it to emphasize that you should really remember this item.

Warning - A Cartoon bomb with a lit fuse indicates information that should be heeded or ugly consequences may result.

Technical Stuff - The familiar Dummies Geek marks technical information that is good to know but doesn't need to be committed to memory.

Pictures, diagrams, pullout cheat sheets with useful info and shortcuts, cartoons to keep you amused, and content that is written in a way that makes it easy to understand and absorb. Their books on Digital Photography incorporate all of the above to bring together books that are useful to amateur and professional photographers alike.

"Digital Photography All-In-One for Dummies" 4th Edition by David D. Busch includes 7 books in one:
 

• Your Digital Studio
• Using Digital SLRs
• Taking Great Pictures
• Basics of Image Editing
• Editing with Photoshop/Photoshop Elements
• Restoring Old Photos
• Printing and Sharing Digital Images.

Best of all, it includes lots of full color images which is unusual for most Dummies books.

"Digital Photography All-In-One for Dummies" will begin by discussing the different kinds of cameras and how to select one that will meet your needs.

Learn about the different parts of a camera, useful accessories and their functions. The pullout cheat sheet in the front of the book will act as your quick reference for digital photography jargon.

Digital photography All-In-One will guide you as you find the right camera, select the optimum settings, take, edit and print your photographs.
 

There is an excellent chapter on Image Editing Tools that will show you how to:
 

• Fix faded and distorted color photos.
• Adjust Lights and darks.
• Fine-tune sharpness and contrast.
• Eliminate dust, blemishes, and other artifacts.
• Rearrange, remove and add content to your photos.
• Merge images together.

The section on Photoshop and Photoshop Elements will give you a glimpse at some of the amazing things you can accomplish with powerful editing tools at your command.

Author David D. Busch has an easy writing style that presents his instructions and excellent advice in a way that is easy to follow and understand. The reader is never overwhelmed even with the more technical aspects of a topic.

"Digital Photography All-In-One for Dummies" 4th Edition by David D. Busch is 608 pages and a great resource for anyone who wants to learn about or improve their digital photography skills. It lists for $39.99 but is available on Amazon for $16.00 in soft cover and an updated Kindle version which offers "8 Books in One" for $27.35.

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"Digital Cameras & Photography for Dummies" by Mark Justice Hinton and Barbara Obermeier is another excellent resource on digital photography. This is a book and DVD bundle. The book leans a bit more toward basic terms and instruction that would be useful to beginners. The companion DVD provides instruction on taking, editing and enhancing your digital photos and a host of tips that would benefit photographers of all levels of expertise.. The DVD will run on a PC with Win XP or Vista as well as a Mac running Mac OS X.

Begin by comparing the leading digital cameras and their features and accessories and learn how to set the right exposure for the best shot. The book will teach you how to "Compose" your picture by reducing background clutter and other elements to consider before snapping the picture.

Learn How to Rotate, Crop and Edit photos, adjust colors and other easy edits are discussed as well as more major edits that one can accomplish with Photoshop Elements.

Find out how to Print, Scan, Send, Copy, Organize and even Post your photos online. You will learn how to use online resources like Flickr and Adobe Photoshop Express to edit and share your photos online.

The book is short at only 256 pages but it is filled with useful information and lots of full color photographs that will make you want to get started taking your own pictures.

I particularly liked the DVD content which would make a good presentation for a photography club or computer group interested in digital photography.

The Main Menu on the DVD offers the following topics:
 

• Taking Digital Photos
• Editing & Enhancing Digital Photos
• Sharing Photos
• The Part of Tens

Clicking on any of these will take you to more options in that category. For example, clicking on "Taking Digital Photos" will bring up the following:
 

• Selecting Image Quality on Your Camera
• Zooming In on Your Subject
• Locking Focus
• Shooting Close-ups in Macro Mode
• Understanding Depth of Field
• Capturing Action of Sports
• Shooting Landscapes
• Shooting at Night without a Flash

Clicking on one of the menu selections will launch the video which will clearly explain typical camera options that are available, give an explanation of each term and show how to set your camera to achieve that function. Seeing something done in the video is a lot easier to understand than just reading about it. There is a wealth of information and instruction contained on the DVD which has a run time of about 60 minutes.

"Digital Cameras & Photography for Dummies" by Mark Justice Hinton and Barbara Obermeier lists for $21.99 but you can find it on Amazon for $14.95 and it's eligible for Super Saver Shipping on an order of $25 or more.

* Update*

**The second edition of Digital Cameras & Photography for Dummies, by Mark Justice Hinton, will be out in early December, 2010.  The book is updated, larger, and expanded.  It includes the latest information on using Windows Live Essentials Photo Gallery to organize and edit photos.**

Visit the Dummies web site to find more tips, videos and information on a variety of topics. The Photography & Video section is really worth checking out. You can even sign up for their mailing list to receive more tips and help topics in your e-mail.

Visit the Dummies Store online and sign up for a chance to win an iPad or Great Books in the "for Dummies Back-to-School Giveaway". You can enter once a day through September 30, 2010.