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The Busy Girl's Guide to Digital Photography
The only complete guide to photography designed specifically for women looking to improve their photography skills for pleasure and profit.With inspirational case studies and examples from professional and semi-pro female photographers, user-friendly technical explanations and image critiques, this book is a practical and useful toolkit for busy girls who enjoy photography. Becoming an accomplished and competent photographer needs to be approached in three Understand your camera and learn how to drive itComposition—tune in and understand your subjectPost-production—share and print However, rather than explain every technical function from the outset, the aim of this book is to demystify the jargon and take you, step by step, back to the basic fundamental principles of photography; first putting you in control of the camera which will, in turn, free up the composition and creativity. The more advanced features of the camera and in-depth processes can be explored once the basic principles are understood. This is a fun, contemporary photography book that will become your essential tool for taking your passion for photography to the next level.
- GenresNonfictionPhotography
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 27, 2013
3 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 28, 2017
3.5
Once you get past the slightly condescending tone of the intro (not all girls are afraid of technology and read "Fifty Shades"... Seriously?!), this is a pretty decent guide to everyday digital photography.
There is a little bit of assumed knowledge and the technical aspects are covered pretty lightly (because "Eww, technology!", right?) so I wouldn't recommend this book for complete beginners who have never ventured away from Auto mode. The book is better suited to confident beginner or intermediate photographers who have a basic grasp of their camera's functions but want to get more out of manual mode and develop their own style.
The book is much better at detailing the different types of photography (landscape, events, product, portraits etc) and gives great tips on each. Photographing people is my least favourite type of photography but I still found the section fun to read, particularly the bits about photographing kids and babies.
Every photo in the book details the lens, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, which I found really helpful. And there's no denying the author is a fantastic and versatile photographer.
The post-production part was pretty pointless, in my opinion. If you're reading a book about photography, surely you at least know how to export and save files? I don't need to be told how to rename and file pictures but that's about as deep as it gets. Image editing is briefly mentioned but not explained in any sort of depth so don't read the book looking for editing help. I feel that this chapter could probably have been left out of the book.
Overall, it was an easy read and had some useful tips in it, particularly regarding composition and the different types of photography. It's let down at times by the writing style and lack of depth in certain areas but there's definitely pages that I will refer back to in the future.
Once you get past the slightly condescending tone of the intro (not all girls are afraid of technology and read "Fifty Shades"... Seriously?!), this is a pretty decent guide to everyday digital photography.
There is a little bit of assumed knowledge and the technical aspects are covered pretty lightly (because "Eww, technology!", right?) so I wouldn't recommend this book for complete beginners who have never ventured away from Auto mode. The book is better suited to confident beginner or intermediate photographers who have a basic grasp of their camera's functions but want to get more out of manual mode and develop their own style.
The book is much better at detailing the different types of photography (landscape, events, product, portraits etc) and gives great tips on each. Photographing people is my least favourite type of photography but I still found the section fun to read, particularly the bits about photographing kids and babies.
Every photo in the book details the lens, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, which I found really helpful. And there's no denying the author is a fantastic and versatile photographer.
The post-production part was pretty pointless, in my opinion. If you're reading a book about photography, surely you at least know how to export and save files? I don't need to be told how to rename and file pictures but that's about as deep as it gets. Image editing is briefly mentioned but not explained in any sort of depth so don't read the book looking for editing help. I feel that this chapter could probably have been left out of the book.
Overall, it was an easy read and had some useful tips in it, particularly regarding composition and the different types of photography. It's let down at times by the writing style and lack of depth in certain areas but there's definitely pages that I will refer back to in the future.
August 19, 2014
I picked up my first DSLR camera last week, and I’ve been staring at it, completely intimidated, ever since. I have high hopes for this camera. I want to use it to take beautiful pictures for my blog, I want to take gorgeous shots of my daughter, and I want to document our family life as often as possible with something a little better than my trusty iPhone. (Not that there's anything wrong with taking iPhone pics - I love the photos I get with mine. I just wanted something... fancier, I guess.)
But the technical side of photography has always intimidated me. Aperture, ISO, shutter speed — I might as well be trying to learn advanced physics. So I picked up this book hoping it would break down the intimidating task of learning photography in a layman's style. And it did. Unfortunately, only the first fifth or so of the book focuses on the technical details. The rest is about how to compose photos, and how to take great pictures of various subjects. That’s all fine and good, but what I really wanted was to learn to use my camera from a technical perspective, in an easy to learn way. Maybe that's too tall an order. My husband suggests I should take an online course instead. He might be on to something.
Anyway, by the time I finished reading this book, I was ever-so-slightly less confused - but not a whole lot. I still have my camera in auto mode, because any time I try to take it off auto and into manual, I either a) get terrible photos, or b) fiddle with it so much that I miss the shot opportunity altogether. It’s a little easier to mess with settings when shooting a still object (like a card or a painting) - but much more difficult when trying to perfect exposure while capturing a baby’s first taste of banana.
But the technical side of photography has always intimidated me. Aperture, ISO, shutter speed — I might as well be trying to learn advanced physics. So I picked up this book hoping it would break down the intimidating task of learning photography in a layman's style. And it did. Unfortunately, only the first fifth or so of the book focuses on the technical details. The rest is about how to compose photos, and how to take great pictures of various subjects. That’s all fine and good, but what I really wanted was to learn to use my camera from a technical perspective, in an easy to learn way. Maybe that's too tall an order. My husband suggests I should take an online course instead. He might be on to something.
Anyway, by the time I finished reading this book, I was ever-so-slightly less confused - but not a whole lot. I still have my camera in auto mode, because any time I try to take it off auto and into manual, I either a) get terrible photos, or b) fiddle with it so much that I miss the shot opportunity altogether. It’s a little easier to mess with settings when shooting a still object (like a card or a painting) - but much more difficult when trying to perfect exposure while capturing a baby’s first taste of banana.
November 15, 2014
An okay, extremely basic overview of digital photography. I thought the girly tone was a bit condescending and the layout doesn't quite work-more color contrast would have made it easier to read. Some cookbooks have the same post-it note design but it works because they use contrasting and complimenting fonts and colors, this book doesn't.
The example photographs were good choices-families and social events, exactly the sort of pictures beginners like to shoot.There is one glaring omission-there is no reference to photography blogs, forums or websites to obtain more information on learning photography. I knocked off an entire star just for that.
The book is okay but there is a book called Your Camera Loves You, How to Love It Back that is much better than this one.
The example photographs were good choices-families and social events, exactly the sort of pictures beginners like to shoot.There is one glaring omission-there is no reference to photography blogs, forums or websites to obtain more information on learning photography. I knocked off an entire star just for that.
The book is okay but there is a book called Your Camera Loves You, How to Love It Back that is much better than this one.
May 19, 2014
This is a really great book if you want to get started in photography. It's fun and funky.
So far I had my camera running on auto all the time and I want to get away from that. BUSY GIRL is a great starting point, not too technical, more need-to-know and hands on. I loved that this book touches down on all the important aspects once and it's well structured, making it easy to flick back and forth.
Definitely a great, funky guide for beginners!
So far I had my camera running on auto all the time and I want to get away from that. BUSY GIRL is a great starting point, not too technical, more need-to-know and hands on. I loved that this book touches down on all the important aspects once and it's well structured, making it easy to flick back and forth.
Definitely a great, funky guide for beginners!
June 5, 2016
A really easy to read book about photography. She doesn't use a lot of technical jargon, which is a huge put off to an amateur, but she explains things very easily and gives helpful examples with pictures and diagrams. However, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. While I did learn a few things, it wasn't exactly enough. I wanted a book that was a little more in-depth about the different features, etc.
June 20, 2016
This is a basic overview of photography. I wasn't impressed with the "busy girl" motif of the book, which may have been imposed by the publisher
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews