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Books for Photographers

1. The Best of Photographic Lighting: Techniques and Images for Digital Photographers

Bill Hurter explains the characteristics of light–both natural and artificial–in this in-depth guide. Fully exploring color balance, exposure, and light ratios, the handbook expands on skills learned in the studio to explain how to harness the beauty of less predictable lighting situations, like those shot outdoors or on location. Packed with tips from more than 30 top professionals on wedding, portrait, and commercial photography, this resource is sure to both educate and inspire.

2. The Digital Photography Book: Secrets to make your photos look like the pros’!
By: Kelby, Scott
Published By: Pearson Education
Edition: 1

The Digital Photography Book

Why are there so many books on digital photography? It seems like a new one comes out every week, and it’s been like that for years. We think it’s because the books that keep coming out miss the mark on what most photographers really want: a book that cuts through all the techno-stuff, and uncovers the secrets the pros use to create amazing photos. After all, that’s what we all want, right? We want to create photos that make our friends and family say, “Wow, that’s incredible. Did you take that?” But even though we have great digital cameras—in fact, we often have the exact same makes and models that the big pros use—somehow they’re still the ones getting all the “Wows!”

Until now. Scott Kelby, the man who forever changed the “digital darkroom” with his ground breaking, #1 best-selling, award-winning book “The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers,” now tackles the most important side of digital photography: how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks that today’s top digital pros use. This isn’t a book of theory—it isn’t full of jargon and confusing concepts.

This is a book that tells you exactly which button to push, which setting to use, and over 100 of the most closely guarded “tricks of the trade” to get you shooting dramatically better looking, sharper, more colorful, professional looking photos with your digital camera every time you push the shutter. Here’s another thing that makes this book different: each page covers just one trick, just one single concept that makes your photography better.

Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, another pro tool, another pro trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. There’s never been a book like it; if you’re tired of taking shots that just look “OK,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.

3. The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters
By: McNally, Joe
Published By: Pearson Education

Moment It Clicks

THE FIRST BOOK WITH ONE FOOT ON THE COFFEE TABLE, AND ONE FOOT IN THE CLASSROOM.

Joe McNally, one of the world’s top pro digital photographers, whose celebrated work has graced the pages of Sports Illustrated, Time, and National Geographic (to name a few), breaks new ground by doing something no photography book has ever done — blending the rich, stunning images and elegant layout of a coffee-table book with the invaluable training, no-nonsense insights, and photography secrets usually found only in those rare, best-of-breed educational books.

When Joe’s not on assignment for the biggest-name magazines and Fortune 500 clients, he’s in the classroom teaching location lighting, environmental portraiture, and how to “get the shot” at workshops around the world. These on-location workshops are usually reserved for a handful of photographers each year, but now you can learn the same techniques that Joe shares in his seminars and lectures in a book that brings Joe’s sessions to life.

What makes the book so unique is the “triangle of learning” where:
(1) Joe distills the concept down to one brief sentence. It usually starts with something like, “An editor at National Geographic once told me…” and then he shares one of those hard-earned tricks of the trade that you only get from spending a lifetime behind the lens. Then,
(2) on the facing page is one of Joe’s brilliant images that perfectly illustrates the technique (you’ll recognize many of his photos from magazine covers). And
(3) you get the inside story of how that shot was taken, including which equipment he used (lens, f/stop, lighting, accessories, etc.), along with the challenges that type of project brings, and how to set up a shot like that of your own.

This book also gives you something more. It inspires. It challenges. It informs.

But perhaps most importantly, it will help you understand photography and the art of making great photos at a level you never thought possible. This book is packed with those “Ah ha!” moments — those clever insights that make it all come together for you. It brings you that wonderful moment when it suddenly all makes sense — that “moment it clicks.”.

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