GearPop Blog

How to Photograph Absolutely Everything: Successful Pictures From Your Digital Camera

This paperback edition of How To Photograph Absolutely Everything by renowned photographer, author, and broadcaster Tom Ang, delivers exactly what the title promises. Avoiding intimidating technical jargon, he explains the basic elements of photography – light, color, composition, and focus – then goes on to show how to make them work for you. From still lifes to children’s parties, thunderstorms to sunsets, close-ups to panoramas, every photographic subject, technique, and challenge is covered. Using step-by-step photographs and instructions, Tom shows you how to take the best possible picture in any situation. Want to photograph city lights at night, animals in action, a family portrait? Tom makes it easy. Employing a user-friendly “recipe” formula, he shows you the best approach for each subject, gives expert tips on improving an image, and tells you how to set up your camera – so you really can’t go wrong. Inspiring galleries at the end of each section describe alternative techniques to try for every subject. There are also tips on basic post-production, showing how to crop, improve color and contrast, and remove unwanted elements of an image. How to Photograph Absolutely Everything guarantees to make a better, more confident photographer of absolutely everyone who reads it.

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Tony Northrup’s DSLR Book: How to Create Stunning Digital Photography

This ultimate comprehensive photography book is revolutionary in four ways:

  1. FREE VIDEO TRAINING. Integrated into the book’s content, the author shows you exactly how he took the photos. The print book includes links you can type into your web browser. If you buy the eBook and your eReader can play video (such as the Kindle app on an iPhone/iPad/Android, or the Kindle Fire), clicking the links when you have an Internet connection will load the video directly within your eReader.
  2. NEVER OUTDATED. This book is regularly updated with new content (including additional videos) that eBook owners receive for free. As new photography trends emerge and new camera equipment and lenses are released, you’ll see them described in both the print and eBooks immediately. 
  3. 350+ HIGH RESOLUTION, ORIGINAL PICTURES. Detailed example pictures demonstrate both good and bad technique, all taken by the author himself in nine different countries. Most photo books use stock photography taken by other photographers. On the eBook, zoom into the pictures by double-tapping your screen (on a Kindle Fire) or pinching-and-pulling your fingers apart (on an iPad/iPhone/Android).
  4. HANDS-ON PRACTICES. Complete the practices at the end of every chapter to get the real world experience you need.

In this book, Tony Northrup (award-winning author of more than 30 how-to books and a professional portrait, wildlife, and landscape photographer) teaches you both the art and science of creating stunning pictures. First, you will master these basic concepts:

  • Composition
  • Exposure
  • Shutter speed
  • Aperture
  • Depth-of-field
  • ISO
  • Natural light
  • Flash
  • Posing
  • Troubleshooting bad pictures
  • Using raw files
  • Studio lighting
  • Night photography
  • HDR
  • Macro/close-up photography

Then, you will learn the pro’s secrets for photographing these subjects:

  • People (candid, casual, formal, and underwater portraits)
  • Weddings
  • Pets
  • Wildlife (mammals, birds, insects, fish, and more)
  • Landscapes
  • Cityscapes
  • Sunrises and sunsets
  • Flowers
  • Forests, waterfalls, and rivers
  • Fireworks
  • Stars

When pictures don’t turn out the way you hoped, you can refer to Chapter 5 for tips on solving common problems.

UPDATE HISTORY:

  • 12/11/2011: Initial release.
  • 1/10/2011: Expanded section on baby portraits (including video).
  • 1/18/2012: Added links to integrated videos covering aperture and depth-of-field, light painting, HDR, and macro.
  • 2/14/2012: Fixed minor reader-submitted errata.

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Improve Your Photography: How Budding Photographers Can Get Pro Results

“Improve Your Photography” has been purchased by thousands of beginning photographers across the world and has been recently updated in this second edition.

The book is packed full of quick and easy tips to encourage budding photographers to improve while learning concepts and technical information on photography. Jim explains this book this way, “This is what every photographer needs to know to take clean and stunning photos.  If I would have had this book when I started, I would have been two years ahead of everyone else in just 60 pages.”

The book covers topics such as tips for taking better portraits of people, instruction on choosing lenses, tips for landscape and sunset photography, and HDR. 

Unlike most photography books that confuse beginning and intermediate photographers with difficult concepts and too much technical data, this book is designed specifically to teach photographers who are just learning how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO work together.

“If I would have had this book when I started learning photography, I would have been two years ahead in learning.”

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Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera

With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.

In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, including how to achieve successful exposures in seemingly difficult situations. You’ll learn:

• Which aperture gives you the greatest contrast and sharpness, and when to use it 
• Which apertures guarantee the background remains an out-of-focus tone 
• Which one aperture—when combined with the right lens—creates an area of sharpness from three feet to infinity 
• How to creatively use shutter speed to either freeze an action or imply motion 
• Where to take a meter reading when shooting a sunset, snow, or a city at dusk

With new information on white balance, flash, HDR, and more, this updated classic will inspire you to stop guessing and take control of your settings for better photos anytime, anywhere, and with any camera.

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BetterPhoto Basics: The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Taking Photos Like a Pro

Absolutely anyone can take better photos!
 
If you can press a button, you can take great pictures. It’s as simple as that. In BetterPhoto Basics, Jim Miotke, founder of the popular online photography school BetterPhoto.com, shares tips and tricks to improve your photos right away, no matter what camera you’re using. Too busy to read a book? No problem—flip to any page for an instant tip to use right away! Learn to compose knockout shots, make the most of indoor and outdoor light, and photograph twenty popular subjects, from sunsets and flowers to a family portrait. Those who want to go further get tips on controlling exposure and the secrets behind ten advanced creative techniques. And everyone will appreciate Jim’s breakdown of easy fixes to make in Photoshop. No matter what your level of experience, you’ll be amazed how easy it is to start taking photos like the pros.  

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Digital Photography: A Basic Manual

This thorough, concise, and easy-to-use guide to capturing digital photographs provides an entire step-by-step course for budding digital photographers. All concepts are fully illustrated with sample work by internationally renowned professionals, representing editorial work, photojournalism, and everything in between. Topics covered include essential information for both film and digital photography, such as exposure controls and shutter speed, as well as digital-specific information on image editing, printing methods, and even file storage. The first digital textbook by legendary photography teacher Henry Horenstein, Digital Photography is the best guide yet for aspiring digital photographers, essential both for photographers transitioning from film to digital and those learning the art of photography for the first time.

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Complete Digital Photography

COMPLETE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, SIXTH EDITION guides you through every aspect of digital photography, from shooting through postproduction and printing, to help you master the theory and technical skills required of a great photographer. In an easy-to-understand format, you’ll uncover the fundamental photographic knowledge you need to solve common dilemmas and challenges and advance your photographs to a new level. You’ll learn everything from how a camera works and how to choose the camera that’s right for you, through shooting, image editing, output, and workflow. You’ll also explore the basics of artistry in photography, including finding a subject, composition, lighting, and more. This sixth edition features new material covering Photoshop CS5, Camera RAW, Micro Four Thirds cameras, and post-production, and a revised and more user-friendly organizational structure. Tutorials and exercises throughout the book will help you practice the techniques presented in each chapter.

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Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Boxed Set (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4)

With over 800 of the most closely guarded photographic “tricks of the trade,” this boxed set—consisting of all four parts of Scott Kelby’s best-selling series, The Digital Photography Book—is the ultimate resource for any one who wants to shoot dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time.

Scott Kelby, the man who changed the “digital darkroom” forever with his groundbreaking, best-selling The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, now tackles the most important side of digital photography—how to take professional-quality shots using the same tricks today’s top digital pros use (and it’s easier than you think). These aren’t books of theory, full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts. These are books on which button to push, which setting to use, and when to use it. Each page covers a single concept on how to make your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, tool, or trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. If you’re tired of shots that look “okay,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then these are the books for you.

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