Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been using the minimalist style of lighting, in one form or another, since the late 1980s, and I learned much of what I know through the painful process of trial-and-error. Austin, Texas-based photographer Kirk Tuck has taken all that basic knowledge and wrapped it up into a neat 128-page introductory handbook.
Minimalist Lighting covers both the "why" and "how" of location photographic lighting using small strobes off-camera. The first half of the book takes you through the basic gear choices you'll need to make and the fundamental techniques of off-camera small-strobe lighting. In the second part of the book, Kirk takes apart 14 of his own shoots, showing how he approached lighting them, the decisions he made, and the final results.
If you're already comfortable using small strobes off-camera, the first half of the book will be largely review material, and you'll likely skim over to the case studies, from which I gleaned several techniques I'm already putting to good use. If you're a newcomer to the world of minimalist lighting, you'll probably read the whole thing several times, learning new things on each pass through.
Either way, if you want to learn to light better with less cost, less money and less weight, this book definitely belongs on your bookshelf.

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Packed with incredible images and step-by-step techniques, this book is a must have for commercial, wedding, and portrait photographers working on location who want to maximize their time behind the camera and minimize their time spent hauling cumbersome lighting equipment. The tips show how to select easily portable and versatile equipment for location shoots, cutting down on the packing and porting of expensive equipment. With techniques and information on the latest technology-including battery-powered flashes and accessories-this reference shows photographers how to work with smaller and lighter-weight lighting equipment without sacrificing quality. Whether shooting portraits, landscapes, or interiors, whether indoors or out, photographers will embrace the portable approach offered in this valuable resource.

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Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D Digital Field Guide (Digital Field Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)At the time of this writing, there are only two books about the Canon T3i available on Amazon. With both (Kindle editions) being sold at $9.99, I would have to say that the Digital Field Guide is the MUCH better deal. It's clear, concise, well-illustrated. It gives examples, and provides photos for better understanding of concepts. You won't need to go back and forth between this and the manufacturer's manual because this book tells you everything you need to know. If this had been available earlier (I believe it came out just a few days ago!), I might have ended up buying and reading this one first. I probably wouldn't have needed to search for anything more. Highly recommended, especially for the DSLR novice who wants a great book that will tell you everything!

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The perfect companion for Canon's new Rebel dSLR camera
The Canon Rebel EOS T3i/600D combines the shooting power of the Rebel T2i with the hardware and options of the Canon 60D, creating a powerful camera packed with new features. This handy field guide fits in a camera bag and explains how to use all the settings and modes, shoot HD video, work with common Canon accessories, and more. Illustrated with spectacular photos by author and popular photographer Charlotte Lowrie, the book shows you how each button and dial can affect your images. A bonus gray/color checker card helps you get the color right on every shot.
Canon's new Rebel EOS T3i/600D sports a dizzying array of features including expanded power in auto settings, onboard shooting guides, variable frame rate for video, and updated video zoom capabilities
This conveniently sized field guide fits in your camera case and explains how to use all the camera settings as well as how to shoot HD video
Filled with step-by-step techniques and plenty of tips for getting great shots
Includes a gray/color checker card to assure accurate color and white balance
Illustrated with the author's outstanding color photos

Make the most of every feature on your Canon Rebel EOS T3i/600D with this colorful, portable guide.Photos from the Author Pink Camellia(Click image to see larger version and information on the photo)

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Speedlights & Speedlites: Creative Flash Photography at the Speed of Light Review

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(More customer reviews)I read the book twice; gleaning little nuggets here and there.
The book highlights standard lighting techniques (which could be used with any type of artificial lighting)using speedlights. GREAT! What are my problems then, you might be wondering.
One "problem" with the book is that the author,chapter after chapter, continually attempts to "sell" the reader on the idea that using speedlights is a "great way" of shooting with flash. "YA, I KNOW THAT, that's why I bought the book in the first place" is what I was grumbling into the air as I continued read on to the end. His propensity to do this was annoying and left me feeling like I was getting cheated out of more helpful information. I don't need the author to tell me WHY I am using speedlights I want him to tell me HOW.
Another "problem" was that, like the title says (it finally dawned on me...), the book is only about using Nikon and Canon ETL speedlight/speedlite flashes. I was hoping that this was going to be a tome about off-camera flash using flashes in manual and setting up with shots using wireless triggers and etc. Maybe there would be some exposure tricks and tips that help the photographer get around using a light meter. I was hoping for, well, meat and potatoes..."strobist" stuff I guess. Maybe like how to train my eye and to be able to see the forest for the trees and vice versa when it comes to lighting. Oh well.
Don't get me wrong, I learned some stuff but...

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David Busch's Compact Field Guide for the Canon EOS 60D Review

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(More customer reviews)This new series of books continues to shape up as one of the most useful, and first actual new addition to the camera guide format that we've seen. What Busch has done is create a companion to his full size camera guides in the form of an ultra-compact spiral-bound book that's a condensation of the most essential information you need to operate your Canon EOS 60D camera. Unlike the manual furnished with the camera, or those laminated cheat sheets that fold out into six index card sized tabs with one-sentence summaries of most of the menu settings, Busch's Compact Field Guide series provides clear, easy to understand guidance in a most convenient format. Its contents include:
Chapter 1. Quick Setup Guide. Hand your camera and this book to any newbie, and they'll be off and shooting in minutes. It shows how to adjust the viewfinder to their vision, format a memory card, choose the right exposure mode (with a paragraph describing each mode and when to use it), how -- and why -- to select a metering mode, followed by lucid explanations of selecting autofocus, autofocus area modes, white balance, and ISO settings. There's a quick guide to navigating through and reviewing the images you've just shot, as well as a quick guide to flash. These are just the basics, and the typical shooter will probably refer to this chapter just once, when they begin using the camera.
Chapter 2. Canon EOS 60D Roadmap. This 28-page chapter is filled with large photographs of the camera from multiple views, with a paragraph describing what each and every control does, and why it's used. The manual furnished with the 60D gives you black and white drawings and cross references to multiple pages buried deep in the manual.
Chapter 3. Shooting and Playback Menu settings. Here's where Busch's Compact Field Guide excels. Unlike the command cards, small guidebooks, and manual packaged with the camera, Busch offers complete descriptions of each possible setting, including the rationale for using particular options. The book is spiral bound so it can lay flat while you read the instructions and adjust your camera simultaneously. Small illustrations show the menus in question, but you'll use them only to confirm that you're "in the right place" as you navigate the menus in your own camera. Although the information in this and the following chapter are condensed from those in Busch's full sized guide, they still are more comprehensive than those you'll find in other books.
Chapter 4. Setup, Custom Functions, and and My Menu settings. Same as Chapter 3, but for the other menus.
Chapter 5. Using the flash. Everything you need to know about selecting a flash metering mode, flash sync mode, flash exposure compensation, etc. is here.
Chapter 6. Making Movies. You get all the basics for using the 60D's movie-making capabilities, plus a quick checklist of techniques that can make your mini-videos that much better.
Chapter 7. Shooting tips. This chapter consists of a series of charts with recommended menu and shooting settings for many common types of scenes. This is a brilliant addition, and you won't find it in other guidebooks at all.
Although this portable guide duplicates some of the information found in David Busch's Canon EOS 60D Guide to Digital SLR Photography, they make a great pair for home and field. You probably could benefit from owning both.

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David Busch's Canon EOS 5D Mark II Guide to Digital SLR Photography Review

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(More customer reviews)I've had my 5D Mark II for several months, and have been waiting for this book for almost that long. When I finally got it, I spent a full day reading it and now, finally, have had all of my questions about the camera answered in a clear and concise style. I was pleased that Busch's book covered both the simple stuff and the more advanced tips and techniques that a typical user of the 5D Mark II like myself would appreciate. Everything is easy to find, and it was well organized. A camera this good really needed a book this good.
There were a lot of things in the book I could use immediately. I've had two 580EX II speedlites for some time, but never was able to set them up for wireless operation quickly. Now I can. I also found the information that helped me achieve better autofocus when shooting my son's high school football games. Many of the more obscure C. Fn. settings finally make sense. There are several chapters in this book that are worth the cover price all by themselves. This is a reference guide and a course in better photography all in one book.
I did find a couple typos, but they would be obvious to any owner of this camera (a reference to a built-in flash, and a label pointing to the wrong area of the lens), and they are all amply documented on the author's errata page link shown in the book. I must say that a minor goof or two doesn't detract from the absolute wealth of solid information available from no other book. I highly recommend this to any EOS 5D Mark II user.

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David Busch's Canon EOS 60D Guide to Digital SLR Photography Review

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(More customer reviews)Busch has once again raised the bar for Canon EOS 60D guidebooks with this massive and comprehensive manual for Canon's down-sized, re-booted advanced amateur camera model. It offers information and tips you simply won't find in the condensed books and OEM manual re-hashes. He's maintained the clear and accessible descriptions of features from his earlier 50D book, and supplemented them with an expansive treatment of this new camera's innovative features. For example, the 60D has a new built-in wireless flash controller, and Busch devotes an entire chapter to that. Movie-making gets expanded coverage here, with an entire chapter of step-by-step instructions and tips. Autofocus is glossed over in many guides, but Busch has a full chapter explaining its intricacies, and how to nail perfect focus every time.
The book is a photography course, too, with an introduction to both basic and advanced concepts, all geared towards use of the 60D, so that readers can master picture-taking as they master their cameras. Busch recognizes that each camera is unique, and although the explanations of basic concepts like exposure, shutter speeds, and apertures are similar across all models in all his books, the Canon 60D deserves detailed coverage. In this book, he manages to do that while still tailoring his explanations to suit beginners who have purchased a Canon 60D as their first D-SLR, intermediate photographers looking to improve their skills, and advanced shooters who want a fast way to learn the camera and gain some tips.
The book is well-organized so that any photographer of any level can quickly locate what they need to know. For example, there's a "Getting Started" chapter, which, the author acknowledges, will likely be read only after the reader has already taken a few hundred photos. It provides the kind of pre-flight checklist you wish you had when you bought your first digital SLR. Next comes a Quick Start chapter that leads you through the essential features of the camera, with just the basics and none of the mind-numbing detail, allowing you to immediately go out and shoot your best pictures, ever. The third chapter is a "roadmap" guide that carefully explains each of the controls on the camera, with many photos and the right amount of information. The thick, but small-format book that comes with the 60D has many cross-references that send you darting around. Busch gives you the nitty gritty here.
The author does devote several long chapters to explaining every menu option and, more importantly, why you should use each setting. Most other guides just list the menu item choices, and don't give you detailed examples of when to use a particular setting. The other books simply don't have room for this kind of depth. Highly recommended.

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The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)The digital photography handbook,
This is the most helpful book on digital photography I have seen in a while. Each page of the book has some scenario and a ways to work with is to get the best possible shot. It's also covers many different ways to overcome what ever adverse shooting situation you might be. Kelby Talks about cheap ways to overcome situations. He also talks about more expensive ways to overcome situations. On each subject where he discusses a scenario there are usually multiple photos to show you each effect of each solution will have on the photo. Each subject is covered very well in about two pages. The photography is outstanding and in color.
Kelby covers all types of digital photography from portraiture to landscape, lighting flashes, different types of digital cameras.
Kelby covers using a flash, building a studio from scratch, shooting portraits like a pro, shooting landscapes like a pro, shooting weddings like a pro, shooting travel like a pro, shooting macro like a pro, pro tips for getting photos and more photo recipes to help you get the shot. All of these subject are covered very well.
The book is written in an easy to understand, easy to read and with some humor. Each topic is about one page in length.
I consider myself to me an intermediate photographer and I can say that this is and continue to be very helpful to me. I This is a must for the beginner to intermediate photographer. The book is small enough to carry in your camera equipment bag. This book is packed with information and extremely helpful tips.

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David Busch's Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600D Guide to Digital SLR Photography (David Busch Camera Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is certainly the friendliest camera guide I've ever used, starting with the gentle easing into the use of this camera in the three Quick Start chapters, to the author's friendly, easy to understand style, and responsiveness to questions. There's a link to his blog in the beginning of the book, and I was surprised when he almost instantly answered one question I had when I sent him an email. (The answer was in the book, and could be found in the index, but I hadn't done that, and David kindly answered my question without quoting page number and verse.}
Now that I've taken the time to look at the book more closely, I find that everything is in there, including information I couldn't find in other guidebooks or even the book packaged with my T3i. The book is divided into 14 very complete chapters:
CH 1 - This is the introduction Canon should have provided with the camera. It describes everything you need to know to get started, and each section is preceded by a green highlighted box that tells you what will be described in that section, so you can skip over it and jump to the next section if you want. Most users who have owned a digital SLR in the past can skim through this helpful chapter, which has information on everything from charging the battery and formatting a memory card to setting diopter correction.
CH 2 - This is the true Quick Start meat, with the same green highlighted introductions that help you discover how to choose a shooting mode, focus mode, select a focus point, set white balance, ISO, use the flash, and review your first pictures. If you're unfamiliar with the T3i, this chapter will tell you everything you need to know to go out and take pictures.
CH 3 - This chapter has 20 pages of "roadmap" coverage of every control, dial, and viewing/playback screen of the T3i, replacing the couple pages of black and white drawings with endless cross references in the user manual, with 22 large, full-color illustrations. You'll know what each control does from this chapter, and can use it as a reference after you've been using the camera awhile.
CH 4, CH 5, CH 6, CH 7- Next, the author explains the basics you need to know to begin taking great pictures, with full chapters on Understanding Exposure, Mastering the Mysteries of Autofocus, and using Live View and Movies. In each of these chapters, he offers many tips, including advice that will help nail autofocus and exposure perfectly, and shoot interesting movies. Chapter 7 has advanced shooting tips for working with time exposures, long exposures, WiFi, and Geotagging. I was delighted to finally see these topics explored in a camera guide.
CH 8, CH 8 - Wow, did we ever need these 90 pages of advice on how to use the T3i's menus. I finally understand some of the more esoteric functions, and know why I should use every option. Other guides I've seen just list the entries and possible options with very little explanation. Thank you!
CH 10, CH 11, CH 12 - If you've been using your T3i long enough to wonder what lens to buy next, Chapter 10 gives you a clear comparison of all the most common lenses, with the author's evaluations The next two chapters are devoted to lighting and flash, and include the only chapter I've ever seen that covers only wireless flash, a new capability for this camera. It made me want to go out and buy a 320EX Speedlite and begin putting the author's lessons to work.
CH 13, CH 14 - I found these two chapters the least useful, with basic introductory information on software available for this camera (but without much how-to, as this is a camera guide, not a software book), and some troubleshooting advice that I haven't used yet, because I haven't had any trouble, upgraded my firmware, or needed to clean my sensor manually. I'm sure I'll find use for this later.
All in all, this book is a must for anyone who has bought a T3i and really wants to understand how to learn to use it directly from the leading Canon guru.


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Mastering Canon EOS Flash Photography Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm an advanced hobbyist photographer. I have Canon bodies and flashes. I've found lots of general flash resources that have all been somewhat helpful. However, the missing link is a book dedicated to Canon flash devices.
The author does an excellent job of examining the Canon system and of explaining the features of the flashes.
That said, this isn't a replacement for the manual; it doesn't go over every button press and configuration option. Instead, there are a lot of examples showing how to use the flash and its features to get better pictures. There's lots of before and after photos to show how a feature changes the resulting image.
If you've just bought your first Canon flash, you might feel that this book assumes you have too much knowledge that you don't already have. However, if you've already learned the basics, this book will teach you some techniques that you won't easily find elsewhere, and as it does it will also show you how to set up your flash (and sometimes, Canon camera) to enable them.
I've uploaded a picture to this page that was taken using a technique learned via this book. The link is near the picture of the cover of the book at the top of the page.

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Canon Speedlite System Digital Field Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)I originally borrowed this book from a friend, before purchasing it, and found it incredibly useful in learning about the Canon Speedlite. It's a great read, and a great reference book, going over how to use the flash in real world situations, and the results from using it. It goes over all the Canon Speedlite systems, so you won't be left out. Even if you use one particular flash, you should know your options, this book goes over those options.

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Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites Review

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(More customer reviews)I was fortunate to participate in a 2 day workshop with Syl in the lead up to this book, and now I have the book in my grubby little hands, I can heartily recommend it for anyone who is trying to get something more from their speedlites than Canon seems to think they are capable of.
If you've just bought your first speedlite, then this book will walk you through everything you need to know to get it off the camera *and* keep the wonderful ETTL functionality that so many people misunderstand or seem to dismiss as gimmicky.
If, like me, you've got a couple of speedlites and had already got them off the camera, then there is *still* material in here that will help you up your game and expand what you are able to make these wonderful little lighting gadgets do. My biggest revelation in off camera ETTL speedliting? Buy a long ETTL cable :) Syl turned me onto what can be achieved if I get my master speedlite off the camera, on a cable so I can trigger my slave anywhere, including behind my model. So simple, yet I never thought of it.
There are tons of full color photos in the book that cover every topic covered in writing, making it perfect for us visual learners.
Did I mention, it's Canon specific? So little has been written for us ... all those "brand independent" books I've read and purchased in the past still assume only Nikon is able to handle off camera flash work, never really giving Canon their due. Finally, something I can simply follow along with the buttons on my own system and understand the same terminology.
Simply - *the* book to buy if you want to get better at what we do in the Canon world.

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Getting your Canon Speedlite to produce the light you need can be a real challenge. For those new to flash photography—or for anyone who has previously given up out of frustration—Speedliter's Handbook is a revelation. Photographer Syl Arena takes you on a journey that begins with an exploration of light and color, moves through a comprehensive discussion of the Canon Speedlite family and all of the accessories and equipment available to the Speedliter, then settles down to crafting great light in one photo shoot after another. Whether you want to create a classical portrait, shoot an event, or simply add a little fill light to a product shot, Speedliter's Handbook shows you how.A fantastic in-depth resource illustrated with over 500 images, Speedliter's Handbook covers:
how to see the various characteristics and properties of light itself, as well as the differences between how your camera sees versus how you see
all the buttons and dials of the entire Canon Speedlite family
the basics of on-camera flash…and the necessity of getting your flash off the camera
how to beautifully balance flash with the existing ambient light
all the equipment necessary for great Speedlite shots
how to get amazing shots with just one Speedlite
how and when to use E-TTL versus manual flash
the use of color gels to balance color, as well as create dramatic effects
how to tame the sun—or any really bright light—with hi-speed sync
and much, much more
Whether you're shooting portraits, events, or sports, Speedliter's Handbook is an essential resource that teaches you how to craft the light you need for any type of shot you want.

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