I have found this book a very good introduction to digital photography. I have friends that improved their knowledge and their photos from some of Kelby's insights. I personally enjoyed Rick Sammon's book. Rick Sammon's Digital Photography Secrets Rivchin

As an amateur photographer (at best), I found this book entertaining, easy to read and just as easy to follow. This book has great tips, and is one of the best that I have found out there. Kelby does not really teach you the "science," but rather what he would do in certain situations. It is written as if you are standing beside him at a photo shoot, he more or less directs you to which settings you should change and when, not necessarily why.

I already had this book and really enjoyed it. When my granddaughter became interested in photography I thought she would get a lot out of it. When I found out that she was getting a new digital camera for Christmas I decided to order this book as an addition to her presents from us. At last report she was reading the book completely and liked it a lot.
Johnny

I find it hard to believe that I'm writing this, but I simply must save unsuspecting readers from frustration I experienced. I'm amateur photographer and always willing to learn something new, so I was lured to this book by positive reviews in my quest for knowledge and better pictures. I failed to heed the warnings in the negative reviews (which I normally do) and now I'm terribly regretting this because every bit of critique appears to be true.
I usually read introductions and acknowledgements, so this book immediately alienated me with author's ill-conceived sense of humor. The funny part though is that author realizes (admits it in the book) that his humor attempts are "lame" at best but still insist of occupying at least 5% of the book with this trash. What also contributes to the injury is the author's writing style and "pro" reference in each paragraph. Basically each tip is aimed not at learning something new, but rather at "looking like a pro". I find it ridiculous, but it surely attracts all those photo-wannabes that give this book positive reviews.
Now let's look at the content. Each page consists of paragraph(s) of text with some "useful" tip and a picture to illustrate the tip. Do not assume that pictures illustrate a technique, and you could learn anything from them. Most of the time pictures are pointless and/or of questionable artistic value. You will see plenty pictures of cameras, camera menus, camera controls, authors family and friends and even mindless clipart in cases where author was too lazy to actually come up with the photo. Bogus pictures occupy exactly half of each page, so you could surely cut the book in half and convert it to nice pocket format without losing anything.
The quality of tips in the book is of dubious nature. I would say that about half of them is just a common sense. Trust me, you do not need a book to figure out that camera has to be steady to make sharp pictures or that by throwing away you picture CDs you are risking that somebody might gain access to your work. It also unlikely that you bought this book to be reminded that your work has to be backed up (several "tips" devoted to that).
Now the tiny part of the book that actually contains some useful information is misdirected. For people that spend some time shooting (i'm not even talking about ubiquitous "pros" here) all the "tips" are self-evident and are on borderline with common sense. Many of them are blatantly oversimplified of just plain incorrect. For beginners those tips do not make much sense because they lack the basics which are not covered by this book.
In general this book is the worst disappointment I ever had (in books at least :). Spend your time and money elsewhere. There are plenty of good books for beginners and advanced photographers out there and this is just happens not to be one of them. If you really want to improve your pictures better read Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) or Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. The latter, especially, going to make you a better photographer, guaranteed.

I purchased this book because I recently got a Canon DSLR also from Amazon. I am a total beginner when it comes to using a SLR. So I got this one because of the gret reviews. This book is very good. Easy to read and very informative. I've also bought a couple of others, but like this one the best. I am planning on also getting the volumes 2 and 3 in the near future.

The book is not completely useless. You can "extract" a few tips from the book. However, al books of this author (yes, I've read them all) are lacking a basic order. It looks like the author never bothered to put things together, simply writing about anything that comes to his mind. For example, he writes about sharp pictures, then, once he gets to a word "flash", he completely switches from the main subject and keeps writing about different kind of flashes you can get from one particular store. Then, while talking about flashes, he gets to white balance, or something else, and keeps talking about that totally different subject. Then, the wedding comes to his mind. Ok, here we go, we talk about weddings, which get us to making sharp pictures, which leads to flashes and lenses, etc., etc. etc. Repetitions, repetitions, repetitions... The "jokes" are very distracting. While reading many things, I was thinking: "what is he talking about, is he out of his mind?" then you realize: "ah, that was a joke". Silly.

I had to buy this for a digital photography course. Scott Kelby is a great photographer and his photographs prove that. Even I, as a long-standing amateur, picked up a few new tricks.

I found his lame humor at the beginning of the book distracting, though. Sure, he's a funny guy but anyone serious about learning all the tips of great photography may be annoyed at the wasted words. It wouldn't have hurt to have added a few more technical descriptions of how certain tricks work.

What I really enjoyed were his special tips at the bottom of many pages. Those were the ones framed and shaded in hues of green. Another bonus was mentioning both Nikon and Canon features when there were differences between the two brands' terminology. A few added Adobe Photoshop tricks also round out the information in this slim how-to book.

I would recommend this book for someone who already has taken a few good photographs and who is familiar with her own camera. But for someone more determined to turn pro, there are more technical and just as simplified books out there.

4+ stars

I paid $14.60 of this book at Amazon, and I'm glad I bought it. If you have more time than money, don't buy this book--you can probably find most of the suggestions on the web for free. The thing is, you have to take the time to find them. The great thing about this book is that all the very-useful suggestions are in the same place. That's why I gave this review the title I did. There are good hints for avid photographers who are just shooting for their own satisfaction (like the section on Taking Travel and City Life Shots), or for more serious photographers who might want to make some money doing this (Like the section on Shooting a Wedding). I'm satisfied enough to consider Scott's other books, though I have not ruled out other authors.

i bought this book for a friend who is "into" photography, yet didn't have any background on how film photography works vs. digital photography, film theory, etc. This book is really informative, has great illustrative step by steps,and gives the reader a good grasp. Very instructional,not hard to understand.

I learned a lot after reading this book. The author used easytechniques in how to take pictures like a pro! I am a beginner and want to learn about photography. The author gave very simple suggestion about what to use when you do this..and do that thing...

It's packed with much informations for Canons, Nikons and even point and shooter cameras. It's user friendly.

After 666 reviews not much I can say except this is not necessarily the right book to buy.

Take the time to read some of more negative but constructive comments. Scott has lots of good ideas. He also gives lots of ideas that are either outdated or wrong in the views of other top photographers.

Please, before buying this book take a little more time and review Bryan Peterson's series. And there are others on the internet often free.

If I had never bought Scott Kelby's book (books) I could have saved money on better equipment choices and learned just as much or more with other photographer's books and internet videos.

Now I see Scott even has three volumes in CostCo. At half price they are still not the best choice and go off on studio methods and others less useful methods.

Scott if your listening have a good laugh ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.

Couldn't stand the book long enough to make it past chapter 4. I payed $25 for this small compact book expecting it to be packed with great tips, not obvious common sense. Like others have mentioned, the author wastes plenty of space with stupid jokes which makes it that much more irritating that I spent so much on such a small book with little to no good information. I don't know if anyone else noticed but in chapter two the title is "Shooting Flowers Like a Pro". Well after page 34 I see page 59 and a blank page with the title "Shooting Weddings Like a Pro". Then in the landscape chapter the end of page 82 says "There's more -- go to the next page..." and what do you know, the next page is 35 and is blank. The title on page 35 is "Shooting Flowers Like a Pro". And the numbering actually continues from 35 on! With such horrible content and an editor who apparently is blind this book is not worth a red cent! I have never been so disappointed in a book before!

Yup, I liked this book, it had some great ideas and some small tips that proved very eye-opening. I do, however, feel it should be read with a grain of salt (as should all things, really) because often it reads less like a tutorial and more like an extended shopping list. After learning from so many photographers that "It's not about the equipment you have, but more about how you use it," it's surprising to see this experienced photographer pushing equipment much more than important techniques. Sadly the basic techniques that he advises are somewhat... basic. Then some of the other tips (like where to position the camera when taking a full body portrait, a torso shot, or a head shot) really opened my eyes and had me saying "Oh! I get it now!" If you don't know anything about the rule of thirds or how to use the 'P' setting on your camera then this book is for you, however, don't run out and buy everything he suggests, and definitely read this book ALONGSIDE some more maturely written works like Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure;" one of Kelby's reccommendations which I thoroughly agree with (I say more maturely written because, sadly Kelby is one of the more annoying authors I've read.) I will continue to read the next two installments in this series, because I feel the next volumes may be more targetted to my level of ability, however I will do so with the same grain of salt, and strive to ignore his AWFUL (I really can't stress that enough) puns.

[...]

I will try to make this short. I have currently decided to really learn more about photography and take better advantage of the camera that I purchased earlier this year. This book is geared more towards those who own digital SLRs but many of the latest point-and-shoot cameras (such as my Canon SX10is) are capable of capturing great photographs as well. This book can help those of us who have not decided to invest in a DSLR rig yet as well.

This book will inspire you to push yourself and does not beat you up with photography jargon. Do not pay serious attention to the reviewers who gripe about the humor. It is easily ignored. This book is more about helping everyone take better photographs and is absolutely great for beginning photographers.

I hate reading books... seriously... they bore me! I haven't put this book down since I bought it! THE BEST BOOK OUT THERE!!!

Very good basics, written in very casual form - leaving a lot of the technical details as much as possible, to make sure the readers could grasp the concept, understand and remember the useful tips.

I actually bought Volume 2 first (a printed copy on actual paper!) because I consider myself an advanced amateur photographer and could probably skip most of the Volume 1 content. I liked this book enough that I gave Volumes 1 and 3 a closer look. These books are priced a bit high for printed copies. They're aren't very long and are a pretty quick read. Most pages aren't completely filled. So, I decided to get the Kindle editions of Volumes 1 and 3 to read on my iPhone and PC at home. I don't own an actual Kindle device. Photography books are next to useless on currently available e-ink screens like the Kindle's. I had hoped for better results on the iPhone and PC when viewing these books, though. The images are there (another user said the images didn't display at all on his Kindle...), but on the iPhone, they are so overly compressed and low-resolution that they are nearly useless for their intended demonstration of photographic techniques. The PC version of the Kindle reader also suffers from this problem. The PC version currently does not allow you to zoom in on photos either, though, that is supposedly a "coming soon" feature. Not that it will do any good unless Amazon does something about the image compression and resizing. Books tagged as "photography" books should have special care taken with images they contain. The images are half the point of the book!

As an amatetur photographer, who mostly shoots outdoor photography, I found that this book provided me some very quick tips, application of which showed almost instantaneous improvements to the quality of my photographs. There are some advanced topics too, so, you shouldn't grow out of it too soon.

This hold-my-hand-and-show-me-how you do it, is really great for a newbie but if you know what you are doing then just stay away from it. Am a gret fun of scott, I watch his every week photoshoptv and have several of his books. This one too what I should warn you about is the second one which is totally rubbish just capitlizing on this which is good enough.
if you need to be told what to do on each and every step then this is the book. I think wedding photographers can get alot out of it, its full of tricks for them.

I didn't give it 1 star for 2 reasons.

Reason 1 - I like quirky humor. I liked the douglas adams reference of 42. The dark humor relating to the profession. ect.

However, I found myself quickly annoyed by the running jokes. I've been known to yell at a movie I'm watching on tv things like "come on, get on with it!" This is the first time I've done that reading a book.

Reason 2 - The book gives equipment suggestions and what you can expect to spend.

However, this becomes outdated quickly. By the time someone decides to invest in better equipment, it will be outdated equipment, but hopefully cheaper.

The rest of the book is junk. Filler. The value stinks. This is an expensive book for what it is.

There are only two "secrets" of photography that are not secrets. And not worth [...] bucks they want for this book. Here they are. Use a tripod/bipod/monopod and a remote trigger. Lighting, shoot at dawn or dusk, and only at dawn and dusk, (or diffused light)

All the rest of the tricks in the book relating to composition ect, are common sense. And not because after you read them you say "oh, yeah, that makes sense" Many newbies will have these same concepts from the beginning.

I'm ashamed of buying this book and contibuting to the writers/publishers pocketbook.

Listen! Do you want to learn photography? Do you know the shutter-apperture marriage and want to learn how to position your camera and take great shots? Do you want to get better if you are just starting photography? Then this is a PERFECT book for you.

Ok. Yes, there are a few annoying jokes - I did not find them annoying thou.. But if you want to play along with the writer of this book, you should get into his jokes... He said this is a companion book... and he is just trying to be friendly and next to you while you take the shot. He is breaking the moment with a joke - which for some can be annoying - but if can call it silly, then you are going to get the best ideas for your next photo shoot...

Yes, get this book... If you are a pro, you might know everything in this book. But if you are not a pro... then get the book. Is worth the money. Even in 5 years you will get back to this book...

Yes, I like the book a lot. I just got it yesterday, and I went through the first 50 pages... And no, I do not get any profit out of this review...

Cheers!! and have fun taking photo shots!

Book didn't come as soon as I had hoped but when it arrived I was very satisfied.

Although I read the reviews and absorbed the critical remarks about Scott's jokes, I thought I could ignore them and I was able to for the most part... and I got it that he was a Photoshop guy and I am a camera guy...but I thought that I could find enough tips and information to make the book useful. What I didn't read in the reviews and didn't learn until it was too late is that there are absolutely NO photos or illustrations in the Kindle edition. So for the last 25% of the book when there is specific instruction - - - "If you want to take a picture like this... But there is no picture to look at. I am affraid that I have been way too generous with my one star and for sure won't make this kind of error again with any of Scott's books. Not worth any price for a Kindle edition.

I'm totally new to photography. This book provides some very good, practical advice, especially for beginning photographers. It's not an extensive how to book, but it gives you some good info how to achieve certain shots. Definitely recommend it to anyone starting out in photography. It's not a techy kind of book.

- Gives you practical advices
- Written with humor
- Talks to both Canon and Nikon users (Including the instructions given in text \ images)
- Assumes you know nothing, great for beginners

The reason I didn't choose the 5 stars rank is because I'm one of those guys who looks for the theory behind
the practical advices, and I think you won't find too much of that in this book..
(Scott Kelby: "This isn't a book of theory - full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts.")

In my opinion, the overall is good, I enjoyed reading it.

As other reviews have noted, Scott Kelby's puns are either something you like, are distracted by or absolutely loathe. In this it is a matter of each to their own.

However a lot of the advice in this book is not useful or very one-sided. For example, the section on sports photography (on which their is an entire chapter) may be summed up by saying "it is expensive". To be fair there is some useful advice (such as many of the professionals take two bodies, one with a wide-angle lens and one with a fast telephoto because you *won't* have time to switch lenses) which is why I gave the book two stars.

The most disappointing piece of "advice" was on "Being careful what you shoot". Kelby suggests that you delete pictures if security guards demand it, otherwise they may take your camera etc. They have no right to do this .... the excellent "rights of photographers" by Lawyer Bert Krages tells you about what right mere security guards (and even police officers have) and it does NOT include demanding that you delete pictures from your camera. At best the guards can require you to leave the area (if you are on their property) but they cannot generally demand that you stop taking pictures from a public area. It is true that some will try and harass you, but you are within your rights to refuse to delete your pictures and they (in particular, security guards) cannot detain you. This is even true for government buildings; although with military bases you are probably on your own =).

If Kelby had claimed that you risk being harassed if you took pictures of government buildings, and that you may wish to delete your pictures to avoid problems then that may be sound advice. But he writes that if he had not deleted his pictures he would have probably had his camera removed (factually false -- if this happens it is theft; call the police) -- and encourages photographers to roll over on their civil rights.

It seems that Kelby's ignorance will not stop him from making very authoritive statements, and to me this brings into question much of the other (also very authoritatively) stated advice.

Quick tips, not so much theory as many other photography books, makes you feel by reading "The digital photography book" as if you were attending a seminar; where what students are looking forward to hearing is "how this shot was taken" or "what to do" in a certain situation.

I admit I didn't appreaciate much Scott Kelby's sense of humour but this book gave me a push to take much better photos as an amateur photographer.

Have already read the 2nd volume and looking forward to starting the 3rd one.

Straight-shooting, easy to read, no holds barred writing. Fits my needs, interests and attention span.

This is a very practical, down-to-earth book that you can actually use and not have to learn all the technical details. I have picked up a bunch of good ideas that I have immediately put to good use.

As other negative reviewers have noted, there is a *lot* of worthless mockery and jokes and gotchas around the real wisdom in this book. If you have loads of time and enjoy sifting through trash to find gems, grab this book. Otherwise you're better off with free web resources, like Ken Rockwell's site, that get straight to the point.

Wish the author would write "cliff notes" for this that removed all the junk and mocking tone.

I'm always a little hesitant to buy a book like this without flipping through it a little bit first but a friend had already recommended it. Scott Kelby is a wonderful author. The book is both informative and entertaining. I am just a hobbyist but often find myself going back to reference this book. I took me no time at all to read this book and really look forward to reading the second and third. (I bought all three right away.)

Scott Kelby does a good job giving amateur photographers the tips and tricks they need to go from simple to good. Although he doesn't take the time to talk about what the concepts really mean (such as aperture, shutter speed, focus, etc.) it is easy enough to go thru the book without having this knowledge.

What I like the most is he gives the specific settings you need to take great shots. He also tells you what he was thinking when he took some of the photographs in the book. Each page is basically it's own chapter. There is sometimes an illustration and some text talking about it.

If you want to quick, general, easy-to-understand guide to digital photography, don't hesitate to pick up this little gem. I also suggest you move on to Volume 2 when you're done, because that's where the really magic is...

As a novice in digital photography, I found this book to be very straight to the point, organized and very practical, and easy to understand. My photos definitely improved with this book...

So easy to understand and very helpful! I'm looking forward to reading more from him.

Finally, a book in a language I can understand! Awesome for a beginner like me :O) Definitely get this book!

for all beginers and it's a really a good way to start photographing ! the language is plain simple and its directs you to the point staight. i highly recommend this book. I got Vol. 2 and planing for the 3rd!

Right to the point. On page 90, the silhouettes explanation was VERY short and vague. But, nevertheless a good book for beginners!

Sometimes, the jokes and fun stuff got a bit much, but the tips are good. For me, choosing aperture and shutter speed is always a challenge, as well as the Program, Aperture, Shutter & Manual settings on the Nikon D80. Scott's tips are good. I can reread them again and again to help remember. I also liked the mix of camera techniques and Photoshop Elements tips. I recommend the book.

The Digital Photography Book is great for any level photographer. I've been shooting since 1970 and bought the book more for review than anything else. I found it was well written and it had subjects that I was interested in. Great book for beginners, and semi-pros.

I bought a DSLR camera to take better pictures of both family and my son's sporting events, which I succeeded at. Then, I wanted to "step things up" and take even better photos so bought this book based on amazon reviews. If you are pretty new to DSLR's and want to know more, this is the book for you. The advice and hints in the book are brief and to the point; Kelby does not go into massive detail that only the serious professional can understand, but takes his teaching down to the amateur level so even the newest DSLR owners can majorly improve their photo-taking.
I want to add that I also purchased books 2 and 3 recently and even though a few of the points in the books are repetitive, by combining all the great things I have learned in all three books, I feel I am now on my way to being a serious photographer instead of a wanna-be. I now know what ISO to use when, what mm to shoot at for what, what modes to use and why, how to use my flash correctly in all types of lighting, how F-stops work and why, etc, and can do so on the fly to take the best shot possible. Thanks Scott Kelby for a great set of books!

I am new to photography and finally purchased my first DSLR camera (Canon50D). Now after reading the entire manual, I wondered what I got myself into. It has all these great features, but says nothing about how you should use them to take great pictures. So my next step was too look for a book that would introduce me to digital photography using a SLR camera. Well this book delivered. Scott makes the book easy to read and even makes it easier to pick up the camera and start shooting. Though his humor and intellect, I've managed to stop using all the auto settings and to started to shoot in the other modes that the camera has. He provides instructions on how to use certain features on a Nikon or a Canon which makes it relative to the camera you are using. He even gives suggestions on equipment and work arounds if you don't have the "professional" equipment. Each chapter is on a separate type of photography, and gives you the practical answers that anyone can understand. I loved this book so much, that I ended up buying the next 2 books in the series.
So if you are just starting out, or want to take you skills to the next level, then this is a great book.

This book was a great help with lots of tips. It is very easy to read; I kept it in the car for when I was waiting somewhere and it was very easy to read here and there and still get very valuable information. Great tips, nice photos, great suggestions on equipment without being a "sales pitch". I would recommend this book for anyone looking to improve their digital photos.

I bought this book because I recently purchased the Canon's Rebel T1. After reading some of the reviews, I thought this would be a great beginners book. However, this book doesn't offer any information that I can not find online or in my owners manual for free. I thought he was going to provide insight and professional tricks and tools of the trade. I feel like I've been ripped off and I'd like my money back, however, I guess this will make for good reading to pass the time away on the subway commute home.

Very Disappointed

This is the best book on Digital Photography I have ever read. Usually most books of this type are so full of technical stuff I don't understand that it bogs me down and I quit reading the book. Scott Kelby writes this as though he is standing next to you explaining in laymans terms how to do things with your digital camera. I only have his first book and I have learned so much from him. It's easy to read and interspersed with humor. He is easy to understand and I can't wait to purchase his other 2 books. Check out Scott's books, you won't be disappointed.

I love the writing in this book. Funny and witty and entertaining while teaching you some basic photography tricks. Loved it.

I recommend Scott Kelby's books to anyone looking to learn about photography. The books are easy to read and well written. He doesn't bog you down with the minute
details of digital photography. He shows you a picture and how to setup your camera to shoot something similar. I find Scott's style more helpful than understanding exactly how the CMOS sensor in my camera works, like some books try to teach. The book is geared toward Nikon and Canon cameras but anyone can use the information in the book. You would just need to use your cameras manual to find the settings. After reading his Digital Photography Books I'm planning to ready Scott's Photoshop and Lightroom books.

All three volumes are written in the very same manner: one big picture on each page (like 1/3 from each page) and some text under it. Even though, i liked all books (right now I'm finishing the third volume), I love the way how the books is written (I always had the impression that Scott is right next to me and explain me various stuff), I learned some stuff but I feel like I want more than that.

Even if the book claim to be for amateur photographers, the price for various accesories is way over an amateur budget. I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling too comfortable paying more than $300 for a light difuser or a light box, $200-300 for a tripod, and more for lights, lenses and so on. Also, most amateurs won't spend too much on an advanced digital camera like those presented in all books. I own a D40. Is low entry, I know, but that's the trick: I'm an AMATEUR, I don't want to spend a fortune on cameras and camera accessories.

I'm gonna to review the kindle version of this book, since there are already tons of reviews about "the contents" of the book, but not really the kindle version. Firstly, the price is halved. With that said, you are not going to have the paper version quality of the book, and $10 dollar still seems a bit steep consider following drawbacks. Secondly, it's a black-and-white version, meaning, you don't get to see the nice colorful pictures as in the paper version. Well, to be fair, you know the kindle is black-and-white only, so you would expect this at the very beginning. Nevertheless, the pictures (in the gray scales) are decent, and helped to illustrate the photography points. Thirdly, the book is converted to the kindle version very cheaply. I mean, it just feel like someone used a cheap software to convert the pdf into a hacky e-book, and you would expect amazon's official version does better than that: the pictures and tips are no longer fit in one page (well, granted since you can change the font size on kindle), and you often see a half page picture with no text below it; but more importantly, sometimes the text got cropped at the end of a page, and you see a wacky black half line there, fortunately, the next page recovers the last two lines in the previous page. The content of book section is usable for jumping into different chapters, however, because each tip deserves a hyperlink there, you need to flip many pages to get to the next chapter.

To summarize, the kindle version of this book is usable, with a few cracks of bad formatting. The gray pictures are somewhat helpful, though definitely worse than the colored ones on paper. The only one benefit of the kindle version over the paper version is that it does not add weight to your existing kindle :p, and slightly cheaper price.

With that said, this is a great book for digital photography. The tips are very helpful, and the book is fun to read.

"The Digital Photography Book" I have found excellent, I have completed several digital photography courses, and have many books on the subject, this one is so different. It is step by step, it covers those topics (although not in intense depth) that you spend hours on the net trying to find the answers for. (Usually after you have covered the topic elsewhere, but you can't remember the exact details or what course you learnt it in)eg "How do i set the camera up for panning" or "How do I frame this type of landscape". The book is great size to carry with you, has these great little section at the back of the book with "Recipes" for getting most of the popular type of shots taken. All in all a brilliant little book that gets picked up far more than I thought it would. And its great resource material for when I am planning to take certain type of shots. A quick easy to understand refresher.

Juanita