Most book shops have shelves bulging with Digital Photography books, there are many so many books to choose from covering all aspects of photography from taking the picture to manipulation. So which are the books to buy?

The ILEX Press Ltd, publish a wide variety of technical and creative books. They have an extensive catalogue of well illustrated and easy to follow photography books. The books are written by some of the leading names in digital imaging. For the first in a series of book reviews I will take a look at a few Ilex titles starting with -

The Book of Digital Photography
Author: Chris George
255mm x 185mm
Paperback with flaps - 320 pages
1200 pictures
Price £20
ISBN 10: 1-904705-85-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-904705-85-7
Published by The Ilex Press Ltd

Over the years I have seen and reviewed many books that claim to be the definitive guide to digital photography and they cover most aspects of photography from the camera through to image editing. Most skim the surface but never get really get down to the nuts and bolts of useful information.

The Book of Digital Photography succeeds where others fail. Chris George knows his stuff and dives straight in, explaining how a digital camera works, the functions and how it captures the image. I know just how difficult it is to write on a level that is easily understood, yet still give enough information. Chris’s writing is clear and straight to the point, his explanations make sense even to my mother-in-law, furthermore it’s backed up with excellent and inspiring photography.

The book is divided into three sections; Capture, Manipulation and Output & Storage.

The Capture chapters include:

• Cameras
• Basic cameras – perhaps too basic for this book, includes cell phone camera and non zoom cameras
• Zoom compacts – this section could have been called Compact cameras and should have been expanded, given that this is the most popular camera type.
• Hybrid Cameras – I have always known this camera to be a Prosumer, as with the previous category this is a little thin on information
• Digital SLRs – I suspect that the reader who buys this book will be using a SLR. Again the information for this section is limited but the book goes into more detail on how to use a camera later on.
• Specialist cameras – this includes underwater cameras, underwater housing, medium format cameras and digital backs on large format cameras.

The rest of the first section covers most aspects of shooting with a digital camera including: The lens, Sensors, Sensitivity (ISO settings), pixels, digital processing, file formats, memory card types, EXIF information, power supply, focusing screens, focus modes, close ups, exposure metering, colour temperature, manual white balance, flash techniques, motor drives and in-camera effects.

Staying in the Capture chapter, the next section deals with creative control. This includes; shutter speeds, holding the camera steady, freezing movement, blurred movement (for effect), long exposures, camera supports, depth of field, selective focus, apertures and resolution, focal length, perspective, isolating subject from the background, wide angle lenses, telephoto lenses and filters.

And there is more, the next section is devoted to seeing the picture. Chris gives plenty of sound advice on; composition, using the frame format, colour, form and outline, texture, pattern, using rule of thirds and diagonals, adding depth, symmetry, camera angles, varying camera height, pixel processing, lighting, natural light, soft and hard light, front lighting, side lighting, backlighting, use of reflectors, camera flash, studio lighting, style and subject, conveying a message, abstract, monochrome, people, wildlife, architecture, sports, travel and landscapes.

The final section covers; film and flatbed scanners, scanning resolution and making a scan.

The opening Capture chapter alone covers more topics than most other books in their entirety, the explanations are very good and illustrated with images that you can easily relate to. My only criticism is that each of the topics covered are worthy of a book on their own and perhaps this book is over ambitious. However, Chris gives enough information to keep the reader interested and sufficient inspiration to make the reader want to explore the various subjects in greater detail.

At this stage we are at page 188 – part two Manipulation.

Here Chris explains all the necessary equipment and software needed to make a Digital Darkroom – did I read that right? Yes, a Digital Darkroom, this title has to my all time pet hate, the computer is not a Darkroom, why do authors always compare digital imaging to a bygone era of film photography. Having got that of my chest, Chris covers a variety of subjects including; keyboards, mice, graphics tablet, screens, screen calibration and software. The chapter continues and gives a good overview of what the various functions and controls do in Photoshop. Covering the functions and use of Photoshop in 50 pages is a tall order, but after reading the pages I didn’t feel Chris had missed much, perhaps he has overlooked one or two expert tweaks but that would be an unfair criticism. He ends the chapter with a section on reinventing darkroom techniques.

The final Chapter – Output and Storage, contains information on transferring files from a camera to a PC, backing up and storage, hard drives, CD & DVD storage, cataloguing (an overlooked item in many books), data recovery. The book concludes with printers, printing, inks, media, colour management, emailing, slide shows, online albums and outputting for web pages.

I have seen many books which claim to be the complete guide to digital photography, most are not, and many fall short on the useful information. The Book of Digital Photography is packed from cover to cover with quality material, enough to get you productive. Even though I have a lot of digital imaging facts and figures stored away in my head I found myself browsing through the book on many occasions .

An excellent book that has been superbly produced, well written and should be regarded as a first choice for anyone wanting to explore digital photography.

Highly recommended.

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