THE
EVERYTHING
DIGITAL
PHOTOGRAPHY
BOOK
2ND EDITION
Shoot, upload, and enhance
photos like a pro
Rick deGaris Doble
Copyright 2008, 2002 by F+W Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions
are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.
An Everything Series Book.
Everything and everything.com are registered trademarks of F+W Publications, Inc.
Published by Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company
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ISBN 10: 1-59869-569-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-569-4
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-2448-6
Printed in the United States of America.
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Interior photographs by Rick deGaris Doble
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THE EVERYTHING Digital Photography Book 2ND EDITION
Dear Reader,
If you like to take pictures and you see scenes you want to capture every-where you go, digital photography is for you. It is an exciting art form that has opened up new worlds of visual expression and it is easy to learn.
In this book I have put together my best tips, learning strategies, and solid information from forty years of experience in photography, twenty of them including computers and digital imaging. Having taught photography for twenty years, I know how to explain technical concepts in simple but accurate terms. My purpose is to create the most useful book available on the craft of digital photography.
Learning the how-to of photography is just the start. Once you know how photography works, you can record and create your own view of the world. I've also included plenty of ideas to whet your creative appetite.
I have been recording my own view of the world for years on my Web site at www.RickDoble.net. My digital work has been shown in museums, magazines and symposiums around the world. I hope that you, too, will have a satisfying future in photography, whether for personal or professional enrichment.
Welcome to the EVERYTHING Series!
These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.
You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our five useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, e-ssentials, e-definitions. We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.
We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When you're done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!
Answers to common questions
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Definitions
DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION Paula Munier
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Laura M. Daly
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, SERIES BOOKS Brielle K. Matson
ASSOCIATE COPY CHIEF Sheila Zwiebel
ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Kerry Smith
DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Elizabeth Kassab
PRODUCTION EDITOR Casey Ebert
Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com
To Ross Scroggs, Director of the UNC-Chapel Hill photo lab, who taught me that photography was both simple and exacting
Top Ten Milestones in Photography
About 1,000 years ago, the camera was invented by an Iraqi scientist named Abu Ali al-Hasan (AKA Ibn al-Haytham). It was called the camera obscura, and it projected an image onto a surface in a dark room.
About 200 years ago, light-sensitive material that could record images from a camera was invented. Joseph Nicphore Niepce, a French inventor, made these first photos around 1814.
Kodak invented flexible film and mass-marketed the Brownie camera in 1900. Millions of people were able to take family pictures for the first time.
Arthur Korn invented the electronic transfer of photographic images in 1902. The pictures were called wire photos and used primarily by newspapers.
Leica introduced 35 mm cameras in 1925. Their small size made them the cameras of choice for professional journalists.
Contax made the first commercially produced modern single-lens reflex in 1949. It became the professional's camera of choice.
Minolta added autofocus to the single-lens reflex camera in 1985.
Digital photography became commercially available to the public around 1995 with cameras made by Apple, Casio, Kodak, and Sony.
Today 30 million digital cameras are sold annually in the United States.
About 10 years from now it is estimated that more than one billion people will have digital camera cell phones, many of which allow posting on the Internet.
Introduction
PHOTOGRAPHY IS BOTH simple and exacting. Just about anyone can take an okay picture these days, but few understand how to take a dynamite photo. The difference between a snapshot and a stunning photograph is knowledge.
This book is designed to be a complete guide to the art and science of digital photography. In its pages you will find simple, practical how-to information. In addition to the nuts and bolts, you will also find plenty of suggestions about unleashing your creative potential.
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