How-to Books - Page 6

Life: Heaven on Earth: 100 Places to See in Your Lifetime (Life)

Editors of Life Magazine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great Travel Ideas, Beautiful Photos 5 out of 5 stars.
21 of 21 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book to get travel ideas. I was not disappointed. It included several terrific places that I've already gone to such as Paris and Cartagena, Colombia, several places I've already planned to go to such as Guilin, China and Kauai and dozens of beautiful places I had never known about before. Only 20 of the places are from the United States so it does a good job of depicting places from every continent except the south pole.

The photos, for the most part, are high quality and beautiful. The only drawback is that there is only one picture of each location with only a one paragraph description of each place. Although you will have to do more research on your own if you are interested in actually going there, this is a very good place to get started.

Another good book is "Unforgettable Places to See Before You Die" which only has 40 places, but has multiple photos of each place as well as a six to eight page description of each place. There's not that much overlap since only about 15 places are in both books.

Editorial Review:

From the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx to the mysteries of Easter Island and Stonehenge, the editors of Life draw on the world's finest photography to reveal why you must include these truly special 100 places in your life's itinerary. Drink in the kaleidoscope that is Australia's Great Barrier Reef and gaze at the majesty of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. Sample the sophisticated splendor of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris and the sun-baked wonders of the fortress city of the Andes, Machu Picchu. And, of course, the treasures of America are not forgotten, such as the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon and the serene Atlantic beauty of Nantucket Island.

Mutter Museum Historic Medical Photographs

College of Physicians of Philadelphia

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first book on the Mütter Museum contain artful images of the museum's fascinating exhibits shot by contemporary fine art photographers. Here, the focus is on the museum’s archive of rare historic photographs, most of which have never been seen by the public. Featured are poignant, aesthetically accomplished works ranging from Civil War photographs showing injury and recovery, to the ravages of diseases not yet conquered in the 19th century, to pathological anomalies, to psychological disorders. Many were taken by talented photographers between the 1860s and the 1940s as records for physicians to share among colleagues and to track patients’ conditions, and demonstrate various techniques used in medical photography including the daguerreotype, micrography, X ray, and traditional portrait-style photography. As visual documents of what humans endured in the face of limited medical knowledge, these extraordinary and haunting photographs demonstrate how far medicine has advanced.

Inspirations

Preston Bailey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

chic ideas 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm an Interior Designer and this is a practical guide for clients visually. I'm not for copying works but inspiration to what we can do of endless possibilities.

Beautiful pictures 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book so I can find ideas for my wedding decoration, it has great and beautiful pictures, but obviously it's impossible to try to imitate Preston Bailey's ideas. I do recommend this book. You can use it afterwards for a coffee table book.

Editorial Review:

INSPIRATIONS is a lush sourcebook of ideas for creating the perfect ambiance for any major party or event. INSPIRATIONS is packed with gorgeous photographs of 10 such parties. Ranging from modern to romantic, and the majority of arrangements pictured have never before been seen. The chapters will focus on Bailey's inspirational elements derived from art, travel, nature, and more.

Preston Bailey has established himself as the floral designer for celebrities and the affluent alike, and he continues to set the bar for event design. Over the past year, some of his clients have included Donald and Melania Trump, Regis Philbin, and Oprah Winfrey.

Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D90 (Magic Lantern Guides)

Simon Stafford

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Editorial Review:

- The first DSLR with high definition movie capability demands new skills and techniques, and this is the only guide that can help the advanced amateur master them

- Written by best-selling author and Nikon technical expert Simon Stafford.

- The DVD allows new owners to learn from the experts

Mastering HDR Photography: Combining Technology and Artistry to Create High Dynamic Range Images

Michael Freeman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Compares poorly to other books on the subject, bad print quality 2 out of 5 stars.
25 of 28 people found this review helpful.

Having already Christian Bloch's and Ferrell McCollough's texts on HDR imaging, I was intrigued by the accolades given to Michael Freeman as a writer by some of the readers here, and I got this book as well.

In fact, this book does not stack up to the both other works on the subject. Author often meanders into philosophical issues of composition, like the "Gestalt theory", instead of analyzing the issues of high dynamic range.

Bad are the example images, in many cases almost in the size of a post stamp. I could not make up any details in many of them, they are often that small. This problem was amplified by the print technology used by the publisher. Do you remember the early color print, in which you could see strange hexagonal patterns of color dots? Well, you can see them here too, and when such artifacts appear on these tiny images, their practical value is close to zero.

Some other critiques here called this book too technical. I am sorry to disagree. On this aspect I am on the very opposite side of the scale: This book is virtually devoid any technical details. It is the "blah blah" type of text, to use the vernacular.

Take rather Ferrell McCollough (not too technical, fantastic photography) or Bloch (technical and very comprehensive, rich in detail). You can skip this book.

Editorial Review:

High dynamic range imaging, or HDR, is the latest challenge for those who are serious about digital photography. But with that challenge comes an opportunity to expand skills and repertoire into exciting new areas. HDR, originally developed for use with computer-generated images, captures the full range of tones in a scene, reproducing human perception down to the finest detail without lens flare, burnout, or underexposure. Mastering High Dynamic Range Photography explains exactly how to shoot specifically for HDR, and how to use the new software that lets the photographer combine several images into one glowingly accurate final photo. Step-by-steps and sample photographs reveal how to apply these techniques to many different genres, producing results that are part photograph, part work of art.

Portrait and Candid Photography: Photo Workshop

Erin Manning

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

For the serious hobbyist 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I found this book (And the entire Photo workshop series) to be very helpful especially to beginning and intermediate level photography hobbyists.

It assumes no previous knowledge of photography, and explains such things as f-stop and how things interact to affect exposure without being overly technical.

Each chapter ends with a "Lesson" or exercise to emphasize the subject of that chapter. And being able to combine the book with the website (Free membership) to upload your lessons for group critique (Sometimes including from the author) is a good way to improve you photo skills.

Note that though this is part of a series of books, there is no sequence in reading them. For that reason, there is a degree of overlap in each book.

That said, you really need to be using a SLR type camera to be able to have the control of the camera that many of the exercises require. A point-and-shoot may not allow it.

But for the serious hobbyist, I would say this book (and series) is worth the money and time.

Editorial Review:

The secret to taking great “people pictures” is to observe your subjects, connect with them, and use your camera to its best advantage. Here’s how to work with lighting, location, angle, composition, physical characteristics, environment, and countless other variables, including the unique challenges of photographing babies, group activities, and action. Learn to capture facial expressions, tell a story with a series of candids, add interest to large-group shots, and more. Apply these techniques and watch your subjects come to life.

Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith

Jason Eskenazi

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Editorial Review:

The story of Communism is the story of the twentieth century. For many, the Soviet Union existed, like their childhood, as a fairy tale where many of the realities of life were hidden from plain view. When the Berlin Wall finally fell, so too did the illusion of that utopia. Wonderland is a photographic exploration that portrays both the reality beneath the veneer of a utopian USSR and the affirmation of hope that should never be abandoned. And like all fairy tales try to teach us: the hard lessons of self-reliance.

Jason Eskenazi was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Taylor Prize.

Photography (9th Edition) (MyPhotographyKit Series)

Barbara London, Jim Stone, John Upton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth over $100? 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I've received and read the book, and enjoy the content. However, compared to many other books in the marketplace, I'm having a hard time comprehending where there is over $100 worth of value. It seems that everytime something is written by an academic and presented as a textbook, regardless of the content or quality, that the price is jacked up by 3 to 4 times what it is really worth. I'd suggest looking for a used version of this book unless you really want a pristine copy to show off to others.

Editorial Review:

A picture tells a thousand stories, but the one it doesn't tell is how the shot was made. Barbara London and John Upton's Photography is an all-inclusive look at the craft of photography. This book will help any amateur move up a few notches, and it serves as a refresher course for professionals as well. The sixth edition of this classic work (the first was published in 1976) includes a companion Web site with interactive activities, Web resources, and a learning archive. Amply illustrated with at least one photograph or diagram on almost every page, Photography is the one reference work every student of photography must have--even those who will never set foot in a classroom. --Brenda Pittsley

Photoshop 7 for Dummies

Barbara Obermeier, Deke McClelland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Adobe Photoshop is arguably the most comprehensive and popular photo editor around. Here are a couple of reasons why: When you work in Photoshop, you're not drawing from scratch; you're editing photos. Secondly, the program keeps you interested with a depth of capabilities that few pieces of software can match. Unlike other computer programs that have caught on like wildfire over the years, Photoshop is both powerful and absorbing.

Just because Photoshop is a pleasure to use doesn't mean that it's easy to master. Directed toward making you comfortable and productive with the program, Photoshop 7 For Dummies points out the features you need to know and shows you exactly how to use them ­– no pain; all gain. You'll discover ways to

Work with the program window

Switch between Photoshop and other programs

Change the number of pixels in an image

Define colors using the Color Palette

Get ride of red eye

Blur the edges of a selected area

Apply filter effects

Photoshop guru and author Deke McClelland reveals his own techniques for quick and creative image editing, along with specific tips that Photoshop veterans can use to take advantage of the software's new features. Plan to get the hang of

• Producing high quality scans
• Adding background textures, bevels, and text effects
• Harnessing Photoshop's layering features and professional pre-press capabilities
• Applying different types of gradients
• Making a Web Photo Gallery
• Placing your image into PageMaker of InDesign
• Creating your own custom brush

Graphics abound in Photoshop 7 For Dummies, with 16 pages of glossy pictures to show off special issues related to color. You'll find commands for both PCs and Macs and lots of step-by-step instructions to guide your image-editing efforts for print or the Web – in no time!

Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D300 (Magic Lantern Guides)

Simon Stafford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

incomplete update from D200 version of same book 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Alas, this book reads like a hurried update of the D200 guide. In fact, there is at least one typo in the book that describes the "D200" instead of the D300 -- and not as a comparison.

The book also falls short in de-mystifying camera-specific D300 topics like long exposures. For example, I wanted to take some night shots and could not find any complete description of how to use the Bulb setting. I ended up going back to the Nikon D300 manual.

The book contains some useful photography tips, otherwise I would have rated it even lower.

Had I bought it from Amazon, I would have returned this book.

Editorial Review:

Simon Stafford, the Technical Editor to the Nikon Owners' Club International's Nikon Owner magazine, tells all about the company's new semi-pro camera, the D300. He explains how to make the most of the model's up-to-the-minute attributes, including the 12.3 effective megapixel Nikon DX-format CMOS image sensor with integrated A/D converter and the increased bit precision of selectable 14-bit NEF (RAW) output.