The Beginner’s Photography Guide: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Manual for Getting the Most From Your Digital Camera, New Edition (DK Practical Photography)

Truly for Beginners
This book is invaluable for a person just starting out. It explains things i.e. camera jargon, camera settings etc., in an easy to understand way. Highly recommend.

Great Book for Understanding Digital Cameras Better!
I’ve done film photography since the 1970s and know a lot about the photographic principles and processes. In the digital era, I got lazy and had never really learned how to translate my pre-digital photo knowledge into setting up and using digital cameras effectively. I mostly stuck to Auto, I’m sad to say. Camera manuals are pathetic, so what I really wanted was to learn exactly how digital cameras do what they do, and learn to use my digital cameras’ settings more creatively than you can do on automatic. As one example, Gatcum explains beautifully the differences between all the possible settings such as Auto vs. Program, and what the benefits and limitations are for each one. This is one example of a topic the limited and badly translated camera manuals are silent on. This book assumes limited photographic knowledge so it would be fine for photo newbies, but it’s actually extremely well laid out with brief but useful explanations and really great illustrative photos that anyone could learn and benefit from. I got a lot of good ideas from the various subjects the book. Another good point is that the topics and descriptions are clear, precise, but not too wordy. Just enough to illustrate the subject well both in description and with visuals. I have recently bought several similar books and this one is my favorite and I learned what I wanted to learn. Very useful for those in my situation as well as for total beginners, and highly recommended.

Excellent Book
Preface: I rarely write reviews as I believe a dozen people can look at something or read something and obviously have a dozen different opinions or thereabouts. So why this time? To state this book is one of the best educational books I have seen (and I have a background in adult learning techniques). It is laid out in a logical sequential manner with simple (yet, not making someone feel simple) instructions. I am completely new to photography and this book has quickly educated me and lessened the feeling of being overcome by the possible complexities of using my Nikon D3500 which by the way is an awesome beginner camera (for me at least). I highly recommend this book for the absolute newby to digital photography. Peace be with you.

Book was great
Perfect starter book. Allowed me to get started quickly taking great photos.

After I bought my first SLR which is D5300, thought to buy a book through which I can learn some Nitty-gritty of Photography. Fortunate enough I purchased this book ( Fresh 2nd edition, fully revised and updated. )I chose Flexibound format, found it much better and light in weight, cheap in price. Buying a hardcover has no difference except the cost. Books are forever, keep it neat and safe and it’ll be with you forever either spiral or Flexibound.Now about the content:———————————-If you get this book I can assure you will learn a lot about Photography and it is more than best for a novice Photographer. You will get to learn in very simple terms, very easy and straight forward English, no heavy jargon. Book will tell you know your camera man!!!This book can easily teach you about the most important aspect of Photography which is Exposure and that comprises of Aperture settings, Shutter speed and ISO. Also teach you about SLR body parts, you will know your camera better then.Many of us beginners got confused on f-stop values related to aperture size and here this book take your boat to the other shore. This book includes almost all the matter related to a modern SLR’s settings and photography modes like P S A M and much more.CHAPTERS:—————-1- Equipment2- Exposure3- Focusing4- Lenses5- Available light6- Flash7- Image enhancementWell arranged Glossary and Index on the back.The page quality is super glossy and thick. I should say it’s much more in this price tag and thanks to DK Publishing for keeping the price minimum for this awesome book. I loved it!!Thank you for taking your time reading this review and if you found my review helpful, please give me a like dear friends!!!

I very much enjoyed this book and it definitely helped me improve in a few aspects. It’s very descriptive and covers a tremendous amount of areas with great advice, at least in my opinion, that helped me with a few things I had been struggling with. Certainly worth the purchase and I would definitely recommend for anybody looking.

I’ve been a semi-pro photographer for many decades, going through film, medium and large format cameras, to the first digital cameras, through to today’s best Sony and Nikon DSLRs. So, I don’t consider myself a novice to the art and science of photography. But I do continue to look for good books on photography to recommend to friends (and, mostly, their kids) who want to do better than smartphone photographs.This book, and it’s follow-on volume, are two of the best books I’ve seen on the subject of digital photography. Focusing (sorry!) on the Beginner volume, there’s one of the best explanations of the differences between Auto, Program, Aperture, Shutter, and Manual modes in the first few chapters that I’ve seen in a book, and taking not too many words to convey the concepts accompanied by photos that show when and how. In fact, that’s a theme throughout the book: lots of photos illustrating the settings and controls, and the effect they have. For example, talking about exposure, there’s photos to show different exposure corrections, and a (no so beginner) discussion of stacking for effect. Throughout the tone is light and useful. I like the way each spread of two pages is on a subject, providing just enough information for a beginner to “get” the concept and implement it. The book moves to more interesting and technical subjects in the latter part, but it’s done well and should not scare anyone away (a problem with some other Beginner books I’ve reviewed).I’ve already recommended this book to several people and they have all said they learned a lot from reading through (and trying) what’s discussed. Instead of going with plain old Auto mode every time, they experiment with growing confidence, and become better photographers along the way. That’s what a Beginner book should do, and this one accomplishes it well. I’m impressed and wholeheartedly recommend this book both for beginner and Intermediate photographers.