LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot Like the Pros at Dominant Systems Book Store

Photography has been the business and the passion of LIFE since the original weekly magazine's inception in 1936, and it continues to be the business and passion of LIFE Books and LIFE.com in the new millennium. But photography has surely changed during these many decades. The rigs and gear of old have given way-first slowly, then all at once-to sleek miracle machines that process pixels and have made the darkroom obsolete. The casual photog puts eye to lens, sets everything on auto and captures a photograph that is . . . perfectly fine.

One of LIFE's master shooters-in fact, the final in the long line of distinguished LIFE staff photographers-was Joe McNally, and he has always believed that with a little preparation and care, with a dash of enthusiasm and daring added to the equation, anyone can make a better photo-anyone can turn a "keeper" into a treasure. This was true in days of yore, and it's true in the digital age. Your marvelous new camera, fresh from its box, can indeed perform splendid feats. Joe explains in this book how to take best advantage of what it was designed to do, and also when it is wise to outthink your camera or push your camera-to go for the gold, to create that indelible family memory that you will have blown up as large as the technology will allow, and that will hang on the wall forevermore.

As the storied LIFE photographer and photo editor John Loengard points out in his eloquent foreword to this volume, there are cameras and there are cameras, and they've always been able to do tricks. And then there is photography. Other guides may give you the one, two, three of producing a reasonably well exposed shot, but Joe McNally and the editors of LIFE can give you that, and then can show you how to make a picture. In a detailed, friendly, conversational, anecdotal, sometimes rollicking way, that's what they do in these pages.

Prepare to click.

Customer Reviews & Comments
Joe McNally (the author) creates captivating images, photos that make you think "How did he do that?" Reading this book is like spending time with him. While yes, he gives you basic instruction such as an introduction to the exposure triangle of ISO, f-stop and shutter speed, he is sharing his fabulous art with you at the same time discussing some technical aspects such as lens, focus, color, timing or aperture that contributed to the final product. While he recommends always shooting in Raw so you can correct a photo, he is definitely a "Get it right in camera" guy. Below are summaries of a few of my favorite sections. Which is hard, because I loved them all. The Almost Silhouette In this example he has a photo of a young girl in a dark room looking out a lighted window. Which is a tough exposure situation. Expose for the highlights on her face. If you expose for the window other areas go totally black, if you expose for the dark shadows, others go nuclear. Look for a middle ground. (The photo example helps quite a bit.) Fireworks Shooting fireworks with a wide open lens will drain the color, it is quite easy to over expose them. An aperture of f/8 is a good start. Use a cable release, because the shutter will be open 4 to 15 seconds. The foreground object (the anchor) can determine the shutter speed. Don't shoot all night long with the same exposure (This goes for any situation). Flash This author is a Master at flash and makes the point that if you intend to take a lot of pictures, you will eventually have to shoot some with a flash, probably more with than without. Light, no matter where it comes from has quality, color and direction. All three of those things are important in the light that is already present and in the light that you add with a flash. Moving the light off camera is essential. He shows examples of a pop-up on camera flash, a hot shoe flash, a hot shoe flash that is connected by wire and is off camera in studio, same situation in studio further away from the wall, and finally hot shoe, off camera, subject away from the wall and light bounced off (a neutral colored) ceiling. The final shot was lovely, the first, not so much. Portraits and DOF In this section McNally points out that every button and dial affect your photograph. Yes, you can let the camera decide for you, but do you really want an average vanilla photo? In this example he has a lovely photo of a Hawaiian dancer posed in front of a waterfall. Everything is crystal clear. I thought it was great until I turned the page, then, Wow! Now this is what we're talkin' bout! Same dancer, same waterfall, but she's in the water, he's up close (lens wise) and dropped his f-stop from 14 to 2. It is gorgeous! The leaves on the wreath she is wearing are blurry in front because of the narrow DOF (depth of field). It is spectacular, and communicates his message perfectly. These a just a couple of the diamonds forged from years of being in the pressure cooker. If you love this book as much as I did you will also want to read The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes which is a hysterical and incredibly educational book about using speedlights (hotshoe flashs) to improve your photography. I also enjoyed The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters another classic McNally book, but with a few more photos that were shot on film. They are still great examples that are relevant to the digital era, and you will no doubt learn things from this fabulous book.

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