Scott Kelby's, The Digital Photography Book

Scott Kelby’s, The Digital Photography Book: The step-by-step secrets for how to make your photos look like the pros’! is the bestselling digital photography book in history, according to Scott’s site. The question is whether this 219 page book is worth the money and, more important, your time to read.

It’s stated goal, according to its subtitle is to provide

“the step-by-step secrets for how to make your photos look like the pros’!”

To fulfill this promise, the book covers a variety of photographic areas. Each area has a chapter devoted to showing you how to shoot, be it flowers or sports, like a pro. Every tip is covered within a single page, which usually consists of a half-page photo example followed by a paragraph covering the tip.

The chapter titles are:

1. Pro Tips for Getting Really Sharp Photos
2. Shooting Flowers Like a Pro
3. Shooting Weddings Like a Pro
4. Shooting Landscapes Like a Pro
5. Shooting Sports Like a Pro
6. Shooting People Like a Pro
7. Avoiding Problems Like a Pro
8. Taking Advantage of Digital Like a Pro
9. Taking Travel & City Life Shots Like a Pro
10. How to Print Like a Pro and Other Cool Stuff
11. Photo Recipes to Help You Get “The Shot”

Given these chapter titles, I’d expect pro-level advice; wouldn’t you? According to the back-cover, this book claims to show you

“… how to take professional-quality shots using the same tricks today’s top digital pros use …”

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t consider the brief tips in this book “tricks” from pros. Any advanced amateur should know all of these.

Does anyone seriously think that reading the twenty or so half-page tips in chapter 3 will transform them into shooting weddings like a pro? One would have to be either naive about wedding photography or have a very low opinion of wedding photographers to believe this claim. Let’s face facts. If you’re a novice, even with this book, you’re not going to be shooting weddings like a pro! If you want to learn something, on an ongoing basis, about wedding photography, then hook up with David Ziser’s great blog, Digital ProTalk. If I were going to attempt a wedding, I’d pick up a book dedicated to teaching wedding photography and not rely solely on one containing a couple dozen “tips”. Just a thought.

Additionally, I found some of the book’s tips misleading. Here are a few examples:

• page 79 — describes the use of a neutral density gradient filter (more commonly called a graduated neutral density filter). Yes, pros use these filters, but not normally the type shown. Pros don’t normally use screw-on graduated ND filters because they’re essentially worthless. Check out Nathan Griffin’s, How to use a Graduated Neutral Density Filter article, or How To Use Graduated Filters, if you want to see what pros use.
• page 114 — Scott claims 85-100mm short zoom lens best for portrait photography. True, but with a full-frame sensor; otherwise, you should use something closer to 50mm when using a 1.6x crop sensor camera, like the Canon 40D, to get an EFL (Effective Focal Length) of 80mm. Check out this crop factor conversion chart.
• page 134 — Scott insinuates that your rights as a photographer changed after 9/11 and this is just not the case. For example, see USA Today’s, Misinformation about your photography rights continues and The Photographer’s Right.
• page 139 — the title of this tip is “Limit Your LCD Time to Save Battery Life.”  Is this really a pro-level secret?
• page 155 — “Is It Better to Underexpose or Overexpose?” The correct answer, which he gives, is to overexpose, but not necessarily for the reason he gives. Take the time to read the article Expose to the Right for an excellent explanation of why one should overexpose under certain conditions.

On to the pros and cons of the book.

Pros

• excellent first digital photography book for amateurs
• excellent quick reference guide for amateurs
• excellent refresher for advanced amateurs
• excellent way to get amateurs thinking about why these tips work
• excellent short book, i.e., a quick read
• each page devoted to single tip
• tips are written in plain English and avoid technical jargon
• tips are short enough to remember
• overall, book is good if you’re interested in learning tips

Cons

• weak attempts at humor detract from the message, though some may find it humorous
• book does not fulfill its stated purpose; these are advanced amateur tips at best, not pro tips
• disliked the seven pages of advertisements at the end of the book (not what I paid for)
• pages on my copy pulled away from binder after only limited use
• overall, book is not good if you’re interested in actually understanding photography theory, but this isn’t the purpose of the book either

Summary

So, to answer my lead-in question as to whether this book “is worth the money and, more important, your time to read?”

This review may come across as overly harsh or critical in tone. If so, my issue is not with the quality of the book or the tips, it’s with the overly-hyped sales pitch that you’re getting pro tricks and tips when in fact you’re not. I quote from the book again:

“With nearly 200 of the most closely guarded [emphasis mine] photographic ‘tricks of the trade,’ this book gets you shooting dramatically better-looking , sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time.”

Every time? That’s a fairly bold promise.

In actuality, there is nothing “closely guarded” about these tips. Pick up almost any photography book in one of the chapter areas (landscape for example) and you’ll see the same “tricks of the trade” mentioned.

Nonetheless, the tips are excellent and you should know them. The book’s real strength lies in the fact that it’s a nice compilation of photography tips all in one place. But don’t be deceived into thinking these tips will turn you into a pro. They won’t. If you want to shoot like a pro, then you’re going to have to not only understand the theory behind what makes these tips worthwhile, but you’re going to have to shoot a lot.

So, to finally answer my question. If you’re an amateur photographer, or even an advanced amateur, then, by all means, I hardily recommend the book. It’s an excellent addition to your photography book collection. Just remember, you won’t be magically turned into a pro simply by reading the book.

If you’re a semi-pro or professional photographer, then I wouldn’t spend my money or time on this book. If you consider yourself in either of these two categories, and still find this book enlightening, then… well, what can I say but enjoy.

On a scale of 1-5, I’d give it a 4+.

Comments

[Digital photography training]

sounds Interesting and helpful book. I am gonna have to buy one digital photography training book for my new course. I think this book will help me do my best.