Scott Kelby on Dig­i­tal Photography

Scott Kelby is in a good posi­tion to offer tips & advice on dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy. He’s able to pho­to­graph a wide range of sub­jects — por­traits, travel, and sports among them. With his con­nec­tions in the indus­try, he’s also able to pick up tips and advice from indus­try pro­fes­sion­als. Between his own pho­tog­ra­phy and input from other great pho­tog­ra­phers, he’s amassed quite a bit of knowl­edge about what works and what doesn’t. How­ever, there’s another piece that makes his series of Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy Books so use­ful. Scott Kelby is a great com­mu­ni­ca­tor. He knows how to take that tech­ni­cal knowl­edge and relate it in every­day lan­guage that’s easy to under­stand. That com­bi­na­tion of knowl­edge, expe­ri­ence and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills is the rea­son why he’s a trusted source of infor­ma­tion for dig­i­tal photographers.

For­get about all of the the­ory and debate of tech­ni­cal minu­tia. Scott writes in a friendly tone that tells the reader, “This is how you do it.” You won’t read about the physics of light, because you shouldn’t need a degree in physics to take a nice pho­to­graph. Instead, he’ll tell you what you need to know in order to get the light­ing that you want, as in this exam­ple from Part 4 of the series.

Scott pro­vides straight-​forward, use­ful infor­ma­tion on prod­ucts, tech­niques, light­ing, com­po­si­tion, set­tings for your gear, tips from the pros, and advice to avoid prob­lems. The books are packed with use­ful infor­ma­tion in short, easy to under­stand terms. Scott breaks down the sub­jects so they fit on a sin­gle page, includ­ing a photo to illus­trate exactly what he means. It’s a pre­sen­ta­tion form that works well for peo­ple of all lev­els to understand.

Who Should Buy These Books?

Do you want to shoot like a pro? Of course you do. Any­one can shoot like an ama­teur with crappy com­po­si­tion, bad light­ing and dis­tract­ing ele­ments in the pho­to­graph. That’s why many of the chap­ter titles end with “…like a pro.”

• Shoot Wed­dings Like a Pro
• Shoot Land­scapes Like a Pro
• Shoot Sports Like a Pro
• Using Flash Like a Pro
• Using Your Stu­dio Like a Pro

You get the idea. He’s let­ting you know all of the tips, tricks and details of get­ting high qual­ity pho­tographs and what kind of gear it takes. Does that mean you need to have a bucket-​load of high end pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­phy gear to get those high qual­ity pho­tos? Well, some­times it does. If you want to shoot sports like a pro, you’re not going to do it with a point & shoot cam­era or an entry-​level DSLR with the kit lens. Some­times, gear mat­ters. When Scott writes about sports pho­tog­ra­phy, he tells you up-​front that you bet­ter bring your check­book. If you’re a por­trait pho­tog­ra­pher and you want to get that beau­ti­ful, soft, wrap­ping light that makes your sub­ject look like an angel, you need a large soft box. Some styles or spe­cific results take spe­cific gear, and Scott tells you what it takes.

For­tu­nately, there are many other aspects of pho­tog­ra­phy that are much more afford­able and common-​place cov­ered in the books. You may not have a big stu­dio light­ing sys­tem with a plethora of soft boxes, but Scott gives some great tips on how to get the most from your reflec­tor or hot-​shoe flash. The book isn’t about gear. It’s about get­ting results. That’s why you’re just as likely to see advice on com­po­si­tion or the best times to pho­to­graph a sub­ject using avail­able light, or even how to find ideas of what to shoot when you’re in a new location.

The audi­ence for this series is a seri­ous pho­tog­ra­phy enthu­si­ast who wants to get the best results out of his/​her gear. Some­times this may include advice you can use on a mobile phone or point & shoot cam­era, but it’s really for the dig­i­tal SLR owner who has the tools to change their expo­sure set­tings, switch lenses, and use stu­dio or flash light­ing tools.

Don’t be put off if you don’t have the lat­est, great­est gear. There’s far more equip­ment dis­cussed in these books than the aver­age pho­tog­ra­pher owns. That’s because the aver­age pho­tog­ra­pher doesn’t need every­thing listed in the book. If you’re a por­trait pho­tog­ra­pher, you’ll get plenty of infor­ma­tion about the light­ing infor­ma­tion and prob­a­bly don’t need a 400mm prime lens used by a sports pho­tog­ra­pher. Most of the tech­ni­cal set­tings for cam­eras are for Canon & Nikon pho­tog­ra­phers. Com­mon tips about expo­sure set­tings (e.g., ISO, Shut­ter Speed & Aper­ture) will work on all brands. Spe­cific infor­ma­tion about how to turn on blink­ing high­light warn­ings are only pro­vided for Canon & Nikon cam­eras, since they’re the most preva­lent mod­els. In short, it’s a book on advice for pho­tog­ra­phers, not a tech­ni­cal ref­er­ence man­ual. If you don’t have a Canon or Nikon, you can still take the same con­cept and look it up in your camera’s manual.

Which One Should You Get?

I’ve pur­chased each book as it came on the mar­ket, and each one has dif­fer­ent con­tent. Scott didn’t write them in sec­tions, such as Part 1 for por­traits, Part 2 for sports, etc. I’m guess­ing he didn’t know when he wrote the first book that it would have grown this much. The good news is that each book, while it may cover some of the same major top­ics, has all new infor­ma­tion on how to get the most out of your pho­tog­ra­phy. Since I’ve been thor­oughly pleased with each new book as it came on the mar­ket (after all, I spent my money and kept buy­ing these books), I have no prob­lem rec­om­mend­ing them to you. The books are pretty inex­pen­sive, but each is just as use­ful as the oth­ers in the series. With Part 4, Scott expands the top­ics to include HDR & video.

The Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy Books by Scott Kelby are an out­stand­ing value. Each one is full of use­ful advice writ­ten in a friendly man­ner with­out unnec­es­sary jargon.

The Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy Book

Ama­zon Link

Barnes & Noble Link

iTunes Book­store Link

The Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy Book, Vol­ume 2

Ama­zon Link

Barnes & Noble Link

iTunes Book­store Link

The Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy Book, Vol­ume 3

Ama­zon Link

Barnes & Noble Link

iTunes Book­store Link

The Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy Book, Part 4

Ama­zon Link

Barnes & Noble Link

iTunes Book­store Link