Book on Digital Photography

I just finished reading a book on digital photography that I checked out from the library (add library to the litany of free photo resources recommended on this blog). The book is called Photographing Your Family (and All the Kids and Friends and Animals Who Wander Through Too), by Joel Sartore with John Healey. The book was actually published by National Geographic, and Joel is in fact a National Geographic photographer.

Anyway, as I read I took notes on two yellow post-it notes and the back of a receipt. I figure I have a better chance of keeping those notes to refer back to if I put them here. So here are my notes in no particular order:

• When starting a shoot think 360, bird's eye view, worm's eye view.
• Shoot straight down with the floor as a background to avoid clutter.
• Background is very important. Compose your shot from the back to the front.
• A great quote: "Shoot candidly. Nothing bores me more than seeing photos of people standing stiff and smiling just because the camera is on them. They all look like bowling pins."
• Something the best photographers always strive for is to shoot the unexpected.
• Slumbering kids, spouses, friends, pets -- all can make excellent pictures.
• Look for a place with natural light without too many distractions.
• Here is a very valuable insight I got from the book: before a photo shoot go through the following steps (1) adjust to the appropriate ISO as this will affect all other settings -- 100 for bright day, 200 for moderate light, 400-800 indoors or at night, (2) turn off flash, (3) select priority -- is depth of field important or is freezing or blurring action important (I would also add set white balance to proper setting)
• To minimize background, use a long lens and a small aperature.

All in all this was a pretty good book. There were lots of photos so it didn't take long to read. However, some parts seemed like space filler. For example there were entire sections devoted to photo ideas. Some of the ideas were pretty good, others were less ingenious such as take photos of your kids playing outside and take photos of your kids playing inside and take photos on the 4th of July.

My recommendation is check this book out if you find it in the library, buy it new if you already own Photoshop and all the camera equipment you'll ever want and still have plenty of money to spend.