Okay,
I give...here's some recommendations.
Every
week I get several people asking me for recommendations on photography
books of various kinds (besides the ones I write, of course). So
here goes:
Photoshop
The number one request I get is for a Photoshop book designed specifically
for digital photography. There used to be a number of books that
did a decent but not great job, but with the arrival of Scott Kelby's
The
Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, this is the one to
get, period. If you're a "tips junkie" (the kind of person
that loves to discover new shortcuts and techniques in abstract
and apply them to your own work), then also consider Kelby's Photoshop
7 Killer Tips. I used to recommend the The
Photoshop 7 Wow! Book and a few others, but the two Kelby books
ought to more than satisfy most.
Color
Management
sRGB and AdobeRGB and ICC profiles and all those other wonderfully
confusing things that get in the way of good color on our digital
cameras deserved a book of their own, and Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy,
and Fred Bunting teamed up to give us a good one: Real
World Color Management. Thank goodness, because color management
is the number two question I get from new to digital photographers.
The sample screens are all Macintosh OS-X, but don't that bother
you, this book is useful for Windows users, too. I wish that it
was a little more 1,2,3 (i.e., instructional) in style, but this
book covers it all, and gives plenty of good advice.
Technique
Basic photography techniques have long been the subject of writers,
with Ansel Adams being one of the most recognized names to tackle
these challenging subjects. If you haven't read the classic Ansel
books, now updated, you should. If exposure is your hangup,
try Bryon Petterson's Understanding
Exposure, a straightforward and understandable book that should
get you thinking correctly. For nature photography, go to John Shaw,
one of the preeminent practicioners for John
Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide.
Composition
Freeman Patterson is a well-known Canadian photographer whose work
I admire. Like me, he teaches small workshops and prefers coming
up with challenges for individuals. But what I like most about Freeman's
approach is that he likes to push the visual composition rules and
mold them to his own vision, something all photographers talk about
but very few achieve. To get a flavor for one of his workshops,
get Photographing
the World Around You. His better known book is Photography
and the Art of Seeing. Both are highly recommended by me.
Miscellany
Many of you know that I grew up down the street from Barbara Cushman
Rowell and that her husband, Galen, was my photographic mentor for
many years. Their deaths last year were tragic, but their spirit
lives on in their writing. Barbara's book Flying
South: A Pilot's Inner Journey didn't get much publicity because
her unexpected demise came just prior to her pre-publication promotion
tour. But it's a story well worth reading, if for no other reason
than to see what a person can accomplish in the shadow of a better
known partner. Barbara wanted an adventure of her own, and she got
one heck of a ride. Galen, too, had a book published posthumously:
High
and Wild: Essays on Wilderness Adventure. Not a photography
book, per se, in many ways it is one of his better books. Since
Galen supervised the scans and color management in all of his recent
books and was still learning new tricks, the images here are reproduced
as well as I've ever seen his work.
Site
Visitor Recommended
Some of my more frequent site visitors have suggested some excellent
additions to my short list, so I'll present them here, with my comments.
(As I get more recommendations that I agree with, I'll add them.)
 
Galen
Rowell's Mountain
Light (recommended by James Sneeringer). This was probably Galen's
key work as it clearly defines his approach to photography. Even
though Galen became a technically better photographer later in his
career, this was the first time we saw his vision clearly laid out
in both pictures and words. If you're into taking pictures of place,
this book deserves a read.
Kieran's
Photoshop
Color Correction (recommended by Michael Brochstein). If you
already know color spaces and profiles and the like (see Color Management
section, above), then you might want some more help in applying
color correction techniques. This book is almost certainly the best
of the few books that tackle the tips and techniques job. The more
you know, the more you'll get out of this book.
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