A Book Review

A while ago, I saw an offer on Twitter from AdoramaPix to try out their photo books. I had been thinking about making a photo book to show off some of my pictures anyway, so I took them up on their offer.

I first had to decide on which pictures I wanted to show off. Then I had to decide how to organize them. Finally, I had to decide what sizes and page layouts I wanted to use.

I created an account with AdoramaPix. It was very quick and easy and so far no spam from them. It has been about a month since I created the account, so I expect that will hold.

After choosing the pictures I wanted to include, I uploaded them to the Adorama site and organized them in an album that I called "Photo Book" for convenience.

I started a photo album book and started the wizard to get started by picking size of book and number of pages. I don't know how hard it is to change to a bigger or smaller size or to add or subtract pages.

I had a bit of trouble working with the text boxes, but it seems like it was my problem since it started working. The cover spine text was the most challenging, but once I got that figured out, the cover came together nicely.

I used a variety of layouts, some with but most without text. I decided to do some full page pictures and some pages with a couple of smaller pictures as well as some medium-sized pictures. I used a black background for all pages that were not full-page and I really like the way that turned out.

I also made a few pages as full-sized pictures to see how they looked. I like it, but I think for most pictures, I like the black background better.

There are a few things I would like to see to improve this process:

• Layout guides to help line up pictures throughout the book
• Tools to make editing text easier (popup text editor)
• Quicker email support (took 2 days to get a response) but live chat support was quicker once I found it

I am very happy with the way this book turned out and I would highly recommend AdoramaPix to anyone looking to design a photo book. A photo book is a great way to organize pictures to commemorate a special birthday, trip or just to show off some of your favorite pictures.

Have you used a photobook to show off something? Do you want to try it? It is not that expensive and it is a pretty easy way to share pictures from a trip or wedding.

Book Review - Mastering Digital Flash Photography

I just bought this book and have been anticipating sitting down for more than a few minutes with it, but it seems that everytime I go to sit down, something else comes up as soon as I open it up. Nonetheless, I have read enough now to be able to say I am happy I picked this book out.

I am an analytical person and thus am happy when I get a formula or chart with numbers. This book has some great charts. Very few photographers are going to carry around a book to reference charts, but reviewing the charts when looking at a picture that didn't turn out quite as expected can help. By understanding why it did not turn out the way you expected, you will be in a better position to take a similar picture the next time the opportunity presents itself.

An example of a good chart that will be handy to understand is the Max Flash range chart. It shows how to take the Guide Number of a flash, the aperture and ISO you are using, and figure out about how far away from your flash will still get light from the flash.

Another thing that I like about this book is advice that I put into a category called "rules of thumb". (I know I didn't coin that phrase, but I like it.) Advice like this on page 27 "it is almost always better to have clipped shadows than clipped highlights". In other words, it is easier to recover a picture that is too dark than one that is too bright. That is one I can file away in my mental checklist as I am reviewing shots on my LCD to know if I need to tweak settings and reshoot.

Pictures always tell a story and photography books are certainly no exception. That said, a picture with explanation is good, but several pictures with the explanation of why they are different and how they were taken differently really makes a lot of sense. One great example of that is on pg 55 where pictures show the difference between direct flash and indirect (bounced) flash.

Before I bore you all to tears, I will just mention one more thing that I really like about this book. Diagrams. Lots of them, showing where the camera, lighting, reflector and subject were in relation to each other for a photo.

An old boss used to say "Stephen, give me the short version"when I started to give him more details than he wanted. So for those of you out there that are still reading, here is the short version: "Mastering Digital Flash Photography is a great book with a lot of very helpful information on flash photography. I'm not sure how helpful it would be if you are already a master of the flash, but for anyone that is just getting started with flash photography or has a few problem areas with their flash, this book is worth the money."

Do you have any good books? Photography-related or not, I am always interested in a good book, so please leave me a comment here below this post or give me a shout over at Twitter.

Book Review - Portrait Photography: Secrets of Posing & Lighting

Right off the bat, I liked this book when I read the first chapter about lighting accessories. The author included a great deal of detail on the benefits of all the different flash and lighting options and gave some examples of when they may be best used. The other thing that jumped out at me was all the pictures. Some things I have read will show a picture and explain how they took it and what tool (flash, etc) they used. This book goes a step beyond that and shows examples of too much flash, not enough flash and explains what you are seeing.

Chapter 2 is called Poses and Expressions and is filled with examples of details that amateurs can easily overlook. It is filled with gems like this: "If the head is tilted too far forward, ... the pose becomes submissive." When I read that, I thought about it and realized that is true. More importantly, depending on the goal of the photo, this may be what you want, but for a typical, customer portrait, that is generally not the case and while the average customer may not put it in those words, they will probably feel like that picture is "off" or just say they don't like that one as much as others in the set.

The section on troubleshooting is really useful. It includes how to deal with glare from glasses which presents a real challenge to many photographers. There are also many tips and suggestions for posing people to accentuate or de-emphasize different body features.

I still hope to get a lot of value out of this book as I start doing more portraits, but I already feel like I have learned enough from this book in the first several chapters to make it worth the cost. If you want to give Portrait Photography: Secrets of Posing & Lighting a closer look, head over to Amazon.

This is a book that will be on my bookshelf for a long time. I will certainly be re-reading many parts many times as I work on continuously improving my portrait skills.