When kids show interest in a subject that we could really use a text book to learn from, I recommend checking the Idiot’s Guides books. These classic books are authored by experts in their own fields, who carefully share their wisdom through full-colour pages and easy to follow texts.
I had the opportunity to review the Digital Photography book.
This book is broken down into three main parts: the basics, the shots, and projects.
The first part of the book starts off with just helping you look at your camera and start to understand how it works – all the buttons, settings, and menus. It explains details like aperture, depth of field, shutter speed, lighting, and lenses. This is the nitty-gritty section where you need to start with photography – getting familiar with the basics.
Next, the author dives into how to actually take the photos: seeing the image, the rule of thirds, etc – and also how to set up a variety of different kinds of photos, showing examples of his own high-quality work and pointing out important things to look for and avoid. Whether it’s family portraits, architecture, backlit subjects, still-life, landscapes, animals, or action – each style of photography is carefully showcased and detailed.
While these two sections are more like having a teacher explain everything to you, the final part sets you free to get hands on and try everything you’ve just learned. This is the project section has 11 different projects to help your photographer skills. For example, one project is all about how to get motion blur. The project is presented with an example and author’s advice, followed by the equipment that you will need, how to set it up, and a step by step guide on how to shoot the shot.
I love that each page is filled with high-quality, full-coloured images, and that the pages are thick and glossy.
I think this series of books would make a terrific self-study style learning project for any eager student wanting to have a place to start or opportunity to dig deeper into a subject.
Published by Idiot’s Guides. Distributed by DK Publishing.
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