The Best Digital Photography Books

I've found that the best digital photography books are ones that don't try to overwhelm you with technical knowledge. Instead, they take a stepwise, practical approach and teach you concepts and general "rules" rather than the inner workings of your camera. Here's the thing with digital SLR cameras: there's always something new to learn.

Digital Photography Books Camera Guides Landscape Guides Portrait Guides Photography Technique

I have been using them extensively now for 5 years (since the very first digital SLR from Canon was available), and there are still many techniques and tricks that I have yet to master.

So what do I do when I want to learn something new?

I find the best digital photography book on the subject I'd like to know more about then I read, learn and practice from there.

Practice Your Technique

I can't stress enough how important it is to practice anything new you learn with your camera.

All digital SLRs are slightly different from each other, and a digital photography technique that works well for one camera won't be ideal for another.

This is why if you really want to learn something new, it's not enough just to read the best digital photography book on the subject.

If you don't take your camera out into the world and apply what you've learned, it won't sink in.

Once you've had the chance to practice a new technique with your own camera and can see the results, then the information presented in the book really becomes clear.

By way of example, I recently found a great book on posing people for portraits.

I diligently read every single page, and carefully examined each one of the sample photos.

But it wasn't until I tried to photograph 7 people all at once that the principles outlined in the book really came into play.

It was immediately clear to me why the author noted that posing 5 or more people and getting them all to look good at the same time is a massive challenge.

Enough preaching about practice. Let's talk about some of the best digital photography books you can get your hands on.

Camera Guides

Camera guides are a great starting book when it comes to digital SLR cameras.

If this is your first digital SLR (or first SLR of any kind) then you'll want to be familiar with all of the controls that your camera has to offer.

The best digital photography books in this category act as an alternative to the camera's manual, which can sometimes be quite difficult to understand (since many suffer from poor foreign language translations).

digital SLR camera lessons