I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging For Books and was under no obligation to post a review. No compensation was received for sharing this review and all opinions are my own.
Published by Watson-Guptill Publications on March 17th 2015
Source: Blogging For Books
Genres: Art&Photography, Non-Fiction
Pages: 240
Photography legend John Shaw returns with his much-anticipated guide to digital nature photography, complete with more than 250 extraordinarily beautiful photographs.
John Shaw is the author of seven previous photography books published by Amphoto: his authentic voice and trusted advice has helped photographers achieve impressive shots in the great outdoors for decades. In his first-ever book on digital photography, Shaw provides in-depth advice on everything from equipment and lenses, composition, and close-ups, to up-to-date information on software filtration and the histogram. In addition, he offers inspirational and frank insight that goes far beyond the nuts and bolts of photography, explaining that successful photos come from having a vision, practicing, and then acquiring the equipment needed to accomplish the intention. Easily digestible and useful for every type of photographer, John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography is sure to be the new classic in the category
First off, I would like to say that John Shaw is an amazing photographer and he really knows his stuff. That doesn’t stop me from disagreeing with his point on fixing white balance in Photoshop. He states in this book that if you shoot in raw that setting white balance is not important as he claims white balance is not embedded in a RAW file. In this picture you can see that setting white balance actually does matter. The pictures tell their own story and I’d rather get it right straight out of camera rather than having to do a lot of correction in post. If you’re in a raw editor you can change white balance to auto or any other offered preset (daylight,cloudy or etc) however, there is the “as shot” option as well. As you can see in the following images which were shot in RAW, white balance difference from custom to auto is quite different.
That’s okay, we can agree to disagree on this matter. I still give this book a 4-star. It’s a great resource for the intermediate photographer looking to really take the plunge into professional nature photography. This book is really not the best for a beginner because they’re assuming that a person already knows how to work a DSLR and is familiar with digital photography terms. As said, it is a wonderful resource for the intermediate photographer that is looking for equipment suggestions and tips on improving their craft.
Examples of my own work can be found below. I don’t claim to be anywhere near the caliber of John Shaw and I greatly admire his work so please do not take my one disagreement about white balance to be a way of thinking I am right and he is wrong. It’s simply my opinion.
Are you a photographer? Have you ever heard of John Shaw or checked out his work? Tell me in the comments below who your favorite photographer is!
Your work is amazing!!
Thank you, dear! :)