Big Bang For the Buck
Ever read digital photography texts written by corporate sposored gurus who are not really photographers, but are in reality salesmen trying to sell you some kind of software, tutorial package, or traveling seminar? Well this isn't one of those kind of books.
What The Photographers Guide does do is layout a logical and human path for moving from traditional photographic practice into the realm we now inhabit digitally. He carefully points out the innate similarities but also the value of new innovations. Bill Kennedy is smart enough and honest enough not to attempt to sell you products and software, but rather to actually assist photographers in adapting what they already know to the rapid changes that we all face with digital capture,scanning, image correction, file archiving, and output decisions. He also guides the student in establishing good work habbits at the very beginning, when it counts the most.
To me it is an excellent text for any student starting out with learning about what photography is now, how to control it, and to help anticipate how it may develop in the near future. The fact that Kennedy is a college photo instructor himself, gives a clear clue to why he wrote it. It is a perfect textbook for any photo progam - wish there was something like this when I started making that transition...
John Dean
Transition between "wet" and "digital"
This book is an excellent reference and a must read for photographers caught in limbo between "wet" and "digital". Whereas many books on the market are filled with tricks and techniques for using Photoshop, Mr. Kennedy takes the reader much further into the nuts and bolts of work flows, and the proper configuration of photoshop. The author demystifies the printing process for both the novice and the pro by presenting clear and concise explanations for understanding profiles for color and grey scale printing.
Complete Guide to the Digital Darkroom
This book offers easy to understand instructions on creating and using a digital darkroom. It provides the information photographers need to work successfully and efficiently in a digital darkroom.
It is especially relevant to traditional "wet" darkroom photographers in that it provides methods for creating work prints and then finished prints. Kennedy calls these workflows. He describes a fast and easy method for creating a work print as the "hard proof" workflow. This technique is designed to replicate the wet darkroom photographers work print and is an idea not really described by anyone else. He also describes workflows for making final prints, black and white prints and soft proofs. He completes his book with the use of third-party products (for example ink, paper and printer software) in the digital darkroom.
Beyond these workflow techniques he does a great job of describing and decyphering the technology associated with digital devices such as digital cameras, printers and scanners.
This should be considered a complete workshop in a book.
