12 Best Selling Photography Books

Looking to buy a great photography book to help you in your photographic learning?

Here are the 12 best sellers when it comes to what photography books our readers are buying at the moment on Amazon:

Pro Secrets to Dramatic Digital PhotosFundamentals of Photo CompositionDigital Photographer’s Complete Guide to HD VideoChasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available LightUnderstanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any CameraThe Digital Photography BookThe Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital PhotosWildlife Photography: Stories from the FieldFocus: Found Faces: Your World, Your ImagesDigital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful MemoriesVisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in PhotographyDigital Masters: Nature Photography: Documenting the Wild World

How this list was compiled

One of the ways that we keep dPS free is by promoting quality products on Amazon. dPS earns a small commission from any purchase made from following these links.

The other great thing about this is that each month we also get a report from Amazon that shows us what products are being bought by our readers (it’s all anonymous data). From that report we’re able to generate these lists which are also added to our Popular Digital Cameras and Gear page.

The above list was generated from purchases from our readers between April-June 2011. It’s not every book that was bought but these 13 made up the vast majority of sales.

Thanks for supporting dPS in this way – we hope you find this best seller list informative as you consider future purchases.

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Set Yourself a One Focal Length Challenge

Recently while testing the Leica M9-P I spent 2 weeks exclusively shooting with a 35mm prime lens.

I wouldn’t normally shoot with that focal length but the lens was supplied by Leica with the camera and I wasn’t about to run out and buy another lens just for a 2 week test (they run at several thousand dollars) – so I decided to make the most of it.

The start of the week was a little frustrating – partly because it took a while to get used to the camera and its focusing system – but also partly because of the focal length. As someone who shoots mainly portraits I love longer focal lengths and usually shoot with a zoom to allow me to get in close without getting right in the face of my subjects (I normally shoot with a 24-70mm lens and sometimes even with a 70-200mm lens).

However by the end of the week I realized just how much I’d enjoyed being ‘forced’ to stick with the 35mm lens.

After a day or two I began to get in the zone and started to ‘see’ the opportunities before me to shoot at that focal length.

I found myself shooting more environmental portraits and began to pay more attention to backgrounds – using them to give context to the subjects I was shooting.I found myself thinking more creatively about settings – particularly aperture to impact depth of field to impact the surrounds of my subjects.I found myself thinking about how to position ‘me’ as a photographer rather than just how much to zoom (and as a result started mixing up the perspectives I was shooting from).

In doing so I found myself taking shots that I normally wouldn’t take. I did probably miss some shots I normally would get by shooting at a wider focal length – but all in all I think I improved as a photographer in those two weeks than I have for a while.

On viewing some of my shots from the week my wife even commented that my images had more impact and were quite different to normal (and it wasn’t just the camera I was shooting with).

Here’s my challenge to you. Over the next week decide to shoot using one focal length only and see what impact it has on your photography.

For those of you with DSLRS with a prime lens – this shouldn’t be too hard. You’ve got a lens that won’t let you zoom so stick with it for a while week.

For those of you who only have zoom lenses – it might be better to choose a focal length at one end of the spectrum of your zoom (either wide or zoomed in).

Where possible choose a focal length that isn’t in your normal range of shooting. If you zoom in a lot – try a wider perspective. If you usually shoot wide – try a longer focal length.

Over the week I’d love you to drop back to this post to let us know how you go!

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What is Your Most Under-Use Piece of Photographic Gear?

Do you have something that lurks in the bottom of your camera bag or in a cupboard tucked away in your home that you bought thinking you’d use it all the time – but you rarely get it out?

Maybe it is that fish-eye lens that you had rand visions of using, or perhaps its a 2nd camera body that you just thought you had to have, or perhaps its some lighting gear or a portrait background or a lightmeter or a monopod or…. well you get the picture.

We all have them – so I’d love to hear what yours is and the story behind why you have it and why you don’t use it.< ?p>

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Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX9V REVIEW

As mentioned elsewhere, I bought this camera’s predecessor — the HX5V — about a year ago for family use. And enjoyed every still and video pixel it shot!

So what do we get with the new boy?

We can now enjoy a 16x optical zoom, (24-384mm on a 35 SLR). In 16:9 HD movie mode the zoom range resembles 25-400mm.

The 10fps burst rate continues in this model and, frankly, 10 full size JPEGs should keep everybody happy — but note this gives you a total of only 10 shots in each burst. No more.

Sweep panorama is an amazing feature and possibly limited by the choice of ideal subject matter, your own shooting skill and access to a large format printer.

The specs indicate that a sweep pano of 42.9MB can be captured with the final image size running to 10,480×4096 pixels. As a print: 88.7×34.6cm at 300 dpi.

This parking station shot was taken by panning in the direction of the car, which shows some of the genius in the pano mode. I count 30 plus segments.

You can shoot vertical or horizontal panoramas, tilting or panning in up/down or left to right/right to left directions.

As an adjunct to this function you can also shoot 3D image pairs, captured in 15 images at different angles and then compiled into one image, viewable on compatible TV sets. The PR blurb claims you can view these images “in simulated 3D on the camera’s LCD screen” by tilting the camera back and forth. I failed miserably to see 3D!

Full HD resolution of 1920×1080 is maintained in AVCHD capture and video capture is vastly improved in the bit rate figures: top rate (PS) is 28 Mbps, moving down to 9 Mbps (HQ).

MPEG4 capture at 1440×1080/1280×720/640480 pixels, rendered at rates of 12/6/3 Mbps.

The new camera can also capture smallish stills (2304×1296) while shooting video.

Maximum image size is 4608×3456 pixels, or 39x29cm as a print.

The HX9V has GPS and a compass feature inbuilt so you can log your position after shooting an image or even find true North if you are trudging through the bush!

Newbies will like the in-camera guide. Sure helps when you’re on the road and need a hand up!

I had an issue with the instruction manual: too brief at 30 pages. There is an HTML guide but this is not searchable and, with the HX9V’s many complex features, the camera deserves better.

There is one factor missing from the HX9V. The HX5V had 45MB of internal memory … the new feller has none.

I had high hopes in this department.

To begin with, the new camera’s movie mode has fixed one of my major objections to the HX5V: the zoom’s wide angle end no longer has pronounced barrel distortion.

I then ran a comparison of the HX5V and HX9V, strapping the cameras together and shooting a walk through. Frankly, I could not pick a distinct advantage with either in smoothness; it depended on your own movement, with the stabiliser cushioning any violent movement.

However, the highest bit rate setting (PS) produced considerably less image noise.

When importing the clips into editing software the story became more interesting …

I could import all four quality levels (PS/FX/FH/HQ) into Adobe Premiere 5.0. However, my attempts to import the clips into Mac’s iMovie software were slightly less successful … all except the PS clip could be imported.

My advice? Go into the editing situation carefully before you buy the camera.

To see some incredibly good, professionally captured footage with this camera go to:
www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2011/06/19/sony-hx9v-tested-for-run-and-gun-by-johnnie-behiri/

I was frankly surprised to find the camera’s rendition: quite good in resolution and noise all the way up to ISO 1600. Only at ISO 3200 was there was any (slight) sign of a problem … but in fact this setting could quite satisfactorily be used for non-critical photography IMHO. A very good performance.

The HX9V has been slightly redesigned and some control points moved around. For me, there was not a lot of difference, as I had found the HX5V’s layout to be quite OK.

The 10 position mode dial gives access to auto camera operation as well as Program AE, manual exposure, scene modes, movie mode, iSweep plus a High Dynamic Range mode that relies on two identical exposures to maximise image quality. There is a mysterious one called MR for Memory Recall which gives a status display. A useful one if you shoot a lot portraits may be Background Defocus, but I couldn’t get it to work for me.

The flash is now a pop up job but still gives about the same output power as the predecessor.
Now there’s a new comfort pad on the camera’s back just beneath the shutter button; the speed grip is also textured.

Two seconds after I hit the power button I took my first picture, with follow-ons coming in at about a second each.

The still image and video modes showed no distortion at the zoom’s wide or tele end.

Quality: excellent in all my shots. This one of the skateboarder is an enlargement from about a quarter of the full image. Not bad!
Why you would buy this camera: biggish zoom; fast burst rate; sweep panorama function; Full HD with high bit rates; GPS feature.
Why you wouldn’t: you want a simpler, de-featured camera!

For me — a phenomenal camera.

Image Sensor: 16.2 million effective pixels.
Sensor Type: CMOS.
Metering: Multi-zone, centre-weighted; spot.
Sensor Size: 11mm.
Lens: Sony G f3.3-5.9/4.28-68.48mm (31-496mm as 35 SLR equivalent).
Shutter Speed: 30 to 1/1600 second.
Continuous: 10 fps.
Memory: MemoryStick Duo/Pro Duo/PRO-HG, SD, SDHC, SDXC.
Image Sizes (pixels): 4608×3456 to 640×480. Movies: AVCHD 1920×1080, 1440×1080 at 50/60i + 50/60p. MPEG4 1440×1080, 1280×720, 640×480.
File Formats: JPEG, AVCHD, MPEG4.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100 to 3200.
LCD Screen: 7.5cm (921,600 pixels)
Interface: USB 2.0, AV, mini HDMI, and DC input.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Dimensions: 104.8x59x33.9 WHDmm.
Weight: Approx. 245 g (inc battery, card).
Price: Get a price on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V at Amazon or at B&H Photo and Video.

Barrie Smith is an experienced writer/photographer currently published in Australian Macworld, Auscam and other magazines in Australia and overseas.

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Creating and Lighting a Scene on a Home Depot Lighting Budget

I have gotten rather tired of setting up and breaking down equipment with each set of tutorials that we record. So, this past week I have been wanting to setup an actual area in our studio for recording tutorials for slrlounge.com. Since most of our 3,000 square foot studio is already accounted for, my partners Justin and Chris laughed sarcastically as they said, “well, I guess that leaves you with the back garage door entrance for your little recording studio.”

So, with a very limited scene, and a budget of about $150 for lighting gear (which pretty much limits us to Home Depot or Lowes lighting), I began putting my scene together. This tutorial is the written version of the behind the scenes video on the SLR Lounge YouTube Channel. Enjoy!

Whenever I am setting up a new scene for a shoot, regardless of it being still shots or video, I am always doing the same thing. The first thing I look for are the existing strengths of the scene, or in other words what can I actually use in my shots. If I am shooting in a warehouse, but I need it to look like a garden, well, then I need to bring in a lot of extra props, lighting and gear to pull of that effect. The less I need to change, the easier my setup will be. So, I always try to use the existing scene rather than fight it.

I think an industrial warehouse background would work very well for these photography and shooting tutorials, so I am going to play to the scenes strengths. I love the fact that I have daylight coming through that window right above the door. I plan on using it as a rim light on my subject, as well as using the daylight to create a nice color graduation from the other tungsten lights. The goal is to create a controlled mixed temperature environment to enhance the drab colors of the scene which you see below.

I felt like the old palettes sitting against the right wall would make a great addition to spicing up my background, which is going to be the garage door. So I moved six of them into place, 3 sitting on top of each other on the right, and 3 leaning against the garage door to the left.

To allow me to build the lights for the scene, I needed to know where my subject would be positioned. So, I placed the subjects chair in the scene where I approximately wanted him/her.

For our first light, I am placing a 500 Watt Workforce Halogen Work Light ($15 at Home Depot) right behind the palettes pointing directly up to back light the palettes as well as create a nice bit of directional light on the background.

For my second light, I am hanging a 250 Watt Workforce Halogen Work Light ($10 at Home Depot) right on the chain hanging to the left of the palettes. These lights come equipped with clamps, making them quite easy to hang on their own. I am going to use this light as a rim light on the subjects left side.

For my key light, I am using a modeling light as a place holder light. When I created this tutorial, I ran out of work lights and didn’t want to make another trip to Home Depot. So, I used a modeling light as a place holder. However, for the final in camear image that you see, I did actually go get another 500 Watt Workforce Halogen light to replace the modeling light.

In front of that light, I placed a scrim simply to act as a soft box. Without the scrim, the light was a little hard causing the subject’s skin to appear more oily.

As previously mentioned, I want that daylight coming through the right side to add a nice mixed temperature look to our scene. It is going to help in adding color into this rather boring scene. So, this time I picked up a Husky Daylight Balanced Work Light ($50 at Home Depot) to add to the strength of that window light.

Normally, I would just open the door to add additional window light. However, because there are trucks and cars outside of our warehouse area, it would have been too loud to record with the door open. In addition, the Husky work lights will allow us to continue recording regardless of time of day, we would just need to add one extra Husky to get the exact same effect during a night time shoot.

To make sure the back left tungsten rim light doesn’t move, I taped the chain to the wall. In addition, I purchased a little Duct Connector ($10 at Home Depot) to act as a little snoot in directing the light more towards the subject and away from the walls.

I now turned off the warehouses fleurescent ambient lights, and here is our final setup. Our lighting gear including the scrim cost less than $125 in total (remember, the model light was replaced with another 500 watt work light). We are now ready to record.

Here is a frame from our final video showing what our scene looks like in camera. Notice how the daylight rim light on the right of the subject, as well as the daylight colors hitting the back right of the background add a really nice color mixture to a scene that otherwise would have just been pure tungsten.

Not bad considering what we had to work with, and considering the fact we used Home Depot work lights for everything. Hope you guys enjoyed!

To watch this full behind the scenes video, please go to SLR Lounge.

– Pye

Post Production Pye I hate speaking of myself in the third person, haha. I am a Partner and professional photographer with Lin and Jirsa Los Angeles Wedding Photography, and the Senior Editor for SLR Lounge Photography Tutorials. I am passionate about photography as an art as well as my part as an educator in the industry. Feel free to hit me up with questions anytime on Facebook.

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Samsung NX11 REVIEW

The Koreans are coming! Correction: they’re already here!

Samsung had already gained a market presence with compact digicams, then surprised everyone when it delivered the interchangeable lens DSLR-style NX10 about 18 months ago.

The NX11 continues the story: an APS-sized CMOS sensor, viewed with a 7.6cm Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) LCD as well as an electronic turret viewfinder. There’s no mirror in the system, so no optical viewing path.

The review camera was fitted with the f3.5/18-55m lens, the whole package fitted into a mid-sized body, weighing less than 600 grams, replete with battery and card.

In the hand it’s a delightful package, with enough external controls to manage most shooting tasks; I should also note that all controls are clearly labelled, unlike some other cameras seen recently.

This is backed up by an extensive and easy to follow finder menu.

The CMOS snares 14.6 megapixels, with a maximum image size of 4592×3056 pixels, or 39x26cm as a print.

Movies are let down, with a maximum image size of 1280×720 pixels but, as I have said elsewhere, this is an OK size for those who venture no further into video release than a presence on YouTube.

One feature that continues on from the NX10 is the i-Function. This lets you toggle between shutter speed, aperture, EV, WB and ISO quickly and easily by depressing the i-Function button and twirling a ring on the lens. There’s only one trap with this: you can easily and inadvertently dial in an unwanted exposure compensation without realising it. But the i-Function feature is still worth getting to know.

The mode dial includes the usual PASM settings plus movie capture, sound picture (for audio notes), 13 scene modes and a panorama mode which fires off a series of sections and stitches them in-camera.

Image capture can be in RAW, JPEG or RAW+JPEG. The RAW files are written to memory in Samsung’s proprietary SRW format; there’s a software converter (Win/Mac) that handles the switch to Photoshop-friendly Photoshop RAW … but one wonders why companies like Samsung (Nikon is another) need to add the clutter. Continuous shooting can be made in JPEG or RAW at a rate of 3fps.

One matter: as the camera uses a unique lens mount, you cannot grab a barrel full of lenses from a range of manufacturers, unlike the Four Thirds cameras. So far, apart from the f3.5/18-55m kit lens (in stabilised and non-stabilised versions), there are f2.8/20mm and f2/30mm pancake lenses plus an f3.5/20-50mm zoom. Moving up, there are f4/50-200mm and f3.5/18-200mm zooms and a 60mm macro. Probably enough for most people.

There will be five new lenses available later in the year, including a 16mm F2.4 ultra wide pancake, 60mm F2.8 OIS macro, 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OIS Movie Pro, 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 OIS Movie Pro and an 85mm F1.4 Premium Portrait lens.

An adaptor (ED-MA9NXK) enables the use of K-mount lenses on the NX cameras.

The camera handles noise and resolution well all the way up ISO 3200.

It took only a second for the first shot to be fired after power up; follow-on shots then came in at a second a pop.

Quality: excellent on all counts.
Why you would buy it: compact, mid weight; attractive price.
Why you wouldn’t: no vari-angle screen.

Many will appreciate the PDF of instruction manual: it has clear text and large pictures to illustrate not only the camera but some basic photographic principles as well … like the relationship between lens aperture and shutter speed, the role of ISO settings and others.

But… a minor criticism: the manual’s text is littered with spelling errors. Like “recharable”, “acces”, “fuorescent”, minumum” etc. There is even at least one in the camera’s menu itself. Slap on the back of the hand, Samsung!

Available in black or silver.

Image Sensor: 14.6 million effective pixels.
Metering: Multi pattern, centre-weighted, spot.
Sensor Size (APS-C): 23.4×15.6mm CMOS.
Lens Mount: Samsung NX.
35 SLR Lens Factor: 1:5x.
Shutter Speed: 30 to 1/4000 second.
Memory: SD/SDHC cards.
Image Sizes (pixels): 4592×3056 to 1280×1280. Movies: 1280×720, 640×480, 320×240 at 30fps.
Viewfinder: 5mm EVF/FLC (921,000 pixels).
LCD Screen: 7.6cm LCD (614,000 pixels).
File Formats: JPEG, RAW, JPEG+RAW, MPEG4.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100 to 3200.
Interface: USB 2.0, AV, HDMI, DC.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, DC input.
Dimensions: 123x87x39.8 WHDmm.
Weight: 499 g (inc battery).

Barrie Smith is an experienced writer/photographer currently published in Australian Macworld, Auscam and other magazines in Australia and overseas.

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10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Becoming a Professional Photographer

>A Guest Post by Kimberly Gauthier, Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier

When I had the opportunity to check out the Going Pro Kit, I appreciated first hand the value. It brought me back to my humble beginnings. One day in 2009, I woke up and shouted “Hello World – I’m going to be a Kick Ass Pet Photographer!!!”

Well, not really, but one day, back in 2009, I was excited about starting a pet photography business after seeing a gorgeous image of a bunny. I didn’t let the lack of knowledge about dogs, pet photography, running a business, or my camera get in my way. I was going to take over the world with my gorgeous images of puppies and kittens.

My Qualifications:

10 plus years experience shooting with a point & shoot camera, an appreciation of and love for photography and animals, I grew up with dogs, and I lived with cats for years.

My business crashed and burned slowly. I wasn’t aware of the catastrophe that was slowing growing around me and that failure was looming down the road. Now I look back and I can see the mistakes I made and the things that I wish I knew about becoming a professional photographer.

If you are considering going pro, then here are 10 lessons I learned that may help you on your path.

Learn to use your camera. You may be light years ahead of me, making this “lesson” pointless for you. Sadly, I took my new Sony Alpha DSLR out of the box and used it like a point & shoot for a year. The pictures I took, which I thought were great at the time, make me cringe today, but this “lesson” inspired my photography blog so all wasn’t lost. I encourage everyone to join a photography forum, seek feedback, ask questions, take workshops – learn how to use your camera.Come up with a plan. It’s so important to have a business plan; this will shape the direction you take your business, how you market yourself, your branding, and your budget, among other things. I know first hand how daunting it is to create a business plan. To give you a quick reality check, I suggest checking out Creating Your One Page Business Plan and Path To Profit by The Suitcase Entrepreneur. Following these steps was a huge wake up call and helped me to reshape and redirect the plans I have for my current business. I also read Business Plan in a Day, a book by Rhonda Abrams, to help me organize my plans for my current business. This book is well organized and gives you sections to fill out and when you finish, you’ll have a 1st draft of your business plan.Create a budget. I started out using my own money and credit cards to fund my business. Not a good idea if you don’t have the plan mentioned above. I can’t tell you how much money I tossed away without knowing if it was a good idea or not (at the time, it everything seemed brilliant). And I won’t tell you how much I racked up on credit cards to fund my dream. Developing a budget will help you control spending. And then you should…Keep your money separate. Back then, I was comingling funds and at the end of the year it was difficult to separate business from personal. I was STUNNED by how much I had spent. I now have separate business accounts; I opened them at a separate bank. That part is probably overkill, but there’s a true divide between personal and business now.Research the specialty that has caught your eye. I know some people out there are tackling a little of everything while others like to focus on one or two specialties. Regardless of which camp you’re in, do the research. I should have taken the time to study the business, the industry, and dog breeds (like how to best deal with aggressive or shy dogs).Connect with a local professional photographer. This can be a little intimidating, so I connect with people online (Facebook, Twitter, and photography forums) and build a relationship from there. Invite them to coffee when they have time. Some photographers charge for mentorships, because their time and knowledge has value. Others may be willing to meet you for a coffee or lunch to answer your questions and give you feedback.Find out the pros and cons of your business set up: sole proprietorship or limited liability company (LLC). Find out what you can and cannot write off. And understand that write offs are just an offset to the taxes you owe to the government, not a reimbursement request. I’m an accountant and didn’t know this one; duhhhhh.Get insured. I have a home photography studio, handy when I want to take portraits without leaving the comfort of home. What I didn’t know was that home owner’s insurance won’t cover the medical costs when your client twists their ankle after becoming tangled in the backdrop. If a client is on your property for business purposes, then your home owners insurance doesn’t apply. Currently, I have a policy with CNA that covers things like accidents, my camera gear and photography equipment (which my homeowner’s policy won’t cover since it’s for business), contract disputes, and lost images (due to memory card malfunctions). Get a membership to a professional organization. And don’t just join the one you hear about the most; take the time to find out which one is right for you. I joined Professional Photographers of America (PPA), because I liked what I read about them and they offer a two year newbie membership rate while you’re growing your business and you can pay the membership monthly. By the way, Professional Photographers of America offers discounted insurance coverage to members.Don’t Offer Free Photography. I know that there are different opinions about free photography. I’m not talking about donating your services to a charity; I mean offering free photography to gain experience and build a portfolio. I offered free photography and filled my calendar with sessions. I gave away up to 15 full resolution images on a CD (this is where connecting with a local photographer would have helped). Some people didn’t show up, the ones that did wanted 10x more than I was offering, and since I was valuing myself at $0, everyone else did too. For me, this wasn’t the path to a portfolio or referrals; but I did learn that people respect a fee.

There were many more lessons that I learned, but these were the main ones that still stand out today. I’d love to hear the lessons you’ve learned and what you’d advice you’d offer to anyone looking to go pro.

Kimberly Gauthier is the writer behind the photography blog Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier; blog written for amateur photographers who didn’t read their manual.

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