- ISBN13: 9780240812151
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Selected Tips & Photographs From Pet Photography 101 by Andrew Darlow:
Tip #1 Should you buy a DSLR, or a high-end Point and Shoot (a.k.a. a compact camera) to photograph your pets and other family members? What about a camera that can do both stills and video? Andrew gives an overview of what’s out there and how to find just the right camera (or cameras) for you and your family. He also covers tips for taking better photos with your camera phone/smartphon… More >>
Pet Photography 101: Tips for taking better photos of your dog or cat
Tags: better, compact camera, darlow, dslr, family members, pet photography, pets, photographs, Photography, photography 101, photos, remainder mark, right camera, taking, Tips
#1 by L. T. Beasimer on March 24, 2010 - 12:18 am
As a serious photo-hobbyist, I was excited by the opportunity to read and review “Pet Photography 101: Tips for Taking Better Photos of Your Dog or Cat” with grand thoughts of terrorizing our dogs into modeling for me. Perhaps my expectations were too high.
According to Andrew Darlow, the book’s author and pet photographer, “this book was designed primarily for those who want to make better photos of pets and people, regardless of your photographic or computer skill level.” Additional information is referenced throughout the book and can be found at the book’s PhotoPetTips companion website. The book is broken into nine chapters which divide 101 tips into themes. Each tip typically covers a partial page followed by details of the supporting image usually shown on the next page.
My expectations were dashed quickly, by chapter 5 I didn’t want to read anymore. However, I read the entire book for the sake of this review. The first and last chapters cover technical aspects relating to photography such as software and choosing a camera. These are important topics, but not the purpose of this book. There are plenty of good books like Bryan Peterson’s “Understanding Exposure”, Matthew Bamberg’s “101 Quick and Easy Secrets for Using Your Digital Photographs”, or Scott Kelby’s “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers” which do a far better job of explaining the technical aspects. Additionally the pet related tips were common sense for the experienced photographer, and the images included cheesy captions.
Andrew Darlow also used this book to bring readers to his companion website. I’ve seen the use of companion websites with books in an attempt to keep the material up to date. Scott Kelby has used this technique with Lightroom books, especially when a new version seemed to be released every few months. In this case the simple companion site’s purpose is to drive traffic and advertise this book. Many articles are written by others and are provided as links to Wikipedia or Andrew Darlow’s own articles which should’ve been included in the book. The articles are difficult to find between all the links to other companies and products.
Thankfully this book was a quick read, and included a few inspiring images. As for Andrew Darrow’s claim of this book being for all people “regardless of [their] photographic or computer skill level,” I strongly disagree. This is a cute book designed for beginner photographers, and one I can’t recommend.
PROS:
Quick read
CONS:
Only a few inspiring images
The book uses a companion website to drive advertisement traffic
Most “tips” are common sense for experienced photographers
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Valerie J. Wood on March 24, 2010 - 2:06 am
This book is a well-designed, easy to understand guide for the photographer who wants to take better pictures of their pets. Geared towards the amateur, the information is helpful, clear and gives advice on how to take better pet photos. This is a reference that will be used again and again by the photographer who wants truly nice photos of their cat, dog, or other pet. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by murphysjay on March 24, 2010 - 4:29 am
This book was a huge disappointment. A lot of the information was geared to photography in general and wasn’t specific to photographing animals. EX: use Photoshop to remove red-eye. I didn’t need a book to tell me that. Look elsewhere.
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by Sacramento Book Review on March 24, 2010 - 5:20 am
//Pet Photography 101// is a helpful tool for the new photographer. Anyone who already has some experience or training in the field of photography won’t find anything new in this book, but if this is the first time you’ve picked up a camera and want to jump into photographing pets, then this book is for you.
The author; Andrew Darlow, walks you through a step-by-step guide in the very basic tips of the pet photography trade so you will be able to choose the correct camera mode, understand the best perspective for composition and make informed decisions about choosing a lighting source for both indoor and outdoor shooting sessions.
Andrew offers the reader 101 tips to guide and inspire the creative aspect of pet photography. Included in this step-by-step book are some guiding principles for having prints made, creating studio lighting and for multi-pet portraits. If you are new to digital photography and love pets, then you would enjoy this book and you might just learn a few techniques that will inspire you to want to gain more in-depth knowledge about this challenging and rewarding field of photography.
Reviewed by Doreen Erhardt
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by Jody on March 24, 2010 - 6:09 am
There are a lot of difficulties one can encounter photographing pets, and I was hoping that this would provide a lot more in-depth discussion about those issues, as opposed to a more general primer. If you don’t already own other photography books, it’s pretty helpful information, but I was looking for a lot more pet-specific tips, and not so much on general photography tips.
Anyone who has ever tried to photograph black fur with good results knows how much help a new photographer needs!
Rating: 4 / 5