About two years ago, I reviewed The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book by Martin Evening which I consider to be the best book in Lightroom 2.

Now with Lightroom 3 out, I upgrade my software and absolutely love it. Lightroom 3 rocks!

Of course I also ordered the latest edition of Martin Evening’s Lightroom book which now covers Lightroom 3. And the 3rd edition of the book is as great as the 2 edition. It remains the best book on Lightroom.

I may order one or two other Lightroom books, because you can always learn something new about workflow from a different photographer. But right now I am happy with Martin’s book and I won’t get any other book before I haven’t completely finished this one.

Martin’s book has over 670 pages and contains more detail than any other Lightroom book. But it is still very readable and never boring. If there is something about Lightroom you can’t find in this book, it probably doesn’t exist!

After a very detailed coverage of the Library module, the book devotes more than 250 pages to the Develop module and how to interact with Photoshop. This is one of the best treatments on how to develop raw pictures I’ve found in any book. If you shoot RAW but don’t yet know how to get the best out of your shots, you will learn it here. Martin describes everything in great detail without being to technical or overwhelming the reader (basis photographic knowledge should be available, though).

The other features of Lightroom like printing or sideshows are also covered in great detail.

The whole book is full with Martin’s great pictures. He is not only a skilled writer but also a great photographer.

I read a lot of technical books, both about photography and also about software development (I work as a programmer) but many technical books are so boring that it’s hard to read for more than 10 pages. Others are just crap. But some are really great books and Martin Evening’s Lightroom book is one of them.

If you are a digital photographer, I highly recommend using Lightroom 3. The workflow and the raw processor are fantastic. I don’t need Photoshop that often any more since I started using Lightroom.

And to get the most out of Lightroom 3, I highly recommend this book. It is the best on Lightroom 3. You won’t find anything better!

Highly recommended!

Buy from amazon

This book is a basic introduction into digital flower photography. On a little more than 140 pages it covers the basics of flower photography with a digital SLR camera.
After an overview of necessary equipment like cameras or lenses the book covers exposure, depth of field, light, colour, choosing the right background, composition and digital image processing. It also has two case studies, one about cherry blossoms, the other about crocuses. All this is illustrated with many pictures taken by the author.

I like this book but it could have been better. The text is very basic and mostly targeted at beginners. If you are already an experienced photographer, you won’t find much new information. Also, the text does not go into too much detail and often a beginner might want more information. For example, the text on choosing a macro lens is not even half a page and is very basic. It mentions that a longer focal length has different benefits but the book does not explain the advantages and disadvantages of the different telephoto macro lens. For example a Nikon photographer might wonder if it is better to buy the 105mm or the 200mm macro lens from Nikon. The book does not mention that most manufactures have telephoto macro lenses in those ranges (Canon has 100mm and 180mm) and what are the advantages and disadvantages (See my article Choosing a lens for macro and close-up photography for a much more detailed explanation).
Similar the chapter on flashes. Nikon and Canon offer a large selection of flashes incl. specialised macro flashes. After reading the book you won’t know what to buy!

The chapters on colour, light and composition are better and although not as detailed as in other books, they offer many useful tips for the beginning and intermediate photographer.

For me the best part of the book are the awesome images. Sue Bishop is a world class flower photographer and the fantastic images are a clear proof of that. The images are a great inspiration for every flower and nature photographer, no matter your skill level and I enjoy browsing through the images and looking for inspiration for my own flower photographs.

Overall I think the text could have been better (and much more detailed, especially when it comes to technique and equipment), but the pictures alone may be worth the price of the book for many photographers – it definitely was worth it for me.

So, if you are mostly looking for detailed technical explanations for flower photography, look elsewhere but if you want a beautifully illustrated book with fantastic flower photographs as a inspiration for your own photography, this book is a good investment.

Buy the book from amazon:

Arthur Morris, one of the best bird photographers in the world is also famous for many books and e-books he has published including user guides for Canon DSLRs.
Now two new guides covering the EOS 7D and the EOS 1D Mark IV will be available very soon. I already ordered my EOS 7D guide and can’t wait to read it.
This won’t be just some copied information from the manual (as some other worthless books do) but written by someone who really uses the camera in the field and also actually know how to get the best results from it.
The EOS 7D is BY FAR the best middle range DSLR for bird and nature photographers Canon has ever built so far and the 1D Mark IV is probably the best pro model so far (I have not yet used the 1D Mark IV as I prefer spending the money on a good trip or two).

For more information about the new e-books by Arthur Morris, click here:
Canon EOS-7D User’s Guide

I will publish a review about the EOS 7D guide here once I’ve finished reading it.

I just finished reading the The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography published by the Mountain Trail Photo Team. I really like this book. It may not be “ultimate” but no book can be. For example, you could write a whole book only on bird or butterfly photography and fill more pages than this book has (192). So, not everything is covered in great detail (for example photographing birds in flight or how to best use a hide to photograph shy animals).
But there is a lot to like in this book. First of all are the absolutely stunning pictures from various photographers. I’ve read many nature photography book but this one belongs to the top 5 when it’s comes to the quality of the images presented. The printing quality is stunning and it is just a joy watching all those amazing photographs and become inspired by them. The pictures alone are worth the price of the book.
The text is mostly written for beginning and intermediate nature photographers. It covers equipment, exposure or how to use light. The chapter on composition is one of the best treatments of this subject I’ve read. It may not be as detailed as in some other books but has many clear explanations illustrated with awesome images and it also covers stuff not found in many other books like using triangles, S- and C-cuvers or Zig-Zags.
One chapter covers special effects like using HDR, multiple exposures, night exposures are using flash. Here more details, especially for using flash would have been great but there is still a lot of useful information to be found. The HDR information is also only basic but given that this is such a big subject, the reader will probably have to buy a separate book on HDR anyway.
In the chapter “Making magical images” the reader can find many tips on how to improve his photography organised by various subjects like landscape, macro or wildlife.
The chapter on digital workflow covers the basics of how to work with your images in the digital darkroom. Given that topics like Lightroom or Photoshop are very complex, again, here only the basics are presented and you will need more detailed books covering those topics.
At the end there is one page with some thoughts on turning pro, a photographic calendar covering interesting locations in North America and some small tutorials on specific topics like photographing autumn color, waterfalls or birds in flight (as I wrote above, the coverage here is basic for some topics. 5 small paragraphs on how to photograph birds in flight are a good start but won’t be enough to make you an expert – but becoming an expert in birds in flight photography can only be done with lots of practice, anyway.

Overall I liked the book a lot. The text is great for beginning and intermediate nature photographers and the pictures are so good that even advanced and professional nature photographers can learn something from them or become inspired by them.

Highly recommended!

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dpreview has just published a review of the Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i . The review is very good and it seems that Canon really has produced a great entry level DSLR.
I personally do not recommend this camera for serious nature photographers, at least not as your main body. It would make a good backup body for an existing EOS 7D, though.
If you mostly shoot close-up, the 550D might be enough. For birds and other animals, the 7D is a much better choice due to it’s weather sealing, much faster frame rate and better AF system.
If you just start with nature photography and have a limited budget, the 550D may be a good option. When in doubt, it is better to spend more money on good lenses. For example, it is better for close-up photography to have a 550D and a high quality macro lens than a 7D and a mediocre lens.

Further information:
dpreview review of the Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i

Choosing a digital SRL camera for bird photography

Choosing a Canon DSLR for nature photography

I recently had the change to read Alan Murphy’s “Guide to Songbird Set-up Photography”, an E-book written by Alan Murphy, one of the best bird photographers in the world and published by Arthur Morris’ Birds as Art Store.
Alan Murphy has become famous for all his amazing pictures of song birds and other species which he attracts to prepared perches.
This book, which is only available on CD, covers in detail how Alan does create his fantastic images. The only focus of the book is on how to create the perfect set-ups for attracting and photographing birds. It is not a beginners guide to bird photography. You should know how to handle a DSLR and a telephoto lens.

The title is not entirely correct as the book does not only cover song birds but also some other groups like hummingbirds, woodpeckers, ducks or grouse.

A few topics covered in the book are:
- Hummingbirds in flight
- photographing woodpeckers
- birds in a cactus
- photographing Bluebirds
- attracting birds to feeders
- using water or fruits to attract birds
- how to choose the right perches
- ground birds on stumps
- owls
- kingfishers
- water birds
- birds in flight

Every topic is explained in detail with pictures of the set-ups Alan uses and what he does to get the perfect shot. This all is illustrated with many of the best bird pictures ever published in a book about nature photography.

The writing style is very easy to follow and very inspiring.

On a little more than 100 pages, the book contains more practical tips than most other books on nature photography.
Don’t worry if you don’t live in North America. The tips and tricks can be applied everywhere in the world. I try to use a lot of Alan’s tips during this spring and summer and I already found a few places where I will create my own set-ups.
I live in southern Germany and there we don’t have all the species described in the books. But what works for Bluebirds in North America can also work for a European Robin, a Song Thrush or a Blue Tit.

Alan’s Book is one of the best publications on bird photography I’ve read. I highly recommend this outstanding E-book to every bird and nature photographer, no matter how experienced you are. You will definitely learn something from Alan.

More information:
Product Description at the Birds as Art store

Alan Murphy’s website. Be sure to visit. The Website has many amazing images and a very interesting blog. Alan also offers workshops where you can learn from the master himself.

A new article about choosing the right camera for bird photography is now available:
Choosing a digital SRL camera for bird photography
This replaces an older article published earlier on this page.
There are many choices today when it comes to choosing the right camera for photographing birds. If you are interested in bird photography but don’t know which camera to choose, read the article!

You may also like:
Choosing a lens for bird photography.

A while ago, I published a review about the book Digital Nature Photography: The Art and the Science by John and Barbara Gerlach. I really liked their book and found that it was one of the best books on digital nature photography available.
Recently I bought and read John and Barbara’s new book, called Digital Landscape Photography, which is simply fantastic.
The book has about 200 pages and is full of great information for the digital landscape photographer.
The book covers many topics, including:

• Cameras, lenses and accessories
• Exposure
• Getting sharp images
• Light and composition
• HDR and panoramas

Everything is explained in great detail. The book contains a lot more text than many other books on landscape photography. Especially interesting was the chapter on getting sharp images. I often wonder when I meet photographers in the field with expensive cameras and lenses but not using a tripod or other techniques to get sharp images. This book tells you how to get the sharpest image possible and the author’s advice works!

The chapters on light and composition are equally interesting. Although I’ve read many books on those subjects already, I always learn something new in a good book. This is because every photographer works different and also composes his or here photographs in a different way.

The text is easy to follow and never gets boring. I finished the book in 3 days.

The images in the book are simply fantastic and a great inspiration. I always judge photography books by the quality of their images. How could you believe the text if the images are bad? In this book, every shot is stunning and perfectly executed. The authors really know how to take great landscape photographs.

There is nothing in the book I don’t like. It would have been interesting to know the technical details of the images (focal length, f-stop), but where really necessary, the authors mention those details.

I highly recommend this book to everyone nature and landscape photographer!

Buy the book from amazon:

Famous North American nature photographer D. Robert Franz recently published several posts about the Canon EOS 7D on his blog.
The last blog post is about photographing birds in flight.
Robert confirms what many other photographers – including me – also experienced: The EOS 7D is a fantastic camera for photographing birds in flight.
I have many keepers with the EOS 7D together with my Canon EF 4/500L IS and EF 4/300L IS lenses.
Keep in mind that the AF of the EOS 7D is a complex tool. It has many different options and it will take some time to master. Once you know how to handle the camera, it is only your imagination, creativity and passion that will decide what pictures you take with the 7D. Have a look at Robert’s blog post and see his amazing flight shots to get some inspiration:
Canon 7D and Birds in Flight

A new article about choosing the right lens for bird photography is now available:
Choosing a lens for bird photography.
This replaces an older article published earlier on this page.

If you are interested in bird photography but don’t know which lens to choose, read the article!