A Short Course in Digital Photography

Jim Stone is an Associate Professor of Photography at the University of New Mexico. His photographs have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art and The Smithsonian American Art Museum, among many others. Books of his work include Stranger Than Fiction (Light Work, 1993),Historiostomy (Piltdown Press, 2001), and Why My Pictures are Good (Nazraeli Press, 2005). He has also published six higher education titles that are widely used in university courses: A User¹s Guide to the View Camera, Darkroom Dynamics, Photography, Photography: The Essential Way, A Short Course in Photography, and A Short Course in Digital Photography. Barbara London has authored and co-authored many photography books from their first editions to their current ones, including Photography, Photography: The Essential Way, A Short Course in Photography, A Short Course in Digital Photography, The Photograph Collector's Guide, and more.  

1 Camera 2
Getting Started Getting your camera ready 4
Focusing and setting the exposure 6
Exposure readout 7 
Exposing images 8
What will you photograph? 9  
Types of Cameras 10  
Basic Camera Controls 12  
More about Camera Controls 14  
Inside a digital single-lens reflex camera 15
Shutter Speed Affects light and motion 16  
Use it creatively 18  
Aperture Affects light and depth of field 20  
Use it creatively 22
Shutter Speed and Aperture Blur vs. depth of field 24  
Getting the Most
from Your Camera and Lens 26

2 Lens 28
Lens Focal Length The basic difference between lenses 30  
Normal Focal Length The most like human vision 32  
Long Focal Length Telephoto lenses 34  
Short Focal Length Wide-angle lenses 36  
Zoom, Macro, and Fisheye Lenses 38  
Focus and Depth of Field 40  
Automatic Focus 41
Depth of Field Controlling sharpness in a photograph 42  
More about Depth of Field How to preview it 44  
Perspective How a photograph shows depth 46  
Lens Attachments Close-ups and Filters 48

3 Light and Exposure 50
Sensor and Pixels 52  
Pixels and Resolution 53  
Color in Photography 54
White Balance 55  
Using Histograms 56  
Exposure Meters What different types do 58  
How to calculate and adjust an exposure manually 60
Overriding an Automatic Exposure Camera 62  
Making an Exposure of an Average Scene 64  
Exposing Scenes that are Lighter or Darker than Average 66  
Backlighting 68  
Exposing Scenes with High Contrast 69
HDR High dynamic range 70

4 The Digital Darkroom 72
Equipment and Materials You’ll Need 74  

Pictures Are Files 75  
Digital Color Modes, gamuts, spaces, and profiles 76  
Channels 77  
Calibrating for accuracy 78  

Working with Camera Raw 79  
Setting up a Workflow Stay organized 80  
Workflow programs: Aperture and Lightroom 81  
Importing an Image 82  
Scanning 83

5 Image Editing 84
Getting Started Editing an Image 86  
Adjusting an Image Levels 88
Curves 90  
Adjusting Part of an Image Selections 92  
More Techniques
Layers 94  
Retouching 96  
Sharpening 98  
Compositing 100  
Color
into black and white 102  
Filters 103  
An Editing Workflow 104  
Ethics and Digital Imaging 106

6 Printing and Display 108
Printers and Drivers 110  
Papers and Inks 111  
Soft Proofing 112
Panoramic Photographs 113  
Presenting Your Work Framing 114  
Matting a print 115  
Mounting a Print Equipment and materials you’ll need 116  
Dry Mounting a Print Step by Step 118  
Bleed Mounting/Overmatting 120

7 Organizing and Storing 122
Image Storage 124  
Using Metadata 125  
Software for Organizing 126
Archiving Images and Prints 127

8 Lighting 128
Qualities of Light From direct to diffused 130  
Existing Light Use what’s available 132  
The Main Light The strongest source of light 134  
Fill Light
To lighten shadows 136  
Simple Portrait Lighting 138  
Using Artificial
Light Photolamp or flash 140  
More about Flash How to position it 142
Using Flash 144

9 Seeing Like a Camera 146
What’s in the Picture The edges or frame 148  
The background 150  
Focus
Which parts are sharp 152  
Time and Motion in a Photograph 154  
Depth
in a Picture Three dimensions become two 156  
Chaos becomes order 157  
Photographing for Meaning 158  
Portraits Informal: Finding them 160  
Formal: Setting them up 162  
Photographing the Landscape 164  
Photographing the Cityscape 166  
Photographing Inside 168
Responding to Photographs 170

10 History of Photography 172
Daguerrotype “Designs on silver bright” 174  
Calotype Pictures on paper 176
Collodion Wet-Plate Sharp and reproducible 177  
Gelatin Emulsion/Roll-Film
Base Photography for everyone 178  
Color Photography 179  
Early Portraits 180  
Early Travel Photography 182  
Early Images of War 183
Time and Motion in Early Photographs 184  
The Photograph as Document 185  
Photography and Social Change 186  
Photojournalism 188
Photography as Art in the 19th Century 192  
Pictorial Photography and the Photo-Secession 193  
The Direct Image in Art 194  
The Quest for a New Vision 195  
Photography as Art in the 1950s and 1960s 196  
Photography as Art in the 1970s and 1980s 198  
Digital Photography Predecessors 200
Becomes Mainstream 202
How to Learn More 204  
Troubleshooting 205  
Photographers’ Web Sites 210  
Glossary 212  
Bibliography 216  
Photo Credits 217  
Index 218