Photography books come in one of three guises. The first is what I like to call inspirational, displaying mainly a collection of pretty pictures, the second, hints and tips collections, follows a gimmicky ‘pearls of wisdom’ approach, showing a series of photographs along with notes on how to achieve similar results. The problem with this approach is that there are an infinite number of conditions under which you may want to take pictures, and the hint or tip that may have worked in a certain set of conditions, may be impossible to replicate under others. The third and most useful category is the instructional approach. Here the author attempts to teach the underlying principles, so as to allow you to better understand the craft of photography, and therefore take better pictures under all circumstances.

The Digital SLR handbook falls firmly in the third category.

It is aimed at photographers who already have a base understanding of photography, but who may have, as so many of us, learned their skills in the pre-digital days of a wet chemical darkroom. It takes therefore, a lot as understood. It makes, for instance, no attempt to explain how the aperture, or color temperature affects a photograph.

What it does do, is offer a springboard for those of us who want to deepen our understanding of digital photography in order to broaden our skills.

What makes this book exceptional, is that it is not only highly informative, presenting some of the most important underlying principles of digital photography, but that it does so in a very understandable and interesting manner, which is no mean feat for an instructional textbook, as others in this genre can be quite tedious and monotonous in there style.

The title of the book would suggest that it focuses on digital SLR cameras to the exclusion of all else. This could not be further from the truth. It looks at the entire digital capturing process, and takes into account post-capture and presentational issues, such as how to calibrate a computer’s monitor and printer for accurate color rendition, how to select software, and even some great ideas for displaying images on websites.

As with most photography books, it contains hundreds and hundreds of explanatory photographs and diagrams, and these are used to very good effect, supplementing the text, and furthering the understanding of the reader, without being distracting or intrusive. For instance, in the sections explain modern developments in digital sensor technology, it shows diagrams of how each of these look in reality. This proves highly effective, and has certainly aided me in selecting a camera that is best suited to my own needs.

As with all technical manuals in a rapidly developing field, the book runs the risk of being dated by the time it hits the shelves, but at present it still presents a fairly accurate presentation of where we are in the market, and where the technology is likely to take us.

As stated, the book is not aimed at beginners, more likely it is aimed at the seasoned professional who need to acquire new skills in a changing environment, but that being said, there is no reason why an amateur who knows the basics can’t benefit tremendously from it.