Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Book Review

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Matthew Bamberg (see his Author page on Amazon and list of his other books) and asked to do a review of his latest book:

At first I didn't read the entire title and I figured this was another book with tips on how to take better photographs (which I'm sure I could use). However, after I actually looked in the book and then re-read the title, I learned that the book is not about how to take pictures, but what you can do with your pictures after you have taken them. Matthew Bamberg goes through and has chapters describing fun things that you can do with your digital image; from blogs to putting your image on mugs and t-shirts to scrap-booking and selling your photos.

His beginning chapters talk about first, managing your photos on your own computer (using software such as Picasa and iPhoto), second, some basic overviews of programs to edit your images (Picasa, Photoshop, GIMP), and then lastly, a review of quite a few online sites that specialize in sharing photos (Flickr, Picasa, Shutterfly, Photobucket, ImageShack, etc). Overall, if you are a beginner at digital photography and you want to learn where to upload your photos, how to get them from your camera to an online album, attach them as an email and perhaps put them on a blog, MySpace or Facebook, these chapters will teach you all you need to know.

Matthew Bamberg devotes an entire chapter to digital scrapbooking, which although I do not do, I know it is very popular.

He has another chapter all about photo blogs. I found this chapter very interesting and relevant to me. If you are interested in generating traffic to your blog or promoting yourself, he has tips on how to achieve that.

In his book, Matthew Bamberg devotes a couple chapters to teaching you how to sell your photos and how to get published. That information was all new to me. I found it very informative. I don't know that I could/would ever sell a photo, but if I do, now I know how to start.

The last areas that he covers are how to turn your images in to fun personal accessories (mugs, t-shirts, cards, gifts) and cool slide shows.

I think "Quick and Easy Secrets for Using Your Digital Photographs" is actually quite original in it's concept. I have enjoyed reading it, and I have already referred to it for help.

2 comments:

Florida4x4chick said...

Nice post. I wouldn't have ever thought about getting a book for that but it seems pretty cool

Dea said...

sounds like an interstesting book. I always kinda wondered how you go about selling your work.

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