One of the most popular cameras on the market is called the “Digital Rebel,” yet many photographers use it and its brethren to follow tired old rules .

This book shows you how to move beyond the dogma and shoot more creatively.

If you’re just starting out with a camera, or are starting to think about switching away from Auto mode, then this is the perfect book for you. Not only will you find within all the classical rules of photography—useful basic knowledge that can sharpen anyone’s eye for finding great photographs—but you’ll simultaneously be shown how you can push the boundaries that many teachers set, filling your memory card with exciting, different pictures that push the limits.

After all, unless you understand the confines of the box, you can’t consciously decide to think outside of it, can you?

Hip amateurs and professionals alike are snatching these cameras up, and this book is tailored specifically to today’s trend-setting users. Creative E.V.I.L. Photography highlights the unique advantages offered by these mirrorless cameras, including incredible image quality despite their small size, more discreet street shooting, and great HD video.

With this specialized guide in hand, photographers will easily exploit the unique characteristics of their new equipment.

About the Author

Haje Jan Kamps is the fastest up-and-coming digital photography writer on the scene today. Starting his first digital photography website in 1998 (at age 17), his successful Photocritic.org site has been extremely popular, cultivating a large and dedicated readership with extensive coverage on major blog aggregators such as Slashdot, Digg, and Lifehacker. He has extensive experience in technical editing and ghost writing, in addition to authoring two previous books. He resides in London when he isn’t traveling the world.

Black, gray and white - the perfect combo for well-balanced images!

White balance is a topic that can cause rather spectacular headaches with even the most seasoned of photographers – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

With the Photocritic Gray Cards, you can get the perfect white balance in your photos – every single time. I’ve written a guide (with a video tutorial!) for how you can use a set of gray cards over on Pixiq, so head over there to take a closer look. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Did you enjoy that? Good stuff – now order your gray cards below.

Photocritic Gray Cards – Set of 3 gray cards in protective envelope.

Customers in the US can now order the gray cards directly from Amazon.com – with free shipping if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber!

Customers in the UK and EU can now order the gray cards directly from Amazon in Europe – Free shipping is available to some destinations.

Triggertrap is an universal, Arduino-based open-source camera trigger developed by Haje.

Universal: It works on all cameras that have the facility for using a remote control

Arduino-based: Being based on everyone’s favourite rapid-prototyping platform means that it’s easy to add your own functionality, if that’s your thing

Camera trigger: It connects to your camera, and triggers it when an event happens; It has light and sound sensors built-in, can do time-lapse photography, and has an Auxiliary port built in as well, if you want to trigger it in any other way.

The project was launched on Kickstarter in late June 2011, and is expected to be fully crowd-funded via the Kickstarter platform on July 31st, 2011.

Full details are available on Triggertrap.com

With their unique sets of challenges, night and low-light photography are often touted as some of the most difficult and frustrating genres of digital photography. This much-needed guide demystifies any murky topics provides you with all the information you need to know from choosing the right gear and camera settings to how to best edit your photos in post-production. Renowned photographer Alan Hess shares techniques and indispensable tips that he has garnered from years of experience.

Helpful projects and full-color stunning photos in each chapter serve to educate and inspire, while assignments at the end of every chapter encourage you to practice your skills and upload your photos to a website so you can share and receive critiques.

• Details best practices for taking portraits, landscapes, and action shots in night or low light
• Features specific coverage of concert photography and low-light event photography
• Answers the most frequent questions that photographers face while tackling this challenging technique

Packed with invaluable advice and instruction, Night and Low-Light Photography Photo Workshop doesn’t leave you in the dark.

You can submit your HDR images for feedback at photoworkshop.com.

• High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography offers creative possibilities through specific camera and software techniques that produce highly detailed and imaginative images
• Two professional photographers team up to provide expert instruction in HDR camera and software techniques for those new to HDR
• Covers the latest software and concepts, a comprehensive exploration of HDR basics, various techniques for shooting and merging images, and creative tricks with Photoshop and Lightroom
• Lavishly illustrated with new examples and full of suggestions for developing a personal HDR style
• Students can upload their own images for feedback at photoworkshop.com

Any photographer who is new to HDR will find this guide loaded with helpful instructions and encouraging advice.

Professional photographer and veteran author Erin Manning offers invaluable advice for handling the unique challenges of photographing babies, large and small groups, and action.

Assignments at the end of each chapter encourage you to test your newfound skills while visiting pwsbooks.com allows you to post your work and benefit from feedback and constructive criticism.

• Explains how to study your subjects in their natural habitat, while you observe how they react and interact
• Features invaluable advice from veteran author Erin Manning that shares simple techniques for improving photos of babies and children
• Zeroes in on how to best capture facial expressions
• Highlights ways to tell a story with a series of candid photos
• Helps you add interest to large-group shots

When you apply the techniques featured on the pages of Portrait and Candid Photography Photo Workshop, 2nd Edition, you’ll watch your subjects come to life.

You ll learn how to leave the safety of automatic settings and understand how controlling the settings can result in beautiful photos. Stunning photos of people, wildlife, and landscapes serve to inspire you to practice your new skills in exposure and create memorable and frame-worthy photos.

• Unveils the many intricate levels of exposure and clearly explains how to master each one so that you can capture amazing photos
• Encourages you to apply each of the techniques you learn with patience and experimentation when photographing people, wildlife, landscapes, or any other subject matter
• Details the essentials for taking frame-worthy photos in a variety of challenges, such as action, night scenes, low light, bad weather, and more
• Features updated, stunning, and inspiring full-color photos throughout

Exposure yourself to the fantastic and unparalleled advice contained within the pages of Exposure Photo Workshop, Second Edition!

When the books I wrote went through the technical editor mill, I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed – Sure, I was incredibly grateful for getting feedback on my writing, but the ‘feedback’ was limited to only actual technical errors. I figured ‘damn, here’s a fantastic opportunity to get some insights from a fellow photography author, but all I am getting is “This picture appears to be taken with a larger aperture than indicated. Please confirm”.

When that happened, I figured that I could do a better job than that, and contacted my publishers to see if I could help out. It turns out it isn’t very well paid – I mean, the pay isn’t horrible, but it’s nowhere near my normal freelance / consulting rates. So why do I bother?

What I get out of technical editing

Between you and me, I get a lot more out of tech editing than just the money. It is exciting to be involved in the production of new books, for one thing. It is also very interesting to see manuscripts in their raw form, and to realise that authors differ wildly in lots of different ways. Some authors write their books very tightly integrated (i.e. the photos illustrating points are key to each individual chapter, and it seems as if the chapters are written around a set of illustration images), others are less integrated.

Some authors can barely string a sentence together (which is fine – that’s where the copy-editors come in. The important part is the content, after all), whilst others deliver flowing prose that verges on poetry. And, as you might imagine, there are a lot of people that are teetering somewhere in-between. I’m quite happy to admit that I’ve learned a lot from tech-editing other author’s books – and there can be little doubt about that I’m a better writer for it myself.

Of course, I also get the fuzzy feeling of knowing that someone else’s book is a tiny little bit more accurate, more complete, and a smidgeon better because I was involved.

What does the technical editor add to the manuscript?

I can only speak about what I do myself, really, but it’s a pretty thorough process:

Check all factual information in the manuscript – That includes names mentioned (Is it the right person? Is their name spelled correctly?), dates listed (do the dates make sense? Do they match the EXIF data of the images being used as examples?), any photographic equipment used (are they still on sale? Does the equipment do what the author claims it does?), etc.

Look at every photo in detail, at 100% magnification – Are they sharp and in focus? Do they need further post-processing to look good in print? Is the white balance correct? How do the images look in context with other photos in the same chapter?

Check the EXIF data of every image – You’d be amazed how easy it is to get the camera data muddled up in captions: A 1/160 second shutter speed turns into a 1/60 second shutter speed, for example, or the author writes that they were shooting wide-open with a 17mm lens whilst the EXIF data seems to think we are talking about different equipment. It isn’t the end of the world, of course, but if a publisher is going to go through the trouble of hiring a technical editor, we may as well get it perfect – especially if people are going to try to use the exposure settings as starting points for their own photographs.

Query any inconsistencies – Some times, you look at a photo and think “There is no way this image was taken in the way the photographer says”. Perhaps the lighting is off; maybe there’s some reflection that shows that they used another piece of equipment, etc.

Finally, I will go through and see if I can think of any key pieces of information or advice that have been missed out. Do I know of any great tips, alternative ways of doing things, or faster methods to accomplish the same result? If so, it goes into my tech editing notes.

What happens with the tech editing notes?

The tech editor’s notes go back to the author of the book – who then gets to decide whether to do anything with the advice. Some times, they might decide to rewrite a section, they may just update the text or caption based on my comments – or they might decide that they disagree with my comments, and simply move along and leave it as-is.

Not changing anything based on the technical editor’s comments or suggestions is okay, of course – the author is the boss. Personally, I find that sometimes the technical editor has misunderstood my point, that there wasn’t a factual issue, but that the explanation was too poor, and that that led to confusion.

So how can I hire a tech editor?

There are a lot of good photography tech editors out there, and a quick google search should help you on your way. Or you could just go to my contact page and see if I can help you!