Recommended Reading

 

Must Have

Understanding Exposure; Bryan Peterson

All of Bryan's books are worth a read, but today, if I were to recommend a single "text book" for photographers (especially beginning photographers), this would be the one).

Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers, Martin Evening

Martin Evening has become the authority on the seminal "Adobe Photoshop For Photographers, now in its 15th Edition, this somewhat expensive book is the "manual" for photoshop in my opion. If I only had one text on Photoshop, this would be the one).

The Digital Negative, Jeff Schewe

Jeff is a membor of the original "genius" team that worked on Photoshop and wrote books together with Bruce Fraser and Martin Evening. The first edition of his excellent book on (developing) post processing raw files was co-written with his friend, Bruce Fraser. After Bruce's death in 2006, Jeff continued writing subsequent editions. Comprehensive, but readable, Jeff's companion books - "The Digital Negavite," and "The Digital Print,' which addresses printing your digital image files (most with inkjet printers in mind) are, in my view, the best resources out there, and while I don't think the latter book is a "must" have book, I do believe that about this one).

Suggested

Nik Software Captured, Tony L. Corbell & Joshua A. Haftel

Obviously, this one only applies if you use the NIK software plugin. If so, you will probably benefit from third party book on its ins and outs. There is no manual, and use of a lot of it is "intuitive." This book is the best I found on getting "under the hood" with the Nik software, and I found it an invaluable aid when I first began working with the Nik bundle). Note: this book (like NIK software itself) is becoming dated (and may not even be available. NIK was one of those applications that came with essentially zero documentation. There were a couple books produced to fill that void. I read them. This one was cleary the best and most comprehensive.

Creative Black & White, Harold Davis

(If you ever plan to dabble in B&W conversion and image making, these two books provide a great place to start understanding the process)

Black & White Photography, Michael Freeman

There are many other worthy books out there. These are books that I would maintain in my library if they were the only ones I could keep.