Android Photography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity

Take great photos with your Android(TM) smart phone! Despite the popularity of Android(TM) and its huge app store, there hasn't been much information to be found on making the most of its in-phone camera. Now, this enlightening guide helps users get a great shot, anytime, anywhere. It details many of the great apps available for Android(TM); shows how to apply them to create, edit, and enhance images; and explains the easiest and best ways to share those pictures with friends and family.
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Nikon Creative Lighting System Digital Field Guide

With the latest version of the Nikon Creative Lighting System, you can take control of light like never before. This hands-on guide will help you master not only the basics, but also workarounds, customized lighting solutions, and creative lighting techniques that will take your photography to a new level. Get specific tips for common shooting situations, and take full advantage of the Nikon CLS.
Explore the different types of Speedlights and how each one works
Get familiar with standard and custom functions and settings
Set up a wireless studio that you can take anywhere
Learn to direct, shape, and modify light from the camera position
Master advanced techniques for action, night, portrait, product, and wedding photography
Inside - your free gray and color checker card to help you achieve accurate white balance and color
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The Complete Guide to Digital Photography

Best-selling author Michael Freeman covers every significant aspect of digital photography in detail, from essential image-making hardware and software to advanced shooting techniques and travel tips. He communicates a vast amount of knowledge in an inspirational and exciting way.
Oversized and beautifully illustrated, this guide is the perfect in-depth introduction for beginners and an invaluable reference for enthusiasts.
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Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies [With DVD]

Easy-to-follow instructions on getting better photos with a digital SLR camera!
Digital SLR cameras put full control over the look of a picture in the photographer's hands. You just need some basic know-how about how digital SLRs operate to get the photos you want out of your camera. This instructional video introduces you to the basics of digital SLR photography, from switching lenses to selecting exposure settings to when to use the camera's flash. It also shows you how to apply that knowledge to take great action shots, landscapes, portraits, and more.
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Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots

For photographers interested in wedding photography, this guide is sure to help conquer the fundamentals and capture authentic and memorable images. "Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots" is geared to help beginning-to-intermediate digital photographers break down the demands of the day and bring their own unique artistic expression to the event.
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National Geographic Complete Photography

A comprehensive illustrated reference about photography and the camera, this book combines how-to advice, knowledgeable commentary, and useful tips on how to take and look at photographs. Not just a how-to book, it is a how-does-it-work book, focusing on cameras, photographs, and photographers.
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500 Poses for Photographing Couples: A Visual Sourcebook for Digital Portrait Photographers

Designed to address the challenges of posing two subjects together, this visual sourcebook offers creative, evocative poses for a variety of two-subject groupings, including romantic couples, business partners, friends, and siblings.
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500 Poses for Photographing Men: A Visual Sourcebook for Digital Portrait Photographers

Offering a variety of options for refining poses and spicing up portrait sessions, this visual sourcebook addresses the problems that photographers often run into when taking portraits of men, whether the pictures are for male fashion shoots, weddings, family shots, or individual portraits.
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People Pictures: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs

Bestselling author/photographer Chris Orwig offers 30 photographic exercises to renew your passion for capturing the people in your world. This is not a traditional portrait photography book. The goal isn't flattery, but connection and depth. Whether you are a student, busy parent, or seasoned pro photographer, these exercises provide an accessible framework for exploration and growth.
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500 Cameras: 170 Years of Photographic Innovation

Library Journal (03/15/2012):
In these pages, Gustavson (curator, technology, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; "Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital") provides a visually stunning overview of the history of cameras and related equipment. After introductions by Gustavson and Anthony Bannon (director, George Eastman House), the book follows photography chronologically from the earliest daguerreotype cameras to contemporary cell phones. Drawing on the extensive archives of the George Eastman House collection, Gustavson devotes individual chapters to the following camera types: dry plate, field, detective, snapshot, reflex, twin-lens reflex, folding, 35mm, professional, panoramic, stereo, subminiature, toy, specialty, and in-camera processing. Each chapter is color-coded, and the book includes a detailed index, making it a handy reference--though this lovely tome is more than just that. Each of the cameras is beautifully illustrated with color photographs and described in lively prose, and the book benefits from handsome design.
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BetterPhoto Basics: The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Taking Photos Like a Pro

In "BetterPhoto Basics, " Jim Miotke, founder of the popular online photography school BetterPhoto.com, shares tips and tricks to improve your photos right away, no matter what camera you're using. Too busy to read a book? No problem--flip to any page for an instant tip to use right away! Learn to compose knockout shots, make the most of indoor and outdoor light, and photograph twenty popular subjects, from sunsets and flowers to a family portrait. Those who want to go further get tips on controlling exposure and the secrets behind ten advanced creative techniques. And everyone will appreciate Jim's breakdown of easy fixes to make in Photoshop. No matter what your level of experience, you'll be amazed how easy it is to start taking photos like the pros.
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A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney

Booklist (11/01/2011):
Gayford, the London-based chief art critic for Bloomberg News and author of The Yellow House (2006), has been engaged in conversation with the protean artist David Hockney for a decade. He now turns their movable feast of a discussion about the nature and significance of pictures into a fluent chronicle that blends biographical narrative with question-and-answer sections to cover everything from cave paintings to Photoshop. After living in Los Angeles for many years, Hockney returned to his native ground along the northeast coast of England, where he is reinvigorating the tradition of landscape painting. Not only is this inquisitive virtuoso of saturated color and dynamic compositions working on enormous luminous paintings; he is also making exquisite drawings on his iPhone and iPad. Looking long and hard, Gayford observes, are essential activities in Hockney's life and artand also two of his greatest pleasures. Hockney muses over humankind's deep, deep desire to depict and how art helps us see the world more intensely. Sumptuously illustrated, this radiant volume encapsulates what it truly means to be a visual artist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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Photo and Video Editing for Seniors

Created specifically for use with the free Windows Live programs Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, this guide helps seniors learn to edit their own digital photos and videos. The techniques described go beyond simple editing and retouching to include creating slide shows and online photo albums in Photo Gallery and using Movie Maker to incorporate visual effects and upload videos to YouTube. Each step in the clear instructions is accompanied by a screenshot that depicts that process, and a supplemental reference section and extensive index help older adults pinpoint exactly what they are looking for and troubleshoot any problems they run into with ease. Based on practical experience and tested by seniors, this computer reference is suitable for users of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
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Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling

Library Journal (03/01/2012):
Salisbury (illustration, Anglia Ruskin Univ., UK) and Styles (children's literature, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) discuss all aspects of both the theory and the practice of the hybrid art form of picture books--e.g., the history of picture books, visual literacy, and the children's publishing industry. Professional case studies highlight individual works and explain particular techniques in detail. Essential for a book about picture books, this guide contains a wealth of picture book covers, page spreads, and initial sketches covering a very wide range of styles. VERDICT This book will serve as a thorough introduction to picture books for art students, education students, graphic designers, and parents. Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information.
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How to Draw Steampunk

Steampunk, once a little-known subcultural phenomenon, has gained popularity. After a brief discussion of the origins and influences of steampunk, husband and wife Marsocci and DeBlasio--who design steampunk props for films--and artist Berry provide background on basic tools and techniques, then go on to present exercises in steampunk-themed drawing, painting, and illustration. These projects increase in complexity over the course of the book, including some digital tools along the way. This title will appeal especially to young adult readers. Library Journal.
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Zoltan Szabo's 70 Favorite Watercolor Techniques

Lessons of a lifetime from one of watercolor's greatest painters
Avoid problems, create better paintings and take leaps forward in your art. Learn how from Zoltan Szabo, one of the most revered watercolor teachers in America. Using the same ease of approach that made his workshops so popular, this book makes watercolor painting simple, straightforward and fun.
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Tulips in Watercolour

Applying her clear, reassuring guidance to five step-by-step watercolor flower still lifes, Fiona Peart guides new artists through the basic principles of this inspiring medium. Each project shares a distinctive style: applying clean, very wet washes of watercolor in free and intuitive ways. Painters will learn the delicate technique of brushing different washes side by side with a striking, natural fluidity. Getting started is easy, as each project is accompanied by reusable tracing papers--painters need only trace the outline of the tulip with a soft graphite pencil, then rub the outline onto watercolor paper to achieve the transfer--eliminating the need for strong drawing skills, and ensuring a balanced, professional-quality composition.
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Bento's Sketchbook

"A deceptively brief volume offers profound meditations on art, the creative process and so much more.
Berger has long been difficult to categorize—philosopher? art critic? essayist? novelist?—and his latest defies pigeon-holing even by the standards of this British-born writer who has long lived in France. Let's start with the title, which alludes to a long-rumored but never-found sketchbook by the philosopher Spinoza, to whom Berger refers affectionately as "Bento" (the nickname for Benedict) and whom he excerpts liberally. In fact, dozens of passages from Spinoza's Ethics, accompanied by drawings from Berger (perhaps channeling Spinoza) and others might give this the appearance of an illustrated abridgement of that work. Yet Spinoza is more of a springboard, as Berger delves deeply into the processes of making and responding to art, of thinking and being, of narrative and history, of the essence of humanity. Taking inspiration from the possibility of a Spinoza sketchbook, the author "began to make drawings prompted by something asking to be drawn." In the process, he began to focus on what he drew and why he drew, connecting the creation of art to everything from philosophy to politics to religion. Each of the prose pieces—some as short as a paragraph, few longer than a couple of pages—is self-contained, yet this volume isn't exactly a collection of essays, for none are titled and all are thematically interconnected as well. Whether he's extending an analogy that compares making a drawing to riding a motorbike or discusses storytelling in a manner that could apply just as well to drawing ("In following a story, we follow a storyteller, or, more precisely, we follow the trajectory of a storyteller's attention, what it notices and what it ignores..."), he makes such interaction and interconnection seem central to the human condition.
Berger's readers will see with fresh eyes." Kirkus.
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The Storyboard Artist: A Guide to Freelancing in Film, TV, and Advertising

Any student studying film production has heard, "You must storyboard!" but most curricula gloss over instruction. Film production freelancer Cristiano reveals the sense behind storyboards—cinematographic visualizations and breakdowns of shot composition that directors can use to conceptualize the story before the shoot. Savvy producers and crews can similarly use them to plan setup tools, stage a scene, and even approximate a budget. There is not a formally accepted structured curriculum or directed career path—often storyboarding is a professional sidestep taken by those trained to be artists or directors—so books on the topic tend to be a mashup of studies including drawing, cinematography, script analysis, visual writing, and directing. Cristiano effectively communicates a route in an organized and career-sensible manner: storyboarding definitions, equipment guide, how to draw (techniques), storyboarding in advertising, working with directors and producers, and the business side (contracts, bookkeeping, promotion, and freelance). Library Journal.
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Abstracts: 50 Inspirational Projects

Abstract artists aim to make unseen ideas visible, and this inspiring guidebook collects 50 abstract exercises for painters looking to expand their abilities and build their expressive repertoires. From purely conceptual compositions to emblematic interpretations of real objects, instructor Rolina van Vliet offers concrete insights into how each project moves from an assemblage of brushstrokes into an expressive idea. Accompanying each exercise are numerous detailed photographs that demonstrate the application of various media and methods, showing paintings that range from atmospheric, textured, and nuanced to raw, powerful, and vibrant. The accompanying buying guide provides artists with additional advice on choosing supplies and other materials.
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R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection

Crumb is probably the preeminent living cartoonist, but he has a secondary legacy that stems from his passion for American roots music, particularly early blues, jazz, and country. He captures his relationship with his record collection in a typically incisive opening comic strip, laying out how his collecting mania has become as much a sickness and a burden as a love of the music itself. The rest of the book, revised from a limited edition published in 1994, is given over to a gallery-style presentation of the hundreds of record covers he has drawn, from Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills in 1968 to the present, and other assorted bits of music-related art created during the past four decades. What sometimes gets lost under the weight of the neuroses and fixations that Crumb has never been hesitant to overshare in his comics is the fact that he's a tremendous natural artist, and that fact is nowhere more evident than in the portraits of musical greats scattered throughout these pages, from Lightnin' Hopkins and Jack Teagarden to Frank Zappa and even a banjo-pluckin' Crumb himself.(Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

This is an extraordinary biography, not merely of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the subject of one of Gustav Klimt's most famous paintings, but also of the work itself and the world of early 20th-century Vienna. The painting "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907) was famous before its record-breaking purchase in 2006 at $135 million by Ronald S. Lauder for his New York-based Neue Galerie. Through her painstaking research, O'Connor ("Washington Post") manages to capture the cultural, historical, and political climate that gave birth to this painting. She describes the anti-Semitism that permeated early 20th-century Vienna and the role that Jews played (often as outsiders) in that society. Stolen by the Nazis during World War II and renamed "The Lady in Gold" (to avoid any hint that its subject was Jewish), the painting was at the center of an eight-year battle by Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann to regain her family's legacy. (Library Journal)
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Andy Warhol: 365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection

The Andy Warhol Museum has been open for 10 years, and its staff continues to marvel at the complexity of Warhol's oeuvre and its resistance to easy interpretation. To reflect this chimerical quality, and the quantity, breadth, and variety of Warhol's provocative multimedia exploration, they have created a chunky volume of 365 images that samples Warhol's drawings, paintings, silk screens, films, photographs, self-portraits, celebrity portraits, and collectibles. The result is a potent survey of Warhol's preoccupations, collaborations, artistic styles, and keen response to a materially abundant yet often emotionally and morally vacuous world. (Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)
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The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation

This compelling book retells and revises the story of the German Renaissance and Reformation through the lives of two controversial men of the sixteenth century: the Saxon court painter Lucas Cranach (the Serpent) and the Wittenberg monk-turned-reformer Martin Luther (the Lamb). Contemporaries and friends (each was godfather to the other's children), Cranach and Luther were very different Germans, yet their collaborative successes merged art and religion into a revolutionary force that became the Protestant Reformation. Steven Ozment, an internationally recognized historian of the Reformation era, reprises the lives and works of Cranach (1472-1553) and Luther (1483-1546) in this generously illustrated book. He contends that Cranach's new art and Luther's oratory released a barrage of criticism upon the Vatican, the force of which secured a new freedom of faith and pluralism of religion in the Western world. Between Luther's pulpit praise of the sex drive within the divine estate of marriage and Cranach's parade of strong, lithe women, a new romantic, familial consciousness was born. The "Cranach woman" and the "Lutheran household"--both products of the merged Renaissance and Reformation worlds--evoked a new organization of society and foretold a new direction for Germany.
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