The Best Digital Photography Books

The best digital photography books can help you hone your photographic skills. Reading photography books can provide you with tips and tricks to use when taking pictures. Whether you're just starting out or you are trying to sharpen more advanced techniques, you'll be able to find a book that's appropriate to your skill level.

Mastering Digital Photography Made Easy by Terry Day

While this isn't a physical book this ebook is one of the best digital photography books. It is the ultimate guide for people just starting out in digital photography. It walks you through the basics of getting to know your camera and its various modes and settings. It talks about elements of composition and light that will help your pictures really stand out from the crowd. It also walks you through post production techniques like color adjustments and cropping.

Everything is explained simply so the average person can understand it. Terry Day doesn't load you down with a bunch of technical jargon that goes way over your head.

If your photography skills are more advanced you'll want to skip this book. If you're just starting out you'll find plenty of useful information that will improve your skills and help you take great pictures.

Find out more about Mastering Digital Photography.

The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby

If ebooks aren't your style and you want something more solid this book is for you. It has the same general qualities as Mastering Digital Photography. This book walks you through the basics of getting the shots you want.

Scott Kelby is President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and Editor-in-Chief of both Photoshop User and Layers magazines. In this book he explains exactly how to solve photographic problems you've been wondering about. He explains in detail how to use things like aperture and ISO to your advantage when taking a picture.

He keeps things pretty simple in this book as far as jargon goes. He has a laid back easy style of writing that's more like a conversation than a lecture. This is one of the best digital photography books for beginners. This book is unique because every page teaches you a specific technique that you can go out and start using right away.

Find out more about The Digital Photography Book here.

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

If you already know the basics, but want to learn how to get more creative with your photography this book is for you.

The book's author, Bryan Peterson, is a photographer and writer who has extensive experience in the field.

Understanding Exposure helps you determine how to adjust your camera settings for any lighting situation. You'll learn all about ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. The book is organized in an A to Z format that makes it easy to find the information your looking for.

Beautiful color photos are featured throughout the book that help you get a better understanding of what the author is talking about. The book also includes practical exercises that you can do right away. I find that after reading about something going out and doing it really helps the information stick.

Find out more about Understanding Exposure here.

The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman

Now that we've covered the basics with the books mentioned above let's get to the serious business of composition. No matter how well you know your camera and how good you are at technique if you don't have an eye for composition you're not going to take pictures other people want to look at. This book does a great job at explaining composition.

The writer, Michael Freeman is an amazing photographer with a ton of books to his credit. He is able to articulate ideas about composition and photographic vision that many artists fail to adequately explain.

This book teaches you how to look at shapes, lines, colors, textures and other elements that will make a great composition. Along with these informative how-to's the book is filled with breathtaking photographic examples. I think this book is an obsolete must for someone who wants to develop an eye for photographic composition. This is one of the best photography books out there.

Find out more about The Photographer's Eye here.

The A-Z of Creative Photography by Lee Frost

This is one of the best digital photography books for creative photographic ideas. It's not appropriate for beginners though. If you don't know basic photography terms yet and don't have a clean grasp of how to get the pictures you want from your camera this book isn't for you. You should start out with one of the first two books I mentioned on this page. Once you understand those things you can move on to something a little more fun.

Lee Frost is another great photographer who writes helpful easy to read books about photography. This book is full of ideas about what to photograph and explanations about how to make those photographs turn out great. It is full of technical advice and creative inspiration that will really make you want to get out and take pictures.

This little gem is small enough to put in your camera bag and pull out when you need inspiration.

Find out more about The A-Z of Creative Photography: Over 70 Techniques Explained in Full here.

I hope this guide to the best digital photography books was useful. Reading as many books about photography as you can will help you improve your photography skills. More important than reading the best digital photography books is taking pictures. Take as many pictures as possible. The best way to improve your photography is getting the practical knowledge and then going out and using it.