Digital Photography Expert Techniques is aimed at photographers who have learned the basics, are starting to get good results but are ready to go to the next level and to put some structure around the way they work.

The book raises awareness of good workflow and covers preparation, getting the basics of the shot right, organising the results, making reversible adjustments and being subtle with the use of special effects.

The author, Ken Milburn is an award winning photographer with almost 50 years of photographic experience and has written hundreds of articles and several books on digital photography. With that kind of pedigree, we had high hopes for this title.

Product	Digital Photography Expert Techniques
From	www.oreilly.com
	Solid well written content, excellent range of topics
	A little more on Photoshop parameters wouldn't go amiss.

We thought the chapter dedicated to use of RAW format was particularly strong and covers various techniques to automate the process as much as possible and also emphasises keeping the master images in Adobe's DNG digital negative format which is far more likely to be supported across a range of software both now and in the future. One danger that digital photography brings, which hasn't really been fully addressed yet is that we may save all our images in JPG or proprietry RAW formats that can't be read by the software of the day in 20 or 30 years time. DNG helps preserve the highest level of data whilst hopefully being easily converted en-masse later as standards change. The RAW chapter also covered techniques for getting the best results when converting to different formats such as JPG as well as minimising fringing and other artifacts. The author also has some good tips on best use of the EXIF metadata fields.

The book also has a good chapter on the value of non-destructive editing by using adustment layers. Here the author describes a series of layers that he recommends for working on an image in a methodical way before introducing a Photoshop Action by Doug Sahlin called the Magic Workflow Layers Action. This technique gets most of a chapter to itself and the example images speak for themselves as to its value.

Next up are a number of techniques and tools for making accurate selections along with examples of selective changes made to an image before moving on to repairs both in terms of dust and other objects that need cloning out as well as portraiture related duties like brightening eyes, removing excess wrinkles and blemishes and smoothing skin and lips.

Anyone interested in more creative shots or in producing stock imagary will appreciate the tips on montages, cloning and changing backgrounds as realistically as possible. Good advice is given on keeping things like the colour balance true across different elements.

Another chapter we were pleased to see was on extending dynamic range whereby multiple shots and exposures are combines to produce images of an almost super-real nature with visible detail across the entire dynamic range of an image.

All this work would be for nought if it wasn't for the final image so the book finishes with printer calibration, final output tips and how to present the finished work.

Overall this is a fine book. Commendably restrained in terms of content - it sticks to what really matters - yet is liberally filled with good solid tips and guidance. The author's experience shines through and whilst someone looking for a guide to Photoshop may be dissapointed, anyone looking to extend their expertise across the whole range of the digital photographic process will find much here of use. The book also introduces various other software tools that may be used so have your credit card handy as you read through. Best of all, in most cases the book tells you why you are doing things a certain way, not just that you should. Recomended.