Via work I recently got an iPad on long term evaluation, which has been an interesting experience. One of the things I like about it most (having figured out how to use it!) is the ease of which you can link surf. The second thing and I like this VERY MUCH is that it is the perfect medium for viewing photography reference ebooks.
I have already posted some new books and authors found here but this is a new photographer whose work I like very much. Found while idly google surfing for post processing training – this book on Nik Silver Efex. Being a huge fan of this software, have already invested some time in learning it (there are great tutorials online for free) but spending an hour to get maybe a couple of useful tips is not efficient, and not fulfilling the requirements to increase my skill level significantly.
Nik Silver Efex Pro by Robin Whalley is that book. The price is ridiculously cheap on Amazon which is the first bonus, but I still invest time in reading the reviews and trying to get a feel for the value of the book. Once purchased and had an inital look, I then went and bought its part Nik Colour Efex Pro – slightly more expensive but a bigger book and equally good value .
What I like about these books is they show clearly with photos what each of the sliders and effects and presets do, with useful information about when and how to use them, where to be careful with application and with Colour Efex, what combinations can work well.
This is EXACTLY what I need to know to get best use out of these two software programs. Up til now its been choosing a preset and tweaking that a bit. Learning how to do local adjustments helped but I quite felt I understood what the program was doing and why, and that limited my ability to get the best out of it.
Being so impressed with the quality of these books, the next step was to check out the author who can be found here on WordPress as The Lightweight Photographer – he traded in the heavy Canon gear for smaller lighter options from Olympus and Sony.
A keen nature and landscape photographer, clearly passionate about his subject matter and also willing to share his knowledge if you sign up for that on his Lenscraft website. The post on filters was worth the signup process alone!
So if you are keen on landscape photography or use the Nik range of filters and want to improve your abilities and knowledge, I suggest you check out the ebooks available on Amazon or Robin’s blog or website.
BTW This is my favourite image on his blog
Image taken and post pro in Nik Silver Efex by Robin Whalley from Lenscraft
Learning to See Light 