More annual recommendations from Dave, including digital cameras, snapshot printers, and photo books.
Dave Johnson
PC World
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
12:19 AM
Having a hard time shopping for the digital photographer in your life? No worries: I have some gift suggestions for you.
Last weekI kicked off my annual holiday guide. Let's wrap up with a few more shopping ideas.
Give the gift of digital photography to someone you love. My dad started me on a lifelong photographic hobby when he let me start shooting with his SLR as a teen. (That was a long time ago, before inexpensive, compact digital cameras.)
This year, there are a lot of great choices. Models that range from 8 to 12 megapixels mean you don't have to compromise on resolution, so large prints will look good. And these cameras are tiny. When they weigh just 4, 5, or 6 ounces, you will barely know a camera's in your pocket--so there's no excuse not to carry it everywhere.
Take a look at our recent roundup oftop compact camerasfor gift ideas that start at $200. These cameras can work well as a first camera for a budding photographer or a go-everywhere snap-shooter for someone who already has a bigger model, like a digital SLR.
Looking for a beginner's guide to digital photography? Let me humbly recommend my own book,How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera, 4th Edition,available on Amazon.comfor about $18. It shows you how to improve your exposure, composition, and lighting, and also gives you editing tips. It's the sort of book that I bet Leonardo Di Vinci would recommend, if he'd had a digital camera and an Italian translation of my book.
And since I'm such a bad self-promoter (as evidenced by the fact that I write about my book only once a year), let me point out that I also have a number of other technology books--and even an interactive kids' book. Go tomy Web sitefor the whole list, and buy several copies of each. Give them to friends, family, and random strangers.
If you're looking for a book on the intricacies of Adobe Photoshop Elements, then check outThe Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographersby Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski ($30 on Amazon.com). This great little book covers all the details--like setting up a digital workflow, tweaking your photos, and eliminating flaws likje digital noise--using the latest version of Photoshop Elements.
Finally, if you're shopping for someone who is fascinated by how digital photography works, then check out the aptly namedHow Digital Photography Works, by Ron White (about $20 on Amazon.com). This is a gorgeous, full-color encyclopedia-like paperback that explains the physics and engineering behind digital cameras, lighting and exposure, photo editing, and more.
Here's a question that commonly appears in my inbox: How do I make the colors on my computer screen more accurate, and how do I get them to match my printer? The answer: use a monitor calibration tool. And while that might be a bit decadent to buy one any other time of year, it's a great gift idea.
A color calibration tool is easy to use. Typically, you mount it on your monitor and run a program that measures the display's output. It then sets a color profile on your PC. You'll generally want to pull the tool out of storage and run it every few months to keep your monitor's settings from drifting.
There are a few great alternatives out there. One of the most popular is Datacolor's family of Spyders, like theSpyder2express, which I found atPC World Shoppingfor $55.
Another interesting alternative is thePantone Huey, which you leave connected to your PC. It constantly adjusts your monitor settings in response to the ambient light. I found it atPC World Shoppingfor $67.
In the past, photo printers have been too pricey to give as gifts, but this holiday season, you can find a wide assortment of printers designed to print 4-by-6-inch snapshots for little more than $100. Even better: The ongoing cost of consumables--the price per page for paper and ink--is in the same neighborhood as buying prints at an online photo printing Web site. For some smart gift ideas, check out PC World's recentroundup of photo printers.
Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here's how to enter:Send usyour photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read thefull descriptionof the contest rules and regulations.
This week's Hot Pic:"Roadside Attraction," by David Lykes Keenan, Austin, Texas
David writes: "This colorful scene appeared on the side of Interstate 35 between Austin and Waco. I took the picture with a Ricoh GR-D digital camera and then processed it in Photoshop CS2 (I did a slight perspective shift, minor color and contrast adjustments, and added some high-pass filter sharpening)."
This Week's Runner-Up:"Irondequoit Creek Turbulence," by Charles Vaughn, Spencerport, New York
Charles writes: "Here is a picture I took while practicing depth-of-field shots for my first photography class. We had just talked about how to make moving water have a cotton-candy effect. I used a Nikon D70S camera on a tripod."
See all the Hot Pic of the Week photosonline.