"Get Your Photography On The Web" by Rafael 'RC' Concepcion [full review]

This is the full review after the first impressions published before. 

I originally bought this book because I wanted some advice on how to engage more people with my photography, and to possibly grow my hobby to be self sustaining.
After reading the whole thing I was left with the same feeling I had before, that the passage of time has not been kind to some of material on offer. Saying that, I still think that I got a few very useful tips and a god advice that made the purchase worthwhile.

It is a very low level how-to create a photo website using GoDaddy for hosting, and Wordpress as a blog and site template. That theme is carried out throughout the book, as all examples are made using Wordpress. Thankfully it also has a few advices that are not specific to these tools and apply to almost any photo website and interspersed with some short but very juicy interviews with photographers and designers that are relevant to the whole theme of photography on the web.
The latter part of the book RC describes how to sell your prints straight out of your site, and also how to generate some revenue using your site besides selling prints, which I found to be one of the most interesting parts of the book.

Still maintain what I suggested on the first impressions, that this is a great book for the complete beginner that wants to build a website or for those who are just not that comfortable with technology. For the more tech savvy there is a more limited appeal, but I would still recommend it. But, with new companies offering the same sort of services and more focus on design and ease of use, I think RC needs to come up with a new version of the book, for me to give a full recommendation. As it stands, there is value in the book, and I enjoyed reading it very much, but it looks a bit dated. I heard on a recent episode of The Grid that a new revised edition is in the works, so I would probably wait for that to come out and get it. You can find out more about it on RC's Website.

"The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC Book for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kelby [first impressions]

Disclosure: this is not a full review, I still haven't finished reading the book. These are just my initial thoughts after skimming over the book and reading a couple of chapters.

The reason why I bought this book was to get more in depth information about the latest version of Lightroom. Being a long time user of the software I consider myself pretty knowledgeable around the main features, but with the constant evolution that Adobe keeps bringing with each new version there is always more to learn about the features I use, and even more about the ones I barely glance over.

If you don't know the author, Scott Kelby is one of the most prolific photographer and educator of all things photography. Find out more at ScottKelby.com

Let me start by telling you that this is a big book, at well over 500 pages, even the bookseller joked that by the time I finished it I would know all there is to know about Lightroom. It reminds me of the technical books I used to buy in the 90's, down to the squarish page format.

It is very well structured, starting with importing photos and how to organise them using the Library module. Then moves to the Develop module, starting with simple adjustments and progressing to more advance techniques like local adjustments, gradient and radial filters, using real images to go through them. Side note, don't jump over the introduction because that's where Scott tells you where to get the images he uses for the examples. Map, Book and Print modules are all well covered, only the Web module is a bit left out, but for good reasons.

Each chapter is organised as a series of tutorials, with lots of pictures and well defined steps, very easy to follow along. And, thanks to Scott's usual lighthearted tone, not at all intimidating for complete beginners but also not feeling condescending for the more advanced reader. At the end of each chapter there is a section called Lightroom Killer Tips which, just like it says on the tin, consists of small tips and tricks that aren't very well known or simply aren't complicated enough to warrant a full tutorial. I can tell you that on the first chapter I learned a few interesting things.

After going through the first chapter and a bit, I definitely recommend it for both people who want to get into using Lightroom, and those who have been using it since version 1.  You can find out more about it, and all the other books and courses from Scott Kelby at the Kelby one website 

As always I'll update this with the full review once I have gone through the whole thing.  Let me know if this has been at all helpful for you, or if you have anything to say about it.

"Get Your Photography On The Web" by Rafael 'RC' Concepcion [first impressions]

Disclosure: this is not a full review, I still haven't finished reading the book. These are just my initial thoughts after skimming over the book and reading a couple of chapters.

So with that out of the way. let's get into the book itself. I bought it because I wanted some advice on how to engage more people with my photography, and to possibly grow my hobby to be self sustaining.

It turns out that the book begins with a low level how-to create a website using GoDaddy for hosting, and Wordpress as a blog and site template. Thankfully it also has a few advices that are not specific to these tools and apply to almost any photo website and interspersed with some short but very juicy interviews with photographers and designers that are relevant to the whole theme of photography on the web.

To summarise I would say this is a very helpful book if you're a complete novice to the whole web-site building thing, and will be not as relevant if you have some knowledge or, as is my case, have done this before in the past with other tools. Some of the information and graphics are also a bit dated, but that's the issue with printed word about the web, it can never keep up. 

I will update this, to a full review, once I finish reading and digesting it. You can find out more about it on RC's Website.

Just heard that a new version is on the works, hope it addresses some of the weaker points with this edition.