I have just finished reading "The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2" by Scott Kelby and it's time for me to share a few thoughts on the book to help you make a decision of whether to buy it or not.
First, What I Like About the Book
As you may know from reading my blog, I'm a big fan of whatever Scott writes or does. He's one of the most important people in today's world of digital photography, he's very successful and he influenced my own approach to photography greatly, so I buy anything that he publishes. As his other books, this one is also very well written, uses a simple language that any beginner and for sure intermediate photographer will easily understand. He writes in the same manner he always wrote before, with same clarity and with the same familiar sense of humor. I got the book on Friday, and despite busy few days, I already finished it today. Reading it was a pleasure, and I got lost in time while doing it.
The book follows the same format you will find in Volume 1. It's not a book on how SLRs capture images, or ratios you should remember when positioning your flash, but it's rather a down-to-earth-easy-to-understand collection of tips. He writes as if he's teaching you on location with him, and he promises that "I'd tell you short and right to the point. Like that." I like this kind of approach, as there are valuable tips relating to equipment, technique, tricks or unwritten laws of photography on every page of the book. If you liked the format and the content of Volume 1, you'll feel like the book never stopped as you get into Volume 2.
This kind of writing style also makes it easy to get back to when you need to refresh your memory on a certain topic. For example, if you're about to shoot a wedding, but do not do it regularly, you'll benefit greatly from reading section on wedding photography, with numerous tips on how to prepare yourself for the shoot, what to do to capture "the shot", and how to make sure your client is happy in the end. Scott often quotes the tips he collected from his friends who are successful photographers in their respective field. It's always nice to give a credit where credit is due, and you'll see names of Joe McNally, David Hobby and Davis Ziser frequently mentioned.
The book is also well printed in terms of its quality. Each page/tip is accompanied by related photograph, and those are generally well selected (see below for exceptions), and make you look forward to the next page. In fact, when I first got the book, I spent a few minutes just looking at great photographs inside. Most of them are shot by Scott himself, while others are by his friends or picked up from iStockphoto.com. Images are full of color and sharp.
Finally, I like that Scott does not repeat himself. All the material in the book is a new material, and covers such important topics as using external flash properly, building your own studio, shooting improved portraits and landscapes, more on wedding photography, and finally how to shoot travel and macros. Though he already mentioned some of these briefly in Volume 1, he instead expands these topics.
Second, What I Wish He Did Better
If you follow Scott's writing, you will see that he likes to recommend products. He does it without taking any money from sponsors, and this way he can stay objective in his recommendations. He does it often in this book as well, but what I found not so helpful is that he often recommends products that probably very few in the audience that he targets in this book (in other words, beginning/intermediate photographers) will want to buy. For example, he's not shy about recommending Elinchrom 7' (74") Octabank, which will run you around $1,100. He also prefers softboxes to umbrellas, and umbrella setup is not really covered in this book. I can see why, but I prefer umbrella setup because it's much cheaper and mobile. In addition, he doesn't mention that you can make cheap DIY lighting objects to help you create better light, but I suppose that's what Strobist is for.
As much as I like the pictures that accompany every chapter, sometimes I felt like he could have includes a better example to illustrate a point. There are few chapters where I think he could have included a better example. For instance, p. 141 includes a tip on why to use a flash bracket. While the picture of what flash bracket is helpful, I'd much rather see an example of a photo with and without it to get me convinced on why I should spend $150 on it. The same issue is present in a chapter on why you should bring a step ladder to a wedding (p. 133) - a picture from a step ladder would have been more convincing. But luckily, these examples are few, and in majority of cases accompanying pictures are very appropriate and in many cases I don't even need to read the write-up, as photos speak for themselves.
Bottom Line
If you enjoyed Volume 1, you'll love Volume 2. I found many tips I would like to incorporate into my own photography, and this book will remain among the photography books I keep next to my computer for reference. In my opinion, it's another successful publication by Scott Kelby.
