Scott Kelby, the man who changed the “digital darkroom” forever with his groundbreaking, #1 bestselling, award-winning book The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, now tackles the most important side of digital photography–how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks today’s top digital pros use (and it’s easier than you’d think).

This entire book is written with a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: “If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, ‘Hey, how do I get this flower to be in focus, but I want the background out of focus?’ I wouldn’t stand there and give you a lecture about aperture, exposure, and depth of field. In real life, I’d just say, ‘Get out your telephoto lens, set your f/stop to f/2.8, focus on the flower, and fire away.’ You d say, ‘OK,’ and you’d get the shot. That’s what this book is all about. A book of you and I shooting, and I answer the questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I’ve learned just like I would with a friend, without all the technical explanations and without all the techno-photo-speak.”

This isn’t a book of theory-it isn’t full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts: this is a book of which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and nearly two hundred of the most closely guarded photographic “tricks of the trade” to get you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with your digital camera every time you press the shutter button.

Here’s another thing that makes this book different: each page covers just one trick, just one single concept that makes your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, another pro tool, another pro trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. There’s never been a book like it, and if you’re tired of taking shots that look “OK,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.

Digital photography was quickly embraced in several professional fields of endeavor where the cost of $12,000-$30,000 cameras was easily outweighed by the convenience of having digital images instantly. Here’s a quick summary:

• Photojournalism. Newspapers, news magazines, and news Web sites need visuals quickly, and can’t wait for their photographers to fly images back from Afghanistan. Digital images, which could be transmitted by phone lines in the early 1990s, can be zapped across the Internet today, sent by satellite phones, and be ready for publication immediately. Think like a photojournalist and go digital.
• Portrait photography. Digital technology has been important to professional portrait photographers because it gives them the opportunity to sell prints and enlargements immediately after the sitting, when the customers’ interest is highest. Digital portraits are easier to retouch, too. If you decide to produce portraits of your own family and friends, or need a passport photo quickly, you’ll appreciate digital technology, too.
• Photoillustration. Commercial, corporate, and industrial photographers all have taken to digital photography in a big way. For catalog work, digital photography has become the way to go because repetitive setups can be shot one after another quickly, and the finished images are immediately ready for placement in a catalog layout.
• Everything else. Although the preceding three fields were the first to adopt digital technology, today every other kind of picture taking is rapidly turning digital. Travel and vacation photography benefit from the ability to reshoot immediately if a picture is not to your liking (rather than schedule a repeat trip back to the Taj Mahal). Family and pet photography thrive on the instant feedback digital photography provides. What better way to encourage your kids to cooperate for that shooting session than to show them each group of pictures on your camera’s LCD?

Digital cameras use a sensor known as CCD in order to convert light energy to pixels. Dust that accumulates on the CCD can result in black pixels or imperfections in the photo as it blocks light energy from hitting parts of the CCD. We will go over a few solutions for eliminating dust on the CCD.

The CCD sensor is located behind the reflex mirror in a digital SLR camera. Most of the time the camera is closed and dust can not penetrate it. Some cameras might not be completely sealed against dust resulting in dust penetrating he camera’s body even with the lenses installed. During that time the camera is open and exposed to air and dust.

In order to minimize dust on the CCD make sure that you minimize the time in which the camera is open and exposed to air. Even with careful care dust will eventually find its way into the camera and on the CCD.

Active dust removal: Most new SLR cameras include some sort of active dust removal mechanism. The most common one is anti dust vibration. Vibrating the CCD will result in dust falling off the CCD or “dancing its way” from the CCD. Different cameras turn the anti dust vibration at different times. Other cameras turn the vibration on periodically or let the user turn it manually.

Passive dust prevention: Passive solution that tries to eliminate some of the causes for dust accumulating on the CCD. The main reason that draws dust to the CCD is static charge.

Manual dust removal: Manual removal is simply a way for you to manually clean the CCD. All dust removal methods have their limitations. Adhesive dust or other material is either very hard to clean or impossible to clean. Eliminating dust completely from the CCD is impossible but by applying care and the mentioned features most of the dust that results in photo imperfections can be avoided.