Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography is in my opinion one of the most interesting books on digital photography I have seen in some time. I have lots of books that I like and use but there haven't been many of them that I sit down and read like a good novel. There are many things about this book that makes it a book that you can read like a novel.

There is the chapters on the history of digital photography dealing with the earliest technology, how the technology was used in space based cameras as well as hand held and of course there is a history on the technology we use today.

There is a chapter dealing with how digital photo capture works, the various options available, their strengths and weaknesses and more. One of the things I like is that there are tons of color photos including some taken at the infancy of digital photography as well as photos from those space based cameras and more. It is really a fascinating walk through history in both text and photos.

I was also surprised to see a great amount of information on some of the more experimental forms of digital photography technology like high dynamic range photography (HDR), panoramic photography, even information on 8-bit verses 16-bit images. Again a very interesting read.

Besides dealing with the digital camera aspect the book also talks about film and film scanning technology and shows some interesting comparisons between the same shot taken with a film camera and a digital camera. I was very surprised at just how noise free the digital images were compared to the film versions, especially considering that noise in digital images seems to be an on going complaint. I suspect that most people that complain really have forgotten just how bad the noise could be and usually was with film. Of course like all things there are exceptions there is/was film that had low ISO sensitivity that could produce images that had very little noise, but by and large most films don't do all that great a job.

I was also surprised by the side by side comparisons in detail capture between a digital camera and film. The digital camera often times did a better job. Of course it is important to understand that final image quality be it film or digital is completely in the hands of the photographer and not all that much in the technology the photographer uses. A properly exposed photo will always be better than one that needs a lot of post processing. Mr. Johnson apparently has a very good grasp of this as his images are stunning, informative and just plain interesting.

Of course this book is not just about the technology of the past and present and how it works as you get in to the back half of the book there is lots of information on how to use Adobe Photoshop for such things as color correction, exposure adjustment, noise reduction, enlargements, sharpening, converting color images to black and white, RAW files and Adobe Camera Raw and much more. There is also information on color spaces, printing and archiving to name but a few.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Photography
Chapter 2: A History of Electronic Imaging
Chapter 3: On Photography's Bleeding Edge
Chapter 4: New Heights of Image Quality
Chapter 5: Process Differences in the Digital Age
Chapter 6: Sensors, Gray, Color, and Wide
Chapter 7: Digital Camera Techniques
Chapter 8: Scanning
Chapter 9: Controlling the Digital Image
Chapter 10: Color Correction and Editing
Chapter 11: Restoration
Chapter 12: Duotones and Photographic Reproduction
Chapter 13: Color Management
Chapter 14: Printing -- A New World
Chapter 15: What to Do with Your Images
Chapter 16: With a New Eye
Chapter 17: Examples Portfolio
Chapter 18: Making Art
Chapter 19: Photography and Truth
Chapter 20: Empowerment in the Digital Age
Chapter 21: From the Digital Stone Age Onward
Appendix

Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography is a truly great book that is packed with useful, interesting and really fascinating information and sample photos. A true treasure in paper form.