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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

New book, "Readings in Digital Photography"

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
I'm pleased to announce the impending publication of a new book, Readings in Digital Photography, by Douglas A. Kerr (c'est moi).

It comprises 17 technical articles on key technical areas. Most are drawn from articles already appearing on The Pumpkin; some have been freshly written but mostly revolve around material from other articles on The Pumpkin.

The articles are:

Describing the Strength of Visible Light
Lens Optics and Focal Length
The Secret Life of the F-Number
Color Models and Color Spaces
Field of View
Depth of Field in Film and Digital Cameras
Color Temperature
Describing Digital Camera Sensor Sizes
Characterizing the Output of Photographic Flash Units
APEX–The Additive System of Photographic Exposure
The “Cosine Fourth” Law for Falloff of Illuminance
The Mathematics of Extension Tubes in Photography
The Proper Pivot Point for Panoramic Photography
White Balance Color Correction
Vision Correction in Camera Viewfinders
The Modulation Transfer Function (MTF)
Exposure Metering and the Infamous 18%​

This is what the cover looks like:

RDP_FrontCover_01.1R.jpg

The book is being published through Lulu.com, and will be able to be ordered directly from them. I'll let you know when any necessary adjustments have been made based on the proof and the book has been released for distribution.

As with Carla's book, all design, formatting, and prepress preparations have been done here.
 
Doug Kerr may do for digital picture making what Ansel Adams did for photography: put it on a coherent and systematic basis that combines technical insight and aesthetic accomplishment.

Frankly I hope "Readings in Digital Photography" is just volume one because the book seems restricted to camera handling and image management. Cameras don't make photographs they make exposures. And exposures are a necessary thing but insufficient in themselves to specify a particular picture output from the wide range available.

Just as Ansel Adams followed up "The Camera" with "The Negative" and "The Print" maybe Doug Kerr could add "The Image File and How to Manipulate It" and "The Image File and How to Output It" as volumes two and three. Digital picture making needs a sage and Doug Kerr is someone who I would have confidence in.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Maris,

Doug Kerr may do for digital picture making what Ansel Adams did for photography: put it on a coherent and systematic basis that combines technical insight and aesthetic accomplishment.
Well, that's a pretty high expectation., but I appreciate your confidence.

Frankly I hope "Readings in Digital Photography" is just volume one because the book seems restricted to camera handling and image management. Cameras don't make photographs they make exposures. And exposures are a necessary thing but insufficient in themselves to specify a particular picture output from the wide range available.

Just as Ansel Adams followed up "The Camera" with "The Negative" and "The Print" maybe Doug Kerr could add "The Image File and How to Manipulate It" and "The Image File and How to Output It" as volumes two and three.
Much as I would like to make my mark in those areas, I'm afraid I'm much better at understanding the scientific basics than I am at either photography itself or post processing.

But I think there will probably be a follow-on volume.

Thanks again for your good wishes.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
I'm pleased to advise that review of the proof of my new book, "Readings in Digital Photography," has been completed, some small adjustments uploaded, and the book is now ready to purchase through Lulu.com.

Here's a link right to it:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/readings-in-digital-photography/6420656

We can also provide autographed copies from here. If you are interested, send an e-mail to me at:

doug.kerr@att.net

Please include your shipping address and how you would like the autograph salutation.

The price is $27.50 per copy (this is the standard price regardless of the route of acquisition). Shipping to US addresses by USPS Priority Mail is $4.75. I can quote shipping to other countries.

Payment by PayPal is probably the most convenient.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Damien Paul

New member
I have just received my copy, here in Tokyo, today -already it has answered several of my questions!

...and who is that handsome fella on the back?? ;)
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Doug,

I have received mine this morning, thanks a lot. Only after seeing the whole compilation of excellent articles put together in a proper book does one start to comprehend how important this incredible work of yours has actually been. You have done the world of photography a great service by separating myths from science and thereby helping us in getting rid of the common mistakes which float around on the net on various topics. Knowledge is the most valuable asset and knowledge which is collected and kept safe and accessible for reference purposes is the most valuable of it. I have the utmost respect for you for doing this on our collective behalf.

PS: the footnote #6 in page 14-6 has put an extra smile on my face, while I was quickly skimming the book for the first time.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Cem,

I have received mine this morning, thanks a lot. Only after seeing the whole compilation of excellent articles put together in a proper book does one start to comprehend how important this incredible work of yours has actually been. You have done the world of photography a great service by separating myths from science and thereby helping us in getting rid of the common mistakes which float around on the net on various topics. Knowledge is the most valuable asset and knowledge which is collected and kept safe and accessible for reference purposes is the most valuable of it. I have the utmost respect for you for doing this on our collective behalf.
Thanks you so much for your kind words. I am honored.

By the way, at the same time I conduct a somewhat parallel activity with regard to the music notation program Encore, for which I am a beta tester. (Most of that output is "private", as it pertains to not-yet-released versions of the program.)

A typical monograph there (not proprietary) is, "On the proper interpretation of the attributes justify, halign, and valign in a MusicXML credit-words element".

Thanks again for your kind words and you ongoing support of my work.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Damien Paul

New member
Doug,

I was able to have a proper read of part of your excellent book on the 4 hour train journey to here in Hiroshima.

Your book is written in a way that the concepts are easily grasped and it answered several nagging questions I had and confirmed a few more. You write as a true educator would - with definitions and examples.

Your works are a major basis of my research.

Thank you for your work!
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Damien,

I was able to have a proper read of part of your excellent book on the 4 hour train journey to here in Hiroshima.

Your book is written in a way that the concepts are easily grasped and it answered several nagging questions I had and confirmed a few more. You write as a true educator would - with definitions and examples.

Your works are a major basis of my research.

Thank you for your work!
Thank you so much for your nice words. I am honored indeed.

I hope your visit to Hiroshima is interesting and fruitful.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Hi Doug,

Can you comment on your experience using Lulu? What's the process like, how you like Lulu, what are the strong points, etc. I'm sure it will be helpful to those who plan to use Lulu in the future. ALso, how about an excerpt from your book? One that's particularly tantalizing ;)
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Alain,

Hi Doug,

Can you comment on your experience using Lulu?
My book was our second Lulu project. The first was Carla's memoir.

It is extremely easy to do.

You have to establish an account with Lulu.com, but that is very easy, and there is no cost.

You choose the style, dimensions, and so forth from a fairly-well-organized menu system.

You have to prepare the entire innards (title page, etc) as one or more finished PDF files.

In the simplest scheme, you log on, tell the site you want to publish a book, and what the title is. Soon you are invited to upload the innards PDF file(s).

Then you pick a cover graphic design from a gallery, choose a font for the title and subtitle and for the spine info.

OK this and you are published.

Of course, you can do your own cover design in several ways. You can upload complete image files for the front and back cover, but their system will compose the spine (very basic design). You can choose color and fonts for that, and edit the spine text if you wish.

Or you can upload a image file for the complete cover, (front, spine, and back). The system will guide you to the proper dimensions for that (reckoning the needed width of the spine block based on the number of pages of innards.

It is so simple that when we had all the ingredients ready for Carla's book, we decided to start playing with the finalization process to see how it worked, and before long we were ready to go - we decided to click OK and we were published! It was almost scary.

There is no charge by Lulu for any of this.

You establish a price (basically by saying how much you want out of each copy). Lulu puts in the "production cost" (that is, their charge to you for production) and a "list price" comes out. If you tell them you want it to be available for purchase from them, it goes in their catalog at that price.

You can order copies from them to sell at a roadside stand or whatever. In that case, your cost is essentially what Lulu charges you to produce it. (They express this in a funny way, so it is a little misleading.)

You can also tell them that you want it to be available on Amazon.com. The list price will be the same. In that case, you get less per copy (because of course there is now another middleman in the process).

Others have said that the process is not necessarily good for books with (serious) photographs. We haven't been involved in such a project.

In Carla's book, there was a section with old family pics (scanned from prints turned up by various family members. They were most B&W as we got them, and in any case, we of course elected B&W for the book. (In the basic package, if you want any color pages, the whole book has to be run in color, and the per-page cost is substantially higher.)

I just embedded these in the basic book document (done in MS Word) and they flowed right through to the PDF. They were so crude to begin with that I could hardly say how good was the overall reproduction. Certainly suitable for that context.

The mechanics we so easy that Carla said, "Why don't you do a book out of some stuff from The Pumpkin." So I did. It was very easy.
Also, how about an excerpt from your book? One that's particularly tantalizing

All the book chapters are articles from the Pumpkin, reformatted for the book layout and style (and in some cases with minor, overdue editorial improvements made.)

But just for kicks I have mounted one on my site in the book format:

http://dougkerr.net/RDP/RDP_S08_Sensor_Size_V01.pdf

Here's how it looks on Lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/readings-in-digital-photography/6455470

Here's Carla's:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-cherokee-advantage/6389524

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief

Congratulations Doug! We're so proud of you! I know the high standards you have in trying to present science in an approachable way.

Damien, Rachel, Cem and anyone else who have3 purchased the book, go to http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/readings-in-digital-photography/6455470
and write a review of the book to give it credibility. Then the search engines will pick it up much faster!

Asher
 
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