Review: Digital Photo Design

Digital Photo Design: How to Compose Winning Pictures
Paul Comon

I saw this book earlier this year, I think, reviewed in a photography magazine. The idea of a book just about composition appealed to me. My mom gave me a copy for my birthday in August. I took a while in reading it. The writing style is a little formal, but fortunately it's not hard to digest.

I actually felt like I had become a student of the Paul Comon school after I read it. But, I still certainly realize, like he says in the book, there are no hard and fast rules. Therefore, fear not to read it; you are not required to follow. ;)

That being said, the book is excellent. The principles are well laid out, and I suppose he covers everything in the usual gamut of photographer's composition (though I haven't read very many books on composition…). His approach is generally non-technical; whether you just have your old point and shoot or a brand spanking new DSLR, you can benefit from the reading. Matter of fact, though digital is more powerful in ways, you can still definitely take away stuff from the book if you're using a film camera.

I also like the design of the book (I have the paperback) very well. The pages are quite clean, using color and shapes in a pleasing manner. The font is fitting and pleasant, and the new age lowercase look actually works. Comon is also a very good photographer. His pictures illustrate his points well (and he specifically talks about the pictures; teaching by example, comparison, and your perception). A good chunk of the photos are in black and white, but color pictures are interspersed throughout, and he does have a whole section on "Color & Shades."

Recommended.

This is the rewrite of the review; the first version I put up felt pretty contrived… I disliked it, so I am replacing it with this rewrite/edit. I hope you enjoy it, and apologize for any revulsion caused by the previous version. I felt like I didn't really know *how* to write a book review, so I did some research. This page seems to be a pretty good guide, but my results were meh. And… if you still want to read the old version, I put it up here.