For the basics, these 2 sites are excellent

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/
http://www.normankoren.com/

Fred Miranda's site is worth a look as well - the discussion groups are quite civilized.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/

Thanks Tim and Eric. I will begin reading.

this is not for free but may serve as a good introduction into the digital workflow:
"DOP 2000 Digital Photography Workflow Handbook"  at
http://www.outbackphoto.com/booklets/booklets.html

happy reading,
o

I think jabberwocky has identified something here that I have also been trying to find a neat solution for as well.

Regardless of our proficiency in general photography or film camera technique, very little is written or available regarding digital camera technique. (And it does require a different set of notions and expectations about results and the means to accomplish them.)

Most of the resources listed here talk about post-camera digital workflow (essential, obviously) or Internet forums and instructional sites (like this one) that give you applied digital camera techniques piecemeal. I can use this to great effect, but it's work. You have to develop a sense of where to go for answers.

I suspect that we have no readily-obvious comprehensive books about "applied digital camera technique" because the technology is implimented different for each camera. With legacy film cameras the variety of what technique to use in a given set of circumstances is much more describeable.

I contend that anyone that could produce a well-conceived volume that relates different studio and field shooting conditions to the common denominator of pro digital cameras while referencing these relationships to good old fashoned film camera operations would have a winner. If well written, well researched, meaty, and promoted, we'd all buy one.

In the meantime, I am surfing the web. Jabberwocky - I suggest you join me.

EVFs, noise, cards, shadows & highlights, white balance, batteries, sensor care, sharpening, color saturation, crop factor, histogram, sensor types, etc.

When you think about it, you can come up with a fair amount of stuff. Addtionally, the more modern focusing, metering, and use of "modes", even though those things aren't strictly "digital"

Optimum exposure strategy IS different for digital than film. Film splits exposure latitude evenly between the shadows and highlights. You can scrounge detail from the highlights or the shadows with approximately equal ease. With digital, exposure latitude is only in the shadows; once the highlights clip, you're screwed and there is no detail recovery possible. With my 1Ds, I shoot manual mode and spot meter the brightest highlights I don't want clipped so that they meter at about 2 1/3 stops overexposed using my custom Low Contrast tone curve.

Having been a long-time film photographer I've decided it's time to get into digital (Mark II) for reasons most of you have already fiigured out. I've also been dabbling with Photoshop and printing but really just dabbling. My computer skills are average. My real love in photography is being outside photographing birds - I'm not interested in being tied to my computer any more than necessary.

As I read through this site I find I'm seriously behind in the amount of knowledge I need to acquire to achieve the level of competence I'm comfortable with. Although I read this site and also Rob Galbraith's and DP review, I find the subjects covered are random because they're based on whatever questions the posters want answered. Can you recommend books or other sources of information I can use to accelerate my learning about digital photography?

Thanks

These two books are great:

Photoshop 7 Artisty (can't remember the author but the title is correct)

Photoshop Color Correction by Michael Kieran

These are two geat books for photographers. Be aware than many Photoshop books weren't written with the photographer in mind. These two were.

Jabberwocky,

I can recommend Mastering Digital Printing by Harald Johnson for figuring what to do with your ink jet.  His discussions are quite good and he really goes into detail about the equipment needed for a successful print.

You may want to check with your local community college or university to see if they have courses over the summer on image editing.  You'll learn the most from an instructor and it forces you to learn whereas with a book interest can be easily lost.

You can also try here: Adobe Photoshop Basics - A Free Online Class

I have all the lessons in my email account but have yet to do any of them.  Cheaper than a course or a myriad of books.

Good luck.

David

Scott Kelby has sopme really good books on using Photoshop, or Elements if you get that.

Thanks Boku. I'm reading and surfing and going cross-eyed. Fortunately I'm also tenacious

I don't know that the techniques for using a digital camera are that different than the techniques for using a film camera.  The same exposure rules apply.

I guess the point I was trying to make is that a lot of film knowledge carries over into digital as well.  If you know how to shoot and get a good exposure using slide film, you should be able to do the same using digital.  There is a lot of information to digest, but most of it has an equivalent in film somewhere.

A book that got me started is Complete Digital Photography by Ben Long.  I think it might be a good start.

Is that slide or negative film?  Negative film has a relatively wide exposure range, and is a lot more forgiving.  Slides have a pretty limited exposure range, which is more like digital.