About the Outback Handbook

Digital Outback Photo

How to sponsor this project

Pragmatic Handbook

Photo Book

Cameras, Printers, Tools, Software and Workflow

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What is this book about? We share our experience creating fine art photography. We do not get into such questions as "Isn't Film better than digital?". This might be a valid question if you want to decide to go the full digital path. We had made the decision 7 years ago. The only question for us is "How can we get the most out of our digital images".

What does the term Fine Art mean in this context? These are photos, which are printed and presented in a way that buyers like to decorate their homes, businesses their buildings, galleries may sell them and if lucky they even might end up in a museum.

One of the main reasons to create this Handbook is to organize to rich content we produced over the last 7 years. The Handbook is a portal and index into all this valuable content.

Digital Outback Photo is our web magazine with exactly the same goals. After now more than 7 years it has its place with many readers around the world. It also got us in touch with other photographers sharing also their experience in the magazine. I can say that this handbook would not be possible without all these helpful contributors.

You also maybe be interested in our photos which we present on our (Bettina's and mine) photographers portfolios.

If you want to sponsor this project and also to get more information about the digital workflow then buy one of our e-books.

We also offer advertising opportunities for business sponsors.

Finally, if you find our work helpful you may just decide to send us a direct donation.

We try to be as pragmatic as possible. Here is an example:

We don't really care how a CCD works as we don't think it helps us to make better photos (understanding a car engine does not make you a better driver). If you want to know these details, then you have our full sympathy and you can find on the web all the information you are looking for. We are interested in how the characteristic of our camera influences how we take photos. Where are the limits? On the other side we will add a lot of reference sections with links for further reading. You the reader can contribute to this book in sending us the needed information.

This is not not a book which describes how to use your camera. You can read the manuals or other books to help you. We also assume you know the basics of photography, how to handle your camera and then we try to help you to improve your work.

We also show a lot of our photos as this is the main language we speak. If you don't like to watch our or others photos this might not be a book for you. We try to be relaxed and don't take things to serious. This helps to keep the eyes open and not to miss some nice photos.

We show portfolios in this section.

We will only talk about cameras, printers, tools and software that we use or have used. That does not mean that other cameras, printers, tools or software may not be as good or even better for the same purpose. It is often better to really understand a good tool than to look permanently for better ones (this bug hits us all the time). Of course if some new camera, printer, tool and software is clearly better than it maybe be time for a change and here this living handbook shows the new possibilities.

Even if you use different cameras, printers, tools and software we hope that you learn from this handbook as very often the experience can be transferred to an other context.