Really useful photography magazine (Digital Photo Magazine)

Member Name: katew

Product:	Digital Photo Magazine
Date:	24/11/08 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well set out, good range of articles and features

Disadvantages: None come to mind

Please note, I am reviewing Digital Camera Magazine, as shown in the picture, not Digital Photo Magazine, as shown in the title.

As a keen amateur and semi-pro photographer, I buy quite a few camera magazines, and I have to say that this is one of my favourites. Published by Future Publishing, it is issued monthly, and at present has a cover price of £3.99. The magazine is aimed mainly at the amateur market, with articles to suit most skill levels.

**Layout and presentation**
The magazine is A4 sized (110 x 297 cm, or roughly 11.5 x 8 inches), and printed on good quality glossy paper with a good solid glossy cover. Each issue includes a CD, which contains images and tutorials relating to that month's articles. The current issue (December 2008) runs to 162 pages.

**Contents**
The December issue has the following contents:
Detailed content list
Welcome letter and short bios of guest photographers
Shooting water scenes
Shooting rainy weather
Using depth of field
Outdoor fashion shoots
Reader showcase - a sort of gallery of one reader with some explanation of the thought behind each photo
An assignment, for which a prize is given - there are a couple of pages of images submitted for the previous one, with explanation of why the winner was chosen, plus the brief for the next assignment
Letters page
Black and white masterclass, including various ways of converting images to black and white, increasing contrast, and toning
Calibrating your printer
A general gallery of shots from various readers
Camera review
Ask the team - readers send in photos for advice on how to improve them
Ask the team Law - readers' legal queries
Interview with a portrait photographer
More camera reviews
Software review - this months is Photoshop CS4
Christmas gift guide - in association with Jessops, so could be biased!
Digital Photo frames - each month is a different subject; previous ones have been canvas prints and photobooks
Several pages of advertising
What's on the cover disk

**Advertising**
It has to be said, there is a lot of advertising in this magazine - in addition to the adverts section mentioned above, there are also several adverts scattered throughout the magazine. However, I dread to think what the cover price would be without them.

**Quality of content**
Each tutorial style article is explained clearly with step-by-step procedures, and plenty of illustrations. I find the level about right for me - they're not full of unnecessary jargon, but not too simplistic, with enough content for me to learn from and go out and practise. The illustrations are good sized and of a high quality. An added bit of fun for me is that I live in Bath, where the magazine is produced, so if I want to try their techniques, I can actually recreate the same photos! Plus I always look in the street scenes to see if I'm in any of them!

The equipment reviews are excellent, with a good mix of fact and opinion - I always think you can have the 'best' camera in the world, but if you're not comfortable with it, it's not going to work well for you. There are lots of example photos with the camera reviews, showing how well that model performs with various subjects, such as skin tones and low light. At the end of each article is a tech-spec list, and the camera is rated for performance, handling, features, etc and given an overall percentage.

**My overall impression**
Photography magazines vary in price, and for £3.99, I think this one is good value for money. The masterclass section is always interesting, and goes into a lot of detail, and the equipment reviews and service reviews (such as canvas prints) are very useful. I like the tone of the magazine; they get a lot of information into the articles without being dry and boring, and you get the feeling that they really enjoyed the activities involved in putting the articles together. For a beginner/intermediate photographer, I'd recommend this magazine wholeheartedly, and even my husband, a very experienced photographer, finds the equipment and services reviews really interesting.

Summary: Highly recommended photography magazine.