Erotique Digitale: The Art of Erotic Digital Photography

by Roderick Macdonald

Book Overview

For everyone interested in the new frontier where technology and erotica meet, "Erotique Digitale: The Art of Erotic Digital Photography" is a state-of-the-art look at a selection of the world's most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592005268
• ISBN13: 9781592005260
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Course Technology
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 9.3" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Erotic Digitale Review

The first 60 page of this book are on what a digital camera is and how to use an outdated version of Photoshop, with such "great" help as to solorizing your images. Big deal. One of the digital cameras showcased is the Sony F828. It was the first 8MP, fixed lens camera. I know. I owned one. It came out in 2004 and was the first consumer level camera with an 8 Megapixel CCD. The other 106 pages are 95% creating digital art from a photo, or "with" a photo. I didn't read this book, so I can't tell you if the information on creating digital art is good or not (see other reviews), but to warn those who want a "how to photograph erotic" type book. This isn't it. What you get is erotic, nudes floating in the air above computer generated sharks below, purple skies and blue skin, and how to use layers in Photoshop. If you're into that, this book may give you some good ideas. However, if you are into more straightforward pure" photography, sans blue skin and floating nude chicks, don't purchase this book. This is a "digital commercial art" book much more than it is a photography book. I gave it three stars because it's (1) ambiguous as to what you get and (2) the first 60 pages are a waste of space, since there are much better books available on how to use a camera and work in Photoshop.

An Erotic Book about Erotic and Nude Digital Photo Techniques

For those photographers and photo-diarists such as myself who learned their photography prior to the digital photography revolution, this book is amazing. Most "how-to" photography textbooks have useful information and every once in a while includes a striking photograph, but usually the illustrations are boring, boring, boring. Not so with this gem of a technical photography book. Beginning with the cover illustration, this volume is packed with outstanding photographs that through the magic of the computer are turned into even more marvelous fine arts photographic images. Today's photography magazines are packed with photographs that have a surreal feeling to them. They are filled with pictures that before the digital age would have been impossible to make. Anyone paying attention immediately grasps the concept that what ever a photographer can visualize in his conscious mind or encounters in his nightmares, can be created in a photograph so powerful that any fool can also enjoy or tremble at the recreation. It truly seems like magic. The magic is so powerful that even mediocre photographs can be morphed into something much more visually powerful. However, when one starts with a really well done regular photograph, the image can be converted to something truly wonderful. Melting clocks, beautiful nudes floating in a cup of coffee, half-human, half-fairy, animal, robot, piece of equipment, or even a human fishing lure, this technique book is chuck full of interesting techniques for making a normal picture a very surreal picture or an off-world nude in an equally out-of-this-world universe. Combinations of color and monochrome, beautiful bodies with skin so elastic, pliable and stretchable that it appears to be that of a comic book super hero, layered pictures, humorous combinations, images of insanity that would have been almost impossible to create before the computer hooked up with the digital camera are all possible after the revolution. If one had tried before the computer, the attempt was almost certain to appear hokey or corny. This book includes the work of 24 different photographers and features some of each of their trademark work as well as basic information about how to duplicate the techniques. It's not the kind of book where a reader will probably want to exactly duplicate any one technique, but perhaps master one or two of them and maybe devise new ways to combine them to create something entirely different using one's own picture subjects and visions. The possibilities are virtually unlimited and over the coming years the images will become more sophisticated and more surreal while still seeming to represent real scenes (if that is what the photographer is aiming for). The techniques probably have equally unlimited possibilities for errors that also produce interesting images. Remember how Man Ray and Lee Miller, his muse and assistant at the time, turned their darkroom mistakes into Ray-o-Grams instead of simple solarizations

A Must Have!

What's truly amazing about this book is that it combines high quality artistic nudes, by talented photographers throughout the world, with in-depth discussion of techniques. It's rare to find both in the same book, and to find them so well integrated. The quality of the images is so high that I could well have bought it for the photos alone - something that almost never is the case with photo how-to books! And, the reproduction quality is absolutely amazing, rivaling that of some of the highest quality hard-bound coffee table books! And, that leads me to the final point ... The price is actually reasonable, because it is in paperback form (not really paper, but rather that high quality durable plastic clad type of "paper"). If you like books with artistic nudes, this one is a must have!

Comments from a contributing photographer

When first approached to contribute images to Erotique Digitale I was dubious. I had never heard of Illex Press (Cambrige, England; the European publisher), nor had I heard of Thomson Course Technology (Boston; publisher in the USA). Both, as I discovered, are top-shelf publishing houses, far advanced in the trade. It matters to me where my images are published. I am honored to be in this book. The diversity of images, styles, and techniques represented in Digitale Erotique is quite impressive, as is the global (meaning world-wide) sweep of represented artists. Every style and technique is clearly described and easily understood--rare attributes for books which claim to teach the digital photo arts. I buy lots of books (and I mean LOTS of books) on fine art photography (digital, film, whatever) because it's my trade and I need to stay current on who's doing what and how they're doing it. Most (90% or more) of what I see is flat, tired, boring (the same old same old), or cheap glitzy snap shots posing as art. Here's the point: I learned from this book. This book sparked new ideas and techniques that I am grateful for--not to copy or mimic, mind you, but to adapt into my own unique wacky ways of seeing and working. When artists stop learning and growing they die. Or, when artists die they stop learning and growing. If you are a photo artist, get this book and keep on living. And, no, I don't make a percentage on sales, and I have not been compensated for this endorsement. Darn it.

An absolutely beautiful and educational book!

This book has enabled me understand and translate very complicated techniques that the top photographers in the world utilize. Plus, the book is of the highest quality, the pictures stand on their own as pieces of art.