Scott Kelby is an American photographer, author and publisher best known for teaching photography and Photoshop in plain language. In particular, his series The Digital Photography Book became a bestseller by giving one practical tip per page. In this profile, we explain who he is, what the books contain and how to use his approach. Furthermore, it corrects an earlier version of this page, which described a Kelby book that we could not find in any catalogue.
First, a note on sources. Wikipedia flags several claims about Kelby as weakly sourced, and the strongest sales figures come from a publisher press release. Therefore, we attribute each claim and mark the doubtful ones.
Scott Kelby at a glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Roles | Co-founder and president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP); president of Kelby Media Group; editor and publisher of Photoshop User |
| Based | Oldsmar, Florida (Wikipedia, weakly sourced) |
| Training | Teaching Photoshop users since 1993; Kelbytraining.com launched in autumn 2007 |
| Best-known books | The Digital Photography Book, Volumes 1–3 and Part 4 (2006–2012) |
| Number of books | “More than 60” (Wikipedia) or “more than 50” (an O’Reilly author page) |
| Initiative | Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk, started in 2008 |
Who is Scott Kelby?
Wikipedia describes Kelby as a photographer, author and publisher of periodicals on photography and Adobe Photoshop. He leads NAPP and Kelby Media Group, a software training and publishing company. In addition, he co-hosts video shows: Wikipedia names Photoshop User TV, which it dates to autumn 2005, and an O’Reilly author page names The Grid.
However, some details remain uncertain. Wikipedia flags his birth date as failing verification, and it also flags the claim that he was the top-selling photography author from 2010 to 2012. In short, treat those two points as unconfirmed. Also, we found no listing of awards in the sources we read.
Scott Kelby and the Digital Photography Book: one tip per page
The series began with The Digital Photography Book, Volume 1, which Wikipedia dates to 2006. Then Volume 2 followed in 2008, Volume 3 in 2009 and Part 4 in 2012, with a second edition of Part 1 in 2013. Meanwhile, the LensCulture listing describes the first volume as practical, non-technical advice, organised as one technique per page.
- Format: a paperback of 219 pages with nearly 200 techniques, according to LensCulture’s listing.
- Tone: Kelby presents the book as a conversation between two photographers on a shoot, not as a theory text.
- Audience: photographers whose results look merely “OK,” as the listing puts it.
- Boxed set: a set of Volumes 1 and 2 appeared on 13 November 2008, with 480 pages and more than 400 techniques; Peachpit now lists it as not for sale.
The sales claim comes from the publisher. A Business Wire press release of 2 May 2008, reported by Photography Blog, said Nielsen BookScan recognised the book as the best-selling digital photography title, with over 250,000 copies in print. Since then, however, we have found no independent figure.
Scott Kelby, photowalks and teaching
Kelby started the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk in 2008, according to Wikipedia. In this event, for example, local groups of photographers walk and shoot together on the same day. For example, the picture below comes from the 2010 walk in Bonn.
Moreover, Wikipedia reports that he has trained Photoshop users since 1993 and launched Kelbytraining.com in autumn 2007. Unfortunately, the sources we read do not describe his current teaching platform, so we do not discuss it.
What to take from the Scott Kelby method
Next, the following lessons are our reading of the format, not quotations from the books.
- Work from questions. One tip per page suits a photographer who asks “how do I fix this shot?” rather than “what is exposure?”.
- Use the book as a checklist. For example, before a shoot, scan a few pages and pick two things to try.
- Go out in a group. Likewise, a photowalk gives a deadline, a theme and honest feedback.
- Pair tips with thinking. Tips fix problems, whereas intent decides what to shoot. See our guide to Michael Freeman’s The Photographer’s Mind for that side.
Strengths and limits of Scott Kelby’s books
The series’ strength is accessibility. For instance, a beginner can open any page and learn one usable thing. However, the format favours recipes over principles, and the books date from 2006 to 2013, before smartphone cameras and AI editing changed everyday practice. For flash-specific teaching, our guide to Joe McNally’s The Hot Shoe Diaries goes deeper.
Sources and limits
- Wikipedia: Scott Kelby (several claims flagged as weakly sourced)
- O’Reilly: author page for The Digital Photography Book, part 1
- Photography Blog: the best-selling digital photo book, 2 May 2008
- LensCulture: The Digital Photography Book, 219 pages
- Peachpit: boxed set of Volumes 1 and 2
We rewrote this article on 10 November 2026. Our research tools return summaries of web pages, so check details against the originals. Also, we did not read the books. The earlier version of this post praised a guide called “Unlocking Pixels,” but a search for that title returned only Kelby’s real books, so we removed it and rebuilt the article around them.