Are you looking for a thoughtful holiday gift for the creative person in your life? Rocky Nook’s Holiday Gift Guide rounds up the best instructional books for creative hobbyists.

Whether you’re shopping for a beginner eager to pick up a first sketchbook, a hobbyist looking to master new techniques, or an experienced maker seeking fresh inspiration, a well-chosen how-to book offers something more lasting than a typical gift: skills, confidence, and hours of creative enjoyment! Our picks include step-by-step tutorials, beautifully illustrated project books, and expert guides covering every shooting technique, so you can find the perfect present for every artist, photographer, and maker on your list this season.

Gifts For the Photographer

We’re starting with Rocky Nook’s bread & butter: instructional photography books. From portrait photography, nature photography, street photography, and everything in between, we have a book for every photographer this holiday.

The Art of Street Photography

The Art of Street Photography
by Joshua K. Jackson and Sean Tucker

In The Art of Street Photography, prolific photographers Joshua K. Jackson and Sean Tucker present a more interpretive and artistic approach to street photography. This book expands the scope of street photography from its more traditional ‘reportage’ roots to uncover your own subjective and creative visual voice. Throughout the book you will get ideas about how to use the public space as your canvas and your camera as a tool for personal expression. This approach invites you to imbue your work with personal meaning and share your perspective on the world as you seek to show the ordinary everyday in extraordinary ways.

Whether you are a seasoned street photographer or just beginning, this book will inflame your curiosity and creativity. Packed with wisdom, encouragement, and striking imagery, The Art of Street Photography will shift your photography from a merely technical exercise to something truly artistic.

The Practical Guide to Using Generative AI In Photoshop, Generate, Expand, Remove, Change, Combine
by Colin Smith

2026 has been the year of Generative AI. This is the biggest update to Photoshop in its history! With the power of AI photo editing, you can now remove, expand, generate, change, or combine almost anything you need to in order to create the images you want.

In this book, best-selling author Colin Smith walks you through Generative AI in Photoshop. With decades of experience working in the real world and training for Adobe, Apple, Nvidia, and many others, he knows Photoshop on a level that few do. He also has a knack for making learning fun and easy, and he can take complex topics and make them seem simple.

How To Print

How To Print, The Ultimate Guide to Achieving the Perfect Photographic Print
by Glyn Dewis

The art of printing photographs has become a forgotten final step for many photographers. Yet nothing compares to holding a beautifully printed photograph in your hands—the culmination of your creative vision from capture to final output. In How to Print, photographer and educator Glyn Dewis demystifies the often intimidating world of photographic printing with a comprehensive guide that offers clear, accessible instruction.

Dewis guides you through every aspect of the printing workflow, from monitor calibration to paper selection, and from color management to final presentation. Whether you’re printing at home on an inkjet printer or preparing files for a professional lab, How to Print eliminates the frustration and disappointment of mismatched colors and poor output quality.

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

Macro Photography, Mastering the Tools and Techniques of Close-Up Photography
by Alberto Ghizzi Panizza

Once limited to specialists with expensive equipment, macro photography is now accessible to anyone with curiosity and a camera. Thanks to new technical possibilities offered by increasingly sophisticated and accessible equipment, a growing number of enthusiasts and amateurs can now dive into this fascinating genre of photography and create extraordinary photographs. In Macro Photography, award-winning photographer Alberto Ghizzi Panizza teaches you how to create fascinating images of the smallest details around us and reveals all the secrets of the craft.

The iPhone Photography Book, 2nd Edition

The iPhone Photography Book 2nd Edition, How to get professional-looking images using the awesome camera you always have with you!
by Scott Kelby

Imagine if someone took the same photographic techniques, principles, and tools used by high-end and professional photographers, but applied them to shooting with an iPhone–iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 17, any iPhone. Imagine the type of images you’d be able to create using those same ideas. Well, that’s exactly what Scott Kelby did in the first edition of the bestselling The iPhone Photography Book, and now he’s done it again in this fully updated second edition!

The world’s #1 best-selling photography techniques author is once again about to break all the rules as he shows you how to apply the same techniques today’s top pro photographers use to make stunning images. You’re going to learn exactly how to use these techniques to create images that people will just not believe you could actually take with a phone (but with the quality of the iPhone’s camera, you absolutely can!).

Gifts for the Camera Enthusiast

Are you gifting a loved one a top digital camera of 2026? Pair it with one of our best-selling camera guides. Our camera guides cut through the fat and get straight to the dials, buttons and settings that you really want to know about.

Sony a7V Pocket Guide

Sony A7 V Pocket Guide, Buttons, Dials, Settings, Modes and Shooting Tips

Get a jump start on everything you need to know about your Sony A7 with our durable pocket guides. Designed for photographers who haven’t memorized every button, dial, setting, and feature on their Sony a7 V, Rocky Nook’s handy and ultra-portable quick reference Pocket Guide helps you get the shot when you’re out and about.

The Fujifilm X100VI

The Fujifilm X100VI, 130 X-Pert Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Camera
by Rico Pfirstinger

This book is a quick and effective guide to photography with the X100VI, Fujifilm’s iconic premium compact camera. Renowned Fuji “X-Pert” Rico Pfirstinger has compiled 130 useful tips and tricks and lots of exclusive information that you won’t find anywhere else. It will help you understand and use the X100VI in a way that elevates your photography and gets you the best results without delay. After a brief overview of the camera’s basic functions, Rico cuts to the chase and provides a plethora of tips and practical insights that go way beyond the user’s manual. Fujifilm’s legendary film simulations and JPEG settings are also covered in detail to ensure that you can achieve fantastic images straight out of the camera.

David Busch’s Nikon Z9/Z8

Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Our durable pocket guides for easy reference in the field! ography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Gifts for the Drawing and Sketch Artist

This book provides a simplified and practical vision of the human skeleton to help you in your drawing studies. Here you will find the most common and useful approaches to the body’s underlying skeleton and bone structure, which will fuel your imagination and enrich your observational skills as you draw the living form. In this small, portable guide, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella focuses on the essentials you need to know, creating a book that is highly usable and helpful for artists of all kinds.

Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Street Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn provides dozens of prompts for you to practice to refine and improve your craft. These activities focus street portraits, gesture, shadows, silhouettes, rim light, humor, abstract, and more. Each assignment includes a description of the technique, various tips and tricks to practice, technical and compositional considerations, and an example photo that the author has captured when practicing the same exercise.

Gifts for the Painter

In this long-awaited guide to garden and flower photography, noted photographer and author Harold Davis tackles the subject of garden photography with an expansive brush. Whether you’re photographing tiny flowers or grand landscapes, wandering outside in the garden or bringing the garden indoors, your photography will be enhanced using the many techniques in Creative Garden Photography.

In this long-awaited guide to garden and flower photography, noted photographer and author Harold Davis tackles the subject of garden photography with an expansive brush. Whether you’re photographing tiny flowers or grand landscapes, wandering outside in the garden or bringing the garden indoors, your photography will be enhanced using the many techniques in Creative Garden Photography.

In this long-awaited guide to garden and flower photography, noted photographer and author Harold Davis tackles the subject of garden photography with an expansive brush. Whether you’re photographing tiny flowers or grand landscapes, wandering outside in the garden or bringing the garden indoors, your photography will be enhanced using the many techniques in Creative Garden Photography.

In this long-awaited guide to garden and flower photography, noted photographer and author Harold Davis tackles the subject of garden photography with an expansive brush. Whether you’re photographing tiny flowers or grand landscapes, wandering outside in the garden or bringing the garden indoors, your photography will be enhanced using the many techniques in Creative Garden Photography.

In this long-awaited guide to garden and flower photography, noted photographer and author Harold Davis tackles the subject of garden photography with an expansive brush. Whether you’re photographing tiny flowers or grand landscapes, wandering outside in the garden or bringing the garden indoors, your photography will be enhanced using the many techniques in Creative Garden Photography.

 Gifts for the Fiber-Arts Lover

Whether you’re into crochet, embroidery, or anything with thread, these books are what fiber-arts lovers dreams are made of. Learn to embroider designs for your favorite holidays, crochet your own tapestries, and create amigurumi dolls of K-Pop’s top idols! Rocky Nook’s fiber arts books are always published by expert makers and crafters and never include unrealistic AI patterns!

For nearly a decade, renowned wedding and portrait photographer Roberto Valenzuela has been sharing his vast knowledge and unique, systematic approach to making photographs as he has taught workshops around the world and written five critically acclaimed and bestselling books that cover composition, posing, lighting, and wedding photography (his Picture Perfect and Wedding Storyteller series of books). He has helped countless photographers improve their craft.

For nearly a decade, renowned wedding and portrait photographer Roberto Valenzuela has been sharing his vast knowledge and unique, systematic approach to making photographs as he has taught workshops around the world and written five critically acclaimed and bestselling books that cover composition, posing, lighting, and wedding photography (his Picture Perfect and Wedding Storyteller series of books). He has helped countless photographers improve their craft.

For nearly a decade, renowned wedding and portrait photographer Roberto Valenzuela has been sharing his vast knowledge and unique, systematic approach to making photographs as he has taught workshops around the world and written five critically acclaimed and bestselling books that cover composition, posing, lighting, and wedding photography (his Picture Perfect and Wedding Storyteller series of books). He has helped countless photographers improve their craft.

For nearly a decade, renowned wedding and portrait photographer Roberto Valenzuela has been sharing his vast knowledge and unique, systematic approach to making photographs as he has taught workshops around the world and written five critically acclaimed and bestselling books that cover composition, posing, lighting, and wedding photography (his Picture Perfect and Wedding Storyteller series of books). He has helped countless photographers improve their craft.

For nearly a decade, renowned wedding and portrait photographer Roberto Valenzuela has been sharing his vast knowledge and unique, systematic approach to making photographs as he has taught workshops around the world and written five critically acclaimed and bestselling books that cover composition, posing, lighting, and wedding photography (his Picture Perfect and Wedding Storyteller series of books). He has helped countless photographers improve their craft.

Gifts for the DIY Crafter

Do you know someone who can make anything out of anything? If you put them in a room with paper, glue, scissors, string, and fabric, would they be ecstatic? Crafters rejoice! Hone your craft with our assortment of DIY craft books, from easy beginner crafts to more advanced projects, these books make a great addition to any crafters library.

If your past attempts at learning flash have all ended in failure (not to mention tears and/or blind rage), then The Off-Camera Flash Handbook is about to change everything for you. For years, photographer Vanessa Joy has been using off-camera flash to create gorgeous portraits that look like they were shot in the most beautiful natural light at the perfect time of day. Well, guess what? That consistent look was not created thanks to the most amazing luck with the weather. No. It was created by a pro photographer who mastered her use of off-camera flash. And with her down-to-earth and practical explanations, that’s exactly what Vanessa teaches you in this book.

If your past attempts at learning flash have all ended in failure (not to mention tears and/or blind rage), then The Off-Camera Flash Handbook is about to change everything for you. For years, photographer Vanessa Joy has been using off-camera flash to create gorgeous portraits that look like they were shot in the most beautiful natural light at the perfect time of day. Well, guess what? That consistent look was not created thanks to the most amazing luck with the weather. No. It was created by a pro photographer who mastered her use of off-camera flash. And with her down-to-earth and practical explanations, that’s exactly what Vanessa teaches you in this book.

If your past attempts at learning flash have all ended in failure (not to mention tears and/or blind rage), then The Off-Camera Flash Handbook is about to change everything for you. For years, photographer Vanessa Joy has been using off-camera flash to create gorgeous portraits that look like they were shot in the most beautiful natural light at the perfect time of day. Well, guess what? That consistent look was not created thanks to the most amazing luck with the weather. No. It was created by a pro photographer who mastered her use of off-camera flash. And with her down-to-earth and practical explanations, that’s exactly what Vanessa teaches you in this book.

If your past attempts at learning flash have all ended in failure (not to mention tears and/or blind rage), then The Off-Camera Flash Handbook is about to change everything for you. For years, photographer Vanessa Joy has been using off-camera flash to create gorgeous portraits that look like they were shot in the most beautiful natural light at the perfect time of day. Well, guess what? That consistent look was not created thanks to the most amazing luck with the weather. No. It was created by a pro photographer who mastered her use of off-camera flash. And with her down-to-earth and practical explanations, that’s exactly what Vanessa teaches you in this book.

This book provides a simplified and practical vision of the human skeleton to help you in your drawing studies. Here you will find the most common and useful approaches to the body’s underlying skeleton and bone structure, which will fuel your imagination and enrich your observational skills as you draw the living form. In this small, portable guide, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella focuses on the essentials you need to know, creating a book that is highly usable and helpful for artists of all kinds.