Innholdsfortegnelse for 13-Feb-2016 i Amateur Photographer

We were told that once digital cameras abandoned mirror boxes and mechanical shutters, they would be free to be whatever size and shape we could imagine. Well, we have reached that point, and I can’t say a lot has changed. In fact, we seem to have stepped back 50 years in terms of aesthetic design. Of course, with this comes an element of nostalgia, and a slight emotional tug at the heart strings as we remember a camera we once owned. For the younger generation, a classic design offers them an air of cool, and sense of authority, of owning a ‘proper’ camera. But maybe the designers and engineers of years ago just got it right. After all, the human eyes and hands haven’t evolved all that quickly. If you…

THE LOMOGRAPHIC Society has added a 50mm f/1.5 lens, the Jupiter 3+, to its family of Art lenses. The new Jupiter 3+ aims to hark back to the original Jupiter lens, which was developed in Russia in the late 1940s. The L39 screw-mount lens is built to fit Leica M cameras and CSCs via a separate adapter. Refinements include a 0.7m closest focusing distance (improved from 1m on the original lens). The £499 kit includes a Leica M-mount adapter. A Leica M to Sony E-mount adapter costs £49. The Jupiter 3+ is also compatible with Fujifilm X-mount and Micro Four Thirds cameras, although Lomo does not sell adapters for these. For full details, visit shop. lomography.com/en/ jupiter-3-plus.…

Fashions and styles of portrait photography have come and gone, sometimes dictated by the requirements of the technology and sometimes by the fads and fashions of society. Broadly speaking, we can place our subject either in a studio or within a contextual environment. For example, the two pictures below show both styles of the renowned Antarctic explorer Roald Amundsen. Within a studio setting it is possible to control all aspects of the portrait – the setting, clothing, lighting, camera and expression. The photographer and subject have creative control over the photographic process. Within an environmental setting you place the subject within a context – the creative gain you achieve in an environment is offset against the loss of control over other aspects of the shoot. Photographic-studio pioneers Hill and Adamson…

IN 1965, THE National Trust launched Enterprise Neptune (since renamed the Neptune Coastline Campaign), an ongoing fundraising campaign that responded to the need to protect our beautiful coastline from the threat of development. The funds raised were used to buy coastal sites of outstanding beauty and protect them from development. Nearly 50 years since its inception, the campaign has raised more than £65 million and secured 742 miles of coastline across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Coast acquired through the Neptune Coastline Campaign has been conserved in as natural a state as possible and managed in a way that enables people to enjoy and use it while encouraging nature to thrive.…

You answered A Yes, a camera or lens 20% B Yes, an accessory 10% C Yes, computer hardware or software 3% D Yes, consumables 1% E Yes, but it wasn’t discounted in a sale 10% F No 56% What you said ‘I don’t think that these days there are any bargains to be had at a specific time of year that cannot be bought at any other time by researching online’ ‘I bought a Samyang 21mm f/1.4 and a Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5E lens. One was considerably cheaper than the other…’ ‘Yes, SRS in Watford was offering the Pentax-fit Tamron 90mm f/2.8 with £50 off so I got one’ ‘Initially I noted no, but then realised I did actually buy two Lowepro bags, a street and field pouch for my phone,…

Burak Erzincanli Burak is a photographer and creative retoucher specialising in fashion and advertising. He has been producing, shooting and retouching for seven years, working with international clients from Canada, America and Europe. To see more of his work, visit www.burakerzincanli.com Creating a composite image in Photoshop may look complicated, but with the right elements and tricks applied, it’s easy to achieve. Whether you’re an amateur photographer or an enthusiast, you can improve your compositing skills with the correct workflow and techniques. The commission Last year, I was commissioned to make a composite image for a door manufacturer by Canada-based commercial photographer Tyler James. As the company manufactures large hangar doors, it agreed on the concept of showing an aircraft on a runway. The brief was simple: a clean, warm,…

If I were pushed to explain the appeal of portraiture, I would have to sum it up in one word: preservation. With people, culture and fashion the changes are so fast. I feel a constant deadline in recording what I can, while I can. There’s so much going on in my immediate vicinity of Oregon in the USA that I feel compelled to use my camera. There are a lot of angles to a good portrait – the image is an artefact of beauty, a record of the subject, a complete narrative in a single image, or perhaps even a totally incomplete narrative in a single image – and every artist approaches the matter differently. And I do, too, depending on the day, my mood and the subject, but the…

Straightening an image IN JEREMY Robbins' original photograph, the boat is in the centre of the frame, shot into the sun, with lovely reflections shining off the water, contrasted with the mountain peaks in the distance. In the following steps, I show how I straightened the horizon and also applied a rule of thirds crop to the image, aligned to the horizon, where I placed the boat in the left third. As I cropped the photograph, it was important to have the mountains dominate the frame. This action not only strengthened the composition, but also the narrative. It showed the viewer where the boat was heading. The blue colour and haze also gave the image a sense of distance, contrasted with the silhouette outline of the boat. 1 Straighten the…

1 Clothes pegs Don’t forget the clothes pegs. Please don’t do your own weeding in someone else’s garden! Just bend obscuring plants gently out of the way and fix with a peg to get the shot you want. 2 Lee filters lens hood I use a Lee filters lens hood because it’s flexible and at its largest extent is more effective than most of the hoods supplied with the lenses. It takes more time to set up but I don’t mind that. I make use of graduated ND filters as well and I have a set of those with me at all times. 3 CamRanger I use CamRanger software control for my iPad and control everything on the camera with it. It suits my style as I am always with…

Kodak, ‘The Great Yellow Father’, is in sad decline. Many would argue that this is the result of putting marketing men in charge instead of engineers. Obviously, marketing is important, but so is an understanding of the business. On the other hand, as this wonderful still life shows, there was always a heavy marketing strand in Kodak: the golf balls are a magnificent example, superbly contrasted with the highly specialised film cleaner. For a century or more, Kodak was (or could be) all things to all photographers. The foil sachet is presumably developer and the films are carefully chosen: ISO 100 consumer film, in 120 as a nod to history; Tri-X, one of the greatest black & white films of all time; and the now legendary and ultra-specialised HIE, or…

Dual card slots Alongside conventional CompactFlash, the camera also takes a CFast card for internal 4K video recording. Touchscreen This can be used to specify the focus point in live view or video. GPS A bump on top of the pentaprism conceals a GPS unit that can be used to automatically geotag images and keep a log of your location as you shoot. Uprated battery The new LP-E19 battery is rated for 1,210 shots per charge; the camera can also use the older LP-E4N and LP-E4. At a glance 20.2-million-pixel, full-frame CMOS ISO 100-51,200, ISO 50-409,600 (extended) 14fps shooting (16fps in live view) 61-point autofocus with 41-cross-type Dual Pixel AF for live view and movies 3.2in 1.62-million-dot capacitive touchscreen Internal 4K 60fps video recording Available in May for £5,199 UPDATES…

Be disciplined Working on a project requires commitment and discipline. It's easy to get distracted from the main goal of a project and go off on a tangent. Also, set aside physical time and mental space to dedicate to a project and protect these vigorously. Don’t aim for perfection Remember, the pursuit of perfection is only valuable if it doesn't stop you from doing something. Taking a less-than-perfect photograph is better than taking none. Sometimes inferior images can be the source of valuable learning. Go public Commit yourself to your chosen project. Announce your intentions to your family and friends, or via the internet using your website, Facebook or Twitter. The externalisation of your intentions can help you stick at it when energy levels fall, or when work and family…

LENS choice makes a big difference to the image, and making the most of the characteristics of different focal lengths is a great way to help produce a varied collection of images. I like to start with wide shots, then work my way in closer to the details. This project often involved a lot of walking, so to keep kit to a minimum I generally only carried three zoom lenses, which covered all eventualities. Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM Wideangle lenses are ideal for emphasising interesting foregrounds and capturing the wider views. Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM This standard zoom lens was probably my most used for this project. I love using wide angles, but the downside is that distant objects become very small. A standard zoom helps…

There are many advantages to a digital camera: you don't have to buy film; you can experiment with it for free; and you can practise cutting all the frames together. You can use weird lenses with it and a cheap mount to convert them. You can also practise freelensing. To do this, hold the lens up to the mount on the camera body and you can produce as many different effects as you want. That's the great thing with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera – you don't have to have a big expensive set-up I like to keep all the exposure settings on the camera locked, so a variable ND filter, screwed onto the end of a lens, becomes the exposure control. There are some bad filters out there, so…

1 Select images for the components 2 Sketch a composition and create the first draft 3 Select the appropriate images for the side components 4 Create the background 5 Add the main component 6 Add the sky 7 Major edit on the components 8 Blend the components 9 Final adjustments and colour grading…

Harry Borden Harry is one of the UK’s finest portrait photographers and his work has been widely published. He has won prizes at the World Press Photo awards (1997 and 1999), and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the RPS in 2014. The National Portrait Gallery collection holds more than 100 of his images. Visit www.harryborden.co.uk Last year I was given the opportunity to photograph Tom Jones for the cover of his autobiography, Over the Top and Back. It was an important project for the publisher, Penguin, and the company had made a big investment in the book. The publisher’s art director, John Hamilton, is a brilliant designer and I’ve worked with him several times previously. Before the shoot there were a few meetings to discuss ideas about how the…

• From £45 for 26 pages • www.photobox.co.uk Presentation We’d have liked the option to change the colour of the presentation box. Text You can personalise the cover with your favourite photo and add text to the spine of the album. Additional pages There’s the option to add extra pages to your book at a cost of £1.49 per page. At a glance 22x29cm Fujifilm Crystal Archive Lustre paper Silver-halide printing process Print text on the spine Presentation box Standard delivery £4.29 PHOTOBOX has an extensive range of photo books for those who would like to create a personalised album using their own images. The A4 Pro Lay Flat is the company's latest offering, and as the name suggests it features a lay-flat design and deep spine so each page…

Bailey at Photo Show David Bailey (pictured right) will be a guest speaker at The Photography Show next month. Nick Danziger, Chris Packham and Bruce Gilden will also speak at the event on 19-22 March at the NEC, Birmingham. Bailey will be the subject of an on-stage interview with writer and curator Sandy Nairne. Visit www.photographyshow.com. Campaign for flood victims Landscape photographers are raising money for flood victims in Cumbria. The campaign is spearheaded by former Landscape Photographer of the Year winner Mark Littlejohn, who has raised more than £5,000 for the Cumbria Flood Appeal. Littlejohn has joined forces with photographers including Doug Chinnery, Charlie Waite and Joe Cornish to organise a charity print auction and photo walks on 21 February. Carbon-fibre style Manfrotto has released a carbon-fibre version of…

TRIBUTES have been paid to Sir Kenneth Corfield, the founder of renowned British camera maker K G Corfield, who has died aged 91. AP readers may best remember Sir Kenneth for the Periflex camera, which debuted in1953 as an interchangeable-lens 35mm camera with an unusual through-the-lens periscope reflex rangefinder. Later models to challenge strong 35mm competition from Germany at the time included the1961 Periflex Interplan, which dispensed with the periscope mechanism. Sir Kenneth also enjoyed a career that led to him being chairman of Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd. He was awarded a knighthood for services to export in1980. Michael Pritchard, director-general of the Royal Photographic Society, spoke about Sir Kenneth to AP: ‘Despite his role as a leader of industry, he was always an engineer at heart, as epitomised…

THIS is the photograph of a regular potato that sold for a somewhat less-than-ordinary 7 1m. ‘Potato #345' was captured by portrait photographer Kevin Abosch, who revealed he sold the print to an unnamed businessman last year over dinner, for the equivalent of around £760,000. Abosch told The Sunday Times: ‘It's not the first time that someone has bought the art right off my wall. We had two glasses of wine and he said: “I really like that.” Two more glasses and he said: “I really want that”.' The Dublin-based photographer said the potato had been delivered to his home with a batch of organic vegetables. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

WITH the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II aimed largely at sports photographers, speed will be of the essence when it goes head to head against the recently announced Nikon D5 at major sporting events like the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this August. So it is fitting that a CFast memory card will equip the EOS-1D X Mark II to shoot 170 raw files at 14 frames a second before it starts to flag, according to Canon UK product intelligence consultant David Parry. ‘That's basically the equivalent of a highly trained athlete doing a100-metre race. So, you could capture the start and the finish of the 100m before this camera slows down,' he told AP's Chris Cheesman. And like many of the athletes crossing the finishing line in Rio…

Steve Gosling Steve is an award-winning professional photographer who specialises in producing landscape and travel images. He is an experienced instructor, having run workshops in the UK and abroad, encouraging and inspiring photographers of every level. As well as working closely with Phase One and Lee Filters, Steve is an ambassador for Olympus cameras, Manfrotto/Gitzo tripods and Permajet inkjet papers. www.stevegoslingphotography.co.uk Are you constantly in search of the photographic equivalent of a musical ‘top 10’ hit? Is your ideal portfolio a collection of greatest hits – images of iconic subjects taken in absolutely stunning light? Most photographers I know (and I include myself in this) love to pursue those one-off photographs, where the viewer’s reaction is, ‘Wow! What an amazing image’. There is no denying that it’s good to have…

Justin Minns Since taking up photography, Justin’s images have been published in numerous books and magazines. He also runs landscape photography workshops in East Anglia. For more visit www.justinminns.co.uk. My first photography project came about rather unexpectedly. Photography projects had always been something I’d liked the idea of doing, but had never quite got round to starting. Instead, my photography just seems to have evolved into one big, sprawling, open-ended ‘East Anglian landscape’ project with no real plan to speak of and no end in sight. Then, in the summer of 2014, I received an email from the National Trust asking if I’d be interested in taking on a year-long project to capture images of the East Anglian coast. And, just like that, it seems I’d found myself a project.…

Dunwich Heath Home to a variety of wildlife, Dunwich Heath is a large area of Suffolk heathland reaching all the way to the top of the sandstone cliffs that overlook the crashing North Sea. When the heather is in bloom, the sea of pink and purple heather is a stunning sight. Orford Ness This is a unique and unusual place that provides a great deal of inspiration for photographers. It has big skies, unusual derelict military buildings set in an exposed shingle landscape, as well as marshland that is home to an abundance of wildlife. Stiffkey saltmarshes This is an endless expanse of Norfolk saltmarsh criss-crossed by footpaths and narrow wooden bridges spanning the twisting creeks. In summer the marsh is a haze of gorgeous purple sea-lavender and it's the…

I am confused by an article quoting the guru Don McCullin (News, AP 2 January), who says digital photos cannot be trusted. Also reported was the fact that Reuters is only accepting JPEGs, not raw images. How can a JPEG be more secure from manipulation when a raw image (we're told) is the equivalent of a film negative? I know the Exif files can be changed, but can't understand why this should be so, bearing in mind that a JPEG is the offspring of a raw file that you can manipulate as many times as you like and then make a series of JPEGs? Mike Sansom, via email Reuters' plan is to encourage photojournalists to shoot raw and JPEGs at the same time, but send them the JPEG images. When…

HOW IT WORKS ENTRY: A SET OF PICTURES MADE UP OF 5-8 PHOTOGRAPHS. ALL ENTRIES MUST BE IN DIGITAL FORMAT (FROM DIGITAL CAMERA OR SCANNED FILM ORIGINALS). FIRST ROUND: NATIONAL DEADLINE – FRIDAY 13 MAY 2016* Send a set of pictures of 5-8 images relating to the theme ‘Landscape’ to apcompetitions@timeinc.com, with the word ‘Landscape’ and your name as the subject heading, by Friday 13 May 2016. Images should be in JPEG format and no bigger than 800 pixels on the longest edge. Include your name, address and a contact number in the email. Images from the first-prize winner will go forward to the international round of the competition (see below). First, second and third-prize winners will be chosen by the editorial staff of Amateur Photographer. The results will be…

Nick Hanson, East Yorkshire Nick has always had a passion for the outdoors, but it wasn't until he moved from his home town of Dumfries that the bug really bit him. During trips to visit his grandparents back home he would take his camera and document the stunning landscapes that surrounded him. Ever since then Nick has committed himself to capturing the beauty of the natural landscape and the variety of wildlife found among it.www.nickhanson.co.uk Receding Tide 1 Nick has cleverly used the tendrils of tide foam to act as a beautiful leading line into the simple muted colours of the ocean and horizon Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 16-35mm, 2.5secs at f/11, ISO 100, tripod, ND hard grad Groynes 2 In this photograph Nick has captured a beautiful sunrise…

COOPH Photo Glove Original • € 139 (around £106) • store.cooph.com COOPH - short for Cooperative of Photography – sells clothing and accessories specially designed for photographers. The company offers exceptionally high-quality garments and we featured its rather expensive but luxury Photo Glove Ultimate in AP 23 January. This week, we review the COOPH Photo Glove Original which, while slightly cheaper than the Ultimate, doesn't compromise on quality. Available in three colours and in male and female versions, the outer shell is made from 100% sheep's leather, which makes the gloves soft and supple for ease of movement, while still looking stylish. Inside is a polyester lining that helps to insulate the wearer's hands. Some of the fingers have small air-flow holes to help keep hands from sweating. To help…

LAUNCHED 1949 NEW PRICE £125 GUIDE PRICE NOW £200-£300 BY 1939 Zeiss Ikon, in Dresden, East Germany, had produced a prototype Contax SLR with the vertical metal focal-plane shutter of the Contax II. Allied bombing in 1945 damaged the Zeiss Ikon factory, and the subsequent removal of all Contax prototypes and dies by the Soviet occupiers put an end to that original Contax. Hubert Nerwin, head of the Contax SLR design team, went to West Germany and joined the new Zeiss Ikon plant in Stuttgart. Engineers of the original Contax SLR team, still in Dresden, were aware of the faults of the original design and started on a new Contax reflex. They decided on a horizontally running rubberised cloth focal-plane shutter, flash-synchronisation and a 42mm screw lens mount. The result…

Sony has made two significant recent announcements about its sensor business. The first is that it is to become a company of the Sony Group in its own right. Currently, Sony has three operating companies – Electronics, Entertainment and Financial Services. Semiconductor and Electronic Solutions, which produces the image sensors, was a division of the Electronics company. The move is an acknowledgement of the success of this part of Sony's business, which returns strong profits and growth and has secured more than 40% of the global image-sensor market. The path to this success has been through sustained innovation and investment. Generally in technology there are no ‘magic bullets', such as a new design feature that instantly produces a step change in performance. Although many ascribe Sony's present success to its…