Innholdsfortegnelse for November 3, 2012 i Amateur Photographer

I SUPPOSE if I were offered a bicycle or a sports car to make the four-minute downhill journey to the train station in the morning, I would probably choose the sports car. At first anyway, until I realised how much money I was spending on petrol. We are always attracted to what we think is better, and we sometimes define ‘better’ in fairly basic terms – often without a great deal of thought. We are all familiar with the question of how many pixels one needs in a digital camera, and while we might all have sensible ideas on the subject when we are counting our pennies, it can be easy to get carried away. There was a time when all of us really did need more pixels, but I…

● HDR PHOTOGRAPHY by Pete Carr and Robert Correll, £26.99 In this, the second edition of the HDR entry into the extensive Photo Workshop series, the authors give a thorough overview of the principles of HDR photography and explain what it should and shouldn’t be used for. The book maps out the basics of HDR well, and the high production quality gives an assurance of professionalism. ● ADVANCED IMAGING by Joseph Meehan, £22.99 This ambitious book intends to be a catch-all guide to digital photography – no small task in 159 pages. Joseph Meehan’s direct writing style helps to keep things moving, and even if it does verge on being slightly perfunctory in its explanations, the varied content and high quality of images keep the book interesting. ● DIGITAL SLR…

I HAVE a lot of respect for ravens. They’re nearly impossible to photograph as they’re incredibly intelligent, elusive and highly suspicious. The grey jay, which is also a member of the crow family, is just as intelligent, but has virtually no fear and is extremely trusting. In fact, I have had these birds literally eating out of my hand. I think ravens are exceedingly mistrustful because they have been persecuted through several generations of people shooting at them, so any time that I can make a decent photograph of a raven I’m really quite happy. On this particular day I was very happy, not only because I got so close but also because the snowfall meant that the picture had a dark mood to it. This photograph was shot just…

‘THE CAMBO SC is a really lovely camera,’ says Tony. ‘It’s one I’ve had for many years, but essentially once you’ve got it you don’t really need to upgrade. It’s not like digital photography these days where you have to buy a new body every couple of years because the pixel count goes up. With this, it’s just effectively film in the back and the lens at the front.’ As colour is such an important element in this project, Tony requires a film that will allow for vivid colours without overdoing them. His preference is for Kodak Professional Portra 160VC, which he rates at ISO 100 to give it a little extra punch. It was 20 years ago that Tony was first inspired to pick up a camera while travelling.…

LIGHT Light is perhaps the first thing that we think of when considering shooting in monochrome. You’ll often hear such terms as ‘low-key’ or ‘chiaroscuro’. More often than not, this simply refers to the application of extreme tonal contrasts. This is generally achieved in the studio environment using a single key light and a reflector. However, this kind of effect can be found in many areas and is most definitely a lighting technique to be aware of. But that’s not to say all black & white images have to be saturated in moody lighting and atmosphere. Black & white works in most lighting conditions, although it can look a little unnatural when used with high-key (bright) light. USING THE HISTOGRAM Along with the depth of field preview button, histograms are…

Cornish Mist Don McCulloch Canon EOS 400D, 24-60mm, 1/45sec at f/5.6, ISO 100, tripod SHOOTING in the mist isn’t an easy thing to do, especially in the country during the day. The inherent low contrast makes it difficult to define detail, and the overlaying greyness often fools white-balance systems into creating cooler green/cyan hues than are necessary. I was shooting in the mist at dawn recently in London, but with the street lights and the bold colours of brake lights, traffic lights and building neons, the pictures were filled with colour and contrast. With one large flat and colourless light, Don has to work much harder than I did. Don’s shot needs some light colour correction, but I have to deal with the contrast first, as usually boosting contrast increases…

ALTHOUGH the button layouts of the D800 and D600 are similar to other respective professional- and consumer-level Nikon products, this should not deter anyone from switching from one level to the other. I suspect each user could quickly adjust to the set-up of the other model. Those ‘downgrading’ from pro cameras such as the D3 models should note that the compact size of the D600 may not feel well balanced with heavy pro-level lenses. In fact, the D600 is primarily available as a kit with the new lightweight 24-85mm FX lens. Although the D800 is more compact than other pro models, its extra height makes it more suitable for use with lenses such as the 24-70mm f/2.8. The 70-200mm f/2.8 certainly begins to dwarf the D600. For those photographers using…

IT MAY seem an obvious statement, but the major selling point of micro four thirds compact system cameras is their size. By using a smaller sensor than APS-C format, not only can the cameras be made smaller, but so can the lenses, making the overall package much more pocket-sized. Leading the way was the Olympus Pen E-PM1 (also known as the Pen Mini). Not much larger than a compact camera, but with a good range of features, the small and slim E-PM1 is a good travel companion, but is a little lacking in terms of advanced control. Released last month, the new E-PM2 (Pen Mini 2) retains the same-sized body as its predecessor, but has a number of new features that make it more than just a cosmetic makeover. Most…

News Analysis Comment PhotoDiary 3/11/12 “I stayed motionless, my legs locked under the ice” Wildlife winner revealed, page 7 NMM visitors down 50% in ten years • Staff to be consulted CUTS HIT PHOTO MUSEUM AS VISITORS PLUNGE THE NATIONAL Media Museum (NMM) in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is to consult staff as it launches a spending review as part of a restructure designed to cut running costs after visitor numbers halved in ten years. Heather Mayfield, deputy director of the Science Museum Group – to which the NMM belongs – announced a ‘back to basics’ review to ‘reconnect the museum to its audiences’. She added: ‘We recognise that this is an extremely difficult time for staff and will ensure that consultation will be conducted with the utmost consideration for any…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* TOES TO TATTOOS My wife and I had just finished a holiday on the Isle of Man and we were heading to the airport for our flight to Gatwick when I developed an almighty nosebleed. Our taxi was promptly redirected to Douglas hospital! Hospitals are not my idea of enjoyment, but my stay (about the same time as I’d spent in the holiday hotel) was improved not only by the first-rate hospital staff, but also by the good fortune to have, in the bed next to mine, another keen photographer. As my new-found friend had his laptop with him and I had my Rollei compact camera loaded with…

HERE is a fairly ordinary photograph that I shot at a vintage car rally in Victoria, Canada, a few years ago. On the day I visited there were a lot of interesting old cars to photograph, such as this lovely old 1938 Ford Coupe. In this article, I want to show the steps that I used to make a cut-out of the car using Photoshop and place it against a new, plain backdrop devoid of unsightly and distracting visual clutter. As you can imagine, it took me a good couple of hours of involved labour to create the final version, and as a consequence there isn’t the space here to show and describe all the tools and settings I used. If you are an intermediate to advanced Photoshop user, you…

Your chance to enter the UK’s most prestigious competition for amateur photographers £25,000 IN PRIZES TO BE WON Round ten ENTER TODAY! Round 10, the final round, of this year’s Amateur Photographer of the Year competition, sponsored by Samsung and Jessops, is Life in Monochrome. Black & white photography is as popular as it has ever been. Take a look back through previous rounds of APOY and you’ll see that monochrome images share equal space with their colour-saturated kin. Black & white appeals due to its ability to bring out the atmosphere in a scene, and this is particularly true under the right lighting conditions. Removing colour draws the viewer’s attention even closer to the subject, so turn to page 27 for some advice on what to look out for.…

I’VE SAID time and time again that things like safari trips are easy ways to pursue wildlife photography. In many ways, these events often lay things on a plate – all you have to do is turn up and start shooting. The upside is that you get lots of high-quality images in a short time, often of species that are hard or impossible to find in the UK. A serious downside, however, is that they can fool you into thinking the wild always looks like that. As a result, many wildlife photographers and magazines concentrate on the big, glamorous, sexy stuff while neglecting the kinds of animals and flora found right in their own back gardens. If I’m being honest, I’m getting a little weary of seeing images of tigers,…

Motorola RAZR i £344.99 SIM free (www.expansys.com). Also available on contract www.motorola.com THE MOTOROLA RAZR i smartphone features a bright 4.3in AMOLED touch display and is constructed to a high standard, with weather-resistant build and Kevlar rear panel. In use, the phone has some neat tricks to aid the handling of its 8-million-pixel (3264x2448) camera. Not least of these is a shortcut to the camera menu from standby, achieved by pressing the shutter button on the side of the unit – a control that can be deactivated. In the camera menu there is a button to switch between the rear and the 0.3-millionpixel front camera. A menu bar contains options for colour modes, flash settings, four scene modes, brightness with ±2EV range and four shooting modes. The latter includes timer,…

Amateur photographer’s… ICONS OF PHOTOGRAPHY ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHER CAMERA PHOTOGRAPH ‘LIFE as it unfolds in front of the camera is full of such complexity, wonder and surprise that I find it unnecessary to create new realities,’ David Hurn once said. ‘There is more pleasure, for me, in things as they are.’ These words effectively sum up the approach that Hurn has maintained throughout his 57-year career, one that has seen him shoot everything from fashion, glamour and film stills to documentary work and reportage. Hurn’s fascination with photography began while undergoing army officer training at Sandhurst. His father, a career soldier, had reached the rank of major and Hurn also anticipated a military career. However, soon after beginning his training he began to feel uncomfortable with the Cold War propaganda that…

WHEN it was launched in 2009, the Leica M9 was an advanced camera. Its 18-million-pixel, full-frame CCD sensor was, at the time, bettered only by a handful of professional DSLR or medium-format models. Aided by its lack of an anti-aliasing filter, the Leica M9 produces sharp images that even now, several years on, can hold their own against all but the latest cameras. However, certain features of the M9 are now dated. Leica responded with the launch of the Leica M, a 24-million-pixel, full-frame model with a new LCD screen and optional EVF. All these changes are the result of switching from CCD to CMOS sensor technology in the new camera. At the same time, Leica introduced the M-E. At around £600 cheaper than the M9, the £3,900 M-E sits…

Master Photographers Edited by Roberto Koch Flammarion, £80, hardback, 448 pages, ISBN 978-2-0802-0133-1 THIS new large-format book brings together 22 major photographers and a selection of their most iconic images. Here we have such prominent image-makers as Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Elliott Erwitt (above) and Margaret Bourke-White (right). It’s not often that you see iconic images reproduced on quite such a scale and to a high quality. The range of styles and genres is appealing and to see around 300 images in one place is exciting. The book stumbles, however, on the ‘comprehensive’ essay overviews of the artists – it would have been nice to have something more in depth – but what text there is makes the best use of limited space to burrow down to the key elements…

I LOVED the London Street Photography Masterclass in AP 29 September. And I understood why the photographers spoke of being nervous about photographing strangers in public places. Me too! I adore street photography, but my rather timid nature simply won’t allow me to mimic the bold in-your-face-type shots taken by more confident photographers. Martin Parr for one. I watched a TV documentary about him and he simply strolled around charming people into posing for his camera. I could only watch in envy as he effortlessly coaxed his subjects into position My fear of taking pictures in the street stemmed from the time I’d asked a homeless guy on a park bench if I could take his picture. His response was to shower me with his cup of coffee and call…

WHILE some photographers are always seeking out new locations and subjects, Tony Ellwood decided to spend a whole project looking at just one scene, photographing it hundreds of times. What his efforts have produced is a mesmerising series of images that document how time can impact on a single location. It’s the subtleties of colour, pattern and tide that make his series, In No Time, one to really savour. ‘The pier I photographed for the In No Time project was a place I used to visit and be alone with my thoughts,’ says Tony. ‘One day I was sitting there and it was raining. The sky was nice green colour and it formed this really beautiful image. It was then that I decided to start photographing it. I wasn’t really…

For round 10 of APOY, we’re looking for eye-catching black & white images. Monochrome still has its place firmly etched out in the photographic world. In fact, it’s as popular today as it ever was. The expressive nature of this medium has always appealed to photographers, with many top image-makers the world over working with nothing but black & white. And it’s not difficult to see why. Under the right conditions, black & white can bring real atmosphere to an image. More than that, though, black & white ensurse that the subject is allowed to speak for itself without the distraction of colour – something that is particularly relevant when employing low-key lighting. With this in mind, it’s crucial to think about why you are shooting in black & white.…

IF YOUR PICTURES ARE FEATURED YOU’LL RECEIVE… £50 The Editor’s Choice wins a Vanguard GH-100 3-in-1 pistol grip ball head worth £129.99* Combining the smooth precision of a ball head with the impressive ergonomic control of a pistol grip, the award-winning GH-100 enables you to position your camera exactly where you want it. The ball head has an anodised centre ball and friction-control switch, while the pistol grip enables you to position your camera or spotting scope effortlessly. The GH-100 also has 360° of panning movement, with 72 clicks of 5°. www.vanguardworld.co.uk How to submit your images Please see the ‘Send us your pictures’ section on page 3 for details or visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/spotlight Brian Wall Dorset Having grown up using darkrooms with his father and grandfather, Brian is now a…

IT HAS been ten years since the first full-frame DSLR was launched in the form of the 11.4-million-pixel Canon EOS-1Ds. This camera was aimed squarely at professionals and came with a price tag of around £8,000. Now, a decade later, manufacturers are targeting their fullframe models at a wider audience. Nikon’s latest ‘affordable’ option is the D600. This model has been positioned in the company’s ‘consumer’ range, with a suggested retail price of under £2,000 and a street price that is likely to settle nearer to £1,500. It is the most lightweight and compact full-frame DSLR yet from Nikon, and may attract professionals who want a small back-up model. In fact, the camera’s 24.3-million-pixel resolution may even tempt some to ‘downgrade’. A step up from the D600 is the D800,…

FALSE FIRMWARE UPDATE Q I recently bought a Nikon D3000 and when exploring the menu found ‘Firmware update’. I always thought I needed a computer to update my camera, but I pressed the button and a caption came up that said ‘Done’. Can you tell me what updates have been made to the camera and how they will affect the operation of my camera? G Tait A I’m a little confused here, because according to the manual for the D3000 there’s a ‘Firmware version’ option in the camera’s set-up menu, but no ‘Firmware update’ option. The same is true of the D3100 I have in front of me, which was the D3000’s successor. However, even if this is an oversight in the manual, I can still guarantee that no changes…

THE KYOCERA Samurai (also sold as the Yashica Samurai) is rather an odd camera at first glance, and even at second and third glances it looks like a video camera from the turn of the century. The impression goes beyond appearances: it even handles like an old camcorder, being gripped snugly with the right hand to allow access to the main controls for the fingers. There is no concession to the left-handed user, and I wondered if there was no such thing as a left-handed Samurai, but further research shows that there was. This must have necessitated considerable extra expense and effort on the assembly line, and I wonder at what stage of the design process they realised that they were not catering to the cack-handed (of which, I should…