Innholdsfortegnelse for December 1, 2012 i Amateur Photographer

IN MY next life, I’m going to take up drawing. Pencils wear out eventually, but even a really good one costs less than a fiver. And they never need upgrading while they’ve still got lead in them. I don’t know how much I’ve spent on photographic equipment over the past 27 years and I’m not about to add it up, either. Photography is an expensive hobby, and the constant drive of technology that increases pixel counts and delivers faster, more corrected lenses induces us to part with our pennies on an ever-more regular basis. Technical quality is, of course, important, and for critical jobs imperative, but when you are shooting for fun and all that rides on the press of a button is that you are enjoying it, there’s more…

Brandt Nudes: A New Perspective By Lawrence Durrell and Mark Haworth-Booth Thames & Hudson, £45, hardback, 176 pages, ISBN 978-0-500-97042-3 BILL Brandt’s gallery of nudes has been collected into a single volume for the first time in this well-produced book, exhibiting the artistic accomplishments of one of 20th-century Britain’s most important photographers and photojournalists. The nudes themselves are fantastic – Brandt’s use of a wideangle lens distorts the human body into surreal shapes, and often he gets so close to his subjects that parts of their bodies cease to be immediately recognisable. It becomes necessary to study each image to understand what is going on, and this makes for a rewarding read. Each collection is prefaced with an introductory essay by Mark Haworth-Booth. Although these are well written and interesting,…

LIKE many people, I find Nikon’s ban on film images for its Nikon Photo Contest 2012-2013 puzzling – not to mention rather hypocritical (News, AP 10 November). The end result in any photographic endeavour is the finished image, regardless of whether it was taken on film, digital or even a shoebox pinhole camera. Yet we have here a company that’s produced some of the finest 35mm cameras ever, shunning photographers who still cherish using the medium of film. Countless film lovers use SLRs, compacts or mediumformat cameras to produce quality scans. This allows them, through the use of image-editing software, to become, to all intents and purposes, digital photographers! The end result, no matter what the means of achieving it, is key. So Nikon’s decision is short-sighted, at the very…

AS A COLLECTOR, I don’t believe in just putting my cameras on the shelf. In fact, I try to use them as much as possible. Sometimes, though, it can be a case of too many cameras and not enough subjects. One way around this dilemma is to use several to make one final photo, and this is what I’ve been doing with a range of my film cameras in the past year or so. Most people will have seen the joinerstyle photo collages made famous by David Hockney. His multiple photos are taken from the same place, with the camera pointing in different directions, and the resulting prints are arranged to create one big image. The irregularities and overlaps breaking up the picture give it the characteristic ‘Hockneyesque’ look. Nowadays,…

1 Import your image into Photoshop, then open it up and desaturate or convert to black & white. 2 Adjust the Levels so that the points are at either end of the ‘mountain range’ of the histogram, then move the central slider to the left to brighten the midtones or to the right to darken them. This is a subjective decision and will depend on how you think the image should look. 3 Invert the image to make a negative and then open up Curves. Tweak the shadows a little with a curve adjustment similar to the image above and print out a small version of the negative to use as a test. 4 Once you have printed from this, the resulting print will tell you if you have made…

TERENCE Donovan’s rise to prominence in the early 1960s, together with likeminded contemporaries David Bailey and Brian Duffy, signalled a fresh approach to fashion photography. It became less formal and studio-bound, and models who were previously depicted as remote and aloof were now more like the girl in the street. Shooting fashion became cool and the photographers themselves became soughtafter celebrities. The elder generation of fashion photographers looked on with a mixture of admiration and disapproval: Cecil Beaton described Donovan’s work as ‘strong and stark’, but said his models had ‘no innocence’ and was uneasy about the way he made them ‘look as if they were wearing soiled underwear’. Duffy offered a different perspective. ‘Before us, fashion photographers were tall, thin and camp,’ he told The Sunday Times. ‘We’re different.…

Richard Sibley Technical editor THERE have been 24 Panasonic and Olympus micro four thirds system cameras since Panasonic launched the first of its type, the Lumix DMC-G1, in 2008. The compact size of both the cameras and their lenses has made the system extremely popular, particularly among documentary and travel photographers requiring discreet and lightweight kit. One of the latest micro four thirds models is the Olympus Pen E-PL5. It has a compact camera-style body, rather than a miniature DSLR build, and a comprehensive range of direct controls that should offer enthusiast photographers all the features they need. However, micro four thirds cameras initially came in for criticism for their comparatively lower resolutions and noisier images than equivalent DSLRs. But technology has progressed over the past few years, as demonstrated…

Tim Coleman Deputy technical editor FUJIFILM has added a truly compactsized model to its fashionable X-series in the form of the XF1. The camera sits in the high-end compact camera market, offering raw and JPEG capture and manualexposure controls. Crowded though this market now is, the XF1’s slim design and simple layout puts it head-to-head with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 and Canon PowerShot S110, the most direct competition. Other high-end models are less ‘pocketable’ and usually feature bodies more crowded with controls. Where the XF1 stands out from the crowd is in its attractive exterior, with leather-like finish and aluminium top-plate, much like the original X-series camera, the FinePix X100. Like the X10 (and X-S1 bridge camera), the XF1 uses the ‘larger-thannormal’, 12-million-pixel imaging sensor, so we can expect similar…

As its name suggests, a guide number (GN) is a rating given to a flash to indicate its power. It can be measured in feet or metres, but should always be accompanied by the ISO at which the guide number has been measured, as a higher ISO will effectively give a higher guide number. Similarly, some flashes allow you to zoom the flash head, which narrows the light from the flash, concentrating it on a smaller area and making it appear brighter again, so if the same flash were zoomed from a 35mm setting to an 85mm setting, the guide number would increase. As a measure of a flash’s power, the GN is potentially useful as you can use the information as the basis to manually determine an exposure. However,…

News | Analysis | Comment | PhotoDiary 1/12/12 “It’s do-ityourself justice” Copyright legal boost, page 7 • Pioneer of movie portraiture • ‘Master’ of 12x10 format MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHER CORNEL LUCAS DIES AGED 92 PHOTOGRAPHER Cornel Lucas, credited as one of the pioneers of movie portraiture in the 1940s and ’50s, has died aged 92. The London-born photographer first made his name through a portrait session with actress Marlene Dietrich (see left). Other famous names in Cornell’s star-studded portfolio include Brigitte Bardot, Katharine Hepburn and David Niven. Describing the Dietrich assignment, London’s Chris Beetles gallery – which staged an exhibition of Cornel’s photographs last year – said: ‘After a nervous start to the photo shoot, it ended well when Marlene famously said to him, “Join the club, Mr Lucas.” ‘He was…

● CIRCULAR WALKS IN EAST DEVON by Simone Stanbrook-Byrne and James Clancy, £6.99 This guide features a broad selection of walks in East Devon, each one accompanied by maps, images and information (although the use of black & white images of the countryside is rather odd). With its reasonable asking price, this is worth picking up for any keen walkers. ● WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR DESK DIARY 2013 by Natural History Museum, £12.99 This hardback desk diary is filled with splendid wildlife images from past years of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Each image is accompanied by a little background information and the sensible sizes used make the details easily visible. A solid stocking-filler for animal lovers. ● LE CORBUSIER AND THE POWER OF…

THIS picture was taken in 2004 at J.kulsárlón, a large glacial lagoon in southern Iceland. It shows part of an iceberg that had washed up on the shore, melting to leave behind this piece of ice that was about two-feet high. I was fascinated by the way the light was being caught within the ice, as the sky was reflected across the bottom part of it, which in turn lit up the rest with this luminescent glow. I was also drawn to the way that there is a distorted reflection of the blue iceberg in the background locked within the pointed piece of the ice. I didn’t need to light this image artificially – I never use artificial light anyway – so what you see is exactly as I shot…

Paul Harrison West Sussex A Praktica B100 film SLR used to accompany Paul on many walks on the South Downs, resulting in what he describes as some ‘surprisingly great results’, albeit at the cost of many rolls of film. It wasn’t until his first DSLR, a Samsung GX-10, that Paul truly caught the photography bug. A committed landscape photographer, Paul says, ‘Photography enhances awareness of our surroundings and affords the opportunity to capture and share the place and moment.’ He plans to visit the Purbeck coast next, hoping to put together a portfolio of shots unique to that area. To see more of Paul’s images, visit www.paulharrison-photographs.co.uk. May bluebells 1 The background treeline adds depth to this classic shot of bluebells Pentax K-7, 20mm, 1/15sec at f/16, ISO 200, UV…

● Scales for measuring the quantity of raw chemicals (not to be used for food afterwards) ● The chemicals – potassium ferricyanide and ammonium ferric citrate (green) ● Measuring jug or darkroom equivalent ● Water – most practitioners prefer it distilled or de-ionised for making up solutions ● A few plastic spoons for measuring out and stirring ● Storage bottles – make sure they are very clean and are clearly labelled. Brown glass bottles of 100ml size can be bought from most chemist shops ● Watercolour paper or whatever surface you intend to coat on ● Brush – you will need a flat brush, preferably a flat, wooden hake brush ● Source of UV light – sunlight or tanning lamps ● Contact printing frame – a sheet of thick glass,…

Jamin Chetter Portrait Olympus E-500, 81mm, 1/500sec at f/4, ISO 400 I LIKE Jamin’s portrait of his father – there is something very positive about it. Jamin has caught a great moment and a nice expression, but the subject is just too dark. It isn’t really a case of needing more exposure, but of needing a reflector or a pop of flash to throw light into those eye sockets and the right side of the face. The contrast is just too high, so with Levels I’ve lightened the midtones to bring out more detail. The top left of the dome of the subject’s head is only just recording detail, so while I was brightening the midtones I had to be careful not to impact on the highlights. This concern is…

ONE INTERESTING feature found on Olympus cameras is the gradation function. This has four options, namely, Normal, High Key, Low Key and Automatic. Normal is self-explanatory, while High Key brightens the images, exposing the histogram towards the right. Low-key darkens the image by underexposing and darkening highlights, while Auto chooses between High Key and Low Key. The different gradation tones are applied to JPEG images, and can help create striking pictures. However, be warned that they do affect the exposure, so if you are shooting raw and JPEG images simultaneously, you may find that raw files are under or overexposed. Remember to switch back to the Normal setting when not in use.…

DIOPTRE CONTROL Q I wear spectacles and find using some cameras rather a challenge. My Canon EOS 1000D allows me to make some adjustments via a small dioptre ring, and combined with autofocus there are no problems. However, my older 35mm collection is a ‘varifocal’ nightmare, so I don’t know whether it’s the camera or me that’s out of focus. Are there any adjustment mechanisms in cameras with electronic viewfinders, or does autofocus rule out the need for dioptre adjustment? Andy Minshall A Assuming you’re referring to compact system cameras, the answer is that if a camera has a built-in eye-level viewfinder (as opposed to using the rear LCD screen or a supplementary viewfinder to frame your shots), it should allow you to adjust the dioptre. As a rule, cameras…

On sale Tuesday 4 December FUJIFILM X-E1 The X-E1 is a more compact option than the X-Pro1, but it uses the same sensor and has a higher-resolution EVF. We put it to the test MASTERCLASS Tom Mackie shows how to make the most of your landscape images in bad weather RUSSIAN PIONEER Gemma Padley finds out how Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii’s early colour photographs have been brought to the fore once again in a new book NIKON COOLPIX P7700 We test this high-end compact camera with fast f/2 aperture lens with 28-200mm range EXPOSURE In part two of his three-part series, Professor Newman looks at exposure and dynamic range…

A week of photographic opportunity Wednesday 28 November EXHIBITION Azerbaijan Through the Lens, until 1 December at La Galleria Pall Mall, London SW1Y 4UY. Tel: 0207 930 8069. Visit www.lagalleria.org. EXHIBITION Short Stories, until 2 December at Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery, London E3 2NT. Visit smokehousegallery.org. Thursday 29 November EXHIBITION Everyday Selves, by four photographers, until 21 December at Belfast Exposed, Belfast BT1 2FF. Tel: 028 9023 0965. Visit www.belfastexposed.org. EXHIBITION Brown Sugar on Main Street (‘unseen’ images of The Rolling Stones), until 26 January 2013 at Zebra One Art Gallery, London NW3 1QX. Visit www.zebraonegallery.com. Friday 30 November EXHIBITION Retrospective by Czech-born photographer Jitká Hanzlová, until 3 February 2013 at Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh EH2 1JD. Tel: 0131 624 6200. Visit www.nationalgalleries.org. DON’T MISS St Andrews’ Day 2012 celebrations…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* I JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THOSE PIXELS I voted in a recent AP poll when the subject was how many pixels we want/need [for results, see AP 24 November]. Well, I want more! And I acknowledge that this means that my glassware has to be the best, so cheap standard zooms are out. I have been using an Alpha 900 for four years, and it does most of what I want. The Alpha 99 I saw in the Worcester branch of the London Camera Exchange a couple of days earlier didn’t really tempt me, despite faster AF and better high ISO performance. On the other hand, I…

RESTORING A DAMAGED NEGATIVE THE PHOTOGRAPH you see here is one that was taken by my father on a trip he made to the Congo in the early 1920s. As you can see, the original negative was quite badly damaged. It therefore needed quite a bit of work done to it in Photoshop to restore the photograph to something close to its original condition. The main problem was all the large splotches, where at some point in the past the negative had probably been stored in damp conditions. When using Photoshop to restore an old damaged photograph like this, there will often be several different approaches you can take. The following steps highlight the use of Content Aware filling with both the Spot Healing Brush and Patch tools in the…

THE CYANOTYPE process is a great way to get into alternative printing, but I have to admit that it wasn’t the first alternative process I tried. My inauguration actually began with gum printing, which, as it turned out, was much harder to master. For some reason, I avoided trying cyanotype printing for many years, but when I eventually did I found that it was an incredibly easy process. Many practitioners of alternative processes believe that the cyanotype is the best place to start for the following reasons: 1 It is probably the cheapest of all alternative processes. 2 Coating the paper can be done in fairly bright light, so you can see exactly where you have painted the solution. 3 It is fairly safe. 4 It is processed in plain…

All these steps can be carried out under red safelight, as ortho film can be handled in red safelight conditions. 1 Make a print on resin-coated paper to the size that you want your final cyanotype to be, making sure you have put tone into all the important areas, such as the sky. 2 Process and wash normally, then dry. 3 Remove the negative and put your enlarger up to the top of the column. Close the lens down 2 stops from the widest aperture. 4 Put a sheet of Ilford ortho film on the baseboard (emulsionside up) and place your resin-coated print face down on it. 5 Place a sheet of heavy glass on the top. 6 Do a test exposure in 5sec increments up to 30secs. 7 Process…

Frio universal hotshoe mount Around £13 www.connectcombinecreate.com FRIO’S universal hotshoe mount is an innovative adapter with a 1∕4in thread incorporated for attaching a flash, LED light panel or a mini monitor to a lighting stand, tripod or indeed anything with a male 1∕4in stud. Made from tough moulded plastic, the hotshoe mount has a virtually indestructible feel, as the thread socket is made from metal that will not wear or crack in the same way as a plastic thread could. It is essentially a ‘coldshoe’ adapter, as there are no electrical connections between the equipment and the mount, but the DualLock security catch means that once attached, your gear cannot become detached accidentally. All standard hotshoe flash units will fit the mount. There are also locking-pin holes for Nikon and…

Olympus, KeyMed House, Stock Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS2 5QH. Tel: 0800 111 4888. Website: www.olympus.co.uk RESOLUTION & NOISE These images show 72ppi (100% on a computer screen) sections of images of a resolution chart, captured using the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution is at the specified sensitivity setting. Taken at ISO 400, this black & white shot shows very little luminance noise in the shadow areas FOCAL POINTS Mode dial One of the big differences between the E-PM2 and the E-PL5 is the mode dial on the E-PL5’s top-plate. Accessory port The AP2 port allows the connection…

Shudder asks My new hobby is hill walking, and while I love my Nikon D7000 the weight and pack space with extra lenses is a bit of an issue. Therefore, for long-distance trips I am looking for a compact camera. It needs to be suitable for landscape shots and my only other requirements are that it has the ability to do panoramic shots and has GPS (I have difficulty remembering the location of the shot and I want to start a blog). Damage is obviously an issue from either dropping it (highly unlikely) or the wet British weather, and I’m only looking to spend £100-£150 (preferably the lower end). If I am really inspired by the beauty of a place I could always return with my SLR. I’m looking for…

THIS is my last column of 2012, and I make no apology for writing about another 127 camera, in this, the centenary year of the format introduced by Kodak. As I said in my article in AP 20 October, the 127 format is now teetering on the brink of extinction. The Purma Special camera is special in more than just name. Externally, it is something of a design classic, with typical 1930s Art Deco styling and made from Bakelite, an early plastic. It’s the colour of dark chocolate with the brittleness to match. Mechanically, an innovative shutter marks it out from the run-ofthe-mill, basic rollfilm cameras of the day. The shutter has three speeds – not unusual in itself – but the way they are selected is, as far as…