Innholdsfortegnelse for December 8, 2012 i Amateur Photographer

THERE is always a spark, a fleeting moment when you realise that actually you might have found something special. All it takes is a magic moment – whether it is the first press of a shutter, a first picture you are really pleased with or, even better, the first time someone genuinely admires one of your photographs. That’s where the connection begins, and where the rest-of-life-long obsession takes hold. And it is a really special moment. I love Jim Brandenburg’s fox picture this week (page 16), not just because it is a wonderful image, but also because of what it meant to a young Jim when he took it, and for what it means to the mature Jim all these years later. It represents the moment he really got into…

GUIDANCE for photographers who want to claim damages over copyright infringement, using the small claims track process, has been supplied to AP by a leading media law firm. As we reported last week, intellectual property disputes can now be resolved using the small claims track in the Patents County Court (PCC), following a Government announcement of a ‘simpler and easier’ system. Photographers can pursue damages for breach of copyright, for up to £5,000, without appointing a lawyer. However, there are a few bureaucratic hoops photographers need to jump through when making a claim. AP asked media law firm Swan Turton to spell out the process that copyright claimants should follow. STEP 1 ‘Before issuing a claim, the photographer should comply with the Practice Direction – Pre-Action Conduct which can be…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS OPERATOR Loading film into a camera is usually relatively easy. I recently had the opportunity to do so, after gaining possession of a Bronica ETRSi professional rollfilm camera. After much ado, I discovered I was placing the film in the camera the wrong way round! Now, having fathomed it out, I await the results with excitement. Phil Morris, Lincolnshire You’ll soon be doing it with your eyes closed, Phil – Damien Demolder, Editor NIKON WAS RIGHT I warn you that this will be an unpopular letter, but I think Nikon was right to exclude film-camera entries from its 2012 international photo competition (News,…

Landscape photographer Tom Mackie shows four doughty AP readers how to get great images in tough conditions on a ‘bad-weather’ shoot in the Lake District and how the Big Stopper long-exposure filter can help. Gill Mullins holds the umbrella AUTUMN and winter can be fantastic for landscapes, with later sunrises and earlier sunsets than during the summer, making the dawn and dusk ‘golden hours’ that much more accessible. On the downside, autumn and winter are also characterised by cold, wind, damp, rain and worse, so if you’re planning any outdoor shoots at this time of the year you’ve got to be prepared to roll with the weather. While landscape photographer Tom Mackie learned his craft in the predictably warm, dry climes of Los Angeles in the USA, since moving to…

WHEN it comes to the inception and development of colour photography, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was one of the most influential photographers. Yet his name has been largely left out of photography histories. However, all this is set to change, as a book, Nostalgia: The Russian Empire of Czar Nicholas II, featuring more than 280 colour images taken by Prokudin-Gorskii from the early 1900s, has been released celebrating his skill and pioneering vision. It goes some way to reclaiming his place in the history of colour photography. ‘Vivid colour photography from 100 years ago remains so surprising that when you first come across these images it can feel like “rediscovering” the past,’ says Helena Zinkham, head of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division in Washington, DC, USA, that restored…

ioShutterCam app (Apple iOS) £1.99 www.ioshutter.com (available from iTunes Store) IOSHUTTER has released the ioShutterCam App for iOS 5.0-compatible devices that features a number of shutter-release modes, including timer, time-lapse, sound and shake. The app uses a virtual sliding shutter-release button, with a single press taking a single image, and sliding and holding the shutter release taking a series of continuous images. The ability to trigger the camera via sound is useful in some situations, but I can’t think why you would want to shake the phone to take an image! Far more useful is the time-lapse option. This allows shutter intervals to be set at 1sec to 59mins and, theoretically, durations can last up to two weeks. Shutter options can be used with each other, and I found that…

DETERMINING FLASH EXPOSURE Q In Ask AP’s Glossary (AP 1 December), you mentioned that you can use the guide number of a flash to determine exposure. How do you do this? Bill Irish A Assuming you know the guide number of a flash, then it is indeed possible to work out the exposure you would need for a particular subject. The formula used is GN/Distance = Aperture (at ISO 100). If you have a flash with a GN of 36 (metres) and your flash-to-subject distance is 9 metres, your exposure will require an aperture of f/4 at ISO 100 (36/9=4). Move the flash closer, say, to 4.5m, and this changes to 36/4.5 = 8, so f/8 at ISO 100. These numbers produce a ‘neat’ result, which won’t always be the…

SONY ALPHA 99 This competitively priced SLT camera has a 24.3-million pixel, full-frame sensor and ISO 100-25,600. But how does it perform? SAMSUNG GALAXY CAMERA We test the world’s first consumer camera with both Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connectivity SHADES OF GREY Lee Frost has some great ideas on how to take great images during drab, overcast winter weather A TALE OF TWO CITIES We profile the work of pioneering photographers William Klein and Daido Moriyama, whose pictures are on show at the Tate Modern…

IT IS regrettable but true that cats and dogs, and indeed other pets, are abandoned by their owners. Alligators reputedly flourish in the sewers of New York, full-grown from baby alligators that were flushed down the toilets by their owners when they grew too big and too dangerous to be cute any more, although this may be urban legend. Then there are donkey sanctuaries. Except perhaps when we contemplate full-grown sewer-dwelling alligators, most of us tend to be pretty soft-hearted about these tragically abandoned animals. If they have big eyes and alluring expressions, we are even softer-hearted. We do not want to see them destroyed. Even if we cannot give them homes ourselves, we look approvingly upon those who do. We may slip a pound, or even a fiver, into…

News Analysis Comment PhotoDiary 8/12/12 “It was a period that proved the dominance of the still image” GP wins press pics accolade, page 7 ‘Santa assistant’ in rights clash • Official demands consent SANTA BANS PHOTOS AT CHRISTMAS LIGHTS EVENT A COUNCIL has warned all photographers, including amateurs, that they must seek permission to take pictures at council-run events, including Christmas celebrations. Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council confirmed the restrictions after freelance photographer Andrew Bartlett was told to stop taking pictures at a publicly accessible Christmas lights event in November. Bartlett had complained that a ‘Santa assistant’ – later revealed to be a council official – had approached him at a Christmas-themed market in the Welsh town. ‘I was taking pictures of Santa, the reindeer and the market area when…

Lomo Life: The Real Analogue Experience By Lomography Thames & Hudson, £28, slipcased hardbacks, 2 × 192 pages, ISBN 978-0-500-44211 LOMOGRAPHY is a term that has caused almost as many arguments among photographers as the great Canon/Nikon wars. It’s fair to say that this experimental style of film photography has its share of detractors, but one can’t deny that Lomography has built a devoted community, and they will hugely appreciate this pair of vibrant books. The first book deals with the cameras in the Lomography range, and there is some enjoyable diversity throughout: standouts include the eight-lensed Oktomat and full-rotating Spinner 360. The second book tells the story of Lomography, before moving on to a gallery of notable events, all of which come with stories, facts and many Lomographic images.…

A RECENT trip to the Shoot! Existential Photography exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery on Ramillies Place, off London’s Oxford Street, has given me plenty of photographic food for thought. At first, I thought, ‘This just looks like a collection of snapshots of people at fairground shooting galleries’. But then I had to think again. The last fairground shooting gallery I had a go at was on Bridlington seafront in East Yorkshire and involved shooting at things that kept popping up, including a cowboy sitting on the lavatory. In Europe, it seems to be commonplace to get a photo of oneself shooting the bullseye rather than an unfeasibly large soft toy or similar prize, as tends to be on offer in the UK. Looking at the images, I wondered if a…

THERE is a certain type of mind that many of us can probably only imagine. The mind of someone who sees in the distance shelling, gunfire and the chaos of war, and runs straight towards it with a microphone or a camera. It takes an unswerving dedication, a belief in the vital importance of educating the world about the plight of those stricken by conflict, to cover a war as a journalist or photographer. One must consider it to be a belief worth dying for, and indeed many have done so – Marie Colvin in Syria and Tim Hetherington in Libya are just two recent examples. Anja Niedringhaus, a war photographer for Associated Press, is of such a mind, and her book At War, a collection of her work covering…

We explain how to replicate Prokudin-Gorskii’s colour images using coloured filters, a digital camera and some computer trickery ALTHOUGH we now have the advantage of full-colour digital images, it is creative and enlightening to try to replicate the red, green and blue filter technique mentioned in the Russian colour article on pages 36-39. In effect, this is what a Bayer-pattern sensor is doing anyway, combining red, green and blue-filtered images to create a colour image, but by using optical coloured filters and shooting in monochrome you can gain an understanding of how the process works and use the technique creatively. WHAT YOU WILL NEED For this technique you need a tripod and red, green and blue-coloured filters. The camera should be mounted on the tripod and locked into position. Take…

Tim Coleman Deputy technical editor IT CAME as no surprise that on the back of the success Fujifilm had with its fashionable rangefinder-style FinePix X100, the company should announce what is effectively an interchangeable-lens version in the form of the X-Pro1. What is perhaps surprising is just how good the newer model is. It was clear from the camera’s build, handling, image quality and high asking price that it was a top-end model. The next logical step, therefore, was to bring out a more affordable version, hence the X-E1. This X-E1 uses the same Fujifilm X lens mount, processor and imaging sensor as the X-Pro1, but packs them into a smaller and less costly body. What is perhaps even more exciting is that not only can we expect the same…

JPEG vs raw Smee asks If I have a choice between JPEG and raw file formats, which is the best one to use and why? PeteRob replies There is no ‘best’ – it depends on the purpose. If you are going to post-process an image, then converting on the computer (raw) rather than in-camera (JPEG) gives more flexibility. If you are not, then in-camera conversion is fine. GeoffR replies How long is a piece of string? JPEG files use 8-bit colour and are compressed to save space on the storage medium. They are by their nature ‘lossy’, meaning that some of the data captured by the sensor is discarded. Raw files are usually 12 or 14-bit and are uncompressed or use lossless compression so that all the captured data the…

Technical editor WITH the introduction of the Coolpix P7000 in 2010, Nikon reinvigorated its line of advanced compact cameras, moving away from the small design of the Coolpix P6000 to a camera that looked like a Canon PowerShot G-series model. Although the move was bold, the camera was somewhat slow and clumsy to use. These issues were resolved to some degree with the launch of the Coolpix P7100 the following year, and the latest version, the Coolpix P7700, has seen even more revisions. FEATURES Like most of its competitors, the Coolpix P7700 uses a 1/1.7in (7.6x5.7mm), 12.2-million-pixel CMOS sensor. However, while competing cameras use what is, on paper at least, a similar sensor, there can still be big differences in how images are processed, and don’t forget that the lens…

Wednesday 5 December EXHIBITION Rosebud (collectible, vintage photos for sale from £200), until 22 December at Daniel Blau, London N1 6PB. Tel: 0207 831 7998. Visit www.danielblau.com. EXHIBITION Alistair Taylor-Young: Holiday, until 8 December at The Little Black Gallery, London SW10 0AJ. Tel: 0207 349 9332. Visit www.thelittleblackgallery.com. Thursday 6 December EXHIBITION Winter in America – Justin Maxton & Erin Trieb, until 6 January 2013 at Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff CF10 5AD. Tel: 0292 115 9151. Visit www.thirdfloorgallery.com. EXHIBITION Light from the Middle East: New Photography, until 7 April 2013 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL. Tel: 0207 907 7073. Visit www.vam.ac.uk. Friday 7 December EXHIBITION Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour, until 27 January 2013 at Somerset House, London WC2R 1LA. Tel: 0207 845 4600. Visit www.somersethouse.org.uk.…

● RETROMANIA by Lawrence Harvey, £9.99 Whether the days of boxes and plates really were photography’s ‘golden age’ is a matter for debate, but this fun, colourful and well-researched guide to retro cameras does make quite a good case. With vintage advertisements and a distinctive visual style, this makes a good gift for any fans of classic cameras. ● 75 PORTRAITS by Hernan Rodriguez, £28.99 Accomplished portrait photographer Hernan Rodriguez takes the reader through 75 of his most memorable shoots in this consistently lively, though pricey, book. The writing style is fun, and the images of superior quality, although it is debatable how useful the advice actually is, given that most of the scenarios are very specific. ● THE RULES OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND WHEN TO BREAK THEM by Haje Jan…

THIS image holds great significance for me and it’s a real joy to write about it. The photograph was taken when I was just 14 years old. I shot it with a little plastic $3 Argus camera that had no settings at all. It had the appearance of a 35mm camera and took a film you don’t hear much about these days – 828 rollfilm. I’ve been interested in nature all my life and have always been around other nature-lovers and people such as hunters and bird-watchers. This image was a result of an encounter with a gentleman who taught me how to make the sound of mouse. That may sound strange, but it’s a way of attracting predators. The picture was taken near my home at Blue Mound State…

Ben Andrew Hertfordshire Seasoned traveller Ben discovered his passion for wildlife photography on a trip to South Africa, when he found himself using his girlfriend’s Nikon D50 more than she was. On returning home, he invested in a D40X of his own, and ever since has been snapping mammals, reptiles and birds as often as he can. ‘Photographing wildlife offers an endless amount of subjects,’ he says. ‘There is so much scope that I never tire of it.’ In the future, Ben plans to use his photography to raise awareness of important issues, such as environmental conservation. To see more images from Ben, visit his website at www.benandrewphotography.co.uk. Harvest mouse sunset 1 A fast shutter speed was necessary for this enchanting silhouette Nikon D700, 105mm, 1/8000sec at f/4, ISO 400…

Patrick Ruane Breakfast Nikon D80, 18-200mm, 1/20sec at f/5.6, ISO 800 WHAT a charming picture. The little girl has a wonderful, cheeky, caught-in-the-act expression, and with that spoon in mid-flight the scene has action as well as appeal. Patrick has allowed the closer side of the girl’s face to go just a little too dark, though, which shifts our attention from her expression to the rimlighting on the edge of her face, so I used Levels to brighten things up a little. I also drew in the shadows to create a more solid black, and tempered the burnt highlights by drawing in the highlight output slider to the 252 position. A steep curve then added contrast for a much stronger sense of the low-angled morning sun coming through a window…

IT IS not unusual for a camera to offer bracketing for exposure, but the X-E1 has four bracketing modes to choose from – for ISO, autoexposure (AE), film simulation and dynamic range. Bracketing is quickly accessed via the drive button on the camera’s rear, and each mode works over three frames. With the AE and dynamic range options the camera needs to be supported on a tripod to ensure that the successive frames are lined up properly, while the film simulation and ISO are fine without a tripod because the frames are recorded in quicker succession. The AE mode is the only option of the four that offers raw capture. By default, the film simulation modes are Provia, Astia and Velvia, but a further seven colour modes are also available,…

A camera’s sync speed, or ‘flash synchronisation speed’, is the fastest shutter speed that can be used with flash or, more precisely, the fastest speed that sees both shutter curtains open so the sensor or film is exposed in full. It helps to understand how most focal-plane shutters work. The shutter comprises a pair of blinds (or ‘curtains’) that effectively cover the sensor or film. When you make an exposure, the first shutter curtain opens and then the second curtain closes to complete the exposure, with the time it takes for this to happen being the shutter speed. However, this is a physical process, and to facilitate faster shutter speeds the second curtain needs to start closing before the first is fully open. As a result, the sensor is exposed…

IN PART 1, (AP 10 November), I explored the nature of photographic ‘exposure’. To recap, exposure refers to the amount of light incident on the sensor: the sensor illumination x the exposure time. The amount of light determines the number of photons making up the image, which sets the amount of visible noise, according to the square root of the number of photons compared across like-sized patches, be they input pixels, output pixels or just a size dictated by the limit of human acuity. Here I will consider exposure in the context of dynamic range. The term ‘dynamic range’ has been borrowed from electronic engineering and, as digital cameras are electronic, this is not surprising. However, its meaning has become more diffuse as photographers try to equate this abstract engineering…