Innholdsfortegnelse for January 26, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

MY FRIEND Bill jokes that when he was a kid he thought his beloved Charlton Athletic football team was actually called ‘Charlton Nil’ as that’s what the announcer on the wireless often called them. So long has it been in dire straights one might think the first name of Jessops was ‘The Troubled Photo Retailer’, as such an expression always seems to precede the use of the group’s name. It really is a tremendous shame that this camera store has gone to the wall, and an immense letdown for all the store and office staff who have seen their livelihoods go with it. I know there is a general opinion that Jessops is staffed with caricature, poorly trained, spotty youths, but the reality was, in a very many cases, quite…

Edward Weston: 125 Photographs By Edward Weston and Steve Crist AMMO Books, £34.95, hardback, 262 pages, ISBN 978-193442930-3 PRUDENTLY selected from the work of acclaimed 20th century photographer Edward Weston, this tasteful and varied book clearly demonstrates why his photographs have endured throughout the years. Editor Steve Crist has paired each image with a short quote from Weston’s diaries, giving them a fascinating personal context. Some of Weston’s most famous works are his nudes, and these are heavily represented among the 125 included. Even those from his early days in the 1910s and ’20s display an instinct for composition in portraiture that feels presciently modern. Nudes were by no means Weston’s only successful medium – his close shots of shells (below) and peppers, for instance, resemble the kind of macro…

IN HIS review of two books on Lomography (AP 8 December 2012), Jon Stapley said that the images within are guaranteed to turn off digital perfectionists. Well, count me among them! Describing the irrational motive behind this craze (or epidemic), John used the word ‘experimental’. I’m all for experimentation. Yet the only trial I’d wish to carry out with a Lomo is to see just how far I could throw one into the nearest river. The Lomo ‘suck it and see’ approach of taking pictures that are riddled with technical flaws is beyond my comprehension. The images Lomographers covet occur due to imperfections that camera makers have spent years eradicating. It’s a forgotten fact that Lomos were initially introduced as serious rivals to the compact cameras being produced by Olympus,…

The Editor’s Choice wins a Vanguard GH-100 3-in-1 pistol grip ball head worth £129.99* IF YOUR PICTURES ARE FEATURED YOU’LL RECEIVE… £50 AP publishes more reader photographs than any other photography magazine 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 anodized 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 Thai boxer 1 The perfect lighting of…

Roger Macdonald Portrait of a girl Olympus E-5, 12-60mm, 1/125sec at f/3.5, ISO 200 THE PROBLEM with people who are posing is that they suddenly become conscious of how they are supposed to look. Photographers say, ‘Just sit there and look relaxed,’ and of course the person starts to think about how to sit there, and then becomes anything but relaxed. We often read in interviews that successful photographers engage their subjects in conversation for half an hour or more. The person gets comfortable, relaxed and natural, and then the pictures are taken in just a few minutes. Here, this young lady doesn’t look too comfortable at all, and I know from my own experience that the way she is sitting makes your wrist, and back, ache after not very…

FULL-FRAME DSLRs used to be priced for and targeted at professional photographers. However, such guidelines no longer strictly apply. Like Nikon’s D600, the Canon EOS 6D is an ‘affordable’ full-frame DSLR aimed squarely at the enthusiast, but which may also find popularity with professionals who want a lightweight back-up model. In the case of Nikon’s camera, it even goes in the company’s consumer range, sitting below the APS-C-sized D300S, which is in the professional line. It is actually in certain key areas, such as the autofocus and metering systems, and in particular build quality, that we now find the main differences between professional and enthusiast models. The EOS 6D is the smallest and lightest full-frame camera from Canon, and is partly constructed from magnesium alloy. To accommodate those considering an…

IDEAL FOR MACRO Q I am still happily using film, but am interested in getting a compact digital camera for macro photography. I only have a small to medium budget, so I am not looking for an expensive model with lots of bells and whistles. Can you give me any advice? Simon Cook A Most manufacturers have mid-range compacts offering a macro mode, and all will generally do a very good job, so the best advice I can offer is to head to a camera shop with an idea of your budget and put a few different models through their paces. Obviously, this is a bit vague, so if I had to suggest one manufacturer I’d opt for Olympus, as the super macro mode that features on many of its…

HOW TO ACHIEVE HYPERSHARPNESS Professor Bob Newman explains the science behind a systematic method for achieving the best possible levels of sharpness in an image APOY APOY 2013 ROUND 1 We’ve Panasonic prizes worth £2,000 in the Portraits in Artificial Light round of our competition ON TEST ELINCHROM D-LITE RX ONE SOFTBOX SET We test an entry-level twin-head and softbox from Elinchrom AP EXPERT GUIDE X-RAY FILM Continuing his series on alternative printing processes, Andrew Sanderson explains how to use X-ray film…

News Analysis Comment PhotoDiary 26/1/13 We need to defend our share vigorously New Fuji bridge flagship, page 6 Chain shuts all stores nationwide • Customers face losses CUSTOMERS LOSE DEPOSITS AS CAMERA CHAIN CLOSES JESSOPS customers who bought cameras before the chain went under have been told they will not receive any kit they have ordered, nor will they receive a refund. The news came after the chain closed all of its remaining 187 shops, with the loss of 1,370 jobs. AP understands that Jessops owed its bank, HSBC, £30 million when it collapsed on 9 January. The 78-year-old business ceased trading just two days after it fell into administration. Five of the 192 shops that were trading at the end of 2012 had already closed, shortly after Christmas. A…

● UNDERSTANDING COMPOSITION FIELD GUIDE by Bryan Peterson, £16.99 Bryan Peterson has managed to shift around half a million books with his easily digestible how-to guides, and this look at the fundamentals of composition is likely to do just as well. Peterson’s images are always illustrative and his text is never less than engaging. ● NIKON D800 D800E by Simon Stafford, £12.99 When dealing with books like this, the question is: what can it offer me that the camera’s manual can’t? In this case little, it would seem. While the book is more visual and easier to get your head around, there’s not much here that cannot be found for free in the manual or online. ● TAMRON LENSES by Andy Stansfield, £14.99 This portable guide to the innovative Tamron…

I TOOK this image while I was covering a Bloody Sunday memorial service in Northern Ireland a couple of years ago. On 30 January 1972 in Derry (also known as Londonderry), British Army soldiers shot 26 unarmed civil-rights protesters and bystanders, 13 of whom died. A 14th person died later in hospital. This incident became known as Bloody Sunday around the world. The background of my image shows a mural in the Bogside area of Derry. The mural has become one of the most iconic images of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It shows a group of men, led by a Catholic priest, carrying the body of 17-year-old John ‘Jackie’ Duddy, who was killed during the Bloody Sunday shooting. In my picture, a gull, its wings backlit, is flying past…

PHOTOGRAPHY is one of the most universal languages. Powerful images can communicate in a way that transcends dialects and cultural boundaries. Even in their most abstract and experimental forms, images can pass on ideas and observations that can perhaps become lost in words. It’s thoughts like these that come to mind while walking through the Light from the Middle East exhibition, at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The wealth of imagery instantly impacts upon you just how relevant photography is, not just as an art form but also as a means of communication and education. The Middle East is a region most of us are familiar with. Sadly, this familiarity is often born of caricature, mysterious exoticism and reactionary media coverage. It would be easy at first glance…

DEVELOPED by High Speed Photography UK, the SplashArt Kit uses an electronically controlled solenoid and nozzle to synchronise droplet release directly to your camera and flash lighting set-up. The digital control box has four adjustable knobs to vary the size and delay between the droplets, along with the delay between the droplet release and camera firing. BUILD AND HANDLING Reminiscent of a chemistry lab retort stand with parts cobbled together from a plumbing parts bin and a snap-lock picnic pot, the kit has a utilitarian look and feel to it. However, with a glance at the three-page Quick Start guide, assembly is easy. While the fittings and physical adjustment are secure and robust, the plastic clip for the nozzle assembly seems the only weak point, although with repeated use it…

THE CANON EOS 6D us the first DSLR to feature built-in Wi-Fi, and it has a transmission range of up to 30m. There are six separate functions: image transfer between cameras; EOS Utility remote control via a computer; printing from a Wi-Fi-enabled printer; uploading to the online Canon Image Gateway; viewing on DLNA devices; connecting to a smartphone. This last option is particularly helpful and opens up the camera to new uses. It works via Canon’s EOS Remote app, which is available for Apple iOS (5.0 or later) or Android OSs (2.3.3 or later) smartphones. Other smart devices, including tablets, will no doubt be made compatible in the future. Once the smartphone and camera are synced using the app, images stored on the camera’s memory card can be viewed and…

Old SLR glass on a new DSLR Beachcomber 57 asks I want to buy a decent mid-level DSLR and have narrowed my choice down to a Nikon D7000 or Canon EOS 7D. I’ve also found my late father’s old SLR camera gear and a little internet searching has suggested that the lenses could potentially be used with adapters on a modern DSLR. The lenses are a Tamron SP 35-80mm f/2.8-3.8 CF BBAR MC, a Komura 80-200mm f/4.5 telephoto zoom and Tamron a 28mm f/2.5 Adaptall 2. They are all screw-thread lenses and were used on a Pentax ES II. Clearly, I’d be focusing manually and I guess metering will be massively compromised, but could I still get quality results? frank1 replies The Tamrons should be good, but I don’t know…

Richard Sibley Technical editor WHEN Pentax released its Q system in 2011, it was the smallest and lightest compact system camera in the world. The design of the camera is simple, showing a fairly classic style but with a full complement of shooting modes and all the features one would expect from an entry-level DSLR. There is a catch, however – the Pentax Q is able to be so small because it uses a standard-sized compact camera sensor, which is tiny when compared to the APS-C and even four thirds-sized sensors used in other CSCs. As such, the Q’s image quality is much more like that of a consumer compact camera than it is a typical CSC. In September last year, Pentax announced the second camera in the Q system,…

A week of photographic opportunity Wednesday 23 January EXHIBITION Bruno Bisang: 30 Years of Polaroids, until 9 February at The Little Black Gallery, London SW10 0AJ. Tel: 0207 349 9332. Visit www.thelittleblackgallery.com. EXHIBITION Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, until 17 February at National Portrait Gallery, London WC2H 0HE. Tel: 0207 312 2463. Visit www.npg.org.uk. Thursday 24 January EXHIBITION Heaven’s Above by photographer and sculptor Vaughan Grylls, until 26 January at Landmark Arts Centre, Middlesex TW11 9NN. Tel: 0208 977 7558. Visit www.landmarkartscentre.org. EXHIBITION Other Spaces by Jo Longhurst, until 26 January at Ffotogallery, Penarth CF64 3DH. Tel: 029 2070 8870. Visit www.ffotogallery.org. Friday 25 January EXHIBITION The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey, by Yaakov Israel, until 13 April at Impressions Gallery, West Yorkshire BD1 1SD. Tel: 01274…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* VOICE-CONTROL CAMERAS We hear and read about advances in technology in our wonderful world of photography on an almost daily basis, some of which are huge leaps forward while some are more gentle steps. Among the most recent, and apparently responsible for a big increase in sales, are touchscreens and the Wi-Fi option in cameras. With the ever-increasing ability of cameras to do more than simply take a snapshot, and the ever more complex menus to allow access to these functions, I wonder if we might look forward to voice control soon. Apple uses SIRI (speech interpretation and recognition interface) quite successfully on its products to respond to…

FOR MANY of us, sports photography is probably not the first thing that springs to mind when we think about great photographs. Often, our primary exposure to the genre is a cursory flick through the back pages of a newspaper or a flash of images on our television screens. However, once in a while a series of images come along that stops us in our tracks and makes us re-evaluate our opinion. The 2012 World Press Photo awards were announced early last year and were accompanied by a major exhibition, website coverage and publication in numerous magazines and newspapers. Tucked away among the images of natural disasters and political upheaval was a set of beautiful black & white photographs that couldn’t help but grab your attention. Those images, taken by…

Amateur Photographer’s… ICONS OF PHOTOGRAPHY ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH PHOTOGRAPHER CAMERA IN AUGUST 1945, the war in Europe was over. Germany had formally surrendered on 8 May and the long process of rebuilding Europe’s shattered cities had begun. Yet despite the increasing intensity of the USA’s bombing of Japanese cities, the Pacific War continued. On 26 July, the combined governments of the USA, Britain and China set down the terms of Japan’s unconditional surrender in the Potsdam Declaration. It ended with a chilling warning: ‘The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.’ Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki did not accede to the call for surrender, although doubts subsequently arose as to whether his refusal to comment was misinterpreted as disdainfully ignoring the demand. Plans had been made for an invasion of…

SD memory cards AP has brought together the highest-performing SD memory cards from some of the biggest brands in memory storage and tested their performance SanDisk Extreme Pro Street price around £16 (8GB), £29 (16GB), £52 (32GB), £100 (64GB) www.sandisk.co.uk Pound for performance, the SanDisk Extreme Pro is the champion in this group. Just like the PNY and Lexar cards, the read/write speeds are class leading, and at a cost even less than some slower cards. That said, build quality could be improved. It may well offer similar ‘proofing’ to the Samsung card (right), but stored as it is in a bag, its corners are prone to chipping. SanDisk also has a Class 4 Eye-Fi card with Wi-Fi functionality. To date, the ‘fastest’ version of the card is far slower…

List price £1,799.99 (body only) Sensor Full-frame (36 x 24mm) CMOS sensor with 20.2 million effective pixels Output size 5472 x 3648 pixels Focal length mag 1x Lens mount Canon EF Max file size Approx 34MB CR2 raw, 15MB JPEG (Large Fine) File format CR2 (raw), M-Raw, S-Raw, JPEG, raw + JPEG simultaneously Compression 2-stage JPEG, 3-stage CR2 raw Colour space Adobe RGB, sRGB Shutter type Electronically controlled focal-plane shutter Shutter speeds 30-1/4000sec in 1⁄3 steps plus B Max flash sync 1/180sec ISO ISO 100-25,600 in 1/3EV steps and Lo ISO 50, H1 ISO 51,200, H2 ISO 102,400 Exposure modes PASM, bulb, 2 custom, 7 scenes, creative auto, auto+ Metering system 63-zone dual-layer SPC evaluative metering, partial (8%), centreweighted, spot (3.5%) Exposure comp ±5EV in 1⁄3, 1/2 or 1EV steps…

IMAGE CIRCLE Although image sensors are rectangular, lenses actually project a circular image (as their shape would suggest). Most of the time there’s no need to give this a second thought. So long as the image circle of a lens is larger than the sensor in your camera, then the image projected by the lens will fill the frame. However, there are times when the image circle is slightly more important, specifically when you’re using ‘non-standard’ lenses on your camera. A clear example of an image circle that doesn’t cover the entire frame is in Tony Mead’s question regarding the use of a Sigma 10-20mm DC lens on a full-frame camera (see left). The lens is designed for APS-C-format sensors, so it simply doesn’t have a large enough image circle…

A CYNIC, said Oscar Wilde, knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. But how do you set the price and, indeed, the value of anything? One of my favourite examples is the relative values of a pig and a bed. They are incommensurable. A pig is good for eating or, for that matter, for companionship: Winston Churchill is reputed to have said that while cats are haughty and dogs are servile, a pig will treat you as an equal. A bed is good for sleeping, procreation and recreation. And keeping warm. Value also varies from person to person and time to time. Again, I have a favourite example: beer. You’ve just been for a long walk with some friends: you’re thirsty. You come upon a country pub.…