Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

FROM the earliest days of the discovery that a pinhole can focus light, scientists have been striving to improve the amount of detail photo systems can record. First we had smaller pinholes, then simple convex glass elements, multi-element lenses, silver crystals to capture it all and finally today’s megapixel sensors and the cleverly coated optics that pass the light so cleanly. And as much as the men in the lab coats have worked to produce these high-resolution systems, so photographers have worked to own them. As with anything complex and sophisticated, the weakest element defines the whole, and so often with cameras and lenses that low point is the operator. There has been a lot of talk about the need for a tripod when working with the Nikon D800, as…

Somerset and Bristol Frances Lincoln, £16.99, hardback, 112 pages, ISBN 978-0-7112-3324-9 WITH its protected areas of history and natural beauty, Somerset has much to offer. James Osmond aimed to capture a little of Somerset’s magic by embarking on a photographic journey through the county, and the results have been assembled for this book which, for the most part, succeeds in that aim. Osmond is at his strongest with the big picture. Sweeping misty landscapes, and shots of rolling hills and valleys taken at dawn are the kinds of images where the book comes alive. Some of the smaller-scale shots of forests and fields feel a little less surehanded in their composition and use of exposure, but it’s rare to find one devoid of some quality. This is a promising work.…

AP reader Mick Bidewell on why the paparazzi are here to stay IN RESPONSE to the hue and cry raised by the recent topless shots of the Duchess of Cambridge, John Toner of the NUJ raged at the ‘resistible rise of salacious celebrity pictures’ (News, AP 12 January). He also cited publishers who pay for what he believes is ‘inconsequential drivel’. The call for financially rewarding celebrity images – whether of the A or Z-list variety – is greater than ever. So the impulse to take them will be anything but resistible to money-hungry photographers. A quick snap of a celebrity may not bring the same warm glow as a landscape taken after a six-hour wait for just the right light, but it will certainly bring a warm glow to…

Your chance to enter the UK’s most prestigious competition for amateur photographers £30.000 IN PRIZES TO BE WON Round 1 ENTER TODAY! SINCE AP’s Amateur Photographer of the Year competition was launched in its present format in 1997, it has gone from strength to strength. Back then, the overall prize was a Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium-format camera, worth £2,395. This year we’re offering £5,000 worth of Panasonic equipment for the 2013 winner – plus, for the very first time, we’ve two overall runner-up prizes. We receive thousands of entries from all around the world, and last year saw a very high standard of submissions that made the task of choosing a winner each month very difficult. By the end of the ten rounds, though, one person had emerged the…

I BELIEVE it was around 20 years ago that I was first struck with the idea that I could find an interesting alternative to the standard film that I was putting in the back of my cameras. One day, while I was grudgingly visiting the dentist, it occurred to me that in this orthodontic office there was something that could be well worth my time experimenting with: X-ray film. I asked my dentist if he had a bit of spare film I could take with me. After a couple of strange looks he gave me a box of 4x4in square film, which I took home and immediately loaded into my camera. I guessed a speed and tried it, put it through paper developer and from that test was able to…

PNY Professional Memory Card Case £7.18 (+ £4.99 delivery) www.scan.co.uk PNY’S Professional Memory Card Case can store and protect up to four CompactFlash cards and eight SD cards. The outer shell of the case is made from a rigid, tough black polycarbonate that can withstand bumps and knocks, while a rubber seal ensures that no water can get inside when the case is clipped shut, should it ever be dropped in water, such as a puddle. A loop on the side allows the case to be attached to a thin strap. There are a few memory card cases on the market, but of the rigid types the PNY Professional has a large capacity and is available at a reasonable price. Tim Coleman The AP guarantee to you All our tests…

MOTION blur is caused by any relative movement between the camera and the subject, as a result of movement by either. To prevent this, the first step is to mount the camera on a sturdy tripod or other support. Then, if it is an SLR, lock the mirror up, as mirror bounce is a source of camera shake. This will necessitate viewing and focusing in live view, if available, which in any case is required for critical focusing. Finally, the use of a remote control or delayed action is required, to prevent movement resulting from pressing the shutter button. If the tripod is sufficiently rigid and there is not too much wind, these measures should prevent camera movement. Image-stabilisation systems are generally not sufficiently accurate for the extremes of hypersharpness.…

HD video is now standard on almost every new camera, regardless of whether it’s a DSLR or compact, and even some mobile phones allow you to capture HD video. But what is meant by ‘HD video’, and why is there more than one option? HD stands simply for ‘High Definition’, with HD video in current cameras referring to one of two different formats: 720p and 1080p. The number in each of these equates to the vertical pixel count in a 16:9 ratio image, so 720p has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, and 1080p has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The ‘p’ refers to a progressive scan, which relates to the way in which the image is displayed (there is also 1080i, but this isn’t commonly seen in this context). A…

ALONGSIDE the PowerShot G15, the PowerShot S110 sits at the top of Canon’s compact camera range. The G15 is the larger of the two, with numerous external controls, a viewfinder and hotshoe. Despite its simpler design, the S110 is packed with features and the sort of control expected from much larger cameras, namely raw capture and fully manual exposure control. It replaces the PowerShot S100 – which was reviewed in AP 3 December 2011 and scored 86% – as a modest but welcome refresh and here we highlight its key aspects and new features. FEATURES Like many high-end compacts, including its S100 predecessor, the Canon PowerShot S110 has a 1/1.7in (7.6x5.7mm) imaging sensor, resulting in a 4.55x focal-length magnification. The camera therefore requires a 5.2-26mm Canon lens to achieve the…

News Analysis Comment PhotoDiary 2/2/13 “Business has been absolutely bubbling” Camera shops cash in after Jessops’ exit, page 7 Nikon reveals two CSCs • Is an APS-C model on the cards? NIKON REVEALS S1 AND J3 SYSTEM CAMERAS NIKON used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA, to unveil two new compact system cameras – the Nikon 1 J3 and ‘tiny’ Nikon 1 S1 – both borrowing technology from the Nikon 1 V2. Boasting a 14.2-million-pixel, CX-format, CMOS imaging sensor, the J3’s features include a burst rate of 15 frames per second and an ‘enhanced AF’ mode. Both cameras feature a hybrid AF system that combines phase detection (73 AF points) and contrast detection (135 AF points), pop-up flash, plus an Expeed 3A dual processing engine. In a…

●THIS IS THE DAY: THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON by Leonard Freed, £19.95 Interestingly, Leonard Freed’s photographs of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom seldom show the keynote speaker, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who on that day delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. This collection of photographs from the day therefore becomes more about the movement as a whole and the thousands of individuals who achieved change through courage and solidarity. ●SONY SLT-A77: THE EXPANDED GUIDE by David Taylor, £14.99 This compact but thick guide by David Taylor should be useful for anyone looking to get a handle on using his or her Sony Alpha 77 single lens translucent camera. Taylor eases the reader in by explaining all key terms, and there is a liberal helping of…

THIS image was taken in north-west Scotland, near Achnahaird. I had been down on the beach with a workshop group during the day and we were making our way back to the hotel as the sun was going down. As we drove, I spotted this lochan [a small loch] and the water was absolutely still, giving perfect reflections of the reeds poking out. I saw the potential immediately, so I stopped the group and we all jumped out to take some photographs. Reflection shots have fascinated me for a long time. When I first started taking photographs I made a reflection shot of a rock, and it was such a good reflection that if I turned the transparency around it looked like the rock was hanging in the air. I…

For round 1 of this year’s Amateur Photographer of the Year competition, we’re looking for portraits taken under artificial light. It doesn’t matter where your images are taken, but the sole stipulation is that they are taken using mainly artificial sources of light. What do we mean by this? Well, you can use anything but daylight as your principal source of light. Artificial light comes in many forms. The romantic glow of candlelight, for example, is perfectly acceptable. How many candles you use is up to you, but be careful not to burn the house down! You may also want to consider using flash. Its creative application can elevate an ordinary shot into something engaging and accomplished. And if you want to try something really exciting, take a look at…

JOHN Swannell is rightly considered one of the great British photographers working today. During his four decades in the business, he has shot celebrity portraits, fashion, beauty, advertising, nudes and landscapes, but whatever he’s photographing he does it elegantly, professionally and with meticulous attention to detail. He has a natural instinct for creating beautiful images, with David Bailey once describing him as ‘an incurable romantic’. Swannell started photography at around the age of 12. His dyslexia made academic work difficult and he gravitated towards working with images, photographing school plays and sports days. ‘It was in the blood from the beginning,’ he said in a 2011 interview. ‘There was never going to be another job for me when I left school. It was always going to be photography.’ At 16,…

SHARPNESS is usually one of the most sought-after characteristics of a good photograph. Apart from a few of the more esoteric areas of photography, such as Lomography and products such as the Lensbaby, when selecting lenses or critiquing images, most photographers will aim for what they consider to be the sharpest possible image. Yet it isn’t always clear what is meant by the ‘sharpest possible image’. In the end, photography is a subjective art form, so what really matters is not a scientific definition of ‘sharp’, but what is appreciated as ‘sharp’ by the average viewer. The intention of this article is to present a systematic method for achieving the best possible levels of sharpness in a final image, and then relate that back to what we can define scientifically,…

REMOVING TEXTURE Q I have recently acquired a batch of old family photographs that need retouching and copying for other members of the family. Using Photoshop to deal with dust, scratches and other blemishes on these old photographs is an easy task, but there’s one problem I cannot solve: how to remove the texture of the old prints. The prints have a canvas-like texture to them, which is picked up in the scanning process and makes the scan look grainy. The best result I can achieve is using Gaussian Blur and Smart Sharpen, but I am not happy with the results, since the portraits lose sharpness and detail. Do you have any suggestions about what I should do? Andre Badziak A You know it’s winter when the questions sent to…

On sale Tuesday 5 February NIKON D5200 We test this 24.1MP APS-C ‘upper-entry-level’ DSLR, with a 39-point AF system and articulated LCD screen PRODUCT NEWS CES: NEWS AND ANALYSIS AP’s in-depth look at the photo products at the world’s biggest consumer electronics expo YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS ANIMAL ENTHUSIASTS We speak to some of the category winners from the 2012 RSPCA Young Photographer Awards TECHNIQUE MASTERCLASS Light painter Michael Bosanko shows three AP readers how to make the most of winter nights…

LAST month I wrote about the 1961 Sportsmaster from the British firm Ilford (AP 5 January). This time I’m writing about another Ilford camera, but from an earlier generation. First sold in 1949, the Advocate differs in many respects from its descendants. For a start, it was made in England, whereas by the 1960s most of Ilford’s models were made in Germany. That aside, it looks and feels as though it belongs to an era much further in the past than the decade or so that separates it from the Sportsmaster. Even today, most cameras tend to be finished predominantly in black or silver, so the Advocate immediately stands out from the crowd by being a pale cream colour. Mine is one of the first models, with a 35mm f/4.5…

A week of photographic opportunity Wednesday 30 January DON’T MISS Snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey, Gardens and Lode Mill, Cambridge CB25 9EJ. Tel: 01223 810 080. Visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk. EXHIBITION Art of Arrangement: Photography and the Still Life Tradition, until 10 February at the National Media Museum, West Yorkshire BD1 1NQ. Tel: 0844 856 3797. Visit www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk. Thursday 31 January DON’T MISS Photography workshop, run in conjunction with International Garden Photographer of the Year (10am-3pm, costs £50), at Nymans, near Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH17 6EB. Tel: 01444 405 250. Visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk. EXHIBITION Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 (owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Worldwide), until 3 March at Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD. Tel: 0207 942 5000. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk. Friday 1 February EXHIBITION The Archaeology…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* SOMETHING FOR NOTHING More than 50 years ago, I was selling photographs on a regular basis and enjoying my hobby immensely. One day I was taking photographs in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh when I met an elderly couple out for a stroll and we started to chat. It turned out that the man had been a freelance photographer for many years and before retiring had been picture editor on a national newspaper. He offered me three pieces of advice that day: always carry a camera; never be afraid to use fillin fl ash; and never give celebrities free photographs as they rarely say thank you. I was apt…

ONE OF the most impressive new features in Photoshop CS6 is the Adaptive Wide Angle filter. This is like a lens-correction filter, but the difference here is that it allows you to make customised perspective corrections that can be determined by adding manual constraint lines to a preview image. The filter is primarily designed for use with single images and, as the name suggests, it is really meant for processing wideangle lens shots. It is particularly useful for editing images shot with a fisheye lens. However, it is also possible to use the new filter to process panorama photos that have been stitched together using the Photomerge feature in Photoshop, although it is essential that such Photomerge images are created using Photoshop CS6 – it won’t work on Photomerges that…

AP publishes more reader photographs than any other photography magazine 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 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 Dave Roberts London Once a watercolour enthusiast,…

Pier end Arturo Canalda Rolleiflex 3.5f, 1/30sec at f/3.5, Kodak T-Max 400 I LIKE this peaceful shot. Looking at it allows me to imagine the tranquil state of mind of our subject. I think we all know what it is like to sit and stare out across the water – it is half the attraction of fishing, after all. Here, Arturo’s hero makes a neat silhouette and a fine dark shadow behind himself, but the definition of his shape is hindered by the fact that his head blends with the shoreline on the other side. This links the pier to the hills, and compresses the apparent distance between them, leaving less space for the fisherman. A change of position would have allowed Arturo to place some space between the man’s…

ONE SIMPLE way to visualise the factors that impact on resolution and sharpness is to consider the point-spread function of each optical, electronic or software step in the imaging chain. The point spread is shown here as the resulting image from the function applied to a point. Imagine trying to paint the image with a paintbrush that gives the pattern shown at each point, and it’s easy to see how the resultant image will be blurred or reduced in contrast and acutance. Below is a point spread for each of the common softening processes in the image chain. For ultra resolution, we need to reduce each point spread function as much as possible. A perfect spot This is what we get if the point is rendered without fault. Lens aberrations…

Full-frame recommendation shireen asks Which full-frame camera would be the easiest to use for an intermediate photographer who last used a 35mm SLR camera? PeteRob replies They are basically the same. The things that have ‘moved’ depends on how old and how sophisticated an SLR you used. The two main changes (which are true for all digital cameras) are variable ISO and white balance. Metering systems have advanced, but the latest film cameras offered evaluative, partial and spot metering, and the same goes for autofocus. I went from a 35mm Canon EOS 50E to an EOS 5D and basically the handling is the same. IvorETower replies I’m tempted to say that they are light years apart. I went from film SLRs to a digital SLR about six years ago. Apart…

THERE is a large selection of entry-level fl ash-head kits on the market to tempt the enthusiast keen to advance from a flashgun set-up, but not wanting to make the leap to hyperspace in terms of cost and complexity. Elinchrom’s D-Lite RX One’s power, at 100Ws, is roughly twice that of a flashgun. Its compatibility with a wide range of reflectors, light shapers and diffusers makes it capable of delivering quality lighting in a wide variety of situations while working in conjunction with your existing flashguns. Peer into any photo studio and you are very likely to see something from the Swiss-designed Elinchrom range, so you will be buying into a system with an illustrious pedigree allowing you to upgrade to more advanced models later, knowing everything will work together…