Innholdsfortegnelse for February 9, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

IT IS probably old-fashioned to suspect those self-service counters in the supermarket add only the impression of speed to the activity of buying a bottle of Chianti. They rarely wish you a nice weekend or share a joke as they check your age, bleep and spit out the receipt and a coupon for pet insurance. My dry cleaner, on the other hand, is so friendly that I often feel the urge to pop into the shop as I walk past, just to experience his warm greeting – which I am sure would be undiminished even had I nothing for him to clean. We have endless high-speed, convenient methods of buying almost anything, but nothing quite beats a bit of human interaction at the point of sale; a friendly word of…

Conflict and Costume: The Herero Tribe of Namibia By Jim Naughten, Merrell, £30, hardback, 108 pages, ISBN 978-1-8589-4600-9 Like many indigenous African peoples, the Herero tribe of Namibia has been forced to adapt to the repeated incursions by European powers, and nowhere is this more evident than in how they dress. Photographer Jim Naughten journeyed to discover more about these people, and captured their highly individual style with a series of charming portraits. To our eyes, much of the clothing seems bizarre. Patchwork dresses encompass near innumerable styles. Men might wear suits, capes or full military dress finished with coloured cardboard. Naughten places his subjects against the near-featureless Namibian landscape, and whether this makes the portraits seem too uniform or sensibly allows the people and clothes to be the focal…

‘WE ALL want progress but few of us relish change’ is often spoken by those who find comfort in what they know, like and keep. If this outlook were applied over the past five years to digital camera specifications, then it is doubtful we would have moved beyond the much-heralded norms of the day, and they were usually under 10 million pixels. Moves in technology matched by a rising appetite in customer expectations have created massive sales figures from people who did not own a camera previously or used one only infrequently. Witness any public gathering now and you can see more people than ever with raised arms in their informal salute to the digital revolution. Words of praise back then for what are now considered ‘old-hat’ cameras positively teased…

THE END of 2012 also marked the end of another successful year of the RSPCA’s Young Photographer Awards. With the honours presented and prizes handed out, this prestigious prize has now completed its 20th year of rewarding young people for producing excellent photographs that illustrate their love for animals and the natural world. The competition is open to anyone 18 years of age or younger and aims to stimulate interest in wildlife photography and encourage engag The competition was originally set up in 1990 by the RSPCA’s Animal Action team, to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the charity being granted royal status. The awards were intended to be a one-off occasion, but they proved so popular that the RSPCA made the decision to hold them annually. Since then, the competition…

KODAK CAMERA BRAND TO LIVE ON A KODAK-branded interchangeablelens camera, called the S1, will be among a series of products that will be launched as part of a licensing deal the company has struck with manufacturer JK Imaging Ltd. Personalized Imaging and president of Eastman Kodak Company, said the agreement will ‘focus on functionality that can’t be obtained on a smartphone’, at ‘accessible price points’. After filing for bankruptcy protection in the US last year, Eastman Kodak announced plans to axe camera production and stop making consumer inkjet printers. In January, it said it had signed a ‘multi-year’ agreement with JK Imaging, a US-based company, to license the Kodak brand name for products such as digital cameras, pocket video cameras and portable projectors. A compact system camera will be part…

THE NIKON D5200 does not feature built-in Wi-Fi, but is compatible with the WU-1a wireless mobile adapter. This device is tiny – roughly the size of a thumbnail – and attaches into the A/V out port on the side of the body. It is powered by the camera and connects it to a smart device via the (free) wireless mobile adapter utility app. It is compatible with smart devices operating on iOS 5.1 and Android OS 2.3 or later. Once the software is downloaded to the smartphone or tablet, it offers some useful functions. The main menu has four options: use the camera to take pictures; take pictures remotely; share pictures; and download pictures from the camera. Share pictures provides a direct link to social-networking sites for images already downloaded.…

Dismantling a flash Roger_th_B asks I have a Braun 370BVC fl ashgun, but it’s giving me full power on all settings above about 1/16. I suspect that the wiper contacts need a clean, but I can’t get to them. I have got as far as removing the front half of the case, but I cannot see how to remove the circuit boards from the rear half of the case, although I’ve managed to remove the transparent cursor. Has anyone managed to take one of these fl ashes apart? Is there anything that I need to look out for? I would ask Braun, but the company doesn’t make fl ashguns any more. PhilW replies Be very careful when working on fl ashes. As they power-up for a fl ash they are…

Professor Newman explaine... ONE OF the topics that this series of articles returns to often is exposure. Remember that exposure has essentially two elements – one is luminance of the subject, the other is the proportion of that luminance transmitted to the image plane. This is usually expressed as the exposure value, which in turn is determined by the f-number and the shutter speed. Thus, most photographers learn to control exposure by controlling the exposure value. However, another possibility exists, which is to control the luminance of the subject. Generally, the luminance of the subject may be controlled by varying the illuminance – the amount of light shining on it. So, to control this, the photographer must provide a light source of some variety. From fl ash powder at the…

£1M RACE TO SAVE FOX TALBOT ARCHIVE THE RACE is on to find the £1m needed to ensure public access to the treasured personal archive of William Henry Fox Talbot, a collection currently in private hands. The Bodleian Libraries, the main research library at the University of Oxford, says it must raise £1m by the end of next month to meet the £2.2m purchase price required. The Libraries have already been awarded £1.2m by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). The collection is owned by Fox Talbot’s family, but it is now with a dealer in New York who is selling it on their behalf. The archive is the ‘only significant Talbot collection remaining in private hands,’ according to the university. ‘It includes the first book illustrated with photographs, some…

● CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY: 52 MORE WEEKEND PROJECTS by Chris Gatcum, £14.99 AP contributor Chris Gatcum provides a selection of creative projects for the photographer looking to do something a little different. Those with a taste for crafts will enjoy the instructions for making DIY grips and rigs, while film enthusiasts will appreciate some unorthodox processing techniques. ● MICHAEL FREEMAN’S PHOTO SCHOOL: BLACK & WHITE by Michael Freeman, £17.99 Michael Freeman’s Photo School tackles the techniques for conversion as well as the role of black & white in different genres of photography. Freeman not only focuses on how to use black & white but also when it is appropriate to use it, and this makes for an engagingly forthright, sensible book. DAREDEVIL ACROBATICS OF A PIONEERING PHOTOGRAPHER by Kos Evans, £30…

ANDREW SANDERSON A renowned photographer, tutor, author and Ilford Master Printer, Andrew Sanderson offers practical tips on working with film and traditional darkroom techniques If you would like to read more about paper negatives, Andrew’s book Paper Negative Photography is available from www.blurb.com, price £15 THIS image was taken in an area of Manchester near Whitworth Street. Anyone living there will know exactly where this particular photograph was taken. The picture was produced around 20 years ago as part of a series of work about architecture in Manchester. Architectural photography, traditionally, has always been clear, crisp and shot using a large-format camera. Sometimes the image is in black & white and sometimes it’s in colour. The reason you see such vivid images is that the photographs are often produced for…

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 Horia Bogdan Romania As a biologist, Horia Bogdan’s first steps into photography were naturally geared around animals and habitats as a means of furthering his…

Ball heads Twice a month we test of six of the best accessories on the market. Here we take a look at ball heads Gitzo GH1781QR Street price around £240 www.gitzo.co.uk Gitzo heads have a long-established reputation for great quality, and the GH1781QR is built to a high standard. The firm proudly claims a drift angle of less than 0.1% once the head is locked off – which is essential for accurate composition – and in use this appears to be the case with no discernible drop-off. The ball is easily locked by using the large wheel-type knob, although there is no separate friction control. With four spirit bubbles, it is possible to check level shooting from a number of positions. At 350g this is a lightweight head, yet it…

Nikon, 380 Richmond Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. Tel: 0330 123 0932. Website: www.nikon.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 set to f/8 . 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. FOCAL POINTS Connectivity Under the single rubber flap on the side of the camera are four ports: HDMI, A/V out, mic and GPS/remote/Wi-Fi Info button The info button accesses the quick menu, where adjustments to key controls can be made. With limited dedicated buttons on the…

Also known as an anti-aliasing filter, many digital cameras (but not all) have a lowpass filter fitted in front of the sensor. In the past this was largely taken for granted, but it has recently come to the fore a little more as manufacturers such as Nikon and Canon have started ‘experimenting’ with their low-pass filters. Nikon has produced the D800/D800E essentially to give ‘with and without’ options, and Canon has its Digital Lens Optimiser feature that attempts to use software to reduce the filter’s effect. So what does a low-pass filter do? First, it prevents high-frequency light waves from reaching the sensor, effectively capping the amount of detail that passes through from the lens to the sensor. Although this has an obvious effect on image quality, it means the…

A PICTURE, they say, is worth a thousand words. And, as a matter of common experience, a single smell can be worth a thousand pictures. Some aromas, odours or even stenches can take us straight back to a place we have not seen for years or decades – even to places that no longer exist. The right combination of sweet fl owers – jasmine and honeysuckle, I’d guess – can take me back to a Maltese garden in the 1950s; just the right concentration of sun-baked exhaust fumes can evoke Los Angeles, where I’ve not been in a decade; wet pavements in London have their own smell, which is sometimes duplicated elsewhere; New Delhi airport is unforgettable; the list goes on. A few minutes before I wrote these words, though,…

Wednesday 6 February EXHIBITION London Riots Revisited: Photography by Lewis Whyld, until 10 February at The Strand Gallery, London WC2N 6BP. Tel: 0207 839 4942. Visit thestrandgallery. wordpress.com. EXHIBITION of images taken from Shooting Stars project that gave 13 young people the chance to photograph ‘A-List’ events at the Royal Albert Hall. Runs until 8 February at the Chelsea Centre, London SW10 0QS. Tel: 0207 573 3600. Visit www.kcc.ac.uk. Thursday 7 February EXHIBITION Transient by Harriet Clare and Nick Lewin, until 26 February at Margaret Street Gallery, London W1W 8SW. Tel: 0207 323 0140. Visit www.margaretstreetgallery.com. EXHIBITION The Archaeology of a Disaster – The Aftermath of Japan’s 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami, by Dean Chapman, until 16 March at Side Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 3JE. Tel: 0191 232 2208. Visit www.amber-online.com. Friday…

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’LL SECOND THAT EMULSION It is a rare thing indeed, even in AP, to see a reader’s picture submission shot on film rather than digital. So Richard Lee’s mono images taken on an Olympus OM-2N, a Mamiya C330S and a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II (Reader Spotlight, AP 19 January) were a real treat. They were moody, atmospheric and had that undeniable quality unique to film that I’ve often tried, and failed, to replicate with my digital SLR. Not only is there huge satisfaction to be gained from using classic film cameras, but when your love of film photography extends to printing and processing your own work, then the…

Three AP readers join photographer Michael Bosanko in LondonÕs Hyde Park to try their hand at the art of light painting. Oliver Atwell joins them YOU WOULD be forgiven for forgetting what daylight looks like in these bleak winter months. As we grudgingly rise from slumber, we throw open our curtains only to be confronted by a still mist of darkness. It’s not much better as we leave our places of work. We travel home under the blanket of night reminiscing about the good old days when the sun did a full day’s shift. Yet a good photographer is an adaptable photographer, and tonight Michael Bosanko is going to show us exactly what we can do in these frostbitten evening hours. Light painting is, on the surface, simple. You set…

William Lee We’re together Canon EOS 7D, 60mm, 1/200sec at f/8, ISO 100, fl ash THERE is 65mm between the centre of the left and right eyes of the average human being. This space allows each eye to take a slightly different view of the world and, via simple triangulation, estimate distances and coordinate the hands and feet with objects in the world that we need to pick up or kick. This separation also allows us to build a better idea of the construction of the things we look at, and with two offset views we enjoy three-dimensional vision that combines shape, form and depth. However, our 3D vision isn’t always good enough to describe everything we need to know, which is why God gave photographers a sun to create…

Deputy technical editor WHEN Sony announced the inclusion of a 24.3-million-pixel, APS-C-sized CMOS sensor in its Alpha 77 and NEX-7, we anticipated that the likes of Nikon would follow suit. These expectations were met, but somewhat surprisingly via the ‘upper-entry-level’ Nikon D3200 DSLR, rather than an enthusiast-level model like a D7000 or D300S replacement. Neither enthusiast-level model has materialised yet, and instead the 24.2-million-pixel D3200 has been fl ying the fl ag for Nikon’s APS-C models. Now the firm has included a refined version of this sensor in its next model up, the D5200. Nikon insists that the ‘upper entry-level’ D5200 does not replace the D5100, just as the D3200 does not replace the D3100. This being the case, the Nikon DSLR line-up is looking a little crowded. The company…

EVENTS AFTER DARK Q I am planning to go to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo later this year, having been a number of years ago. I took some photographs when I was last there, using a manual film SLR with wide-aperture prime lenses and ISO 400 film, but it was a disaster. The bandsmen’s heads were like white eggs, and I was disappointed and frustrated by the results. When I return, I will probably be using my new Fujifilm X10, so what settings would you advise? I want my shots to turn out well this time! Bill Gunn A Photographing any event after dusk is going to be a challenge, especially when it isn’t really lit with photography in mind, as people whose faces are illuminated are likely to be against…

ON TEST CANON EOS 6D VS NIKON D600 We compare two competing entry-level full-frame DSLRs, from Canon and Nikon, to find out what each offers to those wanting to upgrade NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC We look at National Geographic’s 125 years of exploration, scientific research and photographic firsts NISSIN MG8000 EXTREME FLASHGUN We test a reasonably priced, high-performing fl ashgun and its external power pack HOW TO SHOOT Heather Angel reveals the best techniques for capturing these exquisite plants OLYMPUS PEN CLASSICS TO USE Ivor Matanle traces the history of the half-frame camera that led a revolution in the 1960s…