Innholdsfortegnelse for February 23, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

‘THAT’S a great picture. You must have a really good camera!’ It’s a phrase we’ve all heard, either relayed in complaint form by an irate photographer or, if we are lucky enough, first-hand from an under-informed photo admirer. I describe the admirer as ‘under-informed’ not because your photos shouldn’t be admired (of course they should), but because admirers should know it is the lens that makes the picture, not the camera. My friend Paul likes to say ‘Its not the arrow but the archer’ in situations like these, and of course he is right, but what so many photographers fail to grasp clearly is that lenses are so much more important than cameras. It is wide apertures that allow clean images in low light, not higher ISO settings, and lenses…

Neue Welt By Wolfgang Tillmans Taschen, £27.99, paperback, 216 pages, ISBN 978-3-8365-3974-6 TURNER Prize-winning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has travelled the world to create this book of his work, giving it a feel of travel or documentary photography being put through a fine-art filter. Tillmans’ images of real life have a sharpness and precision to them, one that differs dramatically from his abstract ‘Silver’ series (also included). The photographs aren’t arranged in any particular order and the jumps between styles, from night-time cityscapes to close shots of car headlights, take some getting used to. This is a very different sort of book, and it’s worth warning that if you hold little patience for modern art then it certainly won’t be your cup of tea. This is an unapologetic work of art,…

As much as I admire ex-war photographer Don McCullin’s incredible courage and commitment to his rather unenviable past life, he often appeared as a somewhat unapproachable and morose character. Given the sights he’s seen and recorded, it’s not difficult to imagine the profound effect they’ve had on him, giving him good reason, perhaps, to appear a little grouchy. Yet after watching Michael Parkinson: Masterclass on TV in December last year, in which he interviewed Don, the great man came across as warm and funny with flashes of endearing, self-deprecating humour. He also, incredibly, refuses to see his rather grim past occupation as anything other than that of a photographer who was simply doing his job. Now that’s what I call understatement! A poignant moment was his account of how his…

WHEN did you last venture outdoors with a camera in the rain? Chances are your answer is ‘never’, because of all the weather conditions Mother Nature can throw at us, rain is the least conducive to photography. It gets on our lenses and creates annoying splodges that spoil the shots we take. It tries its best to get inside our camera and wreak havoc with the electronics. Oh, and it leaves us looking like drowned rats. Yet if you make an effort to overcome these minor technicalities, there are great images out there waiting to be captured, especially in the hectic urban landscape. A lens hood will drastically reduce the risk of getting raindrops on your precious lens, while a clear UV filter will protect the front element so you…

YOU WOULDN’T be blamed for not being overly familiar with the name Pentti Sammallahti. Although he has been described as one of Finland’s most noteworthy and prolific documentary photographers, and has worked to great acclaim for more than 40 years, he’s hardly a household name in the UK. He exhibits frequently, in this country and in others, but interviews with him are near-impossible to find, and information about the man behind the photos is thin on the ground. He has released books and monographs of his various photographic explorations, but only now do we get a more substantial retrospective in ink-and-paper form. The book, Here, Far Away, is a retrospective, and it is, befittingly, a thick and beautiful tome with more than 300 photographs that provide a testament to a…

Messenger bags Often stylish and discreet, the singleshoulder ‘messenger’-style bag has become one of the most popular types of camera bag. We look at six of the best Billingham 307 Around £275 www.billingham.co.uk Every Billingham bag is instantly recognisable, and the 307 displays the same traditional styling consistent throughout the Billingham range. It may be the most expensive bag in the group by a long way, but the 307 is made to a high standard, with an exterior made of durable FibreNyte – a lightweight synthetic alternative to canvas. The bag can be carried comfortably using the padded shoulder strap or the large top handle, with the top flap secured by a quick-access buckle. A top zip acts as a secondary seal, and easily glides open. Inside is space for…

PC Most people mean a personal computer when they refer to a PC, but this acronym is also present on the ubiquitous electronic flash connector that is found on many cameras and flashes. PC stands for Prontor-Compur (or Prontor/Compur). The socket is the product of two German companies – Gauthier of Calmbach and F Deckel of Munich. They collaborated to produce a single connection for synchronising a camera and flash that would be compatible with both their products. First seen in the early 1950s, the socket was named after the Prontor and Compur leaf shutters manufactured by the two companies respectively, and by the end of the ’50s the PC socket had become adopted by a number of manufacturers. It wasn’t long before the ‘German socket’ (as it was also…

THERE are many reasons to use film instead of digital imaging. You may simply prefer the look of film. You may already have all the equipment you need for film, and the ongoing cost of film and processing is more bearable than the cost of re-equipping (perhaps several times) with digital cameras, computers, software and printers. Or again, you may enjoy the almost ritualistic processes of loading the film, processing it and printing it. On top of all this, there’s film nostalgia. No matter how good digital gets, film will look (or can look) different. Nowadays, people often try to get around this via a digital original that is processed in order to create effects that, when film was the only option, we regarded as defects. For example, I can’t…

“These days, consumers are more willing to buy a previous model DSLR surge in second-hand¸page7 Jessops to relaunch online • Photo printing service to live on, too JESSOPS WEBSITE RISES FROM ASHES JESSOPS is poised to relaunch its website and has revived its photo-printing and gift business. The news came a month after Britain’s largest photography chain closed its high-street stores. Jessops shut down its remaining 187 shops on 11 January, with the loss of up to around 1,400 jobs, after collapsing into administration two days earlier. ‘The new Jessops website will be launching soon,’ reads a message posted on jessops.com, urging customers to sign up for ‘relaunch updates’. The website adds that the company’s ‘customer database’ is set to be transferred to Jessops Data Limited, a firm based in…

● THE DIGITAL ZONE SYSTEM by Robert Fisher, £30.99 Here, Robert Fisher proposes a method for applying Ansel Adams’ Zone System to digital photography. The book assumes at least a basic familiarity with the exposure technique and this, coupled with the fact that many of the ‘howto’ screengrabs are a little on the small side, means that the less experienced could find themselves getting lost. ● THE SONY ALPHA NEX-7 by Carol F Roullard and Brian Matsumoto, £26.99 Unofficial guides to cameras are hardly rare, but this one for Sony NEX-1 users is generally well done, starting with the auto modes and progressing to full manual control. As with many books of its compact size, sometimes the featured images are too small, but it’s a solid work that inexperienced NEX-7…

THIS image, and the set to which it belongs, forms part of a large archive of pictures that I have been working on for most of my career in television and media. I’m creating an extensive body of work called ‘Let’s Celebrate 365’, where I travel around the world documenting festivals, rituals, ceremonies and celebrations. So far, I have around 20,000 images shot in around 70 countries across five continents. It’s an archive that I’m constantly adding to. So many of the photographs in my archive are taken at rituals and celebrations that are historic. This is particularly relevant because of the political changes that we are seeing throughout the world now, such as the Arab Spring. This makes some regions of the world inaccessible and therefore their rituals may…

WHEN Alexander Jansen started posting images of his deployment in Afghanistan to a Pentax forum, he had no idea what an impact they would have. ‘My motivation was to share my experiences with the friends I’d made on Pentax forums, offering a window into an experience I knew most people will never catch even a glimpse of,’ he says. Worried that his work would get ignored, the accolades and praise have been unexpected. ‘I have been overwhelmed. It’s been a humbling experience and I am grateful for the incredible support that I’ve received as a result of my postings.’ From humble beginnings Born on Halloween 1987 in Miami, Florida, Jansen first picked up a camera at the age of ten. ‘The only photograph I remember taking with it was a…

WHEN 51-year-old Julia Margaret Cameron made the journey from her Isle of Wight home to Collingwood, near Hawkhurst in Kent, to photograph Sir John Herschel in April 1867, it was the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. She held Herschel in high esteem and regarded photographing him as a great honour. ‘He was to me as a Teacher and High Priest,’ she wrote in her 1874 book Annals of my Glass House. ‘From my earliest girlhood I had loved and honoured him, and it was after a friendship of 31 years’ duration that the high task of giving his portrait to the nation was allotted to me.’ Herschel (1792-1871) was one of the most famous people of his age. An accomplished mathematician and an internationally famous astronomer, he was also a…

Let the AP team answer your photographic queries PRODUCING DARK PRINTS Printing was perfect with my Canon Pixma Pro 9500 using Windows 7 Professional and printing from Photoshop CS4 Extended. However, after three months without use I tried printing from CS4 and was shocked to find that my prints were extremely dark. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the print driver, checking and unchecking Disable ICM from the application software, and have disabled the colour-profile setting of the application software, but none of this has made a difference. Can you help? Bill Croall Have you run a print-head test from the printer driver? I’m pretty sure blocked print heads wouldn’t result in dark prints, but it would be good to make sure that you’re firing on all cylinders, so to…

On sale Tuesday 26 February ON TEST We find out how the 16.3MP APS-C-sized sensors of the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Pentax K-5 IIs compare against the Nikon D600’s 24.3MP full-frame sensor APOY ROUND 2 We’ve Panasonic prizes worth more than £2,400 in our Life in Motion round of APOY We test Nikon’s thirdgeneration compact system camera with 14.2-million-pixel sensor and 15fps burst mode TECHNIQUE Andrew Sanderson looks at the intricate art of hand colouring monochrome prints…

Wednesday 20 February EXHIBITION Man Ray Portraits, until 27 May 2013 at National Portrait Gallery, London WC2H OHE. Tel: 0207 306 0055. Visit www.npg.org.uk. 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. Thursday 21 February EXHIBITION A Natural Order by Lucas Foglia, until 8 March at Belfast Exposed, Belfast BT1 2FF. Tel: 0289 023 0965. Visit www.belfastexposed.org. EXHIBITION Borderliners, by Lithuanian photographers Aleksandras Macijauskas and Rimaldas Viksraitis, until 23 March at Ffotogallery, Penarth CF64 3DH. Tel: 0292 070 8870. Visit www.ffotogallery.org. Friday 22 February EXHIBITION Happy-Go Lucky Photojournalism in 20th Century America, until 13 April at Daniel Blau, London N1 6PB. Tel: 0207 831 7998.…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* TO ABSENT FRIENDS With the closure of its remaining 187 stores, it’s time to remember and bid farewell to Jessops. My fondest memory of the firm dates back to around 1988. I was ten years old and shooting on a Nikon FG-20. This was the smallest SLR Nikon has ever made, I believe, but still pretty cumbersome to a child as slight as I was. In those days, it was pretty normal for kids to roam the city centre on their own and, one afternoon, I popped over to Jessops to peer through the window to see if there was anything interesting on display. Something grabbed my eye…

Amateur photographer AWARDS 2013 The job of the Amateur Photographer technical department is to advise the magazine’s readers. Our technical team tests about 250 products every year, some of which impress us and some of which don’t. The most important aspect of our tests is that we do them thoroughly, completely and that we deliver enough information for the potential buyer to make a clear decision about whether or not that camera, lens or accessory is going to match his or her needs. The ultimate recommendation for any piece of camera equipment comes from an Amateur Photographer award. We don’t judge lightly and we ensure that the products that win really do deserve to be held up for everyone to see. And with that AP seal of approval you can…

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 Olly Clarke West Sussex Although he first encountered photography at A level, Olly Clarke found that he didn’t get on with the darkroom and…

Stefan Gorbey Prey Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, 50mm, 1/320sec at f/2, ISO 100 THIS is a pretty impressive moment, of a kookaburra with a poor unfortunate mouse posing perfectly in its beak, and Stefan was lucky to be there at the right time with his camera. That he was using a 50mm lens on a Panasonic micro four thirds body suggests that he was in a zoo of some sort, as getting so close otherwise would be very hard. That it was shot through glass would also explain the flare on the right of the picture – that’s obviously a reflection of something that has become quite a distraction. Shooting through glass always reduces contrast, so my first job was to put the blacks back by bringing up the left-hand slider…

Lens for wildlife Aliceck asks My main interest is wildlife photography. I currently use a Canon EOS 7D with a Sigma 50-500mm for birds and other close-up images. I would like to invest a bit more to get betterquality pictures, but I can’t afford a Canon 500mm prime lens, so my options are: a Sigma 500mm prime; a Canon 300mm with teleconverter; or a Canon 400mm with teleconverter. Which option would be best? I really need the long reach for birds, but I also need fast AF for birds in flight and moving animals. Any ideas? Ianwaite replies I have experience of the two Canon lenses you mention, so I can comment on quality, but the only thing I can say about the Sigma is that it is very expensive…

Deputy technical editor MOST APS-C-format DSLRs, especially consumer models, come packaged with a lens, usually a standard 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. This lens is supposed to be a starting point for those venturing into the world of DSLR photography, so obviously it won’t be the best-quality lens in the manufacturer’s range. With the resolution of APS-C-format DSLRs now reaching 24 million pixels, the limitations and flaws of most kit lenses are becoming more obvious as the high resolutions make large prints possible. Resolution is just one consideration, though. Even in small prints, curvilinear distortion and chromatic aberrations will be evident. Furthermore, wide apertures in premiumlenses can provide camera settings that produce less noise and allow the camera to be used in a wider range of situations. The 18-55mm kit lens does…