Innholdsfortegnelse for April 13, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

DESPITE there being some great products showcased at CES this year, one story dominated conversation – that Jessops had gone out of business. How would the closure of 187 stores affect the 22 companies that supplied them? Throughout the show, the exhibition halls hummed with talk of the company’s collapse, and our many meetings with manufacturers and distributors inevitably turned towards how they would be affected. With the chain now back, at least on some high streets, it can only be good news for manufacturers and distributors in the UK. But what will it mean for photographers? Many felt that Jessops had lost its way in the past few years, but with new chairman Peter Jones roaring that he will win back customers with improved customer service and training for…

BOOK Berlin, Fruchtstrasse on March 27, 1952 By Annett Göschner, Arwed Messmer and Fritz Tiedemann. Hatje Cantz, £35, hardback, 146 pages, ISBN 978-3-7757-3472-1 FOR ONE day in 1952, photographer Fritz Tiedemann was commissioned to photograph a single street in Berlin. The shabby, destitute buildings, still bearing faint scars of the Second World War, were scheduled to be demolished. To Tiedemann, the task may have seemed banal – he was really doing no more than capturing shots of people and buildings on an unremarkable day. However, like all good documentary photography, the passage of time and the forces of perspective have lent these images a certain curiosity. Germany was in a time of great societal upheaval following the devastation wreaked across Europe, and Tiedemann’s carefully constructed images provide an important glimpse…

STUDYING the Icons of Photography feature in AP 23 March, I was momentarily puzzled by one fact. Martine Franck, wife of the legendary Henri Cartier-Bresson, recounted her approach to taking the iconic poolside picture at Le Brusc in Provence. In it she was trying to capture the joy of family and friends relaxing at a new private swimming pool designed by her architect friend Alain Capeilleres. The location was in the South of France, the time around midday and the sun was almost overhead – not ideal conditions for documentary or even social photography, but one that professionals often have to face. Her Leica camera was loaded with Kodak Tri-X (400 ASA) film. To many experienced amateur photographers, Tri-X would seem to be overkill for this bright open-air scene. But…

NEUTRAL DENSITY (ND) FILTERS ND FILTERS are essential for landscape photography. They balance out exposure and capture more detail in your image when the background is lighter than the foreground, or when the sky is too bright compared to the land, and vice versa. Using an ND grad means you avoid under or overexposing different elements of your image. You can expose for the foreground without blowing out the sky, or get a great sky effect without ending up with murky, detail-free foregrounds. Soft grads have a smoother transition from grey to clear, while hard grads are more abrupt. This means soft grads are more forgiving and suitable for shots where there is little distinction between dark and light areas, while hard grads are ideal for scenes with a very…

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 Knock, knock, knockin 1 This HDR image from three exposures gives the building a stylish look Samsung…

Deputy technical editor THE D7100 is described by Nikon as its best DX-format DSLR to date. With its APS-C-sized sensor, the camera sits in the company’s consumer-level DSLR range, above the D7000 (priced at around £400 less), while the other weather-sealed DXformat D300S is now in limited supply. A 24.1-million-pixel sensor chip is now used in most of Nikon’s latest DX-format (APS-C) DSLRs, including the lower-end D3200 and D5200. While the D7100 has the same resolution, there is a key difference to its sensor: the anti-aliasing filter, also known as the low-pass filter, has been removed. The only other Nikon DSLR with a similar set-up is the D800E, whose sensor still has the filter fitted but its antialiasing effect is cancelled out. The removal of this filter is fast becoming…

AT FIRST glance, HMI (halogen, mercury, iodine) lighting may appear identical to the tungsten spotlights that adorned photographic studios long before electronic flash was invented. However, it is the daylight colour balance of HMI lights that makes them such an exiting development. BUILD AND HANDLING At the heart of the Hedler DF15 and DX15 lighting heads is a 150W metal-halogen lamp that produces a continuous light output power equivalent to a 650W conventional tungsten halogen light. HMI lighting has long been the staple of the film industry and high-end fashion photographers, with enormous ballast packs residing next to the lighting stand and the electronics providing flicker-free daylight illumination. In the case of the DF15 and DX15 lights, Hedler has incorporated the ballast into the lamp-head casing, making them unusually compact…

Your camera’s viewfinder plays an important role in your photography – after all, this is how you view a scene and frame your pictures. However, not all viewfinders are equal, and the coverage they offer varies between camera makes and models. The coverage is simply the amount of what is seen through the viewfinder that will be recorded on the film or sensor. So 100% coverage means you’re seeing the same thing through the viewfinder as will be recorded, while 95% coverage means that the sensor (or film) will record an additional 5% around the edges that you can’t see. As a general rule, the greater the coverage, the better, because it means you can frame your shots more accurately, without branches, people or any other distracting elements appearing at…

DEVOTEES of costume dramas set in country houses – among whom I do not number myself, but such programmes are all but impossible to ignore – will be familiar with the dilemma, when the need for economies presents itself, of dispensing with the services of either an under-footman or an under-chambermaid. There is a similar conundrum when it comes to dispensing with cameras. After all, film cameras are worth next to nothing nowadays – not even the annual wages of an under-chambermaid – so on the grounds of expense alone, there is little to be said for getting rid of them. On the other hand, the under-chambermaid may fall in love with the footman, or even attract the roving eye of the rakish Lord Whomsoever, and all of this may…

ENTREPRENEUR Peter Jones, the new owner of Jessops, has confirmed plans to reopen up to nearly 50 stores. The planned revival of the 78-year-old retailer is expected to create up to 500 jobs. Most will go to former employees of Jessops, which closed all its 187 shops after hitting the buffers in January. In an interview with AP on 28 March, Jones said he plans to open a store a day during April and hinted at the eventual reopening of a quarter of the chain’s outlets as they come within his grasp. He has already spent £4 million on revamping Jessops branches. The first six shops opened over the Easter weekend at Oxford Street in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Aberdeen, High Wycombe and St Albans. Jones, who has pledged to match…

● THE GATHERING OF THE JUGGALOS by Daniel Cronin, £24.99 Juggalos are people defined by their fandom of the group ‘Insane Clown Posse’, and characterised by their penchant for clown make-up and similar apparel. Daniel Cronin follows them annually to their US festival, where he took the images in this book. He has captured some bizarre moments, although more candid and fewer posed shots might have caught a more natural view of the community. ● AFTERIMAGE by Renata Buziak, £21 Renata Buziak uses a combination of photographic print techniques and botanical expertise to create her intriguing images of decaying plants. This monograph showcases her work on this subject, in which the patterns and colours created by molecular processes, viewed up close, become something altogether more surreal. ● THROUGH COLORS by…

I AM ALWAYS on the lookout for interesting subjects for my still-life photographs. As I work exclusively in monochrome, this is particularly important because black & white can bring out the graphic shapes and tones of a subject. I’ve been reading a lot about the American photographer Edward Weston recently. He talked a lot about natural shapes and forms, such as shells, mushrooms and peppers, and it’s been a common theme to address these subjects throughout photography’s history. I had wanted to shoot these seedpods from a Chinese lantern (Physalis alkekengi) for ages, and I finally got around to it one afternoon when I had some spare time. The first thing I had to decide was whether to shoot just one seedpod or shoot a bunch of them in a…

THERE are several different software packages to help create panoramas, but for this Masterclass we’re using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Lightroom enables you to batchprocess your images so you can get the same look and feel in a group of shots. This is vital when you’re stitching together a panorama, which, by definition, needs to have the same exposure and colour treatment across its entire length. It’s also a non-destructive process, Tom explains, which means you still retain the original image straight out of your camera. When you’ve edited your images in Lightroom, open Photoshop and select File>Automate>Photomerge. Click on Browse to select the images you want to blend, then click OK. Now in the layout section, choose your layout style (Auto works well in most situations), then tick Blend…

PICTURE OF THE WEEK David Dalziel Exploring the city Nikon D7000, 11-16 mm, 1/8sec at f/16, ISO 100 THERE’S a lot to like about David’s monochrome study of the Forth Bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, but most of it stems from his choice of viewpoint and timing. The viewpoint largely dictates the composition with large immovable subjects such as this, while deciding when to photograph determines the light and weather conditions of the shot. In this instance, the viewpoint and weather have conspired to produce ‘perfect’ conditions, with a dramatic composition that shows the bridge melting into a distant fog that not only conceals the potentially distracting distant shoreline, but also adds a strong sense of mystery. Like the bridge itself, the composition relies…

WHILE Nikon’s D5200 and D3200 also use a 24.1-million-pixel sensor, the absence of an anti-aliasing filter in the D7100 should mean that images from this camera will be sharper. I was intrigued to see just how much of a difference the removal of the filter makes, so I have recorded the same scene using the D7100 and D3200 to find out. Each camera is set to the same exposure settings and uses the same 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lens. When the two like-for-like images are viewed at 100%, there is a difference in fine detail. The D7100 is able to reproduce that little bit extra, with edges showing greater contrast and clarity. Display the images at 50% size and it is more difficult to tell them apart. So, those who are…

ALTERNATIVE CHOICE Q I have been an amateur photographer for some 30 years and have owned many compact and SLR cameras. My wife bought me a Canon EOS 600D camera with an 18-55mm IS II lens for Christmas, so I decided to buy a new Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom as well. However, in the camera shop I was told that the Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD IF macro was a better option. They both cost similar amounts, so which lens would be the best buy? Leon Symonds A I think the differences between these two lenses are so slight that it’s hard to separate them. The Tamron has a slightly longer reach, with its 270mm telephoto setting, which gives it a little extra versatility, but AP’s…

SPECIAL ISSSUE IMAGE NOISE What it is and how to get rid of it NOISE EXPLAINED Professor Bob Newman tells us what causes image noise SHOOTING ADVICE How to expose images and set up your camera to keep noise at bay NOISE-REDUCTION SOFTWARE Six of the best on test SOFTWARE TOOLS Learn how to use noise-reduction software effectively THE SKY AT NIGHT How to capture the night sky with the kit you already have NIGHT VISION Steve Sharp explains how to take great images in low-light conditions 13 April 2013 I www.amateurphotographer.co…

Wednesday 10 April EXHIBITION Environmental Photographer of the Year, until 3 May at the Royal Geographical Society, London SW7 2AR. Tel: 0207 591 3000. Visit www.epoty.org. EXHIBITION Forest Form (landscape photography) by David Anthony Hall, until 12 May at Stone Theatre Gallery, London SE1 7DR. Tel: 0207 021 0020. Visit www.stonetheatre.com. Thursday 11 April EXHIBITION Landmark: The Fields of Photography, contemporary works, until 28 April at Somerset House, London WC2R 1LA. Tel: 0207 845 4600. Visit www.somersethouse.org.uk. EXHIBITION Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East, until 21 July at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh EH8 8DX. Tel: 0131 366 5100. Visit www.royalcollection.org.uk. Friday 12 April DON’T MISS Seeing Photographically, a workshop by Paul Hill MBE and Maria Falconer FRPS (residential £395; non-residential £210) at Zinc Arts…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 4GB media card* IN PRAISE OF THE BRIDGE I have just returned to photography after an absence of quite a few years, which was caused mainly by the high cost of having 35mm film developed. I asked around to find out the difference between a compact system camera and a compact, how many pixels I should opt for, and so on. I read magazines, looked online and was a bit put off. The compacts/CSCs looked more like cigarette packets with a cotton reel stuck on the front and didn’t appeal to me one bit. I like a camera to look and feel like a (35mm SLR) camera. Then I saw advert…

Pan-stitched images are an imaginative and eye-catching way to capture a sweeping landscape using everyday optics. Tom Mackie shows three AP readers how to do it in the Peak District. Gill Mullins peers through the mist to report… BACK in the days of film, to do sweeping landscapes justice generally meant using a 6x17cm panoramic camera. These days we can edit images in our digital darkrooms to create panoramic effects – and that’s the theme of this month’s Masterclass. The idea is to play around with different focal lengths, including telephoto and wideangle, and stitch them together in post-production. Our expert, Tom Mackie, explains the basics to our three readers – Sara, Cheryl and John – when we meet up in the car park overlooking the Headstone Viaduct at Monsal…

LAUNCHED in 2008, the Sony World Photography Awards have become a must-see photographic event. Every year the competition aims to discover fresh talent in the world of photography and moving image, and is open to both amateurs and professionals. The competition is divided into a range of categories, all of which are suited to beginners as well as more experienced photographers. Subjects include action, travel, split second, panoramic and even smile. Each year, juries selected from the World Photographic Academy and wider global industry judge the competitions. This year, one of the judges was AP Editor Damien Demolder, who was tasked with a daunting job of helping narrow the thousands of entries down into a manageable shortlist. ‘When the WPO started this competition, the emphasis was supposed to be on…

360 Panorama £0.62 (Android), £0.69 (iPhone) www.occipital.com This app provides a gridbased canvas onto which the user lays their panorama. Tap the shoot button when in the ‘start’ position, and then tap the screen at regular intervals to stitch the shot together. The stitching is intuitive and works well – it’s important to keep the camera level and to smooth over the edges in order to create a seamless image, but the grid makes this easy to accomplish. The iPhone version of this app works very smoothly, and it is recommended for iOS users. Be aware, though, that the Android port we tested was very ‘buggy’ and prone to freezing. Lapse It Pro Edition £1.99 (Android), £1.49 (iPhone) www.lapseit.com Although other apps such as ZoomFX do offer time-lapse functionality, the…

FOCAL POINTS Drive-mode dial The key drive modes are accessed here and include single, continuous high and low, quiet, mirror up and self-timer. The wheel is locked with a catch and can be a little fiddly to release and turn with one hand Connectivity Under three rubber doors are connections for an external microphone, headphone jack, mini USB, HDMI and a port for a GPS unit i menu The i button brings up the same display as the info button, but this option acts as a quick menu for the user to make changes to functions such as crop mode and the customisation of some buttons. This leaves the info button somewhat surplus to requirements Built-in flash The built-in pop-up flash has a GN of 12m @ ISO 100, and…

almac7 asks I need a flash with my Nikon D7000 as I’m photographing a family wedding (as a secondary photographer – there is also a professional). I don’t normally use flash, but I want one for the wedding that is fairly cheap and includes TTL control. Can you advise? IvorETower replies Spend about £210 on a Nikon Speedlight SB-700. Nikon’s creative lighting (flash) system is reputedly the best: an independent brand’s gun will cost you £130-£160, but it really is worth paying the extra. I bought an SB-600 when I got my Nikon D80 about seven years ago and I don’t regret paying the extra for a genuine Nikon flash, even if it is rarely used. beatnik69 replies Another vote for the SB-700 from a D7000 owner. It really is…

PENTAX may be renowned for its competitively specified DSLRs and a slew of high-quality optics, but until recently the company didn’t appear to show any interest in enthusiast compact cameras. Now, though, with the decline in popularity of budget compact cameras, it joins practically every other major manufacturer in providing such a model – and one fit to rival the likes of Panasonic’s LX series. The Pentax MX-1 is, in many respects, a predictable model, with retro styling and a specification list that is similar to a number of its peers. With a large sensor, wide-aperture lens and raw shooting, it seems certain to appeal to discerning DSLR owners looking for a lightweight alternative. Yet, with no viewfinder, and no hotshoe in which to place one, it’s likely to polarise…