Innholdsfortegnelse for May 18, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

IF YOU were to find a £20 note blowing along an empty street, it’s unlikely you’d be able to trace its rightful owner. You might knock on all the doors in that street, but you would have to be very trusting to hand it over to anyone who claimed it was theirs. You might consider it quite OK, rather than to leave it, to put it in your pocket, determining yourself as the new owner. Telling one £20 note from another only makes finding an owner more difficult. Photographs, on the other hand, tend to have particular characteristics that set one apart from the other. And they always belong to someone who could, if asked, demonstrate ownership by presenting the original file or by a detailed knowledge of the circumstances…

HOT ON the heels of the Lumix DMCGF6, which was announced just a few weeks ago, comes the next in Panasonic’s enthusiast line of G-series cameras, the Lumix DMC-G6. Like its predecessors, the G6 has an SLR-style design, compared to the more compact design of the GF6. Despite the differences in their body shapes, the two cameras have a lot in common, including new Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and Wi-Ficapabilities. SENSOR One of the important things to note about the Lumix DMC-G6 is that its 16.05-million-pixel, four thirds CMOS sensor is not the same as the 16-millionpixel sensor used in the GF6. Instead, the G6 sensor is actually the same as that housed in the Lumix DMC-GH2. Just as Panasonic settled on using a variety of 12-million-pixel sensors a…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 8GB media card* TOO BIG FOR ITS BOOTS If ever a camera maker is guilty of believing its own publicity it’s Lomo. As Chris Gatcum said in his review of the Lomo Belair X 6-12 Jetsetter (AP 4 May), the launch of a new film camera is cause for excitement. But his write-up of this one resulted in a dismal two-star rating. We know Lomo flaws are what users love, but isn’t the Jetsetter’s inability to focus at infinity a step too far even for the staunchest devotee? And whether such a gaffe-prone camera that allows a paltry four shots per roll is acceptable (even for Lomo) is debatable. The camera’s…

THE CAMERA Raw and Lightroom Lens Corrections controls have made some significant advances in the last year or so, ever since the release of Camera Raw 7.1 and Lightroom 4.1. This saw some additions to the Lens Corrections panel, which now contains Defringe sliders designed to fix axial (longitudinal) chromatic aberration. This type of chromatic aberration can be caused due to ghosting, lens flare, charge leakage (which affects some CCD sensors) as well as color aberrations. Unlike lateral chromatic aberration (which occurs towards the edges of the frame), this type of aberration can appear anywhere in an image. It particularly affects fast, wide aperture lenses and is typically most noticeable when shooting at the widest lens apertures, where fringes will usually be at their most visible just in front of…

Renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, ‘The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.’ Buildings play such an integral part of our lives. We live and work in them, but when it comes to photographing them, often little thought goes into capturing the intention of the architect, resulting in a picture that is merely nothing more than a record shot. Photographing a building is just like making a portrait of a person. You need to consider the best angle, and the correct quality and position of light that will portray that person’s features in the best light. In this feature, I’ll show you the technical aspects of capturing buildings to create dramatic architectural images. LIGHTING In any facet…

1 In this first image of the Taj Mahal, I used a 24mm focal length, which makes the minarets appear to be falling over. Open the image in Photoshop and enlarge your window to give room to work on the image. 2 Press Cmd+A to select the image. Go to Edit> Transform>Perspective, then press Cmd+quote key to show a grid over the image. Pull the corner anchors out to straighten the verticals. 3 The last step will have shortened the height of the building a little, so select Edit>Transform>Distort and pull up the top centre anchor point to bring the height back to normal. 4 Press Enter to confirm the changes, then Cmd+D to deselect, before saving your final image.…

AlanClifford asks I bought a Fuji SS-120N underwater strobe kit. The instructions say, ‘Do not use rechargeable batteries’. I find this strange as I thought NiMH batteries were particularly good for flashguns as they cope very well with the high current demand and recover quickly. Does anyone know why I can’t use them? DaveM399 replies Maybe it’s to do with voltage. Regular alkaline batteries give 1.5V, whereas rechargeables only deliver 1.2V. For a bit of kit using, say, four cells, it’s the difference between 6V and 4.8V, which may mean the item does not work correctly or does not work at all. Bob Maddison replies Agreed. In fact, some devices allow you to specify which type of battery you are using. Another reason is that many rechargeable batteries are capable…

VIEWFINDERS are often sought after on enthusiast compacts, and this has clearly been recognised by Fujifilm, which leads with this feature on its website before describing other core aspects, such as its sensor and lens. But while the X20’s viewfinder shares it basic specifications with that in the X10 – namely an 85% coverage, dioptre adjustment from -3.5 to +1.5m and zooming in tandem with the lens – it’s the incorporation of a new Digital Trans Panel that makes the X20’s viewfinder significantly more useful than before. The panel, which is said to be less than 1mm thick, displays a considerable amount of shooting information, much in the same way as an EVF. Basic shooting information such as aperture, shutter speed, exposure mode and ISO lines the bottom of the…

WHEN someone who normally used a 35mm SLR with a waist-level viewfinder – a Nikon F, perhaps, or an Exakta – first held a 6x6cm Hasselblad or Bronica rollfilm SLR camera, the camera and its focusing screen seemed huge. Only when you had compared the results from a top-quality rollfilm SLR with those from a 35mm SLR did you realise what you were missing. It was not just the results, it was the whole experience. So imagine how it would have felt when a photographer in the mid-1950s, accustomed to using a Hasselblad 1000F, or a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex, to create 21∕4in square negatives, first used a Rittreck IIa – a 6x9cm Japanese SLR, using either sheet film or 120 rollfilm, with interchangeable lenses and a multi-format rollfilm back. With…

“Eisenstaedt loved the camera so much that he used it 50 years later for his last ever photo shoot” Page 6 OLYMPUS’S retro crusade looks set to continue with the classically styled Pen E-P5. The soon-to-be-launched compact system camera (CSC) aims to ‘pay homage’ to what the firm lauds as a 1960s collectors item, the Pen F. Due out at the end of June, the E-P5 features a 16-million-pixel TruePic VI Live MOS imaging sensor and a claimed top shutter speed of 1/8000sec – trumpeted as a world first for a CSC. It also incorporates Wi-Ficonnectivity, for sharing images online and to allow photographers to control camera functions such as shutter speed and AF remotely via an Apple or Android smartphone. ‘To mark the 50th anniversary of the famous Pen…

Found Photography Photofile, various Thames & Hudson, £9.95, paperback, 188 pages, ISBN 978-0-500-41107-0 FOUND photography refers to the practice of recovering and presenting unattributed images from years gone by, with little to nothing known about the photographer or subject. This selection of photographs, taken around the turn of the 20th century, is from the Thames & Hudson Photofile series, and features a succession of moments – humorous, absurd, or frankly bizarre – made all the more charming by lack of context. A young boy attempting to put his arm around an elephant, for instance, tells enough of a story by itself that knowing the real story feels unnecessary. You’ll find this is frequently the case when leafing through this collection. lejournaldelaphotographie.com IF YOU like your photography updates regular and frequent,…

ONLINE, the multiple opinions about the performance of camera lenses seem to be an easy way of spreading personal discontent or derision. And for what purpose, you may well ask? Not every photographer needs to have graphs or elaborate tests to be convinced of the virtues offered by a favoured piece of glass. It definitely helps to know if a lens can perform to meet defined expectations, especially if the asking price is in the eye-watering category as an investment for professional use. When you look lower at situations in everyday-budget circumstances, shoppers are hit with some nit-picking test reviews stacked in Premier League fashion. Of course, real photography in the real world is different. We know all lenses have a sweet spot, usually a couple of stops down from…

Two AP readers join wildlife photographer Luke Massey at the Wildwood Trust in Kent to practise their portrait techniques on native animals. Gill Mullins reports LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS SET IN 40 acres of ancient forest, the Wildwood Trust in Kent is a wildlife enthusiast’s dream, home to over 300 native animals from 50 species – many of which are endangered and some of which no longer exist in the wild in the UK – including deer, foxes, lynx, badgers, beavers, wolves, wild boar, horses, bison, wildcats and owls. So what better location could we have chosen for the AP Wildlife Masterclass, to explore how to capture a wide range of British wildlife and discover creative animalportrait techniques? As our expert, Luke Massey, says, with this much variety on offer…

DESPITE what some overzealous security guards and police officers may tell you, or even seem to believe, there is no law against photographers taking pictures in a public place. What this means for architectural photography is that, as long as you’re standing on public land, you are entitled to take pictures of privately owned buildings*. While it can be difficult to distinguish between what is publically and privately owned, as a rule of thumb you can assume that footpaths, pavements and roads are public property. Stand Your Ground, the London Festival of Photography’s ongoing campaign for photographers’ rights, says to watch out for plaques stating to whom land belongs, and also for metal rails through the pavement, which indicate that the area of pavement between the rails and road is…

Velbon DF-41 Tripod Around £25 www.velbon.co.uk, or call 01628 674 411 WEIGHING just 1.15kg, this aluminium tripod from Velbon is a lightweight, entry-level option for photographers who would prioritise portability over durability. The DF-41 reaches 114cm high when fully extended and includes a three-way pan head with a quick-release plate. The plate locks in place via a clip, though I would have liked this to have been a little more secure – at one point during an adjustment, I noticed that the clip had worked itself slightly loose, potentially putting the camera at risk. The lightweight build does mean the whole thing feels a little fragile, and the thin legs are also capable of bending slightly, meaning a small knock can be enough to alter the angle of shooting. However…

COLOURED COUPLERS Coloured couplers are essential in making sure that colour is recorded accurately with negative film. The reason they’re needed is because the cyan, magenta and yellow dyes that are used in colour negative film to create colour should, theoretically, control only one colour (cyan should control red, magenta should control green and yellow should control blue). However, the reality is slightly different, and the magenta and cyan dyes used are not this theoretical ideal (and nor is the yellow dye, although it is close enough). As a result, the magenta dye typically transmits more blue than it should and the cyan dye transmits more yellow. To counter this, two coloured couplers (or ‘masks’) are added to the film: a yellow mask is added to the magenta layer to…

FUJIFILM, Unit 10A, St Martin’s Business Centre, St Martin’s Way, Bedford, MK42 0LF. Tel: 01234 572 000. www.fujifilm.co.uk RESOLUTION & NOISE These images show 72ppi (100% on a computer screen) sections of images of a resolution chart, captured with the lens set to around 50mm (equivalent) and f/5.6 . 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. The ‘low’ noise reduction has removed the faint cast of chroma noise in this image, but has also removed fine details FOCAL POINTS Viewfinder The X20’s optical viewfinder provides 85% coverage and has a sensor at its rear that can be used…

SOMEONE once quipped that the hardest part of pursuing any creative endeavour is negotiating the gap between your exquisite taste in a genre that motivated you to pursue your endeavour, and the ability to produce work to that standard. For me, it was the great street photographers of the last century. The Cartier-Bressons, the Robert Franks, Walker Evans, who motivated me to pick up a camera. But still, to this day, when I look at my own images and know what it was that I wanted to capture, I shudder just a little at their inadequacy. And this doesn’t stem from vanity. I’m a [cough]-year-old man; I’ve got no vanity left. I don’t ever expect to be as good as any of the photographers I admire, but because I know…

Wednesday 15 May EXHIBITION Urban Quilimbo by Sebastian Liste, until 16 June at Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff CF10 5AD (part of ‘Diffusion’ festival). Visit www.thirdfloorgallery.com. EXHIBITION Man Ray Portraits, until 27 May at National Portrait Gallery, London WC2H OHE. Tel: 0207 306 0055. Visit www.npg.org.uk. Thursday 16 May EXHIBITION Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography, until 7 July at Belfast Exposed, Belfast BT1 2FF. Tel: 028 9023 0965. Visit www.belfastexposed.org. EXHIBITION The Urban Eye by Charlie Phillips, until 6 July at New Art Exchange, Nottingham NG7 6BE. Tel: 0115 924 8630. Visit www.thenewartexchange.org.uk/. Friday 17 May EXHIBITION Look/13: Liverpool International Photography Festival until 15 June at venues throughout the city. Tel: 0151 242 1133. Visit www.lookphotofestival.com. DON’T MISS Photojournalism Workshops with Jon Nicholson, until 19th May (9.30am-5pm, cost £75) at…

● BUILD YOUR OWN PINHOLE CAMERAS by Justin Quinnell and Josh Buczynski, £8.99 Justin Quinnell passes on his techniques in this crafty book on how to make pinhole cameras, whether by converting a DSLR or building from scratch Blue Peter-style – with card, paper and glue. There is an abundance of tips for getting the most out of your pinhole creation, and Quinnell’s writing is lively and entertaining. ● THE BEATLES IN PICTURES edited by George Lewis, £7.99 Almost 300 photographs chart the history of The Beatles, from childhood beginnings in the 1950s to the closing ceremony of last year’s Olympics. Taken from the Mirror Group’s ‘Mirrorpix’ archives of press photos, the photos here run the gamut from iconic publicity shots to pleasingly candid images from the later years. ●…

BRINGING YOU ESSENTIAL EXPERT ADVICE EVERY WEEK DAVID WARD David Ward is one of the UK’s finest landscape photographers. With more than 20 years’ experience in largeformat photography, he has photographed extensively throughout the UK and in countries such as Canada, Iceland, Norway and France. He has also led workshops for Light & Land. David has written two books on his photographic philosophy called Landscape Within and Landscape Beyond. Each month, he will discuss the story behind one of his fantastic landscape photographs To see more of David’s images or to book a place on one of his workshops, visit www.into-the-light.com I’LL TELL you straight away – it’s not kelp. It’s not even seaweed! It’s actually rubber. The reason I photographed it was because it looked like kelp, it’s an…

Dave Rowling North Yorkshire Dave first became inspired by photography in 1963 after seeing pictures of The Beatles in NME magazine. ‘I then used my friends to stage similar photographs with my first camera,’ he says. Further studies honed Dave’s craft, and he now enjoys taking pictures of military fortifications and dramatic landscapes. What Dave loves about photography is how easily it can take over a person’s life: ‘It can be all-consuming, involving the technical challenges of new equipment and the constant creative demand,’ he says. In the future, Dave simply hopes to continue to make impressive images. 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…

ARCHITECTURE at night takes on a very different look in contrast to buildings captured in daylight. Mixed lighting sources can transform buildings into colourful works of art. Distracting elements such as cranes, power lines and street signs melt away into the night, leaving the illuminated buildings to stand out. Here are a few tips to help you create some stunning night images: ● Use a tripod Shooting at night will require long exposures, so you will need to use a tripod and preferably a cable release. If you don’t have cable release, use the self-timer. It’s also a good idea to use the mirror lock-up function to reduce camera shake caused by the mirror as it flips up. ● Control the ISO: As you’re using a tripod, keep the ISO…

LENS TECHNOLOGY Q I often see the comment that fixedlens cameras have an advantage when it comes to avoiding the exposure of the sensor to dust, and that prime lenses often outperform zooms, but now Fujifilm provides an alternative focal length on a fixedlens, fixed-focal-length camera through the use of attachable extra elements via its wide conversion lens for the X100. Having minimal optical knowledge, is it possible to use this philosophy for a range of alternative element sets, yielding a useful variety of lenses based on a fixed common prime lens? A Kodak and Leica both felt that this idea had validity, as did Nikon and Zeiss-Ikon. In the 1950s, Kodak’s Retina IIc/IIIc (and, later, the Retina Reflex), as well as Zeiss-Ikon’s Contaflex III, allowed the front lens-element unit…

MANUFACTURERS have long offered digital cameras inspired by analogue models, although the past few years have seen something of a retrorenaissance take place. Classic styling has evolved into a characteristic of the enthusiast compact design, and today’s models vary between those with little more than classic accents such as aperture rings, and others that at first glance could easily be mistaken for film cameras. Fujifilm’s X-series of compacts and compact system cameras fall firmly into the second camp. While it is safe to assume that it’s the authentic analogue stylings of the company’s cameras that has made them so aspirational, this has been matched by a number of interesting developments on their insides, not least the unconventional sensor technologies Fujifilm has long incorporated into its cameras. The company’s latest X20…

SONY may not have been quite as prolific as Panasonic or Olympus with its compact system camera offerings, but the company has still managed to develop a system that appeals to novices as much as it does enthusiasts. While the SLT models at the higher end of the range have highresolution sensors, excellent electronic viewfinders and DSLR-like operation to recommend them, at the other extreme Sony has focused on squeezing a raft of clever functionality into the simple, compact bodies largely devoid of physical controls that make up its NEX range. The model that until now sat at the bottom of this range, the NEX-F3, was something of a departure, with its bulky body making it decidedly less compact than some may have liked. Yet now, Sony appears to have…