Innholdsfortegnelse for June 15, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

IN AP 25 MAY WE ASKED... Does camera size matter to you? THE KIND of surprises I like aren’t those that come after I’ve bought something. I like to know exactly what I am buying, and unless I’ve touched, held or have some other intimate knowledge of a product, I hesitate to the point where I might not buy it at all. Ironically, I might buy a book without having physical contact with it first – having only seen the cover - but most other items I would prefer to be better acquainted with beforehand. Cameras and lenses are two groups of products that I really do feel the need to try out before I know whether or not I want them. The weight and balance of a camera is…

● DOCUMENTARY: DOCUMENTS OF CONTEMPORARY ART edited by Julian Stallabrass, £15.95 A collection of essays on documentary in photography, this pleasingly thick book is the sort of thing you can really sink your teeth into. A judicious selection of names from all fields ensures a broad range of perspectives (seeing Daido Moriyama and Jean-Paul Sartre stacked next to each other is a treat). ● MAGLIA ROSA: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY AT THE GIRO D’ITALIA by Herbie Sykes, £25 Herbie Sykes takes readers through 100 years of history of the Giro d’Italia, an annual cycling race held predominantly in Italy. Some good reportage-style photography, often from unknown sources, helps round things out and provides some visual context. ● MICHAEL FREEMAN’S PHOTO SCHOOL: LANDSCAPE by Michael Freeman, £17.99 We’ve been recommending Michael Freeman’s…

BRINGING YOU ESSENTIAL EXPERT ADVICE EVERY WEEK 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 of a teasel is from a series that I took when I was working on my book Home Photography: Inspiration on your Doorstep. The book focuses on how to turn subjects that can usually be found around your own home into creative and beautiful photographs. As well as the teasel shown in this image, I have also created photos using tomato stalks, jasmine stems and the shadows of flowers falling through a window. I picked the…

A CRITICISM that is often levelled against war photography has much to do with how we perceive the ethics of the medium. How acceptable is it to photograph a person’s suffering and aestheticise it? Some would say that a beautiful image detracts from the subject and becomes more about the form. In fact, the cultural critic Mieke Bal condemned the practice with her assertion that beauty distracts and, in worse cases, gives pleasure – ‘a pleasure that is parasitical on the pain of others’. However, Tucker feels differently. ‘If you want your images to have an impact, you better understand how to make an engaging image,’ says Tucker. ‘No one is going to remember a dull picture. A well-composed and beautiful image will stay in the mind long after you’ve…

Beautiful but deadly Paul Beverley Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 100mm macro, five stacked exposures, 1/80sec at f/13, ISO 640 I COULDN’T make up my mind about whether to choose Paul’s shot for this week’s picture of the week, because my decision is not so much based on the picture as it is but the picture as it could be. Paul’s photograph of a small plant pot of miniature Venus flytraps is like an alien landscape – the plants are exotic and I love his choice of a ground-level viewpoint, black background and backlighting. Technically, the decision to combine five separate exposures, each focused at a slightly different point, is great, and the focus stacking helps extend the depth of field, but without destroying the very definite zone of focus…

DATA FILE RRP £229.99 Street price Around £195 Sensor 12.1-million-pixel, 1/2.3in back-illuminated CMOS File format JPEG, movie Lens 4.3-43mm (35mm equivalent 24-240mm), 10x optical zoom Sensitivity ISO 80-6400 Exposure metering Evaluative, centreweighted, spot White balance Auto (including face detection WB), 7 presets LCD 3in PureColor II G LCD with 461,000 dots Focus modes Continuous, off/on Memory card SD, SDHC, SDXC Power Rechargeable Li-Ion battery NB-4L (battery and charger supplied), Optional AC adapter kit ACK-DC60 Weight 144g (including battery and memory card) Dimensions 9.72 x 5.64 x 2.25cm CANON’S Ixus range of highly stylised compact cameras has a justified reputation for high performance in a pocketable package. The Ixus 255 HS, with its 10x optical zoom and 12.1-million-pixel sensor, is designed to continue in that vein. FEATURES Low-light performance is aided…

RRP £549 (body only) Sensor 16.05-million-effective-pixel Live MOS Output size 4608 x 3456 pixels (15.8 million pixels) Focal length mag 2x Lens mount Micro four thirds File format JPEG, RW2 (raw), raw + JPEG, MPO (when attaching 3D lens in micro four thirds-system standard), AVCHD, MPEG-4 Compression 2-stage JPEG Colour space Adobe RGB, sRGB Shutter type Focal-plane shutter Shutter speeds 60-1/4000sec, bulb Max flash sync 1/160sec ISO 160-25,600 Exposure modes Program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual, iA+, 24 scene modes Metering system 1728-zone, multi-pattern sensing system with options for intelligent multiple, centreweighted, spot Exposure comp ±3EV in 1/3 steps White balance Auto, 5 presets, 2 custom, Kelvin, all with fine-tuning White balance bracket 3 frames Drive mode 40fps at 4-million-pixel resolution, 7fps with AF, 4fps with live view, 9 continuous…

As most new cameras are reliant on SD (Secure Digital) memory cards, it’s perhaps worth reminding ourselves of the various types available. The main thing to appreciate is that not all cameras that accept SD cards will accept all three types. Older cameras in particular may not be compatible with the latest versions of the format, even though SD, SDHC and SDXC have the same physical size and shape. SD: This is the original SD card type, which was based on MultiMedia Cards (MMC). It initially offered capacities up to 1GB, but this increased to 4GB (still under the ‘standard’ SD name). As newer versions of the SD standard are backward compatible, these cards will work in any camera that accepts SD cards, although some very early models might not…

News | Analysis | Comment | PhotoDiary 15/6/13 “I will be looking to buy mid to top-end products” Jacobs boss in retail comeback, page 7 End of road for Europe’s largest photo show • Industry reacts SHOCK AS FOCUS SHOW AXED THE DOOR is open for anyone prepared to set up a photography show in the UK after Focus on Imaging, Europe’s largest annual photography event, was axed after 24 years. ‘Mary Walker Exhibitions would like to announce that the 2013 Focus on Imaging exhibition was the last,’ read a statement about the UK-based photo show, which was open to the public and the trade, and pulled in more than half a million visitors. ‘I am certain the time is right for the industry to perhaps find fresh opportunities and…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 8GB media card* LESS IS SOMETIMES MORE It was refreshing to see Andrew Sanderson’s Photo Insight in AP 1 June. Not all photographs need to be pin-sharp and full of contrast to be attractive; consider the work of the greats, from Fenton to Steichen and Penn. Their work was done on early – usually uncoated – lenses of simple design. Modern aspherical lenses are triumphs of their designers’ skills, but the clinical results they produce may be inappropriate in pictorial photography. Here, technical perfection can be obtrusive enough to obscure the real message. Peter McKenzie, Northumberland A remarkable and very true observation – Damien Demolder, Editor LUCKY TO HAVE A LOCAL…

WORKING on the computer, it is possible to edit a colour image post-capture and use the software to determine the best way to convert the colour data into black & white. There are several ways in which this can be done, such as at the raw-editing stage using Camera Raw or Lightroom, or in Photoshop using the Channel Mixer tool. However, a black & white adjustment layer is much easier to work with, and more or less preserves the exposure balance in the image as the individual sliders are adjusted. Extreme adjustments, like the one shown here, can be tricky to pull off successfully. Whenever the blues and cyans are darkened (with the aim of creating greater contrast in the sky), there are two main problems that arise. One is…

Sue Sayer Somerset After Sue’s children grew up and left home, she discovered that she had a great deal more time for photography. The purchase of a second-hand Fujifilm compact led to a bridge camera and then a DSLR, and finally a Canon EOS 6D early this year. A dedicated landscape photographer, Sue loves the sense of community that she finds in meeting other photographers. ‘If you see someone close by with a tripod, they are usually happy to exchange a few words,’ she says. Currently shooting the North Somerset coastline near her home, in the future Sue would love to take her photography to Iceland. To see more of Sue’s images, you can find her on Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsuzy. Walking home 1 An unusually calm day allowed Sue to…

Think Tank Photo Airport Navigator £185 www.snapperstuff.com THINK Tank Photo provides an excellent range of bags for the roaming photographer, and the Airport Navigator rolling case with top and front access pockets is no exception. At 15in (38cm) long and 13in (33cm) wide, the Navigator’s interior is spacious enough to fit two DSLRs with spare lenses and other accessories, and the 41in (104cm) extendable handle ensures that it is comfortable to transport. The interior is quite shallow, though, and if you are packing a lens longer than about 6.5in it will have to be laid flat. Two additional pockets allow for the storage of laptops and tablets up to about 15in in length. The bag includes an additional strap that can be clipped onto metal rings on either side and…

AT A GLANCE ● 16.05-millionpixel Live MOS sensor ● 1.44-million-dot OLED EVF ● 3in free-angle LCD touchscreen ● NFC technology for fast Wi-Ficonnectivity ● Full HD video recording ● ISO 160-12,800 (expandable to ISO 25,600) ● Street price around £549 (body only), £629 with 14-42mm lens FIVE years ago, Panasonic kicked off the compact system camera sector with the launch of the micro four thirds Lumix DMC-G1, and each year since the company has produced an evolutionary successor. Now along comes the Lumix DMC-G6, just eight months after the Lumix DMC-G5, although it will sit above its predecessor rather than replace it. Unlike its micro four thirds partner Olympus, which has produced only one model with an integrated viewfinder in the form of the OM-D E-M5, the G6 is Panasonic’s…

ISO NOISE REDUCTION Q I recently bought a Nikon D800 and would like your advice regarding high ISO noise reduction. Would using the 20-million-pixel (medium) setting, instead of the 36-million-pixel (large) size make any difference to high ISO noise? John Jepps A As you’ve got the camera, the obvious answer is to set up a low-light still-life shot, ideally something with plenty of fine detail in it, and see for yourself. I don’t think you’ll see any noticeable difference, though, as using fewer pixels doesn’t change the signal amplification, and that’s what’s responsible primarily for high ISO noise. Of course, a lot depends on the size at which you view the pictures: an A4 print will always appear less noisy than the same image printed at A3, for example. Chris…

IN THE spring of 1959, an article in Amateur Photographer reported a press conference held by Voigtländer in Braunschweig, West Germany. The event launched both the Bessamatic camera and the remarkable 36-82mm f/2.8 Zoomar, the world’s first zoom lens for a still camera. Important as the Bessamatic was to become, the 36-82mm Zoomar was the big news of the day. Designed by Dr Frank Back of Kilfitt in Munich and first produced by Kilfitt for the new Bessamatic, the Zoomar was also offered with lens mounts for other cameras, notably the Exakta Varex, the Alpa range and an M42 screw mount for the East German Zeiss Ikon Contax S, D, E and F, their Pentacon equivalents, Praktica, Edixa and other M42 SLRs. Most remarkable was the fact that the Zoomar…

Alchemy of Water By Tony Curtis, Grahame Davies, Mari Owen and Carl Ryan. Gomer Press, £19.99, hardback, 96 pages, ISBN 978-1-84851-372-3 FOUR artists collaborate in a mixture of English and Welsh for this book of photographs and poetry celebrating the ability of water to transform the landscape of Wales. A lot of the photography is exactly what you might expect – atmospherically overcast beaches, silky exposures of flowing rivers – but the execution is of a very high standard. Not everyone might be aware of just how good Wales can look, but Mari Owen and Carl Ryan bring out the country’s best qualities. The images are accompanied by short poems – Grahame Smith’s in Welsh and those of Tony Curtis in English – but even without the verses there would…

AN INTERNATIONAL jury has spoken – and their findings revealed in April have created more than polite chatter among photographers in the four entry categories. After scrutinising 54,000 submissions, covering two days of shortlisting and another two for roundtable final discussions, the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards emerged, backed by a telltale comment from the jury chair, who said: ‘So many photographs are made for so many reasons, and so often the simplest are the most powerful.’ There was no secret in the fact that judges were looking beyond those images that followed trends and were focused on the extraordinary. One judge admitted: ‘It’s best to create a trend than follow one. What is most successful is unique and different from the mainstream.’ Trends given the quick thumbs-down…

IMAGES of conflict are the currency of a vast proportion of our contemporary media landscape. Our newspapers and TV screens are awash with ever-shifting montages of war and famine, but without the demand there would be no supply. So, why do we desire such images at all? What is it that we hope to learn from the vivid images of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, or Mathew B Brady’s carefully crafted portrait of Major-General Joseph Hooker? In the introduction to her groundbreaking book War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath, Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator of photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), in Texas, proposes that the images captured by photographers had, and still have, value for countless reasons. These include instruction, keepsake, historical marker, publicity,…

LAST year, on 22 January, the world of photography suffered a tremendous loss as Sir Simon Marsden, Bt, died at the age of 63. A film photographer of great esteem, Marsden was known principally for his skill in the darkroom and his affinity for infrared, both of which contributed to his widely recognised talent for making dreamlike, ghostly images of old buildings and abandoned monuments. His lonely compositions, and interplay of dark shadows and dramatic highlights, create haunting visuals of long-forgotten ruins. Well established in print, too, Marsden published 13 photography books, the most recent of which was published posthumously. Called Russia: A World Apart, this was Marsden’s third collaboration with his long-time friend and professional partner, author Duncan McLaren, who supplied the text. When we got in touch with…

WHEN I was younger, I thought a camera was nothing more than a tool to record my angling antics along the river. Armed with a Kodak 28-shot disposable model, a rucksack and a fishing rod lashed to my bicycle’s crossbar, I was away. Often I frequented the untrodden bankside in search of new places to fish, and found myself in beautiful and picturesque surroundings. Yet turning my camera towards anything other than my smiling face behind a freshly caught fish never crossed my mind. Every shot was a simple, uninspired record of my captures, with all concentration on the subject matter. The images from cheap disposable cameras were never visually exciting, nor were they of good quality. I learned the basics of photography through trial and error at the expense…

FROM an imaging point of view, the Lumix DMC-G6 hasn’t built on the G5 that much. The biggest differences are in the new viewfinder and capacitive touchscreen, and most of all in the new support for Wi-Ficonnectivity. Don’t think of this simply as a convenient, spaghetti-free way of getting images off the camera, or a simpler and quicker way of getting photos onto Facebook and Twitter. It is all these things plus a lot more. Users with a compatible smartphone or tablet running Android or Apple iOS can download and install Panasonic’s free, and rather plainly named, Image App. With Image App, the G6 can be used wirelessly, with access to a surprisingly wide range of camera settings and controls. Remote live view on a smart device screen is the…

Filter system Craig20264 asks I am looking to buy a filter system, and want to use Lee Filters, but at £200 for an adapter, holder and Big Stopper (10-stop ND) it’s an expensive start. Does anyone know if Cokin or Hoya produces its own version of a 10-stop ND filter that costs less? PeteRob replies It depends on the size you need. As you go to wider angles, you need larger filters like Lee as your lenses get bigger. Taxor replies I use Cokin filters and can’t see any difference in image quality between a filtered lens and unfiltered. There is, however, a tendency for the neutral grad filters to have a slight colour cast. However, this is easy to remedy in Photoshop. P_Stoddart replies The only filter I find…

WHAT would happen if Photoshop disappeared tomorrow? This isn’t my own thought. It’s a question from Eli, followed by a muffled belch that sounds sort of like someone opening a Pringles can on the Tube. ‘Well, I suppose people would just use the next best thing. PaintShop Pro? Apple Aperture?’ ‘No, no. I mean, what if, like, all image-editing software disappeared?’ ‘We’d have a lot of pointless raw files filling up our hard drives.’ I shrug my shoulders. ‘Why do you ask?’ ‘No reason, really. I was just thinking about how the compact camera I bought less than a year ago is already out of date. You never know what technology is going to come in the future and what will be made redundant. And then I was surfing the…