Innholdsfortegnelse for June 29, 2013 i Amateur Photographer

IN AP 8 JUNE WE ASKED… Is your photography stuck in a rut? IT’S ONLY natural, I suppose, to want more than we actually need. It probably comes from some survival instinct that makes us save, store and load up the cave to get us through long winters. Maybe some of us have more camera kit than we really need, or better camera kit than we really make use of. We strive to achieve the best we can, but sometimes don’t understand every step on the path we think will get us there. I almost always capture raw and JPEG files simultaneously. Initially, I did this because I am a coward. I hoped to be able to enjoy the convenience of the JPEG while being able to relax a little…

Genesis By Sebastião Salgado Taschen, £44.99, hardback, 520 pages, ISBN 978-3-8365-3872-5 FAIR warning – the weight of this hefty hardback may test the resilience of most ordinary coffee tables. It would be a shame if it did end up destroying anyone’s furniture, because it’s really rather good. Coming off the back of the exhibition of the same name showing at the Natural History Museum until 8 September, this collection of landscape and nature photography by Sebastião Salgado is described as his ‘love letter’ to the Earth. If so, the Earth should be swooning – Salgado’s stately compositions and practised hand at photographing various subjects, from small reptile skin details to wide shots of the crests of great mountains, make the book a thing of wonder. For a souvenir more solid…

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 I TOOK the black & white image (right) while I was working on my book Home Photography: Inspiration on your Doorstep., At that time, I was doing a lot of simple observations around the house. I had set up my MPP 5x4in camera and was photographing the circular breadboard you can see in this set-up. I did some shots with various kitchen utensils placed on it, trying cheese graters, sieves and other objects, to see what would work…

Photojournalists are widely admired for their skill and bravery in reporting on wars, natural disasters and other life-threatening situations, but the market for their work has declined in recent decades. Newspapers and magazines are reluctant to commission photographers to report on serious issues when lighter, often celebrity-driven content sells more copies. However, despite the reduced opportunities, there is lots of good news work being done by determined photojournalists who often put their lives on the line to report on events. One of the most successful and prolific photojournalists working today is the 47-year-old Italian Riccardo Venturi. His 25-year career has included coverage of a wide range of news events, from wars in Afghanistan and Kosovo to ongoing stories about medical or social issues. However, rather than working on lots of…

SONY’S high-end travel compact cameras have impressed us over the past few years. In 2012, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V won AP’s Consumer Compact Camera of the Year award, while the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX20V won the same award in 2013. The latest version, the Cyber-shot DSC-HX50, shares a number of features with its predecessor, the HX30, but it has also inherited some of its characteristics from Sony’s premium compact camera, the Sony Cybershot DSC-RX1, which costs £2,500. These features include an exposurecompensation dial and multiple-interface hotshoe, but more about these later. The HX50 has a 20.4-million-pixel sensor compared to the HX30’s 18.2 million pixels. The HX50 also has a greater optical zoom range (a 30x optical zoom compared with the HX30’s 20x) and Wi-Fi connectivity. However, the compact travel camera category…

Amateur Photographer’s… ICONS OF PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHER I PHOTOGRAPH I ICONIC CAMERA HOW MUCH DO THEY COST? The market price of the Vito cameras is governed by condition – cosmetic, optical and mechanical. The original Vito (not to be bought to use) should not cost more than £15-£30, depending on its cosmetic condition, or maybe £40 if it has its hinged yellow filter. A decent first-type Vito II would normally cost £35-£45, a second or third type Vito II (with shutter button) £40-£50, a good Vito IIA, which is scarcer and better to use, £65-£80. The original Vito B with f/3.5 Color Skopar is common and sells for around £20 in good condition, while the f/2.8 version with non-brightline finder is much scarcer and costs maybe £35. A slightly suspect Vito…

There is no doubt that we’d all agree that getting exposure correct in-camera is pretty important. There can’t be a sane photographer who would disagree with such a basic principal statement like that. Where we might all disagree, though, is on the subject of what the ‘correct’ exposure is, and what it might look like. I suspect, too, that for more than a few of us, actually thinking for more than a couple of seconds about what correct exposure is might be a first. That isn’t supposed to be insulting, but more a refl ection on how difficult it is to obtain a ‘correct’ exposure for any given scene or subject. Frankly, the thought process that’s required is somewhat alien to most, and quite unnatural to all non-camera-pointing humans. We…

Is noise always bad? I think it’s safe to say that given a choice between a noisy camera and one that produces clean images, the vast majority of photographers would opt for the latter. While noise may enhance atmosphere in some cases, it is always better to have the option to add the noise for that atmosphere rather than to have noise that can’t be removed completely. And noise can’t be removed completely without destroying other elements of detail and ultimately reducing the image’s resolution. Noise is a fault and a weakness in the digital imaging process, and while for technical accuracy it shouldn’t be there, it can add an element of atmosphere and the suggestion that the picture was taken in a very dark place. We experience noise in…

It just isn’t acceptable to exhibit a print that has dust spots on it. It suggests that you either don’t care very much about your work – so why should anyone else? – that you are a sloppy photographer, or that you aren’t paying enough attention to what you are doing to have even noticed that there are marks on your picture. In the darkroom days we’d have to get the brushes out and paint the white marks out by hand, trying to match the dye colours and tones exactly with the area of the print. Now, though, it is all so much easier and quicker. Software allows us to inspect at very close range and to sample the exact colours and tones from the surrounding area so we know…

Photoshop has become for photo-imaging software what Hoover is for vacuum cleaners – a brand name synonymous with a particular activity, even taking on the place of a verb in some sentences. Adobe’s Photoshop is an excellent application, and it will do pretty much everything a photographer will ever want to do, but it is extremely expensive and most of us will only ever use 8% of what it offers. To be a successful photographer you don’t need to own a copy of this program, as there are others that will do many of the same jobs for you. What do we need? The main thing we need in a software package is detailed control. We need Levels, and a Curves tool that allows multiple grabbing points. We need colour…

News Analysis Comment PhotoDiary 29/6/13 "Photographers should defend their right to take photos... London Palladium drama, page 7 • Weather-resistant’DSLR • £530 K-50 due this month PENTAX LAUNCHES DSLR FOR OUTDOORS PENTAX has unwrapped the K-50, a 16.28-million-pixel DSLR built to be weather-resistant and dust-proof. The K-50, which incorporates 81 ‘anti-water’ seals, will debut alongside two new lenses, an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a 50-200mm f/4-5.6, also designed to be weather-resistant. Pentax claims the K-50 can withstand temperatures as low as -10°C. The K-50’s ‘dust-removal’ mechanism is intended to shake dust from the surface of the imaging sensor. However, the lenses, which both feature six weather seals, are not dust-proof. Due out at the end of June, priced £529.99 body only, the camera features a sensor-shift shake-reduction system designed to allow…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a 20-roll pack of 36-exposure Fujifilm Superia ISO 200 35mm film or a Fujifilm 8GB media card* REKINDLED LOVE AFFAIR While I still develop and print my own black & white photographs I have largely moved over to digital imaging for colour, mainly for convenience. This fills me with guilt every time I look at my now disused Nikon F4, which, in my opinion, is one of the finest 35mm SLRs ever made. I have come close to selling it many times, but I can never quite bring myself to do it as it is still an amazing camera and one I had to save for ages to buy. Recently, I was walking past the photographic printing and film-processing store Photographique in Bristol and couldn’t…

BEHIND THE SCENES ‘I spent five days in Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland last summer,’ says Gillman. ‘I drove past this scene a few times, always noticing its potential, but the light was never quite right to justify the walk to it. I wanted a partially cloudy day so I could wait for the foreground trees to pop with sunlight and have them contrasted against the darker mountain. ‘On the last day the weather turned that way, so I braved the midges and walked some way to set up. Once framed, it was really a case of waiting. I knew exactly in my head from days before how I wanted it to look, and eventually I got my wish and managed the shot. The light was particularly bright…

Breffo Adventure Camera Kit £20 www.breffo.com A VERSATILE camera stand in the vein of Joby’s GorillaPod, Breffo’s Adventure Camera Kit comprises a version of its Spiderpodium smartphone stand that has been adapted to take a camera via a 1∕4in screw mount in the centre. Eight opposable rubber-coated legs, which are thin but durable, can be bent into different positions or hooked onto sturdy objects, allowing the user to affix their camera in a variety of creative positions. Breffo claims the product to be compatible with ‘all’ digital cameras, and while the 1∕4in screw mount is indeed more or less universal, I wouldn’t advise its use with anything larger than a CSC, or perhaps a smaller bridge camera. You just won’t get enough stability, especially with a weighty lens attached. It’s…

A lot goes on inside your camera when you take a picture. After the shutter closes, a flurry of activity turns the electrical signals from the camera’s sensor into a photograph that can be viewed on-screen, edited on your PC and printed on paper. However, this process is more complicated than it seems: raw-sensor data must be turned from greyscale to colour via a process known as demosaicing before being adjusted for white balance, sharpness, noise reduction and all manner of other factors. Eventually, a JPEG file is produced that contains the finished photo in a neat, and relatively small, package. For many situations, this automatic processing is just what is needed. JPEG files can be shared with your friends, opened in just about any app on your computer and…

‘What is “the mind’s eye”? For some, it’s apparently like having a photograph pasted to the back of their eyelids’ IMAGINE a perfect beach at sunset. There are a few other people on it, but not too many. The sky shades from deep blue to pinks, purples and reds. There are palm trees with glossy green leaves and rough brown trunks: all the colours are tinged with the red of the setting sun. A boat is pulled up on the shore, a frayed rope securing it to a rusty anchor half-buried in the sand. At the horizon, the sea meets the sky at a band of indigo, like a Hokusai wood-block print. The warm breeze caresses your skin and soughs in the trees; the waves break on the beach with…

If the purpose of Levels is to get our exposure correct, the purpose of Curves is to tailor the contrast of the image to the scene in hand. The Curves tool can be used to decrease as well as increase general contrast in an image, and most significantly to make a subject stand out from a background by creating a significant tonal difference between these two elements. By assessing where on the curve each element sits, we can directly alter their relationship and extend or decrease their separation by altering tonal values. It is easy to do, and can have a magical effect. What shape should a curve be? There is no right or wrong shape for a contrast curve, as the curve must be tailored for each particular image…

Sharpening is a necessary part of the process in which good digital images are created, and is in no way ‘cheating’ or a measure to compensate for poor technique. Sharpening does not, and cannot, make up for a lack of focus, camera shake or the softness of a poor-quality lens. You may already know both of these things, and you may remember them in all your photographic dealings. If so, that’s great. If you don’t know these things, you need to appreciate that they are true and that you need to keep them in mind. If you disagree with them, and think that sharpening is cheating or that software can compensate for poor-quality capture, you need to think again. And again, until you come to accept that you may, at…

Imagine if everything you ever wrote had to be 150 words, if every time you put pen to paper you had to write exactly that many words. It would be hard to leave a note for the milkman, when ‘three pints today please’ would have to be accompanied by 146 other words just to fill the quota. If you wanted to write a novel you’d have to condense it to a very short story, and postcards home from Blackpool would have to be written in very small hand. And shopping lists might need to contain what you have in the cupboard as well as what you don’t. It would be a very impractical way of living. It would be the same if all our food-storage containers were the same size…

Software can be expensive and extremely daunting to use when we are just beginning to explore what it can do. But cameras are equally costly and perplexing, and so were darkrooms, so is computing, so is driving and so is living. When we begin to learn anything we know almost nothing, but we should also understand that with time and practice anything is possible. Think of something you do well and easily now that you thought would be almost impossible when you had no experience. It does take time and it takes effort, thought and patience, but mastering software is essential to taking control of your photography. As such, to make progress in the way our finished prints look, we really do have to take steps to find out what…

OVER the past few years, Pentax has struggled to compete against the powerhouses of Canon and Nikon, and the huge branding of Sony. However, the buyout of Pentax by Ricoh in 2011 seems to have reinvigorated the company, so it may well start to attract new users to its famous K-mount DSLRs. For instance, since the takeover, we have seen the arrival of the K-30, K-5 II and K-5 IIS DSLRs, and now two more have been launched – the K-50 and K-500. As the K-5 II, K-5 IIS and K-30 are to continue production, Pentax now has five DSLRs in its line-up. FEATURES Essentially, the Pentax K-50 and K-500 are companion models. They are very similar to each other, with their plastic and steel bodies both carrying a 16.28-millionpixel…

LINDA McCartney once said to her daughter Mary: ‘It’s in your soul camera’ when Mary was upset about missing a particular shot. Such is the way with photography, and I’d be willing to bet that even Henri Cartier-Bresson had plenty of ‘soul-camera’ moments. But Linda’s advice to her daughter did set me thinking: why do we get so uptight about missing that ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ shot? What is it in human nature that drives us to record everything we see? The most obvious reason is to record special memories of people, places and events, so that we can look back on and enjoy them in years to come. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Humans have been recording what they see around them for millennia; from fantastic cave-paintings and Aboriginal…

Bill Sell Carmarthen 46pts Fujifilm X10, 23.7mm, 1/500sec at f/8, ISO 400 Red door Judges say Sometimes during the judging process a shot just leaps out at us right away. Bill’s brilliant interpretation of the brief is definitely one of those shots. The strong red against the deep black is a such a striking sight that we couldn’t help but award Bill first place in this round Helen Groumas Germany 45pts Olympus OM-D EM-5, 20mm, 1/4000sec at f/2.2, ISO 1600 ‘Town in Box’ Judges say Like Bill’s shot, Helen’s image has a truly distinctive look. Every element of this shot works. The person, the camera position and the tonal range are great. It’s a very rewarding image Ian Butterworth West Yorkshire 44pts Canon PowerShot G12, 1/8sec at f/3.2, ISO 400…

ADOBE caused quite a stir recently when it announced how the next version of Photoshop – Photoshop CC – would only be available as part of its Creative Cloud. For many professional users, this represents a good deal, as shown by the 500,000 people who joined in its first year. However, this is not a view shared by all, and it has left a lot of photographers frustrated by the current upgrade options. Fortunately, Adobe has stated that Lightroom will continue to be sold separately as a perpetual licence. Lightroom has certainly now matured to the point where one might argue you don’t need Photoshop, so it will be interesting to see what’s new in its latest release, Lightroom 5. OFFLINE EDITING New to the program are Smart Previews. These…

ADVICE ON ARCHIVING Q I have a stack of family photographs going back more than 100 years that I inherited after my mum died. As I would like to archive them before distributing them among the family, would it be better to scan them or photograph them? My camera should be OK – I have a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 180mm macro, 24–70mm f/2.8L and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lenses – but is my Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F scanner up to the job? And what set-up would I adopt for either method? Dave Smith A Assuming you’re talking about prints, rather than film, and you want a quality result, I would opt for the scanner (assuming time and patience aren’t an issue). Although your camera would be great for…

Being a father to a child is never simply a matter of biology. Of course, one can factually and scientifically be a father, and get one’s name on a birth certificate, but being a proper father also requires the application of care, attention and love. He who merely creates but never attends the offspring is only a father in name. The man who adopts someone else’s scientific product and yet loves and cares for the child will always be more a father than the man who fails to attend to his handiwork. In a perfect world, we’d all father both by science and with love and care, gradually moulding the child’s values and character, playing an attentive role in the way he or she turns out. You might think this…

Colour balance is a much more important issue than most photographers recognise, and very often the issue of colour casts and the impression a dominant colour projects to the audience, is largely ignored. This is, I suspect, because it is actually a very difficult issue to deal with, and it requires considerable attention and care. A degree of skill and practice is essential for all photographers, to firstly identify a colour cast and then subsequently to fix it successfully. In attempting to provoke an emotional response in the viewer, we have to appreciate how powerful colour is and the role it plays in telling our audience what it was like to be in that place at that time. If you want to show that you were on the beach on…

Why dodge and burn? The idea of darkening and lightening particular sections of a photograph is that in doing so we can infl uence the passage of the viewer’s eye across the scene. As we have already discussed, the eye is automatically drawn to bright areas before it inspects darker areas, and it will see high-contrast areas before it inspects those with low contrast. Knowing this, we can ensure that our subject has more contrast than the rest of the scene, and we can ensure that it is bright enough to catch the eye. This, along with focus, depth of field, colour and exposure, is another tool to force viewers to see what we want them to see. We don’t want to allow them to have free reign to wander…

As we discussed in the Colour balance and correction section, colour plays a really significant role in the creation of atmosphere. It lends us so many clues about the conditions in which a picture was taken, as well as the mood of the subject or photographer. Adding a colour tone to a picture allows us to emphasise that mood or atmosphere quite easily, by deliberately including a colour in the picture that will infl uence the viewer’s perspective. This can work as well in colour as in black & white, and through different methods of adding that tone we can choose to colour either the ‘paper’ or the ‘ink’. Overlay or underlay? The two main methods of adding a uniform colour to the whole of an image are either to…