Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-Jan-2015 i Amateur Photographer

ONE OF the loudest debates within photography over the past decade has been about the use of Photoshop. There are those who view anything more than basic image correction and enhancement to be cheating, while a sizeable contingent question whether any substantial manipulation is even photography. Much depends on the genre. There’s a reasonable expectation that documentary photography is an honest representation of the truth (although that’s another debate entirely) but should creative photography have such barriers? This week’s feature on William Mortensen reminds us that this debate has been raging since long before the digital era. His montages depicting often dark and lurid themes show just how far reality could be stretched using traditional methods, and outraged purists like Ansel Adams at the time. Judge for yourself on page…

This shot is just one of the entries that has been submitted for the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards, Nature & Wildlife category, Open Competition. Titled ‘Dinner Time’, Kyle Breckenridge took this shot of a mother and cub in the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia, Canada, near a small village called Klemtu. What makes this shot a bit more special is the fact that these bears are spirit bears, or Kermode bears, a subspecies of the North American black bear. Living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Colombia, these bears are rarer than the giant panda in the wild and it is understood that it is only the second time a white mother and cub have been documented. Most mothers and cubs are a black and…

TRIBUTES have been paid to renowned Observer photographer, and former AP award winner, Jane Bown, who has died aged 89. Bown began her Observer career in 1949, with her first assignment being a portrait of philosopher Bertrand Russell. She went on to photograph politicians, film stars, artists and comedians, with her subjects as varied as the Queen, Mick Jagger, Desmond Tutu and Björk. Great photographer Royal Photographic Society director general Dr Michael Pritchard told AP: ‘Jane Bown HonFRPS was one of Britain’s great photographers, producing portraits that always told the viewer far more about her subject beyond the straight image. ‘Jane had the ability to capture the essence of her subject with just a few frames of film and there are few photographers with that skill. She will be missed,…

Volunteer by Paul Seawright, Artist Photo Books, £25, hardback, 64 pages, ISBN 9-780-99274-851-7 THE THOUGHT of joining the army has never once occurred to me. Yet for many individuals it’s a decision that occupies their mind from a very early age. Why is this? What is the difference between me and a person who decided to enter into a career in the military? In this powerful collection of images, Paul Seawright has gone some way to answering that question. Seawright has shot at around 500 temporary recruitment locations in 15 American states, and judging by the impoverished landscapes he captures, the answer perhaps lies in the empty streets and vacant shops. When faced with limited options, people will turn to any opportunity that provides escape from drudgery. In these locations,…

Email amateurphotographer@timeinc.com and include your full postal address Write to Inbox, Amateur Photographer, Time Inc. (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU LETTER OF THE WEEK True grit Two years ago, a friend and I went shooting at Keswick in the Lake District in the depths of winter. I’ve never been so cold in my life. So it caused my admiration for the Shackleton expedition photographer Frank Hurley (AP 6 December) to increase tenfold. Like Robert Falcon Scott’s equally dedicated photographer Herbert Ponting, Hurley was a breed apart in terms of his dedication in the most extreme conditions imaginable. Unlike the awkward and bulky cameras Hurley (and particularly Ponting) used, for our visit to Keswick I was armed with just a Nikon D90, an 18-200mm lens and…

KIT LIST Clothing Natural-coloured clothing is a must, while a ghillie suit is designed to resemble heavy foliage and offers perfect camouflage, so the wearer blends in with their natural surroundings. Monopod A monopod will offer relief from the weight of a big lens and is a good alternative to handholding as it offers more freedom than using a tripod. About the barn owl One of our most distinctive and much-loved countryside birds, the barn owl is an expert hunter with excellent vision. ● Location: Widespread across the UK and Ireland, with the exception of some areas of Scotland and Ireland. ● Size: 30-40cm, with the female larger than the male. ● Nest: Unlined nest of floor debris in barns, ruins, haystacks, hollow trees or holes in a cliff. ●…

Correcting geometric distortion WHILE there are problems with lens chromatic aberration and focus in the original image from Adrian Maltby, the biggest issue is the extreme lens barrel distortion. Rather than using a Photoshop lens profile, I used Camera Raw to apply a first-pass correction and then took the image into Photoshop, where I applied a further adjustment using the Lens Correction filter. The result wasn’t perfect, but you will notice how many of the lines that were curved are now straighter and the globe in the top-left corner now appears less elliptical in shape. Submit your images Please see the ‘Send us your pictures’ section on page 3 for details or visit www.amateur photographer.co.uk 1 Apply Camera Raw lens corrections To correct the extreme lens barrel distortion, in Camera…

Metering Making sure that images are exposed correctly is a 2016-pixel RGB sensor, which is the same sensor used in the current Nikon D610. Intervalometer For time-lapse photography, the Nikon D7000 has a built-in intervalometer that allows users to set the camera to take a number of images at set intervals. Autofocus The Nikon D7000 has 39 AF points, nine of which are cross-type. The AF sensor is the Multi-CAM 4800DX, which allows for 3D tracking. Weather-sealed With magnesium-alloy top and back panels, the D7000 is strong and lightweight, and is fully weather-sealed. Viewfinder Images are composed using the pentaprism viewfinder, which has a 100% field of view. Video The D7000 is capable of shooting full HD video at 1080p resolution.…

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II 1 I like to carry a camera with me at all times, so the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II spends most of its time in my bag. It produces excellent images for such a small camera. Manfrotto Small Hydro Arm Kit 2 The Manfrotto hydrostatic arm and clamp kit is very useful. Obviously it isn’t as flexible as a tripod, but it is a lot smaller and lighter. I carry it screwed to the bottom of the camera, and when I need a bit more stability I can usually find something to clamp it to. MagFilter adapter ring 3 I often go away for a few days and take only the RX100 II, but by using the MagFilter adapter ring I can attach circular filters and filter…

Sometimes you see a picture that makes your blood run cold: something so staggeringly brilliant that it makes you despair of ever being anything more than a merely competent photographer. You think: nobody should be allowed to be this good. JA’s collages of the café-bar Le Sarto were an example. This was the biggest, and for my money, the best. Descent into hell We saw it during the annual photography festival Les Rencontres d’Arles, in 2014. We had taken refuge in the Le Sarto after a descent into hell at one of the official exhibition venues, the Bureau des Lices. If you think ‘descent into hell’ sounds like something of an exaggeration, then you have never suffered from claustrophobia, never suffered from the kind of nightmare where every turning, every…

Hetherington award French photographer William Daniels has been awarded the Tim Hetherington Grant, a €20,000 prize created in memory of the British photojournalist killed in Libya in 2011. The photographer was chosen for his work on the Central African Republic. Film scanner If you have a collection of slides and negatives languishing in the loft, then a new 35mm desktop film scanner from Reflecta may come in handy. The RPS 10M film scanner costs £696 and is available now. Call 01793 615 836. Wildlife battle starts The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards has opened for entries. It features 21 categories for adults and young photographers. The contest is co-owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Worldwide. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk. Winning formula Racing driver Jensen Button is among Formula 1…

NIKON used the CES trade show in Las Vegas, USA, to unveil the Nikon D5500, a new DSLR with a vari-angle touchscreen ‘housed in a ‘compact, lightweight body’. Billed as significantly lighter and much slimmer than its predecessor, the new DX-format DSLR is claimed to be easier to handle, partially thanks to its ‘deep grip’. Nikon also claims that the D5500’s contrast-detect AF is 20% faster than the D5300 when shooting in live news. Priced £639.99, body only, and due in shops on 5 February, the Nikon D5500 measures 124 x 97 x 70mm and weighs 420g (without battery and memory card). 'Since the explosion of smartphone technology, there has been a huge wave of innovative and creative photography worldwide,' said Simon Iddon, a group product manager at Nikon UK.…

Paul Hill at York Long-standing photojournalist and photographer Paul Hill will be hosting a day in conjunction with the RPS to talk about his life and work. As the first art photographer to receive an MBE and author of Approaching Photography, Paul should be a treat to listen to. Book at the RPS site. 25 January. www.rps.org/events/2015/january/25/paul-hill-at-york or www.hillonphotography.co.uk Upgrade in the January sales The one good thing you can say about this month is that the sales make it a great time to upgrade your kit. Why not look into picking up a bargain? RPS International Biennial Members’ Print Exhibition 2015 The RPS presents its exclusive members-only exhibition, which happens only once every two years. One hundred prints, whittled down from 3,300 entries, represent the society’s members in 16…

Lighting is the fundamental starting point of photography, and for those who are venturing from the outdoors into the studio, the vast array of lighting equipment available and complicated lighting setups this seems to open up can be overwhelming. When you’re shooting people, the simplest way is to start with one light, and then build up the light around it. Although I work mainly with young female models in the beauty, hair and fashion fields, the same techniques can be used with a variety of subjects – I’ve used them for corporate portraits, actors’ head shots and even kids. This set-up is something you can use again and again, and it can be adapted to your personal needs, the subject and even to the equipment you own. Key light The…

Improve Your Photography ‘There is no better way to learn and improve our photography than to enrol on a proper course, led by qualified and experienced tutors who can offer one to one coaching and guidance. Our own SPI courses have been created by respected tutors, with the collaboration of the Amateur Photographer and What Digital Camera teams, to ensure they’re tailored to the needs of our readers, and by allowing you to w at your own pace they’re ideal for those of us with busy lifestyles.’ Nigel Atherton, Group Editor Student profile ‘I enrolled on an SPI course because I felt my progress had levelled off, and I wanted professional guidance as to how I may improve. So far, I have enjoyed the course, the tutor guidance is very…

When we wander around while exploring a new city, very rarely do we take the opportunity to look up beyond eye-level, to ease our necks back and see what lies above. Yet this is exactly what French photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze has done in his ‘Vertical Horizon’ series of images of Hong Kong. This oft-photographed region is famed for its high-rise towers that house a densely packed population, but rarely do photographers opt to document these buildings from the ground up. Yet when Romain arrived in the Kowloon district of the city in 2009, he found that he eventually began to do just that. ‘At the very beginning, I was simply exploring and discovering the city with my camera,’ explains Romain. ‘I was just pointing my camera at anything that looked…

XSories Weye Feye S ● £80 ● www.xsories.co.uk Callum McInerney-Riley tests a pared-down version of the Weye Feye, for transferring images wirelessly At a glance ● Transfers stills and video to a smartphone or tablet ● Hotshoe-mounted device ● Works with Android and iOS ● Creates its own Wi-Fi signal UNLIKE the original Weye Feye DSLR controller from XSories, the Weye Feye S does not have the ability to control a camera wirelessly while in live view. Instead, this smaller, more affordable version is designed only for transferring images and not for remotely controlling cameras. The Weye Feye S connects to the camera via a USB cable and can be mounted on the hotshoe. Once connected and turned on, the Weye Feye S can be accessed from a smartphone or…

At a glance ● DxO OpticsPro 10 Standard Edition is available from shop.dxo.com, priced £99; the Elite Edition is priced £159 ● A fully functional one-month trial version of the software can be downloaded from www.dxo.com/intl/photography/download. ● Mac and Windows compatible To get the best results from a digital camera, you really need to shoot in the raw file format. However, processing raw files can be time-consuming. For years, DxO OpticsPro has made raw-file editing easier by using corrections that can help photographers to apply edits to their images quickly and easily. The latest is version 10, and it adds a number of new tools and optimisations to the existing features. The software should make it even easier to make optical and geometric corrections, optimise exposure and contrast, reduce noise…

Nikon FTN Photomic Ivor Matanle looks at the last and best of the metering Nikon F cameras LAUNCHED 1968 PRICE £259 17s 6d (£259.87) in 1968 with 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens GUIDE PRICE TODAY £180-£250 with f/1.4 lens, £130-£200 with f/2 lens and slightly more for the Apollo version illustrated The Nikon FTN improved on earlier FT metering by introducing an automatic ‘wap-wap’ setting of the maximum aperture of the lens in use. You insert the lens (at f/5.6), engage the prong with the meter pin, then quickly twist the aperture ring to the smallest aperture then the maximum aperture. This sets the meter for full-aperture exposure measurement. The Nikon F was the leading professional 35mm SLR from 1968-1973, when the Nikon F2 appeared. What’s good With its magnificent engineering…

Shoot from ground level Frequently, we photographers put the camera to our eye, compose and shoot without paying too much attention to the foreground. The foreground can oft en be rather drab and, if we’re not careful, it can dominate the image more than we intend it to. For example, when taking pictures of a car, the road is not very exciting and oft en detracts from the image. By switching the perspective of the shot and shooting from a low angle, little of the road surface will appear in the image and far more emphasis will be placed on the subject. This technique can bring a freshness to a whole host of subjects, providing there is a strong focal point to the shot. This weekend, why not try using…

FORMER Life magazine photographer Ralph Morse has died at the age of 97 Morse, who worked as a staff photographer for Life for 30 years, will be most remembered for his work documenting the space race. The photographer became the magazine’s youngest war correspondent when in 1942, aged 24, he was assigned to cover the Pacific region during the Second World War. ‘Known for his technical innovations, as well as his great versatility, he shot everything from sports to the Space Race,’ states a Getty Images profile. In a biography, NASA says on its website: 'Morse covered the John Glenn flight in 1962 and was recalled from retirement to cover John Glenn's second flight in 1998'.…

I love the 1950s design of the Kodak Brownie Flash 20, which is dominated by an enormous built-in flash reflector. With its retro look, this camera appeals to both collectors and those in search of fashionable1950s memorabilia, so the prices tend to be a little higher than for similar, less glamorous models. I found mine in an antiques centre (AKA junk shop) in Norwich, Norfolk, and paid £12 for it, complete with a cream-coloured faux-leather case. As post-war austerity faded away and colour photography became more affordable, the market for simple but reasonable-quality cameras took off. Manufacturers were keen to introduce ‘idiot-proof’ features to reduce the chances of disappointing results, which might result in lucrative film sales stalling. Film facts So while, in essence, this is an eye-level box camera,…

THE 550 was the first production bag Billingham made and it set the tone and style for all the others. It is still one of the largest in Billingham’s range, and probably the first choice of bag if you never want to worry about leaving something behind. Even without the two detachable end pockets, the 550 is still large enough to carry several camera bodies, lenses, flashguns and even some overnight essentials. Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year, the world’s leading awards recognising the art and diversity of food photography, is open for entries until 8 February 2015. Visit www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com. To be in with a chance of winning a Billingham 550 bag, visit www.amateurphototographer.co.uk/billinghamcomp and answer the simple question. The closing date for entries is 30 January 2015. The…

Imagine a major photographer being systematically written out of photographic history. Not merely neglected; not accidentally forgotten; but deliberately excluded, airbrushed out of existence, like the victim of a Soviet show trial in the 1930s. This is what happened to American photographer William Mortensen (1897-1965). He and Ansel Adams were at daggers drawn, and Group f/64 sided with Adams. Worse, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, authors of the otherwise excellent The History of Photography (1937), hated him as much as Adams did, and refused to mention him. A new book, American Grotesque (Feral House, 2014) should redress the balance considerably. It is an excellent summary of Mortensen’s life and work, and it fills in and enlarges upon many of the points that are glossed over or indeed wilfully distorted in Mortensen’s…

Anselm Gallagher, Hertfordshire Anselm is committed to discovering the visual possibilities of people in everyday places – something he credits to his love of the images created by photographers such as Josef Koudelka and Tony Ray-Jones. While he was initially fascinated by the anticipation of waiting to see the results of his work on film negatives, this been replaced by the instant thrill of seeing what he has captured on the back of his DSLR. Here we see a series of images taken in Manchester between 1994 and 1998. Stepladder 1 Anselm has discovered the graphic possibilities of an everyday scene here. The shadow is a vital compositional element Nikon F3, 35mm, 1/250sec, Ilford HP4 On the Street 2 There’s an interesting visual parallel to be found in the patterns…

At a glance ● 16.2-million-pixel, APS-C-sized CMOS sensor ● ISO 100-25,600 ● Full HD 1080p video ● Up to 6fps shooting rate ● 100% viewfinder ● Around £520 (body only) At the start of 2010, I was in the position that most hobbyists reach at some point in their photographic life: I had played around with near enough every style of photography until that point, dabbling in sports, macro, portraiture and landscapes, but had never really clicked with any of them. It wasn’t that I was struggling to produce decent images; I was just not enjoying the process. I was suffering from the photography equivalent of writer’s block and had absolutely no desire to get out and shoot anything meaningful. It was around this time that I signed up for…

Email your questions to: apanswers@timeinc.com, Twitter @AP_Magazine and #AskAP, or Facebook. Or write to Technical Support, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Time Inc. (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU White balance woes Q The default white balance settings on my Nikon D5200 never seem to capture colours as I see them. In cloudy conditions the greens are too yellow, in sunlight they are too blue; in tungsten the whites are yellow and the auto is hardly ever accurate. Taking the pictures in raw and adjusting them later means I can’t compare them with the colours at the time of shooting. I have rectified the problem to a large degree by making my own adjustments in the white balance settings on the colour matrix, and this gives me a…

‘In a built-in lens, the control motors and mechanisms can be placed outside the lens, in the camera body’ I was recently asked why the lens built into a fixed-lens camera can often be much more compact than a similar interchangeable lens designed for the same sensor size. It is this factor that can make a fixed-lens camera an attractive alternative to a system camera, because not only is the lens more compact, since it is permanently attached, but it can also be better sealed and more robust. To see the kind of difference I am talking about, compare the profiles of a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 III to a Nikon 1 V3 fitted with its standard zoom lens (see below). You can see that the Sony’s lens is much more…