Innholdsfortegnelse for 12-Mar-2016 i Amateur Photographer

I went through a spell a year or so ago where I almost switched off from photography. I enjoyed going out and taking photos, the light, the experience, but I found that my compositions were, well, a bit ordinary. The images were OK, but I guess I was sticking to my tried-and-tested compositions. And when I realised what I was doing, I vowed to change. I wish I’d had Mark Littlejohn’s article to act as a refresher (see page 10). No matter how long you have been taking photos, it is always useful to read how someone else composes their images, so hopefully we can see a scene with a fresh pair of eyes. Speaking of eyes, in this issue we take you to a place you wouldn’t usually get…

SONY E-mount camera users are set to benefit from an increase in compatible lenses using a converter designed to allow photographers to use Sigma EOS-mount and SA-mount DSLR lenses on Sony E-mount cameras. The MC-11 mount converter is aimed at photographers who use different cameras depending on the subject, and amateurs who use a variety of systems. Sigma has not released information on compatibility with Canon-made EOS lenses, but says the converter incorporates the digital data to deliver a ‘fast and smooth AF for compatible lenses, as well as Optical Stabilizer features, and functions of the camera that help control peripheral brightness and correct transverse chromatic aberration and distortion'. The device will cost £179.99 when it launches.…

Mark Littlejohn Mark found photography late in life, but has been making up for lost time ever since. He’s happiest wandering in the Eden Valley or around Ullswater in Cumbria with a camera in hand, waiting for the adrenaline rush of capturing that next beautiful moment. www.markljphotography.co.uk One of the most important aspects of making a successful landscape image is creating a well-balanced composition. However, I feel that sometimes we can be too quick to take the shot and perhaps don’t consider all the elements, which are key to a successful composition. On numerous occasions I have been to a location and noticed photographers turning up and taking a shot almost the instant they arrive. The camera is invariably held in landscape orientation and no thought is given to perspective.…

You answered… A No, not so much as a scratch 46% B Does a blister count as an injury? 7% C I’ve walked into something while concentrating on taking photos 11% D I have fallen over while leaning too far 8% E Yes, I have sustained another injury (not listed) 28% What you said… ‘I lost my footing on a slope and fell on my camera; not the most comfortable thing to park your back on’ ‘I was almost killed photographing a stream that went over a high cliff. I misjudged the slippery stones in the water and fell, but managed to stop in time’ ‘At The Hermitage in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, I put down my monopod but, when I adjusted my position, I slipped down a small banking…

Frog’s-eye view With ponds full of life, the humble frog has caught David Tipling’s imagination. He reveals exactly how he takes his striking photographs Canon EOS 5DS and 5DS R We find out how Canon’s latest DSLRs perform during an intensive six-month field test On top of the world We reveal some of the best images from the 2016 World Press Photo competition CONTENT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE…

Lightening the shadows THIS photograph by Dominic Beaven was taken of Anish Kapoor's ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture at the site of the London Olympics. I like the composition Dominic used here, which draws the eye in from the bottom-left corner and has been cropped to fit nicely within the proportions of the camera frame. It looks as if the original photo was taken with the camera meter set to auto mode because the camera compensated for the brightness of the sky and underexposed the sculpture. There wasn't much that I needed to do here, other than lighten the photograph and fine-tune the luminance and saturation settings to brighten the reds and darken the blue sky. 1 Apply auto tone settings I opened the raw image via Camera Raw and clicked on…

Nikon D7200 Sensor: 24.2MP APS-C CMOS ISO: 100-102,400 (expanded) Price: £749 (body only) The Nikon D7200 is a DX-format DSLR aimed at serious enthusiasts who will take advantage of its 24.2MP sensor, 51-point AF system, 6fps continuous shooting and 3.2in, 1,229,000-dot screen. It’s a cheaper but bulkier alternative to the impressive X-Pro2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Sensor: 20.3MP Micro Four Thirds CMOS ISO: 100-25,600 (expanded) Price: £699 (body only) The GX8 packs a punch for its size. It presents a dual image stabilisation system, lightning-fast AF, 8fps burst shooting and 4K video/photo capability. It has a tilting EVF and is of similar size to the Fujifilm X-Pro2. Sony Alpha 6300 Sensor: 24.2MP APS-C CMOS ISO: 100-51,200 (expanded) Price: £999 (body only) Sony’s recently released Alpha 6300 boasts a 24.2MP APS-C sensor,…

LAUNCHED 1952 PRICE £359 (Monark price guide, April 1953). US retail price $177.50 with f/2, $227.50 with f/1.5 (Photography,Giant Directory Issue, May 1953) PRICE TODAY £184 on eBay IN 1952, Futura Kamerawerk GmbH announced the Futura-S, so-called because it had a Synchro Compur shutter. This model is easily identified because the nameplate bears the words ‘Futura-S', and the front panel is in satin chrome with the lens in a bright polished-steel housing. The Futura-S was a better-looking camera than earlier models and has lasted longer than the early cameras. Futura manufactured all the (non-Schneider) lenses for Futura cameras, including the glass. The following screw-mount lenses are available for the Futura cameras: 35mm f/4.5 Ampligon, 45mm f/3.5 Futar, 45mm f/2.8 Xenar, 50mm f/1.5 Frilon, 50mm f/2 Evar, 50mm f/2.8 Elor, 70mm…

In this image by Zakir Hossain Chowdhury from Getty Images, we find a woman engaged in the arduous process of sorting and drying red chilli peppers under the sun, near the Jamuna river, 240km north-west of Dhaka in Gaibandha, Bangladesh. Astonishingly, the women earn the equivalent of less than US $1 after working an exhausting ten hours a day within the char areas, which have some of the highest levels of poverty in the country. Red chilli is the main source of income in the area, and it's mainly women who are engaged in its production and processing, in addition to caring for children. Women here have limited or no access to markets or finance; they have even less bargaining power and limited income. Words & numbers “Taking pictures is…

‘On the 5D Mark II, raw video at 1080/24p works like motion-picture stock’ With 4K cameras like the Sony Alpha 7R II and Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 (and soon the Nikon D5), it's easy to forget that resolution is just a small part of a long chain of things that make a beautiful image. Dynamic range and colour are arguably more important. With this in mind, there's an eight-year-old full-frame DSLR that refuses to fade out – the Canon EOS 5D Mark II from November 2008. It has an impressive ability that remains unmatched by the latest 4K mirrorless bodies – raw video with14-bit colour from a full-frame sensor! This capability can be installed as part of the open-source Magic Lantern software, which runs from the memory card inside the camera,…

The first item many prospective landscape photographers add to their photographic armoury is the wideangle lens. There is a real danger, though, that by just adding more and more into the frame using one of these optics, the magnificent view you were looking at then fails to materialise on your computer monitor when you get home and view your hard day's work. In some respects, it can be like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. The foreground becomes all-important and is the most important part of the frame. Getting the balance right can be a tricky operation. To shoot this photograph of Ullswater in the Lake District (right), I used a Zeiss18mm lens and realised that the light on the foreground ferns was rather beautiful, as was the…

‘I TRY to keep the weight of my camera bag to a minimum these days as I can end up doing a great deal of walking and exploring,' says Matthew. ‘I tend to carry one camera, probably my Mamiya 645 or Pentacon Six TL, one or two lenses, an electronic light meter and about five rolls of 120 film. If I'm not in a city I will also take a lightweight tripod like a MeFoto RoadTrip. I can't stand carrying a heavy tripod – it has to be light. There are times when I'll carry a couple of filters – maybe a red filter for black & white or an ND1000 filter with a stopwatch for long exposures.'…

‘She was trying different things and expressing herself’ I have a good general knowledge of popular culture, so when I’m given portrait commissions I don’t often have to research the subjects. I usually already know who the person is and what they’ve done. In the case of Tilda Swinton, I’d admired her work as an actress and model for many years before I shot her portrait. I remember seeing a portrait of her on the cover of Time Out magazine in the early 1990s, taken by photographer Steve Double. Her appearance, with those penetrating eyes and high cheekbones, was very striking. I thought she was terrific in films such as Orlando. When I finally had the opportunity to meet and photograph her, she didn’t disappoint. The shoot, commissioned by The…

THE Boundary Warp is a new Photoshop CC Camera Raw feature. In most instances the panorama preview will result in an irregular-shaped panorama. Normally, you have to choose to either crop the image, or use a Content-Aware Fill for the outer edges. However, the Boundary Warp slider can be used to warp the shape of the panorama-stitched image so that the boundary of the Photo Merge image fills to the edges of the canvas. You can look at this as a way of ‘unwrapping' the image to make the most of the available image content and avoid having to crop. The effectiveness of this approach is dependent on the type of subject. It works best on landscape subjects, but won't work well with photographs taken of buildings, where straight lines…

Visiting any factory is an absorbing experience, but a factory that makes cameras and lenses holds a special fascination. I've had the good fortune to visit several over the years, but my visit to Fujifilm's Taiwa plant marks the first time I've been allowed to photograph the assembly line – well, most of it, as a few areas were off limits. The factory in Sendai, about two hours north by bullet train from Tokyo, is where Fujifilm builds its X-series cameras, largely by hand using a surprisingly small team of skilled workers. We were offered rare access to the production lines for the new X-Pro2 and the X-T1 cameras, along with the XF35mm f/2 and new Fujinon XF100–400mm lenses. After a short introduction and overview from the Taiwa plant's director,…

The immediate impact of this picture is immense, or at least, it was for me. The dramatic, almost archetypal hooded figures; the pensive, or even suspicious, look on the face of the man on the right; the contrast of light and dark. As I examined it more closely, my initial admiration began to fade. The dodging around the central figures began to look, if you will forgive the word, ‘dodgy’. The man in the broad-lapelled suit looked quite out of place. And I could not work out what the man with his hands to his face was doing, until my wife Frances suggested that he might be suppressing a sneeze. Then I looked at it for longer still, and I began to understand why I had found it so interesting…

Nikon delays D500 Nikon has delayed the launch of its £1,729 flagship D500 DSLR until late April. The 20.9-million-pixel camera, the long-awaited successor to the D300S, was originally expected to arrive in the UK in March. The delay has forced Nikon to cut its camera sales forecast for the year. Online photo comp explores ageing Winners of an online competition that explored ‘the complexities of ageing’ have been plucked from more than 1,200 entries. Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen won the category judged by an expert panel (see photo left), while Hardik Gaurav triumphed in a public vote. Adopting the theme ‘Ageing: the bigger picture’, the contest was organised by online photography community Photocrowd.com and the British Society of Gerontology (BSG). CSCs fuel profit An 11% rise in mirrorless camera…

PANASONIC has revealed a weather-sealed 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Power OIS lens. The 11-elements-in-nine-groups lens features three aspherical lenses and an extra-low dispersion element to help counter distortion. Due to arrive in the UK in May, priced at £439, the seven-blade diaphragm newcomer incorporates a stepping motor designed to help ensure smooth, silent operation when shooting 4K video. Delivering the 35mm viewing angle of a 24-120mm zoom – which should suit portraiture and travel photography – the 5x lens boasts 0.54x magnification and Power OIS to help fight camera shake. The 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 power OIS is built to be dustproof and splashproof, and will be available in metallic black. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

HERE are two examples where I didn't follow my own rules and was left in the position of ruining certain opportunities for a successful image. In the first image (above), I liked the light and colour of the tall silver birch on the right and also the top of the fell just appearing through the mist on the left. Hindsight shows that I should have decisively cropped the tall tree to maintain the balance of the image. I would still have retained the light and colour as a balance to the fell. The second image (below) suffers from a lack of space around the trees. As such, it simply becomes a picture of some trees, lacking input from the surroundings to make it any more dynamic or atmospheric.…

In praise of JPEGs I started using a digital camera more than ten years ago and think it's the best thing that ever happened to photography, but what is wrong with shooting JPEGs and getting it right in-camera? It's more fun and it's what photography is about – not trying to be clever with a keyboard. Take Richard Sibley's reply to a letter in AP, 2 January. He says: ‘With digital we don't expose the image to get a great shot out of the camera; we expose it to get the best raw image possible for post-processing.' If you enjoy the post-processing part of the hobby that's fine, but remember people like myself who print straight from the camera (of whom there are still many), and are happy to do…

THE DIFFERENCE between lighting stills and video is that I find I am always softening the light with video. Putting on a softbox just isn't enough – you have to diffuse it some more. You have to get it as soft as you possibly can. That then causes a different range of problems with video, because the light spill can impact on the space you are shooting with. When I started, I still had it in my head that I was lighting like a stills photographer, but with video you have to make every angle look right. You get the initial light right, but then you have to move around and see what it looks like from all the other angles you wish to shoot from. And that again brings…

Ruslan Isinev, Russia It was after receiving a camera for his birthday that Ruslan decided to take his photography seriously. After a while, he found himself drawn to the genres of conceptual portraiture and fashion photography – two methods that hold a very particular magic for him. Ruslan says that taking pictures like this is about conveying emotion when people are caught in a specific moment in time. He adds that he has no specific future plans and is happy to allow chance and accident to guide him on his way. To see more of his images, visit www.facebook.com/Isinev.Ruslan. 1 Veil Here we see a very different take on portraiture, particularly in the masking of the eyes with the flowing black material. It’s caught at the perfect moment to freeze…

£235 www.figbags.co.uk Grab handle The grab handle is firmly riveted to the lid of the bag. Rear pocket A small, slim zipped pocket on the back will hold a phone and personal items. Removable strap The strap is adjustable in length and fitted with a leather shoulder pad. Quick access A concealed push-button clasp gives easy access to contents. At a glance Premium handmade leather camera bag Designed to fit a CSC and two or three lenses Available in a choice of six colours FIG BAGS is a small English company that makes traditionally styled, handcrafted leather camera bags. It currently has two models in its range: we reviewed the larger Hanborough in AP 6 June 2015, and this time we're looking at the Lincoln. These bags can be bought…

We have tested numerous Fujifilm cameras with16.3 million pixels so it's refreshing to see a new 24.3-million-pixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS III sensor, which has never featured in an X-series model before. The question all photographers intrigued by the X-Pro2 want to know the answer to is how well this new sensor measures up against the 16-million-pixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor of old. We inspected our lab results alongside the X-Pro1's and quickly discovered that the X-Pro2's sensor surpasses its predecessor in some style. Pushing the sensor to the extremes of its ISO range reveals users can shoot confidently at ISO100-6,400 without fear of noise severely degrading image quality. Colour noise is extremely well controlled and, although luminance noise makes its presence known at high sensitivities, the level of detail the…