Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Apr-2014 i Amateur Photographer

WHILE the internet and the abundance of photo-sharing websites such as Flickr and 500px offer a fantastic platform to have our images seen by a wider audience, it’s all too easy to get tunnel vision and forget about all the other wonderful opportunities we have to showcase our images. I’m reminded of this by the Sony World Photography Awards and particularly the Open Competition. These awards offer a fabulous opportunity for amateur photographers to have their work shown on the world stage. You may not agree with some of the winners – I’m not fond of the Arts & Culture and Travel winners, for example – but unless you enter, your image can’t be considered. I know through the submissions that we receive that AP readers are capable of some…

THE OLYMPUS Stylus SH-1 is the world’s only digital compact to feature 5-axis optical image stabilisation, designed to control and reduce blur in five planes of movement. The Stylus SH-1 inherits the TruePic VII image processor from the OM-D family and a design echoing the Olympus Pen series, with an aluminium alloy body, metal finish and synthetic leather grip. Olympus claims the system works so well that ‘you can shoot long full HD movies from the back of a moving scooter’. The newcomer houses a 16-million-pixel BSI CMOS sensor and a 24x optical zoom lens with a focal range of 25-600mm (35mm equivalent), plus an integrated level gauge or ‘artificial horizon’ for keeping images straight. Focus and framing can be monitored and controlled via the 3in, 460,000-dot LCD touchscreen. On-board…

Black Sand: Surfers in Taiwan By Anderson & Low, with Simon Barnes Lucky Panda Press, £35, hardback, 88 pages, ISBN 978-0-95589-974-4 AS HE emerges from the water onto the black volcanic sand that characterises the beaches of Yilan, Taiwan, a surfer is stopped by two photographers who ask for his picture. He acquiesces, but there’s a look behind his eyes as he poses. ‘Why exactly,’ his expression asks, ‘was this deemed worthy of a photograph?’ At least that’s what I thought I saw on many of the subjects’ faces in Black Sand, by acclaimed duo Anderson & Low. Documenting the surfers, but not the surfing (nowhere in the book does anyone ride a wave) of Taiwan, it sweeps away the prevailing Western image of surfing as the province of sun-bleached…

MARK Preston’s comment (Letters, AP 1 March) that I was raising the old chestnut of arts vs science (in my own in letter in AP 8 February) gave me pause for thought. Of course, comparison of these is futile as one is about describing how things happen and the other is about creating things that evoke an emotional response in the observer. But photography is arguably the most technological form of art and it is easy to become enraptured with the technology at the expense of creativity. I know I do, which explains why the great majority of my images are rubbish. So what is it that changes the result of entirely mechanical actions into the creation of a work of art? We point a camera, operate the shutter, process…

FOR SOMEONE who puts an incredible amount of effort into constructing singularly gorgeous shots, Donna Rivers is remarkably self-effacing. The way she describes her images really makes it sound as though anyone could do it, despite the mounting anecdotal evidence that, in fact, anyone could not. The key to Donna’s macro plant imagery is that every picture has a story behind it. This fact is sometimes hard to prise out of her, because with most shots she seems at pains to explain that there was nothing to it – she just pointed and shot. Oh, apart from the extension tube, Speedlites, reflectors and a hosepipe tied to a lawn chair. Although she’ll frequently claim that she just wants to ‘make pictures that look nice’, there’s a huge amount of photographic…

AP publishes more reader photographs than any other photography magazine IF YOUR PICTURES ARE FEATURED YOU’LL RECEIVE… £50 Plus ... The winner of the Editor’s Choice picture of the week will receive a HelloCanvas 16x24in canvas print (including shipping) worth £36.95 The Editor’s Choice will be printed onto a high-quality canvas with UV-resistant inks and mounted onto a sturdy wooden frame 1.2in thick. For HelloCanvas ‘each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow’, and we think your best beloved pictures deserve the best service. Our dedicated team is renowned for its attention to detail. www.hellocanvas.co.uk How to submit your images Please see the ‘Send us your pictures’ section on page 3 for details or visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/spotlight Julian Parton Hampshire Landscapes provide a way of remembering the beautiful places Julian…

Jon Devo Technical writer REPLACING the popular Cyber-shot DSC-HX50, Sony has taken an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to its latest high-end travel-zoom, as the Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V retains the sleek design, size and many of the same top specifications that made its predecessor so popular. Competition in the pocket-sized travelzoom camera category is becoming increasingly stiff as manufacturers battle it out for supremacy. Oddly, GPS was left out of the UK version of the HX50, but this time round we get the option of the GPS-enabled HX60V entering the market alongside competition from Canon, Nikon and Panasonic, with all four offering a 30x optical zoom in a compact body. In this test, I aim to find out whether Sony’s new Bionz X processor in the HX60V is…

MANFROTTO’S 055 series tripods have enjoyed huge popularity since their introduction and are often imitated but rarely bettered. This latest version offers significant improvements over its predecessors, with a rigidity – not to mention an impressive size-to-weight ratio – that makes it perfect for both studio and location use. FEATURES The redesigned features are subtle yet significant, and could possibly be overlooked by the casual observer. The main improvement is to the 90° centre column mechanism, which is neatly enclosed within the collar. Now, the centre column can be extended vertically, then flipped and locked securely into horizontal mode – all with the camera attached. It makes the switch from shooting straight ahead to overhead or macro mode an absolute breeze. Adjusting and releasing the leg locks is a simple…

ON TEST CANON EOS 1200D With an 18-million-pixel CMOS sensor and 3fps shooting, we find out how canon’s latest entrylevel DSLR performs APOY ROUND 1 RESULTS We reveal who made the top 30 in our Street Life round of APOY ON TEST SONY CARL ZEISS 24-70MM F/4 We test the Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS 35mm full-frame standard zoom lens GOING UNDERGROUND Bob Mazzer captures the extraordinary variety of life on London’s Tube network…

“Scott’s negatives can now take their rightful place in Cambridge” Alpha 7S boasts ISO 50-409,600 • 28-135mm lens • Out this summer SONY ALPHA 7S RIVALS NIKON D4S IN ISO SONY has unveiled a 12-million-pixel full-frame compact system camera, the Alpha 7S, which has an ISO range of 50-409,600 – exactly the same as the Nikon D4S. The Alpha 7S is a 12-millionpixel FE-mount model aimed at serious photographers and videographers. First impressions suggest the dynamic range will represent a serious challenge to the Nikon D4S, although AP’s technical team have yet to put the 7S through the testing mill. Sony technical marketing manager Shiori Katsumata told AP: ‘We are proud of the image quality – so you can take a picture in a situation which wasn’t possible previously… ‘We…

Committed to defending your photographic rights! A REPORTED ban on many street photos in Hungary under new privacy rules has prompted the UK government to assess the potential impact on British travellers, following a call by AP. Last month, the Hungarian government issued a new ‘civil code’ that reportedly requires the photographer to obtain consent from everyone in a picture who is identifiable, regardless of whether or not the image is published. The law, which apparently took effect on 15 March, could mean that a photographer could, for example, run the risk of being sued if a person wanders into shot and doesn’t want their picture taken. Legendary war photographer Robert Capa, a founding member of famed picture agency Magnum, was from Hungary. Hungarian photojournalist Gabor Monos told AP that…

● GROOMED by Paul Nathan, £22.50 This book is mostly fine until you get to the Creative Grooming chapter. Dog grooming is a rather niche world, and when idly flicking through this book you do feel a little like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole. But the portraits are nice – very well lit and characterful. So what if some of them are styled eccentrically? Then you get to Creative Grooming, and you see the one with Donald Duck’s face groomed and dyed into his right flank. Why would you do that to a dog? ● THE WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP by Ross Hoddinott and Ben Hall, £16.99 Photography workshops are ten a penny – everyone and their mum seems to be running one. It’s difficult to sort the wheat from…

BRINGING YOU ESSENTIAL EXPERT ADVICE EVERY WEEK ANDREW NEWEY Andrew is an awardwinning travel photographer based in the south-west of England. His work has been exhibited at the Royal Geographical Society in London and published worldwide by numerous outlets, including National Geographic, GEO, Microsoft, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, NBC News, the BBC and Lonely Planet. He has also received numerous awards and was a finalist in the 2013 Travel Photographer of the Year Awards. To see more of Andrew’s images, visit www.andrewnewey.com I HAVE been a travel photographer for a few years now, but I’ve come to realise that the bottom has well and truly fallen out of the market. Everyone now owns a camera and travelling has become…

THERE is undoubtedly a plethora of photography awards out there in the world. Sometimes it can be difficult to know which ones to pay serious attention to. However, year after year (since 2008, in fact) the Sony World Photography Awards have become an important event in every photography enthusiast’s calendar. The competition is divided into a range of categories to cater for all tastes. Portraiture shares equal billing with Wildlife & Nature, both of which sit beside more abstract titles such as Smile and Enhanced. What’s perhaps most notable is the fact that the awards fall into two camps – Professional and Open. It was an eye-opening experience finding myself as chair of the judges for the Open Competition this year. The Open Competition is a clear demonstration of just…

Sunday afternoon in Clevedon Andrew Wood Nikon D700, 50mm, 1/125sec at f/16, ISO 200 ANDREW has subtitled this picture ‘The reason British people talk about the weather so much’. It says it all, doesn’t it? I like this shot very much, mainly because it is so different, but also because it has a great sense of humour about it. The umbrella reminds me of Jack Vettriano’s The Singing Butler, that romantic painting of the couple in ball gown and dinner jacket. But here is the reality of dancing on the beach in Clevedon. Shooting through the wet window gives us the sense of being in and looking out, and being able to laugh at the sight, rather than being in the scene and getting wet ourselves. And the watery ripples…

CANON’S new Pixma iP8750 is a single-function photo-quality A3+ printer with USB and wireless connectivity that can connect to smartphones, tablets and Wi-Fi cameras using the Pixma Printing Solutions app. This printer is a great choice for the family and the photo enthusiast alike. The iP8750 uses six individual ChromaLife 100+ dye-ink cartridges, making it an economical printer for both photos and documents, as you only need to replace the depleted inks. FEATURES At first glance, the Canon Pixma iP8750 doesn’t seem to offer a great deal, as it lacks a memory-card slot, standalone printing capability, a PictBridge port and LCD. However, its versatile wireless connectivity means you can use Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and wireless PictBridge for printing from tablets, smartphones and Wi-Fi-enabled cameras. The iP8750 supports multiple…

USING EF LENSES ON AN EOS 7D QI have used Canon bridge cameras for the past ten years and now wish to progress to a Canon DSLR. I am interested in the Canon EOS 7D, but does it take both EF and EF-S lenses? I have several EF lenses, including prime 50mm and 85mm optics, plus various zooms (including a 20-35mm EF USM, 28-105mm EF USM and a 100-300mm EF USM). I have used these on my Canon EOS-1V film camera with Fujichrome Velvia and Kodachrome 64 slide film, so would they be compatible with current Canon DSLRs using APS-C-sized sensors as well as full-frame sensors? John Harbidge A You can use your existing Canon EF optics on an EOS 7D. EF lenses are compatible with both full-frame and APS-C-sizedsensor…

OLYMPUS first revealed the E-1, its first DSLR, in March 2003 at the PMA Show in Las Vegas, and first shipments were made at the end of that year. It was the birth of the four thirds DSLR E system, which evolved into the mirrorless micro four thirds system in 2008. The arrival of the E-1 was a big deal for Olympus because the company had failed to make the transition to autofocus SLRs with its once-popular OM film SLR system. The E-1 represented Olympus’s opportunity to get back into the SLR arena for the first time, arguably, since the mid-1980s. A company’s most ardent fans can quickly become its most vocal critics, and Olympus’s failure to continue development of the OM system was seen as a betrayal by many.…

Granted, it was hardly the crime of the century, but ‘a man has been arrested and is in custody at Felixstowe charged with stealing a Leica camera by obtaining it through an advertisement in “AP”’, screamed the top story in the journal’s News and Review section, which warned: ‘This man may have obtained a number of cameras, as well as cash and film, by communicating with AP advertisers, using a variety of names. Any reader who within the last two years has lost a camera, or money, as a result of correspondence arising from an advertisement in AP is asked to send a full statement of the case to the East Suffolk Police…’…

ONE IN five people have never backed up their digital devices, despite the same share having lost one or had it stolen or damaged, a UK poll reveals. With one trillion photos predicted to be captured this year – fuelled by the ‘selfie’ explosion – the news has sparked concern that many precious images will be lost. The survey by Acronis, a data protection software provider, found that of those who back up data, only 24% had done so in the past week. Almost half (42.5%) of consumers back up data on USBs or hard drives, while only 18% used a cloud-based service. ‘With the rise of the “selfie” and the increased use of music and videos, many consumers would be completely lost if something happened to their digital device,’…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Wins a great shockproof, waterproof and dustproof 5-Proof Technology 16GB Samsung SDHC Plus memory card offering up to 48MB/sec transfer speed. www.samsung.com/memorycard NO MORE HEARTACHE I would like to congratulate AP, and particularly Phil Hall, on the excellent landscape supplement that came free with AP 29 March. What I found really interesting were the articles on the philosophy of Charlie Waite, David Ward and Doug Chinnery – they echo my personal discoveries: that you won’t get great shots every time; there’s something in every scene that’s worth searching out; and you should try to please yourself and stay true to your vision. If only this supplement had been available when I started out, I could have saved myself years of heartache! Nick Roberts, via email Great…

MARTIN EVENING Martin Evening is a Londonbased advertising photographer and noted expert in both photography and digital imaging. He is well known for his fashion and beauty work, for which he has won several awards. In 2008, he was inducted into the NAPP Photoshop Hall of Fame. Martin has worked with the Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom engineering teams over many years and is one of the founding members of Pixel Genius, a software design company producing automated production and creative plug-ins for Photoshop. His recent books include The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book, Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers, as well as the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop series, which he co-wrote with Jeff Schewe. THE ART of retouching is not to leave any telltale signs, such as…

Amateur Photographer has teamed up with Olympus to offer readers an exclusive private view of the Bob Carlos Clarke exhibition, Living Dolls, for only £10 per person. Taking place on Thursday 29 May from 6-9pm at The Little Black Gallery, 13A Park Walk, London SW10 0AJ, you will have the opportunity to be among the frst to see these rare images from one of the most revered photographers of his generation. you’ll have the chance to play with the latest Olympus kit and chat to the AP editorial team. Places are limited, so to take advantage of this special offer, which is only available to AP readers, please call 0203 148 4326 or email nadine_thomas@ipcmedia.com…

Elgato Smart Key £39.95 www.elgato.com/en/smart/smart-key Amateur Photographer If you have an iPhone, you should have a Smart Key 5.0 IF YOU are the type of person who is prone to leaving your camera somewhere and then forgetting where you put it, then the Smart Key tracking device may be just the thing for you. Using Bluetooth technology, the Smart Key connects to an Apple iPhone or iPad running the Smart Key app, and will help to prevent you losing your camera, or to locate it if you do. When the Bluetooth connection between the camera and smart device is lost, the app will alert you, reminding you that you have left your camera behind. By pressing a button on the app, you can even make the Smart Key play a…

PRICES Circular £189.99-£289.99 100mm £279 (without holder) £329 (with holder) 165mm £599.99 JOEL Tjintjelaar (pronounced chinche-laar) is an award-winning fine-art photographer based in the Netherlands. In collaboration with Formatt Hitech, Joel has released a signature series of ProStop IRND Long Exposure filter kits. These are a collection of 3-stop, 6-stop and 10-stop neutral density (ND) filters designed to be used on their own or with each other. Combining ND filters of various strengths allows you to achieve ultra-long shutter speeds even in bright conditions. This is an integral part of the technique that Joel employs in order to produce his images. His photography involves paying meticulous attention to both form and composition, commonly featuring man-made structures such as buildings and bridges. By using these long exposures, Joel marries the movement…

Focusing at the hyperfocal distance is useful for landscape photographers (among others) as it maximises the depth of field at any given aperture. At its simplest, this allows more of a scene from front-to-back to appear acceptably sharp at the aperture you’re using. However, setting the hyperfocal distance can also be a way of utilising the ‘best’ aperture setting on a lens, allowing you to avoid the diffraction associated with the smallest apertures, so you get the best optical performance without sacrificing too much depth of field. At its simplest, the hyperfocal distance is the distance at which everything from half that distance to infinity will appear acceptably sharp, so if the hyperfocal distance is 4 metres, everything from 2 metres to infinity would be covered by the depth of…

I WAS sitting at the bar with a box full of prints spread out in front me. ‘Incoming,’ called a voice from my right, and as I looked in its direction a fresh pint of ale came careening down the bar, then tripped on a beer mat and tipped over in front me. ‘Oh, man. I’m sorry,’ Eli said, rushing to grab a beer towel and mopping foam off my prints. ‘I didn’t see your pictures. I hope they’re OK.’ ‘Oh don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I suppose it’s payback for the time I reformatted your memory card.’ Eli gritted his teeth. ‘Four memory cards. Every memory card I’ve ever lent you.’ ‘Yes, well… I suppose revenge in this case is best served at room temperature.’ The truth is, I wasn’t…