Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-feb-2014 i Amateur Photographer

IF I WORE a hat, I’d take it off in salute to those people in R&D working for the big camera and lens manufacturers who every day expend blood, sweat and tears to bring us tiny incremental improvements in image quality. A touch less noise here, a smidgen more resolution there – in barely perceptible increments, punctuated by occasional leaps, our cameras get better and better. So it must be galling to those optical scientists, sensor designers and software programmers when photographers do things like shoot through an unmounted lens held at a jaunty angle in front of the body, as our freelensers have done in this week’s issue (pages 37-41). Freelensing is one of a growing number of techniques employed by photographers who strive to invent new and creative…

FURTHER expanding its zoom range, Tamron has unveiled two new telephoto lenses: a 28-300mm and a 16-300mm. The Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD is designed for full-frame DSLRs, while the 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro is built for those with an APS-C-sized imaging sensor. Both incorporate the Piezo Drive, an ultrasonic motor system for quiet AF, as well as a Vibration Compensation mechanism. The 28-300mm lens is constructed of 19 elements in 15 groups, while the 16-300mm zoom boasts 16 elements in 12 groups. Both include moulded-glass aspherical elements and ultra-extra refractive index elements. In the design of both lenses, Tamron has focused on portability. The 28-300mm lens has reduced dimensions compared to Tamron’s previous model of the same focal length, measuring 96mm long and weighing 540g.…

CLASSIC design is the first thing you notice when you see the Fujifilm X-T1. Its DSLR-style viewfinder gives it a distinctly film-like silhouette reminiscent of the Nikon FM2 – a move away from the rangefinder style of the other X-series cameras such as the X-Pro1 and the X-E2. Squarely aimed at the advanced enthusiast photographer, the Fujifilm X-T1 enters the market with a large 2.36-million-dot OLED EVF that delivers class-leading 0.77x full-frame equivalent magnification. This is immediately pleasing to the eye and, with an almost imperceptible lag of 0.005secs, it closely imitates an optical viewfinder. With the X-T1, Fuji has created an entirely new line in its range, slotting it in above the X-E2 and below the X-Pro1. The firm is hoping that some photographers will adopt the X-T1 as…

Write to… ‘Letters’ at the usual AP address (see page 3) fax to 020 3148 8130 or email to amateur photographer@ipcmedia.com and include your full postal address Earn £50 Backchat Send your thoughts or views (about 500 words) to ‘Backchat’ at the usual AP address (see page 3). A fee of £50 will be paid on publication PHOTOGRAPHY ON TV I missed the series first time round, but caught up with the recent repeats of Britain’s First Photo Album on BBC2. Watching the hugely likeable John Sergeant tour Britain and attempt to replicate some of the photos of pioneer photographer Francis Frith was perfect television. John took to the job with gusto, actively engaging with the people he met on his travels. But – there’s always a but – his…

IF ANYONE is going to know what defnes ‘travel’ photography, then surely the winner of 2013’s Travel Photographer of the Year Awards is going to know, right? Yet the question elicits a momentary pause, a little splutter and a cough before Timothy Allen admits that actually he doesn’t like the word ‘travel’ anyway. ‘It’s a bit of a loaded word, unfortunately. I think most good travel photographers would consider themselves as just photographers who travel. That’s certainly how I consider myself, especially as I come from a hard-core photojournalist background,’ he says. ‘Having dipped my toes into both, the difference I can see in a broad sense is that photojournalists love pain and death, and travel photographers love the antithesis of that. Photojournalists think that travel photographers don’t cover anything…

AP publishes more reader photographs than any other photography magazine Michel Hersen USA Michel returns to AP’s Reader Spotlight with another superb collection of images, taken from his explorations of National Parks in the USA. The images here are taken from trips to Mount Rainier, Grand Teton National Park, Olympic National Park and more. You can explore Michel’s photography further by visiting his website at www.photographybymichel.net. 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…

IF YOU’RE using a Nikon G-series lens (without an aperture ring), the lens closes down the aperture blades when disconnected from the camera, resulting in dark images. At the rear of the lens is an aperture lever and by moving that anti-clockwise you can open the aperture. It would be impractical to try to hold this open while freelensing, so you’ll need to jam the aperture lever in the its wide-open position by inserting a piece of card or a matchstick in the gap. The good news for Canon, Olympus and Pentax users is that the lenses don’t autoclose the aperture blades when disconnected. Some cameras, such as Sony models, won’t let you fire the shutter if a lens isn’t attached. You can rectify this by enabling the ‘Release w/o…

Amateur Photographer’s… The Cottingley Fairies The pictures of the ‘Cottingley Fairies’ by two young girls unintentionally became one of photography’s most famous hoaxes, writes David Clark IN THE age of digital photography, we readily accept that images can be easily and convincingly manipulated. A century ago, however, photography was largely seen as a medium that captured reality as seen through the lens. This perception of photography’s scientific status, together with society’s greater willingness to believe in supernatural phenomena, led to one of the 20th century’s most famous photographic hoaxes: the ‘Cottingley Fairies’ pictures. Events began innocently. In the summer of 1917, 16-year-old Elsie Wright and her nine-year-old cousin Frances Griffiths were living in Elsie’s parents’ house in Cottingley, near Bradford in West Yorkshire. They often played in the beck, a…

In the next few weeks AP hopes to run the following equipment through the most rigorous testing procedures in the industry… Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 We take a first look at Panasonic’s latest micro four thirds compact system camera with the ability to shoot 4K video. AP 1 March Nikon D3300 It’s the company’s latest and smallest entrylevel DSLR. We find out if its performance matches the claims being made for it. AP 8 March Icelight We test a new handheld light-wand that allows for a flexible approach to lighting subjects. AP 8 March Fujifilm X-T1 We look at a fashionably retro 16-million-pixel CSC and find out if it is a case of style over substance. AP 15 March TESTBENCH: SIX OF THE BEST We take a look at six of…

As noted in this week’s answer to Bill Ward (below), his Weston Euro Master lightmeter uses a selenium cell, as did many exposure meters of the time (both handheld and built into cameras). These cells consist of a thin layer of metallic selenium, sandwiched between a positive and negative contact. When the selenium receives light, an electrical charge is generated that forms the basis of a light reading that can be converted into a photographic exposure. The more light the cell receives, the greater the charge generated. The main advantage of a selenium cell is that it requires no external power source, so there’s no need for batteries. So long as there’s light, you can get a light reading. However, this is also a disadvantage, as it means the cell…

PHOTOGRAPHY, you might think, is about taking photographs. For some people it is, but look at your fellow photographers, or in the mirror, and you realise that there are many other motivations too. Here are 11 to be getting on with. The intriguing thing is that more than half of them don’t necessarily involve taking pictures at all. Who do you recognise in this list? Gadget addiction. Gadgets – things you can do things with – are often attractive, especially (it seems) to boys and men. Knobs to twiddle, levers to move, rings to twist, buttons to press. Cameras are gadgets par excellence. Old cameras are, I suggest, best of all. How can a touchscreen compete with the tactile appeal of a wind-on, a silky manual-focusing ring, or a click-stopped…

PANASONIC LUMIX GH4 CARRIES 4K VIDEO GH4 targets higher-end user • New processor • 2.4-million-dot EVF PANASONIC promises better image quality in both still images and video with its upcoming Lumix DMC-GH4. Trumpeted as compact, rugged, lightweight and ‘weather-sealed’, the GH4 features a revamped 16-million-pixel imaging sensor claimed to deliver a 50% faster signal readout speed compared to the GH3. However, neither a launch date nor a price for the camera – which is still in development – has yet been made public. The announcement came as Panasonic admitted that volume sales of its compact system cameras fell last year. It largely blames the closure of Jessops stores under former owners early in 2013, and rival Samsung’s ‘free tablet’ giveaway camera promotion. “We rethought and redesigned every aspect” Panasonic’s Barney…

SIGMA has installed a 39-million-pixel Foveon imaging sensor in its new dp Quattro compact camera line-up. ‘For the new dp series, we rethought and redesigned every aspect of the camera, including the sensor, engine, lens and body,’ said Sigma. There are three different versions of the dp Quattro, each with a different focal length: 19mm, 30mm and 50mm (the latter producing the equivalent of a 75mm lens in 35mm format). Each lens carries a maximum aperture of f/2.8. First to arrive will be the dp2 Quattro, featuring a 30mm optic with a nine-blade diaphragm. Sigma claims that the dp Quattro body offers a ‘balanced shape, layout and weight distribution’. The Foveon X3 Quattro direct image sensor is designed to enable faster image processing and lower power consumption. Launch dates and…

Polaroids from the Middle Kingdom: Old and New World Visions of China By Lukas Birk. Glitterati Incorporated, £29.95, hardback, 128 pages, ISBN 978-0-988-17456-6 AFTER relocating to Beijing, Austrian-born photographer Lukas Birk discovered his father’s collection of expired Polaroid film and decided to use it to document his experiences of modern China. What resulted is a collection of blue and green-hued images, many with chemical defects, damage and imperfections. The effect is sometimes transformative, making the images feel as though they were taken in another era and heightening the sense of cultural divide. Birk is a talented photographer, and his street-style images are especially good for the way he obviously engages personally with his subjects. The shots devoid of people, though, are also all the more effective for the ghostly hue…

IF THERE is one thing in photography that drives me to distraction, it’s the selfie. These egotistical self-portraits are rife, irritating and just plain naff! And Oxford Dictionaries nominating selfie as the word of the year irritates me even more (News, AP 14 December). I occasionally use Facebook to test out some of my own pictures – not selfies, but landscapes and macro shots of flowers. And I get cheesed off when a shot I’m particularly proud of receives no ‘likes’ or comments at all. It’s worse than someone totally panning one of my pictures. Then I check out a few Facebook female friends’ selfies. Despite redeye, bleached-out faces and the limited poses possible with handheld self-portraits, the ‘likes’ mount up like hungry gulls around a fishing boat. And the…

TIMOTHY enters the Travel Photographer of the Year to feel part of the community and to support what he views as his industry’s major awards. ‘The prizes are phenomenal and the number of people who enter is mind-boggling,’ he says. ‘The organisers have branched out into seminars and the Travel Photographer Live show, and they really are doing our industry a lot of good. If you are an up-and-coming photographer, then it’s hugely important to get involved in it. ‘It can’t be easy to attract sponsors these days, but TPOTY is managing it by having a really good product. I have a huge amount of respect for them and what they are doing for the world of travel photography.’ For more about the competition, visit www.tpoty.com.…

FREELENSING is a simple yet really creative technique that can imbue your images with an ethereal, dreamlike quality similar to the effect you can achieve with a tilt-and-shift lens when you tilt it, or a Lensbaby. However, rather than spending a small fortune on one of these lovely optics, take a look at your own kit. You’ve probably already got what you need to do it yourself, and if you haven’t, acquiring the necessary gear will cost a fraction of the price of a tiltand-shift lens. As the name suggests, freelensing is accomplished by detaching the lens from your camera and holding it up to the lens mount. Then, by slightly angling the lens away from the body, it’s possible to shift the focal plane in weird and wonderful directions…

1 Start by setting the drive mode to continuous. Slight movements will subtly change focus, so by being able to fire off a series of shots in quick succession you should be able to bag at least one image with the focus where you want it. Set your camera to raw and then to manual mode. Dial in the exposure for the scene, setting the aperture to match the maximum aperture of the lens, and then detach. If you’re using a lens with an aperture ring, set it to the maximum aperture of the lens and set the focus to infinity. Using this method, you’ll find it’s easier just to gently rock back and forth to find focus rather than trying to hold your camera and lens as well as…

Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ Richard Graham Nikon D200, 240mm, 6secs at f/16, ISO 100 THERE’S something unsettling about Richard’s photograph of Antony Gormley’s sculpted figures on Crosby Beach in Merseyside, but that’s by no means a bad thing. Although they’ve been photographed countless times, the combination of the widescreen format and intense colours in this image create the impression that we’re looking at a still from a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film. This mise en scène (or ‘visual theme’) is helped by the fact that the figures are in silhouette. If we didn’t know where or when this was taken, they could easily be interpreted as ‘real’ figures, perhaps emerging from the bowels of a underwater workshop powered by the distant turbines. From a technical angle, the exposure is spot-on and Richard…

THE DIFFERENCE between a myth and a legend is less than entirely clear-cut. In common usage, a ‘myth’ is a story that is wholly fabricated, while a legend is at least based on a degree of truth - however historic and altered that truth might be. This minutiae of linguistics occurred to me as I brought to mind the glitzy reputations of the wide-aperture 85mm portrait lenses used by professionals down the generations. I suppose it is the look and style of this focal length, with the possibility of extremely shallow depth of field, that has made the 85mm f/1.2 a legendary lens for those hoping to make a difference in the field of people pictures. That these lenses have been of exceptional quality, though, is the bit that is…

THE SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGING – in association with Nikon – is one of the largest and most vibrant photographic education communities in the world. Q When did you first become interested in photography? A I started taking photography seriously about six years ago, mostly as a hobby and a release from work. I was always impressed by strong images in landscape and travel publications, and was keen to have a go myself. Q What do you enjoy most about photography? A I like the creative and learning side. It is very fulfilling to be able to create attractive images, and I also enjoy trying to learn from my mistakes. Q What are you hoping to achieve with your photography? A I try to record interesting and attractive images of…

An ‘exceptionally sharp spell of cold’ spurred AP writers to delve into the potential drawbacks of photography in the depths of winter… and ways to deal with it to retain image and print quality. ‘In the first place, condensation on the lens must be watched for and prevented, and this does not only apply to cases when the camera is taken outdoors, as even in the same room the lens will get very In fact, under whatever conditions we are working m colt weather, we must make a point of looking out for condensation just before we are going to use the camera. If indoors, then the best plan is to unscrew the front and back off the lens, and allow the glasses to get thoroughly warmed up to the…

A PHOTOGRAPHER who was sent on a mission to photograph Ethiopian toilets has seen one of his latrine shots help a life-saving charity project – after falling ill with leukaemia. Freelance photographer Richard Hanson visited Ethiopia last year for Toilet Twinning, a life-saving project that helps an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide who don’t have access to a ‘safe, private and hygienic loo’. For £60, people can twin a toilet at home, work or school with a latrine in the world’s poorest countries. ‘We were looking for a spectacular shot of a toilet in a rural setting; something that would be good enough to run as an advertisement in National Geographic magazine,’ said Richard, from South Yorkshire. However, shortly after taking the photo (see above) and returning home, Richard was…

● FINE ART PRINTING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS by Uwe Steinmueller and Juergen Gulbins, £34.50 This third edition of a popular title provides a thorough guide to getting the most out of inkjet photo printing. We’ve covered inkjet printing a few times in the pages of AP and it’s good to see a guide that runs through every aspect of the process, from Photoshop techniques to which printer to buy. Some of the buyer’s guide stuff will certainly date as new products are released, but for the most part it’s a worthy addition to a photographer’s bookshelf. ● CAPTURE THE MAGIC by Jack Dykinga, £30.99 Jack Dykinga leads by example in a book all about teaching better photographic composition and technique. Using his images to illustrate single points such as ‘contrast textures’,…

BRINGING YOU ESSENTIAL EXPERT ADVICE EVERY WEEK GUM PRINTING was something that I did passionately for a number of years, largely during the 1980s. Since then, I’ve dipped in and out of it, but it’s a process that I’ve kept meaning to go back to and tackle seriously again. It’s a time-consuming process and, as a result, I kept putting it back. It’s something that demands a dedicated chunk of time. Recently, I talked to a painter friend of mine who told me that they used to really love my gum prints and that one comment inspired me to get back into the process. I set myself up with a couple of prints and the moment the first image came up in the tray I fell in love with it…

TIMOTHY has two approaches to travelling with his kit – take everything or take as little as possible! ‘If it’s a job when I have a porter, I’ll take everything,’ he admits. But on a recent trip to Nepal, where he was backpacking for a lot of the time, he slimmed his kit down to the essentials. ‘I didn’t take the 400mm lens, and instead of an 85mm f/1.2 I took a f/1.8, which is really small in comparison,’ he adds. ‘I kept the 50mm f/1.2 and put the 16-35mm zoom in.’ Whether he takes a tripod is down to the job but, if possible, he won’t, preferring the lightweight adaptability of a Gorillapod. ‘Tripods are large, heavy items that you use very little,’ he says. ‘In this day and…

IF YOU’RE planning to try freelensing with a full-frame DSLR, a 50mm prime is a favourite among those who do a lot of this kind of shooting. For those using an APS-C-sized sensor, a 35mm lens or similar will be fine. While longer focal lengths are also worth trying, you have to consider the increased risk of camera/lens shake affecting your image, especially if you’re trying to hold both a camera and lens steady. If you get it right, though, it can produce some striking effects. Wideangle focal lengths can also be worth experimenting with, but you might find it tricky to see what’s in focus and vignetting can be an issue. Whatever focal length you decide to try, it is best to avoid zoom lenses. Stick with a fast…

Matt Osborne www.matthewosbornephotography.co.uk FREELENSING allows me to be creative with my photography, as I can control the plane of focus. As a portrait photographer, I can concentrate the focus on the eyes and then have the rest of the face softer. If I want to isolate a subject from a distracting background and I am unable to use depth of field, I can simply tilt my lens to knock part of the image out of focus. This method also allows me to use different lenses that are not designed for my camera. As a rule, try to use lenses that are a different make to your camera but also require a deep adapter. I often use a vintage Carl Zeiss Pentacon Six medium-format lens on my Nikon D800 or FM.…

Micro SD cards Callum McInerney-Riley tests six of the best Micro SD memory cards To test the speeds of the Micro SD cards here, we used a Lexar USB 3.0 Micro SD card reader with a compatible USB 3.0 computer. We transferred 1GB of information using a program called H2testw1.4. This calculates the read/write speed in MB/s and also how many seconds the reading/writing took per 1GB of information. Each card was tested twice and we took the highest score for each. SanDisk Extreme microSDHC/SDXC UHS-I £25 (16GB) www.sandisk.com Read 68.2MB/s (1GB: 14secs) Write 26.9MB/s (1GB: 37secs) The SanDisk Extreme microSDHC/SDXC memory card is available in capacities of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. We tested the 16GB version and found it to have a write speed of 26.9MB/s when transferring a…

GETTING LIKES FOR YOUR PHOTOS Q I have been a member of www.500px for nearly a year, and have about 20 of my best images on the site. During that time I’ve hit the giddy heights of getting a score of just over 90% on a couple of images, made up of ‘Likes’ and ‘Favourites’. My most liked image got 57 Likes and 35 Favourites, but most get just three or four. Am I being naive to ask how do quite a lot of people on the site with very mediocre and sometimes really bad images get hundreds and sometimes thousands of Likes and Favourites for their images? Glenn Morley A Social-media websites can be a great way of getting your photographs out to a wider audience and getting feedback…

AS SONY looks to consolidate its cameras under the Alpha branding, the Alpha 5000 arrives to replace the NEX-3N, adding Wi-Fi functionality, an improved image processor, and benefiting from its lightweight construction and portable size. With the inclusion of the new Bionz X processor, also featured in the high-end Sony Alpha 7/7R and Cyber-shot DSCRX10, the Alpha 5000 is vying for the attention of enthusiasts looking to upgrade from a digital compact to an entry-level DSLR or compact system camera. FEATURES The Alpha 5000 has the same 20.1-millionpixel, APS-C-sized (23.2x15.4mm) sensor we saw in last year’s DSLR-styled Alpha 3000, although the Alpha 5000 also has Near Field Communication (NFC) and Wi-Fi connectivity so users can connect and control the camera using the Sony PlayMemories app via a smartphone or tablet.…