Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-may-15 i Amateur Photographer

AP has periodically embraced the moving image at various times throughout its history – during the 1920s and ’30s the magazine was even called The Amateur Photographer and Cinematographer – but now that you can shoot both stills and video using the same camera the two mediums are converging like never before. Many of our readers are drawn to the creative possibilities offered by video, but it’s a subject too vast for AP to do justice to in just a few pages per month so we decided to build a new website dedicated purely to the art of filmmaking using DSLRs and CSCs. Launched this week, The Video Mode features a mix of video-related news, gear reviews, technique articles and videos on all aspects of filmmaking, as well as profiles…

With long-promised Government austerity measures poised to strike, an unseemly photo depicting a large supply of Moët & Chandon champagne purportedly being delivered to Number 11 Downing Street appeared on Twitter (above) hours after the Conservatives swept to victory in the election. Though genuine, the image is not what it is purported to represent. It was actually taken on 9 September 2004 when Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer – under a Labour Government. The photo, shown in the tweet above, was taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Lewis. Subscribe to Amateur Photographer SAVE 36% * Visit amateurphotographer subs.co.uk/15G * when you pay by UK Direct Debit…

Kew Summer Lates Kew will once again be throwing open its doors on Wednesdays, for evenings of botanical cocktails, live music and, of course, plenty of plants to see and shoot. Bring a decent low-light camera, arm yourself with a drink and have fun. Until 1 July, www.kew.org Calumet Academy courses Improve your technique with one of Calumet Academy’s courses in June. Courses include a Fujifilm X-series tutorial, mastering street photography and a DSLR video workshop. Ongoing, calumetacademy. co.uk/events/june-2015 AOP Awards exhibition The Association of Photographers brings its awards exhibition to Liverpool’s LOOK/15 International Photography Festival. There’s plenty to see throughout Liverpool as the Festival ends. Until 31 May, www.the-aop.org  www.lookphotofestival.com Enter the Taylor Wessing You’ve got just over a month to…

FUJIFILM has built a Quad Linear Motor into its new XF 90mm f/2R LM WR lens, saying the move will boost AF speed to 0.14sec. The fast-aperture 11-elements-in-8-group prime lens is designed to deliver the 35mm viewing angle of a 137mm optic. A Fuji spokesman told AP that the 90mm f/2 is the ‘sharpest' lens in the firm's line-up and will produce a ‘beautiful bokeh'. Claimed to be weather and dust-resistant, the newcomer features a minimum focus distance of 60cm and is said to work in temperatures down to -10°C. The seven–blade diaphragm lens incorporates three extra-low-dispersion elements to help reduce chromatic aberration. The 540g lightweight lens measures 75 x105mm and will cost £699 when it goes on sale in late July.…

1 Don't assume that just because you are a good photographer you're a good teacher. It may be worth doing a course in teaching adults. The TES has a useful article at bit.ly/teachadults or contact your local adult education college for more advice. 2 Don't expect students to flock to you. You need to raise your profile by winning a competition, getting published or writing a book. It's also a good idea to establish a strong following on social media. This is invaluable for marketing. 3 Getting an Associate or Fellow distinction from a national photographic society or professional body will also add to your credibility when you are attracting people to book workshops with you. 4 Proper third-party and public-liability insurance is essential, so contact a photography insurance specialist…

£10.95 (10 x 10cm) www.whitewall.com Wall mounting A hanging rail can be selected during the ordering process and added at no extra cost, making it easy to mount on the wall. Brushed and glossy The HD Metal Print is available in two finishes. The brushed finish is designed for black & white images. At a glance Sizes from 10 x 10cm to 150 x 100cm available Standard, express and premium express delivery Free sample pack available via the website WHITEWALL'S HD Metal Print is the latest aluminium finish to be added to the company's range of online photo lab services. Aimed at those who'd like to create a long-lasting print resistant to scratching, moisture and fading, images are applied to 1mm-thick aluminium through a unique thermal sublimation printing process, whereby…

Raw/FX button This turns raw on and off by default, but is also customisable to operate depth of field preview or exposure bracketing. Pop-up flash The built-in flash is released by a button on the side of the pentaprism, and has a guide number of 12m @ ISO 100. IR remote receiver This is compatible with Pentax’s O-RC1 infrared release for wireless remote control. Connectors Micro-USB and Micro-HDMI connectors are found under a flap on the handgrip, and there’s a mic socket on the other side. Battery The D-Li109 battery is rated for 410 shots per charge. An external charger is supplied with the camera. Green button Pentax’s unique green button is used to quickly set a correct exposure in manual mode, or reset exposure shift in program. Wi-Fi button…

Photo-book advice Q I have been planning to use photo books to preserve some of my favourite images, but I have been shown a photo book in which the definition of the printed images is disappointing. Can you tell me which of the various makes of book are most likely to meet my quality requirements? Roger Gamble A Our favourite source for photo books is Blurb (www.blurb.co.uk). You can build a photo book using either an online template or a Lightroom plug-in. Prices start at £8.99 for a small square (18 x 18cm/7 x 7in) 20-page book, with an 8 x 10in version costing £13.99. Other good sources include Photobox (www.photobox.co.uk), which offers a 26-page A4 book for £26.99. Regarding the definition of the printed images, there should be no…

The Greek word techne or tekne – the root of our word ‘technique’ – can be translated to mean both art and craft. No one thought to separate the two. This is not to say that artists were treated as mere craftsmen. Many were regarded as sublime craftsmen, such as the Greek sculptor Pheidias 2,500 years ago. The tendency to worship art as something distinct from craft probably began to take off in the late 15th century. It received an enormous boost in the late 18th century from the Romantic movement, was pushed still further in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the rise of movements such as the Fauves, Impressionists, Cubists, Surrealists, Vorticists and so forth, and arguably reached its apotheosis in the late 20th century with…

Jake Hicks Jake Hicks is a fashion and hair photographer based in Reading, Berkshire. Known for his bright and bold lighting techniques, he regularly runs workshops for Bowens International. www.jakehicksphotography.com We are bombarded by thousands of images every day. Many of these we instantly forget, but some catch our eye and it’s those images that we remember. So how can we make sure that our portrait images are the ones that get noticed and are remembered? The next time a photograph catches your eye, take note of what it is that attracted your attention. It could be any number of things, such as an image that tells a story or an image that makes you look at it a little longer because your eye has to do a little more…

And you answered 1 Yes, I have used food as an image subject 43% 2 No, it is of no interest to me 26% 3 No, I’d rather be eating it 21% 4 Yes, if you count snapping my dinner for social media 10% What you said ‘Yes, if a couple of pieces of toast, a glass of orange juice and a cup of black coffee counts. Mostly I tend only to eat the stuff, which is my biggest failing’ ‘Well, I’ve never used a plate camera, but I’ve exposed a roll or two!’ ‘No, I never attempt food photography. Bad food is not worth photographing (except I suppose if you want to use it to support a complaint). I would never let good food spoil or go cold, or…

WHEN Paul moved to digital, the one thing he says he could not do without was the camera movements on a 5x4 that allowed him to alter the plane of focus and achieve front-to-back sharpness in his images. However, he found he could achieve similar results by using the Nikon PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED lens. The perspective control (or tilt-and-shift) lens allows you to tilt the front of the lens forward, enabling you to alter the plane of focus. If you turn it through 45°, the ‘tilt' function becomes ‘swing', which allows you to alter the plane of focus from side-to-side. The tilt-and-shift is often regarded as a lens for architectural photography, as the movements also allow the user to correct converging verticals in-camera. ‘Regardless of what it says…

Paul Cooper from Hereford is the winner of our Going Abstract round of APOY 2015. Paul will receive a Sigma18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM | A lens with a Sigma EF-610 DG Super flashgun and a Sigma USB Dock. That's a total retail value of £1,099.97. The Sigma18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM | A is the first zoom lens ever to achieve a maximum aperture of f/1.8 throughout the zoom range. It is a wide-aperture, standard zoom lens for DSLR cameras with APS-C-sized sensors. The lens has a focal range equivalent to 27-52.5mm in 35mm format and can cover the angles of view of multiple fixed-focal-length lenses. The lens integrates four aspherical elements into its construction, as well as five Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements to help minimise various aberrations and…

At a glance 20.1MP, APS-C CMOS sensor Pentax K mount ISO 100-51,200 5.4fps continuous shooting In-body image stabilisation £600 with 18-50mm WR lens For and against In-body image stabilisation works with every lens Large, bright viewfinder aids composition Lots of external controls make it easy to change settings Bulky, somewhat uncomfortable handgrip In-camera JPEG processing isn’t the best LCD screen isn’t touch-sensitive Where in the range Pentax K-3 II Price £850 with 18-55mm WR lens At the top end of the Pentax range, the K-3 II updates the highly regarded K-3 with built-in GPS and a clever multi-shot high-resolution mode. Pentax K-S1 Price £440 with 18-55mm lens The design may be quirky, but get past that and the K-S1 is an excellent small DSLR for entry-level users. Data file Sensor…

Amateur Photographer Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details WE'VE seen Pentax use this 20MP sensor before in the K-S1, and it behaves in much the same way in the K-S2 as it did in its little brother. As we saw before, the JPEG processing aggressively smooths away fine detail to remove aliasing and moiré artefects, which means that you can get much finer details out of your files by shooting in raw and processing with your favourite converter. When we look at noise across the ISO range, images up to ISO 800 are entirely usable, and it's only at ISO1600 where things start to deteriorate if you look closely. But ISOs 3200 and 6400 are just fine for…

THERE is a lot to like about the Panasonic Lumix G Macro 30mm f/2.8 Asph Mega OIS lens. It is small, compact and lightweight, which means it pairs well with all the Micro Four Thirds cameras I used it on. It also doubles up reasonably well as a standard-focal-length lens, which is useful as a general walk-around optic. In terms of image quality it is hard to fault, especially given the price. On the downside, as with other short-focal-length macro lenses, you have to get extremely close to your subject to get1:1 images, which means the lens may be frustrating to use when trying to photograph insects. The wide angle of view means that there can be a lot of background to contend with in your images. If you are…

Timelapse gadget A device that could bring timelapse photography to the masses has proved to be a massive hit on Kickstarter. Billed as a ‘precision motion timelapse device’, Radian 2 is designed to allow wireless control of a camera via a Bluetooth connection. It physically connects to a camera – or an image-capturing smartphone – using a USB or external trigger port. Visit www.kickstarter.com. Imaging Festival At Park Cameras Imaging Festival, experts will be on hand from camera makers including Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fujifilm, Sony, Panasonic and Pentax. There will also be free seminars and special offers. The festival takes place on 20 June at Park Cameras in Burgess Hill, West Sussex; and at its store in London, on 27 June. For details visit www.parkcameras.com/Festival2015. Magnum aces Magnum Photos and…

STUNNING images won a string of honours for UK photographers at the recently announced International Color Awards. Devon-based Nigel Hicks garnered an Honourable Mention at the International Color Awards, Los Angeles, with his atmospheric shot of surfers, called ‘In Search of Surf' (right), which he entered into the Silhouettes category. Speaking to AP, Hicks said he captured the image at Saunton Sands, near Barnstaple in Devon, using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and 400mm f/5.6L lens. Other UK-based photographers to be awarded honours at the eighth International Color Awards included Heather Buckley, Lucia Griggi, Eleonora Pecorella, Darrin Jenkins, Luke Hayes and Tony Burns. To view all the winning images, visit www.colorawards.com. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

Remote-control apps are everywhere these days. You can orchestrate your home heating, lighting and security systems, your hi-fi and even your vacuum cleaner, from practically anywhere in the world if you want to, simply by using your smartphone. And very good they are too. The one that came with a Tesla car I was driving last winter enabled me to set the heating to the desired temperature while I was still in bed. When I climbed aboard, the car was already invitingly cosy. You'd think camera companies would be falling over themselves to perfect their remote-control apps. Cable releases and wireless triggers have historically proved invaluable when keeping your distance from shy subjects, shooting in difficult-to-access locations, or reducing camera shake on long exposures. Smartphone apps add remote viewfinders and…

1 Set up the lighting I've used classic clamshell lighting here with one Bowens beauty dish above and a small softbox fill-light below. You will need to add some light that will not only help to add shape to your model, but will also shine directly into the lens. 2 Direct light As we are trying to create flare, it is important that light shines into the lens but is just out of shot. Here I have positioned two gridded flash heads behind the model that are pointing back towards the camera and lighting the model's hair. 3 Add colour To introduce some interest and colour to the shot, I have added coloured gels to the two backlights. I have used orange and blue as they are complementary colours and…

Have suitcase, will travel Hayley Power Olympus TG-1 iHS, 25mm, 1/500sec at f/8, ISO 100 THIS is a shot that makes me smile, and one I expect will get a reaction from most viewers. It is a funny scene with humorous content, but one that Hayley has captured with some skill to make it into a successful picture. It is easy to demand that the boy's head should be against the sea, not the boat, but then the trolley would probably disappear into the shadow of the boat Ð and it's the trolley that really makes this shot. So Hayley has got the timing just about right. I will comment that she needs to keep her lens clean, though, as there's smearing in the bottom left of the frame. The…

ONE OF the standout features on recent Pentax DSLRs is the anti-aliasing filter simulator. This employs the camera's in-body image-stabilisation unit to slightly blur the image, giving the same effect as the optical low-pass filter that's used in most cameras to suppress imaging artefacts such as aliasing and moiré. The big advantage of Pentax's system is that it can be turned on and off as required, with two selectable strengths of blurring. The feature is accessed most easily via the Info button, and works pretty much as advertised. The blurring effect is very subtle, but it's enough to reduce the artefacts it is meant to combat. However, it's not terribly practical to adjust on a shot-by-shot basis, as it is difficult to work out in advance which setting you should…

WHEN I first picked up the Pentax K-S2, I have to admit I didn't warm to it immediately. Yet after shooting with it for a while, it gradually won me over. It may not be the prettiest camera in its class, nor the most comfortable in hand, but it's arguably the best-featured and the nicest to shoot with. Indeed, with its large bright viewfinder, twin dials and well-worked out external controls, the K-S2 provides a user experience that belies its price. I'd say that not only is it more pleasant to use than its immediate Canon and Nikon competitors, but it's also pretty close to the more expensive models from these brands. There are plenty of options for setting the camera up just how you like it, with user-configurable controls…

Resolution The 30mm gives a solid account of itself in our MTF tests, and in particular provides consistent sharpness across the frame at all apertures – a highly desirable characteristic for a macro lens. It’s a little soft wide open, and overall it’s at its sharpest when stopped down to around f/5.6-f/8. Diffraction softens the image at smaller apertures, in an inevitable trade-off against depth of field. Shading As is common with Micro Four Thirds lenses, shading is extremely low. Even wide open, the fall-off in illumination is only about 1/2 stop in the corners, which won’t be visible in practical use. Stop down the lens and this drops to a mere 0.3EV. Curvilinear distortion In general, macro lenses are designed to give low levels of distortion. The Panasonic 30mm…

LAUNCHED March 2002 PRICE £2,200 (body only) GUIDE PRICE TODAY £125 (body only) THE EOS D60 was Canon's second ‘affordable' DSLR after the very similar 3MP D30 launched two years earlier. Upgraded from the D30 with a 6MP CMOS APS-C sensor, the D60 also benefited from illuminated focus points and reduced shutter lag. Above all, the D60, like the D30 before it, looked and worked like a typical film EOS SLR, making the transition from film to digital for EOS users relatively straightforward. What’s good Canon's excellent USM focusing was head and shoulders above the competition, and the camera was refined in operation and delivered noise-free images at all but moderately high ISO speeds. The camera was also very responsive, avoiding shutter lock due to buffering a lot of the…