Innholdsfortegnelse for 26-sep-15 i Amateur Photographer

Recently I watched a YouTube video about how to make better video blogs. Although the young lad didn’t know any of the technical terms, everything he said was correct. ‘Sit away from the window early in the morning, when the light is a little more orange,’ he explained. ‘And make sure it isn’t coming straight through the window. This will create nice soft light that looks great for blog videos’. He then talked about the f/2.8 setting on his compact camera. ‘I just leave it on that as it makes the background look a bit blurry and professional,’ he added. Many young people learn the basics of photography on their smartphones. Most will then progress to another camera. These days that may not be a DSLR or even a CSC.…

WITH its large sensor, high sensitivity and low noise, the Sony Alpha 7S is hugely popular with videographers. There is one slight issue, and that's the fact that although the Alpha 7S can output 4K video footage to an external recorder, it can't save this footage internally. We've recently seen the Sony Alpha 7R II record 4K footage internally, so it was expected that the Alpha 7S II would also have this facility – and it doesn't disappoint. As well as being able to shoot at 1080p, the Alpha 7S II can now save 3,840x2,160 4K footage at either 24/25/30fps. The footage is recorded in an XAVC S format, with an MP4 wrapper and 4:2:0 colour sampling with the option of either 100Mbps or 60Mbps bit rates. There are also…

THE FUJIFILM X-T1 is perfect for my street photography because of three key factors: the tilting screen, its speedy shooting and its small size. People don’t recognise the X-T1 as a professional-looking camera, which makes it perfect for the kind of photography I like to do. I set white balance to auto in Menu 2, and I let my camera control the ISO settings in Auto ISO mode, which I set in Menu 1. I don’t give it completely free rein, though, as I set the default sensitivity to 200 and the maximum to 6,400, so my pictures won’t be too noisy. In Menu 1, I set the camera to take Fine JPEG+raw, and set the Dynamic Range to 100%. If I want to use the film simulation modes for…

WHEN setting up my Alpha 7 II, the most important tool is the histogram. I need to have my colour style set to neutral in order for it to be accurate, and as the histogram reads from the JPEG file, rather than from the raw file, setting the colours so they are as flat as possible means I get a truer representation of the histogram and the tones in the scene. It’s therefore also vital to get your white balance as accurate as possible, as that too can have an effect on your histogram. I completely ignore my camera’s meter reading, instead using the histogram to judge my exposure, making sure that most of the graph is as far to the right as possible without blowing the highlights. It’s interesting…

I was interested to read Bob Newman's article on the Leica Q (12 September). His justification for spending a ‘ridiculous' amount of money on a camera almost got me reaching for my credit card. However, it set me thinking about the cameras I have had over a lifetime and reviewing their delight factor. Certainly the Leica M6 was included in this, which I had for 20 years. In the1950s and '60s I lusted after a Rolleiflex but never got one, making do with a Microcord. My much-used and liked first SLR, a Pentax H2, was great to use, but I cannot describe it as having the delight factor. Its successor, a Contax RTS, came nearer, but still did not match the Leica. For 30 years my daily tool of the…

Creating a high-contrast portrait I HAVE to admit this was quite a daunting challenge. I had to take Chris Evans' original raw file and work out what might have been done to achieve the final version Chris produced. The location in this photo is a fairly ordinary service corridor that was livened up by placing a direct flash head to the right and slightly above the head height of the subject and synchronising this with a second head, placed further down the corridor and facing directly towards the camera with a strong blue gel on it. As you can imagine, a lot of steps were required to achieve the end result. Most of this was done by dodging and burning to produce a more dramatic lighting effect. 1 Cropping and…

Manfrotto Befree travel tripod ball head kit £139, www.manfrotto.co.uk This tripod folds down to 15.75in (40cm) and has legs that can be spread independently, with two-position angle stops. The legs fold up around the ball head, making it compact. Velbon Ultra 355 Tripod with three-way head £89, www.velbon.co.uk With Velbon’s trunnion shaft legs giving a compact folded size but decent working height, this model has a three-way pan-and-tilt head for stills and video. Vanguard VEO 235AB £99.99, www.vanguardworld.co.uk If you like the look of the VEO 235AP but would prefer a tripod with ball head, consider the VEO 235AB instead. It is essentially the same tripod, fitted with Vanguard’s TBH-50 head.…

Selfie mode The DxO One can be connected to the iPhone facing towards the user for selfies. The app even uses the iPhone’s screen as an additional warm-toned light to illuminate your face. Lightning connector This swivels ±60¡ for low-angle or overhead shots, and folds away neatly when not in use. Sliding lens cover Pulling this down turns the device on and releases the spring-loaded folding Lightning connector. Status screen A tiny touchscreen displays exposure settings and can be used to switch between stills and movies when the One is detached from the iPhone. Strap connector This allows attachment of a wrist strap for more secure handling. MicroSD slot The One records JPEG and raw files to a MicroSD card, and can also save JPEGs to the phone’s camera roll.…

Crop clarification Q I don't understand Andy Westlake's answer to G Rayner about crop sensors for wildlife photography (AP 8 August). Surely using the same lens on a smaller format is no different from pulling up a half-frame section from the larger sensor, optically speaking? So why recommend spending money on an alternative camera body? This interested me particularly as I am considering replacing my ageing and bulky Nikon D300 with a full-frame Sony Alpha 7 II. My principal photographic activity is landscapes and buildings, mainly while travelling. My current working lens is the Nikkor 16-85mm, whereas probably the best for the Sony would be the Zeiss 24-70mm. Presumably, I could effectively double that to 140mm by ‘enlarging' a half-frame section. Printing to A3, therefore, should incur no loss of…

LAUNCHED 1961 PRICE AT LAUNCH approx £250 with f/0.95 Canon lens (AP camera guide 12 July 1961) GUIDE PRICE TODAY £150-£250 (50mm f/1.8 Canon lens) THE CANON 7, with built-in selenium exposure meter, and its 1964 successor, the Canon 7S with inbuilt CdS exposure meter, were about the most versatile coupled-rangefinder cameras using Leica-thread 39mm screw lenses ever produced. The viewfinder featured projected bright-line frames, selected with a knob on the top-plate, for 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm and 135mm lenses, and the metal-foil focal-plane shutter provided speeds from 1-1/1000sec with excellent flash synchronisation. What’s good Easy handling, fast accurate focusing, quiet shutter, a great camera for candid, social and street photography. Superb-quality Canon lenses, especially the 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8 and 100mm f/3.5. What’s bad The famed f/0.95 ‘dream lens'.…

Metamorphosis by David Ball Canon EOS 6D, 17-40mm, 20secs at f/11, ISO 100, Lee Little Stopper ‘While on holiday in St Just, north Cornwall, I headed to a beach in Porth Nanven,' says David. ‘This area was number one on my list of places to visit and go shooting. I had seen so many pictures of this stunning cove, which is famous for its sunsets and rocks that look like dinosaur eggs. ‘However, I still didn't quite know what to expect. I already had a rough idea of a composition in my head and after a bit of searching I came across this stunning piece of rock with great texture and detail. On top of that it also had some great leading lines that headed towards the sea. I started…

Two legendary British figures are about to re-enter the public eye with the release of Brian Helgeland's film Legend, in which Tom Hardy plays the dual roles of Reggie and Ronnie Kray. Here we see the brothers – two gangsters who were the foremost figures of London's organised crime scene in the 1950s and '60s – having a cup of tea after 36 hours of police questioning about the murder of George Cornell. This image was shot by William Lovelace, a photographer for the Daily Express. Lovelace, who died in 2003, was a multiple award winner and made a name for himself by capturing images of war, celebrities and reportage. He was also among the reporters who travelled to Brazil to track down Ronnie Biggs, one of the criminals responsible…

Jeremy Walker Landscape professional Jeremy Walker explores ways to get the best image quality from his Nikon D810 Matt Hart Expert-in-the-field Matt Hart takes us through how he calibrates his Fujifilm X-T1 to perfection Steve Gosling Olympus’s Live Bulb function helps take the guesswork out of long exposures. Steve Gosling shows you how Paul Goldstein When shooting wildlife, Paul Goldstein reckons you should be able to alter key settings simply by touch Michael Wayne Plant Street and portrait specialist Michael Wayne Plant shows how he sets up his Sony Alpha 7II Andy Hooper Professional sports photographer Andy Hooper walks us through his AF fine-tuning to capture the action…

LONG-EXPOSURE imagery has become very popular in recent years as it creates images that record a dimension of the world we can’t see with the naked eye. As such, these images are difficult to pre-visualise – it’s hard to predict exactly what the camera can ‘see’. This can be one of the great attractions of long-exposure photography as it adds an element of luck or chance to the final image. However, it can also prove incredibly frustrating, particularly when it comes to exposure. Taking a 4min exposure at dusk (when there’s usually little chance to repeat the shot), only to discover that a 6min one was required can be exasperating to say the least. Not any more, though, thanks to a unique feature introduced by Olympus to its OM-D range…

SPORTS photographers are very competitive, but we do share lots of information when it comes to camera set-ups. This is especially true if a new camera comes out – everyone quickly experiments with different settings and then shares their findings so we all end up with the optimum settings. The fine-tuning, though, is an ongoing process. As a sports/action photographer I have my camera set up with speed in mind – speed of use, and speed of capture. The autofocus settings are the most critical custom settings to get right, as these play such a large part in sports photography. Keeping up with the action, following it and capturing it, have become easier and easier thanks to the advancement of AF systems in cameras. However, to get the best results…

You answered… A Yes, but not often. I find that most photographers have an understanding with each other 59% B Yes, it happens all the time 30% C No, this hasn’t been an issue 11% What you said ‘In my experience most “serious” photographers are aware of others and try to stay out of the way, or wait until I have finished, and I would do likewise. It is the mobile phone/iPad brigade and tourist ‘happy snappers’ who are the most inconsiderate’ ‘I was taking some shots of deer in a deer park once, shooting into the sun because I wanted silhouettes. As I walked (a long way) around the deer to get a shot with the sun behind me, I passed another couple who had been taking pictures. They…

Time to visit I would suggest that St Abb's Head National Nature Reserve is an all-year-round destination for photographers. I find that the dramatic winter weather suits the location perfectly, but there are also many possibilities for more subtle work, such as studies of the geology or long-exposures. Early summer brings thrift to the cliff edges, so combine their pink hues with the beautiful colour of the sea for stunning vistas. I think the best shooting location is Horsecastle Bay, which is an array of wonderfully jagged cliffs and sea stacks located about a 20-minute walk from the car park heading in the direction of St Abb's village. The real beauty of this nature reserve is its wealth of possibilities. Any time of day would be fine to shoot, as…

THE CLARITY slider is commonly used when processing landscape subjects to enhance the midtone contrast, or to compensate for the flattening effect that occurs when you compress the tonal range of a wide dynamic range subject. The Clarity slider can also be used to enhance the skin-tone contrast in portrait subjects. This first started when photographers experimented with Photomatix Pro to process single-exposure portrait images to achieve a gritty texture. The Clarity slider in Camera Raw and Lightroom can also be used to achieve this kind of look by applying the effect globally, or as a localised adjustment. In this portrait (left) you can compare the before and after versions where Clarity was added as a localised adjustment. Martin Evening is a noted expert in both photography and digital imaging.…

We have tested lots of cameras that use the Sony 20.2-million-pixel, 1in sensor over recent years, and the DxO One gives image quality that matches our expectations for this unit. At low ISO sensitivities it produces highly detailed images with decent dynamic range and no visible noise; for the very best results I'd keep the sensitivity at ISO 800 or lower. Step up to ISO 1,600 and 3,200 and images are still very usable, although it should be noted that fine detail does start to suffer visibly. Higher ISO settings aren't so great, though: I would be happy using ISO 6,400 and perhaps ISO12,800 for casual web use and small prints, but the extended settings push this sensor too far, and only really give usable results with DxO's multi-shot SuperRaw…

‘Ergos has become a commonly used term among camera fans. What it actually refers to is the controls or user interface of a camera. Presumably, it's a contraction of ‘ergonomics, and if so, it's a misuse of the term. Ergonomics is a discipline of design of the human interface with technological artefacts, and dictates particular methods to that design – the foremost of which is ‘usability' testing. Essentially, the idea is that when the operation of a product is designed, that design process includes at least one cycle (and probably more) whereby real people operate the product or, more often, a mock-up of the product. During this testing, a rigorous statistical evaluation is made of how well they can or cannot use it. The criteria used are rather more concrete…

Lens-lock glitch Olympus still plans to ship the OM-D E-M10 Mark II to Europe this month, despite suspending sales in Japan due to a lens-lock error. Olympus said the lens-lock pin on a ‘small number’ of cameras doesn’t function correctly, causing certain lenses with plastic mounts ‘not to lock properly’. Olympus confirmed that a ‘few’ cameras already sold in Europe ‘may also be susceptible to this mechanical issue’ and has offered a free inspection. Visit www.olympus-europa.com (go to cameras> customer support>repair service and service announcements). TPOTY deadline The 1 October deadline for Travel Photographer of the Year 2015 is fast approaching. Open to amateurs and professionals, the overall winner will receive £2,500. Entry fees start at £7.50, while entry to Young Travel Photographer of the Year is free. Visit www.tpoty.com.…

New shutter The new shutter is 50% quieter than the one on original Alpha 7S, and is tested to 500,000 actuations. Lens mount and body The body of the Alpha 7S II is made from magnesium alloy, while the lens mount has been strengthened to cope with larger lenses. Wi-Fi and NFC The Sony Alpha 7S II has built-in Wi-Fi and NFC, allowing connection to smartphones and tablets via the Sony PlayMemories Mobile app. Rear screen Like the other Alpha 7 cameras, the rear screen of the Alpha 7S II is a 3in, 1.23-million-dot articulated unit. At a glance 12.2-million-pixel, full-frame CMOS sensor ISO 50-409,600 (expanded) Internal 4K video capture Up to 120fps 1080p video Magnesium-alloy build 2.35-million-dot EVF 5-axis image stabilisation 1.23-million-dot tilting LCD screen Price approximately £2,500 WITH…

The output of the Zeiss Ikon brand was prodigious. Over several decades, hundreds of different cameras were marketed. Often individual models would have a choice of lens, shutter and film-format combinations, so the number of permutations was vast. In one year alone, the Zeiss Ikon catalogue listed 104 different cameras and 936 variants. Models of all shapes and sizes were made, many of them such as the Contax and Contarex achieving iconic status. Perhaps it's not surprising that there were occasional hiccups, though, one of which is this week's camera, the1958 Ikonette. With an unusual kidney-shaped profile, and extensive use of pale-grey and blue plastic, the Ikonette certainly stands out in the crowd of rather drab post-war models. It's said that Zeiss Ikon aimed the product at ‘lady photographers', marketing…

THE NIKON D810 has a much quieter shutter than the D800/800E anyway, but the electronic front-curtain shutter significantly reduces vibration caused by the opening and firing of the shutter mechanism. Typically, the vibration caused by the mirror going up and the shutter opening will have an adverse effect on image quality – especially when working at slower shutter speeds, macro work or with long telephoto lenses. But what exactly is the electronic front-curtain shutter? A standard focal-plane shutter has two curtains: one that opens and exposes the chip, and a second one that follows it and closes to end the exposure. The electronic front-curtain shutter, on the other hand, means you fire the camera and the first curtain opens as normal, but no exposure is made although the chip is…

MOUNTAINS of literature have been written about the minutiae of camera settings. It seems that every new camera has an advanced lexicon of controls and fine-tuning menus that defeat even the most pedantic of camera geeks. ‘Is it sharp?’ is the question I ask myself most after depressing the shutter release. So the focus settings are important, but in reality quite straightforward. I only use three AF area selection modes: single-point AF; AF point expansion (focus using one manually selected point, assisted by four other AF points); and zone AF, as it’s perfect for birds against an even sky or background. The advances in AF tracking are now so good that you have little excuse for failure – unless your quarry is running through dense vegetation. However, since most of…

In association with SIGMA Jevgenijs Scolokovs from Latvia is the winner of our On the Street round of APOY 2015. He takes home a Sigma dp2 Quattro compact digital camera and VF-41 viewfinder accessory. For the dp2 Quattro, Sigma rethought and redesigned every aspect of the camera, including the sensor, engine, lens and body. While retaining its famous textural expression, the Foveon direct image sensor produces images that are colourful, rich and deep. Unique among image sensors, the Foveon Direct image sensor is similar to traditional colour film in that its multiple layer captures all the information that visible light transmits. Along with Sigma's proprietary image-processing technology, this sensor produces excellent resolution, precise gradation and gorgeous colour. Thanks to its optimised design featuring a fixed focal length lens and integrated…

Vanguard VEO 235AP tripod Folding pan-and-tilt head The two-way pan head, with Arca Swiss-compatible release plate, has a quick-fold handle that minimises the folded length of the tripod. Rotating centre column The rapid column rotation ensures compact transportation and instant set-up. Legs and locks The VEO 235AP has five-section aluminium-alloy legs, and strong snap locks for high load strength and easy height adjustment. • £149 • www.vanguardworld.co.uk Vanguard’s VEO 235AP is a compact travel tripod with an innovative folding pan head that is ideal for video and spotting scopes. Andrew Sydenham tries it out At a glance • Unique rapid column rotation for compact transportation and instant set-up • Five-section aluminium-alloy legs with three angle options • Compact two-way fluid pan-and-tilt head with retractable handle • Low-angle shooting option •…

Jon Tonks Jon Tonks is a British photographer based in Bath. His work has been featured in The Sunday Times and The Guardian, among others. In 2014, Jon was presented with the Vic Odden Award by the Royal Photographic Society for his first book Empire, a journey across the South Atlantic exploring life on four remote islands – relics of the once-formidable British Empire. Martin Parr hailed the book as one of his best of the year. 1999 Pentax ME Super I had this camera when I was about 19. I absolutely loved it, and took it around the world with me when I was about 22. I loved the simplicity of having just a 50mm lens on the front at all times, and as I was new to photography…

For much of the 19th century there was a vogue for ‘classical’ paintings by artists such as Alma-Tadema, although it is easy to suspect that it was often just an excuse for painting scantily clad maidens. A parallel, but even less-remembered photographic fashion emulated such themes: think of OG Rejlander’s ‘The Two Ways of Life’ (1857). Neither style, painterly or photographic, has been much practised (let alone practised well) for more than a century, but recently Lhaura Rain produced this superb interpretation, part of a series featuring the same two actresses. The first impression is of high magic: the tarot cards, the palm reading and the candles. Then there are the clothes. They are probably just a plain white silk shirt and a satin nightdress, but that’s not the impression…