Innholdsfortegnelse for 08-Aug-2015 i Amateur Photographer

When I look up at the night sky all see is the moon in a sea of blackness. If I let my eyes adjust, I eventually see millions of white dots too. It doesn’t seem to offer much photographic potential, but then the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition comes along to remind me just how wrong first impressions can be. Of all the big photo contests that occur throughout the calendar this is one of my favourites, and it never fails to fill me with awe. Whether it’s dramatic images of distant nebulae, or wideangle views of the Milky Way framed against a silhouetted earth, they remind me of the beauty of creation – and of our insignificance in the vastness of space. If you get the opportunity…

PANASONIC is developing Post Focus technology, allowing photographers to choose parts of an image they want in focus with ‘one-touch'. Designed to prevent ‘out-of-focus misshots', the technology combines Panasonic's Depth From Defocus AF technology with 4K video, shifting the lens to focus on as many as 50 different areas. ‘While reviewing the images, the photographer simply touches the area where they want to set focus and, no matter where the original focus area was, a new image with the newly selected focus area will be produced as a separate photo,' says Panasonic. Post Focus technology will be available via a firmware update for the Lumix DMC-GX8 and DMC-FZ300 later this year or in early 2016.…

Mark Pain Mark is a multi-award-winning sports photographer and chief sports photographer of The Mail on Sunday who has more than 25-years’ experience. He was named Sports Photographer of the Year in 2005 and 2011 at the British Press Awards, British Airways Olympic Photographer of The Year 2012 at the UK Guild of Picture Editors Awards, and in 2011 launched the UK’s first dedicated Sports Photography School. He is also a Nikon ambassador. www.markpain.com 1 Technical preparation Technical preparation is crucial in sports photography where most subjects are both fast moving and unpredictable. Even the most sophisticated cameras can easily be fooled by a subject's random changes of direction or tricky lighting situations. In fact, the more sophisticated cameras become, the trickier it is to be totally comfortable with all…

You answered… A Yes, I already have one 52% B No, nothing can beat an optical viewfinder 23% C Yes, but I’ll what to see what the next generation technology is like 11% D Yes, my next camera will have an EVF 10% E No, I just don’t like the idea of them 3% F No, I can’t use one as it gives me headaches 1% What you said ‘The EVF was the inevitable and very welcome successor to the opto-mechanical reflex viewfinder. After all, the TV camera had an EVF virtually from the start’ ‘Somehow I don’t think that in future there will be the option of optical viewfinders. I’m not concerned with using an EVF, I’m more concerned we won’t have proper viewfinders at all and will have…

Wideangle lens A 20-28mm focal-length range will enable you to get good views of most staircases, but shooting with an extreme wideangle will allow you to get much more dramatic views and include the whole shape. Fisheye lens A fisheye lens will not only offer an extreme angle of view, but also distort the natural pattern formed by the staircase, adding a unique interpretation to your image. Tilting LCD screen If your camera has one, use the tilting LCD screen to compose your images. You could also shoot via Wi-Fi from your smartphone if your camera has this option. Both are great ways to shoot looking straight up. Beanbag A small beanbag is a useful accessory to place on a banister for support, especially in locations where a tripod isn’t…

LAUNCHED 1962/63 (different specifications were announced at different times) NEW PRICE £50 16s 9d (£50.84) in 1963 GUIDE PRICE TODAY £35-£50, depending on condition THE ZEISS Ikon Contessa LK (with no rangefinder) and the coupled-rangefinder version, the Contessa LKE, were top-quality compact 35mm cameras of the 1960s, each with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens, a Pronto-LK shutter (Contessa LK) or Prontor 500 LK (Contessa LKE), bright-line viewfinder and a built-in selenium-cell exposure meter with viewfinder read-out. Both models appeared first with a centralised accessory shoe on the top-plates (1962/63), then later as versions with a hotshoe offset to one end of the top-plate (1966). I used a Contessa LKE extensively for my book Collecting and Using Classic Cameras in the mid-1980s, and found it to be an…

To coincide with the launch of The Video Mode website, we’re pleased to announce our new Amateur Filmmaker of the Year (AFOY) competition. AFOY challenges you to get creative with your filmmaking, and gives you the opportunity to win some fantastic prizes worth £10,000 in total. The competition is split into three rounds, each with its unique theme: Nature, Time and Love (see below). For your chance to win some fantastic prizes worth more than £10,000, and details of how to enter, visit www.thevideomode.com/afoy…

Copyright has always been a quirky and inconsistent subject. Back when I worked as a producer on Top Gear, I often used to contemplate how strange it was that we could happily film and show cars designed by the world's most talented automotive designers without any restriction, but if a recent painting or piece of graphic art appeared in shot all sorts of potentially costly permissions had to be obtained. Generally, my personal view on copyright is that, within reason, the fewer restrictions there are, the better it is for humankind. Getting permission from, say, Ford and its designers every time you wanted to show one of their cars would be a nightmare. And there'd be an impact on freedom of speech – a mischievous manufacturer could easily stop you…

To a T In your informative piece on t-stops (AP 25 July) you stated that doubling the diameter of the iris opening (the aperture) doubled the light passing through the lens. This is not the case – the light passed depends on the area of the opening, not the diameter. As the iris is as near a circle as the manufacturer can manage, the area is given by › r2, where r is the radius of the circle or 1/2 the diameter. So opening the aperture from 1/4 to 1/2 of the focal length (f/4 to f/2) increases the light fourfold, that, is by 2 stops. T-stops are used in the cinema industry because slight differences in exposure resulting from different levels of loss in different lenses become obvious and…

Paul Ratje, Taiwan Paul's love of photography began when he was seven, growing up in New Mexico, USA. With every shot of his Kodak flick-open pocket camera he would try to improve his compositional skills. In 2007 Paul saved up for his first DSLR – a Nikon D100. He now shoots with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and has recently adopted a Canon EOS 6D. Paul has always had a passion for photographing people and has dabbled with street photography, most of which was taken around Asia. His dream is to become a full-time photojournalist. 1 A Girl Becomes a Nun, Myanmar As well as the shallow depth of field, the crucial thing here is that the girl is making eye contact with the lens Canon EOS 5D Mark…

McCullin honour Acclaimed war photographer Don McCullin, who left school in his teens, said he is ‘thrilled’ after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Bath Spa University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to journalism. Vice Chancellor Professor Christina Slade said honorary doctorates are awarded to people ‘whose achievements are an inspiration to our graduating students’. Pixma primed Canon has announced a new inkjet printer, the Canon Pixma MG3650, which supports direct printing from websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. The MG3650 also offers scanning and copying functions, and boasts a built-in access-point mode that enables ‘wireless printing without an internet connection’. It Is due out in September, priced £69.99. Sigma 24-35mm price Sigma has announced the pricing and availability of its Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM | A…

A MAN who is registered blind has landed his dream role as an official photographer at Portsmouth Football Club. Dave Taylor (above), who has 25% vision in each eye, was devastated after he was forced to give up his job in the security industry in 2013, following his almost total sight loss. ‘I didn't pick up a camera for three or four months,' the 51-year-old told AP. However, photography – and help from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) – lifted him out of the depression that followed, and helped him regain his confidence. A passionate photographer since school days, Dave said he has no formal training – instead, learning his craft from reading magazines such as AP and watching YouTube videos to help hone his technique. As…

THE ‘LEGENDARY' Meyer-Optik-Görlitz Trioplan lens looks set to return after $360,000 was raised on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The redesigned 100mm f/2.8 lens is due to go on sale in December, 99 years after its first appearance. The Trioplan 100mm f/2.8 lens is aimed at nature, portrait and macro photographers. It will be available in Canon and Nikon DSLR mounts, and will also be compatible with Fujifilm X, Sony NEX and Micro Four Thirds-mount CSCs. The German-made lens is also expected to be out in Leica M and Pentax K versions. Dr Stefan Immes, who is behind the launch, said: ‘First tests are showing that we have managed to keep the extraordinary charm of the lens.' Developers say the soap-bubble effect appears ‘due to a spherical undercorrection of the lens…

As I write this, it's day seven of the APOY Macro Insects and Flowers month, and I've now narrowed my choice down to my favourite 11 photos. I only realistically have a few more days to get the perfect shot and spend any time agonising over the decision. (Yes, agonising! I do this every month, as I am sure all who take part do). This month is good because I have 11 possible shots. Most months, I only have a couple, maybe three or four at the most, and sometimes one of those might be a clear winner. But even then, I agonise. Does the picture fit the brief? Is this really what the judges are after? Do I go for the arty (slightly out of focus) one because I…

Craig Roberts Craig Roberts has been a professional photographer for more than 20 years and specialises in travel and landscapes. He’s written technique articles for every major photo magazine and now offers online photography courses and tuition from his website. www.craigrobertsphotography.co.uk Staircases have been around for centuries, and many are designed as part of a building’s internal beauty rather than just a means of emergency escape if the lifts fail. Square or spiral, metal or wooden, their designs are often unique and, fortunately, many lend themselves to abstract studies. Stay alert to opportunities: they can be all too easy to miss if you take the lazy route to an upper floor. However, if you seek them out when visiting a town, city or other location, they make a welcome addition…

Street at night Alexey Samoylenko Nikon D3, 12-24mm, 3secs at f/11, ISO 800 I RATHER like empty streets at night; they're often colourful and look unusual. We're used to seeing them full of cars, trucks and human life, but at night it's all swept away and the scene takes on a completely different appearance. Sometimes, though, wide streets at night can lack a point of focus – something for us to latch onto that draws our attention. I try not to create images in which all elements have equal importance, as the viewer doesn't know where to look first. Open, empty streets shot without careful composition can easily leave the viewer without direction. What I like about Alexey's image is that we have the (almost) empty street scene, but there's…

Control buttons On-projector buttons are handy in case you lose or forget the remote. Zoom/ focus wheels These are often accessed through the top panels of small projectors. Vents These let out the heat produced by the projector’s lamp, but can also leak light. Lens Remember that different lenses can deliver very different image throw distances. WHEN choosing a projector, look for models with the connections (USB, PC VGA and/or HDMI) that suit the way you store your digital photographs. Also look for convenient set-up features like plenty of optical zoom and image shifting to help get the pictures in the right place on a screen or wall – especially if you're likely to be using a projector in multiple venues. When it comes to a projector's innards, look for…

YOU TAKE me for granted until I stop working, but I'm one of the most important parts of your camera. If the lens is its eye and the processor is its brain, I am its heart. I am a rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, and I provide the energy it needs to keep on taking pictures. Back when you shot film, efficient rechargeable batteries like me didn't really exist, so you probably bought alkaline batteries that lasted a few rolls, then threw them away when they ran out. But early digital cameras needed much more power, and luckily my kind started getting good at about the same time. My first big advantage is high energy density. I can store a lot of power in a small volume, so camera designers like…

Either things work or they don’t. This is an underlying truth of life, whether it be relationships, jobs, motor cars or pictures. Sometimes the things that don’t work can be fixed. Sometimes they can’t. The best idea (indeed, often the only possibility) is to proceed on the basis that things are going to work or at worst are fixable. If they go too wrong, extricate yourself as best you can. Walk away if you have to. Relationships are perhaps the most familiar example: most of us have loved and lost (or been lost) at least once. It is, however, surprising how few of us learn to apply this to photographs. We persistently overestimate some pictures because we have worked hard at taking them; because we really, really want them to…