Innholdsfortegnelse for 11-Apr-2015 i Amateur Photographer

Most of the photographs I see from week to week are made of pixels, and are viewed on a monitor. They look great in all their backlit glory, but they’re ephemeral – one click and they’re gone, the pixels rearranged into something completely different. They don’t exist in any physical way until you print them. That’s why there’s something special about visiting an exhibition, where images become pieces of art that you can get up close to and touch. This week, Roger Hicks shares his passion for one of the world’s great photography festivals, Les Rencontres d’Arles (page 30). It’s been a few years since I was last there, but he has inspired me to go again. In the meantime, I’ll be heading over to the always impressive (and much…

JAGJEET Singh from the UK has beaten hundreds of budding filmmakers to win the inaugural Nikon European Film Festival with a short movie about bullying. Jagjeet won a Nikon D810 and an all-expenses-paid trip to the Cannes Film Festival in France for his film entitled Voiceless – Stop the Bullies. The Nikon European Film Festival challenged amateur and professional filmmakers to create a video of up to140secs in length, on the theme ‘A Different Perspective'. Jagjeet said: ‘Having made films for several years, achieving recognition for my work is a dream I have been chasing for a very long time… ‘I'm pleased to win an award for this particular film, as it's a project that sits close to my heart. I wanted to raise awareness of... the pain [bullying] can…

Flashguns You need two flashguns with manual mode (or studio flash heads) – one for the background and one for the subject. Strobes deliver briefer flash durations on low-power settings than studio heads, which is a plus point. › Radio triggers Radio triggers are built in to some studio heads. Relatively inexpensive models are now available and are much more convenient than sync cords. › Acrylic An A2-sized, 3mm-thick piece of translucent acrylic (light transmission around 40%) acts as the background. If you are using a transparent set, you can simply direct a flash at any white surface behind it, such as a reflector, to create the background pool of light. Diffusion Use a front-diffusion material, such as Corlite, Flyweight or a similar fluted plastic. Alternatively, use a softbox. ›…

THIS technique is all about highlighting individual subjects, so it's worth spending time searching out the ideal specimen because any flaws will show up in your exquisitely detailed shot. It's a good idea to take the piece of white Perspex and just hold it behind various candidates to see how they look before committing to the full set-up. When you do, you'll find it much easier if you have a tripod to which you can attach the background and rear light. In fact, it's essential if you're shooting on a transparent set above the white background. What we're after is an image with a pure white (R255, G255, B255) background in which the front light is balanced to show both detail and translucence. If there is too much front light,…

You answered… A Yes, I take my DSLR/CSC with me wherever I go 15%B Yes, I carry a compact with me 36%C Yes, but only the one on my phone 29%D No 20% What you said ‘I used to, but cameras are not allowed in my place of work so I have got out of the habit of picking one up when I go out. Strangely, they do allow mobile phones though…’ ‘Most but not quite all of the time. My compact is with me on a daily basis, but doesn’t always get transferred to my other clothes if I’m just going down the pub or round to a friends. It tends not to get taken when I’ve got the big stuff with me either’ ‘I don’t bother with a…

Why do you think the a 7 camera is well suited to street photography? When shooting street photographs, you want to go about unnoticed and the camera is small and unobtrusive. The a 7 is quick with no shutter lag. When the light is relatively good, I set it to Auto ISO and my preferred f-stop and shutter speed and away I go. The autofocus is incredibly fast, which is essential when shooting in the street. A photograph may present itself to you and you will have a split second to get it. You don't want the autofocus to let you down and so far, the a 7 has not disappointed me. The quality of the images from the camera is truly amazing. I don't think there is a camera…

How would you like to spend a week looking at more photographic exhibitions than you’d normally see in a year? Add in free parties every night, where maybe half the guests are likely to be photographers. Set this in a city that was old when it sided with Julius Caesar against the Greeks of Marseilles, where the Roman amphitheatre is still in frequent use and where the hard, clear Provençal light seduced van Gogh. If you are travelling with someone who doesn’t appreciate such things, the July sales are on. This is the opening week of Les Rencontres d’Arles, held in early July every year. The first part of this article covers how to get the best out of the festival and the rest provides a brief summary of what…

How to close the gap THIS is a delightful photo from Dimpal Pamcholi. It was taken from a good angle using a Fujifilm FinePix S7000 bridge camera. The image is a little soft when viewed close up, but I think this is mainly down to the quality of the sensor. The following steps show how I was able to use the Content-Aware Scale feature in Photoshop to compress the image and reduce the gap between the children. I applied a fairly extreme transform and a close look reveals some of the shadows are distorted and the calf's head in the background looks rather squashed. 1 Create an alpha channel mask The first step was to define the areas that needed protecting when applying the Content-Aware Scale transform. I created a…

One of the major problems that camera manufacturers have is that much of the core snapshot market, which in the past has been the source of most of their profitability, is these days taken by mobile phones. With camera phones now taking more-than-acceptable shots for the social-media distribution channels (which have replaced the old postcard-sized print), the market for compact cameras has shrunk over the past few years. The more enterprising camera companies have been looking for photographic alternatives. One of the more interesting of these is what its inventors, Sony, calls the ‘lens-style camera', which now has three models – the QX1, QX10 and QX100 – in its range. The design concept for the lens-style camera is that it is a ‘lens' that you attach to the back of…

In this unsettling image, a father and son (see if you can spot them) float along on a makeshift boat made from polystyrene. They were spotted paddling through the garbage-strewn Pasig River that runs through the heart of Manila in the Philippines. The sailors' purpose is to collect as many plastic bottles as they can. The spoils can then be sold in various junk shops around the city. In all likelihood, the pair will make a meagre US$3 a day. This image was taken by Noel Celis and was captured just a few days before World Water Day (22 March), a global event that focuses on finding access to clean and safe water and an event that the Philippines observes. The day was set up by organisation Water Aid in…

Stereo photography is as old as photography itself, and as a genre it has been in and out of fashion several times. From glass plates, through rollfilm, 35mm and now into the digital era, the novelty of being able to see a subject jump out at you from a flat surface has continued to intrigue. The principle of stereo photography is simple: two images are taken from slightly different places, and are viewed such that the left image is seen by the left eye, and the right image by the right eye. For best effect, the camera lenses should be set at the same distance apart as the distance between the human eyes. There are various methods for viewing the images, but once 35mm film became the norm the simplest…

ONE OF the appealing aspects of field-studio work is the amount of control you have in respect of lighting, how the subject is positioned and depth of field. However, once you start working with wild birds (and even more so, mammals), it's a different story, and many of the skills of conventional wildlife photography come into play. It's all about identifying predictable behaviour: at what time of day a particular subject appears and under what conditions; what it likes to feed on more than anything else; where it prefers to stand or perch. Then there is the challenge of introducing a fairly large white set and hoping the subject will accept it. For these reasons, I'd recommend starting with garden birds. Their behaviour around a bird table is easily observed,…

When we first looked at Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt’s surrealist night-time landscape images over a year ago (see AP 4 January 2014), we were captivated by his work. Over the past year, Mikko has focused on honing his tried-and-tested approach to landscape photography, as well as experimenting with new methods. ‘I have learned a couple of new techniques, such as how to capture more depth of field with focus-stacking methods,’ he says. ‘I have also been experimenting with longer exposures for capturing and creating surreal night photographs. ‘The main idea is to capture as much detail as possible in the landscape and the sky. This is something I call night HDR vertorama and it works by combining different exposure times, ISOs and aperture settings. ‘For example, if you wish to…

The Sony World Photography Awards is the largest and most comprehensive photography competition in existence today. Open to photographers of all ages and skill levels, the Awards are dedicated to supporting and cultivating photographic culture, recognising the very best in contemporary photography annually. Visit the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London, from 24 April-10 May 2015. For more information, visit www.worldphoto.org/about-the-sony-world-photography-awards…

From £24 • www.ravpower.com IT'S HARD to get excited by a power bank these days, as there are thousands out there doing almost the same job. However, RAVPower specialises in battery and power-based technology, and makes some of the highest-capacity power banks currently available, at a very affordable price. The RAVPower Deluxe RP-PB13 14,000mAh power bank is one of the company's highlight products and is perfect for photographers. With a capacity of14,000mAh, the RP-PB13 will charge the 1,080mAh battery of a Sony Alpha 7, for example, at least ten times before needing to be recharged. Alternatively, it can fully charge the Apple iPad Air 2's 7,340mAh battery, with plenty of juice to spare for topping-up your phone. There are two USB ports on the front of the RP-PB13, one being…

Resolution Using the supplied 12-32mm zoom at 25mm f/5.6, the GF7 resolves approximately 2800l/ph at ISO 100 in our resolution tests, which is a reasonable result for a 16MP camera. It maintains this at the lower end of the sensitivity range, dropping to 2600l/ph at ISO 1600. At higher settings it falls more rapidly, to 2200l/ph at ISO 25,600. Dynamic range With a peak dynamic range of 12.7EV in our Applied Imaging tests, the GF7 performs well for a Micro Four Thirds model. The range drops monotonously as the sensitivity is raised, indicating increasing noise. Beyond ISO 3200, the very low reading indicates that little shadow detail will be recorded. Noise The GF7 gives nice clean images at ISO 100, with noise increasing visibly as soon as the sensitivity is…

The schooner Susanne , built in 1904, was 110ft (33m) overall. She displaced just over 92 tons: a rich man’s plaything par excellence. But like all great yachts, she could be staggeringly beautiful under sail – and no one has ever been as good at capturing that beauty as Beken of Cowes. Frank Beken was the young heir to a chemist’s shop on the Isle of Wight. He was fascinated by the yachts he could see from his bedroom window. From 1888-1913 he used off-the-shelf cameras, but then he designed a whole-plate camera (6½ x 8½in, 165 x 216mm) to photograph yachts. This massive piece of cabinet work required both hands to hold and control, so Frank fired the shutter with the bulb of a pneumatic release held between his…

Timelapse app Triggertrap has launched the Timelapse Pro app, which is designed to allow photographers to build and save custom time-lapse sequences through intervalometer and delay modules. Timelapse Pro is available for iOS, priced £3.99. B&W instant film A new Impossible instant black & white film for use with the Polaroid 600 is due to go on sale in May. The Impossible B&W 600 Generation 2.0 will cost £17. It is also compatible with Instant Lab Universal, which converts digital images from tablets and smartphones into instant prints. Climate change winner A ‘haunting’ image by James Alexander showing the mummified remains of a zebra that died during a drought in Africa has won a government-run competition on climate change. Alexander, who lives in Kent, has been awarded a photography masterclass…

FREELANCE photographer Heidi Levine has won the inaugural Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award and paid tribute to the war photographer whom the contest was set up to honour. Run by the International Women's Media Foundation, the competition was launched in memory of Anja Niedringhaus, an acclaimed German photojournalist who died in Afghanistan last year. Anja was a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer who was killed when an Afghan policeman opened fire on a car she was travelling in last April. She was 48. The awards aim to honour women photographers who risk their lives to document conflict. Heidi Levine (pictured above), who has covered key moments in Middle East conflicts, said: ‘Anja was both a photojournalist and a person I admired, respected and often consulted with in the field…

FIELD-STUDIO pictures often have a lot of white space around the subject that gets in the way when creating a composite image. However, since you've taken the trouble to expose (and subsequently process) the background to pure white, you need only make a loose selection around the subject (rather than right up to its edge), knowing that it will blend seamlessly with the white page that receives it. If you've ever tried to make a convincing selection of an out-of-focus edge, you'll understand what a boon that is. On the background layer, draw a loose Polygonal Lasso around the subject. Activate this selection by double-clicking when you join the end of the Lasso to its beginning. Duplicate the background layer. Only the selection will be copied, against a transparent background.…

Clarence Sinclair Bull worked during the golden age of film and was perhaps the greatest Hollywood photographer of his generation. Often addressed simply as CS Bull, he started his Hollywood career first as a cinematographer, where he’d shoot stills during production breaks. After attracting the attention of Sam Goldwyn with his images, it was the subsequent merger between Metro Pictures and Goldwyn in 1924, closely followed by arrival of Louis B Mayer Pictures a year later, that Bull’s career really took off. Shooting stills for the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, he would work for the company for almost 40 years and become the head of the stills department. It was while working for the studio that Bull met the Swedish film actress Greta Garbo, and became her exclusive photographer until…

Paul Harrison, West Sussex Paul has specialised in landscape photography for six years. His work has been published in several well-known UK photography magazines and local-interest publications. He first became interested in photography when DSLRs began dropping in price and the hobby became more affordable to amateurs looking to dip their toe into the world of photography. Paul's images aim to offer a varied take on the beauty of the countryside, particularly in his stomping ground of West Sussex. To see more of his photographs, visit his website at www.paulharrison-photographs.co.uk. Kimmeridge Sunset 1 ‘I was so pleased with this shot,’ says Paul. ‘The conditions were just right. I keep going back to Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset as the light is different on each visit’ Pentax K-5 IIs, 130mm, 1/6sec at…

Resolution Our Applied Imaging tests give very impressive results, with the 16-55mm lens performing very strongly on the 16.3-million-pixel X-A1. Sharpness is very high at all focal lengths, even at f/2.8, with the corners of the frame coming very close to the centre for resolution. Diffraction inevitably has an impact at f/11 and smaller apertures. Shading Fujifilm’s X system uses software correction for vignetting, which means that users will rarely experience any shading effects in their images at all. Even looking at the raw files using Capture One, vignetting is very low indeed, at less than a stop in the extreme corners at f/2.8. This is impressive for a fast zoom, even on an APS-C sensor. Curvilinear distortion Like other compact system camera makers, Fujifilm uses software correction for barrel…

LAUNCHED 1979 ORIGINAL PRICE £620 with 75mm f/2.8 lens (1981 World Camera Guide) PRICE NOW £150-£330 with 75mm f/2.8 lens BRONICA offered lenses from 40mm to 500mm for the 15-on-120 Bronica ETRS SLR, plus a choice of waist-level, prism, AE prism and sports viewfinders, and interchangeable film backs for 15 shots on 120, 30 shots on 220 or 36 on 35mm (standard format). There was also a Polaroid back and a 35mm ‘wide' (24 x 54mm) back. In fact, there wasn't much that you couldn't do with an ETRS. The Bronica ETRS had useful improvements over the ETR, notably more advanced metering, interchangeable viewfinders and a mechanism that prevented the film back being removed if the dark slide had not been inserted. What’s good The Bronica ETRS offers fast handling…