Innholdsfortegnelse for 14-mar-15 i Amateur Photographer

IT IS a rare occurrence in the UK, but head far enough north and you may be lucky enough to see the Northern Lights. The first time I saw this phenomenon was in Iceland. It was -20°C and I was patiently waiting for over an hour. When it occurred it looked a little like light pollution – a dull glow. Not quite what I was expecting from the incredible images I had seen from the likes of Jeremy Walker (see pages 28-30). I took a few shots, but was thoroughly unimpressed. The next night, I peered out of the hotel window to see the most amazing display of swirling green light. I grabbed my camera and tripod, and ran to the nearby square. None of the locals even bothered to…

HENRI Cartier-Bresson's famous association with Leica cameras is explored in an exhibition featuring ‘virtually unseen' images by the legend. London gallery Beetles + Huxley said the show promises to be ‘one of the most significant photography exhibitions in London this spring'. Plucked from a private collection, the prints are on display until 26 March. The collection boasts several unusual sets of photographs, including the 1968 student protests in Paris, the USSR during the early 1970s (see above), and celebrity portraiture. Featured portraits include Francis Bacon, Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. There will also be a series of talks and events to celebrate Cartier-Bresson's association with Leica. Tel: 0207 434 4319.…

You answered… A1-11 million pixels 7% B 12-15 million pixels 20% C 16-21 million pixels 38% D 22-24 million pixels 22% E25-36 million pixels 9% F37+ million pixels 1% G0 million pixels – I shoot film 3% What you said ‘6048 x 4032’ ‘Many times more than is needed to post to websites…’ ‘Main camera 16MP. Favourite 400MP+, if scanned at 4800 dpi’ ‘My DSLR is 10.2MP, which was quite enough when I last used it two years ago’ ‘I cannot afford to upgrade my main camera, which is a 10.1-million-pixel Canon EOS 40D, so I will be sticking with it for the time being. But as it still produces great results, I have no desire to change anyway’ Join the debate on the AP forum This week we ask…

David Tipling David Tipling is one of the most widely published wildlife photographers in the world. His pictures appear on hundreds of book and magazine covers, and have been used in various other ways, from wine labels to being projected in New York’s Times Square. www.davidtipling.com About the brown hare With long, large, powerful hind legs, brown hares are capable of achieving speeds of up to 45mph. • Location: Widespread across the UK, although noticeably absent from northern Scotland. They are classified as a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. • Size: 70cm • Shelter: Brown hares take shelter in what’s known as a form, which is a shallow depression in the ground or grass. • Diet: Tender grass shoots, including cereal crops, are the main food source…

DXO FilmPack 5 Elite Version • £99 (Elite version), £59 (Essential version) • www.dxo.com Callum McInerney-Riley reviews a film-simulation software package At a glance • More than 80 high-fidelity film renderings • Supports raw, JPEG and TIFF formats • New Blur tool for vignetting effect • 39 colour and black & white presets Image Modify tab The Modify tab contains a wealth of adjustments, including Contrast, Shadows, Highlights, Grain Intensity and Tone Curve. Film previews With the Presets tab open, users can see a small preview of what the film preset will look like and can choose which one they prefer. Free 30-day trial It’s possible to get a full version of FilmPack 5 as a free 30-day trial from the DxO website. THE WORDS ‘Rediscover the magic of analog…

Photography can be a lonely pursuit. Many of us know the feeling of venturing out into the countryside, only to be pelted by sheets of rain, or keeping our lens trained on a patch of forest, praying that a stag will move 2in to the right into the perfect shaft of light you know will disappear any second. However, looking through social-media platforms such as Facebook, Flickr and Instagram, it should seem obvious that photography can be so much more than a hobby for the solitary. Navigating your way through online images reveals photography to be an inspiring conversation and a dialogue, and what can be more inclusive than a language? It’s with this in mind that perhaps one of the most fascinating and engaging things a photographer can do…

As a commercial photographer, Andrew Whyte specialises in night-time long exposures, leaving daytime free to combine his fascination with mobile photography and Lego. He is regularly found inches away from both pavement and mini-figures around his hometown of Southsea. To see the city (and further afield) from this perspective, visit www.shortexposures.co.uk It seems the Legography project is in part about revealing the hidden beauty of the city of Portsmouth. Is this true? The project is largely about Portsmouth, because that’s where I live. It’s a fascinating city because there is a lot of open space, but also a lot of densely populated areas. Also, it’s an island, so of course water and beaches surround it, meaning there’s a real diversity of light. However, Legography is also an exploration of smartphone…

Adding colour and contrast THE STRANGE-looking colours and steam coming off the water lead me to assume that this is a photograph of a volcanic spring. I noticed that June Morrissey got the exposure spot on, and she may well have set the exposure manually. If she had used an auto setting, the meter would have been fooled into underexposing this scene. There are some intriguing unnatural-looking colours here, so I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if I boosted both the tone and colour contrast. The aim was to produce a more abstract interpretation. Although I deliberately chose to apply extreme settings to show just how different the image could look, overall I think the step 2 version strikes the best balance between the before…

Alien Skin Exposure 7 $149 (around £97), alienskin.com As well as boasting 470 presets to choose from, including a wealth of film types, Exposure 7 now supports raw formats, has a non-destructive workflow and can be used as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop. VSCO Film Pack 06 $119 (around £77), vsco.co VSCO offers Adobe Lightroom 4 and 5 presets that emulate the colour and feel of various films, including Ilford HP5, Kodak Tri-X and Fujichrome Provia. There are currently six packs that contain different film styles in each. Mastin Labs Fuji Pro Pack $119 (around £77), mastinlabs.com Fujifilm fans will love this software. It offers colour negative film-emulation presets in Lightroom from both Fujifilm 160NS and Fujifilm 400H, giving a beautiful blue and green-toned look to each image its…

New body design Camera restructuring has made the D5500 smaller, lighter and better to hold. Built-in flash There’s a built-in flash on the top of the camera with a guide number of 12m @ ISO 100. Battery life Battery life is improved by 220 shots from the D5300, now boasting 820 shots per charge in the D5500. Stereo mic A built-in stereo mic is featured around the hotshoe of the D5500, delivering crisp, clean audio when shooting video. Customisable function button A custom function button at the front can be linked to a variety of settings, allowing users to hold the button down and change the value using the rear scroll wheel – ISO is particularly useful. HDMI port On the right side of the camera is an HDMI port,…

1 Really Right Stuff TVC-33 tripod Around 90% of my shots are taken using a tripod. To get sharp images, it is essential to get a sturdy platform to shoot from. Being carbon fibre, it is strong and light. 2 Nikon AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED I have many wideangle lenses, but this one is my favourite by far. It is sharp at just about any aperture and has very little distortion. 3 Nikon D800 My main body. I love it – the 36-million-pixel sensor means I have lots of cropping options after a shot and still have a big enough image to work with. The detail is amazing. 4 SMDV RFN-4s wireless remote shutter release I am a big fan of using a remote shutter release. I work really…

Proponents of traditional SLRs and the more recent mirrorless CSCs can discuss, seemingly endlessly, which type is more suited to different types of photography. One area where the DSLR seems still to maintain its lead, at least so far as press photographers are concerned, is sports and action photography. My own view is that camera choice is such a personal thing that talk of which is ‘better' is rather futile, but at least it is possible to discuss advantages and disadvantages with respect to some technical design issues. Contrary to some people's opinion, the viewfinder in both types is non-operational while a photograph is being taken, the difference being that the DSLR's viewfinder goes black, while the CSC's continues to display the frame previous to the exposure. For a short…

Reflecta scanner launch The new Reflecta 3-in-1 Film and Print Scanner (£106.38) features a 2.4in display and stores images on SD, SDHC, MMC, MS and MS Pro cards. It can also transfer them to computer via USB 2.0. The device will scan 35mm film strips of up to six negatives, three mounted slides (holder supplied) and prints up to 13x18cm. Visit www.kenro.co.uk. Jessops back on track Jessops’ Chairman Peter Jones praised his ‘amazing’ staff, after the chain won a Gold Good Service Award at the recent Amateur Photographer Awards (see AP 28 February). Jones said: ‘I’m very proud of our achievement. Hundreds of amazing people now work at Jessops and they have made it great again.’ Photos export ban The Government has placed a temporary export ban on an album…

THIS month, Nikon launches the D7200, a DSLR aimed at photo enthusiasts looking for ‘exceptional images with a lightweight DSLR system'. The D7200 is the first Nikon DSLR to support a Near Field Communication wireless system. The 24.2-million-pixel model borrows its AF system from Nikon's FX-format cameras, making it the first DX camera to be AF sensitive down to -3EV, according to Nikon. The 51-point Multi-CAM 3500 II system is designed to accurately lock on to subjects, even in the dark. ‘Fifteen cross-type sensors in the centre deliver superior subject acquisition, and one centre point is f/8 compatible, enabling more lens/teleconverter combinations,' claims Nikon. The two-year-old D7100 used a Multi-CAM 3500DX AF sensor, whereas the D7200 deploys a Multi-CAM 3500 II sensor, as featured on top-end Nikon models. The key…

We have entered a new era of product development. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter enable people to pitch their ideas to a wide audience and ask for financial backing in exchange for a product, which in most cases is months away from production. It's got to be said, I don't think I'm much of a risk taker. I always wince when I hear stories of people remortgaging their houses to fund a new risky business idea – but with luck, you shouldn't have to do that any more. Crowdfunding is great for getting nice ideas off the ground and it's been working rather well for photographic products. Instead of pouring money into an idea that people might not buy into, you can set up a Kickstarter campaign. If the campaign does…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Chance meeting Your Classics Revisited article (AP 7 February), recreating Bob Carlos Clarke's ‘Black Is My True Love's Heart', reminded me of my first visit to London in1981. Armed with a brand-new Olympus OM10 and manual adapter, I was attempting a few shots of my friend near Trafalgar Square when a guy with long dark hair carrying a camera bag approached. ‘Need any help?' he asked. The OM10 was my first SLR and it must have showed. The guy explained a few rudimentary tips on using the camera and the manual adapter. He also showed me how to use a newspaper as a reflector to bounce light into the shadows to lighten up my friend's face. This guy clearly knew his stuff. He was also an…

Sharif Islam, Hertfordshire Sharif's interest in photography was a natural progression from drawing and sketching. The instant gratification of photography appealed to him and he developed a particular fondness for animal portraits. His aim to is to create images that inspire endearment and empathy within the viewer. In the future, Sharif intends to develop his interests in food photography and artificial lighting. To see more, visit his website at alphawhiskey.slickpic.com/photoblog. 1 Snow Leopard To achieve this shot, Sharif converted the raw image to black & white in Lightroom and then adjusted the curves to add contrast Olympus OM-D E-M5, 60mm, 1/250sec at f/2.8, ISO 200 2 Leopard We don’t often see close-up portraits of big cats, but Sharif has used a visit to Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire to shoot…

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 WITH its 24.2-millon-pixel, DX-format sensor that lacks an optical low-pass filter, the D5500 is capable of recording huge amounts of detail, so long as a suitably sharp lens is used. Its JPEG output exhibits Nikon's trademark punchy colour rendition, with rich, saturated colours. As with the company's other DSLRs, dynamic range is impressive, with a wide range of tones recorded from the highlights to the deepest shadows. Indeed, to make full use of the sensor's capabilities you'll need to either engage Active D-Lighting when shooting JPEGs, or post-process from raw. Overall, you'd have to spend a lot more money to get significantly better image quality. Dynamic range The D5500 gives…

LAUNCHED 1954 PRICE £21 10s 11d (£21.54) in AP 22 August 1956 PRICE NOW £50-£110 in excellent condition and full running order THE BESSA I was Voigtländer's 1950s development of its pre-war 6x9cm Bessa folding camera designs. It had high-quality coated lenses and various other features that set it apart from its competitors. What’s good Great reliability, parallax-corrected viewfinder, excellent build quality, superb image quality from the 105mm f/4.5 Vaskar lens. It can provide either 8 on 120 (6 x 9cm) or 16 on 120 (6 x 4.5cm) if the camera still has its clip-in mask. The viewfinder is adjustable between formats. What’s bad The clip-in mask is almost always missing, so buy it as a 6 x 9cm camera – and you may get lucky. There is a tendency…

It looks like a snapshot, albeit a very good one that anyone would be proud to have taken. The toy car body draws the eye first of all, its lines a superb interplay of light and shade against a dark background. Something light – packaging or magazines? – occupies the lower right-hand corner that would otherwise be light-absorbing carpet. The boy watches his indulgent young uncle working with him on the floor. Or is he being indulgent and letting his uncle play with his toys? No matter: it’s a heart-warming scene. And it shows that young, moody film star James Dean is ‘just like us’. God Bless America. It’s only because it’s Jimmy Dean, of course, that it was ever shot or published. He had already received an Oscar nomination…