Innholdsfortegnelse for 02-may-15 i Amateur Photographer

Possibly the biggest social change that the switch to digital has brought about is that most people now view their photos on screens – phones, tablets, computers, TVs – rather than as prints. Many of these images are stored only on the devices on which they were taken (often a phone) but a small percentage are backed up, either to hard drives or cloud storage services. The problem with that is that hard drives fail (they all will, eventually), technology gets replaced and becomes obsolete, and some large, seemingly secure web-based companies flounder, having failed to find ways to sufficiently monetise their free-to-use service. As our guest columnist Roy Sealey points out on page 8, the only way to ensure that our pictures will be seen by anyone in even…

Pet photo gallery The National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) is on a mission to create the country’s largest pet photo gallery. The body, which represents the UK’s animal medicine industry, is set to launch a competition with prizes up for grabs to those submitting entries that will be used to create a giant gallery. Visit www.pethealthinfo.org.uk for more information. Tough cookie Olympus has added a new compact camera to its Stylus Tough range. The ‘rugged’ Stylus Tough TG-4 features a 25-100mm (equivalent) lens with a maximum aperture of f/2, plus raw file support, and is designed to operate at depths of 15m. The Stylus is due out in May, priced £349.99. Canon printer The dye-sub Canon Selphy CP1000 is designed to print a 6 x 4in photo in 47secs.…

2020 VISION Street Exhibition More than 100 images of the UK’s natural habitat will be on display at the travelling 2020VISION street exhibition’s latest stop, at Abberton Reservoir near Colchester. Enjoy the fresh air while exploring some great photography of our ecosystems. 12 May-20 July. www.2020v.org Architectural Photography Awards Having your architectural images displayed at the World Architecture Festival and winning a cash prize of $3,000 doesn’t sound too shabby, does it? No, we thought not. So what are you waiting for? Submit! Until 30 June. www.arcaidawards.com Last chance to enter BWPA Entries to the BWP awards close at midnight this Saturday – so this is your last chance to submit your best wildlife shots! A cash prize of £5,000 is on the table for the overall winner, which could…

Colin Roberts A specialist in landscapes and nature, Colin Roberts turned professional in 2005. He has received a number of awards for his nature images, including ‘International Garden Photographer of the Year’ and the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Photographer of the Year’. To see more of his images visit his website at www.colinrobertsphotography.com. TOP TIPS Water works Moisture enhances the look of wildflowers, making their colours more intense, so try to capture them on clear mornings when the dew is heavy. Alternatively, shoot after rain while they’re still wet and their foliage has been washed clean and glossy. Colour combinations Look for interesting combinations of colour where two species grow side-by-side. The mix can be harmonious, like red poppies and pink campion; or contrasting, like yellow weld and purple thistles. Wind-blown…

Email amateurphotographer@timeinc.comand include your full postal address Write to Inbox, Amateur Photographer, Time Inc. (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU LETTER OF THE WEEK Secure your straps with a simple key ring I recently heard a horror story about a photographer who used a sling-type camera strap attached to the tripod socket in the bottom of his camera. The constant movement of the camera, from lifting it to eye-level and then letting it go back to the rest position against the thigh, caused the fitting in the tripod socket to come undone, and the camera came crashing to the ground, costing £1,000 to repair the camera and lens. By simply attaching a split ring (key ring) to the camera strap lug on the top left of…

These frozen wave photos were taken on 20 February this year, duringmy daily surf check. When I pulled up to the beach I could see the horizon just looked strange. When I reached the top of the dunes I saw that about 300 yards away from the shoreline the ocean was starting to freeze. I honestly couldn’t believemy eyes, I’d never seen anything quite like this. It was actually the sound that I noticedmost of all – how silent the oceanwas. The frozenwaves were slow and solid-looking. It was an amazing sight. The high temperature that day was around 19°F (-7°C). The wind was howling from the south-west, which would typicallymake rough or choppy conditions not so good for surfing, but since the surface of the sea was frozen slush,…

Cityscapes WALK through any capital city and it’s dif ficult not to be blown away by the architecture. This is particularly true when you can gain access to a building that offers a sweeping view of the surroundings. A wideangle lens allows you to emphasise just how impressive the scene is. Above is Jarrod Castaing’s entry from APOY 2011. Jarrod was standing in the optimum position to include three roads in his shot. However, why not also try shooting city skylines? It’s a subject that bene fits greatly from pan stitching. Small scenes WE’VE emphasised how a wideangle lens and panoramas can be used to bring out the impressive scale of a scene, but you can also use your wideangle lens to focus on the more intimate details you come…

At a glance ● 28-millon-pixel, APS-C CMOS sensor ● Samsung NX lens mount ● ISO 100-51,200 (extended) ● 3in, 1.04-million-dot tilting touchscreen ● 9fps continuous shooting ● 4K video recording (with 1.7x crop) ● Price £599 with 16-50mm lens For and against + Excellent image quality – high resolution and low noise + Impressive autofocus – fast and accurate + Extensive video recording options, including 4K - Small, fiddly control dials - OLED screen can be difficult to see in bright light - No electronic viewfinder optio Where in the range Samsung NX30 Price £530 with 18-55mm lens The SLR-style NX30 has a clever tilting viewfinder and fully articulated screen, but is based around an ageing 20.3-million-pixel sensor Samsung NX3000 Price £260 with 16-50mm lens Superficially similar in design to…

WHEN Samsung told us it planned to put the NX1’s sensor into a smaller, cheaper camera, we were pretty excited at the prospect, and the NX500 goes a long way towards meeting our expectations. It offers excellent image quality, incredibly sophisticated autofocus, and rapid continuous shooting in a design that’s compact enough to fit into a small bag and carry around all day. In many ways it’s the perfect family camera – simple enough in auto mode that anyone can use it, but with a full range of creative control for the enthusiast photographer, and without the bulk of an SLR. It may not be the prettiest camera in the world, but the NX500 handles well, and is fast and slick in operation. The handgrip is worthy of mention, as…

At a glance ● 20.1-million-pixel 1in-type Exmor R CMOS sensor ● Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* 24-70mm (equivalent) f/1.8-2.8 lens ● Pop-up EVF ● ISO 125-25,600 ● 3in, 1.23-million-dot LCD screen ● Price £699 It’s not all glamour here at AP Towers. I know, I can’t complain too much, after all we get to test all the latest cameras and kit, we get to go to nice events and occasionally to exotic European locations, but for the vast majority of the week I’m sat, hunched, at my desk, typing away, checking emails, making phone calls and reading the pages of next week’s issue. When I am out I’ve usually got a camera and a few lenses in tow. Modern life has taken its toll on my back and shoulders, and on…

LAUNCHED September 2004 PRICE £1,200 GUIDE PRICE TODAY £175 STRUGGLING Minolta only launched its first DSLR after its merger with Konica. The Konica Minolta Dynax 7D (Maxxum 7D in other markets) was that first DSLR model. It was a semiprofessional APS-C model with a sensor-shift image stabilisation system called Anti-Shake. What’s good The 7D looks good and handles well with nicely designed controls. Its menu system was also well evolved and enhanced by a larger-thanaverage 2.5in LCD display on the back. Konica Minolta then decided to do away with the top-plate status LCD panel. The Sony-sourced, 6-million-pixel APS-C sensor is a dependable performer and the Anti-Shake system works quite well. What’s bad The shutter is loud and unre fined. Some cameras see the first frame shot turning out black after…

On Thursday 7 May polling booths across the UK will open between 7am and 10pm. This time around voters are having their attentions divided between a variety of candidates, including the Greens’ Natalie Bennett, the Conservatives’ David Cameron, Labour’s Ed Miliband and the Lib Dem’s Nick Clegg. This election is also notable for the airtime being offered to those previously considered ‘outsider’ parties, such as the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Respect. Here we see an image by photographer Dan Kitwood showing Nigel Farage of UKIP during a public meeting in Ramsgate. See next week’s issue (AP 9 May) for our interview with Stefan Rousseau, a successful photojournalist whose often hilarious images give us a great insight into what goes on behind the scenes during the election campaign trail. Words &…

A PHOTOGRAPHER who was among the first to reveal the scale of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia has won the $25,000 Photographer the Year title at the Sony World Photography Awards. American photographer John Moore, a senior staff photographer at Getty Images, volunteered to document the crisis that first struck Monrovia, the capital of the West African country last year. In a joint statement, Sony World Photography Awards judges said: ‘John Moore’s photographs of this crisis show in full the brutality of people’s daily lives torn apart by this invisible enemy. ‘However, it is his spirit, in the face of such horror, that garners praise. His images are intimate and respectful, moving us with their bravery and journalistic integrity’. Ebola is reported to have killed more than10,600 people across six…

It’s been common knowledge among enthusiast and professional photographers – for many years – that there is only one way to guarantee those digital images for years to come – and that is to copy those images every few years to ensure their stability. But what is rarely said enough is that stability of those important photographs is dead easy – print those images! This has been a personal crusade of mine. For example, after an Olympic champion has received his/her medal, in a few short years there will be no images of those individuals’ early achievements that grew towards their Olympic dream. In my view, it is very important to keep ‘shouting’ this message encouraging people to make prints – or in years to come there will be some…

Sea thrift, or sea pink, is a wildflower that grows on sandy, well-drained soil in full sun; it is particularly associated with coastal locations, where it thrives on clifftops. As its alternative name suggests, its round flowers are vivid pink in colour. It grows about a foot high, usually in clumps or mats and blooms in late spring; mid-to-late May is often the key time in the UK. For many people a carpet of bright pink thrift on the cliff-top heralds the arrival of summer. To find thrift, head to the coast and seek out sunny cliff-tops. When you find a suitable location, it’s worth spending some time to find the best viewpoint. Thrift looks its best if you can fill the frame with the colour, so look for a…

Ever since William Henry Fox Talbot’s photogenic drawings, photography has found itself inextricably caught up in the worlds of science and art. Its ability to record accurately and reproduce instances that were too fast for the human eye to see made photography a popular scientific tool, while its malleability appealed to early practitioners who wanted to experiment in more artistic ways. Now, an exhibition at the Media Space at London’s Science Museum is looking at how some of themedium’s earliest scientific and technical experiments are influencingmodern-day art photographers. Revelations: Experiments in Photography features around 100 prints, many from the UK’s National Photography Collection, housed in Bradford. Co-curated by Greg Hobson, curator of photographs at the NationalMediaMuseum, and Dr Ben Burbridge fromthe University of Sussex, the exhibition takes as its starting…

£10,000 IN PRIZES TO BE WON HOW TO ENTER To enter via email, follow the link at the bottom of this page. We need to know where and how you took your image, plus the camera and lens used with the aperture and focal-length details. Remember to include a telephone number and your postal address so we can contact you if you win. To enter by post, send a covering letter with your image, including the information mentioned above, letting us know if you would like your entry returned to you after judging (please enclose an SAE). Entries should be sent to APOY, Amateur Photographer, 9th floor, Time Inc (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU. Plan your APOY 2015 year Below is a list of this…

The Speech Ferdinand von Korff Canon EOS 400D, 17mm, 1/20sec at f/2.8, ISO 400 THIS is a cracking picture. I’m not absolutely certain of all the details surrounding the occasion, the location or even whether the people in the scene are related, but there is plenty of information contained in the picture to help us make up the story ourselves. In actual fact, the story doesn’t matter, as it is the moment and the situation that we read and recognise – the old man making a speech after dinner, the men waiting for him to finish so they can drink their shots and the wee boy being a bit bored by the adult activity and losing his concentration. From the angle that Ferdinand has shot this, we could be there…

Fn Menu Pressing the Fn button brings up an on-screen display that allows key settings to be changed quickly and easily. iFn button Found on most NX lenses, this allows shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO and white balance to be set via the lens ring. Power zoom The included 16-50mm lens zooms electrically rather than mechanically, using either the ring at the front or buttons on the side of the barrel. Hotshoe The NX500 has no built-in flash, but ships with a small slide-on unit. When mounted it blocks the screen from facing fully forwards. Mobile button A dedicated button on the top-plate activates Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for image sharing and remote control. Custom modes Multiple custom modes can be saved to the ‘C’ position on the mode dial,…

At a glance ● 16 elements in 10 groups ● 1.4m minimum focus distance ● 9 aperture blades ● 77mm filter thread ● 89 x 147.5mm ● 755g ● Price £1,639 While many of us would love a fast 300mm f/2.8 lens in our photographic arsenal, the cost, and often size, can make this prohibitive. Manufacturers recognise this and tend to offer a more affordable and compact f/4 version to meet these demands. However, Nikon’s AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D IF-ED lens has been in its lens line-up for as long as I can remember (15 years to be precise) and has been crying out for an update. Especially when you consider its f/2.8 stablemate has seen a couple of iterations and improvements in its own lifetime, so the arrival of…

Email your questions to: apanswers@timeinc.com, Twitter @AP_Magazine and #AskAP, or Facebook. Orwrite to Technical Support, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Time Inc. (UK), Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU ● EXPERT ADVICE ● TIPS ● TRICKS ● HACKS ● KNOW-HOW Round the twist? Q I’ve been researching buying a new lightweight tripod for my travels, but most of those I find now have twist-type leg locks. I once had a tripod like that about 10 years ago and it drove me round the twist, as I had to undo each lock then do them up again in strict order, which was a complete pain. Has anything improved since then, as I like the look of these small tripods but don’t want to go through that rigmarole all over again?…

Harry Borden Harry Borden is one of the UK’s finest portrait photographers and his work has been widely published. He has won prizes at the World Press Photo awards (1997 and 1999) and last year he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the RPS. His ongoing personal projects include a series on lone fathers, Single Parent Dads, and Holocaust Survivors, which was shortlisted for the European Publishers Award 2014. 1980 Minolta SRT 100X This was the first camera I owned, which I bought second-hand from Exeter Camera Exchange for £69 when I was about 15. I saved the money to buy it from working on my dad’s farm. It was a very basic manual camera, chunky but robust, with a 50mm f/2 lens. It was very similar in spec to…

At some point, most photographers have edited one of their pictures, printed it or previewed it on a different display and found it looks vastly different from the one on their screens; the colour tones are off, the blacks are too deep or the highlights look blown. This is because the display used to edit the images isn’t colour accurate. Thankfully, there are devices that will monitor the ambient light and adjust your colour display to give very accurate colour and tone. If image accuracy is important to you, it’s worth while calibrating your monitor using a calibration tool. 1For our monitor calibration we used the X-Rite ColorMunki Display. Look out for brands such as X-Rite and Datacolor who make a variety of monitor calibrators, starting at £65, and sold…

FAKE and fraudulently modified Nikon DSLRs are appearing at various Nikon Europe service centres. Nikon blames ‘internet auctions…’ for the circulation of ‘fraudulently modified and imitation products’, which it refuses to inspect or repair. Nikon also warns that its warranty does not apply to such products, for which it accepts no responsibility. The models affected are the D800, D7100 and D4. The outer covers of D800 cameras have been fraudulently replaced with ones from the D800E. The nameplates of D7100 DSLRs have been swapped for those from the D610. And D4 models have been fraudulently modified to resemble D4S cameras, said Nikon in a statement. Nikon UK has yet to respond to AP’s request for comment. In a statement, Nikon Europe warned: ‘As the Nikon warranty does not apply to…

Necropolis: City of the Dead by Mark Davis, Amberley, £15.99, paperback, 128 pages, ISBN 9-781-44563-485-2 BACK in the first half of the 1800s, Bradford in North Yorkshire had a severe overcrowding problem – not of the living, but of the dead. People were dying at such a rate that the mourners and visitors to St Peter’s parish graveyard began to complain of bones protruding through the ground. It was then that the Bradford Cemetery Co decided to take action by hiring park and cemetery designer William Gay. The result was Undercliffe Cemetery, a new necropolis that quickly became the place to be buried. If you had enough cash, you could claim a prime position in the area. Social historian Mark Davis revisits the history and story behind Undercliffe and has…

It’s hard to believe that heathland is one of our most threatened habitats, rarer even than rainforest. Heathland can be somewhat open and featureless, which makes finding a composition challenging. Try to keep it simple, aiming to capture the spirit of the colourful spectacle without showing it all and use elements such as a lone tree on the horizon or a pathway cutting through the heather to act as a lead-in line. Best time to shoot Heather flowers in late summer, a time of year when the light can be rather harsh during the day, so it’s worth getting out for the golden hours at the start and end of the day. Aside from the obvious prospect of a dramatic sunrise, the low angle of the light as the first…

Robert Cornelius Robert doesn’t ‘capture moments’ or ‘save memories’ – he prefers to create them instead. He’s been taking pictures professionally since 2008, and Photoshopping like his life depends on it since 2003. He’s nothing without his magical Photoshopping powers. www.robertcorneliusphotography.com The goal in all of my images is always to tell a character’s story that the viewer can then decipher. I like the idea that they can project their own stories and imagination on to my artwork. When creating this image titled ‘Releasing the Messengers’, my concept was to have a beautiful sorceress using a couple of giant floating diamonds as some sort of a communicator between worlds. Think of it as a magical crystal-ball-telephone, if you will. These diamonds were also going to be my light source. Day…

THE WIDER Perspective (Creative wideangle) is the subject for the third round of APOY 2015. It should go without saying, but choosing the right lens for your scene is perhaps the most crucial factor in producing a successful image. The appropriate focal length can serve to obscure as much as it can reveal. For example, a telephoto lens can home the viewer’s attention into the subject by removing any extraneous details that may serve to distract the eye. However, for this round we want you either to restrict yourself to using a wideangle lens or, if you’re feeling brave, try your hand at producing a panoramic view. Any subject is acceptable. You can shoot landscapes, cityscapes, still life or street photography. You could even try using your wideangle lens to…

Think Tank Photo Urban Approach ● From $119 (around £81) ● www.thinktankphoto.com Callum McInerney-Riley tests an all-black messenger bag designed for mirrorless camera systems At a glance ● Subtle all-black design with BGG leather detailing ● Stylish and ergonomic ● Designed to fit CSC kit with lenses ● Inner pockets for 8in tablet and personal belongings THINK Tank has just released a new series of Urban Approach backpacks and messenger bags for mirrorless cameras. The messenger bag comes in two different sizes: 5 and10. The former will house up to a large-sized CSC with lens attached, plusup to three extra lenses and a 8in tablet, while the10 has space for an additional lens and a10in tablet. The styling is minimal, with an entirely black exterior, matt black leather accenting across…

WITH the same sensor as the hugely impressive NX1, the NX500 gives excellent image quality that’s at least as good as any other APS-C camera, regardless of price. In fact, you’d have to spend several times the money to clearly surpass it. Resolution is superb at low ISOs, while noise is kept well under control at higher sensitivity settings. I would be perfectly happy shooting at up to ISO1600 as a matter of course, and to use ISO 3200 and 6400 where the situation demanded it. Even at ISO12,800 the image quality isn’t too bad, although at this point it’s probably best to shoot raw and apply your own processing. Here Samsung deserves credit for including a copy of Adobe Lightroom, which is much better than most bundled raw processors.…

I tried the 300mm f/4 on both a D7100 and D750 and was incredibly impressed with the performance of the autofocus. Even in relatively poor light when shooting towards dusk, I found the AF to be very snappy and very accurate. I didn’t have the luxury of comparing this lens side-by-side with a 300mm f/2.8, but alongside the latest Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 it was only marginally slower. This shouldn’t be seen as a criticism, as the 70-200mm performs exceptionally well, while also being a faster optic. As it features Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor for autofocus, there are no nasty surprises when it comes to noise – focusing operates near silently and you’ll only really notice it when you’re listening out for it. Otherwise you’ll remain oblivious. It’s possible to focus…

MORE and more camera screens and electronic viewfinders are now using me; I’m an OLED display, or Organic Light Emitting Diode. I’m also making inroads into TV panels as a high-quality (and, unfortunately, high-cost) alternative to LCD, and quite a few smartphones use me too. What are my advantages compared to traditional LCD displays? Primarily, OLED ¡s an ‘emissive’ technology and each OLED display dot is an individual light source. When the display is black it consumes very little current and the black level achievable is very dark compared to LCD, which relies on a back light illuminating the whole panel -even when it’s black - and coloured filters for each display dot. Viewing angles are very good with almost all OLED displays, while only certain types of LCD deliver…

Adrian lives close to the seafront in Brighton. Like anyone who lives near the sea, he loves to walk along the shore, where the flotsam and jetsam, and seashells and stones are a constant delight. We have all seen such things; we have all tried to photograph them. Usually, the results are disappointing. This is about as far from disappointing as you can get. So what is Adrian’s secret? Well, strictly there are three secrets here. Probably the most important is photographing his finds ‘wet’. As he says, that’s the way he initially sees them: it’s the way they attract his attention. So he re-wets them before he photographs them. This is one of the de finitions of genius: things that are blindingly obvious only after they have been pointed…