Innholdsfortegnelse for 01-Apr-2017 i Amateur Photographer

The benefits of tripods are clear, especially when shooting at long exposures or in low light, but let’s face it, they can be a bit of a pain to carry around. They can also attract unwanted attention from officious security guards, or the merely curious – discreet they ain’t. So this week’s technique feature looks at how image stabilisation, whether in-camera or in-lens, can help you get sharper shots handheld in conditions where a tripod used to be considered essential. You’ll be surprised by how much image stabilisation has improved in recent years. So if you’d like to spend a bit less time lugging your three-legged friend around, turn to page 12 now. Other highlights of this packed issue include a review of Panasonic’s latest Micro Four Thirds mirrorless powerhouse,…

THE UK has been ranked the fourth most promising market for technology breakthroughs with a global impact, trailing slightly behind that of the US, China and India, according to KPMG's 2017 global technology innovation report. Despite the uncertainty of Brexit, the UK jumped from seventh last year in the global rankings. According to the report, global business executive respondents see the UK as a progressive country with innovative tech hubs, developing products and services that can break through to developed and emerging markets. The UK's tech sector drew more investment than that of any European country in 2016. In addition, London is ranked as the 5th city most likely to rival San Francisco in the next four years.…

There are often times when we see a photographic project that is so personal for either the subject or the photographer that it can feel almost voyeuristic to view it. There are a number of current projects concerning the migrant crisis, all of which hit hard on our conscience yet play to our appreciation of the photographic form. You could argue that we're now so used to seeing these that they don't quite have the impact they once did. However, there are still some projects that can really take your breath away with their intimacy. The Family Imprint: A Daughter’s Portrait of Love and Loss is one such project. In 2013, Howie and Laurel Borowick were undergoing parallel treatments for stage-four cancer. Howie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his…

Create star bursts Turn street lights into star bursts to add a dramatic effect to your scene. For star bursts use a small aperture (higher f/stop) of between f/14 and f/20. The more diaphragm blades your lens has and the longer the exposure time, the more pronounced the effect. Shift the white balance On cloudy or wet evenings long exposures can make the sky look a murky brown. Reduce this by shifting the white balance temperature slider in Lightroom towards cooler, or convert the image to black & white to enhance the contrast of artificial light against the night sky. Explore ghosting Ghosting is caused when people in your frame move during a long exposure. If people are constantly moving and the exposure is long enough they may not appear…

Rubber grips Each leg is wrapped in a textured grip for more comfortable carrying Carry case The neatly designed nylon case can be carried using its short shoulder strap, or clipped to a bag using its karabiner Split centre column The lower section can be unscrewed to enable ground-level shooting Built-in flashlight A small LED torch screws into the end of the column • £132 • www.intro2020.co.uk At a glance • Max height 124cm • Folded length 35.8cm • Max load 2kg • Weight 922g PROBABLY the biggest advance in photo gear over the past few years has been the dramatic improvement in image quality of small cameras – both fixed-lens compacts and mirrorless models. The great thing about this is that you can downsize all of your kit, and…

ONE STANDOUT new feature of the GH5 that wasn't present in the GH4 is Panasonic's all-new 6K Photo Mode. This works in much the same way as the 4K Photo Mode, which has become common to many of Panasonic's 4K cameras, with the camera recording UHD video footage (with no upper time limit) before allowing you to extract still images from the captured footage via the Playback menu. The main difference between the two is that 6K Photo Mode produces 18MP still images while 4K Photo produces 8MP images. In addition to the new 6K Photo Mode, Panasonic's older 4K Photo Mode also features on the GH5. However, even this has been enhanced with a top burst speed of 60fps now available alongside the standard 30fps. When using 6K Photo,…

Dark backgrounds are spoiling my photographs Q I'm finding the backgrounds in my flash pictures are overly dark. People in the foreground are exposed normally, but walls or other people only 7 or 8ft further back are too dark for my liking. I use a Pentax K-50 with the standard 18-55mm kit zoom and the built-in pop-up flash. Tara Grey A Almost all camera pop-up flash units are pretty weak affairs. The good old inverse square law means that brightness drops off quickly beyond a certain threshold distance, and with a weak flash that distance will not be far. There are a couple of possible solutions. If there is enough ambient light, widening the aperture and/or increasing the exposure time will brighten the surroundings. I’d even go so far as…

Seafront tree by Vasilis Vasilakakis iPhone 4S, Hipstamatic 280, 4.3mm, 1/460sec at f/2.4, ISO 50 THIS image by Vasilis Vasilakakis was uploaded to our Flickr page. Once again, we see how that handy little device – the smartphone – is more than capable of delivering beautiful results. Vasilis was taking a walk along Thessaloniki's seafront in Greece. The conditions were a little foggy, giving the location a lovely diffused look. This tree was an element of the landscape that Vasilis had often noted on his morning walks and decided that would be the day he shot it with his iPhone. It was particularly fortuitous that a person happened to be walking into the frame at the very moment Vasilis decided to take the shot, resulting in this perfectly timed image.…

Of the many photography competitions around today, Pictures of the Year International can claim to be one of the oldest. The contest was established in the US in 1944 and was set up to pay tribute to the press photographers and newspapers of the time. It also provided a platform for photographers to meet in open competition and to compile and preserve the best press images. The competition is still going strong in 2017. AFP photographer Noel Celis won third prize in the General News category with this image of an overcrowded prison in Quezon City in the Philippines. Built 60 years ago to accommodate 800 inmates, it now houses nearly 4,000. The men take turns sleeping on stairs, on the prison's open-air basketball court and in hammocks made from…

It's great when a new product changes the way you look at the world. It happened to me in 2006 with my first self-driving car experience. Being thrown round Volkswagen's Wolfsburg test track flat out in a driverless Golf GTI at a stroke proved the potential of such new technology. In camera terms, the 2007 Nikon D3 was equally revolutionary – for me, the first camera to reveal the superiority of digital technology for low-light pictures. The 2008 Canon EOS 5D Mark II was another instant colossus, with its groundbreaking HD video-in-a-DSLR abilities. The Olympus OM-D EM-1 of 2014 was another landmark. Now Olympus has done it again, with the stunningly good OM-D EM-1 Mark II. What makes it so thrillingly innovative isn't its impressive ability to shoot stills at…

Traditionally, the reciprocal of the effective focal length is a good guide to a safe handheld shutter speed. With a 100mm lens on a full-frame camera, that means using a shutter speed that's at least 1/100 or 1/125sec to ensure that images are sharp. Meanwhile with a 200mm lens you should use at least 1/200sec and with a 35mm lens 1/35sec (or 1/40mm as there usually isn't a 1/35sec option). If your camera has a smaller than full-frame sensor you need to use the effective focal length as a guide because the movements seem more pronounced. Thus a 100mm lens on an APS-C format camera requires a shutter speed that is at least 1/150sec. As focal lengths get shorter the reciprocal rule starts to break down as many people can't…

You answered… A It’s the only photo editor I use 29% B I use a mixture of Lightroom and Photoshop 32% C I only use Photoshop 13% D I use other editing software 21% E I don’t edit my pictures 5% What you said ‘I purchased Lightroom 5 after reading the review in AP, but recently abandoned it as it’s too complex for my needs. I returned to my much older Photoshop Elements 7, which does everything I need.’ ‘I don’t edit my pictures – the key is to make sure the image that comes out of the camera is the finished article ‘It’s Lightroom 100% for me – not that I like its images (it’s pretty lousy with X-Trans) but it’s quick and easy, and allows for a speedy…

Tripod A tripod is essential for shooting the longer exposures required in low light. The compact, stable and lightweight carbon fibre MeFOTO RoadTrip is a perfect travel and cityscape tripod as it is easy to carry and extends to a great working height. Spare batteries During long exposures your camera is working harder. This kind of photography can therefore drain your batteries quicker. If you are shooting on a cold morning or evening this can impact battery performance, so you should carry spares. The Photographer’s Ephemeris app If you want to shoot a cityscape that includes an iconic building, bridge or monument when it is lit up, it pays to do some research as to when the lights usually go on. Check this against the sunrise/sunset time and direction using…

ONE OF the best ways to transform a low-light cityscape is through the use of light trails. These can add a dynamic feature to an otherwise quite static scene through bright streaks of colour and motion. A light trail can be created by any light source moving through your image while the shutter is open. This could be a car, bus, bike, boat or even a person with a torch. The evening blue hour is normally the best time for this as there is more traffic on the road, while light from the streets and buildings lifts the rest of the scene. To get the cleanest light trails, open the shutter before the moving light source enters the frame and close it once it is fully out of shot. Shoot…

Battery The GH5 uses a DMW-BLF19E rechargeable li-ion battery with 1860mAh capacity. This is rated for between 380 and 410 shots, dependent on screen or viewfinder usage. Post focus Allows you to adjust the focus point after capturing an image. Note that the feature only works with JPEGs, however. Twin SD memory card slots Compatible with UHS-II UHS Speed Class 3 cards, the twin card slots can be configured to record data in a number of ways, including using slot 2 as an overflow and using one card for stills and the other for video. Full-sized HDMI output Located under the connectivity tab on the side of the camera, the full-sized HDMI output features a locking mechanism that will ensure cables don’t accidentally become disconnected during use. Dual command dials…

Even if you speak no Spanish, the sign isn’t hard to translate, ‘office of the civil registry’. It ties together three different pictures, any one of which most people might have been proud to take. The central silhouette of the man with the little girl; the young couple on the right; the man on the left who doesn’t want to be photographed. The sign immediately makes you suspect that there are stories here – stories we can invent and embroider to our hearts’ content. The name of the book from which it is taken is almost as easy to understand: La Calle (The Street), published by Aperture in 2016. Street photography is something to which many aspire, but it’s easier to recognise than to define. It tends to be a…

RSPCA People’s Choice voting opens A tortoise about to munch on some food, dogs playing at the seaside and a kitten pawing at dust are just some of the images in the running for the RSPCA’s People’s Choice photography award. To vote for your favourite, visit www.rspca.org.uk. AirSelfie available to pre-order The first flying selfie camera will be available from May, with pre-order under way following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The device connects to most popular smartphones, can fly up to 66ft and allows users to take photos with the help of an in-built Wi-Fi system. The camera takes stills and video. Prices start at £220. Visit www.airselfiecamera.com. Canon-branded clothes and accessories Canon UK is launching a range of branded clothing and accessories. A selection of the new merchandise has…

FREE firmware updates are planned for Fujifilm's flagship cameras, the X-Pro2 and X-T2, with a number of functional and operational updates scheduled. The new firmware versions feature a total of 33 enhancements across two patches. Users will now be able to shoot in raw in all bracketing modes, including ISO, Dynamic Range, White Balance and Film Simulation, as well as Advanced Filter modes. Pleasingly, users will also be able to control ISO directly from the front command dial, so that they don't have to interrupt their shots by removing their eye from the viewfinder. Other feature updates include improvements to the long-exposure mode – increased from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. Extended ISOs have also been expanded to include ISO 125 and 160. The first update is due at the…

I am incredibly loath to bang on the sexist drum, but I have to comment on how male orientated your accessories were in this week's issue (Gearing up for success, 18 March). Are you saying only men are interested in landscape photography? The boots, jacket and gloves were only for men, no mention that a mere woman would venture out into the hills. Do you think perhaps women only like to take photos of babies and hats? That the fear of breaking a nail would see off the chance of capturing an amazing moment as the sun breaks through the clouds halfway up a mountain? I hate the overly PC world we find ourselves in, but I do believe in mutual respect and equal opportunities. In a hobby/ profession which…

How to lighten the exposure TIM Jones's photograph of a South American woman looks great once it has been lightened up in Camera Raw. Checking the raw file metadata I can see that the Canon EOS 60D camera exposure meter was set to Auto, but even so, I am surprised the automated exposure produced such a dark image. However, by applying a few Basic panel adjustments I was soon able to optimise the tone and contrast. This was also a lovely, colourful image and I was concerned to not overdo the colour saturation, which is why I made use of the Workflow Options to limit the previewed colours to CMYK, which gave me a better idea of how the image (with edit adjustments) would look in print. 1 Basic panel…

1 Use a tripod This prevents any camera movement, which can cause blur, and allows you to shoot long exposures. 2 Set a low ISO Your image will be kept as clean as possible and it sets the level on which to base your exposure time and aperture. 3 Shoot in Manual or Bulb* mode This allows you and not the camera to dictate the image parameters. *Use Bulb mode if you are shooting light trails or need an exposure time to last more than 30secs. 4 Use Live View Auto focus can struggle in low light so focus manually using the Live View magnifier or focus peaking. (An additional benefit of Live View on DSLRs is that it doesn't let light leak into the camera through the viewfinder). 5…

Mohamed El Barkani, Germany Mohamed has been taking photographs since 2012. Since then he has developed something of a passion for cityscapes and architecture. He has travelled the world shooting some of the finest cities the globe has to offer. If you'd like to see more of his interesting work then visit www.facebook.com/moelbar Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque 1 Mohamed has captured the grand white-and-gold motif of this incredible space Sony Alpha 57, 16-105mm, 0.5sec at f/22, ISO 100 Superstructure, Singapore 2 By angling upwards, Mohamed has captured the immense scale of this architecture Olympus E-M10, 8mm, 1/80sec at f/6.3, ISO 500 Busan, South Korea 3 The reflections add real depth to this washed-out Korean cityscape Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, 7-14mm, 60secs at f/5, ISO 100 Frankfurt am Main 4…

Overall, the GH5 produced a very credible set of lab results, showing incremental improvements over the GH4. While the GH5's smaller sensor is, as expected, prone to showing more noise at higher sensitivities compared to its APS-C rivals, the point at which this becomes detrimental to the overall image is generally only around a stop lower. Dynamic range, meanwhile, is largely on a par with many APS-C sensors, which demonstrates how far MFT sensor technology has come in recent years. Resolution is also very competitive with APS-C rivals, aided by the removal of the optical low-pass filter. Dynamic range At its extended lower sensitivity setting of ISO 100, the GH5 is able to capture 12.46EV, which is just under half a stop more than the GH4 was capable of. Pushing…

LAUNCHED 1937 PRICE AT LAUNCH £14 14s (£14.70p) with Schneider Radionar lens GUIDE PRICE NOW £750-100 THE ZECA-FLEX scores on two fronts – first for its unusual design, making it immensely collectable and second because it takes 120 roll film, so it's still very usable. Only three companies made a folding twin lens reflex (TLR). This one was made by Zeh-Camera-Fabrik in Germany; the other companies were Welta and Kamera Werkstatten Guthe und Thorsch (KW). What makes it different from most other TLRs – folding or not – is that the viewing lens has a shorter focal length than the shooting lens. So although the camera shoots 6x6cm images on 120 film, the viewfinder screen measures only 4x4cm. That means the camera folds to a more compact size. Shutter speeds…