Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Apr-2017 i Amateur Photographer

Dog photography may seem to be straightforward, and even a bit superficial, but it encompasses a lot of core skills which can be applied to people shots and other genres. Carefully controlling your focusing and the background is essential, but you also need to be on top of your action photography technique when capturing dogs at play. It can be a lucrative sideline as well; many people spend a lot of money on pedigree dogs, so they want a quality portrait, too. Turn to pages 14 to 16 for some expert tips. We’re also pleased to announce our unique poll to find the best album photography on page 36, so turn to page 37 to meet our expert panel, while Michael Topham has a look at Pentax’s new DSLR in…

NIKON celebrates its 100th anniversary on 25 July. To mark its centenary it has announced a special Anniversary range that will feature the 100th anniversary logo along with special finishing details. These include Nikon's two flagship models, the D5 and D500, as well as the popular AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens, a set of three Nikkor f/2.8 zoom lenses and commemorative editions of three binoculars. There will also be a number of commemorative goods, including a Swarovski crystal version of the iconic Nikon Model I, a pin collection, an Italian leather camera strap and a miniature Nikon F model.…

Canon no longer I was interested to read the ‘Canon EOS Milestones' in the ‘30 Years of Canon EOS' supplement (25 March) produced by yourselves in partnership with Canon. Very little reference is made to the abandonment of the FD mount in 1987. At the time of the change I had a T90, an AE1 Program, a Canon F, and numerous lenses. Overnight, the FD system was obsolete and none of my lenses would fit an EOS. Shortly after, I decided to upgrade, and so I abandoned Canon and bought Nikon. I now have a Nikon D200, D7000 and D750, and guess what – all my old lenses fit. Canon's argument that they needed a new mount for autofocus etc is, in my view, baseless. I was offered an old…

Andy Biggar Andy and his wife Amy are based in Cheshire. Together, they photograph dogs from all over the UK and further afield. The pair specialises in capturing the true character of dogs, and the special bond between owner and their best friend, in natural surroundings at their farm, which is dedicated to dog photography. Visit www.andybiggar.com. ‘You’ll never make a living out of photographing dogs.’ That’s what our fellow professionals said to us when we started out, yet here we are, many years later, with a thriving business. We travel the world, photograph amazing dogs in wonderful places, and run courses to teach other professionals and amateurs how to take better dog photographs. Having grown up with dogs, we understand they are important family members that have a special…

‘My goal became to document these remote villages before they are completely abandoned’ The Zeiss Photography Award is an international photography contest that was launched in collaboration with the World Photography Organisation in 2016. This year the theme was ‘Seeing Beyond’ and was won by Kevin Faingnaert, who produced a poetic and beautiful document depicting life on the remote and sparsely populated villages on the Faroe Islands. He tells us about the process behind his project. Looking back through your photography projects, is it fair to say that your work is defined by your exploration of subcultures and communities? Yes, I’d say that’s true. In my personal work, I’m mainly drawn to subcultures and communities who are removed from the mainstream. It’s a childish curiosity to look behind dark corners…

Paul Rees Paul served as editor-in-chief of the music magazines Qand Kerrang! for 13 years and has interviewed everybody from Sir Paul McCartney to Madonna, and Bruce Springsteen to Adele. He is also the author of three books. Scarlet Page Scarlet has worked with the likes of Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and shot the cover for Stereophonics’ Performance and Cocktails. Scarlet became interested in photography via her dad, Jimmy, and served an apprenticeship with Ross Halfin. Gered Mankowitz Gered’s images defined the 1960s rock revolution, and include the iconic image of Hendrix smoking, plus many of The Rolling Stones – he shot the cover image for their fifth album, Between the Buttons. Dean Chalkley Dean is regarded as one of the finest and most creative music photographers…

Our lab tests tell us the KP resolves the level of detail we'd expect from a 24-million-pixel sensor without an optical aliasing filter and you can confidently use the camera at up to ISO 6400 without too much concern. You'd get away with pushing to ISO 25,600 in an emergency, but the headline-grabbing ISO 819,200 should be steered well clear of. Raw shooters will appreciate that it records in Adobe's DNG format, which means that unlike other new models, you shouldn't need to update your software to handle its files. Dynamic range At ISO 100, the KP’s dynamic range result measures 12.7EV – a figure that’s higher than the 12.3EV we previously recorded on the Pentax K-70, but not quite as high as the Pentax K-1 that records 13.8EV at…

The deadline for the 2017 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year has now passed. Year after year, the competition hosts an extraordinary array of images that capture the splendour of the galaxy. The overall winner will be announced on 14 September and will take home a top prize of £10,000 and see his or her image displayed within the APOTY 2017 exhibition at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. In the meantime, we take a look at this image called ‘Field of Dreams' by Chris Cook. ‘My eight-year-old son gazes up at the starry summer Milky Way-filled sky from a baseball field in Harwich, Massachusetts, USA,' says Chris. ‘Perhaps he was dreaming of being a pro baseball player or an astronaut?' For more visit www.rmg.co.uk/discover/astronomy-photographer-competition. Words & numbers A thing you see…

The bizarre scenes of selfie sessions that take place almost anywhere can cause much head scratching among those more used to conventional photography. So what does this behavioural pattern tell us? If it were not for technology, and the speed of transformation, the selfie craze would not have developed. But someone had the vision to combine a mobile telephone with a usable camera. The rest, as they say, is history. The switch from photography to phoneography was actually a remarkably silent revolution, yet millions of users are now the clearest evidence of its success. Applications beyond the selfie give a much better idea of phoneography's huge potential. Ease of use, transportability and the benefits of immediacy are qualities certainly matched in part by cameras of a more conventional design, but…

I gave up using a camera with GPS a long time ago, having had similar problems to Andrew Redding (11 March). I use a Garmin hiking GPS or a TomTom GPS; both can be synchronised by time with a camera but independent from it. After a photo session, a track log in GPX format can be copied to the computer folder containing the images. Then, by linking them to a free app called GPicSync, all the coordinates, Geonames and HTML Summary are geotagged into the metadata of each image. A KML file is also saved in the folder to view the track and images in Google Earth. I set the GPS and camera to GMT (UTC) and turn off auto summer and local time, meaning that they will be in…

Joshua Paul Akers, London Joshua is someone who travels a great deal and a camera is never out of reach. His favourite subjects are the people he encounters on his way. He particularly loves photographing people with charismatic, interesting faces, and this often ends up being older people. Instagram & Twitter: @joshuapaulakers 1 Ollantaytambo, Peru This image was taken in Peru and shows the incredibly colourful traditional dress of the locals. The subject is dressed head to toe in vibrant tones as she spins cotton. Nikon D810, 85mm, 1/1600sec at f/3.2, ISO 400 2 Arequipa This elderly lady was sitting in the main square in Arequipo, and Josh was drawn to her face and how her eyelids drooped over her eyes. Nikon D810, 85mm, 1/160sec at f/3.5, 3 Lake Titicaca…

THE Pentax KP features the same Pixel Shift Resolution system that we've seen previously on the K-3 II, K-70 and full-frame K-1. In almost all cameras, the light-sensitive pixels capture red, green or blue light, and a full-colour image is built up using a clever process of interpolation between them. But this can give rise to softness and artefacts when examining images closely at the pixel level. The Pentax KP's Pixel Shift Resolution mode captures four images of the same scene by shifting the image sensor by a single pixel for each image, then combines this information into a single composite image. By obtaining colour information in each pixel, the KP can deliver higher-resolution images that assure true-to-life colour reproduction. The camera has to be locked off on a tripod…

New Canon compact superzoom camera Canon has announced a new superzoom for its PowerShot SX travel series, the PowerShot SX730 HS. It features a long 24-960mm equivalent 40x optical zoom lens in a body just 39.9mm thick. Equipped with a 20.3MP CMOS sensor and DIGIC 6 Processor, it can shoot continuously at 5.9fps – all for £379.99. Leica Camera, official partner of Photo London For the second year running, Leica Camera will be the official partner of Photo London and will be exhibiting Danish Magnum photographer Jacob Aue Sobol’s new body of work ‘Road of Bones’, at the Photo London fair (18-21 May 2017). This debut collection will reveal poignant images captured in desolate locations, including Yakutia in Russia. Nick Ut calls it a day Perhaps the most famous photo…

CANON has announced the EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM, a macro lens designed for its range of APS-C DSLR cameras. Its signature feature is the built-in Macro Lite technology: two miniature continuous LED units on the front of the lens to light your subject. The two lights on each side can be used separately or together and you can also control the light strength at the press of a button. For both natural and off-camera light the attachable lens hood is designed to minimise shadows and reflections. Also included is Canon's Hybrid IS system that claims to offer up to four stops of camera shake correction, an STM focus motor for smooth and near-silent AF and life-size 1:1 magnification at a minimum focus distance of 30mm. With an equivalent…

1 Nikkor 28-300mm f/5-5.6 Some might turn their noses up at a super-zoom, but I find this to be such a versatile lens that I often leave my other lenses at home. On a full-frame DSLR the zoom range is phenomenal and the image quality is surprisingly great. There’s a little distortion, but it’s easy to fix. 2 Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 This is a great lens for macro work and a wonderful lens for portraits. It’s pin-sharp with a tank-like body and huge focus ring. The vibration reduction and max aperture of f/2.8 means I can shoot handheld in very dim conditions. 3 Formatt-Hitech Firecrest filter holder and Firecrest ND filters I’m so keen on these it’s easy to give every landscape the 16-stop ND, 8-minute-exposure treatment. The filter holder…

You answered… A Polariser 49% B ND grad 19% C 10-stop ND 12% D All of these three about equally 2% E I do it all in Photoshop instead 7% F I never use filters 11% What you said ‘You can’t duplicate the effect of a polariser (my most used filter) or a 10-stop ND in Photoshop, and although I’ve largely used Photoshop instead of ND grads for some years, the filters have the advantage of making you think about the picture more. Can’t imagine ever using a warm-up filter again, though.’ ‘I voted ‘ND Grad’ because I have a circular glass one that is used for 99% of the pictures I take with my beloved second-hand Sigma 10-20mm lens.’ ‘I don’t see an option for the Cokin rainbow filter.…

MyMyk SmartMyk Coiled lead A generously long coiled lead plugs into the camera’s 3.5mm microphone socket Foam windshield The slim foam muffler provides some protection against wind noise; an optional furry windshield is also available Metal camera mount The microphone fits onto your camera via a sturdy metal shoe, but has no tripod screw socket Shock mount The microphone is held in a red TPE rubber mount to minimise the impact of handling noise and vibrations • £149 • www.mymyk.com Andy Westlake tests a low-profile microphone for DSLR video IF YOU'RE a photographer interested in recording video, buying an external microphone can seem like an extravagance. Most cameras have perfectly serviceable stereo microphones built-in, and external units are usually large and inconvenient. But in reality, investing in a microphone can…

Dust removal By applying vibrations generated by a piezoelectric element to the optical glass panel placed in front of the image sensor, the dust-removal mechanism can remove dust particles and prevent dust spots from appearing on images. Cold resistance The Pentax KP has been designed to perform in cold environments as low as -10°C. Users are advised that cold conditions can affect battery life and are recommended to carry spares and keep them warm in an inside pocket. HDR mode Provides a choice of +1EV, +2EV, or +3EV and works with the Automatic Position Adjustment function to correct the alignment of images captured. Pop-up flash The KP features a built-in retractable flash that’s raised using the flash button at the side of the body. If you require additional illumination, Pentax…

‘The “flaws” complement and accentuate the sense of timelessness. These are pictures for posterity’ Ambrotypes were at least 30 years old when AP was founded in 1884. They’re a strange hybrid: a negative set against a dark background, usually black velvet, so that it appears as a positive. The negative itself is usually wet-plate collodion, where the picture must be taken within 10 or 20 minutes of the plate being sensitised, while it is still wet. The images are also laterally reversed. As with most obsolete processes, there are still practitioners of this refractory medium. Giles Clement is one of the best I have encountered: he has been making ambrotypes for about five years. His ‘straight’ portraits like this, taken with a 16x20in camera, are fascinating in their own right…