Innholdsfortegnelse for 12-Aug-2017 i Amateur Photographer

Whether you live in a big city or a very remote, rural location, there’s usually some kind of historic building within striking distance. Be it a church, castle or stately home, the UK is replete with imposing edifices, and they usually make fantastic photographic subjects. So this issue is dedicated to shooting the Best of Britain’s classic architecture, with plenty of practical tips and pro advice to put into practice today. As always, we’d love to see the results of your labour, particularly if some of our tips and techniques have inspired you to get out and about. Other highlights of this issue include a celebration of classic sport photography, a guide to printing with Lightroom and a hands-on test of a much more affordable Leica mirrorless camera. JOIN US…

Charlie Phillips Roland ‘Charlie’ Phillips was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1944, and moved to the UK in 1956. After acquiring his first camera in the 1950s, Phillips began to document life in London. He is best known for his photographs of Notting Hill at a time when the area was wracked with poverty. Until 30 August www.lomography.com/about/stores/ Jim Grover Jim Grover’s beautiful project records the day-to-day life of an Anglican priest in Clapham, south London. The photographer’s black & white images are both intimate and profound, and are a thought-provoking illustration of what can be achieved with intelligent documentary photography. Until 31 August, www.cathedral.net Ed Gold The work of Essex-based documentary photographer Ed Gold will be celebrated in a major exhibition at Firstsite, Colchester. Entitled…

DUE TO popular demand, the Saatchi Gallery's popular exhibition ‘From Selfie to Self-Expression' has been extended well past its original closing date and will now end on 6 September. The show, the gallery's most successful to date, is billed as the world's first exhibition exploring the history of the selfie, from the self-portraiture of the Old Masters to the modern day. It claims to celebrate the creative potential in a photographic genre often derided for its inanity. The show also highlights the emerging role of the smartphone as an artistic tool. Artists as diverse as Christopher Baker, Juno Calypso, Tracey Emin, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Cindy Sherman and Velázquez are all on show. Visit www.saatchigallery.com for more information.…

Nikon FM3A joy I really enjoyed reading your issue on Nikon's big anniversary. I've owned several Nikon SLRs and DSLRs over the years, but your articles inspired me to seek out another one – my first fully manual Nikon SLR, the FM3A. I was led to it due to my appreciation for Nikon's older designs and my love of film. Although the availability of film is picking up, a film camera like this will likely never be made again. Very luckily, I managed to find a black Nikon FM3A in good condition, in a shop in Chester. I received it in the post and when I opened the box I knew that this something that I would never sell. I'm not a collector – I actually intend to use it.…

Tripod A tripod is essential for keeping the camera still in low light, which you often encounter in historic buildings. I currently use a Gitzo model with an Acratech GP ballhead. Shift lens Shift lenses are ideal for keeping vertical elements vertical. Tilting the camera back to fit in the top of a building produces untruthful representations of the subject. Spirit level There is no point using a shift lens and tripod if you don’t set the camera up properly in the first place. Hama makes a very useful one that fits into the camera hotshoe. Electronic flash Not necessarily for the main light source but to ‘fill in’ or assist with the available light. Take it off the camera and raise it up to the left or right to…

LCD display This displays the power output as a percentage, or an f/stop, as well as the colour temperature in kelvin. Control dials The two red dials control brightness and white balance, or flash output and duration. Press them both together to enter the menu. Optional V-lock battery Provides three hours of continuous shooting, or 150k flashes, per charge. It’s the largest battery allowed in aircraft hand luggage. Aluminium handles These rigid and good-sized handles enable the light to be handheld if required. Bi-colour LED panel The LED array comprises a mix of daylight and tungsten diodes. Varying their relative brightness enables fine control of colour temperature. Pro ball head The ball head provided with the AEOS enables stand or tripod mounting and affords precise positioning of the light to…

Clip-in organiser A slimline organiser slips into the bag’s rear pocket and has three flat pockets for holding documents or a 10in tablet. Front pockets Two flat pockets cover the front of the bag and can hold small accessories such as batteries, memory cards and filters. Camera insert Although the camera insert is well padded and soft lined, small items can be hard to find in its deep, black interior. It can be removed for everyday use. Grab handle This can be used to carry the bag, but only with the front straps secured since the secondary twist fastener isn’t strong enough on its own. At a glance • Measures 40x28x12.7cm • Weighs 2.25kg • Made from Superdry canvas • Waterproof and dustproof • £550 • www.hawkesmill.com IF YOU own…

It is often difficult, or even impossible, to analyse exactly why a particular picture is so compelling. This is not the same as saying that you can’t find all kinds of reasons: more, it’s a question of disentangling them. Also, what the photographer intended in the picture is not necessarily what we see in it. Here, for example, I might start with the simple truth that this is a beautiful picture of a beautiful woman: one whose closed eyes, furthermore, instantly render her mysterious. Then I could add that the picture uses a device that appears in many of my favourite paintings and photographs: strong chiaroscuro, light against dark. Looking more closely, I notice the shabbiness of the wall and table, massively contrasting with the delicacy of Lily’s skin and…

I confess that I like HDR. There, I've said it. But why? Well, I was thinking about dynamic range. This is the ratio between the darkest and brightest points in an image, and in photography we measure this in f-stops. Most compact cameras (and smartphones) fall in the range of 7-9 stops, DSLRs 12-14, with the top performing Nikon D810 on 14.8. But how does that compare to the human eye? Well, the eye doesn't have a fixed range as it depends on the context. Its instantaneous perception is thought to be 10-14 stops, while if you allow your eye to adapt to the scene it can increase to 20-24 stops. In fact, I'd argue that the perception of our dynamic range is 20-24 stops. Look at the image below…

You answered… A My SLR does everything I need 33% B I am not convinced they offer equal performance 17% C I find them too small and fiddly 5% D Mirrorless has a more limited lens choice 6% E It’s too expensive to change systems 39% What you said ‘I’m just not happy with the thought of no viewfinder. It goes against all the golden rules of good photography to hold a camera at arm’s length, especially as one gets older and it is harder to keep steady hands.’ ‘I wanted to click two answers. DSLR does all I want, but I couldn’t add “too expensive”, which would also apply.’ ‘I did it the other way around. When I got back into photography, I invested in the Fuji X-T1 and…

Overcome mixed lighting Take one image as a raw file then convert it using two different colour temperatures in post-production. Crop the two pictures at the point where the mismatch occurs and stitch them together to produce one image. Try a raised viewpoint Use a stepladder, stand on a wall or gain access to a window or upper floor near to the subject to obtain a raised viewpoint. As well as offering a fresh perspective, an elevated position can also minimise the presence of parked cars and/or pedestrians in towns and cities. Reveal details A different height, often lower than eye level, can reveal addtional detail that may be lost in the higher perspective, such as the decoration beneath a shelf of a fireplace or the faces and rose decoration…

Round Three Macro Elena Paraskeva wins a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro lens and EM-140 DG Macro flash. The Sigma 105mm f/2.8 is a medium telephoto macro lens with Optical Stabilisation, with the floating inner focus system ensuring high rendering throughout the focusing range. The EM-140 DG Macro flash is ideal for photographing subjects in fine detail when the shadowless mode is used and it is extremely effective for all your macro photography needs. That's a total prize value of £1,029.98. 1 Elena Paraskeva Cyprus 50pts Exposure unknown The first thing that appeals about this image is the glorious wash of blue. It's a great example of how a background can be used to complement a subject and provide additional information about its habitat. What's more, sharpness is…

AS SOON as I slid the Rotolight AEOS from its case I could tell it was a very different and original light source, equally at home on location or the studio, and a true stills/video hybrid. Shooting some portraits of our model, Hollie, on location in daylight, I was impressed that it was possible to handhold the light and shoot at the same time, although stand mounting or having an assistant offers greater versatility. The catchlight in the eyes from the circular LED array is really beautiful and being able to easily adjust the colour and intensity on the fly is a real advantage. Shooting in strobe mode using a Phottix trigger, and not having to even consider the recycling time (which is instantaneous) is absolutely unique with this type…

RPS Science competition shortlist The Royal Photographic Society’s International Images for Science competition has announced a shortlist of 100 images, drawn from 3,563 entries. Supported by Siemens, the competition aims to engage young people with science and engineering. The five winners will be revealed at a ceremony in London on 12 September. Daguerrotype Achromat given a chrome finish Lomography has launched a version of its reimagined Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art lens in a chrome plated finish. The lens was Kickstarted in 2016, designed by Lomography’s technicians based on Daguerre and Chevalier’s 1839 design. See www.lomography.com. Historic Photographer of the Year launches The first Historic Photographer of the Year Awards has opened for amateur and professional photographers around the world, with the aim of capturing the very best historic places and…

LENS manufacturer Voigtländer has announced the release of its Macro APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 Aspherical lens for Sony E-mount. The designation APO-Lanthar is only given to high-performance lenses in the Voigtländer line-up. The high-performance manual focus macro lens has been designed for the full-frame image sensors of the current range of Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. It features an apochromatic optical design, and has a manual focus and manual aperture with electrical contacts so that EXIF data can be recorded. The Voigtländer Macro APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 Aspherical is available from the beginning of August and will cost £750. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

a Nikon fan I really enjoyed AP's Nikon anniversary issue (8 July). Ken Woolf Thanks, Ken. We have tons of ideas for a weekly magazine and sales are robust, despite competition from monthlies, so we have no plans to change frequency – Geoff Harris, deputy editor Mirrorless cameras I could not help but smile when I read your article on mirrorless cameras in the 29 July edition. I have recently traded in my complete Nikon D810 system for a small manual rangefinder camera system without video. I don't miss the autofocus, endless menu items, video options, multiple buttons and the weight. My new camera has a simple, well-thought-out and understandable menu system, and is light and small enough to carry around all day with lenses and without bending your back.…

Steve Cole Steve Cole has worked in the cultural heritage sector for more than 40 years. He was appointed head of photography at English Heritage in 2000, a position he held until his retirement in 2014. Aside from photography his interests span all periods of architecture and archaeology. Photography has been used to capture our built environment since 1826. The oldest known photograph, ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’, by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, is a case in point. Niépce and his contemporaries Daguerre and Fox Talbot used architectural subjects for their first images, mainly because the exposure required to capture an image was too long to record anything that moved. These days we mostly take pictures of historic buildings for pleasure or, in my case, to create comprehensive historic…

James Paterson James Paterson is as skilled a photo editor as he is a photographer. His work has appeared in countless magazines and books, and in 2014 he was appointed editor of Practical Photoshop. His subjects range from portraits to landscapes and underwater scenes. Photoshop is more than just a work tool for him, as he enjoys messing around with the software and seeing what happens. Visit www.patersonphotos.com. 1 Begin with a collection The Collections panel helpfully runs throughout the Lightroom modules. So whether you want to make a photo book, slideshow or a series of prints, begin by collating your chosen images. Go to the Library module and click the Collection panel Plus (+) icon, then drag the images you want to the new collection. 2 Order your frames…