Innholdsfortegnelse for 23-Dec-2017 i Amateur Photographer

IN OCTOBER, Adobe revealed the latest version of Creative Cloud – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC. New features enable access and editing of photos from anywhere using searchable keywords. These keywords are assigned with the company's new artificial intelligence service, Adobe Sensei. Photoshop Lightroom CC has been renamed Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC, with a focus on desktop editing. Adobe said the new system was inspired by the expanding system of mobile-first applications, hence the development of an interface synchronising changes across mobile, desktop and the web. Adobe announced updates to Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, and Premiere Pro CC. Some expressed regret about Adobe's abandonment of a standalone desktop version of Lightroom, particularly for those not interested in mobile editing.…

‘Getting both dogs to stay in position long enough to get the shot was a challenge’ Jango and Newt Nigel Atherton, Editor Olympus PEN E-PL5, 17mm lens, 1/4000sec at f/8, ISO 200 I live on the coast and spend a lot of my weekends walking my dogs on the South Downs, next to the sea. Sometimes it's cold, wet and miserable, but this image perfectly captures how wonderful it can be when the sun is out and glistening on the surface of the water. I had a silhouette in mind when I set out, but getting both dogs to stay in the right position long enough for me to get the shot was a challenge, since one of them is just a puppy. I wanted them to be looking at…

The price is not right May I re-hear the excuse why the British photography customer has to pay so much for their gear? For example, you can buy a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 VC G2 lens for slightly more than £900 in the USA, but it seems to cost £1,250 in the UK – £350 more for the same product. Also you receive a shorter warranty of five years in the EU versus that of six if bought in the USA! Similarly a Nikon D850 will cost you only £2,500 ($3,300) in the USA but £3,500 in the UK? These are generic products that do not differ and take no extra effort to manufacture for the UK. Yet I have never heard a decent argument or seen any investigative journalism that…

It’s a bonafide bucket-list topping place for photographers everywhere. And it’s not hard to see why – a rather small geographical footprint offers a startling array of diverse landscapes to really test your skills and equipment. Aside from making sure to pack the best lenses, tripods and filters, this land is set to challenge the mettle of the photographer. These awe-inspiring sights are difficult to reach, the weather ever-changing and dramatic. Iceland offers any keen photographer true adventure, rewarding them with utterly enchanting natural scenes. Unravel this Iceland itinerary. Dust off your lenses, find your warmest coat and sturdiest boots, and head out into the hinterland to these hand-picked locations. These are the top five, but there are plenty more waiting to be discovered. Don’t miss them. Krafa This magnificent…

‘From Mount Watkins we could see Half Dome’s beautiful edifice’ In 2010 Kurt M Lawson envisaged a night-time long-exposure shot of hikers ascending the 97 switchbacks of the Mount Whitney Trail in California. The following year, having enlisted the help of several friends, he realised his ambition. Later, Kurt was contacted by photographer (and astronomer) Sean Goebel who suggested that they return to the site and recreate the photograph with the use of digital equipment. The pair also decided to capture time-lapse footage of the proceedings. In 2014 the duo (plus a small team of helpers) took eight cameras back to the mountain. The trip was a huge success and led to a unique picture, and the forging of a strong friendship. It comes as no surprise then to learn…

7 Prefocus your picture Niki Boon www.nikiboonphotos.com To increase my chances of a sharp result I often prefocus – this involves aiming the lens at an area I know the subject will enter into, rather than chasing movement with the camera. I prefocus, and when I see the subject entering the frame and about to do something interesting, I release the shutter. 8 Stay sharp with shallow DOF James Abbott www.jamesaphoto.co.uk Fast primes are fantastic for shooting portraits. Whether you're going in close for a head and shoulders crop or full length, the shallow depth-of-field they can create looks stunning. The difficulty is in getting the shots sharp where they should be – on the eyes. The zone of focus is so narrow that if you move a tiny amount…

31 Catch the clouds Jon Brook www.benthamimaging.co.uk Steam trains are most photogenic when they are working hard, when they are accelerating or going uphill. Winter is the best time to capture the exhaust steam condensing into white clouds that trail behind the engine. To track stream trains use the website www.uksteam.info to check train schedules. 32 A unique background Moose Peterson www.moosepeterson.com Background and foreground are very important to help to tell a story. Many aircrafts, like this B-25 Mitchell bomber, fly at airshows with accompanying pyrotechnics. If you incorporate a unique background you will be sure to grab the viewer's attention. 33 Look for contrast Nick Dungan www.nickdungan.co.uk Many autofocus systems will lock on quicker or more accurately in areas with definition or contrast, such as number plates or…

You might think that a similar number of new camera models are released every year. But it’s not quite like that, thanks to the Photokina effect. For decades, the industry’s biggest trade show has been held in the September of even-numbered years, and the major camera companies have timed their big announcements around it. Consequently, 2017 hasn’t seen a huge number of new cameras; however, it has seen some extremely significant ones. From 2019 onwards, Photokina will become an annual show, so perhaps this is the last time we’ll see such a pattern. In addition, in April 2016, Sony’s sensor plant in Kumamoto was hit by a huge earthquake that halted production completely. The resulting shortage severely disrupted releases well into 2017. 24MP APS-C Canons Canon makes all its own…

Josh Evans A Tamron 18-200mm lens. It's a great-performing little travel lens, and saves me carrying a load with me. And it was only £85 with two-year warranty. Robin Hunter A Fujian 35mm f/1.7 CCTV lens that cost just over £10 and produces the most bonkers bokeh of all the lenses in my kit. Gotta love mirrorless systems for the ability to bung random glass on. Paul Coen Up until the last two weeks, I'd have said my Sony Alpha 6500, but the new Polaroid Originals OneStep 2 is so much fun that it's edging it out. Stuart Green I love my Lensbaby Composer Pro, which I got with the 35mm soft-focus optic. I had already picked up a fisheye optic for it on eBay, and also recently got hold…

THE YEAR 2017 has been another eventful and turbulent one for the big Japanese camera manufacturers. Sony very much set the pace in 2017 with the release of the Alpha 9 – described by AP's Andy Westlake as ‘an astonishing high-speed mirrorless model that pushes the boundaries for full-frame sports and action cameras'. Nikon also garnered a number of great reviews for its D850 pro SLR, yet the company also announced the closure of one of its Chinese factories due to the rise of the smartphone market. It said that this increase in popularity has led to the compact digital camera market ‘shrinking rapidly'. The decision came after a company-wide restructuring plan, which saw a 10% reduction of the workforce. Nikon also said sayonara to the DL series before selling…

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 – First Prize Winner César Dezfuli Amadou Sumaila (from the series Passengers) On 1 August 2016, over 100 people were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea, 20 nautical miles from the Libyan coast. On board the rescue vessel, photojournalist César Dezfuli was documenting the plight of migrants. The portrait shows Amadou Sumaila, a 16-year-old boy from Mali, who was later transferred to a reception centre in Italy. ‘I think Amadou's portrait stands out because of the emotions it transmits,' says Dezfuli. ‘He had just been rescued by a European vessel, apparently fulfilling his dream. However, his look and his attitude show fear, mistrust and uncertainty, as well as determination and strength.' CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2017 – Overall Winner Quoc Nguyen Linh Vinh…

Hollie Latham Hucker Technique editor ‘Always by my side’ by John Ferrett I'm a huge fan of the array of fantastic photography competitions we see each year – big and small. It's great to see so many photographers from different backgrounds participating from all corners of the globe. We've seen some stunning photographs in 2017; it's hard to pick a favourite. However I must admit that I have a soft spot for any photograph that includes a dog – it won't take much to win me over! So this year I was particularly excited to see the finalists for The Kennel Club's Dog Photographer of the Year. Now in its 12th year, the international competition received almost 10,000 entries from 74 countries. It must have been a hard task for…

Stormtroopers Ryan Hardman I enjoy seeing moments of humour in everyday life. This scene was a gift to Ryan, but he photographed it well, creating a lead-in line of stormtroopers that gives the image a surreal quality. Panasonic GH4, 25mm, 1/640sec, f/4, ISO 200 Horse Gerry White I spend a lot of my weekends walking on the downs, by the sea, surrounded by grazing horses, so this image from our 8 April issue, taken in Portland, Dorset, immediately appealed to me. It's very evocative of a late afternoon stroll – I can almost smell the sea air and feel the warm sun on my cheek. The horse seems to be enjoying the moment, too! Canon EOS 6D, 24-105mm, 1/80sec at f/18, ISO 100 Batman Steve Cheetham It takes an open…

13 Reveal background texture Mark Sisson www.marksissonphoto.co.uk These days, I am increasingly drawn to revealing texture in backgrounds as opposed to reducing the area behind my subject to a classic uniform colour. I still use a shallow depth of field to emphasise the subject, but I include texture to provide a sense of place. This image of a great-spotted woodpecker screams pine forest when you look at it. The subject is small in the frame, allowing plenty of background to be included. There is an out-of-focus tree in the distance, and the light on the pine needles leaves no doubt as to the location. The longer you look at the background, the more it reveals, which takes the image beyond a simple portrait. ‘A good exercise is to create a…

As camera reviewers, we still always get excited when a manufacturer gets in touch to brief us about a new model. Occasionally it can end up being a bit of a letdown, but more often than not these days, we get to see some clever new technology a couple of days before the camera is launched (or if we're really lucky, a couple of weeks). It's a great perk of the job to be told all this before it becomes public knowledge, so that we can write it up for the benefit for you, our valued readers. Like other enthusiast photographers, though, we're anything but immune to drawing up our own personal wish lists of what we'd like to see on those new cameras we think might appear on the…

1 What have the following people got in common: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Her Majesty the Queen? 2 When was the Magnum agency founded? a 1936, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War b 1947, during the Communist takeover in Hungary c 1954, at the end of the French war in Indo-China 3 Strictly, a megapixel should just be one big pixel, as in megalith or ‘big stone. When did the use of ‘mega' to mean ‘a million' come in?a 1868 with ‘megafarad'b 1946 with ‘megabuck'c 1950 with ‘megaton' 4 Daguerreotypes were too fragile to hand colour. True or false? 5 The old whole-plate format is 6 ½ x 8 ½ inches. Quarter-plate (also widely used by Polaroid) is 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches. How…

WHILE Nikon's centenary year wasn't all celebrations and bubbly, its new D850 pro-spec SLR seems to have hit the spot. Dealers we've spoken to announce strong demand for this full-frame pro workhorse, and the reviews have been almost universally positive. ‘Nikon users have had a long three-year wait for a replacement to the mighty D810, but the great news is that the D850 doesn't disappoint in the slightest, delivering impressive features by the truck load,' enthused AP's Michael Topham. The new camera earned plaudits for its high-resolution, 45.7MP sensor, super-fast autofocus and silent shooting in live view and impressive battery life. So far so good, but in September Nikon was accused of rampant sexism after Nikon Asia asked 32 photographers to promote the D850 – not one of whom was…

DAVID Slater, the photographer behind the ‘monkey selfie', which launched a global copyright tussle, reached an out-of-court settlement in September with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which was suing him on behalf of the crested macaque it dubbed ‘Naruto'. Slater agreed to donate 25% of any future revenue derived from using or selling the image to charities that protect the species' habitat in Indonesia. He told AP he was happy that an agreement had been reached but is still considering taking action against Wikipedia for distributing the image. It claimed he never had copyright as the monkey activated the shutter release. ‘The monkey hasn't been given copyright by the judges and I haven't either, so we will see. I am happy to have settled though, and feel…

Peter Macdiarmid lays the starting point of his path to photography at the door of his Guatemala-born mother, who had an unconventional upbringing. ‘She brought that to the family,’ he explains. ‘We would go and do things that were exciting, that other people wouldn’t do. Nowadays, it would be quite normal to go and look for the Royals, but in the ‘70s, when I was growing up, we would go and find where Prince Charles was playing polo. In some ways it’s remarkable that I haven’t become a Royal photographer. I think my mother’s craving for excitement was sort of in-built and that drove me towards news photography.’ He recalls spending 10p on a Box Brownie camera at a jumble sale aged 10. ‘It took some paper-wrapped Kodak film that…

‘The biggest challenge we faced was finding a healthy kelp forest with lots of life’ The epic Blue Planet II project took four years to complete and involved 125 shoots in 39 countries, 6,000 hours of filming underwater and an additional 1,000 hours of filming in submersibles at depths down to 1,000 metres below the surface. The result of this labour of love, documenting a part of the natural world often never seen before, is a seven-part BBC TV series and accompanying book including more than 200 still images by many of the world’s top nature photographers. Indeed, as series narrator Sir David Attenborough points out, ‘Oceans cover 70% of the surface of our planet and yet they are still the least explored. Hidden beneath the waves there are creatures…

19 Use diffused flash Geoff Harris www.geoffharrisphoto.co.uk A lot of wedding photographers seem obsessed with using only natural light. For me, this is too rigid. While natural light is wonderful, I am not averse to using a touch of bounce flash combined with a higher ISO to get crisper images. Yes, heavily flashed images look crude and unnatural, but a ‘kiss' of diffused flash at a lower power output can help to lift images. 20 Use Face/Eye Detection Kevin Mullins www.kevinmullins photography.co.uk My style of wedding photography (mostly candid and unposed) involves handholding the camera – so I need to keep my hands seriously steady. If you're shooting at slow shutter speeds, hold your breath when you release the shutter. I use small cameras – Fujifilm's X-Pro2 and X-T2 –…

28 Follow the light Andy Marshall www.andymarshall.co There are lots of apps available that can help you to chart the position of the sun around a building. I recently used one on a visit to Beverley Minster in Yorkshire. It helped me capture this image of the sun rising between the twin towers. Select a building in your local area and see if you can plan and capture the ‘henge' effect. My favourite light-tracking apps are PhotoPills and LightTrac. 29 Provide a sense of place Lee Frost www.leefrost.co.uk Castles tend to be found in dramatic locations as they were built to protect and defend. So try to capture a sense of place in your images to give the viewer a feel for where the castle is. In other words, show…

Support our communities According to various reports, the happiest nations have one thing in common: a strong sense of community. When we experience a sense of belonging, it translates into feelings of empowerment, security and well-being. In recent years we have swapped much of our face-to-face contact for virtual relationships facilitated by social media. These brief exchanges have their purpose, but to my mind they simply cannot compare to the feeling you get from physically being in a room with like-minded people. As a result I am planning to shoot a photo project on local community centres, focusing on unoccupied rooms, to raise awareness of what we stand to lose if we do not support these venues. Tracy Calder, Features editor Shoot less – see more Like a lot of…

A National Geographic Earth Explorer NG 2346 camera bag. All you need to do is find the photographer names listed above and email us with the one that’s missing from the word search. A winner will be randomly selected from the correct entries. The closing date for entries is 1 January 2018 and the answer (along with the location of the words) will be published in our 3 February issue. Please email the missing word to ap@timeinc.com and put ‘WORDSEARCH’ in the subject line. For full terms and conditions see www.timeincuk.com/terms-and-conditions.…