Innholdsfortegnelse for 12-May-2018 i Amateur Photographer

The beautiful thing about street photography is that you don’t need to go very far to do it, but the easy part ends there. What to shoot and how, without getting shouted at? What camera and lens to use? Many questions abound in this complex genre, so we’ve done our best to enlighten you about gear and technique in this issue. Former AP editor and seasoned street guru Damien Demolder reveals why he loves mirrorless cameras for street shooting (pg 12), and shares technique tips and buying advice. Staying with gear choice, Andy Westlake tests the world’s cheapest AF lens, the Yongnuo YN 50mm, which he finds is surprisingly good value, and we review the Eizo ColorEdge CS2730 – a superb monitor for professional-grade photo-editing. JOIN US ONLINE amateurphotographer.co.uk Facebook.com/Amateur.photographer.magazine…

Face time Take your portraiture skills up a notch with excellent advice from top pros Retouching portraits Make your portraits look natural with Photoshop guru Martin Evening’s tips Prime portraits Andy Westlake recommends the best optics to shoot excellent people pictures Lighting accessories We round up a range of essential lighting solutions, from modifiers to portable kits…

I try not to do much post-production as I don't get much time after a shoot, so I do what I can to get the shot as close as possible to the way I want it at the time I take the picture. However, almost always, there are things for which software is needed. I actually really like in-camera raw-processing facilities that allow me to skip the software stage, but not many cameras have a processing ability that is extensive enough for this. Fujifilm X-series models have decent processing features and those in the Lumix cameras are excellent. I always shoot in raw to allow myself the best starting position, and I usually use Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop or Phase One's Capture One Pro. 1 Lift tones If I…

‘The weight saving is considerable and the image quality doesn’t seem to suffer at all’ AP teamed up with Olympus back in March to give readers the chance to spend a day with the company's flagship OM-D E-M1 Mark II on a photo walk around Brighton, and also try out some of the excellent lenses in the Olympus range. AP Editor Nigel Atherton was the host and tour guide for the day, which started with heavy rain and ended with sunshine and blue sky – giving the participants a year's worth of seasonal weather all in one afternoon. Technical experts from Olympus were also on hand to help the participants get the best out of the equipment, most of whom currently own DSLR systems and are looking to make the…

Resolution Tested on the 50MP full-frame EOS 5DS R, the YN 50mm f/1.8 isn’t very sharp wide open, either at the centre or the edges of the frame. But stop it down to f/4 and our Image Engineering MTF50 tests reveal spectacular central sharpness. The corners take a little while longer to sharpen up fully, with best results achieved from f/5.6-f/11. Stop down to f/22 and diffraction softens the image. Shading As is common for fast primes, the YN 50mm f/1.8 shows appreciable shading wide open on full-frame cameras, equating to a 1.7-stop fall in illumination in the corners of the frame. It’s a characteristic rather than a flaw, and can just as easily enhance a shot as detract from it. Stop down to f/4, and vignetting effectively goes away.…

Do you have more than one lens? What about a tripod, carry case or any additional video or audio equipment? The value of all your kit soon mounts up – but would you be able to replace it if something happened? Cameras are designed to be taken out and about, whether to shoot your next landscape, capture wildlife or travel photos for your portfolio, or just to capture those precious family moments. Plus, if you’re passionate about photography, as well as investing your time, you’ve probably invested heavily financially too. That’s why we’ve teamed up with well-known insurance provider, Thistle Insurance Services Limited, to bring you the cover you may need. Amateur Photographer Insurance Services can provide protection against theft and accidental damage for your camera and accessories up to…

AVAILABLE for Leica M, Sony and Fujifilm X mounts, Meyer-Optik Görlitz's new Nocturnus 75mm f/0.95 lens is said to offer the widest aperture of any 75mm lens. It has 15 steel aperture blades which feature an anti-reflection coating and joins its ‘little brother', the Nocturnus 50mm f/0.95, in the company's line-up. Each lens is handmade and has five elements in five groups, with a minimum focusing distance of 0.9m and a 72mm filter thread. The lens will also feature a clickless aperture ring, making it ideal for video work. It is expected to have a retail price of 7 3,499, but an ‘early bird price' of 7 1,899 will be available until 20 May on Kickstarter. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

In truth, any camera can be used to take pictures in the street. Some time before I was born, hardy photographers were using gigantic wooden-plate cameras to document the life and activity on the pavements of the world. Even I have used monstrous medium-format bodies, with flapping barn-door mirrors, to record the buzz of city streets in this century. It is pretty obvious, though, that just because a type of camera can be used to take street pictures, it doesn’t make it the best type of camera for the job. I’m not especially old, but in my time I have used just about every sort of camera (with the exception of sub-aqua models) to shoot in streets. I have come to the conclusion that models that are small, quick to…

On 23 April, I was visiting my best friend of 30 years who was in hospital recovering from a stroke. With his good arm, he handed back to me the AP 21 April issue and said that out of the five different photography magazines I had given him the previous week, Amateur Photographer was the best; he read it from cover to cover. He and I are both retired professionals, and we used to work at our local evening newspaper. AP is the only photography magazine I subscribe to. Every issue inspires and teaches me something new. I agree that photography is brilliant therapy for mental illness. I had my first breakdown in July 1977 and as a result I am often in deep lows. Luckily I am married to…

‘When Jarvis opened the door I found myself in an Aladdin’s cave of kitsch’ I’ve recently started rediscovering negatives from shoots I did in the 1990s. It’s great fun, particularly finding pictures I’d completely forgotten about – which is not surprising as I was shooting around 200 jobs a year at that time. I’ve found some pictures I really like, and put some of them on my Instagram page; they’ve had a very positive response. One example is a black & white portrait of Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, taken in 1993. I was commissioned to do the shoot by Select, a music magazine which focused on Britpop bands. At the time, Pulp had been going for a number of years but hadn’t achieved major chart success. However, they had…

Film-simulation modes These JPEG-processing effects can be used to give your images a certain look. The 11 choices include Provia (standard), Velvia (vivid) and Astia (soft), Classic Chrome, PRO Neg colour treatments and a range of monochrome options. Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity In addition to built-in Wi-Fi, the X-A5 also features low-power Bluetooth connectivity that makes light work of connecting previously paired smartphones. The required Fujifilm Camera Remote app is free to iOS and Android users. 4K burst mode While the X-A5’s maximum continuous shooting speed is 6fps at full resolution, it can also shoot 8MP still images at 15fps. These are, in effect, the individual frames extracted from captured 4K video. Multi-focus mode Much like Panasonic’s similar 4K Post Focus mode, this feature makes use of the X-A5’s 4K abilities to…

Of the hundreds of film cameras that I've used in my ‘52 cameras in 52 weeks' projects, only a handful have any significant monetary value. Some are simply not of interest to collectors, and therefore not highly priced; others, while potentially worth something, are devalued by their poor condition, though for me, so long as I can squeeze an image out of a camera, this is not a big deal. The Tenax II, from Zeiss Ikon, which dates back to the 1930s, is one of my more collectable cameras. It was given to me by my father when he found he was no longer able to use it. It may have been designed to compete with the Robot, another German camera of the era. A key feature of the Robot…

The long-running battle between animal rights activists PETA and a photographer famous for his ‘monkey selfie' image has finally come to an end – with the conclusion that animals can't own copyright. A three-judge panel with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that only humans can pursue copyright infringement claims. PETA had tried to argue that the monkey, a macaque named Naruto, not the owner of the camera, British photographer David Slater, owned the copyright because the monkey took the photo itself. Subscribe to SAVE * 35% Visit amateurphotographersubs.co.uk/14AW (or see p48) * when you pay by UK Direct Debit…

Sadly the house elves responsible for binding our archives got a bit carried away with this issue, causing our studio photographer no end of headaches, but the bonkers cover still stands out. Who could fail to love the concept of a crazed-looking model wearing a fetching Where's Wally top? Highlights of the issue include a guide to choosing an SLR – chances are, many AP readers will still be using the best of these 35-year-old film cameras. Considering this was a long time before digital, some interesting innovations are being talked about, including solar-powered panels to recharge the batteries on the Ricoh XR-S, and a widget for making multiple exposures while keeping the film in place. We are less sold on the Heath Robinson-esque solution for attaching multiple flashguns to…

Among the top news stories to break at this year's CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show in Japan included Sigma's decision to start making their highly rated Art lenses in Sony E-mount. Sigma's Art line-up has only been available in Canon, Nikon and the company's own SA-mount, leaving those with Sony Alpha 7-series cameras who'd like to use Sigma lenses with little choice but to use a smart adapter. I've used various smart adapters over the years, including Sigma's MC-11, to pair Sigma Global Vision lenses and Canon EF-mount lenses with Sony A7-series cameras. However, I've never been100% satisfied by the autofocus response time, which I found to be sluggish when shooting fast-moving subjects or working in high-pressure situations. In truth, I'm not fond of the idea of mounting a…

1 A viewer will feel as close to the subject as you were when you took the picture, so get in close to make viewers feel as though they are actually there. 2 Don't take a bag – it will mark you out as a photographer. I try not to look like a photographer at all and I keep my kit in my pockets when I can. 3 Use the rear screen rather than holding the camera to your eye. This allows you to be more flexible with your viewpoints and enables you to see all around you as you shoot. 4 Use contrast to make your subject stand out from the scene: a bright subject against a dark background, or a dark subject against a bright background, for example.…

Back in March 2010, Steve McCurry told AP: ‘Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment… experience etched on a person’s face.’ This quote could easily apply to any number of his images. Look at those haunting eyes in his ubiquitous portrait, ‘Afghan Girl’ taken in 1984, and we can get some sense of why his images resonate so strongly. Setting aside his flawless technical ability, we can confidently say McCurry’s images deal with intimacy and empathy between subject and viewer. We look into the faces and we see lives lived. However, applying this principle to one of McCurry’s most famous shots, ‘Shaolin Monks Training, Zhengzhou, China’ captured in 2004, is tricky. The hanging monk in the foreground displays a mask of impassivity –…

Christopher Hill Having received his first digital camera (a Kodak Easyshare C300) for Christmas in 2005, Christopher Hill was instantly hooked. He soon upgraded to a DSLR and experimented with long exposures, light trails and macro shots of flowers. Since then he extended his repertoire to include action shots, star trails and landscapes, while also expanding his camera collection. Hailing from east Norfolk and inspired by books such as The Norfolk Broads by Jon Gibbs, he decided to explore his local landscape with his cameras. ‘Having been born and raised in east Norfolk, I always had big skies and the Broads National Park on my doorstep,' he reveals. ‘I am a big lover of the Broads as there is plenty of wildlife, waterways, windmills and pumps dotted around, which I…

• £169 • www.lowepro.co.uk Carry handles There are two carry handles. Both feature thick mesh padding to offer comfort in the hand when the bag is carried. Zippers There’s no TSA-approved lock, but the zippers can be secured with a small padlock. Contact info At the rear, there’s the option to slot in a card with contact info should the roller get inadvertently lost. Wheels The wheels and bearings provide a smooth glide when it’s being pulled along. If you frequently travel with a decent amount of photographic kit, lumping it around on your shoulders for long periods can be tiresome. If you don't need a backpack and like the idea of transporting your kit by rolling it along at your side, a roller case is a great way of…

Pamela Littky is one of those photographers who makes you feel bad about yourself, but in a good way. Bad because her latest book American Fair , like her previous books from Kehrer Verlag, makes you realise that you’ve never accomplished anything similar yourself (to those who have, I apologise). Good because you know you could do the same, if only... And then you slip back into feeling bad again. Her compositions are deceptively simple. Yes, well, most of us can do that. Sometimes. Can we do it often enough? She can. Most of us would need more practice. Her theme is crystal clear; wide ranging; and comprehensively realised. Again, yeah, well, most of us could do that... if only we could spare the time and effort. And had the…