Innholdsfortegnelse for 26-May-2018 i Amateur Photographer

Despite the sophistication of modern autofocus systems, most of them aren’t much help in landscape photography, where often the main requirement is to ensure that everything from the foreground to the horizon is sharp. Stopping the aperture right down may still not give you enough depth of field, and even if it does, the image quality will fall well outside of your lens’s sweet spot for optimum sharpness. The solution is to use focus stacking, which sounds complicated but is easy when you know how – see page 12 to find out. Photojournalists, meanwhile, usually have more pressing concerns than front-to-back sharpness. Just getting the subject in focus can be a challenge when you’re trying not to get killed. Turn to page 36 for a selection of powerful images from…

Affordable classics John Wade shares his pick of the best collectable and usable vintage cameras Social engagement Make your social media presence more prominent with Jon Devo’s top tips Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 Art Michael Topham tests Sigma’s stunning new ultra-wideangle zoom lens Clay shooting We take a close look at Steve Schapiro’s portraits of the young Muhammad Ali…

Once you've taken a set of focus-stacked images you'll need to merge them together to benefit from sharpness throughout a single image. Luckily, the process is often extremely easy because Photoshop offers controls that automate the process once you've output your raw files as JPEGs or TIFFs. The best file format to use is 16-bit TIFF because this is the best bit depth for smoother colour and tonal graduations. You can reduce images to 8-bit once editing has been completed. There are times when Photoshop is unable to successfully stack images, and this occurs when there's either movement in the scene or when your source images haven't overlapped the sharp areas from one image to the next, thus leaving gaps. Practise makes perfect with this technique, and the more you…

Foxes are members of the dog family with lovely red fur and a bushy tail, and are smaller than many people imagine. • Location Found across almost the entire country, with numbers declining in rural areas while increasing in towns and cities. • Size Males (dog): 112cm, (tail is a third of this); females (vixen): 108cm • Nesting Vixens give birth to 3 to 7 cubs in early spring • Diet Wide and varied depending on habitat – includes earthworms, rabbits, rodents, birds, insects, fruit, carrion (dead animals) and food leftovers • Population Around 260,000 in the UK…

Justin Minns Justin is a landscape photographer and workshop leader who has been working with the National Trust for several years. His images have been widely recognised in photography competitions including Landscape Photographer of the Year.Visit www.justinminns.co.uk. Get up early Landscape photography is all about being in the right place at the right time. The beautiful beaches at Studland Bay with their sweeping views towards Old Harry Rocks are certainly the ‘right place', and since they face east, sunrise would seem to be the ‘right time'. From lovely dawn colours that, weather permitting, begin about an hour before dawn, to the first rays of sunlight bathing the landscape, sunrise is a very special time. If you're planning on arriving at the beach before dawn it pays to do some preparation.…

Panasonic’s JPEG processing aims to eliminate image-sampling artefacts, resulting in little more than 3,000 lines per picture height at ISO 125. In processed raw files, false-colour and aliasing at frequencies finer than 3,200 l/ph betray the lack of an optical low-pass filter. These effects are swamped by noise at ISO 800, where resolution drops below 3,000 l/ph; at higher settings it decreases monotonously. Our tests were shot at around 50mm equivalent and f/4.4: at longer settings and smaller apertures you’ll see lower resolution.…

• £199 • www.benro.co.uk While most serious photographers own a tripod, I suspect few use more than one head. Landscape photographers tend to prefer ball heads for their portability, while those who spend less time carrying their kit to location will likely prefer the convenience offered by three-way heads. But relatively few will have even heard of geared heads, which is a shame as they are the perfect choice for any application that demands precise adjustment, such as macro or architecture. Until now, such heads have only really been offered by Manfrotto, aside from a few super-expensive alternatives. But now Benro has come up with an excellent design that for many will offer the best compromise between size, sturdiness and price. The GD3WH uses a layout that's near-identical to Manfrotto's…

This beautiful spring scene picture was uploaded to our Twitter page using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. It was taken by Andrea Heribanova. She tells us, ‘Each year I come across photos of the cherry blossom around St Paul's Cathedral in London, but I've never had the chance to take one myself. I decided to head there during the blossom bloom. The most common composition shows off the dome with the cherry blossom but I wanted to capture something a bit different. Since I like including red double-deckers in my London shots, I decided to wait for one to pass through the scene. I prefer the old Routemasters, which run outside St Paul's, as it reminds me of the London in old photos.' Send us your pictures If you’d like to see…

BEST known for its affordable lenses, Hong Kong-based Yongnuo has revealed the 60mm f/2 Macro lens. It offers a minimum focus distance of 0.234m (9.2in), and offers up to a 1:1 magnification ratio. According to Yongnuo, the lens adopts a high-precision focusing structure design, and has seven aperture blades. Ghosting and flare is prevented thanks to various lens coatings. The bayonet of the lens is made from chrome and is designed to be wear and corrosion resistant. Compatible mounts and pricing are still to be confirmed. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

There will always be times where the automated blending processes applied by Photoshop gets things wrong, and the result is a mismatched blending of the source images. This may appear as areas of blur or misaligned subjects, which is what happened with the waterfall. In these situations you can sometimes flatten the image and clone out the offending areas, but if this isn't possible you'll need to do a manual blend. To do this you'll need to load images into a stack with alignment checked. Then using Layer Masks you can mask in the sharp areas. This is, of course, more complicated, but something you may need to do.…

PAWEL ZYGMUNT wins round one of APOY. He takes home a Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens and a Sigma TC-1401 Tele converter. The OS system allows photographers to take shots in unstable circumstances, while the narrow angle of view makes it possible to compress perspective while offering flexible handling of the background. Pawel also wins a Sigma TC-1401 Tele converter equipped with an SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass element. The total prize value is £1,099.98.…

I am 83 years old and have owned a Samsung WB250F for a couple of years now. It lets me email photos directly from the camera. But, a few weeks back, it fell into our garden pond and the extensive water damage will be too costly to repair. As a replacement, I bought a later model (WB350F) from eBay, advertised as ‘brand new'. The camera was still in its original unopened box. Upon following the activation procedures, I found to my horror that the Wi-Fi/emailing facility would not work. There was an on-screen message: ‘we are unable to find “gld.samsungosp.com”' (an address I hadn't entered). On calling the Samsung help line, I discovered that two years after a model ceases to be manufactured, it withdraws its support to internet service…

Panasonic LUMIX G9 The free-angle display screen on the G9 makes getting low for reptile shots easier, and the weather sealing will keep the dust out while you’re down low. Panasonic Leica DG Vario 8-18mm f/2.8-4 The wide angle (16-36mm 35mm equiv) and incredible resolution of this Leica lens make it an ideal choice for obtaining the most out of foreground interest. Panasonic Leica DG Elmarit 200mm f/2.8 With a fast maximum aperture, image stabilisation and 400mm (35mm equiv.) focal length, this telephoto lens is ideal for photographing reptiles. Panasonic LUMIX G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 II The 24-70mm (35mm equiv.) range of this standard zoom lens is particularly useful for coastal landscapes.…

Customisability Most of the external controls can be reconfigured to suit your requirements, including both dials and three Fn buttons. There are also five on-screen Fn buttons, and a customisable Q.Menu. 4K Photo Panasonic’s handy 4K Photo mode gets its own button, allowing you to record 8MP stills at 30fps. It even has a pre-burst mode that records footage from a second before and after you press the shutter button. Power The DMW-BLG10E battery is rated for 370 shots with the LCD, or 250 with the EVF, extendable to 350 images in Eco mode. Conveniently it charges via the USB port. EVF The corner-mounted viewfinder has both dioptre adjustment and an eye sensor, but the surround is hard plastic rather than rubberised. Flash If you need a bit more light,…

Looking at raw files processed using Adobe Camera Raw, the TZ200 gives excellent results at low ISOs, rendering plenty of fine detail. Speckles of luminance noise become obvious at ISO 400 when viewing at the pixel level, but this is unlikely to show up in prints. By the time you reach ISO 1600, however, image quality has decreased substantially, with colour desaturating and fine detail swamped by noise. ISO 3200 is probably the highest setting I’d use. Panasonic’s JPEG processing aggressively smears away noise but does a good job of retaining colour, which looks bad close-up on screen but makes sense for sharing images via social media, or making small prints.…

Printing profiles Q After lots of deliberation, I purchased a monitor calibration tool (X-rite ColorMunki Display) to improve my printed images. I calibrated the monitor on my HP EliteOne 800 and now find myself at a loss as what to do next to get the perfect print. Could you advise on the settings to use when printing with my Epson Stylus Photo R1900 printer? Should I use Photoshop CC for colour management rather than my printer, and continue using the built-in specific paper ICC profiles or those created by ColorMunki during the calibration process and shown in the profiles list in Photoshop. My experiments suggest that the ColorMunki profile does not produce a print reflecting what is on the screen, whereas using previously loaded paper profiles do. Have I done…

AP teamed up with Olympus back in March to give readers the chance to spend a day with the company's flagship camera – the OM-D E-M1 Mark II – on a photo walk around Brighton, and to try out some of the excellent lenses in the Olympus range. It was so popular we're doing it again. Starting at the iconic Victorian Bandstand, our meeting point, you will enjoy the many photo opportunities that Brighton's seafront has to offer, from the rusting remains of the West Pier to the fairground fun of Brighton Palace Pier. We'll take in the magnificent Regency architecture, narrow walkways of the Lanes, Bohemian North Laine and, of course, the spectacular Royal Pavilion. Your tour will be escorted by AP Editor and Brighton resident, Nigel Atherton, and…

In his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray says, ‘Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood’. Something similar could be said of the countless photographic sites on the internet. There’s a great deal of thoroughgoing rubbish out there, true, but there’s always that tiny percentage that makes you go ‘Wow. Why is this person not better known?’ This is a without question a good picture in its own right, but it’s absolutely stunning if you’ve seen the original, as I have. Jeff posted it on the AP forum in a thread he started on 7 March this year, to show us the sow’s ear from which he made this particular silk purse. It was set up as an exercise at Jeff’s…

THE WIDEST lens available in Hasselblad's XCD medium-format line-up has been officially revealed. The 21mm f/4 lens provides a 17mm full-frame equivalent. It also features a 32cm close-focus ability, with a 1:10 image scale. The lens is especially targeted towards landscape and architecture photographers. Like other XCD lenses, it features an integral central shutter, giving a wide range of shutter speeds and full-flash synchronisation up to 1/2000sec. The XCD 21mm lens will begin shipping in the middle of May, and has a recommended retail price of £3,750.…

22 MAY 1974 sees a spaced-out cover model holding what looks suspiciously like a stuffed bird… man, it's beautiful, and cover lines would have just spoilt it. Does the Mona Lisa need an explanation? Anyway, that week's issue of the magazine was an eclectic mix, with everything from Elliott Erwitt on dogs to an interview with Sarf Lunnun's boxing legend Henry Cooper. Erwitt was probably as monosyllabic with hapless photography journalists back then as he is now, so it's probably just as well that AP's scribe was unable to interview him owing to Erwitt slipping a disc. The images are great, though. Hardware-wise, the main test was the Sekonic L-28C studio lightmeter (good to see they are still around). The ‘May Clubman', meanwhile, was a certain Anne Jackson. These days,…

At this very moment, there are hundreds of men and women risking their lives in some of the most dangerous places in the world armed with nothing but a camera. Thousands more work tirelessly to tell stories that are less dangerous but are equally deserving of an audience – stories of not only cruelty and injustice, greed and corruption, but also heroism and sacrifice, and triumph against the odds. I met a few of these photographers at the recent World Press Photo awards and am in awe of their dedication. This is not, after all, a career path that offers great prospects and a company car. In fact today's photojournalists are seen by some as being among the last of their kind, in a profession that has no future. As…

James Abbott is a landscape and portrait photographer based in Cambridge. He’s also a freelance photography journalist and editor specialising in photography techniques, tutorials and reviews. If you can think of a subject, he’s probably photographed it. See more of his work at www.jamesaphoto.co.uk. KIT LIST Tripod It’s essential that the camera doesn’t move between shots, so a tripod must be used when focus stacking. Shutter remote Another way to avoid camera movement is to use a shutter remote. Alternatively, you can use the camera’s self-timer. Any camera and lens You can use any camera and lens for focus stacking, although for landscapes wideangle and telephoto lenses are most commonly used. Photoshop Images shot at different planes of focus need to be blended together in post-processing, and Photoshop can do…

Big Stopper stacking Extreme long exposures are hugely popular, so you might be glad to hear that you can also focus stack Big Stopper shots. The downside, however, is that with exposures beyond 2min and/or in changeable light, blending the images becomes trickier. Some cameras can ‘see' through and even autofocus through Big Stoppers, so with these you can shoot using AF and Live View. If your camera is unable to do this set the three, four or five points of focus with no filter attached and make a note of the distance for each shot. Now with the Big Stopper attached you can manually focus at the correct point using the distance scale on the lens. Shutter-speed focus stacking The more you shoot focus-stacked images the more confident, proficient…

In 1955 a group of Dutch photographers organised an international contest to expose their work to a global audience. Since then World Press Photo has grown into the world's most prestigious photography competition. Sponsored by Canon for the past 26 years, the winner of Photo of the Year receives a prize of t 10,000 plus Canon equipment. An exhibition of the winning photographs travels to 45 countries and is seen by more than four million people each year. To learn more, visit www.worldpressphoto.org.…

Andrew Sydenham’s lab tests reveal just how the camera performs Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details With the TZ200 using essentially the same sensor as the TZ100 before it (and indeed many other enthusiast compacts), its image quality is pretty predictable. It gives very good results at low ISOs, but quickly starts to show the effects of noise as the sensitivity is raised. Panasonic's JPEG output smears away all fine detail from ISO 800 and above, making this a camera that benefits greatly from shooting in raw if maximum detail is desired. This is compounded by the small-aperture zoom, which means you have to engage higher ISOs more quickly in marginal light.…

In essence, the TZ200 is pretty simple to assess. If you want a pocketable camera with a long zoom range and decent image quality, it's the best you can buy right now. It takes the TZ100's successful template and improves it in several key ways, most importantly the larger, clearer viewfinder, longer zoom range, and much-improved handgrip. This arguably makes it the best travel camera available, if you can stomach the £729 price tag. However, along with understanding what the TZ200 is, it's also crucial to appreciate what it isn't. This camera really isn't a direct competitor for ‘enthusiast compacts' with short zooms and large maximum apertures, exemplified by the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V or Panasonic's own LX15. Such cameras promise better low-light performance, along with the ability to take…

GENERALLY speaking, smartphones tend to fall into two camps: simple but gets the job done, or more complicated and therefore more appealing to ‘serious' photographers. While the Pixel 2 falls into the former, it manages to appeal to enthusiasts by virtue of the fact that it takes such good photographs. It may not have much pizazz, but the understated design belies something a lot more impressive underneath. Images are clean and well-exposed, even in low-light. The Portrait mode does what it says on the tin with aplomb, without the need for a second camera unit. On the downside, not having a second camera means you don't get a zoom option, something the iPhone X, Samsung S9+ and Huawei P20 Pro all have (albeit in larger devices). There's also less flexibility…