Innholdsfortegnelse for 08-Sep-2018 i Amateur Photographer

A lot of AP readers will be able to identify with the title of one of Hitchcock’s classic movies: Dial M for Murder. If trying to get to grips with Manual mode on your camera, or manual focus on your lens, has left you too wanting to murder somebody, fret not. Our regular technique sage, James Abbott, has penned a guide to using manual exposure, focus and flash settings. M doesn’t stand for Macho, either, so don’t feel compelled to sacrifice semi-auto modes, but it’s worth reading if you want to take full control of your camera. Other highlights include David Clapp’s experience of using three very different camera systems on a trip to Chicago, Martin Evening’s guide to getting dramatic black & white conversions, while film guru John Wade…

Bespoke tripod and L bracket for Sony Alphas Gitzo has introduced a new ‘premium’ tripod (£909.95) and L bracket (£174.95) designed specifically for the Alpha 9 and 7 series cameras. The Traveler Alpha Tripod has carbon fibre legs and head; its colour scheme matches the cameras, and it can hold up to 10kg of gear while folding down to just 43cm. Meanwhile, Gitzo claims the L-Bracket Alpha is the lightest of its kind on the market, weighing a mere 77g. See manfrotto.co.uk/gitzo. New range of XQD cards from Delkin Delkin Devices has announced a range of 64GB, 120GB and 240GB XQD cards, as used by the new Nikon Z6 and Z7, available in October. They are designed for high-speed continuous shooting, offering a maximum read and write speed of 400MB/s,…

POLAROID has announced the retro-styled One Step+ instant film camera. Key features include a new portrait lens which complements the camera's standard lens, allowing users to shoot from as close as one foot away. The One Step+ also enables two photos to be combined via double exposure, and now includes a light painting feature, which turns a light source into a virtual paintbrush. Polaroid has boosted the capture functions, too. There is a 25-second self-timer function, along with a remote trigger button and a noise trigger, which can be activated by clapping your hands, for example. For ambitious shooters, manual mode enables you to take full control over aperture, shutter speed, flash intensity and photo ejection. Pricing is yet to be confirmed.…

NOBODY can accuse the AP editors in 1981 of overloading the cover with coverlines as, er, the image did all the talking. We have a mix of cavewoman chic, Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC , and alarming echoes of an old-school strip club (your dad may have told you about them). Moving quickly on, the rather gnomic coverlines – Camera on your bike! – conceal quite a lot of good content inside this issue. A press photographer with the wonderful name of Stephen Shakeshaft penned a piece about what it was like to be a documentary photographer covering the ill-fated wedding of Charles and Diana. ‘Don't just photograph the obvious – practise your photojournalism. Picture editors on local newspapers and features editors on magazines all look for something…

Prime sensation Michael Topham tests Canon’s EF 85mm f/1.4 USM prime lens Curious cameras John Wade takes you into the world of quirky cameras to add to your collection A marriage made at f/8 The secrets behind the highly successful husband-and-wife photography teams On sale Tuesday 11 September…

Findlay Rankin, Troon, Ayrshire Findlay's interest in photography started when his parents bought him his first camera (a Zenith E) as a birthday present. His favourite photographic subjects are people and travel - he uses photography as an opportunity to meet new people and visit new places. Here, he showcases a set of images taken during the redevelopment of the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Office in Govan, Glasgow, where everything from transatlantic liners to Royal Navy battleships were designed and launched. 1 Brett Holland Access to the site was limited to break times. Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 73mm, 1/40sec at f/10, ISO 400 2 Thomas Douglas All these portraits were taken using available light, with the camera mounted on a tripod. Aged 74 years, Thomas is a master plasterer.…

Amy Davies writes ‘I want my memories to stay in my head, not sit on a hard drive' (Viewpoint, AP 25 August). I could not agree more with her beautifully well-reasoned words: indeed I refused to look at my wedding photos for a week for fear that my memory of that day – as I saw it – would be wiped out by those very images. But which are true memories and which are memories supplanted by images? I look at a faded monochrome photograph of a child holidaying with his sister on the beach at Skegness; my earliest memory. I only know this because I then ran full-tilt into a low brick wall and cut my shin open chasing an ice cream van, and that moment wasn't captured. The…

I'VE used a Nikon Super Coolscan LS-9000 scanner for the past few years, an incredible piece of ‘vintage' technology. Its strength is the ability to produce raw scan, and has become the magnifying glass with which I scrutinise my film equipment and technique. Using VueScan and ColorPerfect, results can be exceptional, but it is easy to lose your way colour correcting shots with a digital mindset and removing the film signature entirely, instead of respecting the medium. The scanner makes a 60MP image from a 6x6 (which I see almost as irrelevant in my digital work). I work the images subtly in Photoshop using Imagenomic noise-reduction software and the Camera Raw Filter, but it is ColorPerfect that does the all-important inversion, removing the orange colour cast and preserving those film…

A RANGEFINDER is a focusing aid for measuring the distance to the subject being photographed. In a CRF camera, the rangefinder is coupled to the focusing control, so it is activated as the lens is focused. Most rangefinders use two mirrors – one stationary, the other made to swivel – that look through twin windows to overlay two images in the rangefinder or viewfinder eyepiece. In a second design, two glass wedges are positioned thin end against thick. Rotating one of the wedges about its axis forms the required double image. In a coincident image rangefinder, the two images are overlaid. As the lens is focused, the two move together and, when they exactly coincide, the subject is in focus. In a split-image rangefinder, two parts of the image are…

Carry-on compatible This backpack fits the carry-on luggage requirements of most airlines. Expandable roll-top Provides a safe and secure area for non photo-related kit such as waterproofs, food and drink. Grab handle There’s a large grab handle that makes the bag easy to pick up off the floor. Zippers The zippers are the water-protective type to prevent rain and moisture entering the bag. • £220 • www.manfrotto.co.uk PREMIUM manufacturer, Gitzo, is best known for its high-end tripods, but more recently we've seen the company introduce backpacks into its range. This backpack slots into the new Adventury series, which is designed for outdoorsy types who enjoy wildlife, nature or landscape photography. Smaller than the Gitzo Adventury 45L (£300), the Adventury 30L remains a sizeable backpack with ample capacity and an impressive…

Controlling ISO in Canon EOS 700D Auto mode Q I am quite content with the A+ mode on my EOS 700D apart from when the ISO setting rises above ISO 1600. How can I limit that? I'm confident I can keep the camera steady if the shutter speed slows. Joy Reston A Use ‘P’ (Program) mode. This works like the full Auto mode, adjusting the aperture and shutter speed accordingly, but in P mode you can set the ISO manually. Lightroom 5 preview cache error Q I have a problem with my Windows 10 PC running Lightroom 5 which, until now, has been totally reliable. I have a message that comes up saying: ‘Lightroom encountered an error when reading from its preview cache and needs to quit.' The programme fires…

We’ve all seen things like this: little bits of history that remind us of the recent past, including perhaps our own childhood. Then one day the demolition crew moves in, and we think, ‘I wish I’d photographed that...’ Or maybe we don’t go that way often, and the next time we pass, it’s gone. Worse, we may have tried to photograph it; found the weather wasn’t right; and then gone back to find that it is no more. The moral: carpe diem, seize the day. But there are more morals here, too. And an immoral. In 1992 Highsmith started to donate her work to the US Library of Congress, copyright free: it now has over 100,000 of her images. Second moral: if you have a lot of really good pictures,…

ONE OF the new features of the Lumix LX100 II is the ability to charge the camera via USB, which is especially handy while travelling. The official CIPA rating of the LX100 II is 340 shots, which could potentially be problematic if you aren't near a traditional plug socket. To celebrate this feature, Panasonic is offering anybody who pre-orders the camera before 7 October a free Goal Zero Venture 30 powerbank; it is worth around £95 when purchased separately. To get the free gift, customers will need to head to the Panasonic website and fill in a claim form. The Venture 30 features a 7,800mAh battery as well as a weatherproof design (IPX6 rated). It has dual 2.4A USB ports, so you could also charge your other devices at the…

IF YOU want to master flash photography and take advantage of its full potential, you need to get to grips with setting flash power output manually. After using TTL flash, doing everything yourself may seem daunting, but manual flash is about consistency and control in dark studios, difficult interiors and outdoors. It allows you to use the exact settings you desire and/or to achieve special effects without the risk of the camera exposing a scene in a way it thinks is correct, rather than what you wish to achieve. Q Why would you use manual adjustments on a flashgun? A With both the camera and the flashgun in manual mode, you will have full control. Remember that aperture controls flash exposure while shutter speed takes care of ambient light, and…

In February 1998, I was commissioned to photograph Dermot Morgan by The Sunday Times magazine. During the previous three years, the actor’s brilliant comic performances as the star of TV comedy series Father Ted had made him a household name. I was a big fan of the series and was looking forward to the shoot. I wasn’t often commissioned by The Sunday Times, so was particularly fired up for getting a good result. But, despite my determination to come away with strong pictures and my enthusiasm for the subject, this shoot didn’t quite go to plan. I was usually allowed to decide on how I was going to photograph my subjects, but The Sunday Times had a specific idea for this shoot. They wanted colour shots of Dermot outside some…

‘There are 18 specific black & white profiles for you to work with’ Profiles have now been given centre stage in Camera Raw and Lightroom, making the available profiles more obvious. There are 18 specific black & white profiles for you to work with. Clicking on the Black & White radio button at the top of the Basic panel converts the image to black & white and applies the Adobe Monochrome profile by default. If you then click on the four little squares in the Profile section this opens the Profile Browser with the profiles filtered so you just see the black & white profile options. Click to select a different profile and this becomes the new default if you toggle between the colour and black & white modes. Adobe…

The first camera with a coupled rangefinder (CRF) appeared earlier than you might expect. The year was1916 and the camera was the No. 3A Autographic Kodak Special. It was a typical folding camera of the era, but with a rangefinder positioned below the lens. To use it, the photographer stood at right angles to the subject to view a split image in a tiny window. The two halves of the image came together when a focusing knob on the opposite side of the body was turned. Nothing much happened then until 1932, when the Leica II and Contax I were both launched with coupled rangefinders. After that, the idea took off rapidly with rangefinders appearing mostly in 35mm cameras, as well as in some medium-format rollfilm and even large-format plate…

If you’d like to see your work published in Amateur Photographer, here’s how to send us your images: Email Email a selection of low-res images (up to 5MB of attachments in total) to appicturedesk@ti-media.com.CD/DVD Send us a disc of high-resolution JPEG, TIFF or PSD images (at least 2480 pixels along its longest length), with a contact sheet, to the address on page 51. Via our online communities Post your pictures into our Flickr group, Facebook page, Twitter feed, or the gallery on our website. See details above. Transparencies/prints Well-packaged prints or slides (without glass mounts) should be sent by Special Delivery, with a return SAE, to the address on page 51.…

SAMYANG has launched an APS-C format 85mm f/1.8 manual focus lens for a wide range of mirrorless mounts, such as Sony E, Micro Four Thirds, Fujifilm X and Canon M. The Samyang MF 85mm f/1.8 ED UMC CS has nine lens elements in seven groups for improved optical performance, and the company claims a high-refractive and an extra-low dispersion element along with Ultra Multi-Coating (UMC) help minimise chromatic aberrations and deliver clear, vibrant images. ‘This lens is ideal for portraits,' it added. It weighs just over 300g and measures approximately 8cm long (without the hood and lens caps). The suggested price is £319.99 and it is on sale now. See www.intro2020.co.uk. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

With the Lumix LX100 II, Panasonic has made a great camera even better. It's more of a minor update than a major one, but after spending a few hours shooting with one around the streets of London, it confirmed it'll be an excellent companion for street photographers and anyone who'd like to own a second camera for travelling. I must admit that I would have liked it even more if it had a tilting screen, and I also found the lens range is a little on the short side when it's used for portraiture. There are compact cameras out there that'll fit more easily into your trouser pocket than the Lumix LX100 II, but the advantage it has over the one-inch type sensors you'll find in cameras like the Canon…

‘The most banal and ordinary of locations can bear testimony to the extraordinary’ Photographs play with time and space. Time is simple to understand, as we set a shutter speed and record the incident photons on a sensor over a set period of time. Given that we are usually interested in (the lack of) change over human timescales, something around1/250sec meets most of our requirements. It's only when we want to extend beyond this that the restriction becomes apparent. Long exposures are commonly used for creative effect, while short exposures extending to thousandths of a second are best exemplified by Harold Edgerton's1964 photo of a bullet piercing an apple. The former is easy to achieve, while the latter is constrained by the equipment used. With space, incident photons hit the…

Q How do you use the viewfinder and LCD exposure meters? A When shooting in manual you have to use the exposure meter to assess exposure. The exposure meter is a scale that's usually found at the bottom of the viewfinder and the LCD screen on the back of the camera. At a basic level, when a correct exposure has been obtained an arrow will show above the central part of the scale which may be signified by zero. Any underexposure will show the arrow to the left of the central area, where the scale will say -1, -2 or -3. For overexposure the arrow will show on the right with +1, +2, +3. There are 1/3 stop increments between these values, and it's worth noting that a ‘correct' exposure…

IN ADDITION TO its awards for the best photographic products of the year (which we featured in our 25 August issue) the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA), runs its own pan-European photography competition, open to both amateur and semi-professional photographers. Called EISA Maestro, the competition revolves around a different theme each year. The theme for 2018-19 was ‘Nature’. The winning entries from each of the 15 participating EISA countries were judged together in June and the final winners received their awards at the EISA Gala in Berlin, Germany, on 31 August. This year’s overall winner is Bence Máté from Hungary, who takes home t 1,500 and the EISA Photo Maestro 2018 Gold Trophy for this stunning portfolio. Dariusz Bruhnke, from Poland, was second and wins t 1,000 and a…

1 Suitable images Here is a colour photograph shot in Cathedral grove on Vancouver Island. This was an ideal image with which to demonstrate how to apply a faux infrared effect as the photo contains a lot of green foliage. 2 Conversion To create a black & white infrared look, I first applied the B&W 10 profile to convert the photo to black & white. I followed this by applying a full negative Tint adjustment to the white balance. This made all the green colours (i.e. the leaf foliage) as bright as possible. 3 Infrared treatment To get the full infrared look, I went to the Black & White Mix panel. Here I adjusted both the Yellow and Green sliders, setting these both to +50. Alternatively, try selecting the Target…

Krauss Peggy II LAUNCHED 1932 GUIDE PRICE £250-300 Following hot on the heels of the Leica II and Contax I, the Peggy II is now both a usable camera and a collectable. The first model had no rangefinder, so the second version is the one to go for. It's a quality camera from Germany, usually found with a prestigious Tessar lens and shutter speeds of 1-1/300sec. When not in use, the lens panel folds flat against the body to make an easily pocketable package. Super Nettel LAUNCHED 1934 GUIDE PRICE £200-220 In 1932, Zeiss Ikon's Contax became the first serious rival to the Leica, a top-quality 35mm camera with a focal plane shutter and Zeiss's super-accurate twin prism rangefinder system. Two years later, the company took Contax technology and put…

• Remember a rangefinder camera's viewfinder does not look through the lens like an SLR, so the viewfinder image remains sharp, even when the lens image is out of focus. • The longer the base of the rangefinder (distance between the windows), the more accurate it will be. • Check the rangefinder is activated as focus is adjusted, and check accuracy of the rangefinder by setting the lens at infinity and verifying that far subjects coincide or line up. • Be aware that some of the older CRF cameras have small and somewhat impractical viewfinder or rangefinder eyepieces. • If you add extra lenses, check that their focal lengths are covered by the camera's viewfinder guides, or add appropriate accessory viewfinders. • Pre-World War II, the best rangefinder cameras were…

Gitzo’s Adventury collection includes the Adventury 45L camera backpack. It has the same design and styling as the 30L and comes in the same green colour. The main difference is its size. With internal dimensions of 32x19x54cm, it can hold gear such as a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II or Nikon D5 with 600mm f/4 telephoto lens attached, plus a second camera with lens attached and additional lenses. With its dividers it can also fit a DJI Phantom Drone plus remote. The Adventury 45L backpack costs £300.…

LAUNCHED 1938 (I) and 1945 (II) PRICE AT LAUNCH Approximately £8 (Mercury I) and £20 (Mercury II) GUIDE PRICE NOW Approximately £75 (Mercury I) and £35 (Mercury II) THE AMERICAN Universal Camera Corporation made two similarly designed Mercury cameras. The first model takes Universal's own No 200 film; the second model uses standard 35mm film. Both produce 18x24mm half-frame negatives. Each camera is dominated by a large semicircular hump protruding from the top plate. This is inscribed with a depth-of-field (which the maker called ‘depth of focus') scale, but is there to house the rotary shutter which gives speeds of 1/20–1/1000sec. Speeds are set unusually by a knob to the right of the lens. On both cameras, twin accessory shoes sit on the top plate in front of the hump.…