Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-Oct-2018 i Amateur Photographer

In our increasingly artificial world, there is something restorative about getting out in the fresh air and engaging with our open spaces –arranging them into pleasing compositions that convey to the viewer the feelings we felt being there. Britain may be small but it is geographically diverse, the weather is ever changing, and it has been enhanced over the centuries with photogenic towns and cities, churches, castles and stately homes, offering an infinite variety of subjects. And of course Britain is just a tiny part of this beautiful planet that we live on. Anyone can take a snap of a nice view, but this week’s special landscape issue is dedicated to showcasing the most inspirational photographs, and sharing the advice and skills of the photographers who made them. JOIN US…

AP TAKES a keen interest in photography and mental health, and a new study suggests that taking selfies can make anxiety worse. According to the results of a study by photobook specialist CEWE Photoworld, the average person takes at least five selfies a day, and spends 44 minutes editing them, which rises to 74 minutes for 25-34 year olds. Over a third (36%) of 25-34 year olds take most of their photos for social media. However, 41% said that the process made them stressed or anxious, with 34% saying selfietaking had caused an argument with their partner. CEWE has launched a competition to encourage more positive image taking; see cewe-photoworld.com.…

WHAT a wonderfully 1920s cover, complete with exquisitely ornate typography and a cracking drawing of a British Louise Brooks. Along with lots of adverts. Festooning our cover with advertisements these days would cause a mini riot, but don't be too hard on our predecessors as the cost of photo reproduction back then was pretty high. There was a lot of interest in enlarging in this issue, and you get a strong sense of what a convoluted and highly technical process everyday photography was back then. We really are spoiled today, and the readers of the 1920s could barely have imagined that within less than a century, everyone would be taking high-quality pictures on their phones. Even getting a tripod involved a lot of effort, as revealed on page 411, where…

If you had asked me three months ago if I thought mirrorless cameras would kill the DSLR I'd probably have said, ‘not for the foreseeable future. Despite the growth in popularity of mirrorless systems the DSLR has remained the camera of choice for most serious photographers. But now, I'm not so sure. Until now Canon and Nikon have dabbled in mirrorless in a half-hearted way, but their dominance of the full-frame DSLR market is so total that they have seemed content to watch from the battlements of their castles while everyone below fought over the scraps, with their lightweight, smaller-sensor alternatives. But when Sony took the mirrorless concept full frame and began selling Alpha 7s by the bucketload, alarm bells started ringing at Canon and Nikon HQ and, it now…

1 Joe Baumann USA 30pts DJI FC300C, 20.7mm, 1/400sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 So many things come together in this image to make it a success. It's an eye-catching, beautifully considered shot, with the kayaker perfectly placed within the frame to create a sense of scale and human context. The warm, autumnal colours are radiant, while the high vantage point afforded by the drone makes it particularly special, allowing the viewer's eye to be drawn through the image, along the curves of the river. There's a wonderful sense of place and peacefulness – you can almost hear the silence. 2 Tom de Waart Hong Kong 29pts Nikon D750, 14-24mm, 1/20sec at f/11, ISO 100 A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the vast South China Karst covers several provinces and more than…

A good vintage In my opinion, AP 29 September 2018 was a vintage edition. Composition is a vital aspect of photography that is very difficult to learn, but Ian Plant's Compelling compositions was one of the most helpful pieces I've read on the subject. James Abbott's The big switch compared the virtues and vices of alternative cameras in a more meaningful way than straightforward reviews. (It also supports the view that Nikon was right to develop a full-frame mirrorless system, but might have retained more customers if it had done so earlier.) I would also have found James Paterson's guide to raw editing with Photoshop Elements very useful, but unfortunately my copy, Version 8, pre-dates my Nikon D800, and so can't edit the raw files unless I was to convert…

Don’t crop in too tightly. Leave space for the magazine ‘furniture' – masthead, cover lines and graphic devices. Busy images with lots of detail are generally unsuitable as they make superimposed text tricky to read. Shoot portrait-format pictures. While it's not unheard of for us to use a section of a landscape-format shot, your chances are improved by shooting in the upright format. Make eye contact. If you're submitting a portrait, ensure good eye contact, with the subject looking directly into the lens. Make sure the eyes are pin-sharp. Provide plenty of options. Try various angles and subject placements, with the main focal point to the left, the right and centre, to give the art editor lots of options of where to put the cover lines.…

When I was in my early twenties, I didn’t feel any strong pressure to achieve great things because few people of my age had done anything spectacular. But I remember seeing Darcey Bussell in an advert on television around that time. She had become the principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in 1989, when she was 20 years old. I remember thinking: she’s about my age and globally famous, as well as being cultured and beautiful, but I’ve achieved nothing. Also, at a time when I was trying to work out what being a man and a woman meant, she was a kind of ideal representative of conventional femininity. So when the opportunity finally arose for me to photograph her in 2015, I’d been aware of Darcey and her work…

CHINESE smartphone giant Huawei has established a solid reputation for building devices with interesting, high-quality cameras co-developed with Leica, and its new Mate 20 Pro continues in this vein with a three-camera set-up that features an ultrawideangle lens alongside wideangle and portrait modules. This is similar to the new Samsung Galaxy A9 (see below), although the Huawei has rather higher-end aspirations. Its 16mm-equivalent ultra-wideangle camera sports an aperture of f/2.2 and a 20MP sensor, and can focus as close as 2.5cm in super-macro mode. Meanwhile the main 27mm camera combines an f/1.8 aperture with a 40MP sensor. The 80mm telephoto module only has an 8MP sensor, but its f/2.4 lens includes optical image stabilisation. The lenses are arranged in a square on the device's back, alongside the Dual Tone flash…

During the1970s Paul Trevor spent much of his time drinking tea, sleeping on sofas and photographing strangers. Having abandoned his job as an accountant at the age of 25 he, along with Nicholas Battye, Diane Olson and Alex Slotzkin, co-founded the Exit Photography Group. Each of the members had a keen interest in social issues in the UK, and in 1974 they produced a small booklet Down Wapping, a portrait of London's last dock community. Soon afterwards Slotzkin left the group and Chris Steele-Perkins joined it, having responded to an advert for new members that he saw pinned to a wall in The Photographers' Gallery. The group met at Paul Trevor's flat off Brick Lane. ‘Paul was clearly the organiser and explained they wanted to go beyond Down Wapping and…

Ready for anything Be prepared for all the action all the time by setting up your camera the correct way Fujifilm X-T3 Michael Topham discovers the best APS-C camera on the market Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D Andy Westlake tests an ultra-wideangle lens for full-frame mirrorless A haunting photographer Geoff Harris delves into the spooky infrared imagery of Simon Marsden CONTENT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE…

Featuring a 39MP-equivalent Foveon sensor, the SIGMA sd Quattro balances outstanding image quality with fundamental performance. This interchangeable-lens camera is designed for the artist who loves photography and, as such, aims to get the most out of SIGMA's high-quality lenses. The prize includes a SIGMA 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM Art lens. This large-aperture lens has an angle-of-view equivalent to 45mm on a 35mm camera, making it a great go-to lens for multiple purposes. The total prize value is £1,050.…

What an enjoyable feature by Keith Wilson on the current state of press photography (Press photography: RIP, AP 6 October). As a professional photojournalist myself I have seen vast changes. Having been a press officer for a major airshow for many years, I always made sure those who got full media accreditation were professionals, while also giving opportunities to youngsters to further their ambitions. Many local papers are now owned by major media groups, and they have changed the rules to suit them. Sadly they want it all for free: the first line of any request for a pro to cover a story is often, ‘Sorry I am unable to pay you.' Mobile phones now provide an opportunity for the public to cover incidents as they happen, and this has…

Who can provide you with the right information, the right products and at a good price? The Good Service Awards aim to answer these questions by presenting photography retailers who stand out from the rest with an award. From this you can work out where to shop for your photography equipment and find out where you will be treated as a valued customer. VOTING IS NOW OPEN for the 2019 Good Service Awards. VOTE NOW for your favourite retailer at www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/gsa Voting closes 31 January 20 19…

ZEISS revealed that it's developing a full-frame camera based around a fixed Distagon 35mm f/2 lens and a 37.4MP sensor. The ZX1 has traditional analogue controls, with top-plate shutter speed and ISO dials alongside aperture and focus rings around the lens. An OLED electronic viewfinder is used for composition. So far, this is as much as you'd expect from Zeiss, but the rest of the camera is radically innovative. The whole of its back is given over to a 4.3in multi-touch screen, and there's no memory card slot either. Instead images are stored on the impressive 512GB of internal memory, which should be enough for 6,800 DNG raw files. The really big news, though, is that the touchscreen can be used to operate an integrated version of Adobe Lightroom CC…

LowePro ProTactic bags LowePro showcased its latest £209 ProTactic BP 350 AW II and £259 ProTactic BP 450 AW II range. These are well made and capacious, able to house two DSLRs with up to eight lenses and other accessories including a laptop.See www.lowepro.com/uk-en. Kodak Ektachrome Back in the day Kodak dominated Photokina, but now it's a much smaller player that gets distracted by crypto-currencies. A lot of film photographers will be cheered to hear it's bringing back Ektachrome film, however. The Ektachrome Film E100 range is available now along with a Super 8 format. A 16mm version of the film is also planned. See bit.ly/newektachrome. Skylum software Moving on to software, the company previously known as MacPhun impressed visitors with its latest version of Luminar 2018, along with Photolemur…

‘You can all but feel the textures on your fingertips; you can even imagine the smell’ Eran Gilat is a neuroscientist and fine art photographer. Well, everyone knows about doctors and cameras, don’t they? Except that Gilat is as far from the archetypal equipment-nut wannabe as you can easily get. I first saw his work at Galerie Huit at the Rencontres d’Arles in July 2018 and was delighted to discover that his book, Life Science, is available from Kehrer Verlag. His images are totally sui generis: rich, heavily staged still lifes, often involving (usually dead) animals or bits of animals together with antiques such as the support in this picture. He explores the extraordinary overlap between attraction and disgust; between life and death; between beauty and ugliness. And indeed between…

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 28. 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 28.…

Drained By Paul Hart, Dewi Lewis Publishing, £35, 96 pages, hardback, ISBN 978-1911306375 The second in a three-part series focusing on the Fenlands of eastern England, Drained is a beautiful book. Each image has been scanned from a silver gelatin print made by Paul Hart, and the publisher has treated the project with the reverence it deserves. The pictures have been given room to breathe, inviting a slow, considered reading. A single electricity pylon emerges from the fog, a pool of water glints on the tarmac, bands of sky, land and water create pleasingly graphic shapes. This landscape of drainage ditches and flat arable land is not beautiful in the traditional sense – at times it feels as though the damp air is creeping into your bones – but seen…

There’s little change to the top of the leaderboard, with first, second and joint third places remaining the same. Neil Burnell now has a 27-point lead after scoring 7 points in this round. The bottom half has opened up with a number of photographers scoring well in this round. 1 Neil Burnell 86pts 2 Richard Whitson 59pts 3= Steve Palmer 54pts 3= Simon Hadleigh-Sparks 54pts 5 Michael Farley 50pts 6 Peter Maguire 49pts 7 Rob Amsbury 47pts 8 Dave Balcombe 45pts 9 Tim Crabb 40pts 10 Marco Tagliarino 38pts…

THE HOLIDAY season is almost upon us, which means it's time for Stir-up Sunday, sentimental TV adverts, and the Amateur Photographer Christmas cover competition. This year we have teamed up with Photocrowd and Billingham to offer you global exposure, and some great prizes to boot. The prizes The overall winner (as judged by the AP team) will see their picture grace the cover of the AP Christmas Special issue (22-29 December). They will also receive a Billingham Hadley One bag worth £265, courtesy of Billingham (www.billingham.co.uk). The winner can choose from six classic colour combinations. A second winner (as awarded by the public vote via Photocrowd, www.photocrowd.com) will receive a year's subscription to AP. If the standard of entries is deemed high enough, the winner(s), and a selection of commended…

Colour differences with flash and ambient light Q I have recently been using flash quite a bit, both indoors and outdoors, mainly to illuminate my subject under difficult ambient conditions. The problem is that while the subject comes out the way I want it, occasionally the rest of the scene has a different colour. This is mainly when I am indoors and I'm sure it's to do with artificial light, though it sometimes happens with light from windows. I would really like to harmonise the colour across the image if at all possible. I have tried balancing the colours in Lightroom but without much success. I use Pentax K-70 and have just started using Adobe Lightroom Classic. Can you give me any suggestions to do this? Holly Samuels A Your…