Innholdsfortegnelse for 24-Nov-2018 i Amateur Photographer

Rolling hills and seascapes are all well and good, but a very photogenic city can also be catnip to the serious creative photographer, particularly as the sun sets. It’s about wanting to capture your perceptions of a great city in a more interesting way than a ho-hum smartphone snap taken in the middle of the day. So in this issue, we’ve put together a handy feature on how to get great city lights, focusing on those essential ‘blue hour’ shots as well as shooting through glass and other fun, creative effects. Don’t miss our seasonal round-up of the best accessories too, which make brilliant stocking fillers all year round (prices start as low as £8!). Hardware wise, we take a nostalgic look at clockwork cameras, and check out the new…

THE MARTIN Parr Foundation opened a gallery in Bristol last year, with visitor numbers estimated to be 10,000 since launch. Now, it's offering three membership tiers. Foundation Membership costs £35 and includes invitations to private views, a welcome tour, priority booking, access to exclusive member events and 10% shop discount. Supporter Membership, for £125, has the same benefits, but adds an exclusive 10x8in print each year, a foundation tour with Martin Parr and first access to discounted tickets. Finally, for £750, Patron Membership includes the above benefits plus your portrait taken by Martin Parr, an annual patrons dinner with him and first access to special events. See martinparrfoundation.org/membership.…

WITHOUT wanting to be rude to our predecessors, some of the old AP covers are probably best kept locked in the archive, but this wonderful ballerina image could still be used on a contemporary issue. The ballerina is beautifully shot, sharp and perfectly exposed, with that wonderful grain you only get with film. Very impressive, and the lack of coverlines makes the image stand out even more. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the advertiser on the front cover, Wallace Heaton, was ‘by appointment to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh,' aka Prince Philip. Let's hope the occasionally grumpy consort was more patient with photographers back then – ‘Just take the BLEEPING picture!' being one of his more memorable broadsides during an infamous portrait shoot with veterans in 2015, during a Battle…

I often think and talk about ‘Tech vs Image taking, and I have started to feel that camera manufacturers really love the fact that most people who use cameras don't have a clue about what makes a great image, so they capitalise on this to market and sell cameras. I work a lot with some amazing photographers and am involved in spotting new talent for festivals, as well as having deep meaningful discussions about the image-making process. At no time does the camera brand, make or model come into the conversation. When I look at today's marketing material from the big camera brands, I have seen a shift over the years away from promoting great images to using influencers with dubious follower numbers. Just last week the website Social Chain…

Many outdoor photographers are accustomed to using apps such as the Photographer's Ephemeris or Photo Pills to check sunrise and sunset times. But these apps also offer the times for astronomical, nautical and civil twilight. It is worth paying attention to these as they are important times for blue-hour photographers shooting city lights – the blue hour will typically fall between civil and nautical twilight. While it is possible to continue shooting during astronomical twilight and into night time, the sky can be very dark which contrasts with the bright highlights of the artificial lights and makes exposure difficult to manage.…

Round 7 World in Motion David Lain is the winner of Round 7 of APOY, and takes home a SIGMA 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM Art lens with 82mm WR Ceramic Protector. This versatile wideangle zoom has a fast f/2 aperture throughout its focal range. Its construction includes 18 elements in 13 groups, a nine-blade aperture and Sigma's multi-layer coating. With 10 times the strength of a conventional protective filter, the 82mm WR Ceramic Protector is the ideal companion to the 24-35mm zoom, and will keep the front element safe from scratches. Together, the two are worth £1,055. 1 David Lain UK 30pts Nikon D810, 24-70mm, 1/500sec at f/8, ISO 160 A very subtle interpretation of the brief, which is no less effective for its simplicity, this image was resoundingly popular…

Let’s begin with a simple, well-expressed statement of intent. ‘Beauty, you’re under arrest. I have a camera, and I’m not afraid to use it.’ These are the words of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), a true pioneer of portrait photography and perhaps the first person to recognise photography as a bona fide art form. In the above quote, Cameron uses beauty as a proper noun; she addresses it as if it were a creature of agency, one that must be tackled and wrestled to the ground. Looking through the work of Cameron, you can see this beauty time and again. It’s about more than taking a subject (the sitters) and making them beautiful – the aesthetic is itself the subject. Take this image, ‘The Red and White Roses’ from 1865, for…

The new Content-Aware command features several useful settings that let you further refine how the tool behaves. Three features stand out. First there's a ‘Color Adaptation' option. This lets you choose a strength setting from None to Very High, thereby allowing you to control how much the colours are altered in the filled area. For example, a high setting will make the command attempt to match the surrounding colours. The second useful control is Mirror. This is a good option for symmetrical images like our sea scene here, as it mirrors content from one side of the scene or object in order to fill in the problem area (in this case, we want to remove the puddle in the foreground, so the command targets detail from the opposite side of…

Blend Mode previews There's a welcome tweak to the Blend Mode options in the Layers Panel. Now, when you hover over any of the blend modes in the list you'll see a preview of the effect over your image, making it much easier to choose the mode that suits your needs. Here, right, the Screen Blend mode gives us a double-exposure effect. Changed Undo shortcuts The shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+Z now lets us undo continuously (bringing it in line with Illustrator and InDesign). If you're used to the old shortcut – Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z – to undo several steps then it can be annoying. But if you like you can revert back under Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Use Legacy Undo Shortcuts. Transform tweaks Previously, when scaling a layer up or down we had…

Clash of the Cameras Top Trumps £9 • www.amazon.co.uk These playing cards allow photography fans to play famous cameras off against each other in a classic trump card game. It contains 36 illustrated cards. Build your own pinhole camera £40 • www.notonthehighstreet.com The VIDERE is a 35mm pinhole camera that has been developed into a do-it-yourself kit, so you can take your own pinhole photographs. Lens kitchen timer £8 • www.nuku.co.uk Add a photo-themed lens timer to your kitchen with this fun yet practical stocking filler. Zeiss lens cleaning spray £9 • www.wexphotovideo.com Effectively removes smudges, fingerprints, dirt, water or oil stains from your lenses. The pack includes 2x60ml bottles of cleaning spray and a microfibre cloth. Camera pencil sharpener £10 • www.amazon.co.uk This vintage twin-lens reflex camera is a…

Achieve macro depth of field Q I have a decent macro lens that shoots life-size (1:1) and I am trying to create what I would call satisfying macro images, but I can't seem to get enough of the object or insect I'm photographing in focus. I've tried using the smallest aperture but too much remains blurred out. I look at some other people's macro shots and they get so much more sharpness in depth. What am I doing wrong? My gear is a Pentax KP with a Pentax smc D-FA 100mm f/2.8 Macro WR. I shoot raw and use Lightroom and Photoshop CC. Nick Landry A There is nothing wrong with the camera and lens you have. It’s a simple fact of life that macro optics means a very limited…

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…

This picture irresistibly reminds me of the movie Blade Runner , famous for its strange, atmospheric exterior scenes, shot in a future Los Angeles where it is perpetually raining. If you have no imagination it is easy to attack the limited depth of field, blur, unearthly colours and empty shadows. Also, it’s weirdly tall and thin. But that’s the entire point. It takes us into another world. There’s just enough here that’s recognisable: rubbish bins with graffiti, a shadowy half-seen figure (or is there more than one?), the falling rain just blurred enough to give the impression of relentlessness. The odd format is simultaneously claustrophobic left-to-right and agoraphobic both vertically and front-to-back. Mean streets In a sense, it’s a frightening picture: about as mean as mean streets get. Meaner, maybe.…

HAVE you ever found yourself in a hotel room with a spectacular view over a city yet the window doesn't open more than a couple of inches? Some cities are blessed with superb vantage points from skyscrapers, hotels or church towers. But this often means shooting through thick glass, which can present a real challenge for long exposures during the blue hour or at night. Dirty or scratched glass, particularly on the exterior, will affect the final image and it can be extremely difficult to deal with in post-production. Another challenge are the reflections caused by interior lights that will ruin your images. Don't be put off though as there are ways to make sure your shot is a keeper. First, find the cleanest section of window that gives you…

Card trouble Half way during a trip to Morocco my Compact Flash (CF) card failed; I managed to download two-thirds of my photos directly from the camera to my PC, but then the card died on me. After visiting a few photography forums for solutions, the general consensus was that the controller chip within the CF had gone and no rescue software in the land could save it. Some people advised me to just bin it, but I was also recommended to try a firm in Germany that gave me a positive response when I contacted them. Two days after receiving my card they informed me that all my images were retrieved. Their rates were reasonable and I would thoroughly recommend them. This got me thinking: do I abandon my…

Jilly Cooper CBE is known as ‘The Queen of the Bonkbuster’ for her racy best-selling books that include Riders, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous and Mount! She’s had an extraordinary life, starting her career as a publisher’s receptionist, writing her first newspaper column in 1969, and subsequently making a successful career as a novelist. I first photographed her at her Gloucestershire house in March 1996. At that time, I was 30 and just starting to get the occasional job for the Observer Magazine. In this case, Jilly had personally requested that I do the shoot, because she had seen some pictures I’d taken of dog owners with their pets. When I arrived, she kept exclaiming, ‘My dog photographer! My dog photographer!’ ‘I now realise how much the aesthetics of…

Under £50 MacWet gloves • £30 • www.macwet.com Made of thin, high-grip material, MacWet's gloves have become increasingly popular for a wide range of outdoor pursuits. Operating a camera whether via button controls or a touchscreen is easy when wearing them. Made of a thin polyamide and polyurethane material, the gloves come in two styles for warm- or cold-weather use, each with two different cuff lengths. There's a choice of colours, each in 14 different sizes. Photo boards • From £18 • www.photoboards.org If you're struggling to find the perfect backdrop or surface on which to shoot product, food or lifestyle images you'll want to take a look at these products. The company's 40x40cm (£18) Photo Boards are ideal for photographing small items, and the larger 60x60cm (£30) designs offer…

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 29. 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 29.…

IN ASSOCIATION with Donegal Tourism, National Geographic Traveller (UK)'s competition is looking for the very best travel photography. Time is running out to enter your shots, with the competition's deadline set for 9 December. Judges are looking for anything from epic landscapes to mouthwatering cuisine, and the categories are: Cities, Food, Nature, People or Portfolio. The grand prize winner will join Tatra Photography in the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia for a masterclass in landscape techniques. Supported by Lee Filters, the workshop will be led by Justin Minns, the award-winning photographer. Other prizes include a trip to the French Alps and Manfrotto travel tripods. The judging panel includes Chris Hudson, art director of National Geographic Traveller (UK), and AP's own Amy Davies. For full terms and conditions, and to enter your…

MANN shoots on an analogue medium-format Pentax 67 camera, something which helps to break the ice with her young sitters. ‘They're used to shooting on cellphones – they ask “Why do you have this really old camera that only takes 10 pictures?”' It may come as a surprise to see a young photographer preferring analogue, let alone a cumbersome medium-format camera. ‘I started shooting on film, that's how I learned,' she explains. ‘There's something nostalgic about it, especially the colours that lend themselves to my work. ‘Also, my process is an obvious one. I'm not snapping people when they don't know about it. I shoot on a tripod; it's a big thing, and my presence is there. The whole process of medium format is quite slow – but I think…

Tripod While many current cameras can deliver excellent shots in low light, to truly capture sharp, clean shots of city lights you need the stability and flexibility offered by a sturdy tripod. The best model is the one you can comfortably carry. For me, the MeFoto Roadtrip is a great, lightweight option. Mini tripod There are circumstances or locations where a full-sized tripod is either not allowed or not practical to use. As an alternative, a smaller, strong, tabletop tripod is perfect to place on top of walls. I picked up this excellent Leofoto MT-03 mini tripod at Photokina. Remote shutter release Many current cameras offer app connectivity, which allows you to control the settings and shutter through your phone. But I still prefer to use a remote release, particularly…

Abstract cityscapes As the sky gets darker experiment with focal lengths. Don't feel the need to include the whole scene or the sky, as what you leave out is just as important as what you include. Use a telephoto lens or careful cropping in post-production to create amazing abstracts. Include people Including people in city scenes is sometimes unavoidable, yet it can give the scene both scale and context. Blending architecture with street photography can create stunning shots that are more dynamic or interesting than a people-free picture. Beat the bad weather Shooting long exposures in bad weather is undoubtedly a challenge, yet if you can keep your lens free of rain for the duration of your exposure then it is possible to get some really strong images, as gloomy…

I have been reading AP for over 20 years now. Roger Hicks's short appreciation of the photo ‘Retreat from Moscow' (Final Analysis, AP 20 October) was the most engaging I have read. The choice of photograph was powerful. We live in an age of virtual reality technology, but it is wonderful to know that an old, grainy, printed [and scanned] still photograph can evoke more of a sense of ‘being there' than digital technology. One of my most precious images is the one I took in 1963, when I was nine years old, on a plastic 120 film camera from Woolworths. The negative was so faint that I thought it was a transparent frame from the leader. The image was only rescued by repeatedly copying and increasing the contrast on…

1 Drag a frame The Frame tool can be found in the Photoshop toolbar (grab the rectangle icon with a cross or hit K). First highlight the layer you'd like to add a frame to, then choose from a circle or rectangle in the tool options at the top and drag out the frame over your canvas. 2 Adjust the position The layer will be confined to the shape of the new frame. You can drag inside the frame to change its position, or hit Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform and resize it. By contrast, clicking on the edge of the frame enables you to edit the size of the frame rather than the image within. 3 Edit the frame A new frame thumbnail will appear on the layer in the Layers…

Lastolite Collapsible Reflector £14 • www.manfrotto.co.uk This 30cm sunlite/soft example offers a double-coated reflective surface and collapses to a third of its original size. PNY The Outdoor Charger £25 • www.pny.com Keep all your mobile devices charged with this water-resistant powerbank. Photography T-shirt £33 • www.cooph.co.uk COOPH stocks a wide range of some of the best photography-themed T-shirts on the market. A great gift for the photographer in your life. Camera cufflinks £13 • www.amazon.co.uk A subtle hint for your love of photography. Many different varieties, both old and new, can be found online. Chocolate camera £35 • www.thechocolateworkshop.co.uk This full-size vintage 35mm Nikon SLR is the perfect sweet treat for photographers. It tastes as good as it looks.…

Q I have an Olympus PEN-F camera. I'm interested in wildlife photography such as birds, deer and the like. I currently have the M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II lens. I am now wondering if the M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro would be a good addition to my kit bag? But at the same time I am tortured by the fact that the Pro lens is not exactly cheap and there is an overlap in the focal length zoom ranges between the two. The extra brightness and image quality are two of the primary draws for me. Any ideas? Ali Shah AI’d suggest there is no need to keep both lenses if you get the 40-150mm Pro. The 75-300mm is a remarkable lens for its size and reach but there is a…

The new breed of mirrorless cameras seems to come with enormous lenses, which is strange because part of the manifesto for mirrorless is that it allows for lenses with a short back-focus, thus making them smaller. The clue to the bloat in the lenses is in their specifications. These new lenses are exceptionally sharp wide open, right to the edge of the frame. In order to gain this desirable characteristic, the design of these lenses is much more complex than those we are used to with traditional SLRs. The Nikon 50mm f/1.8S for the new Z system boasts12 elements. By contrast, the 50mm f/1.8G for the F-mount system has but seven, and that is complex for an f/1.8 standard lens. Element number The lens that made Nikon's (or Nippon Kogaku,…