Innholdsfortegnelse for 15-Dec-2018 i Amateur Photographer

There has never been such a wide choice of affordable cameras and lenses (not to mention smartphones), which is great, but the downside is that everybody these days is a photographer. So how do you get your pictures noticed amid the Biblical flood of images being uploaded to social media every day? This issue, we speak to some of 2018’s rising stars to discover how they found a way to stand out, and hopefully build a lasting career, whether as a pro or successful serious amateur. Don’t miss our guide to taking creative still lifes and portraits at home – a great project for winter’s short, dark days – and we also take a look at Epson’s latest A3 printer, which promises lower running costs. Our main review, meanwhile, focuses…

Ansel Adams exhibition An exhibition of some of Ansel Adams’s most magnificent landscapes has opened at the Atlas Gallery in central London, and runs until 2 February 2019. It features such memorable images as ‘Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California, 1944’, and many other seminal landscape images. See www.atlasgallery.com for full details. New Olympus ambassador Olympus has kicked off its documentary and low-light month with the announcement of a new ambassador, Gabrielle Motola. A travel and documentary specialist, Motola is an OM-D user who has an exhibition at the After Nyne Gallery in Holland Park, London. ‘Henge to Henge’ records her epic motorcycle ride from Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the Arctic Henge in Iceland, and runs from 12 December 2018 to 7 January 2019. See bit.ly/hengetohenge. STC screen protectors…

WINTER has come, so COOPH has released a heated photographer's vest/gilet with some neat extras. The company teamed up with heated apparel specialist THERM-IC to develop the heating system, which can keep you toasty for up to five hours thanks to the 5200mAh battery. An app enables you to control the temperature of the vest as you wish via a Bluetooth dongle, and the automatic mode is smart enough to work out whether you are moving or stationary, adjusting the heat as appropriate. Lightweight and with a reversible padded design with plenty of pockets, it comes in a choice of navy or black. The vest is on sale now for t 389 at store.cooph.com.…

After the eyebrow-raising nude cover shenanigans of last week's Back in the Day, it's good to see we are back in the respectable days of the late '50s. The cover models look like they are trying to restrain the angry-looking snowman, so he really needs to chill out (groan). Let's hope our forthcoming Christmas is reassuringly white as theirs was. The Ilford film ad refers to a Winter Threesome, but we've got way too much class to snigger about that... Our favourite feature inside the magazine reveals how to express character in portraits, and the advice is still very relevant today. No, it's not philosopher Bertrand Russell on the opening page but actor Ernest Thesiger; his most famous movie role was Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film Bride of…

It's great when you sign a petition and it has an effect. It happened to me recently. The campaign was actually to save stage lighting but I think it's very important for photographers too. It was all about preserving a way of light. The petition was initiated by the Association of Lighting Designers. It aimed to curtail aspects of the latest Ecodesign directive from the institution that seems to figure a great deal in our lives these days, paradoxically just as we're set to leave it, the EU. Ecodesign is a process that hopes to make products more ecologically friendly for the benefit of consumers and the environment. All manner of things are investigated, from washing machines to hairdryers, and even cameras, with the aim of making them more energy…

Reflector Get a 5-in-1 reflector that has a diffuser with a zip-over cover (normally gold, silver, white and black). Either buy a very expensive one from a top-of-the-range photographic company that will last, or a very cheap and cheerful one from the internet. If you choose the cheap option, buy two! Backdrops These can be anything, but I favour fabrics. I make my own by painting up old linens, and never travel without a length of black velvet, which can be clamped, or pinned up against anything. Make sure you have some small ones for still-life situations and some long enough for portraits. Stands You will need at least a couple of these and a cross pole to clamp the aforementioned backgrounds on to, or to hang stuff from. You…

This was shot in exactly the same spot as the still life of the books using exactly the same lighting (see below). The classic 1,2,3 of light source plus subject and reflector. I could bang on about this for days, but it is genuinely the absolute bedrock of lighting. Why do I think it works? Well, it's impossible to get tired of. It is the absolute classic lighting. It is where I begin every single picture I take. Learn this basic discipline and you need never worry about lighting again. Always remember, your home studio is in your head. You can move your subject, change the background, change the thing you are photographing. You can mess about to your heart's content adding things and putting extra lights up; you can…

When and why did you start taking photographs? I started relatively late, at about 18. I had ambitions of being a painter but I fell in love with travelling. I picked up a camera almost as an afterthought and, to begin with, I was absolutely terrible. But as soon as I fail at something, mastering it becomes an obsession. Why do you love wildlife photography? I have always loved wildlife. We grew up in a very dog-minded house so animals were very much equals, not pets. These days, I feel stronger about animals, as I learn more about their incredible lives but also about the threats we are creating. My work focuses more on animals in their environment – after all, it is this relationship that we are destroying. Did…

How long have you been taking pictures? My dad is a keen photographer, so I took my first pictures when I was seven years old, and started to take photography seriously two years later. Early on, photography was simply a hobby, albeit a passionate one, but as I grew older and as my photography improved, I realised that this was something I wanted to pursue. You live in the city, so how do you get to the wildlife reserves? I live in South Africa so nature is on our doorstep. I’m surrounded by it, but we usually spend around two months a year in the bush. We have timeshares in a place in southern Botswana called Mashatu Game Reserve, and this is where I spend most of my time photographing.…

Rather than using Fujifilm's X-Trans CMOS technology, the XF10 employs a 24.2MP APS-C sensor with a standard Bayer colour filter array. While it's not entirely clear whether the sensor is the same one as featured inside the XT100 and X-A5, it does at least appear to behave in a similar way. The best performance comes between ISO 200 and 1600, with good detail and relatively little noise, although results up to ISO 6400 are perfectly usable at smaller sizes. Resolution Unsurprisingly, the sensor outputs a similar performance to the one inside the recent XT100. At the (native) base ISO 200 setting, raw files show around 3,200l/ph, which is the same as many other models in this price range, although the extended, JPEG-only, ISO 100-equivalent option shows even better detail. This…

A FEELING of dread can accompany large-format inkjet printing. Every print you create might be the last before you need to buy new cartridges, yet again. The ET-7750 is soothingly reassuring, not only because its ink tanks are much larger and the ink itself is vastly cheaper, but also because you can see the ink levels through viewing windows at the front. And they barely drop at all with each successive photo print. However, when it comes to outright photo-print quality, the Epson is good rather than great, with a relatively limited range of ink colours under the hood. It's geared more to a mix of document and photo printing, rather than being a photo specialist.…

In 2004 Konica Minolta introduced a digital camera that was to change the design of future cameras radically. It was the Dynax 7D: a single lens reflex using the Minolta A autofocus lens mount. While much of the camera's specification matched that of its competitors, with the same Sony 6MP CCD sensor that was found in every competitor except those from Canon, one feature stood out. The 7D boasted in-body image stabilisation, which offered the advantage of providing stabilisation with any lens fitted to the camera. The system worked using a gyro sensor in the camera, which could detect the camera being swung either vertically or horizontally. Since the camera had an electronic lens mount, it could determine the focal length of the lens fitted. With that information and the…

LONDON-based photographer Tim Flach has become known over the past ten years for his stunningly stylised portraits (many of them studio-based) of animals. His first book, Equus, was published in 2008, and was followed by Dog Gods and More Than Human. His latest book project, the highly ambitious Endangered, is the product of two years spent travelling not only the world's wild places, but also a number of zoos and conservation projects, to photograph the creatures whose futures are most in peril. His subjects include this extraordinary-looking bird, the shoebill (left), which is said to number fewer than 5,000 in the wild. The sumptuously printed images from Endangered (Abrams, £50) – from a hyacinth macaw resembling an angel in flight, to a semi-abstract of partula snails – are currently on…

This is an example of what I mean by ‘top threequarters’ lighting and how to manipulate it to your advantage. I was shooting a cookbook about Gascon food in South West France and we had to illustrate a dish called beurre de Gascogne, made famous by the local chef André Daguin. It’s a mixture of red wine, Armagnac, shallots and duck fat. It’s delicious, but a rather alarming mauve colour. Here are the steps I took to shoot it, showing how I achieved my final image. 1 Find a suitable location First things first, we had to pick a location for our studio set-up. We decided on the kitchen table, which was lit from above by a small skylight in the low roof. As it was, the lighting was too…

When did you start taking pictures and why? I was home-schooled and spent a lot of my spare time outdoors. I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in rural Cornwall and so developed a keen interest in nature. Five years ago, at 13 years old, I received my first DSLR and two books by Ross Hoddinott. These inspired me to start shooting both the landscape and wildlife, teaching me so much of what I know today. I was hooked. What is it about the landscape that inspires you? I’ve always been a keen cyclist, and my bike has been my vehicle for exploring the landscape and finding new locations. The coastline is visually stunning and always changing, with no two days the same, and England’s South West Peninsula is full…

When, and why, did you start taking photographs? I came to photography from science. My first degree is sociology and it influenced me. I was worried about a lot in the world, but mainly topics of gender and discrimination. I observed different situations, interviewed various people and I took pictures on my mobile phone. Later, I bought my first camera with financial help from my mother. Tell us more about your photographic education. I studied in a school of modern photography. It was a time for big questions, like, ‘What worries me in photography?’, ‘What do I want to say?’ and so on. I did my first project about domestic violence in Russia, receiving support from the curator Mikhail Domozhilov. I also took part in various workshops including one on…

Conspiracy theory I would like to add my voice to those calling for AP to find ways to increase participation in the APOY contest. As someone who has entered the competition for the past few years and always done poorly, I took comfort in the past from the belief that my photographs were simply swamped in the vast numbers of entries. This year as I do poorly both in the public vote and the critics' views, it leaves me with nowhere to hide from the truth. Now of course, I realise that this year's contest demonstrates that the public are incapable of recognising towering genius, and that the critics are in the pocket of the mirrorless camera lobby and clearly members of the Illuminati, conspiring to cheat me of success.…

The Reader Portfolio winner chosen every week will receive a Manfrotto PIXI EVO tripod worth £44.95. Visit www.manfrotto.co.uk Lightweight and portable, the Manfrotto PIXI EVO boasts two different leg angles with a sliding selector enabling you to shoot ground-level images. It’s adjustable, with two-section legs featuring five different steps that adapt the footprint to uneven surfaces. With a payload of 2.5kg, you can tilt the camera 90° to capture incredible images. NOTE: PRIZE APPLIES TO UK AND EU RESIDENTS ONLY Submit your images Please see the ‘Send us your pictures’ section on page 3 for details or visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/portfolio…

You can also use the Photomerge feature in Photoshop to create panorama images. The best way to do this is to use Bridge to select the photos you wish to process and then choose Photomerge via the Bridge Tools > Photoshop submenu. In most cases the Auto layout option is all you will need to get good-looking panoramas, although the Cylindrical layout option will again work best for panoramic landscapes, such as the example shown here. The Blend Images Together option completes the Photomerge processing as it adds layer masks to each of the Photomerged layers. The Vignette Removal option can help improve the result of the final image blending, especially if you are merging photos that were shot using a wideangle lens. When the Geometric Distortion Correction checkbox is…

Fn buttons There are two Function Buttons on the body: one on the top-plate just to the left of the mode dial and one just to the right of where the right-hand thumb naturally falls, though it’s not actually labelled an Fn button. These can both have a particularly broad range of functions assigned to them, including the new SQUARE and Snapshot modes, and will no doubt be appreciated and regularly used by the target audience. Control ring The default function of this ring depends on your shooting mode, although you can customise it to your requirements if you prefer. It can, for example, adjust ISO, Film Simulation, white balance and so on, and it can also be set to manually focus the lens. Focus joystick Fast becoming a standard…

Things tend to move relatively slowly at the affordable end of the large-sensor/fixed lens end of the compact market. The fact that the XF10's only direct competitor at this price point is the soon-to-be-replaced Ricoh GR II, however – a camera that's three years old and still over £100 more expensive – gives it an edge from the off. Indeed, at this price, it's managed to carve its own place in the market, although it does present an interesting question: is it reasonable to expect its ‘absent' features? Many people would have no doubt preferred to see a viewfinder and mechanical image stabilisation, for example, but these would almost certainly come at the cost of size or price (or both). The lack of a hotshoe and option to use conversion…

Case-friendly The PhotoGrip’s spring-clamp design means it’ll work happily with your favourite phone case. Removable release The Bluetooth shutter button slides out of the grip for use as a remote control. This also reveals a Micro USB port for charging it. Clip-in stylus A small red stylus with a transparent disc head clips into the side of the grip, and is intended for use with image-processing apps. Stand mode The PhotoGrip is shaped so it can double-up as a desk stand that will hold your phone in the upright position. Tripod socket A standard 1/4in socket in the base allows attachment to either the supplied mini-stand or a full-size tripod. • £44.99 • www.adonit.net THERE'S no doubt that latest-generation smartphones are seriously useful photographic tools. But without exception, they have…

Founded in 1881, the American Colony in Jerusalem was a self-supporting Christian utopian and philanthropic community. They were a fascinating bunch and from about 1900 onwards they ran a photographic division with several photographers. They photographed many things: historic buildings, local people at work, and of course worthies. Harootiun Vehabedian was the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem and there would have been a steady demand from the faithful for pictures of him. I first noticed this picture as a thumbnail when I was browsing through the wonderful Library of Congress online collections: that extraordinary headgear, apparently of watered silk, is hard to miss. A bigger version revealed not only his suitably patriarchal visage but also the cascade of medals and crosses on his chest, his massive sleeves, his rosary and the…

Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter or the reader gallery using #appicoftheweek. PermaJet proudly supports the online picture of the week winner, who will receive a top-quality print of their image on the finest PermaJet paper*. It is important to bring images to life outside the digital sphere, so we encourage everyone to get printing today! Visit www.permajet.com to learn more. Send us your pictures 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…

DJI HAS released what it claims is the world's smallest three-axis gimbal-stabilised 4K camera – the DJI Osmo Pocket – able to compensate for shake and movement to ensure the footage is as smooth as possible. Other key specifications include a 12MP CMOS sensor and an f/2.8 lens with an 80° field of view, along with an ISO range of 100-3200. It only weighs 116g, and is about four inches tall, so the unit is very portable. Team up the DJI Osmo Pocket with your smartphone and the DJI Mimo app also enables you to edit movies on the move. The DJI Osmo Pocket will cost $350/£329. See store.dji.com. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

MATTHEW used either the Nikon D850 or the new Nikon Z 7 for these shots, along with 14-24mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses. No additional lighting was necessary since the warehouse is well lit. He says, ‘It's easy to take too much kit on assignments like this and then resent having to carry it all around. I thought it would be a good idea to take enough to cover the 14mm to 200mm range with two bodies in order to avoid having to change lenses too often. Most of the pictures were taken with the 14-24mm and the 70-200mm, with the former being particularly useful. It's not a lens I use very often, but when you are trying to give a sense of scale it's certainly worth having.'…

1 Move! Move yourself, move your background, move your subject. Do not set something up and light it before carefully checking out the space you have available. 2 Choose your lens carefully. When shooting in a studio situation you don't want a wideangle. Always choose a standard, or a long(ish) lens. This gives you room to work, and means that you won't be too close to your subject and risk distortion. 3 If shooting with light from a window, make sure you know how the light will change during the day and choose the time to shoot accordingly. 4 A reflector is always useful for shadow detail, but rules are made to be broken, so always shoot with and without. You may prefer those deep, filled-in shadows. 5 If you…

Why and when did you start taking pictures? I started taking pictures in 2016. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always spent a lot of time with nature and felt a connection with it. It was when I reached my early teens that I started taking photos of what I saw and experienced in nature. After attending a lecture by a famous nature photographer, I started taking my camera with me everywhere. What is it about wildlife that inspires you? I really believe that you can have a connection with wildlife if you understand it and respect it. You can lose yourself in a special moment when it’s only nature and you, and that’s a great feeling that truly inspires and motivates me. I want to capture that emotion…

Why and when did you start taking pictures? My interest in photography started as a child. I used to develop prints with my grandad in his make-shift darkroom at home, by counting elephants for exposure time. He bought me my first camera – a Minolta – for my 21st birthday. I had a successful career as a hairdresser, but at the age of 40 I made it my mission to become the best photographer I could be. This is when I really started to learn. I took a couple of courses and practised as much as I could. You can’t be a hairdresser one day and a photographer the next. You need to gain people’s trust and the only way to do that is to show them what you can…

Having recently returned to film photography I treated myself to a copy of AP for the first time in many years, the 3 November issue. My copy fell open at the ‘Back in the Day' (7Days) feature, which was from the period when I last purchased a copy of AP, I think! Despite an attack of instant nostalgia, the content referred to looked very interesting and I really would have liked to read the articles mentioned. However, onto the current content: I was pleasantly surprised by the articles, which gave an interesting variety of the technical and the photographic. I was particularly intrigued by the article about photographing the victims of Boko Haram, while Roger Hicks's Final Analysis piece had definite shades of ‘Ricardo' in the long lost days! Overall…

1 Merge to Panorama Select your raw image files and open them all in Photoshop. As they are raw files, they will automatically open in the Camera Raw hosted plugin. Click on the Filmstrip fly-out menu and choose Merge to Panorama. This will open the Panorama Merge Preview dialog box. 2 Select Projection Select the desired projection and preview the result before committing to create a full Photo Merge. Here, I selected Cylindrical, which ensured the photos were correctly aligned to the horizontal axis. This mode is particularly appropriate when merging single rows of photographs that make up a super-wide panorama. 3 Boundary Warp You can adjust the Boundary Warp slider to make the boundary of the panorama fit more closely to the edges of the frame. In my example,…

FILM Simulation modes are now a standard part of most of Fujifilm cameras, with only the cheapest compacts unlucky enough to miss out on them. Drawing on the company's heritage in film production, these are designed to emulate some of the company's most popular emulsions such as Provia, Velvia and Astia, the former being the default ‘Standard' option. The remaining options that make up the collection are also not necessarily tied to a specific film. Classic Chrome, for example, delivers more muted colours that are reminiscent of documentary images, while Pro Neg Std and Pro Neg Hi are intended for portraiture under different kinds of light. Monochrome and Sepia options are also on hand. Variations of the Monochrome option with red, green and yellow filters can be chosen to suit…

How important is it to edit my photos? Q Sorry if this is a really dumb question. I have been a keen photographer since I was a teenager. I only had a basic point and shoot but still managed to capture some nice images. Fast forward through studies, marriage and kids and I finally got myself a DSLR and a prime lens. Photography can be an expensive hobby and it's easy to keep on buying – so my question is how important is Photoshop or Lightroom? Are there any free alternatives. I looked at GIMP but it's quite tricky. Is it worth persevering with GIMP? Farah (AP forum) A When shooting with film, especially transparency film, there is a much greater need to get the picture right because correcting it…