Innholdsfortegnelse for 05-Jan-2019 i Amateur Photographer

January blues? Not here at AP. We’re starting 2019 on a high, helping you save money and grab some choice kit with a major guide to the best secondhand camera and lens deals on the market right now. It’s essential reading for anyone hit by post-Christmas penury. And if you’re struggling to find some photo inspiration in the dark days of January, don’t miss our guide to 365 projects (page 16), which might just keep you busy for the rest of the year. Another big highlight in this week’s issue is James Paterson’s detailed guide to the new features in the latest Photoshop Elements; we also talk to Peter ‘Dragon’s Den’ Jones about his exciting plans for Jessops, and the RPS’s Del Barrett about the hugely successful Hundred Heroines initiative.…

DESPITE a high street slump and economic uncertainty, Jessops is investing in new store openings and refurbishments, with £1.8 million spent on ‘intelligent improvements' in the past 12 months. Peter Jones of Dragons’ Den fame is a major investor in Jessops, and recently opened a new concept store at 145 Oxford Street in London. As well as selling cameras and printing images, a key strategy for 2019 is the provision of creativity corners, where customers can make photo gifts, discover scrapbooking and get other creative ideas from specialist staff called ‘Photosmiths'. ‘People ask me, what is the reason for investing right now, but actually, retail's been tough for quite a few years,' Jones told AP during an exclusive interview. ‘We've spent six months looking into how to bring more people…

Featuring the work of many different award-winning and accomplished documentary photographers, Invisible Britain is a hard-hitting look at life in modern Britain. Against a backdrop of Brexit, austerity and a country arguably ever more divided, these are the tales of those traditionally marginalised by the mainstream media, neglected by politicians and ignored by society. In fact, it's a shame a book like this needed to be made in the first place. The brainchild of filmmaker Paul Sng, it also features a foreword by the actor and political activist Michael Sheen. It is, as is so often the case these days, the result of a successful crowdfunding campaign. Writing in the book, Sng says, ‘I started to think about how a book of portraits and stories might serve as a vehicle…

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. Submit your images Please see the ‘Send us your pictures’ section on page 3 for details or visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/portfolio NOTE: PRIZE APPLIES TO UK AND EU RESIDENTS ONLY…

David Candlish, Project 365 In 2013 David Candlish undertook a 365 project, and the results are impressive. From black & white cityscapes to plant portraits and studio set-ups, David shows what can be achieved when you stay focused. Search ‘Project 365' on David's website, www.davidcandlish.photography. Claire Norman, wildlife In 2017 Claire Norman (a friend of Helen Hooker) photographed the dawn every day, even during the summer months. In 2018 Claire turned her attention to nature. Search ‘Wildlife Photography Claire Norman' on Facebook. David Litchfield, sketches Before Tunisio Alves Filho started One Lighthouse, 365 Clicks he followed a ‘one sketch per day' project, proving that inspiration can come from many sources. For similar inspiration take a look at David Litchfield's TEDx Talk on YouTube.…

Designated as one of five ‘Blue Zones' by National Geographic, the island of Ikaria is a curious place. In such zones, people typically live well into their nineties and beyond. Needing a final major project for her MA in Documentary Photography, Lily Bungay was naturally drawn to the island, thanks to a long-standing connection with the elderly. ‘I remember accompanying my mother as we delivered meals-on-wheels dinners,' she explains. ‘As a teenager, I worked in sheltered housing, serving lunches to the residents and helping out with household chores. More recently, I volunteered with the charity South London Cares, which hosts social events that bring together young professionals with older people living in the same areas. There is so much value in cross-generational relationships, but I worry that it's something that…

When we launch Elements 2019 we're greeted by the Home Screen. Here we'll find a section called Auto Creations. This offers a selection of auto-generated collages and slideshows that automatically brings together photos from memorable events. These can be edited, saved or shared on social media. With collages, you can drag images around from one window to another, replace or reposition them. There's also an extensive library of customisable templates to choose from, including several square Instagram templates and Facebook cover sizes. When editing Slideshows, we can change the order of the images, add captions, music and more. The photos are gathered together from the images we've imported into the Elements Organiser. So naturally, we need to begin here by uploading photos. It takes a little while for Elements 2019…

Canon EOS 600D with 18-55mm IS II lens £273 AT A GLANCE Sensor 18MP APS-C CMOS Sensitivity ISO 100-6400 (ISO 12,800 extended) Continuous shooting 3.7fps Video 1080p Full HD at 30fps Rear display 3in, 1.04-million-dot vari-angle LCD Viewfinder Pentamirror, 95% coverage at 0.85x Released at the beginning of 2011, secondhand examples of the 600D now provide excellent value for money – especially for anyone on a tight budget looking to wring the most out of their budget. Benefiting from a vari-angle rear LCD display the 600D makes light work of taking selfies or shooting from awkward angles, while the 9-point AF system is both fast and accurate. Video capabilities extend to a respectable 1080p Full HD at 30fps, while the built-in pop-up flash doubles up as a wireless commander unit…

Canon EOS 6D with EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens ANNOUNCED at Photokina 2012 and released a couple of months later, the EOS 6D was marketed as a smaller and more affordable alternative to the hugely popular EOS 5D Mark III. It was released with a body-only price of £1,680 and it's now possible to source a second-hand 6D in ‘excellent' condition with a shutter count under 10k for £599 from MPB.com. Throw in a ‘like new' second-hand EF 50mm f/1.8 II prime for a further £79, and a full-frame DSLR starter kit could be yours for under £700 – for those looking to buy brand new in today's DSLR market that's barely enough to secure a mid-range APS-C DSLR. Fulfilling its brief, the 6D borrows some hardware from the 5D…

Carry-on camera bag Q With the holiday season over and summer now (optimistically) approaching I am thinking about booking a photography holiday. I will want to take all of my kit (Fujifilm X-T2 and XF 16-55mm, XF 55-200mm and XF 35mm f/1.4 lenses) with me and will probably be flying. I would like a bag that is perfect for carry on. Do you have any recommendations? Kathleen Smith A Finding the right bag is a very subjective process. My biggest piece of advice would be to visit one of our stores across the UK in order to find a bag that fits you properly. Make sure you take a tape measure and your kit with you so that you can correctly check the sizes of the bags you try. Before…

In the 1930s, America suffered a devastating recession now known as the Great Depression. The stock market crashed; poverty was widespread; farming communities were devastated. In an attempt to assist rural communities, the government established the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and included within its parameters a photography programme, which ran from 1935 to 1944. The programme was headed by Roy Stryker, who oversaw the work of photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Arthur Rothstein. Joining them was Gordon Parks, a photographer, musician and filmmaker who highlighted issues of civil rights, poverty and African Americans. Before the FSA, Parks had his own portrait business and had won the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship award for his depictions of African Americans across Chicago. It was at the FSA that he created his…

THE LATEST winners of the Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards have been announced, with the top prize and title going to Stefano Pensotti, a semi-pro photographer from Italy. His varied portfolio of eight images from around the world beat over 20,000 images from 142 countries. All the winning images will be exhibited in the spring in a free-to-view outdoor exhibition at London Bridge City, opposite the Tower of London, before being shown at TPOTY exhibitions internationally. For more details and the full list of winners, see www.tpoty.com. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

Many photographers have had the wish fulfilment dream where you wander into a junk shop and find, sitting unregarded on a shelf, an old Leica that time forgot. Personally, I'd hope for an M4-P, but other fantasies are available. However unlikely this scenario might sound, I'm here to tell you that it has happened to me – almost. I was between buses in a small market town in Wales, and a persistent drizzle drove me into a not-quite-junk shop on the main street. In the corner of a glass cabinet, tucked behind a heap of cheap APS compacts, I saw the unmistakable Leitz logo peeping out. The shopkeeper hauled the object out onto the counter for me, and with a burst of recognition I realised what was in front of…

THIS week we peddle back to 1943, with AP keeping calm and carrying on despite the privations of the Second World War. The threat of German invasion may have somewhat receded, with Hitler's armies getting a bloody nose on the Eastern Front, but it was hardly a relaxing time in Britain, and it's amazing that people found the time, energy and resources to do any personal photography at all. As well as the rather stern advert on the cover, editor F J Mortimer's editorial is both interesting and poignant, as he pays tribute to the bravery of photographers covering the Blitz. Little did FJ know that he was to be killed by a German bombing raid on the way to the AP offices in 1944... On a brighter note, there…

Lily uses both digital and film, with the final pictures for Ikaria being around 85% digital, 15% film. She uses a Fujifilm X-T2 with 23mm and 56mm lenses, as well as a Bronica ETR-Si using Kodak Portra film. She says, ‘I wanted to try medium format film for this project, as I thought its slow nature would be in keeping with the relaxed pace of the island. However, I also knew I couldn't take any risks so I also shot everything digitally. Clambering over a mountain following a goat herder, carrying two cameras and trying to capture the same scene twice was a nightmare!'…

Auto collages To start a new collage, first open a few photos into Elements, then go to Create > Photo Collage. A collage is automatically created and the images are cropped intelligently, so faces aren't accidentally cropped out. If happy with the results we simply save the collage. Manual collages You can customise your collage easily by choosing different layouts – including Facebook and Instagram cover templates – or replace photos by right-clicking them or dragging them across to different windows. You can also add different frames and background effects. Meme maker This makes it easy to create memes for sharing on social media. We start by choosing a meme template, then go on to add words and customise the backdrop. Once done, we can either save the image or…

Rittreck cameras and lenses don't come on the market very often. When they do, prices vary considerably. A camera with standard lens, waist-level viewfinder and multi-format film back fetches £250-300. Supplementary lenses can sometimes be found at £50-100 for medium-tele lenses through to £150-200 for the 40cm super-tele. The even rarer eye-level viewfinder illustrated here is the only one ever discovered and was bought from a Japanese vendor for £150. The same camera can also be found under the name Optika IIa, which was used for export purposes.…

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. *PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 28 DAYS FOR DELIVERY 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…

IT'S BEEN a busy few months for the RPS, with Nan Goldin and other big names honoured at its 2018 Awards. The RPS has now revealed its 100 heroines, a non-ranked list of the top contemporary female photographers. A panel of expert judges whittled down the list after an unexpectedly large number of nominations from the general public. The list includes some famous names, including the aforementioned Nan Goldin, along with Magnum's Susan Meiselas and Britta Jaschinski, who is the founder of Photographers Against Wildlife Crime. The heroines will be honoured at a special exhibition and they will also receive a medallion named after Margaret Harker, the first female president of the RPS. Public awareness Hundred Heroines was the brainchild of RPS Vice President, Del Barrett. ‘We've been overwhelmed by…

1 Take a seat Find a bench close to home and revisit it at the same time every day for a week. Photograph the people, events, and pets that use the bench, and record how they interact with their surroundings. 2 Create your own language Follow in the footsteps of painter Stephen T Johnson (see Alphabet City, ISBN 978-0-670-85631-2) and spend a day shooting every letter from A-Z ‘as it occurs naturally' in your surroundings. 3 Study a building Create an exhaustive portrait of your favourite piece of architecture, both inside and out. Look for reflections, graphic shadows and details to isolate. 4 Roll a dice Make whatever you roll your number for the week. Look for this figure wherever you go – try three ducks on a pond, one…

As a young person, I was aware of David Icke as a former footballer who became a popular sports presenter. Then, in 1991, I was one of the millions of viewers who were riveted by his interview on the Terry Wogan show, Wogan. Dressed in a turquoise shell-suit, he talked at length about his belief in the forces that secretly control the planet. At one point, Wogan told him the studio audience was laughing at him, not with him. It was excruciating but compelling to watch. ‘One way to get more time with a portrait subject is to ask them about themselves’ Icke has since become established as a professional conspiracy theorist. He has written dozens of books, which centre on his belief that the Earth is actually controlled by…

The new Home Screen appears when Elements is first opened, and can also be accessed via a button at the bottom of the interface. It places the new Auto-Creations feature to the fore, and offers links to tutorials, inspiration and other online content curated by Adobe. The Home Screen is a sort of replacement for the old eLive workspace, which used to be located at the top of the screen alongside the Beginner, Guided and Expert Modes. But it's also a refinement, with easy access to tools and features. It's useful for beginners or those who want to discover new features, and gives you a taste of the possibilities of image editing in Elements.…

Nikon D5100 with 18-55mm VR lens UPON its release in 2011, the Nikon D5100 was positioned as an upper entry-level DSLR for those looking for something a little more advanced than the more basic D3100. While the D5100 undoubtedly shows its age now in terms of its core hardware, it remains a practical and easy-to-use camera that's capable of great image quality. Better still, while the D5100 and 18-55mm kit lens package would have cost around £750 at the time of its launch, second-hand camera bodies in ‘good' condition can now be picked up for as little as £109 from the likes of MPB.com and other reputable second-hand retailers. Add an 18-55mm kit zoom, and you'll still get plenty of change from £250, making it highly affordable and great value.…

Sony Alpha 6000 with 16-50mm lens £373 AT A GLANCE Sensor 24.3MP APS-C CMOS Sensitivity ISO 100-25,600 Continuous shooting 11fps Video 1080p Full HD at 60fps Rear display 3in, 921k-dot tiltable LCD Viewfinder 1.44-million-dot EVF Positioned as a more advanced alternative to the A5000 and released soon after it in 2014, the A6000 benefits from a sizeable increase in resolution (from 20MP to 24.3MP), an expanded feature set and improved processing power. Unlike the A5000, it also gains a built-in electronic viewfinder that sits above a sharper rear LCD display. Unlike the purely contrast-detect AF system of the A5000, the A6000 benefits from a hybrid AF system that employs 179 phase-detection AF points alongside 25 contrast-detect AF points for speedier focus acquisition. Other highlights include a burst speed of 11fps,…

Warranties/guarantees If you decide to buy second-hand, we'd strongly advise sticking with an established and reputable firm. This includes – but isn't limited to – the likes of WEX Photographic, MPB, CameraWorld, Park Cameras, Richard Caplan, Camera Jungle, Ffordes, Grays of Westminster, and the London Camera Exchange. Reputable specialists like these will generally offer a short guarantee on all second-hand kit, usually three to six months. This is in addition to any consumer protection rights you are legally entitled to. While buying privately can usually save you additional money over a second-hand specialist, you are unlikely to get any such guarantees. Second-hand ratings system All the major second-hand camera specialists employ a fixed grading scale that's used to indicate the overall condition of the camera. The most commonly used terms…