Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Jan-2019 i Amateur Photographer

Digital photographs only exist when electricity is applied to them. Turn off the power and they disappear back into the recesses of our hard drives, SD cards and phones. To make them permanent and tangible we need to print them. Most of us don’t do enough of this. One of the most cited reasons is the perceived complexity of printing, and to be fair, there’s quite a lot you need to know. So this week we present an expert guide to help you get better digital prints – and another one on traditional analogue printing. Why not make it a New Year’s Resolution to rescue your photos from hard-drive obscurity? Print them, mount them on the wall, send them to friends; maybe even exhibit them. If you don’t want to…

I was inspired to write to you by your 365 photo projects feature (Count the days, AP 5 January). On 9 January 2017, I decided to take up walking from my house in the suburbs of Aberdeen. I walked around nine miles a day, four days a week. Initially, I took photos with a phone then with a Fujifilm X100, and for the most part with a Fujifilm X-T2. I posted the best photo of the day on my Facebook timeline. As an experienced self-publisher I couldn't help but begin to design a book around my walking pictures. My one-year project ended on 9 January 2018, and by August, I had completed the project, put it in the hands of an experienced graphics designer and found a printer in Kaunas,…

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…

THE NEXT choice to consider is the paper surface. The most popular is gloss, though the intensity of this finish varies in sheen between FB and RC materials. The resin paper has a higher, smoother gloss while fibre based has what used to be referred to as ‘glossy unglazed.' Up until the 1970s, it was common to dry prints pressed onto a heated polished-steel plate, which imparted a smooth, shiny surface. When unglazed, as is common practice now, the paper still has a relatively high gloss, but without a distracting reflective glaze. In comparison, matt FB papers have a smooth finish, which can be pleasingly tactile. They do not have the same depth of maximum black as their glossy counterparts, so often appear softer in contrast. A recent addition to…

Lenses Many of today’s smartphones feature at least two lenses on the rear of the device. The Mate 20 Pro has three different focal lengths. Protection Although a lot of thought goes into the stylish designs of smartphones, it’s worth investing in a case to protect from accidental damage. Never miss a shot Not only are smartphones always likely to be with you, but all those featured here also have quick access to the camera from the lock screen. Size options Some phones in this group come with different sizes to choose from, such as the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL. Screen Most modern smartphones have large, high-resolution screens. Many, but not all, feature a notch at the top of the display, which some find annoying. Samsung Galaxy…

THIS picture was uploaded to our Twitter page using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. It was taken by photographer Andrea Heribanova. She tells us, ‘I visited Zermatt previously in summer and had a shot in my mind to take of the village with the whole of the famous Matterhorn peak in the background. That didn't happen the first time, so I visited again. I spent quite a few hours of my two-day visit standing at this raised viewpoint looking at the village, but it was just too foggy. The sun was trying to come out so it gave me some light. I snapped a few images as the clouds covering the top of the mountain gave it a nice atmosphere. Also the snow made the scenery look more beautiful and wintry.'…

Nikon has announced the Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S wideangle zoom lens for its Nikon Z full-frame mirrorless range. Nikon claims that it is the world's first full-frame ultra-wideangle lens with a flat front element, enabling the use of 82mm filters without the need for bulky filter holders. The new lens is also sealed against dust and moisture. ‘The compact, retractable and lightweight build means you can slip this lens into smaller bags – perfect for travel,' said Tim Carter, senior product manager, Nikon UK. Other key features include anti-reflective Nano Crystal Coating, and a customisable control ring which can be used for manual focusing, aperture control or exposure compensation. Nikon also claims the new lens is ideal for movies: focus breathing is reduced, as is focus-shift while zooming. The…

Technological developments aren't always for the best. FM radio still sounds better than DAB, for example. And why do we have to put up with electronic handbrakes in cars? The manual variety are so much simpler and more effective, especially when it comes to emergency changes of direction in snow and ice. One photographic development I regret is the demise of good depth-of-field scales on lenses. Indicating the near and far limits of what's sharp at a given focusing distance and aperture, they were a great help in film-only days, for judging whether your landscape's foreground or your portrait subject's nose and ears were in focus. Depth-of-field preview was often available, but it was difficult to judge on your SLR's ground-glass focusing screen as small apertures made it dimmer. The…

WHATEVER the subject, you can be sure an AP cover from the '80s would illustrate it with a female model in minimal clobber, and this doozy is no exception. We're guessing the model's diaphanous outfit is supposed to convey frosty light, but we can't help thinking of packaging material... Anyway, she seems to be coping with winter light OK. The other major feature, Body Talk, was even more risqué, with Malcolm Wood showing ‘how to bring a dash of fantasy to your slides with a living projector screen.' Austin Powers would have loved it, so the piece feels dated, even for the mid-'80s. Thankfully, the issue gets more highbrow with a well-written piece on Julia Margaret Cameron by Margaret Harker – the UK's first woman professor of photography and the…

Groundpod More practical than using a tripod with the legs splayed out, and essential for preventing sand from getting everywhere, a dedicated groundpod (or just a beanbag in a frying pan) makes life much easier when shooting from a low level on mudflats and beaches. Binoculars If I’m photographing I never leave home without my Swarovski binoculars. They are much lighter and clearer to look through than a camera, so make finding the wildlife so much easier. They’re also great for when you want to put the camera down and just watch.…

When writing about black & white photographic papers currently available, there is often mention made of all the materials that have been discontinued over the years. While it would be fascinating to look back at the history of such papers, it is probably more constructive to feature and celebrate what we print with today. Given the dominance of digital, it is reassuring that there are still a wide variety of papers being produced. I’ve concentrated on what is available in the UK, or at least what can easily be ordered from suppliers within Europe; namely Adox, Foma and Ilford products. While I have endeavoured to be as comprehensive as possible, I appreciate that there are some brands not covered such as Oriental Seagull and Slavich that currently have no distribution…

HOW BLACK should black & white prints be? Or perhaps the question should be, what tone of black is preferred? All three brands featured produce a high-quality, neutral-toned FB paper in both glossy and matt surfaces. Other ‘warm tone' papers have inherent warmth to the black, often accentuated by the use of a warmer base material. This shade or tone is not always apparent to the viewer. Surely a monochromic print must be ‘black' and white? However, once papers are directly compared, the differences in warmth, which can range from a brown to an olive green black, are more noticeable. Likewise, colder tone papers will display a bluish black that can be accentuated by a bright white paper base. The choice of which paper tone will best suit a particular…

IF, LIKE me, you own the older ColorMunki Photo and have found it's started giving strange results, the good news is that you shouldn't have to buy a new calibration device. Simply uninstall the old software that was supplied with the ColorMunki Photo and replace it with i1Studio instead. The new program looks very different, and doesn't hold your hand through the various measurement processes in quite the same way, but ultimately it achieves the same goal. It's worked successfully for me and breathed new life into my colour-management hardware.…

X-RITE i1Studio has plenty of tricks up its sleeve, but the real question is whether they all work. Thankfully, the answer is an almost unqualified yes. Monitor profiling works really well, and I was able to achieve a very close match between my laptop and desktop displays, which look quite different otherwise. Crucially, I was then able to produce accurate prints even when using a paper for which I had no generic profile. Finally, after profiling my scanner I got vastly improved colour reproduction compared to using the manufacturer's standard settings, although it wasn't 100% perfect. The only feature I'm not convinced about is the monochrome printer profiling – indeed if anything, I found the standard colour profile produced slightly more neutral prints. Overall though, i1Studio is a great tool…

Image stabilisation, or vibration reduction, is one of the ‘must-have' features of a modern camera. Manufacturers often make claims that their systems offer some amount of stabilisation, declaring the results in ‘EV' or ‘stops. This means they believe the sharpness of the image will be the same as that taken using a shutter speed so many stops slower with the stabilisation turned on than it will be with the stabilisation turned off. These claims are made according to a test procedure published by theJapanese Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) in the document DC-X011 Measurement and Description Method for Image Stabilization Performance of Digital Cameras. The procedure describes how to construct a vibration test apparatus and measure the degradation due to vibration of the resultant image. The shaker apparatus described…

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…

Christmas issue I recently cancelled my subscription to a well-known monthly photo magazine. This is because I felt patronised by the tedium of the rather uninspiring suggested photo projects, and downright insulted by a couple of appallingly dire cover photos that were so obviously faked that it seemed Blu-Tack was used in place of editing software. All praise therefore to the team at AP, who have completely nailed it once again. The Christmas issue (AP 22-29 December 2018) is simply crammed from cover to cover with great ‘stuff', which will keep me entertained right over the holiday period. That you and your staff deliver every time, week after week, never ceases to amaze me. Even when an article splits readers' opinions, you at least manage to ignite a healthy discussion,…

Eva Kahan, Clitheroe Eva describes the area in northern Germany where she grew up as ‘very flat and, to me, uninspiring'. It's no surprise, then, that she was blown away by the scenery of the Peak and Lake District when she moved to northern England 14 years ago, and landscape photography offered her a creative outlet. ‘Noticing the ever-changing light conditions that can turn a familiar landscape into something entirely different was the biggest eye opener for me,' she says. ‘I was blind before, but now I constantly live and breathe photography.'…

• Location Can be found around most of the UK’s coast other than in the south-west and parts of Scotland. • Size Length 20-21cm; wingspan 36-39cm. • Nest Near a body of freshwater, on the ground in an exposed location with very little vegetation. • Diet Small marine creatures such as worms, crustaceans and molluscs. • Population About 16,000 wintering birds.…

THE two main types of paper are fibre based (FB) and resin coated (RC). Also known as Bromide or Baryta, FB is a traditional photographic paper. The light-sensitive emulsion is coated directly onto a paper base, which itself has a coating of barium sulphate (Baryta) giving the print a white base tone. The chemical process after development requires an acidic fix, so an extended wash is required to ensure all harmful chemicals have been removed from the paper. RC papers, introduced in the 1970s, employ a thin polyethylene layer on both sides of the paper to protect it from soaking up chemistry, allowing far shorter wash times. RC prints air dry quickly and flat, while FB papers will have an inherent curl when dried which then requires flattening. (This is…

IF YOU like to use an iPad or iPhone to show off your images, then the good news is that these can also be profiled via the free ColorTRUE app. To do this, your device needs to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the computer running i1Studio. Windows machines will need to have iTunes installed. When you fire up the app on your iOS device, it'll first search for your computer. Once the two are connected, ColorTRUE will work through displaying a series of colour patches for measurement by the i1Studio spectrophotometer, just like profiling a monitor. The process takes approximately four minutes, after which a screen profile is generated by your computer and copied to your device. You can then browse through your photos in a colour-managed…

• £72 • www.manfrotto.co.uk ONE OF the great challenges of outdoor photography is the ever-changing weather. When we're presented with bright sunlight and are attempting a few portraits or close ups, this can cause havoc with harsh shadows on our subject. This is not usually flattering, especially with portraiture, and forces us to rethink the shot or seek shelter in the shade. One alternative is to stay put and use some form of diffuser to block out or soften the harsh light. The Lastolite HaloCompact Diffuser is designed to do the latter and is made to be ultra portable. The collapsible lightweight aluminium frame, which consists of multiple sections, slots together effortlessly and is rather like assembling a set of tent poles. The strong plastic handle clips together to form…