Innholdsfortegnelse for 31-Aug-2019 i Amateur Photographer

Street photography sounds straightforward, as most of us live near streets of some kind, and presumably have a camera. As with most things to do with our passion, however, it’s easier said than done. Which style of street photography is most suited to you? Candid portraits? Reportage? Quirky juxtapositions and visual puns? Colour or black & white? There is a lot to think about, but a great new book has come out from Ammonite Press, with lots of insights from some of the most acclaimed street shooters in the world. Turn to page 16 for some of its distilled wisdom. If you’re wondering what are the best cameras and lenses on the market, we’re also pleased to announce the winners of the 2019-2020 EISA awards from page 41. This is…

Julie Cowdy, York Formerly a fashion designer, art teacher and interior designer, Julie's creative skills turned towards photography after she shot a number of interiors and renovation projects. She has a particular interest in still life, enjoying the control she has over composition and lighting. Her images often blend the original image with painted surfaces or photographed textures, for a multi-layered result, and she has won numerous club and salon awards for her work. See more by searching Julie Cowdy Photography on Facebook. Eryngium 1 Shot on the kitchen table top with natural overhead lighting, Julie layered the image of the flowers with a texture that matched their colour and tone. Sony A7R Mark II, 24-70mm, 1/10sec at f/5, ISO 100, tripod Tea roses 2 Julie says she loves the…

Mobile phone Smartphones are capable of taking great street shots – they are light, portable and, crucially, discreet. Some models have similar levels of control to a standalone camera. Mirrorless camera Delivering great results without weighing you down, mirrorless cameras are a great choice for street photography. The Fujifilm X-T3 can shoot 30 frames per second and offers a resolution of 26.1MP. Spare batteries Carry plenty of memory cards and spare batteries. If your camera has a double card slot use it as extra backup. To save battery power avoid ‘chimping’ – reviewing every picture immediately after shooting. Prime lens A quality prime, such as the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8, can be great for street photography. It can be tempting to keep your distance and use a zoom, but be brave…

Round Four Perfect Portraits Judith wins £1,000 worth of Sigma kit (based on Sigma's RRP) of her own choice for her excellent portrait. Sigma has a number of lenses that are great for portraits, one of which is the 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art (£749.99, left). Constructed from 13 elements in eight groups, and with outstanding, natural bokeh and minimal optical aberrations, it sets a new standard for 50mm lenses. It received a well-deserved five stars when reviewed in Amateur Photographer. 1 Judith Duddle UK 30pts Fujifilm X-T2, 16-55mm at 16mm, 1/100sec at f/7.1, ISO 200 This engaging study has so much to look at and take in. It has been expertly composed, drawing the viewers' attention to the subjects while highlighting their characters to perfection. The dramatic sky plus…

THIS photograph was uploaded to our Instagram page using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. It was taken by photographer Andy Frettsome. He tells us, ‘On a recent visit to the poppy fields at West Pentire in Cornwall I was drawn to this view and the relationship between the structure of the timber barn and the vibrant and colourful foreground. Taking a low viewpoint excluded any other distractions allowing the image to remain simple in its content. I took several images with differing apertures but this one shot at f/2.8 gave the effect that I found most pleasing.'…

INSIDE the space of just a few hours, a Kickstarter to raise funds for a new book celebrating the work of legendary press photographer John Downing surpassed its target. As chief photographer on the Daily Express, Downing's career spanned over five decades, taking him to more than 100 countries across all seven continents. Sadly, he is now terminally ill. At the time of writing, the Kickstarter has more than 200 backers and has already raised £12,500 (of an £8000 target). The book, called John Downing: Legacy will be a hardback volume with 192 pages of his finest work. It is being published by Bluecoat Press, which has run many successful Kickstarters in the past. Also working on the project is regular AP contributor Peter Dench, as well as another iconic…

‘It’s imperative to get products into the hands of potential customers’ I have often thought that the camera industry shares quite a few likenesses to the automotive industry. Brand new cars are expensive items to buy outright from new, and the same can be said for the latest cameras that boast state-of-the-art technology. Take the Panasonic Lumix S1R, Nikon Z 7 or Sony A9 for example – three prestige full-frame mirrorless models that all put a big dent in your bank balance at over £3,000 each for the body alone. It doesn't matter if you're a passionate amateur or working pro, dropping this kind of cash on a new camera isn't a decision to be rushed. Camera manufacturers, like car manufacturers, have acknowledged that with so much money on the…

Ailsa McWhinnie's Viewpoint (AP, 20 July) struck a chord. Some 20 years ago, my mother was an elderly widow living on her own, 170 miles from me so I was unable to see her that often. On one visit I asked her to go through her collection of old photos and write on the back, the ‘who', ‘when', ‘what', ‘where', ‘why'. To my delight, she liked this idea as a way of re-living the memories; and making the photos more significant for me in the future. Whilst merely snapshots, they proved very important in the ongoing study of my family history over the generations. That photo, like thousands more I have, is scanned and catalogued in Lightroom. Which brings me to the next point. Ailsa specifically refers to those people…

The Reader Portfolio winner chosen every week will receive a copy of Skylum Luminar 3, worth £65. See www.skylum.com Luminar is a fully featured photo editor for Mac and PC designed for photographers of all skill levels, blending pro-level tools with remarkable ease of use and an enjoyable experience. A new Library feature lets you organise, find and rate images easily, while over 100 editing features, plus a suite of fast AI-powered technologies under the hood, will make any image stand out. 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…

Public right of way If you're on a public right of way – such as a public pavement, footpath or public highway – you're free to take photographs for personal and commercial use so long as you're not causing an obstruction to other users or falling foul of anti-terrorism laws or the Official Secrets Act. Pictures of people Photographers can use their pictures of people taken in public places as they wish, including for commercial gain. While this is reassuring, common sense does need to be applied. A lot of pedestrians in the UK won't react favourably if you go right up to them without any kind of introduction and shove a long lens in their face. Sensitive subjects Take care where children are involved, and you also need to…

CHURCH Ope Cove (‘Ope' being a local word for an opening down to the water) is a small, secluded cove on the eastern side of the Isle of Portland and is often missed by photographers as they whizz on by to its more famous neighbour, Portland Bill Lighthouse. Before you reach the cove, make sure that you visit the ruins of St. Andrews Church, Portland's first parish church. Situated in a small wooded valley, the church has long lain derelict and all that remains now are overgrown walls, an arch and several tombstones. It's an interesting location particularly with black & white infrared techniques, but possibly even more dramatic with a sea fret swirling around the cliffs. You can also access the cove via Portland Museum, through an arch, which…

1 Spot Healing Brush Use this to remove small blemishes on skin, stray hairs and other imperfections around the face. It works like a brush, so use the ] and [ keys to resize until it's slightly larger than the spot, then paint to remove it. It's the simplest of all the tools here, but it's automated nature means it occasionally slips up. 2 Clone tool This copies pixels from one place to another. Sample a clean area nearby by alt-clicking then paint to clone over any unwanted details. The tool is often best used at a low opacity around 20% for a more gradual change in tones. The Lighten Brush mode can also be effective when fixing details such as eye bags. 3 Patch tool Similar to the Healing…

Any photographer, whether professional, hobbyist, full time or part time, needs equipment they can rely on. Alongside his photography practice, Josh Edstedt also has a full-time job as a maintenance director for a skilled nursing rehab centre, meaning time is a precious entity and one Josh has to use efficiently. ‘It’s quite difficult to strike the balance between my work and my photography,’ he says. ‘I do look forward to turning that corner and going full time, but for now I just enjoy every shoot.’ Josh began shooting portraits as a way of unleashing his creativity, as he found he couldn’t achieve this with his landscapes or architectural photography. He loves the technical challenges that location portraiture brings; however logistically there are more things to consider and plan. He shoots…

Amateur Photographer UK Editor-in-chief Nigel Atherton Focus Netherlands Editor-in-chief Roos Schouw Focus Numérique France Editor-in-chief Renaud Labracherie Foto-Kurier Poland Editor-in-chief Krzysztof Patrycy Fotografi Norway Editor-in-chief Pål Otnes Fotomag Norway Editor-in-chief Toralf Sandåker FotoMagazin Germany Editor-in-chief Manfred Zollner FOTOobjektiv Austria Editor-in-chief Klaus Lorbeer Fotosidan Magasin Sweden Editor-in-chief Magnus Fröderberg FotoVideo Czech Editor-in-chief Rudolf Stáhlich FotoVideo Magazin Hungary Editor-in-chief Sándor Benkõ Kamera-lehti Finland Editor-in-chief Tarja Middleton PhotoNet Greece Editor-in-chief Konstantinos Floros Shutterbug USA Editor-in-chief Dan Havlik Smart Photography India Editor-in-chief Hoshang S. Billimoria Super Foto Digital Spain Editor-in-chief Jorge Coma Tutti Fotografi Italy Editor-in-chief Paolo Namias…

Andy Parslow I upgraded to an X-T2 from my X-T1 around two years ago. The jump in image quality and ISO capability was an instant improvement. I rarely use autofocus for my photography, but it is very quick and having such advanced tracking options available should you need them are great to have. My main interests are street architecture and family documentary photography, so I have built up a range of Fujifilm lenses and also some manual focus third-party lenses. When I use the latter, the X-T2's excellent focus peaking helps enormously. Another major plus is the dual card slot arrangement that serves as either a second backup, sequential storage or raw and JPEG separation. The film simulations for JPEGs are seriously good, and as a predominantly black & white…

If you’d like to see your words or pictures published in Amateur Photographer, here’s how: Something to say? Write to us at ap@ti-media.com with your letters, opinion columns (max 500 words) or article suggestions. Pictures Send us a link to your website or gallery, or attach a set of low-res sample images (up to a total of 5MB) to appicturedesk@ti-media.com. Join our online communities Post your pictures into our Flickr, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram communities or the gallery on our website.…

IT'S BEEN a year since the Cambridge Analytica scandal put a major dent in Facebook's reputation, and now its subsidiary company, Instagram, is embroiled in a row over one of its ‘vetted' advertising partners. The company in question, HYP3R, has been banned by Instagram after allegedly collecting (‘scraping') a large amount of data on users. US website Business Insider initially ran the story, claiming that it spoke to numerous former HYP3R employees as well as looking into its marketing materials. ‘Instagram's lax privacy practices let a trusted partner track millions of users' physical locations, secretly save their stories, and flout its rules,' thundered a recent headline. The data was reportedly scraped from Instagram Stories and posts from public location pages in order to track users. HYP3R even built a tool…

24 hours in the city Dave Fieldhouse decided on a 24-hour photoshoot. How did he solve the challenges? Sublime prime Michael Topham tests the Nikon 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR at Lord’s King of the North Amy Davies talks to Rory Lewis about his captivating ‘Northerners’ portraits Top tonal tools in Elements James Paterson explores the tools for boosting tones in Photoshop Elements…

THIS week we go back to 9 September, 2000. The cover feature, by the late Ivor Matanle, is a classic of its kind, delving into the history of Canon's rangefinder cameras. As he reveals, the company released 32 different models from 1945 to 1965, and a lot are still around today – they are of great interest to collectors. One big camera maker that is no longer around in its original form is Kodak, and Joel Lacey's review of the DCS480 is another reminder of how the big K just did too little, too late, when it came to digital. Evolve or go extinct, though JK Imaging still makes Kodak cameras under license. We also enjoyed an interview with TV satirist and theatre/opera director Dr Johnathan Miller on his interest…

Alan Schaller ‘There are certain things that can be enhanced in black & white, such as shape, structure, line and even human expression. I made it my mission to do something fresh – a modern twist on black & white photography. I started off emulating others but found my own direction once I had the skills.' Alexey Titarenko ‘For long exposures you need to work with a tripod. Shooting with a tripod in the street may get you into jail, even in New York (I have been threatened with arrest several times by the NYPD)… I developed strategies for keeping a low profile!' Marina Sersale ‘Be patient and keep your fingers crossed: if you wait long enough, something interesting is bound to happen. My second tip is to prepare yourself:…

Filters Church Ope Cove doesn’t need any specialist photographic equipment but a sturdy tripod and some filters from the LEE Filters ‘Stopper’ range will be very useful for capturing long exposures of waves swirling around the rocks. Assortment of lenses At low tide more rocks are uncovered and this allows for ample macro and close-up imagery to be achieved, so a macro lens may come in useful. This area isn’t a long lens location, so a 16-35mm or 24-70mm (full frame) will be ideal.…

1 Make two layers This high-end skin technique lets us create two versions of our image – a high-frequency version that contains all of the fine detail and texture, and a low-frequency version that holds colour and skin tone. Each can be retouched individually for natural results. First make two duplicate layers by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J twice. 2 Blur the details Name the top layer Detail then hide it. Name the one below Colour and Tone. We need to blur this layer to remove the fine detail. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to an amount that only just blurs the texture and detail in the skin. In this example here, 4.5 pixels works for us. 3 Use Apply Image Highlight and reveal the top layer then go to Image>Apply…

THE EXPERT Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) is a group of 55 special interest magazines and websites from 29 countries around the world, covering six subject areas: Hi-Fi, TV, photography, mobile, in-car and home theatre. Each member is renowned for its expertise and authority within its particular subject area, and for the rigour and integrity of its testing. As one of the organisation’s founding members, AP is an integral part of EISA’s Photo Panel. We work closely alongside 16 other magazines from Europe, India and the USA, all of which are among the most respected in their home countries. Each June we meet to discuss, debate and vote for the best products of the previous year across a range of categories. An absolute prerequisite is that all of the winners…