Innholdsfortegnelse for 07-Dec-2019 i Amateur Photographer

THIS fantastic image taken by Coltrane Koh has been named as the overall Fujiholics of the Year winner for 2019. The winners were announced in October at HipFest in Hull, and Koh saw off stiff competition from a host of other excellent shortlisted and highly commended photographs. Koh was awarded a Fujifilm X-T3 camera, plus XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS lens, along with a Manfrotto BeFree Carbon Tripod and had his image printed and framed by Digitalab. Koh says: ‘The image was taken during a private Napoleonic event in the Royal Casino in Bagni Di Lucca, Italy, where the models were the paying guests… I gave them the opportunity to act out their own actions and expressions.' To see more, visit fujiholics.com.…

Deck the walls Based in Sweden, Photowall produces custom wallpaper, canvas prints and posters. You can select a design from the site (I particularly like the Dawn to Dusk collection by photographer Isabella Ståhl, seen here) or upload an image and print your own mural or wallpaper. Help is at hand to check image resolution before you order, and the Photowall team will even carry out basic editing on request (although there is a fee for this service). Photowall, www.photowall.co.uk,custom wallpaper from £26 per sqm Become a minimalist Printed on deliciously tactile Mohawk Superfine paper, your precious photographs are sure to look the business with this photo book from Papier. The aim here is to keep things uncluttered and simple, so unearth your inner calm and allow plenty of white…

When it comes to shooting portraits on location then you’ll be pushed to find someone more capable than photographer James Paterson. His photographic style is edgy and unique, and his ability to make the most of natural light mixed with artificial is where his skills shine. To accompany James on the shoot was Georgie Cranfield, a young aspiring model from Dartmouth in Devon. Georgie was perfect for this type of set-up as she has a great urban and youthful street look. Her outfit choices also fitted well with James’ brief and the urban setting (Dean Lane skatepark in Bristol). James had discussed with Georgie prior to the day all of these aspects, and hair and make-up were also considered and provided by Georgie. On the photoshoot James had two AEOS…

For an edgy look try playing around with the white balance setting on the light as well as your camera. For this shot James turned the light down to 3150K. He then set his camera's WB setting to the same temperature, which compensated with a blue colour cast. For this type of creative set-up it's a case of experimenting and seeing what works best. Warm temperature The final image has been shot with the WB set to a custom balance at 3150K. The cool blue tone gives the image an edgy feel and enhances the shadows. Daylight white balance On the daylight WB setting (5600K), the result is neutral. A neutral colour temperature is considered to be sunlight at noon.…

When was the club founded? The club was founded in January 2014. What does your club offer to new members? A pint. As well as enthusiasm, encouragement, advice and inspiration. Describe a typical club meeting. First of all, we are not your typical camera club. We have no speakers, presentations, competitions, outings, secretaries, committees or membership fees. There are plenty of clubs around that offer all this, but we prefer to be a relaxed and informal place where people can talk about and share their love of photography, supporting and encouraging each other's work. We meet at 8pm once a month in the pub. It's all rather unstructured with different groups holding their own conversations or showing each other their latest work. Some people have a drink and something to…

The Lumix G80 arrived in 2016 and on first sight appeared to be virtually identical to the Lumix G7 from 2015. Though its styling and ergonomics were little different, the G80 was a big step from the G7 and inherited a lot of its innards from the smaller Lumix GX80. Behind its Micro Four Thirds mount lies a 16MP sensor that's mounted onto a 5-axis in-body image stabilisation system. This provides up to five stops of compensation and works with any lens that's paired. A magnesium alloy front plate and weather-sealed panels provide excellent robustness, while at the rear you get a 2.36-million-dot OLED EVF positioned above a fully articulated 3in, 1,040k-dot touchscreen. It can shoot continuously at 9fps with fixed focus (6fps with AF-C) and will satisfy most amateur…

Hähnel ProCube 2 • www.hahnel.ie • £69.99 ALMOST invariably, cameras are only supplied with the ability to charge a single battery, meaning it's not easy to replenish two at the end of an intensive shoot. For this, life is made much easier by a dual charger such as this Hähnel ProCube 2. Versions are available for all of the main camera brands, each supplied with several easily interchangeable battery plates to cover a wide range of cameras. You also get a plate for charging four AA batteries which fixes magnetically onto the top of the unit, a 2.4A USB charging output, a useful LCD display and interchangeable UK, EU and US plugs. It's a well-made and uniquely versatile piece of kit. Andy Westlake, originally reviewed 24 February 2018 Tenba…

Blackout by Walter Bellamy THIS picture, taken on Oxford Street in London during the blackout of December 1939, is quite an extraordinary thing to behold. Of course we're used to seeing light trails as a common photographic subject now, but this image gives you further clues as to what it must have been like to live and work in London during the Second World War. While the stronger, uniform light trails are not too far off what you'd achieve today, the wiggly lines show the passage of pedestrians on the pavement, holding torches. Then again, with the proliferation of bright-screened smartphones, perhaps this could be easily reproduced after all. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing its origins to the founding of the…

BOOK The Bodleian Library, £25, 160 pages, hardback, ISBN 1851245332 ★★★★★ There has been a glut of great documentary photography books this year and Now and Then by Daniel Meadows is a very worthy addition to the canon. Meadows has been an acclaimed documentary photographer since the 1970s and this fascinating new book covers the full range of his projects. The fact that the book is published by Oxford University's Bodleian Library (which also holds the Meadows archive) shows the esteem in which he is held by social historians as well his photographic peers. His goal is simple to describe, but encompasses a lifetime: to capture the social and geographic landscape of Great Britain, and how it's changed over the last 50 years. One of the most affecting, and widely…

Back to basics In the days of film, it was the ‘basic' cameras that were the ‘best' for creative work, and the preferred option of serious photographers. I used the Pentax MX and LX for years. Simple and effective. One really learns the ‘art'! One of your earlier articles discussed the problem of ever more expensive equipment, against the decline in their sales. To me, the idea of spending £3,000 on a ‘bells and whistles' camera to produce an image, and then spending hours on a computer to manipulate it seems crackers! Better to learn how to use a simple camera in the first place? Hugh Anderson Dedicated subscriber I have subscribed to AP, on and off, for two decades. Having a subscription sent to the US is an adventure,…

Alan Sugar, who became Sir Alan Sugar and is now Lord Sugar, has been one of the UK’s leading businessmen since the 1970s. Although he came from a working-class background, his budget consumer electronics company, Amstrad, made him a multi-millionaire. For ten years he was the chairman and part-owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Since 2005, he’s been best-known for his appearances in the popular BBC TV series The Apprentice. I first photographed him in 2001 for the business magazine Management Today. At that time, I was doing the portrait that went with the magazine’s main interview and on this occasion he was the subject. The shoot took place in a building in central London, overlooking Marble Arch. Sugar was doing some property developing and had bought the building, refurbished…

An email landed on my electronic doorstep. A quick peruse woke me from my morning malaise and a moment's paralysis almost made the Rich Tea stay in my mug too long (only almost, I hasten to add). It read ‘can you go to Japan within the month?' Blimey! Being brought up to be well-mannered, I thought I better had. The commission was to photograph and write about Eastern Hokkaido's National Parks in the summer. Hokkaido is the northernmost main island of Japan and wildlife photographers will be more aware of this area as a winter destination for red-crowned cranes and Steller's sea eagles, but as I found out it is a hidden gem all year round. After reading the brief, I could see this was more about capturing nature and…

James Marco I purchased my Lumix G80 about three years ago after trading in my Nikon D7100. My photography tends to revolve around early-morning landscapes, often when the opportunity arises during family holidays. With so much else to pack, reducing the size and weight of my kit bag was a key requirement. The image quality and dynamic range have always impressed me, particularly the quality of the electronic viewfinder and the ease of use of the rear touchscreen for composing the image and setting the focus point. One minor gripe is that when you zoom in and review images on the rear screen (for example to check focus or the presence of dust spots) if you subsequently hold the camera to your eye, the image resets to its original composition.…

Cameras Interchangeable-lens cameras come in two types: DSLRs with optical viewfinders, and mirrorless models with electronic viewing Controls Entry-level cameras tend to have simple, easy-to-understand controls, while more expensive models add lots of buttons and dials to give quick access to settings. Viewfinder The biggest difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is that the latter use electronic, rather than optical viewfinders. They’re more power hungry, but can display more information and show exactly how your pictures will turn out. Size and weight Mirrorless models tend to be smaller and lighter than DSLRs, and not just the cameras themselves, but their lens systems, too. However, there’s still a wider choice of lenses available for DSLRs. Handgrip DSLRs traditionally have relatively large handgrips, while many mirrorless models have much smaller grips to…

Top rock photographer dies Michael Putland, an influential music photographer who took many memorable images of Bowie, the Stones, Led Zeppelin and other giants, has died aged 72. ‘He was one of the true gentlemen in the often cut-and-thrust world of music photography,’ said Getty Images VP Matthew Butson. ‘Michael’s recent book, The Music I Saw, is a fitting testament to his craft over six decades.’ Nik Collection offers new film emulations Although the Nik Collection is no longer free, the software does get regular updates. The latest version, 2.3, features ten new black & white film emulations, including Adox Silver Max 21, Agfa Scala 200x, Bergger BRF 400 Plus, Foma 100, Fuji Neopan 400, Ilford Pan 100 and 400, Polaroid 667 and 672, and Rollei 100 Tonal. The upgrade…

HAVING announced its latest entry-level Micro Four Thirds mirrorless model in Japan in mid-October, Olympus has now decided to bring it to European markets, including the UK. The PEN E-PL10 is a flat-bodied, viewfinderless camera that, aside from its name badge, appears externally identical to its predecessor, the E-PL9. Close examination of its specifications reveals that very little has changed inside, either. This means that the E-PL10 is based around a 16.1MP Four Thirds sensor, coupled with the firm's TruePic VIII processor. Key features include in-body image stabilisation that works with any lens and promises up to 3.5 stops compensation for hand shake, along with continuous shooting at up to 8.6 frames per second. The LCD touchscreen can tilt both upwards for waist-level shooting, and down to face forwards beneath…

BOOK English Journey By JD Angerson B&W Studio, £35, 138 pages, hardback, ISBN 978-1-5272-3023-1 A HUGE fan of JB Priestley, the novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator, JD Angerson's newest book takes his lead from Priestley's 1934 book of the same name. Priestley's version is an account of his travels around England. A straightforward homage to the original work, Angerson's version retraces those steps some 85 years on, but at a time when a reasonably similar economic downturn was also being experienced. Not only are the photographs in this book excellent examples of documentary photography, but the book itself is also wonderfully crafted. I particularly liked the section on ephemera, picked up at charity shops during the journey. You can read about the project and the resulting book on…

#appicoftheweek Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm by Edd Allen Nikon D810, 18mm, 0.3sec at f/7.1, ISO 200 This photo was uploaded to our Twitter page by photographer Edd Allen using the Hashtag #appicoftheweek. He tells us, ‘I have passed by Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm many times before, but finally managed pay a visit on a recent outing. With sunset fast approaching I rushed into place to catch the light as it illuminated the turbines. I placed my camera next to a river and used the reeds to help compose my shot. I used a polariser and graduated filters to control the light and slow the shutter speed.' Picked by Tracy Calder as our #appicoftheweek Win!  Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter or the…

Vincent Yi, Environment & Energy These magnificent ‘supertrees' in Singapore are fitted with photo-voltaic cells which allow them to mimic the ecological function of real trees. They are a true work of art. Halu Chow, Structure This is a dome-shaped ceiling of a railway station, where a heart is shown when you stand in the right position. Halu has created a simple but graphically effective image. Supriya Biswas, Environment & Energy A mother is sharing her wisdom with her little girl, who is blind, with the help of solar power. A beautiful image that shows the power of technology to change people's lives. Patricia Soon Mei Yung Structure ‘Architectural technology at its best in the construction of the beautiful city of Shanghai,' says Patricia. We love this stunning long exposure…

It can take a long time to achieve what you consider to be perfection. I spoke to John Angerson about his interesting project, ‘English Journey' at the inaugural Photo North in November 2018. Keen to ensure that the resulting book of the project was the best it could be, it was the good part of a year before it hit the shelves and I was able to return to the record of our chat. English Journey by JD Angerson retraces the steps of the 1934 travelogue of the same name by the English novelist and social commentator, JB Priestley. In the original, the country was gripped by the effects of The Great Depression. It goes without saying how much of a similarly tumultuous period the last few years have been.…

To ensure Georgie was looking her best James positioned the light slightly higher than her eye level. The main reason for this was to accentuate her cheekbones and create more flattering results. When working outdoors in daylight your lights are going to be less powerful than at night or in a dark studio space. For this reason you'll want to concentrate more on close-up portraits rather than wideangle (these are still possible but require more considered light positioning).…