Innholdsfortegnelse for 11-Jan-2020 i Amateur Photographer

This week we return to a subject that resonates with many readers: mental health, and the role that photography can play in helping people overcome, or at least manage, a range of issues including stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD. We talk to two photographers who share their journey with us and offer a few tips that may help others in a similar situation. We also reveal our verdict on the new Olympus E-M5 Mark III, compare portable hard drives, and present the first of a new series on using your camera with dedicated smartphone apps. Peter Dench interviews award-winning documentary photographer Tom Oldham, and Tesni Ward goes in search of water voles. If you don’t already subscribe, find out how to save money on page 54. Nigel Atherton, Editor Contribute…

AN 1875 photograph, believed to be the earliest family snap taken at Stonehenge, features in a new exhibition at the ancient site chronicling 150 years of public visits. The image was shared by the descendants of Isabel, Maud and Robert Routh, who are shown in a horse and carriage enjoying a day out at the stone circle. The wider exhibition, organised by English Heritage, is called Your Stonehenge and includes 148 curated images which span three centuries, many from the general public. The images tell the story of ‘Stonehenge as a backdrop for romance, poignant moments and enduring family memories,' according to English Heritage. Martin Parr was involved in selecting the final 148 images on display, and took one of a couple kissing as they took a selfie. He is…

I was recently ‘deepfaked' for an episode of The Gadget Show. For those unfamiliar with the term, it's derived from ‘deep-learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), and ‘fake. The AI is used to take a person in a photograph or video and replace them with someone else's likeness. Nobody was really convinced by our concoction, where my face was superimposed on the body of a talented guitarist in an attempt to prove that I could play the instrument. However there are very real fears that deepfakes of politicians and others could add another dimension to the credibility of fake news, implicate the innocent in pornography scandals, or subject the vulnerable to internet scams by emulating a trusted individual, to name but a few undesirable scenarios. Less worrying but a…

Setting achievable goals ‘I started taking pictures of the animals in my garden from my kitchen window. If you have a garden, start there.' Macro photography ‘Taking pictures of snails and insects gave me time out from the almost incessant chatter going on in my head. To get the shots right, at least to my satisfaction, I had to be fully present in the moment.' Keeping fit ‘Aside from the obvious benefits to my health, keeping fit means I can tolerate extremes of weather and tiredness too.' Being mindful ‘Let go of what has gone before, and live in the here and now. Make the most of the day you're in, and try not to worry about tomorrow, because our tomorrows are not shaped. Today we can do something with.'…

I was rather taken aback by the deeply reactionary, kneejerk conservatism that was expressed in two Viewpoint articles, by editor Nigel Atherton (AP 9 November) and deputy editor Geoff Harris (AP 23 November). Atherton was scathing about ‘art photography', in which it was ‘no longer necessary to know how to use a camera creatively [...] If you can somehow find a way to reference topics such as ‘gender identity' or ‘white male privilege', Atherton said, ‘you'll have the art world fighting over you', provided, of course you ‘do NOT attempt to make your work aesthetically pleasing through the use of composition or lighting'. Harris's column expanded on this allegedly fixed body of classical knowledge, apparently discarded by Atherton's ‘Guardian art critic types', likening photography to learning to play guitar, in…

1 Calibrate your monitor Without calibating your monitor, you run the risk that your printed image will not have the same appearance as it did on screen, which in some cases may ruin the resulting print. 2 Watch the edges When editing your photographs, think about the edges of the image. Use the crop tool to ensure that you do not include any distracting elements and that you keep the composition balanced too. 3 What to print on The choice is huge, from more traditional paper to materials such as canvas, aluminium and acrylic. If you are able to, experiment with different types so that you can see which ones you prefer. Often, certain types of image will suit a particular surface. Additionally, different surfaces may require…

1 Search and download for free Download the Sony Imaging Edge app from the Google Play or iOS App Store on your smartphone or tablet. On your phone make sure that you have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on. 2 Connection settings With the app installed, open the connection settings on your compatible Sony camera. The location may vary depending on camera, but on the A7 III it can be found at Network1 > Ctrl w/Smartphone. 3 Wi-Fi signal On the Ctrl w/Smartphone screen select Connection, which will open the connection screen and start emitting a Wi-Fi signal from the camera. 4 Pairing On the Sony Imaging Edge app you should now select your connection method. For NFC select Scan NFC on the camera on the app and just touch…

The majority of water voles in the UK are a uniform brown colour. However, there are some populations with black fur. This makes them slightly easier to expose for and photograph but backlighting is quite challenging due to the contrast with their surroundings. I recommend opting for a bright but overcast day as this will help to balance the scene's contrast, making it much easier to capture an aesthetically pleasing image. Use a single autofocus point and try to focus this on the eye whenever possible or on the cheek - this is even more imperative when your subject is partially hidden from view. Water voles can live in very clustered habitats so you may find yourself shooting through vegetation which is why I opt for shooting with my aperture…

Josh's love of photography began about four years ago when he joined his dad on trips photographing wildlife in the Peak District. In 2016, Josh was officially diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, but has noticed that when out with his camera his physical and verbal tics are significantly reduced. He says, ‘Photography is almost like a therapy for me.' He is passionate about wildlife and nature, and won the 2017 RSPCA young photographer award. He'd love to follow a career in photography – seeing more of the world doing something he loves.…

It's now almost eight years since Olympus introduced the original OM-D E-M5, and with it, the concept of a small, fully featured and weather-sealed mirrorless camera aimed squarely at enthusiasts. But while its successor, the Mark II, brought a slew of updates and improvements in 2015, the market has moved on considerably since. Other firms have introduced multiple models with progressive advances in features and image quality, so the latest iteration feels long overdue. On the whole, the Mark III retains the core characteristics that have made the E-M5 range so appealing. Its petite body measures just 125x85x50mm yet finds space for an extensive complement of external controls, along with Olympus's class-leading 5-axis in-body image stabilisation. The main update is the addition of a 20MP sensor borrowed from the flagship…

Elephant and Castle by Bert Hardy TAKEN by Hulton legend Bert Hardy, this intriguing image was originally published as part of the ‘Life at the Elephant' story in a 1949 issue of the Picture Post. The name of this area of London derives from a coaching inn – the earliest official record of the name comes from 1765. It also gets a mention in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night from around 1601 when the character Antonio says ‘in the south suburbs, at the Elephant, is best to lodge'. The inn site, presently the Elephant and Castle pub, is found at the junction of New Kent Road and Newington Causeway and was part of the extensive 1960s redevelopment of the area. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural…

WHILE Twitter remains a very popular social media platform for photographers, along with Instagram and to a lesser extent Facebook, the amount of compression it applies to JPEGs uploaded by members is less popular. The company has now announced it will preserve JPEGs as they are encoded for upload on Twitter with immediate effect – although with a couple of caveats. First, there will still be limits to file size and resolution, but these are ‘very generous', according to Twitter engineer, Nolan O' Brien (who, appropriately, announced the news on his Twitter feed). ‘Pretty much any 8 megapixel photo will be preserved and even up to 16 megapixels can be preserved (in square aspect ratio),' he explained. Second, the EXIF data on your uploaded images will not be preserved. O'Brien…

Constant experimentation To avoid becoming overly self-critical Matt tries to experiment with different approaches to macro photography – his Belle Âme series is a case in point. Joining online forums When Matt didn't feel able to socialise, he connected with fellow photographers via online forums. ‘It allowed me to speak with people without actually meeting them.' Finding a way to contribute Matt regularly visits schools, sharing his passion for wildlife and the environment via his macro classroom sessions. Later this year he will also be embarking on a series of BioBlitzes in school grounds. Gaining some perspective ‘If you're having a bad day it's just a bad day, not a bad rest of your life,' assures Matt. ‘You can't always change what's going on around you, but you can change…

1990 IT SEEMS that photographers have always needed something to worry about; in 1990 it was airport X-ray machines. So AP took a bag of exposed films of various types and ISO speeds to Heathrow and subjected them to multiple passes through the machines in front of Austin Mitchell MP, two Fleet Street 'togs, and members of Heathrow's Security and PR teams. The verdict? X-ray machines were totally safe, even for high ISO films – at Heathrow Airport, at least. AP also announced its Salesperson of the Year Award in which Nina Bailey of Park Cameras won a Ford Sierra Sapphire. Nina is still a well-respected industry figure, writing camera guides (see page 21) and doing workshops. The cherry on the cake was an interview with fine art photography legend…

WhiteWall's Jan-Ole Schmidt says, ‘Oscar Dewhurst must have been very patient to capture this one-of-a-kind shot of a bleating deer during a misty sunrise. To make sure the image is presented perfectly, WhiteWall offers more than 1,000 product variations. This can be a little overwhelming, but I would recommend matte or glossy acrylic glass mounting, depending on what effect you want to create. Our Original Photo Print Under Glossy Acrylic Glass is a great choice for intensifying the image's contrasts. If you're more interested in putting the focus on the mild colours and emphasising the fog, the Original Photo Print Under Matte Acrylic Glass would be the ideal option. With acrylic glass mounting, you can really underline the scenic atmosphere. ‘In both cases, my recommendation would be that adding WhiteWall's…

ALONGSIDE the Imaging Edge Mobile app is a companion application called Transfer and Tag. The app is primarily designed for professional photographers needing to add titles, keywords and other information to images and then send them quickly to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server. However, it can also be useful for those wanting to back up important images to their own server back home whilst they are travelling. Currently the Sony A9, A9II, A7 III, A7R III and A7R IV can be used with the Transfer and Tag app. For more details on the app see support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/transfer/en/ instruction/index.php.…

Water voles are easiest to find and photograph during the breeding season when they develop territories. Search along waterways and lakes and look for telltale signs including holes at multiple levels, Tic-Tac sized brown droppings, food rafts, worn-down banks and chewed vegetation. ● Location Rivers and wetlands across the UK ● Size 150-300g, up to 230mm long with the tail averaging half the size ● Nest Burrows along the waterways with extensive tunnels ● Diet Almost all vegetation including fruits and bulbs ● UK population Between 600,000 and 900,000 in the UK…

The Reader Portfolio winner chosen every week will receive a copy of Skylum Luminar 4, worth £81. 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…

Sensor 20.4MP CMOS, 17.3 x 13mm Output size 5184 x 3888 Lens mount Micro Four Thirds Shutter speeds 60-1/8000sec (mechanical), 60-1/32,000 (electronic) Sensitivity ISO 200-6400 (standard), ISO 64-25,600 (extended) Exposure modes PASM, Auto, Bulb, Scene, Movie Metering Pattern, average, spot, highlight, shadow Exposure comp +/- 5 EV in 0.3 EV steps Cont shooting 30fps; 10fps with C-AF Screen 3in, 1.04m-dot touchscreen Viewfinder 2.36m-dot OLED. 0.67x mag. AF points 121 cross-type phase detection Video C4K (4096 x 2160) 24p, 237Mbps External mic 3.5mm stereo Memory card SD, SDHC, SDXC; UHS-II Power BLS-50 rechargeable Li-Ion Battery life 310 shots Dimensions 125.3 x 85.2 x 49.7mm Weight 414g…

IT CAN be tempting to think of Olympus's E-M5 line as being all about nostalgia, given the retro styling. But the Mark III offers plenty of substance too, with a lovely tactile design and photographer-friendly control setup. Olympus has always been at its best when making small, fully featured cameras, and the E-M5 III is a fine example. It retains the best features of its predecessors – compact size, light weight, weather-sealed build and superb image stabilisation – while improving the image quality and handling, and dramatically increasing the autofocus and shooting speed. The only thing missing is a metal body shell. As always with Micro Four Thirds, you have to accept that the smaller sensor brings increased high-ISO image noise and a reduced potential for blurring backgrounds. But in…

● www.thetileapp.com ● £64.99 Slim This credit-card-sized Tile is just 2.4mm thick, and uses a non-replaceable battery that should last three years. Mate Intended for tagging items such as keys or bags, this is 35mm square, 6.2mm thick, and uses a replaceable CR1632 battery. Tile app The app is neatly and intuitively laid out. Each of your Tiles can be given a custom name and image, and phones or tablets with the app installed also show up as Tiles. Sticker Waterproof and with an adhesive base for sticking to valuables such as cameras, this is 27mm in diameter, 7.3mm thick, and has a three-year battery. IF YOU got a shiny new camera for Christmas, the last thing you'll want is to lose it. So a stick-on finding device from a…

FOR THOSE photographers who can never get shallow enough depth of field, Leica has announced the Summilux-M 90 f/1.5 ASPH for its M-system rangefinder cameras. This ultra-fast short-telephoto prime employs 8 elements in 6 groups, two of which are aspherical in profile and crafted from specialised glass. According to Leica, this delivers high contrast and fine detail even at maximum aperture, while minimising vignetting and distortion. The minimum focus is 1 metre, and a floating element is employed to maintain image quality over the full distance range. With a specialist portrait lens of this type, the out-of-focus rendition is just as important as in-focus sharpness, and Leica is accordingly promising ‘stunningly beautiful' bokeh. Physically the lens is a sizeable beast, measuring 74mm in diameter and 91mm in length, and tipping…

EXHIBITION Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan Runs until 2 February 2020 at University of Cambridge, Cambridge. Free. CURATED by Dr Devika Singh, Curator of International Art at the Tate Modern, this exhibition features the work of 11 contemporary artists. As well as photography, it also includes paintings, drawings, video and installation. A highlight of the exhibition is a new photographic project by Munem Wasif, entitled Spring Song (2019). This work records objects that Rohingya people brought with them to Bangladesh when forced into exile by Myanmar's military dictatorship. Another set of images taken by Sohrab Hura is taken from the ongoing series Snow (2014-present), which were created over a course of several prolonged trips to the contested region of Kashmir. The other works – photographic or otherwise –…

PDF manuals I was considering the new Canon 90D but I have learned that the instruction book that came with the camera is, to say the least, inadequate. Apparently this now common practice with manufacturers and the reason they give is environmental. I can download a PDF file from Canon for free but it is some 600 pages. I did try to do this but it would not download, so the only solution would be to read the instruction book online, which I feel is unacceptable. I would be interested in AP's viewpoint. Peter Richardson I suspect the reason for the lack of a manual is more about cost saving than the environment, but one advantage of a PDF version is that you can download it to your smartphone. This…

1 Reduce exposure I shot in aperture priority and my camera's metering made the image too bright. I dropped the exposure down by using curves to recreate the look the scene had at the time of capture, where the deer and tree were silhouetted. 2 Tweak colour The image had a slightly green tinge, so I increased the tint slider in Lightroom to +20. I was happy with the colour temperature as shot, which was 5,350K. 3 Localised adjustments I then used Lightroom's adjustment brush to increase the exposure and shadows slightly in the long grass in the foreground. It was only a fairly moderate change that would be just enough to retain some detail there. 4 Sharpening up I tend to sharpen images that I'm going to print, more…

With its 20MP Four Thirds sensor, the E-M5 Mark III inevitably lags behind its APS-C peers for high-ISO noise, while also being clearly surpassed by the latest 26.2MP and 32.5MP models from Fujifilm and Canon in terms of resolution. However this has to be placed in context: it can still record easily enough detail to make a fine A3+ print, and gives decent results up to ISO 3200. So unless you regularly make larger prints, shoot frequently in very low light or regularly do a lot of post-processing, it may well do the job just fine. Resolution In our tests using the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro at f/4, the E-M5 III resolves around 3600 l/ph at low ISOs, which is about as much as we’d expect from its 20MP sensor.…