Innholdsfortegnelse for 18-Jan-2020 i Amateur Photographer

I love it when a picture stops me in my tracks and David Yarrow has done that to me a few times, so I’m delighted that we’ve tracked him down for an interview this week. You may recognise his group portrait with a wolf in a bar (page 28) – I chose it as my favourite image of 2018. Of course there’s little point in creating work as good as David’s, or any pictures that hold value to us, if they’re left in a cupboard. I have thousands of prints and negs from pre-digital days that are, quite literally, in cardboard boxes, and I’m fairly sure that you probably do too. It is one of my New Year’s resolutions to start digitising these, and this week John Wade presents a…

NIKON has updated its P900 bridge compact by releasing the P950. This latest superzoom inherits some of the features we've seen previously on the Nikon P1000, but holds onto the 83x optical zoom (f/2.8-6.5) covering a focal length range of 24-200mm found on its predecessor. At its heart lies a 1/2.3in 16-million-pixel CMOS sensor offering an ISO range of 100-6400 that works with Nikon's dual detect optical vibration reduction system. Welcome additions include 4K 30p video (Full HD at up to 60p) and the option to shoot still images in the raw (NRW) format for greater control during post processing. Its 3.2in, 921k-dot vari-angle screen is larger as is its new 0.39in 2,360k-dot OLED electronic viewfinder. Another welcome addition is a hotshoe for attaching accessories such as speedlites, a microphone…

As someone who spent years with a fairly intense hatred of the period between about October and February, it feels strange to be writing this – but as a photographer, I love winter. There seems to be a school of thought pervading photography that the quality of your output is directly related to the amount of pain and suffering you went through to get it. Although I make my living through photography, it's also supposed to be my hobby. Presumably as a reader of this magazine, it's yours, too. Yet, how often are we encouraged to get up at an ungodly hour, lug vast bags of back-breaking equipment to remote locations in all manner of weather and above all else, ensure we don't get a photograph that comes anywhere close…

HOW FAR back do your archives go? If photography has been in your family for generations, you might find the odd daguerreotype or ambrotype lurking at the back of a cupboard. Before the days of digital both were notoriously difficult to copy. Ambrotypes were made on glass and so are fairly reflective. Daguerreotypes are worse, made on silver-plated copper with an almost mirror-like surface. Using a camera to shoot a copy of one of these it's easy to end up with reflections of nearby objects, bright spots around the room, or even your camera lens in the image. What old-time photographers could never have envisioned, however, was digital technology. Both daguerreotypes and ambrotypes can be copied using a flatbed scanner in the usual way. Scans of daguerreotypes in particular, however,…

Sensor 20.9-million-pixel full-frame CMOS sensor Output size 5568x3712 pixels Focal length mag 1.5x Lens mount Nikon Z-mount External mic Yes, 3.5mm stereo Shutter Speeds 30-1/4,000sec, bulb ISO 100-51,200 (expandable to 204,800) Exposure comp +/-5 EV in 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments Drive Mode 11fps (4fps in low-speed continuous) Video 4K (30/25/24p), Full HD (120/100/60/50/30/25/24p) Viewfinder 0.39in, 2,360k-dot OLED EVF Display 3.2in, 1,040k-dot tilting touchscreen Memory Card SD (single slot) Power EN-EL25 Li-ion battery (300 shots) Dimensions 126.5x93.5x60mm Weight 450g with battery and card…

Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details Fujifilm offers high-resolution models in the APS-C market, with the X-T30 sharing the same 26.1-million-pixel X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor as the X-T3. Though the Nikon Z 50's chip can't quite match its closest rival in terms of the fine level of detail it resolves, the 20.9-million-pixel APS-C CMOS sensor it uses is not to be sniffed at. As we discovered when we tested the D500 and D7500, which use a version of the same sensor without on-chip phase-detection pixels, users can push up to ISO 12,800 before noise starts to severely degrade image quality. Resolution The Z 50 resolved as much detail from our resolution charts as we could realistically expect from…

Spirit levels Two bubble levels are included to help align your camera, one on the quick release clamp and the other on the central ‘spider’. Quick release The removable ball-head uses an Arca-Swiss type release clamp, and comes with a 3cm-wide blue aluminium camera plate. Weight hook A small retracting hook on the end of the centre column can be used to hang a bag for increased stability. Carry bag The tripod is supplied with a lightweight nylon drawstring carry bag. • £140 • www.benroeu.com BACK in 2017 Benro introduced its lightweight Slim tripod, which cost just £79 in its aluminium form and £120 with carbon-fibre legs. We rather liked it for its uncomplicated, budget-friendly approach, and now the firm has introduced a taller variant, aptly named the Slim Tall.…

Sleeping on the Job by Express THIS amusing picture from January 1965 shows the legendary news photographer Terry Fincher taking a nap in the offices of the Daily Express and Evening Standard. Note his clever use of a stack of newspapers as a pillow, but the smile on his face perhaps suggests all is not as it seems. To date, Fincher still holds the record for the number of times he won British Press Photographer of the Year, taking home the prize in 1957, 1959, 1964 and 1967. He was also a runner-up in 1968. During the 1950s and 1960s, he photographed every major war, including five tours of Vietnam. Those who knew him described his quick-thinking, competitive spirit and foresight, which kept him ahead of his game. The Getty…

EXHIBITION Tim Walker: Wonderful Things - Runs until 8 March 2020 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Tickets cost £15. Daily opening hours 10.00-17.45, until 22.00 on Fridays. Vam.ac.uk Tim Walker is widely thought of as one of the world's most inventive photographers, and a visit to this exhibition is to be lost inside Tim's fantastical imagination. The exhibition celebrates his contribution to photography over the past 25 years, with the heart of the exhibition featuring ten new photographic projects which have been directly inspired and influenced by treasures in the V&A's vast collection. To prepare for the exhibition, Tim visited object stores and conservation studios, met with many of the museum's curators, conservators and technicians and scoured the museum's 145 public galleries. On top of all that he…

Fighting wildlife crime Keith Wilson tells us how a new photo book is making a big difference Prints charming Our guide will help ensure that what you see on screen is what you get in print Sony Alpha 6600 Andy Westlake gives Sony’s flagship APS-C mirrorless model a full test…

Tripod One enabling you to extend the camera above the subject or that allows mounting and operation of the camera beneath the legs under which you can put a print or slide on a lightbox. Lightbox or similar Find old-fashioned types on eBay, find modern equivalents on Amazon. Spirit level Small versions can be found in do-it-yourself stores, used to keep the camera level and parallel with the print or slide being copied. Fine-hair brush The type used for cleaning lenses is also useful for removing dust and hairs from negatives and slides before digitising. Flatbed scanner Perfect for digitising colour or b&w prints of all sizes, be they small old-time snaps or 10x8in or A4 prints. A scanner with a scanning hood is useful for slides or negs from…

1 Gather your old photos and sort them into categories: family and its different generations, forgotten holidays, creative pictures you shot for camera club contests years ago, pets, kids, cars, days out, etc. 2 Sort them into years, people, places or any other category that is appropriate to your particular hoard of memories. 3 Separate pictures of good enough quality to be digitised straight from those which are going to need some manipulation to get back contrast, counteract fading, repair damage and other minor faults. 4 Decide on your digitising method: camera with macro lens or scanner. 5 If you have a choice of scanning a print or a neg, go for the negative – there's likely to be more detail in it. 6 Use a scanner whose software incorporates…

1986 THE POOR model on the cover of this week's issue was clearly so excited about showing off her new SLR necklace that she completely forgot to put on her bra. Inside, a reader describes how the barn next to his new house makes a great studio for photographing local girls who, coincidentally, had also forgotten their bras. Well it was the '80s. The main feature was a guide to bagging a bargain in the sales – illustrated by a wholly unconvincing picture of a shady-looking teenage boy in Raybans pulling a vintage folding bellows camera out of his inside pocket in front of a movie poster for ‘Sex in Sweden'. All very odd. For really lazy readers, the ‘Motor Drive' feature was a guide to street photography without getting…

All camera manufacturers provide software with their cameras, and for those photographers who eschew third-party software such as Adobe Lightroom or DXO PhotoLab, or don’t have the latest versions, it’s essential for processing the raw files and getting images just as you want them. Canon supplies a collection of software packages with its EOS and PowerShot cameras but Digital Photo Professional 4 (DPP4) is the image editor and this gives you lots of control over images, even enabling customised black & white conversions. Here’s a taste of how it works. GETTING STARTED The first time that you open DPP, you won't see any images, you need to select a folder of images first. To do this, simply click on the arrows next to the storage drives and folders shown in…

1 Fujifilm X-T2 My camera of choice. It’s light and produces amazing detail. Average used price £550 2 FXF 10-24mm lens The first lens I bought when I switched to Fujifilm in 2016. Average used price £575 3 XF 16-55mm f/2.8 My most used lens. It’s nice and wide with a good reach too, Average used price £599 4 XF 50-140mm f/2 Longer-reach lens for those tighter compositions. Average used price £850 5 GoPro HERO7 Black For my blogging work and just generally a fun camera to have. Average used price £220 6 Formatt Hitech 100mm Aluminium filter holder Takes the 100mnm wide glass type filters. I’ve used this for years. It is big and chunky, so great when wearing gloves. 7 Formatt-Hitech…

Harold Feinstein was 15 when he first picked up a camera. The youngest of five children, he lived with his Jewish immigrant parents in Coney Island, New York. One day, the boy borrowed a Rolleiflex camera from a neighbour and began taking photographs on the beaches and boardwalks of his native Coney Island. Over the next few years he would spend hours stalking the sand and piers of South Brooklyn searching for subjects. Feinstein had a talent for homing in on the small dramas and narratives of everyday life. Every image he took, all of which featured careful framing and striking yet relatable characters, seemed to suggest some story that sat within the cultivated world of the composition. He moved comfortably between visual languages: some images straddle the border of…

THE ROYAL Horticultural Society's Garden Photographer of the Year competition is one of the biggest and most inclusive of the photographic year, but you only have until 31 January to enter. Professionals and amateurs can enter their work across nine different categories including Urban Gardening and Welcoming Garden Wildlife, so there is much more to it than close-ups of tulips. Last year, overall adult winner Richard Caldwell triumphed with an aerial photograph of a meticulously organised community garden in Laguna Woods, LA, (right). At the other end of the scale, the overall winner in the under 18's category, Jake Kneale, won with an ethereal image of a spider's web. ‘January is the perfect time of year to get outside and capture atmospheric and beautiful photographs,' says Chris Young, chair of…

THE D780 is a blend of what we liked about the D750, with innards adopted from the Nikon Z 6 and a few other improvements added for good measure. Having spent some time with it during a press briefing, we can confirm its focusing in live view performs exactly as it does on the Z 6, while out of live view it behaves and focuses just like the D750. For Nikon users who've invested heavily in F-mount lenses, aren't ready to commit to mirrorless, but need a new, reliable and very capable workhorse, the D780 should fit the bill nicely. The improvements to focusing in live view, the addition of touchscreen control and option to charge the battery in-camera address the criticisms we made when we reviewed the D750 in…

#appicoftheweek Cobbled Lane by Tony Tooth Nikon D600, 105mm, 1/250sec at f/9, ISO 160 ‘I SPECIFICALLY went out to take photos of St Edward's church, the churchyard, and Brough Park, Leek, while it was still very foggy, but with the sun starting to break through. This is Church Lane and I just had time to take the shot opportunistically as the people walked over the brow,' says Tony, who uploaded this image to our Flickr page using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. Tony is retired and lives in Leek, Staffordshire, where he likes to spend his time taking photos and playing the guitar. See more of his images at Flickr at www.flickr.com/ photos/tonytooth. Picked by Nigel Atherton, Editor, as our #appicoftheweek Win!  Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram,…

Bowens Illumitran In the days before digital, the Bowens Illumitran was king of the slide copiers. Back then they cost around £300, the equivalent today of more like £900. Right now you can pick one up on eBay for £50-60. They make a fast way to digitise old slides of any size from 35mm up to 6x7cm. Fitting a DSLR Though made to accept 35mm SLRs, the Illumitran can be equipped with a DSLR like this Nikon D70. It fits to the top of the Illumitran bellows via a T-mount. An old enlarger lens is fitted to the bellows and the Illumitran's flash sync cable is attached to the camera. Toggle switch With a slide placed on the carrier that sits on a ground-glass screen, the Illumitran is powered up…

When did you start photography? I don’t actually remember taking my first proper photograph. But my dad has a video of it. He was making a video at a music festival (that I was presenting) and because we had media passes my dad sent me into the press pit to photograph a couple of bands. It was for a jokey bit of the video. But I must have really enjoyed it, because for the next couple of summers I ended up shooting bands whenever dad was making a video at a festival. What draws you towards the kind of photography that you do? My real love is street photography because it tells a story, and it’s about people and a moment frozen in time. What really interests me is people…

SO FAR Nikon has released two DX-format Z-mount zooms for the Z 50. The NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR is a compact retracting zoom that adds very little weight (135g) to the camera and is equivalent to 24-75mm in 35mm terms. Its Vibration Reduction is effective to 4.5 stops, it has a minimum focus distance of just 20cm and it accepts filters and adapters of the 46mm variety. The second zoom – the NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR – has also been made small and light (405g). It covers a 35mm equivalent range of 75mm-375mm and has a silent control ring and plastic lens mount just like the 16-50mm zoom. Its Vibration Reduction system is effective to five stops, with filters and adapters being attached via a 62mm…

One of the terms that is bandied about these days is ‘colour science.' In the way it's used, it's somewhat meaningless, but reflects the fact that many people find the details of colour reproduction hard to understand. In the same way that ‘rocket science' is used as a term to denote very difficult technologies that are hard to comprehend, the addition of ‘science' to the term ‘colour' is used to indicate that this is not a field that is simple. The comparison ends there, since the science of rockets is in general a reasonably straightforward application of thermal dynamics and Newtonian physics. It is the engineering and detail that is tricky, not the basic principles. In the case of colour, it is misconceptions around the fundamentals that make the matter…