Innholdsfortegnelse for 01-Feb-2020 i Amateur Photographer

Competitions are a great way to get your images noticed quickly, and there has never been such a wide range to enter. Famous pros have gone on to build successful careers on competition success, a great example being Marsel van Oosten. This issue we highlight 20 of the best contests, along with some insider tips for doing well – if you do get shortlisted let us know. We also present an in-depth investigation on how to monetise old photos you may have lurking in the loft, or find at a car boot sale. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to snaffle the collected works of an undiscovered genius for a couple of quid, our photo-editing expert James Paterson shows how to restore those tatty, but still sentimentally important, family prints.…

TOKINA has introduced a large-aperture short telephoto prime designed for full-frame Sony mirrorless cameras, in the shape of the atx-m 85mm F1.8 FE. Naturally it can also be used on APS-C models, on which it will offer a 128mm equivalent view. The firm says it's the first in a new range that will cover multiple mirrorless mounts and sensor formats, suggesting it has eyes on producing Canon RF and Nikon Z-mount optics in due course. It has an optical design of 10 elements in 7 groups, including one made from SD glass to help minimise chromatic aberration. An ST-M motor promises fast and quiet focusing, while the metal barrel is said to feature a satin anodised finish. Tokina says that it's licensed the E-mount specifications from Sony, meaning the lens…

It's a subject that's divided opinion and caused much controversy. Can a camera aimed at serious enthusiasts and professionals make do with just a single card slot? In the case of Canon's EOS R system and Nikon's Z-series, we're yet to see a full-frame mirrorless model offer dual card slots. For many photographers, myself included, it's one of the main reasons why they've been disregarded as a suitable replacement to a DSLR that features them. Over the past 12 months I've had many conversations with many photographers on my travels about the subject and the general consensus seems to be that Canon and Nikon missed a trick by not incorporating two card slots from the start. Sony has been equipping its full-frame A7-series cameras with dual card slots since 2017,…

Clean and cover surfaces Make sure any surface you lay your prints on has been thoroughly cleaned (without abrasive chemicals), and covered with unbleached paper. If you're looking at glass plates, magic lantern slides etc, lay a thin piece of archival foam down first. Wear gloves Oil and perspiration from skin can leave traces on prints, so wear gloves when handling photographic material. Nitrile versions are best, as cotton gloves can shed fibres and it's easier to catch corners or tear a print while wearing them due to reduced dexterity. Use a board If you need to move a print from one place to another lay it emulsion-side up on a thick board rather than carrying it in your hands. It's very easy to crease a print or walk into…

1977 BACK in 1977 being a glamour photographer was regarded as one of the best jobs in the world, so ‘top' pro Donald Milne shared some of the downsides of his job. The biggest problem, and pretty much the only problem as it turns out, is the constant need to find fresh new faces. To make this task easier Donald has to spend much of his time in the South of France, but it's a sacrifice he is willing to make. French girls have a natural grace and elegance, but can be ‘a little temperamental'. If you're picturing a lecherous, bearded man treading the streets ready to pounce on unsuspecting young maidens (his words) the truth is quite different. ‘I have the good fortune to be married to one of…

Like the cherished family memories they often depict, old prints will inevitably fade over time. Colours deteriorate, dirt and grime accumulate, edges get bent and battered, mould infiltrates the paper. Wear and tear is unavoidable, but if you can digitise and restore the image in Photoshop then the ravages of time can be undone and the print can be safeguarded for the future. Over these three pages we’ll look at some of the key tools for photo restoration in Photoshop, and explore a range of essential techniques. From restoring faded details to fixing broken prints and adding hand-coloured effects, you’ll find a host of ways to breathe new life into your treasured old photos. With a little work and a few simple skills, they can be appreciated for generations to…

1 Use Auto tone If the tones or contrast look wrong then often Photoshop's auto-correct features will do the job – hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+B for auto colour and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+L for auto levels. 2 Speedy zooming Restoration work (or any kind of retouching) involves a lot of zooming in and out – hold Cmd/Ctrl+Space and drag right or left for quick ‘scrubby' zooming. 3 Brush shortcuts When using the healing and clone tools you can quickly resize the brush tip by pressing ] and [ or alternatively hold Alt + right mouse button and drag right or left. 4 Try bird’s eye view When zoomed in close to an image you can hold H then click-drag to fly out quickly to a ‘bird's-eye view' then release to zoom back in to another…

Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details With its 24MP APS-C sensor, the A6600 is capable of delivering excellent image quality. It may not match the sheer level of detail that its higher-resolution peers can record, but it's still more than good enough for a critically sharp A3+ print. Noise is kept impressively under control, with sensitivities up to ISO 1600 eminently usable, and ISO 12,800 quite acceptable at small output sizes. There's also plenty of extra shadow detail that can be pulled out when processing raw files. This is a sensor that positively shines in raw, compared to the camera's slightly lacklustre JPEGs. Resolution At ISO 100 the A6600 delivers exactly as much resolution as we expect from…

NOEL Pemberton Billing was born in London and educated in Britain and France. He began his career in South Africa, where he designed military equipment. He gambled in Monte Carlo and built a casino in Mexico before returning to England to become a publisher, actor, theatre manager, cinema manager, playwright, science-fiction author and property developer. He launched a shipping business, trained as a barrister and was elected as a Member of Parliament for East Hertfordshire. Up for a challenge He designed furniture, a typewriter, a flying boat and a single-seater fighting aircraft. He was responsible for a machine to make and pack self-lighting cigarettes, a movie projector that could be synchronised with a wind-up gramophone, a golf-practising device, a cloth-measuring tool and even a type of helicopter called a Durotofin.…

How can I check if my monitor is accurate? Q I've recently joined a camera club which hosts regular photography competitions and alternates its judging between digital files and physical prints. Rather than send my images off to a lab, I thought I'd enjoy making my own prints and so I invested in a decent printer. However, so far I've been disappointed with the results. The colours of pictures on my screen seem totally different from those that appear in my prints. Is there a way to check the accuracy of my computer's display? Graham Beaton A Yes Graham, there is! A screen calibrator will analyse and adjust your display’s colours and brightness to ensure accuracy between what is shown on your monitor, and what is printed. We’d recommend looking…

Let’s begin with a quote: ‘Content cannot be manufactured, in my opinion. That which I can find is better than that which you can make. That which we find, the work and the use of the people out there, it’s natural, that’s what ordinary people do, that interests me.’ It’s an oddly worded quote, admittedly, but it sums up something fundamental about street photography. It harks back, perhaps, to the notion of photographers as hunters and gatherers, highlighted by Jeff Wall some years ago. Wall is a gatherer. He collects ideas and then builds them into images. But street photographers – Fred Herzog, for example, who spoke the words above – is a hunter. He goes out into the world and finds scenes. Nothing is manufactured. Herzog started taking pictures…

Churchill’s Funeral by George W Hales THE COFFIN of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill is placed on the train at Waterloo Station in London, ready for its final journey to St Martin's Church, Bladon in Oxfordshire. Churchill died on 24 January, with his funeral taking place on the 30th. At the time, it was the largest state funeral in history, with representatives from 112 different nations present. Across Europe, it is thought that 350 million people (including 25 million in Britain), watched the televised event which took place at St Paul's Cathedral in London. The funeral train was pulled by Locomotive No.34051 Winston Churchill, which was one of the Battle of Britain class produced by Southern Railway between 1945 and 1950. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the…

With Japan having a ‘moment' – more people are visiting than ever before, and there's lots of excitement about the Olympics – it seems an opportune time to feature this masterful historical work. Photography has deep roots in the land of the rising sun, and it's no coincidence Japanese camera makers still dominate the market. A review is also timely as there is currently a lot of interest in old images from the Far East, and although rare negatives and prints from 19th century Japan don't generally fetch as much as those from China, they remain a great investment. Terry Bennett is a world authority in this subject, being the driving force behind the well-regarded website, oldasiaphotography.com (he also found and helped restore the grave of the great British travel…

#appicoftheweek Portrait by Matt Thompson Nikon Z 6, 85mm, 1/1600sec at f/1.4, ISO 400 As Matt says, ‘I shot in the basement entrance to a town house with the light coming from above and behind. I spotted the location and decide to shoot there as I liked the light.' Sometimes being impulsive often leads to great results. ‘I always shoot raw and do my own post processing; if you're going to be responsible for the image then do it all start to finish.' Matt is on Instagram @southamptonphotographer and the model is @ericliyahkane. Chosen by Nigel Atherton, Editor, as our #appicoftheweek Win!  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,…

Fix dust and scratches As the name suggests, the Dust and Scratches filter can be useful for tidying up messy old prints. Go to Filter>Noise>Dust and Scratches to begin, then adjust the Amount and Threshold to target the dust without removing fine detail. Often it helps to apply different strengths of the filter to different areas of the print. Fill missing parts The Content-Aware Fill dialog is ideal for replacing detail in damaged corners of a print. Make a loose selection of the missing corner then go to Edit>Content-Aware Fill. Use the add and subtract tools to adjust the sample area so it only targets similar areas, like the plain background here. Rebuild ripped prints Make a selection of each individual piece of the print using the Object Selection tool…

WHY NOT breathe new life into faded old photos by giving them a hand-coloured treatment? The technique is very easy – simply make a new layer in the Layers Panel then change the layer blend mode from Normal to Color. Next grab the Brush tool, choose a colour and start painting over the image to colourise it (or alternatively, select areas with the Object Selection tool then fill them with a colour). If on reflection the colour needs tweaking, you can change it either by using the Hue/ Saturation command (Cmd/ Ctrl+U) or tone it down by lowering the layer opacity. Once a colour is done, make a new layer and begin adding another to build up the colour effect. It's a wonderful way to refresh an old photo, and…

ON THE face of it, Sony has ticked all the boxes with the Alpha 6600. It's small, fast, weather-sealed, and includes in-body stabilisation. Its autofocus capability is unreal, the battery lasts for ages, and it delivers great image quality in raw. This should be a class-leading camera. The problem, though, is that all this brilliant technology is trapped inside a body design that's well past its sell-by date, and riddled with flaws. The substandard control setup means it veers between uninspiring and infuriating to use, the rear LCD shows tiny images, and the viewfinder feed is too low in resolution. It's a shame Sony hasn't made the effort to refine its APS-C cameras in the way it's continually evolving its full-frame line-up. If all this technology were inside a camera…

Lens The 80mm f/11 fixed-focus lens has a cavity between its two plastic elements, into which coloured liquids can be injected for creative effect. Shutter This offers a single speed of approximately 1/100sec, a bulb setting, and ports for a cable release and flash sync. There’s also a T option, but it’s inaccessible in the finished camera. Aperture The camera uses cardboard slide-in Waterhouse stops. Along with a set of circular apertures, a variety of creative shapes are included, plus blanks to make your own. Film counter A sliding shutter in the back is used to keep track of the film as it’s wound, using the numbers printed on the backing paper of 120 film. ● £49 ● www.lomography.com LOMOGRAPHY is an enthusiastic producer of unusual film cameras and lenses,…

Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens Providing huge reach and solid results, the Sigma 150-600mm f/5.6-6.3 has become a go-to lens for many enthusiast wildlife photographers. More affordable than its similarly spec'd sibling in Sigma's ‘Sport' range, it still provides optical stabilisation, manual focus override options and a dust- and splash-proof mount. The lens can be directly attached to a monopod or tripod and its Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) promises fast and quiet auto focusing. • Available in Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts • Weight 1,930g • Optically stabilised £779 Tamron 150-600mm F/5-6.3 SP Di VC USD lens Matching the Sigma in both focal range and aperture, the Tamron 150-600mm targets the same sports/wildlife shooter user base and has similarly built a solid army of fans within these…

AF Nikon AF lenses driven from camera AF-S Nikon lenses with Silent Wave Motor AF-P Nikon lenses with stepper motors AL Pentax lenses with aspheric elements APD Fujifilm lenses with apodisation elements APO Sigma Apochromatic lenses ASPH Aspherical elements AT-X Tokina’s Advanced Technology Extra Pro AW Pentax all-weather lenses CS Samyang lenses for APS-C cropped sensors D Nikon lenses that communicate distance info DA Pentax lenses optimised for APS-C-sized sensors DC Nikon defocus-control portrait lenses DC Sigma’s lenses for APS-C digital DG Sigma’s designation for full-frame lenses Di Tamron lenses for full-frame sensors Di-II Tamron lenses designed for APS-C DSLRs Di-III Tamron lenses for mirrorless cameras DN Sigma’s lenses for mirrorless cameras DO Canon diffractive optical element lenses DT Sony lenses for APS-C-sized sensors DX Nikon’s lenses for DX-format digital…

After reading the superb effort by Robert Smith in Inbox of the 14 December issue (absolutely no apologies necessary to Bill), I thought I'd have a crack at something of the same ilk. My skills are a little less scholarly so I tend my apologies to everyone! So, here goes. Ahem…. There once was a man named Daguerre Whose methods were so de rigueur Taking pictures that last On large plates made of glass Paved ways to the future, I'm sure Polite but well meant, if a little patronising, applause. I thank you. David Richards…

Jack Latham first knocked on the door of my photographic consciousness in 2015 with his debut book, A Pink Flamingo, documenting his journey across the US, following the original Oregon trail. With his second, Sugar Paper Theories, where he photographed the places and people that feature in various accounts of what happened to missing Icelanders Gudmundur and Geirfinnur, I invited him into the lounge to put his feet up. For his third book in a ten-year career and counting, Parliament of Owls, an investigation of the hidden conspiracies of Bohemian Grove, I invited him up to the guest bedroom. Bohemian Grove is a private 2,700-acre site near the town of Monte Rio, California. Every July, several thousand of the world's most powerful and influential men gather for two weeks of…

Dr Priit Einbaum, Lancashire Priit only dabbled in photography as a young man and then went on to become a research chemist and science department college manager. In this role he became involved in promoting science subjects to students and decided to use photography as encouragement, by taking shots of students doing experiments. This had the desired effect and enrolments increased each year. Now retired, he has time to travel and has visited the US four times and Canada three. He enjoys looking at new locations and subsequently deciding how to present them in his images. Early strollers 1 This was taken in Chicago early in the morning. There’s a nice contrast between the curve of the pier and vertical lines of the skyscrapers. Nikon D600, 75mm, 1/1250sec at f/5.6,…

When it was launched in 1937, the Compass was probably the most complicated miniature camera ever made. Measuring a mere 6.5x2.5x5.5cm, it packed into its trim body a multitude of features to cover just about every aspect of photography. This remarkable camera was designed by English entrepreneur Noel Pemberton Billing but, unable to find a company in Britain to take on the high-precision work necessary for its manufacture, he turned to Swiss watch maker Le Coultre et Cie . During the early production process, faults were discovered which resulted in the first model being recalled and replaced with the second model. That's the one most often seen today. Basic spec Machined from plated aluminium alloy, the highly polished body features a lens that extends on two telescopic tubes. To their…

Gitzo GK1555T-82TQD ● £629 ● www.gitzo.com/uk-en THIS superb travel tripod features 5-section, dual-angle carbon fibre legs that reverse fold around the head, providing a useful maximum height of 148.5cm while folding down to a compact 35.5cm length. The twist-lock legs include O-ring seals to stop sand or grit from getting in, a short centre column is included for low-angle work, and a useful carry-strap included in the kit. As always from Gitzo, the GK1555T is superbly made and impressively stable, making it easily capable of supporting a full-frame DSLR and large zoom lens with barely a hint of vibration. The only negative point is a head that is strong but slightly awkward to use. Andy Westlake, originally reviewed 5 December 2015 Phottix Indra360 TTL ● £549 ● www.phottix.com/en IDEAL for…