Innholdsfortegnelse for 14-Mar-2020 i Amateur Photographer

Light painting is a very simple technique – all you need is a tripod, a torch, and a camera capable of long exposures. But the results can be spectacular. It’s unlikely that your first attempts will produce anything as beautiful as that achieved by masters like Eric Paré but follow our expert tips (page 14), give it a go and you never know. This week we also launch the 2020 season of our long-running Amateur Photographer of the Year contest (page 36) in which we give away £10,000 worth of amazing kit courtesy of our friends at Sigma Imaging. To get you inspired we asked the insanely talented Caron Steele, the winner of APOY 2019, for the inside story on how she did it (page 22). She only bought her…

Over the years I have gathered many stories on how university and college courses are wasting students' money. In the late 1990s, just before I retired, I took on a student who had been studying photography for two years. After the first five minutes I realised she hadn't a clue about photography. She felt she had wasted a fortune and was going to fail the degree. I set about giving her simple instructions on portrait lighting using her father as a model, only using the window and room light as light sources, showing the lighting effects on her father's face depending on his position in relation to the light source. She stated that I had taught her more in two hours than she had been taught at university for two…

44871 at Dusk by Robert Falconer Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24mm, 1/150sec at f/6.7, ISO 160 This shows Black 5 44871 heading away from Orton Mere railway station. As Robert explains, ‘A friend of mine, who is a driver on the Nene Valley Railway near Peterborough, gave me a tip-off that a visiting engine was going to be working a “driver experience” course. A sunny day was forecast, so I could not resist going. In this picture the train was running an hour late so the golden sunlight on the engine had gone but there was still enough light to create a striking image and I didn't have to worry about the glare from the sun in the lens.' Robert uploaded this image onto Flickr using the hashtag #appicoftheweek.…

In one week in February 2002, I was commissioned to do portrait shoots with the comedian and entertainer Bob Monkhouse by two separate publications. The first, at Bob’s house in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, was for the Mail’s Night and Day magazine. The second, four days later, was shot in the very different environment of a London studio. I’ve now lost the negatives for the first shoot, though I have the scanned image files. In the pre-digital era, negatives often went missing and I was doing so many jobs I often didn’t notice they were gone until years afterwards. I have other photographers’ negatives that were mistakenly sent to me in that period. Possibly the negs from the first shoot were never returned to me, or were sent to another photographer.…

MANY photographers these days have multiple cameras in their backpack. Perhaps you've got a small and lightweight mirrorless for the times when you don't want to lug about the heavier DSLR? Well, the good news is that when you have the Canon Camera Connect App, you can use it with multiple cameras. All you have to do is switch between the camera that is selected on the app interface to control each device. This feature would prove highly useful if you have set up a multi-camera rig that needs to be controlled remotely. A good example of when this could be used would be setting up multiple cameras to shoot a bird landing on a rigged perch. Moving the cameras to adjust them comes with a risk of scaring off…

1 Don’t print for the sake of it Printing your images is an investment and there is no point in doing it just for the sake of it. Think about how you want your printed image to be viewed. Is it part of a series or a standalone piece? Is your image going to be framed, or mounted? Is it for yourself or for a client? Answer all these questions first before you splash out. 2 You still need to calibrate your screen Although you might not think you need your screen correctly colour calibrated for black & white printing, you do. If your screen is too light you won't see the highlight detail and if it's too dark you won't get accurate shadows. 3 Which paper? When picking the…

At low sensitivity settings, the Sigma fp cleanly renders very close to the 4,000 lines per picture height (l/ph) that its sensor is theoretically capable of delivering. Noise only starts to have any real impact at ISO 1600, at which point resolution drops to 3,600 l/ph. On the right we show details from our resolution chart test pattern (above). Multiply the number beneath the lines by 200 to give the resolution in lines per picture height. Files stay remarkably clean at higher settings, with 3,500 l/ph still recorded at ISO 6400. Even at ISO 25,600, the sensor delivers an impressive 3,200 l/ph, Remarkably, even at the top ISO 102,400 option, resolution still surpasses 3,000 l/ph.…

CANON was lacking an all-in-one lens for its EOS R system and it has delivered a respectable example with the RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM. It's not optically perfect and you do need to be prepared to make some compromises when it comes to the sharpness that's resolved in the corners. As is often the case with superzooms, it's not immune from curvilinear distortion, vignetting or chromatic aberration either, however these optical flaws are brilliantly corrected for in-camera and can be remedied easily in raw files by applying the relevant lens profile. It'll cover most bases for amateurs and hobbyists who are looking for one lens to do it all, or like the idea of travelling light. Its image stabilisation suppresses handshake commendably, it focuses quickly, and provides good control…

LAUNCHED 1958 PRICE AT LAUNCH £70 (according to lens) GUIDE PRICE NOW £250-300 (according to lens) THE MONORAIL is perhaps the purest form of camera design. It incorporates no more than a lens with built-in apertures and shutter at the front, a film holder at the back and bellows in between, all mounted on a rail that allows both to move back and forth in relation to each other. Most monorail cameras also incorporate certain movements: rise and fall, shift, tilt and swing. It would take more space than is available here to explain the full significance of such movements. Suffice to say they allow a camera to perform almost any task from shooting high buildings to wide-open landscapes, even extreme close-ups with control over focus and the convergence of…

Tiger Lady by Central Press AIR STEWARDESS Cynthia Robertson models the new uniform for the American-based National Airlines. A synthetic-tiger number, the new uniform was rolled out for more than 1,000 stewardesses to wear. Cynthia is holding an eight-week-old Bengal tiger cub called Indira. National Airlines was founded in 1934 and ran until 1980 when it was acquired by Pan Am, which itself ceased operation in 1991. Our research was not able to uncover the fate of the tiger-skin uniforms, nor indeed of Indira the tiger. The Getty Images Hulton Archive is one of the world’s great cultural resources. Tracing its origins to the founding of the London Stereoscopic Company in 1854, today it houses over 80 million images spanning the birth of photography to the digital age. Explore it…

Cheap full-frame cameras Audley Jarvis picks out some of the best second-hand full-frame camera bargains Meike MK 50mm F1.7 test Andy Westlake tries out an inexpensive manual focus lens for full-frame mirrorless Best western Photographer Jane Hilton tells us about her projects in the American West On sale Tuesday 17 March CONTENT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE…

ONE OF the most popular recurring themes on AP covers of the mid 1930s was hand colouring, usually with a single spot colour, and this issue is typical of the period. Among the Topics of the Week under discussion is the philosophical question ‘Why do we take photographs?' It was posed to a group of pictorialists by the evocatively named Major PC Bull, who sounds like the kind of man who says ‘poppycock' a lot. He explained that photography is ‘merely a way of keeping ourselves out of mischief in our spare time'. Furthermore, the correspondent reported, ‘Major Bull's answer to his own question is that he takes photographs because he jolly well wants to.' (He didn't actually say ‘jolly well' but you can hear it in the tone). Photographs…

Claire Gillo Claire is a very experienced photography journalist and a former Technique Editor on AP. She now works as a freelancer from her base in Devon and enjoys taking and editing a wide range of images. For more information see her website at www.clairegillo.com Collectively around the globe we shoot trillions of images annually. Although many images are not worthy of printing there are some that will benefit greatly, and will transform from being a nice image on screen to a great work of art. The problem with printing your images is that it requires thought and cost, even if you are doing it yourself from home. What paper are you going to use? Are you going to frame it? Do you want a mount? Glass? However, if you…

‘Claire Gillo's black & white image above perfectly captures the intimate atmosphere of a concert. In order to underline the original grunge look, I would recommend going with WhiteWall's Direct Print on Aluminium Backing. Another option would be our Baryta Paper. This heavy black & white photo paper has a glossy surface and a silky shimmer because of the baryta texture. And as a finishing touch, adding our solid wood frame Hamburg in black oak and a white passe-partout gives the picture an elegant, high-class and extraordinary look.' Jan-Ole Schmidt, Product Manager WhiteWall.com…

Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industry-standard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details The whole point of full frame is image quality, and the fp's 24MP back-illuminated sensor delivers this impressively well. Without an optical low-pass filter it records plenty of detail, while keeping noise extremely well under control and delivering impressive dynamic range. I'd be perfectly happy shooting at ISO 1600 without a moment's hesitation, and up to ISO 12,800 if necessary. Perhaps the biggest limitation on the fp's image quality is its fully electronic shutter, which can give motion distortion and banding artefacts in some situations under artificial light.…

ON THE simplest level, the Sigma fp is a straightforward camera to assess. If you demand full-frame image quality and interchangeable lenses in the smallest possible package, this is it. As long as you can live with the fixed screen and lack of a viewfinder, it'll do the job and deliver excellent images. Indeed with the 45mm f/2.8 lens onboard, it's a fine little camera that's a lot of fun to shoot with. But it's less successful when paired with larger lenses, so desperately needs more small primes of the same ilk to realise its full potential, perhaps a 28mm and a 90mm. Thankfully Sigma is a firm that fundamentally understands photography, so you can bet your bottom dollar it's working on such lenses right now. The bigger question, though,…

Resolution Our Image Engineering Tests tell us the lens is sharpest in the centre when it’s used at the wide end of the zoom, with corner sharpness improving as you start to zoom in. The best edge-to-edge sharpness is resolved around 70mm at f/8, with good centre sharpness being maintained at 240mm between f/6.3 and f/11. Sharpness drops off quickly beyond f/11 owing to the introduction of diffraction. Shading Users shooting in the JPEG format can correct for corner shading in-camera by enabling the peripheral illumination setting within the lens aberration correction settings from the camera’s menu. Raw files benefit from having a lens profile applied to remove corner shading automatically. Curvilinear distortion With the digital lens optimiser turned on, curvilinear distortion is effectively dealt with and removed in JPEG…

Lake Minnewanka by Tim Scott Fujifilm X-T3, 16-55mm, 1/150sec at f/8, ISO 160 This was taken while Tim and his wife were driving the Lake Minnewanka Loop in Banff National Park in Canada. As he explains, ‘My wife Nic was keeping an eye on the traffic while I nipped out to the middle of the road. I used the flip-out screen on my Fujifilm X-T3 to get low down, focused about a third of the way into the shot and used f/8 to get a fast enough shutter speed while keeping reasonably good front-to-back sharpness.' Tim uploaded this shot to Twitter using #appicoftheweek. Chosen by Nigel Atherton, Editor Le Barrage Déborde by Diane Holt Canon EOS 6D, 55mm, 1/50sec at f/4, ISO 100 ‘I took up photography after being given…

1 Search and download for free Visit the app store on your phone (App Store for Apple or Google Play for Android) and download the free Canon Camera Connect. When you open the app, enable permissions for the app to access your photos. 2 Make Bluetooth and Wi-Fi active on your camera Navigate through your Menu system and head to the connectivity settings. The app set-up guide will instruct you to select Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connection so find this option and select it. 3 Select the camera model The app on your phone will prompt you to select which model of camera you wish to pair with your smart device. In my case it was the 90D, so I typed this in and then selected the OK button. 4 Set-up wizard A…

1 The basics To make the basic edits to my image I imported it into Adobe Lightroom Classic. I then converted it to black & white, and boosted the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights and Shadow sliders to ensure the highlights and shadows had enough detail. I finally tweaked the Clarity to boost the midtone contrast. 2 Noise As my image was a tad noisy I scrolled down to the Noise Reduction panel and played around with the Luminance slider. When you reduce noise it comes at the expense of losing detail, so keep zooming in and out until you are happy. It's often a compromise between keeping the image a little grainy and maintaining fine detail. 3 Soft proofing I don't have a printer at home that will do my images…

The crops shown below are taken from the area outlined above in red Wonderfully crisp, clean images are seen at ISO 100, with no hint of noise. Indeed there’s no immediately visible benefit to shooting at the low composite settings; instead they’re all about the ability to capture noise-free detail right down into the deepest shadows. Image quality also holds up impressively at ISO 1600, with just the slightest hint of noise creeping into files when viewed close-up onscreen. Detail and colour saturation continue to hold up well to ISO 12,800, but beyond this things take a turn for the worse. I’d use ISO 25,600 at a push, but avoid the higher extended settings due to faded colour and the lack of shadow detail.…