Innholdsfortegnelse for 02-May-2020 i Amateur Photographer

Many of us have access to a garden, but for this week’s tutorial on photographing birds you don’t even need to step into it, except perhaps to set up a spot to entice your subjects – all of the pictures were taken through the kitchen window. Alternatively why not work on your photo editing skills? We show how to create that film look using the excellent Analog Efex Pro, and test Skylum’s brilliant Luminar 4 – both very good arguments for not shelling out for a monthly Adobe subscription. We also tell the story of Tony Kemplen’s quest to use a different film camera every week for ten years. Perhaps it will inspire you to start your own project. Don’t forget to take advantage of our great subscription offer on…

SAMYANG has built a strong reputation for making inexpensive but decent-quality autofocus lenses for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras, and its latest offering follows on in this vein. The AF 75mm F1.8 FE prime has a reasonably large aperture that Samyang says is ideal for shooting portraits and events. It's also claimed to be the most compact and lightweight autofocus 75mm lens on the market, measuring 65x69mm and weighing 230g. While there's not a lot of competition for this prize the lens manages to be rather lighter than Olympus's 75mm f/1.8 for Micro Four Thirds, and a third of the weight of Leica's SL 75mm f/2. The lens has 11 elements in 9 groups, including five made of special glass to minimise optical aberrations. Samyang has also utilised a linear stepping…

We also liked… Le Noir Est Ma Lueur by Jonathan Sepult Nikon Z7, 35mm, 1/100sec at f/4, ISO 200 ‘I started photography two years ago, and since then I can't stop taking pictures. To me, photography is feeling, capturing and sharing emotions with the world. This picture was taken with my daughter in our house, playing together with light and smoke. The idea behind this picture is that light can't be beautiful without being mixed with darkness… which makes darkness beautiful. We tried to produce a fairy atmosphere in doing so.' See more at facebook. com/SepultJonathan flickr. com/photos/klarixphotoand photoheritage.org. Chosen by Amy Davies, Features Editor Morning Glory Glencoe by Pete Bristo Pentax 645Z, 80mm, 1/6sec at f/10, ISO 100, processed in Lightroom and Photoshop Pete Bristo is a landscape photographer…

1 Lightroom's Healing Brush was used to remove a few small distractions 2 The overall contrast was boosted to give the image greater impact 3 The image was cropped with some negative space on the left cut to improve composition 4 Chromatic aberration along high-contrast edges was removed from the Lens Corrections tab Michael Topham Michael is Amateur Photographer’s Reviews Editor. He’s based in Kent and in his spare time he thoroughly enjoys documentary, wedding and railway photography. He owns a pair of Canon EOS 5D Mark III’s and many lenses. When couples enquiring about my wedding photography contact me, one of the questions I usually get asked is; do we need to arrange an engagement shoot, or pre-wedding shoot, as it’s also known. Over the years, the idea of…

‘For this photograph I would like to give three recommendations. First, I recommend the WhiteWall glossy Canvas print on a 4mm stretcher frame – this brings out the colours and light and gives it a classic look. The second recommendation is our Photo Print under Acrylic Glass in our wood ArtBox (colour: brown alder) which would also fit this photograph well. This combination frames the motif discreetly and closes it to the edge. The depth of the frame nevertheless creates an eye-catching effect on the wall. ‘If you are looking for something more extraordinary, I would choose a hexagonal format, such as you can see illustrated here. This attracts attention and is very striking.' Jan-Ole Schmidt, Product Manager, WhiteWall.com…

Skylum says Luminar should run on any Mac built from early 2010 onwards, but Windows is a different story, with an Intel Core i5 processor (or better) required. This means you’ll need a mid-range machine by current standards, and it’s unlikely to work perfectly on an old or inexpensive computer. So more than ever, it’s important to fully test the free 7-day trial version before you buy. For this review, I mainly used a high-end Core i9 Windows 10 laptop, but also tried an older Core i3 machine and found the software installed and worked, but ran slowly and with more bugs.…

Looking for a new camera or accessory and need some advice? The experts at Wex Photo Video are here to help. Contact us at ap@ti-media.com or on Twitter at @AP_Magazine and #AskAP Can I digitise my old photographs? Q I've recently been going through a box of old photographs and rediscovered a load of great family memories and snaps I took while travelling. I don't have the negatives for many of them, but would like to digitise the prints to share with friends, as well as perhaps make some new ones. What are my options for doing so? William Taylor A What a great discovery, William! We’d suggest picking up a quality photo scanner, as this allows you to easily create a digital version of your images, which you can…

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 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 DS Canon’s Defocus Smoothing technology E…

Early Mobile Phone by Kypros An early mobile phone during the Iranian Embassy siege at Princes Gate, South Kensington, London, 1980. It can be easy to forget a time before we carried the ability to contact every person on Earth, research every fact ever known and order our weekly shopping in our pocket. This image from 1980, a time before mobile phones started to become mainstream, probably seemed an exciting vision of the future when it was published, but to modern eyes of course looks anything but. The device is so large that the chap holding it appears to need assistance from the helper in the sunglasses, while it's hard to tell if those in the background are more interested in what's going on, or the fact that somebody is…

THE CATEGORY winners and shortlisted entries in the Open competition of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 have been announced, with several UK photographers making the cut. These include Tom Oldham, who won the Portraiture category with a picture of Pixies' frontman, Black Francis. ‘When approaching the assignment Oldham, an experienced portrait photographer, was painfully aware of the many photoshoots his sitter has been the subject of and asked him to acknowledge his frustration with the process,' said a spokesperson. Meanwhile Alec Connah won the Motion category with Going Down!, a record of the moment the four cooling towers of Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire were demolished on 6 December last year. Another standout image from the shortlist was Pinball Pier by Stephen Tomlinson, a bird's-eye view of Brighton Pier…

Ajith is a software engineer and amateur astro/landscape photographer based in Amsterdam. He really enjoys cold-weather photography and nightscapes. He is a self-taught photographer and learns via experiments and independent study. This photograph was taken early morning in Zaanse Schans, a quiet picturesque village near Amsterdam. As Ajith says, ‘I really wanted to capture the movement of the leaves above me in contrast with the fixed subject and bridge reflecting in the water. I also got very lucky with the moody purple sunrise as well.' See more of Ajith's work on his Instagram @bunch_of_pixels. Chosen by Nigel Atherton, Editor, as our #appicoftheweek.…

I just want to say a huge thank you for keeping going with this week's issue (AP 4 April). As Nigel referenced in his opening introduction, we are currently experiencing the biggest crisis our civilisation has seen for decades. Normal has gone out of the window and we're all trying to find our feet. As someone who is still working full time, albeit at home, and trying to juggle this with a distance-learning photography degree, having my magazine pop through the door on Saturday was a ray of sunshine. When other subscriptions are going digital for now, a print copy is an amazing achievement and a huge thank you to all involved for putting this out. I look forward to some of the adaptations over the coming weeks as we…

1 Crop the image To create a stronger composition I open the raw file into Lightroom and use the Crop Tool to remove the negative space on the left to position the couple more centrally in the frame. Next I check the image for any distractions and these the Removal tool 2 Exposure tweaks After setting the Highlights slider to -95, the image is given added impact and extra punch by setting the Contrast slider to a value of +60. Setting the Shadows slider to +60 helps lift the shadows and the Exposure slider is then increased ever so slightly to +0.35. 3 Remove chromatic aberration To remove the severe chromatic aberration I enter the Lens Corrections tab and take control of the Defringe sliders. Increasing the Purple Hue Amount…

ONE OF Luminar 4's standout tools is AI Sky Replacement, which is a one-click option for switching boring skies with something more interesting. There's a selection of replacements built in, or you can use one of your own images. It's remarkable how quickly and accurately Luminar can drop a new sky in place, particularly with images where you'd previously have needed to spend hours making a complex mask. However, it's not perfect, and if you zoom in closely, you can still see artefacts around complex shapes, such as bare trees in winter. But most of the time it's really convincing, and can be a great way of pepping up your landscape shots.…

Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 Di MACRO 1:1 VC USD It may be the most expensive lens in our selection, but the Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 Di MACRO is one of the genre's most popular optics, and rightly so. Its ability to capture outstandingly fine detail results in truly impressive image quality. It's constructed to be both moisture-proof and dust-resistant, and has fantastic inbuilt stabilisation for sharp handheld shots. A minimum focus distance of only 30cm allows you to get nice and close to your subjects for true 1:1 magnification. £599 • A maximum magnification ratio of 1:1 • Inbuilt optical stabilisation • Available in Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony A mounts Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro EX DG OS HSM Thanks to a speedy and silent HSM autofocus system, even…

Simplicity can be a highly desirable element in a photograph, but it is often surprisingly difficult to achieve. Most of us take great pleasure in simple things, and when our images are straightforward, what we are trying to say is usually much easier for the viewer to relate to. If it takes more than a split second for someone to identify what our picture is about, we need to ask ourselves whether we are communicating in an effective manner. There are all sorts of pictures, of course, that need to communicate at different speeds – just as a joke can sometimes need a pause for the punchline to hit home – but generally we want our images to smack the viewer between the eyes before they know what’s hit them.…

The current lockdown is particularly testing for used camera dealers, whose business model relies on receiving, then selling on, second-hand kit. We caught up with Matt Barker, CEO of MPB, to get some updates. ‘The priority has been ensuring the safety of our staff, particularly those in the warehouses in the UK and US, so we've changed our working patterns,' he explains. Unlike some retailers, however, MPB is not going in for discounting to stimulate demand. ‘I don't agree with online businesses pushing and discounting at the moment as they are just going to put undue stress into their warehouse operations; pushing volume sales at the moment doesn't make sense. Also, we adjust prices all the time and our pricing is correct for the market. Therefore we can promise that…

Pre-lockdown, if you got up at sunrise on a Saturday morning and headed to Mam Tor, you'd find yourself standing in a row of a dozen or more photographers. If you booked a flight to Iceland there would be hundreds of photographers from all over the world photographing Jökulsárlón. Landscape, light, composition – they would all be there waiting for the photographer. Obviously there would still be work to do but the right environment makes it a lot easier to take an exceptional image. So can a great photographer take a great image without a great environment? How would those National Geographic photographers fare if they were in a field on the outskirts of Maidstone, rather than standing on a plateau in the Andes? How would Robert Capa have fared…

For the past decade, my weekly rhythm has been dictated by a self-imposed project to use all the film cameras I’ve been accumulating since childhood. It started off with the intention to use a different camera each week for a year, thus, on 1 January 2010, ‘52 cameras in 52 weeks’ began. At the time, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to keep it up for a whole year, but as the weeks went by, and my camera collection slowly grew, it took on a life of its own. My fate was sealed when it came to week 53. I’d got into the habit of loading up a new camera each Friday, shooting a film at the weekend, then developing it and uploading the results to Flickr, so…

1 Where to shoot You want the couple you're going to photograph to feel natural and at ease so let them choose a location they enjoy visiting or that means something special. 2 Time of day Choose the time of the shoot very carefully. Avoid midday and encourage your couple to head out early or later in the day during golden hour when possible. 3 Warm up Warm up by asking the couple to walk towards you several times from a distance, chatting as they do so. It'll give you time to refine your camera settings and find out what works. 4 Ask questions Don't make it all about the shoot. Ask lots of questions about the wedding plans, how they met, what they're into. They'll feel so much more…

The Nik Collection 2.5 by DxO comes with Analog Efex Pro as well as six other useful tools for editing and sharpening your images, including Silver Efex Pro for superb black & white conversions. You also get a full copy of DxO Photolab 2 (Essential) – which is a cut-down but effective general-purpose photo editor which also works seamlessly with the Nik programs. Price: The whole suite retails at £125 and can be downloaded directly from the DxO website (Mac and PC). Website: See nikcollection.dxo.com/where you can also find out about the system requirements for Mac and PC.…

LUMINAR 4 is a really impressive raw processor with some unique and frankly astonishing capabilities that you won't find anywhere else. However, it also has rather daunting levels of complexity for beginners. I've tested it using a selection of images from a wide range of cameras, and have been really impressed both by the range of the tools on offer, and the quality of the output. It's arguably best suited to creatively processing individual images, rather than managing and batch-processing large shoots. However, its relatively slow processing might rule it out for some users, as could its flawed approach to automatic distortion correction with mirrorless and compact cameras. It's certainly not a direct replacement for Lightroom, but it's a really interesting alternative.…

Cameras Cameras come in three types: DSLRs with optical viewfinders, mirrorless models with electronic viewing, and compact cameras with non-interchangeable lenses AMOST all serious photographers prefer to use cameras with interchangeable lenses, as this gives the greatest degree of creative flexibility. At one time, this meant digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, but these have now been joined by mirrorless cameras that use electronic viewfinders. The latest models are true alternatives to DSLRs, offering the same image quality and creative options. Camera manufacturers offer a range of options, from simple, relatively inexpensive beginner-friendly designs, to sophisticated professional models. In the middle of the range you'll find enthusiast cameras with more advanced control layouts. Meanwhile the term ‘compact' refers to cameras with built-in lenses, regardless of their size. Many offer excellent image…