Innholdsfortegnelse for 25-Jul-2020 i Amateur Photographer

Lockdown may technically be over (sort of) and some of us may be tentatively tip-toeing back into the world with our face masks and hand gel, but I suspect that, for most of us, home is where the art is going to be created for a while longer. This week we present a selection of simple ideas that you can do on a kitchen table. Traditional still life it isn’t – this is a pheasant-free zone – but the results can be stunning. If that doesn’t appeal we’ve got the winning macro images from APOY 2020 which should inspire you to take a closer look at your surroundings, and some tips on making local adjustments in Adobe Lightroom. Finally, with all the money you’ve saved by not going out for…

THE NIKON School has announced it is moving online permanently and shuttering its London centre, although it’s still running some workshops in outdoor locations. nikon says that the move online, originally prompted by the pandemic, has been positively received, and the school has received over 3,000 new bookings. ‘It is apparent that the quality of the courses… have not been impacted by being online,’ said Nikon. ‘The digital landscape has allowed for scope to introduce improved teaching methods like split-screen learning and recorded sessions for delegates to review. Secondly, bringing Nikon School Online has made this educational resource accessible to the whole of the UK.’ See www.nikonschool.co.uk.…

IT’S EASY to dismiss Leica’s cameras as anachronisms, or expensive jewellery for photographers with more wealth than talent. But this completely misses the point. The M system is all about the lenses, and nothing else gives quite the same combination of astonishing sharpness and compact size. I’ve had my hands on the M10-R for a few weeks prior to its launch, and even the briefest glance at its image files confirms that the new sensor delivers really impressive detail. Look out for our full review in a couple of weeks' time.…

Robin Fellows-Weir Robin has recently finished a photography college course. He shoots weddings in his spare time and enjoys creating a wide range of abstract and landscape photos. Visit @robinfwphotography and www.rfwphotovideo.co.uk It’s time to refract As an outdoor abstract and landscape photographer in lockdown, I used my experience of light, composition, colour as well as a love of minimalism at a smaller scale with oil drop refraction photography. It’s a genre with an infinite variety of striking and unique images to be produced, with its own specific challenges to overcome. Best of all, it›can be done with simple household items and inexpensive camera equipment you may well already have. KIT LIST Extension tubes Instead of a dedicated macro lens, I bought a vintage mount adapter and then used a…

1 Angi Wallace UK 20pts Sony A7 II, 90mm macro, 1/200sec at f/20, ISO 80 This shot has bags of character, and that’s what immediately leaps out of the frame. The expression on the tree frog’s face as it dangles from the twig is impossible not to anthropomorphise. It’s as if it’s saying, ‘Put down that camera and help me out here!’ It’s much more than merely amusing, however – the technical skill demonstrated is excellent too, with spot-on framing, superb sharpness, and lovely out-of-focus colours in the background. The frog’s colours and texture are shown off beautifully. Timed to perfection, this image was a clear winner among all the judges. 2 Eric Browett UK 19pts Nikon D500, 90mm macro, 1/200sec at f/16, ISO 100 This chameleon is apparently only…

1 Targeted tools There are three tools for local adjustments in Lightroom. Each lets you isolate part of an image then adjust it using the sliders to the right. The Graduated Filter lets you make transitional adjustments from one side to another. The Radial Filter makes circular adjustments (either inside or outside the circle) and the Adjustment Brush lets you paint freehand. 2 Non-destructive editing The great thing about making local adjustments in Lightroom over Photoshop is how everything stays editable throughout the workflow. So you can change either the area affected or the tonal change at any time either by altering the mask overlay or tweaking the tonal sliders. 3 Adjustment pins All local adjustments are represented by a pin that appears when you first click on your image…

THIS third model in›Tamron’s series of fast zooms will be well received by Sony full-frame mirrorless users who’ve been waiting for a practical and lightweight telephoto lens. Like the firm’s other E-mount zooms it aims to strike the ideal balance between size and weight without compromising on image quality. It does this extremely well, albeit not providing quite the same reach at the long end as its Sony rival. It also lacks a few of the features you can expect from a pro-spec telephoto zoom. These points aside, it’s a well-constructed lens that benefits from weather resistance and sprightly autofocus. It balances nicely on Sony A7-series cameras and its f/2.8 aperture makes it ideal for shooting in low light and those times when you’d like to isolate subjects from distracting…

LAUNCHED 1933 PRICE AT LAUNCH £19 10s (£19.50) GUIDE PRICE NOW £250-300 WHEN German camera manufacturer Franke & Heidecke launched the Rolleiflex in 1928, followed by the Rolleicord a few years later, it began a trend for compact roll film twin lens reflexes (TLRs). Many models made by other companies were little more than Rolleiflex or Rolleicord clones, but the Voigtländer Superb trod a different path with features unseen on any other TLR. At its heart, the Superb follows the traditional TLR design of an upright box with two lenses one above the other – the lower lens to record its image on film, the top one to reflect its image onto a large focusing screen under a hood on the top of the body. The camera also uses 120…

Jumping Geoff by Central Press England footballer Geoff Hurst jumps in jubilation after scoring England’s winning goal against Argentina in the World Cup quarter-final match at Wembley Stadium, 23 July, 1966. It was his sixth international appearance. On the left is Roger Hunt (arms raised) and on the right is Alan Ball. A week later, England famously clinched victory of the entire tournament by beating West Germany 4-2 in the final after extra time. The images beamed around the world from the final match are infamous – this unusual shot might be lesser known, but it shows a huge amount of joy. 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…

IF YOU get your skates on, you can still save money on selected Samyang lenses, via a summer promotion which expires on Sunday 26 July. The biggest single saving is £170 off the AF 14mm F2.8 RF for the Canon EOS-R full-frame mirrorless system. Other highlights include £90 off the Samyang AF 18mm F2.8 FE for Sony E mount, £74 off the MF 14mm F2.8 Z for Nikon Z mount and £71 off the MF 85mm F1.4 Z, also for Z mount. Full details of all the discounts, and participating dealers,›are at www.intro2020.co.uk/Site/ samyanginstantsavings.…

Sony has announced the world’s widest-angle zoom with an f/2.8 aperture, the FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM. Designed for those who require an expansive field of view for subjects such as landscapes, nightscapes, architecture and interiors, it promises a combination of high resolution and smooth, attractive bokeh that’s the signature of the top-end G Master series. Optically the 12-24mm employs 17 elements in 14 groups, including three extreme aspherical (XA) elements and one aspherical element to maintain cross-frame sharpness. It also boasts three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass elements and two Super-ED glass elements to minimise chromatic aberration. To suppress flare, Sony has applied a newly developed Nano AR Coating II inside the front element. Four XD linear motors are used for fast, silent autofocus. They drive two lens groups independently, providing…

Angi Wallace, 1st and 17th Be prepared. As much of macro is of living creatures, I think ahead and consider lighting, background, creativity and composition. Portable backgrounds, clamps, reflectors, speedlights with stands and diffusers, Blu Tack and a mat to kneel on outdoors can all make a huge difference when you have to work quickly. Eric Browett, 2nd As with most photography you need to find a point of difference to make your photo stand out. The yellow-headed day gecko wasn’t playing ball, as he kept diving behind leaves and occasionally popping his head out. Instead of getting frustrated, I accepted it and attempted to capture this aspect of his behaviour. Kristina Zvinakeviciute, 4th It is important for a macro photographer to be attentive, not rush and have vision, especially…

Shortly before the Big Kid ‘Cuban’ Circus curtain was to raise in the English seaside town of Morecambe, coronavirus and the council locked it down. The 25 performers from Cuba and an additional ten from Chile, Morocco and Bulgaria had no alternative work-permits, nowhere to go and no one to perform for. The professional family, aged from two to 91, realised the show must go on and broadcast pay-to-watch shows on the website Circus Online and performed live on Facebook. When a local resident, keen photographer and Senior Lecturer in Peace Studies and International Development at the University of Bradford, Graeme Chesters, became aware of the situation, he knew he had to document it. ‘It was one of those stories that ticked all the boxes. The human interest aspect and…

AP: Tell us about your photography background. AR: I first took an interest in photography when I was doing ski seasons in my early 20s and I loved to photograph the mountains. A lot of my early love of photography comes from landscapes and nature. When I came home I started doing some family shoots and taking photos at family weddings and that’s when I thought this could be a career. I moved to London in 2010 and have since found success in wedding photography, and more recently I have built a thriving personal brand photography business (The Woman & The Wolf). I still love to photograph landscapes and nature though and the two influence my work a lot. AP: What kit do you regularly carry in your camera bag?…

THE D1 accepts more than 80 F-mount Nikkor lenses: AF, AF-D, AF-I, AF-S, FX, DX and G autofocus, plus AI and AIs manual focus, although not every lens allows total compatibility. With some, exposure modes are restricted and autofocus isn’t always guaranteed. The field of view is 1.5 times that seen from a similar lens on a 35mm format. For this review an old 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 AF Nikkor, made for film cameras in 1986, was fitted. This never was one of Nikon’s best lenses, but it is cheap to buy today and still gives quality results. The autofocus worked and it allowed aperture priority plus manual exposure. The old battery took about two hours to charge and was only good for around 20 exposures before recharging. The image size is…

Olympus Tough TG-6 ● £399 ● www.olympus.co.uk Olympus’s Tough compacts have habitually won our underwater camera group tests, and this latest model is still the best of its type. It’s waterproof to 15m, shockproof against a 2.4m drop, crushproof and freezeproof. The 25-100mm equivalent lens is paired with a 12MP sensor, and viewing is via a 3in LCD. This is also one of the few rugged cameras that can record raw files. Panasonic LX100 II ● £749 ● www.panasonic.com/uk A high-end compact for creative photography, the LX100 II is based around a 24-75mm equivalent f/1.7-2.8 lens and a 17MP Four Thirds sensor that features a true multi aspect-ratio design. It also boasts a full range of traditional analogue control dials, and the corner-mounted viewfinder is complemented by touchscreen LCD. ★★★★…

AP picture of the week Kaugummi by Herbert Fuler Sony RX100, 50mm, 1/50sec at f/4, ISO 100 Herbert Anton Fuler was born in Vienna and he’s always had a passion for photography, computer art, painting and drawing. He’s self-taught and has subsequently developed his own creative style. This image was taken in Vienna and it shows a close-up of peeling paint on a factory door. As Herbert explains, ‘I try to show urban triviality and abandonment and to transform it into higher poetic dimension of art. It belongs to my photo series “Abandoned”, as I have many different series in my art.’ You can see more of Herbert’s work at www. kunstnet.de/Fuler. Chosen by Nigel Atherton, Editor, as our #appicoftheweek #appicoftheweek Win! Each week we choose our favourite picture on…

Ten paces end to end, ten paces side to side. Not a lot of space, but it was lockdown time, so this would be my world for however long it took. The view wasn’t too promising. A high hedge, a fence, a garage, the conservatory and, praise be, one open aspect towards the heather-clad hills, visible (just) between the multi-storey car park and a supermarket. There were loads of helpful and fun suggestions to keep photographers active. I loved some of the brilliant macro shots and little scenes using Lego and model-railway figures. How I envied the lucky few whose garden rolled down to the water’s edge and they captured everything from otters to passing dolphins. There were also courses and training videos galore. Maybe I could concentrate on learning…

When you’re judging APOY, you often find you are confronted with an overwhelming array of images. Many of them are fantastic, but it’s safe to say that it’s rare to see something hugely unusual or even unique. It’s for this reason that this image really jumped out from the screen when I first saw it. I found myself returning to it several times over the course of the judging period, too. Capturing a mundane subject that we’ve all seen a million times in a new and unusual way presents its own set of challenges. Andy has really risen to the occasion here, with his wonderful image of the lifecycle of a dandelion. I love the simplicity of this idea, and it has been executed to perfection. The monochrome conversion was…

Weight This is an important factor to consider when deciding on a camera bag, and this backpack comes in at 1380g. Rear access Openings at the top and either side allow quick access to your camera, with the rest of your kit accessible through the rear. Colour The backpack is available in two colour combinations – orthodox black or an attractive green. Laptop compartment The 13in laptop compartment doubles up as a good place to store a tablet or A4-sized documents. ● £109 ● www.vanguardworld.co.uk FOLLOWING on from our recent look at Vanguard’s VEO Select 39RGM for mirrorless users is a review of the VEO Select 46BR – a backpack designed to carry more kit while remaining slimline at just 28cm wide. Suitable for DSLR and mirrorless users, it features…

‘It’s a portrait that had me guffawing out loud, sometimes that’s enough’ There are 200 portraits in the book, Portrait of Humanity Vol. 2 published by Hoxton Mini Press. There are burn survivors and fashion models. There’s a man with a snake on his head and a man wearing swimming trunks stood in the snow. There’s a portrait of George with a tattoo covering half of his face and another of a woman with a tattoo covering the whole of her face. There are muscle men and nuns eating ice cream. Ma is in the process of gender reassignment, Amber has progeria causing her body to age rapidly. Fat activist Marte sits naked on a stool, actor Bill Murray is sat at a bar with a puppy for company. There…