Innholdsfortegnelse for 03-Oct-2020 i Amateur Photographer

Macro photography shines a spotlight on those small details that we barely notice as we go about our daily lives, and reminds us of what a beautiful, amazing world we live in – whether it’s some bizarre creature that’s too small to appreciate with the naked eye (like our cover star this week) or just an exquisitely lit detail of peeling paint on a wall. It’s also an ideal activity to pursue during our current state of semi isolation. This week we reveal the amazing winners of Close-Up Photographer Of The Year and present a few tips and techniques for getting shots like this yourself. Perhaps you’ll be one of next year’s winners. Also this week we explain how to shoot infrared, take you through the new drone regulations, get…

Hydro and Armadillo, Glasgow by William Dore Nikon Z 7, 24-70mm f/4 lens, 1/125sec, f/8, ISO 64 This is a superb architectural photograph. Strong graphic shapes, great lighting and very skilfully edited. William has been the managing director of an Ayrshire-based construction-related business for over 20 years and says he turned to photography – landscapes, street and documentary work – as a way of escaping the stress of the daily grind. ‘I’m currently working on a (possibly never-ending) documentary project on my home town of Irvine, Ayrshire,’ he says, though this shot was taken down the road, in Glasgow. ‘This image of two of Glasgow’s iconic landmarks was captured handheld, standing on my tiptoes to reach over some fencing, during a quick trip into the city for a takeout burger…

Paris by Paul Almasy £12.50, TeNeues, hardcover, 144 pages, ISBN: 978-3-961712-57-1 Lovers of black & white photography, nostalgia, and of course the city of Paris, will surely love this latest collection of the work of Paul Almasy. The Hungarian photojournalist was born in 1906, becoming a French citizen in 1956. His travels as a photographer took him all across the world, but it is his hometown that is the subject of this beautiful book. Alongside other luminaries such as Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Almasy is one of the great chroniclers of ’50s and ’60s Paris. Here we have a vivid and evocative portrait of the city in the middle of one of its most exciting periods. Every page is a joy to look at, and if you can’t get…

The love of big prints I wholeheartedly agree with Colin Avery’s Letter of the Week ‘Print it’. There is nothing more satisfying than to see enlargements of your artistic efforts, the larger the better. Yet there is the longevity issue with modern colour prints. My fibre-based silver bromide black & whites, which I printed in the Sixties, are still as fresh as those I printed last October. So are my father’s family snaps, processed by the local chemist in the Fifties, and so are most of the vintage black & white prints of over 100 years ago that I’ve purchased from antique shops and flea markets. Yet my daughter’s colour prints, which are less than 40 years old, show marked signs of fading. There will be nothing left for her…

The cover of Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 album Born To Run came about due to a postcard. In 1974 photographer Eric Meola had seen Springsteen perform at a club in Manhattan and reveals, ‘I had an immediate visceral reaction to his music. In early 1975 I mailed him a postcard with my phone number, asking if we could get together to shoot. Imagine my surprise when he called!’ Meola did his first shoot with Springsteen in Long Branch, New Jersey, and built up a relationship with the musician and his then manager, Mike Appel, that led to the Born To Run studio shoot. Meola explains, ‘I planned out the lighting and setup several days in advance.›For about two weeks he [Springsteen] didn’t show and Mike [Appel] called up to explain they…

Put simply, what we call white light is made up from the colours of the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. For the technically minded, that represents wavelengths from around 380 to 750 nanometres. Outside this range there are wavelengths the human eye can’t see: ultraviolet below 380 nanometres and infrared above 750 nanometres. Since the green foliage of plants and trees reflects more infrared light than other surrounding objects, what’s needed is a way to make the camera ignore the visible spectrum and record only infrared. As a result, green foliage glows pure white, blue skies turn jet black, white clouds stand out in dramatic contrast, buildings and other stonework remain unchanged but take on a vivid clarity. Infrared film Long ago, Kodak produced an infrared…

1 The best results come from shooting around midday when the sun is at its harshest, ideally in bright, sunny conditions. 2 When using an infrared filter on a DSLR, you won’t be able to see an image in the viewfinder, so compose and focus the shot before adding the filter. 3 Don’t shoot foreground green trees against more greenery in the background, otherwise all the whites will melt into one confusing mass. 4 Concentrate on shooting trees or other foliage isolated against the sky. A combination of sunshine and cloud is ideal. 5 The focus point with infrared is slightly different from visible light, so an image might appear out of focus. Older manual lenses have a tiny mark close to the usual focus index mark to show where…

WHILE the newly designed grip of the A7R IV makes using telephoto lenses such as a 70-200mm even more comfortable than the A7R III, you still may find that longer lenses such as the FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G, FE 400mm F2.8 OSS GM and FE 600mm F4 GM don’t quite balance with the compact camera body. In this situation, and when you frequently shoot handheld in portrait format, the VG-C4EM vertical grip is a great way to add vertical shooting comfort and greater camera/lens balance when shooting with large telephoto lenses. You can also use one or two batteries with the grip to prolong shooting time without the need to change batteries. At £399 it’s an expensive accessory and third-party clones are available, but whether they offer the same level…

3 Legged Thing Legends Bucky with AirHed VU Just 41cm collapsed and weighing in at 1.5kg, the carbon fibre Bucky may be as compact as many travel tripods but extends to a huge working height of 179cm and takes loads of up to 30kg – specifications that will rival the best professional models. This tripod’s central column can be fully inverted, and with its unique modular design, all three of its legs can also be used as either monopods or boom arms for accessories like external microphones or lights. £449 ● Max working height of 179cm ● Maximum load: 30kg ● Weight: 1.5kg Manfrotto MK190XPRO3 Tripod + X-Pro 3-Way Head If you’re looking for a solid base for your gear that won’t break the bank the MK190XPRO3 could be a…

Winter Plunge by J.A. Hampton Determined early morning swimmers prepare to dive into the waters of the lido in London’s Hyde Park, seemingly oblivious to the wintry temperatures. The Serpentine Swimming Club, which uses the Hyde Park Lido, is the oldest swimming club in Britain. During the recent coronavirus lockdown, swimming was prohibited, but members of the club were permitted to return from 18 May, although they had to observe strict social distancing measures. The club swims between 6 and 9am every day in the Lido area, as well as taking part in a famous race on Christmas Day, known as the Peter Pan Cup race. 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…

THE NATIONAL Portrait Gallery (NPG) has put together 100 of the best portraits from Hold Still, an ambitious community project to gather a ‘collective portrait’ of the UK during lockdown. The project, which was launched back in May and spearheaded by the Duchess of Cambridge, sought portraits based on three themes: Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness. Over 31,000 submissions were received from across the country, with entrants ranging from the age of four to the age of 75. From these, a panel of judges selected the top 100 portraits, assessing them on the emotions and experiences they conveyed. ‘The final 100 present a unique and highly personal record of this extraordinary period in our history,’ said the NPG. ‘From virtual birthday parties, handmade rainbows and…

1955 CORNEL Lucas was a leading pioneer of film portraiture in the 1940s and 1950s. As head of the photo studio at the Rank Organisation many of the biggest stars of the day sat for him and he was the first photographer ever to win a BAFTA. Here he is sharing his trade secrets with AP readers. Lucas, whose extensive kit list included a Kodak 10x8 View, a 5x4 Speed Graphic, a Rolleiflex and a Leica, offered a variety of useful shooting tips to the reader, from focusing on the eyes to having a record player in the studio to relax the subjects. Further on in the issue, Ricardo offered his critique of AP readers’ own portrait efforts. FJ Bonfield’s Glamour in Glasses was, he said, a fine picture for…

Leica love I’m now 86 but still remember my first sighting and handling of the Leica M3 in the 1960s, at my local camera shop. The price, with the 50mm f/2 Summicron, was £158.18. At that time it might have been justifiably described as ‘the world’s most desirable camera’. I didn’t see a review but I feel that it wouldn’t have differed greatly (digital apart) from the review on the M10-R that I read recently in AP’s 8 August issue. The M3 review would, of course, have mentioned the quirky loading sequence through the base and the miniscule rewind knob, which seemed to take forever to do its job. Of course neither of these problems mattered, as it wasn’t a camera designed for speed. Neither do they relate to digital…

Musicians: Bruce Springsteen, Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, Steven Van Zandt, Ernest Carter, David Sancious, Suki Lahav, Wayne Andre, Mike Appel, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Richard Davis, David Sanborn Released: 25 August 1975 (Columbia) Best chart performance: No. 1 US Record World chart, No. 3 US Billboard charts Sales: Approx. 7 million worldwide Fascinating fact: The album Born To Run had eight songs and took 14 months to record… the title track, which is only four minutes and 31 seconds long, took six months on its own to record.…

This technique works best with an image produced using manually adjusted white balance in a converted camera. Do not change the image to grayscale. Retain it as RGB even though it is largely monochromatic. Open the channel mixer and, with the output channel set as red, change the red source channel to 0 and the blue source channel to +100. Then change the output channel to blue, and set the blue source channel to 0 and the red source channel to +100. Adjust the hue and saturation sliders until you get an effect that pleases you.…

Calvin has been a wedding photographer for just over a decade, but uses his spare time to work on his macro and close-up portfolio. He says that close-up work is his favourite kind of photography. ‘The details you can see once you manage to get closer can be amazing,’ he explains. He also uses his photography to calm his mind. All of the photographs are taken in his home town of Scunthorpe, and he uses a flash for his photography to really make the colours pop from the page.…

Two-tone The exterior of the camera compartment is black, whereas the compartment for personal items is grey. Grab handle Makes the bag quick and easy to pick up from ground level when you’re in a hurry. Tripod A tripod can be carried by popping the feet into the side pocket before being secured with a top strap. Fastex buckles Helps prevents the side-opening zipper extending too far when you want quick access to your camera. ● £114 ● www.lowepro.com LOWEPRO’S latest backpack in its Fastpack series sports a dual-purpose design, being split fifty-fifty between its so-called ‘camera zone’ and a spacious ‘open zone’ that features dedicated pockets and good space for personal items. The camera compartment employs a quick door opening that lets you drop the bag off your right…

Cameras Cameras come in three types: DSLRs with optical viewfinders, mirrorless models with electronic viewing, and compact cameras with non-interchangeable lenses Handgrip DSLRs traditionally have relatively large handgrips, while many mirrorless models have much smaller grips to keep size down. However, some can accept accessory grips to improve handling with larger lenses. Lens mount Each camera brand uses its own lens mount, and mirrorless cameras use different lenses to DSLRs even from the same brand. However, mirrorless models can often use DSLR lenses via a mount adapter. Controls Entry-level cameras tend to have simple, easy-to-understand controls, while more expensive models add lots of buttons and dials to give quick access to settings. Viewfinder The biggest difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras is that the latter use electronic, rather than optical…

Tea leaves by Paul Nash Sony A7R III, Sony 16-35mm, 1.5sec, f/4.5, ISO 50 Paul describes himself as an artistic man who loves making photographs, and this image was definitely ‘made’ and not ‘taken’. ‘During lockdown I was looking for new challenges,’ recalls Paul, who lives in Cornwall. ‘I love still life and during this time period I started to experiment with flat-lay type images. Everything I needed was in the garden and the kitchen, and so with a little creativity I came up with a play on the words of “tea leaves”.’ This picture jumped out at us from our Instagram feed thanks to its bold colours and strong graphic design, but it was surprisingly simple to put together. The hardest part was probably making the cup of tea…

NIKON has announced a 50mm f/1.2 prime and a 14-24mm f/2.8 zoom for its series of full-frame mirrorless cameras – the Z 7, Z 6 and Z 5. The Z Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 S is the first f/1.2 prime lens in the Z range, while the company claims the Z Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 S is the world’s shortest full-frame f/2.8 ultra-wideangle zoom. The 50mm f/1.2 features 17 lens elements in 15 groups, including two ED glass elements and three aspherical elements. Nikon’s anti-reflective Nano Crystal Coat and Arneo coating is used to reduce ghosting and flare, and the lens is weather-sealed, with rubber sealing around the metal lens mount. In addition, the control ring is silent and the Fn button can be customised, while an OLED information panel enables you…

Curator and historian Beaumont Newhall once said, ‘We are not interested in the unusual, but in the usual seen unusually.’ It’s a quote that seems particularly relevant at the moment with so many of us staying close to home and turning to familiar scenes and subjects for inspiration. If you adopt a childlike curiosity, pretty much anything can become a subject for close-up photography. Among the 6,500 entries to this year’s competition we saw pictures of bubbles resembling planets, sheets of metal painted with mountain ranges made of rust and weeds celebrated as though they were gold medal winners at the Chelsea Flower Show. Of course, there were also more unusual subjects: the swim bladders of transparent larvae, egg cases lined up as though they were an army of Stormtroopers…

HOW TO DEPLOY A SIMPLE SQUARE CROP IN PHOTOSHOP 1 Select the Crop tool The square crop might seem old school, but when deployed with skill, it can help simplify and cut to the chase. First, select the Crop Tool (C) and select 1:1 (square) in the options menu (set to Original Ratio by default). Your crop border will now be square. 2 Modify the crop You can now click and drag one of the corner handles to fine-tune the size of your square crop, and click and drag the crop border to move it around your image. You can even rotate the crop by hovering the cursor near a corner handle and dragging accordingly. 3 Finalise the crop When you’re happy with crop, press Enter or click on the…

Andy Cowles The genius of this gatefold sleeve starts with the power of the guitar, moves through Bruce’s wardrobe and lands to rest on the broad shoulders of Clarence Clemons. It’s an homage to friendship, trust and the pleasure of finding out what’s on the other side. Gered Mankowitz A great cover – beautiful, simple composition, gorgeous black & white, terrific but unobtrusive graphics and that wonderful all-knowing smile on Bruce! The visual relationship with saxophonist Clarence Clemons says so much and is a marvellous bonus. Eric Meola did a wonderful job. It’s a joy to behold. Rachael Wright It’s an odd, but interesting, crop because it makes the viewer wonder who the other person is, particularly because of the way Bruce is looking at them so affectionately. I’d have…

MATT Williams is the CEO of UAVHUB (www.uavhub.com), the world’s largest commercial drone training school and the first to be granted Recognised Assessment Entity status by the CAA. He recommends the A2 CofC course (£199) for recreational pilots as it reduces the required distance from built-up areas from 150m to a more manageable 50m initially, and to 30m once the new, safer C2-class drones are available. While Matt understands the need for the new regulations, he feels that there should still be a requirement for commercial drone pilots to hold a qualification with the A2 CofC as a minimum.…

Compact studio backgrounds? Q I’m looking to create a bit of a home studio in my garage and would like to have a selection of backgrounds to use for portrait shoots. The trouble is, I don’t have much room to set up a backdrop stand as it’s quite a narrow space, or to store one when not in use alongside multiple rolls of paper. Are there any compact options that might suit me better? William Brant A Home studios offer you the flexibility to arrange a photoshoot whenever you feel like it, right inside your own four walls. But unless you happen to live in a particularly large house, the chances are that the space you convert might be a little on the small side. With that in mind, there…

I remember reading somewhere when I was young and impressionable that if a picture needs a caption it isn’t doing its job properly. I’m not entirely keen on those sort of hard-nosed and uncompromising absolutes that come from the narrow-minded 20-press-ups-before-breakfast school of photography. Still, I think we’d all agree there is a good deal of value in aiming to get everything that needs to be said actually in the picture rather than on the wall next to it. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words (whose words though – they vary) it might seem excessive to garnish it with even more. That’s like ordering chips with a side of fries. Our cigar-chomping friend from New York, Ascher Fellig – or Weegee as he was known – knew a…