Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-Oct-2020 i Amateur Photographer

This week we talk to top fashion and beauty photographer Rossella Vanon to find out just how much work goes into those stunning portraits that fill the women’s glossies –from planning, styling, lighting and shooting through to the retouching. If you prefer your subjects to have fur, or feathers, we’ve got seven pages of wonderful wildlife photos from APOY Round Six, taken by your talented fellow readers. Mike Crawford continues his tour through the world of film photography with a look at the benefits and variety of cameras to be found in medium format. Our technical team tests the Z 5, Nikon’s most affordable full-frame mirrorless model yet, and we reassess a former Product of the Year, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art, as a great secondhand buy. As if that…

Viking Sam by Steve Sulley Nikon D3300, 50mm lens, 1/200sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 ‘I took up photography when I retired in 2015 and my company bought me my first DSLR as a retirement present,’ says Steve. It was a great gift because he is still using it five years later, and enjoys photographing any subject that includes people. ‘Sam and her family are Viking re-enactors and I met them at a Nottingham & Notts Photographic Society location shoot,’ he tells us. ‘I asked them if they would like to have another shoot, but in a studio, with lighting. We used the studio’s wind machine (well, a fan!) to blow Sam’s hair away from her face.’ Viking Sam should have no axe to grind with this portrait – it’s nicely lit,…

GOOGLE has announced the latest version of its Pixel smartphone, version 5. A popular choice for smartphone photography owing to its smart in-phone JPEG processing, the new phone features a dual rear camera that consists of a 16MP ultra-wide angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and a 12.2MP lens with a f/1.7 aperture. On the front is an 8MP camera for selfies. Popular Pixel features, such as Night Sight and Portrait Modes, are also included in the new phone. Driving the Pixel 5 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor, which, while not the most powerful on the market, should make short work of everyday smartphone chores, including photography. The phone comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage – there is no microSD card support, however. The new phone…

Fashion and photography enjoy a symbiotic relationship. When a designer or cosmetics company launches a new range, imagery plays a key role in promoting the garments or products and their associated lifestyles. These images could be designed to glamorise, provoke or inspire, and are by no means limited to the pages of glossy fashion magazines – shop windows rely on striking promotional imagery to encourage shoppers to step inside and browse. Fashion and beauty photographers, therefore, have an essential part to play. As genres they’re subtly different – one sells clothes, the other cosmetics – and each requires a subtly different skillset, but one photographer who has mastered both is Rossella Vanon. London-based Rossella is renowned for her use of vibrant colours and precision lighting and loves the creative freedom…

I loved reading the articles on the joy of film (AP, 29 August). My first camera was a Kodak Cresta 3, with 120 film, around 1963, which I still own. But my, how times have changed. My dear granddaughter visits us most days, and a couple of weeks ago began to show an interest in one of my old digital cameras. So after I charged it, off she went, taking pics of everything she could find. How wonderful it was to see one so young getting so much enjoyment from photography. So on her third birthday last week she received her first digital camera, which she put into action straight away. The digital age has certainly changed the way of taking pictures – this was something she could not have…

I was asked in 2011 if I would be interested in working on a series of portraits documenting participants in the Slovenian Ministry of Culture’s Artist in Residence London programme. I was looking for a new subject for portraiture, so gladly accepted the offer. 120 was the natural choice and decided to use the Mamiya 6 I had just bought. Each month a new artist was in London and I presumed I would work on the project for perhaps two years, resulting in 24 portraits. I met and photographed a fascinating variety of painters, poets, musicians, writers and filmmakers, however it soon became a three and then a four-year project and finally called a halt at 52 portraits as by then an exhibition in Slovenia was scheduled. All the portraits…

Meets 7.30pm Monday evenings, approximately fortnightly (see website for programme) from September to April Membership £40 single, £60 double. No additional meeting fee (optional cuppa and homemade cake only £1). £4/meeting for visitors; up to two meetings in a season are refundable against the first subscription Contact Via website Website www.bakewellphotographic.co.uk Are any residential trips or outings planned? Not recently, though we often discuss it. We have found it more productive to establish photographic themes and invite members to use their own trips to populate these themes. Are there any funny stories? That depends on your sense of humour! There was one competition where the judge didn’t appear. We discovered he was sitting at home watching EastEnders, having forgotten. He arrived at warp speed shortly afterwards. What are the club’s…

Sensor 24.3MP CMOS Output size 6016x4016 pixels Focal length mag 1x Lens mount Nikon Z Shutter speeds 30-1/8000sec ISO 100-51200 (50-102400 extended) Exposure modes PASM, Auto Metering Matrix, centre-weighted, spot, highlight Exposure comp +/-5EV in 1/3 or 1/2 steps Burst shooting 4.5fps Screen 3.2in, 1.04m-dot tilting touchscreen Viewfinder 3.69m-dot EVF, 0.8x magnification Video 4K UHD (30/25/24p) Full HD (60/50/30/25/24p) External mic 3.5mm stereo Memory card Dual SD (both UHS-II compatible) Power EN-EL15c rechargeable Li-ion battery Battery life 470 shots (LCD), 390 shots (EVF) Dimensions 134x100.5x69.5mm Weight 675g with battery and card…

The crops shown below are taken from the area outlined above in red Users of the Z 5 can expect lovely clean, noise-free images between ISO 100 and ISO 800 shooting in raw. Push to ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 and you’ll start to notice noise appearing, however it can be remedied by applying a small amount of noise reduction during post processing. ISO 6400 and ISO 12,800 are usable, but you’ll notice fine detail starts to be encumbered by increased noise in the latter. While I’d be prepared to shoot up to ISO 25,600 at a push on the Z 6, I’d consider ISO 12,800 to be the upper limit I’d be willing to shoot at on the Z 5. I’d highly recommend avoiding ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400…

Penny Farthing Bugle by Fox Photos Edwin Davey, riding a penny farthing over Lambeth Bridge in London, and blowing a bugle to warn of his approach. Penny farthings were the first machine to be known as a ‘bicycle’, first becoming popular in the 1870s. Although it became virtually obsolete from the 1880s – thanks to modern bicycles being developed and being much safer – there remains to this day a number of dedicated penny-farthing enthusiasts. As recently as 2018, records were still being set on penny farthings, when Mark Beaumont, a Scottish cyclist, set the British record for the longest distance travelled in an hour, covering 21.92 miles at the Herne Hill Velodrome in Surrey. He narrowly missed the world record by just 290 yards. The Getty Images Hulton Archive…

Canon USA has added five photographers to its Explorers of Light program. The diverse list includes British fashion photographer Lara Jade who is now based in New York. Lara started her career as a self-portrait photographer and eventually found her feet in the fashion and beauty world. The other photographers added are Lynsey Weatherspoon, Kahran and Regis Bethencourt (CreativeSoul), and Atiba Jefferson. ‘Each photographer brings their own refreshing blend of art and creativity by capturing life and culture from perspectives that are uniquely their own,’ says Canon. See bit.ly/explorersoflight.…

A NEW tripod weighing just 500g, the Novo Mantis T3 Mini Tripod has been released. It folds down to just 215mm when it is closed, so it could fit into a jacket pocket without much forcing, and certainly a bigger camera-bag pouch. Despite its compact size, the Novo Mantis can hold up to 5kg of camera gear. The tripod is made from aviation-grade aluminium and Superweave carbon fibre, with a hard anodization finish for scratch resistance and robustness, plus carbon fibre legs with rubber twist locks designed for fast leg extensions. Stainless steel spikes can be used for extra stability in softer ground, by removing the rubber feet on the legs. ‘You can attach virtually any type of ball, 3-way or video head to the platform, using the integrated spring…

Printer Printing out your mood boards and bringing them with you to the shoot will allow the whole team to have easy access to them for reference throughout the day. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM This is Rossella’s favourite lens for close-up portraits and beauty shots. The focal length is long enough to allow for close framing and the macro feature allows her to focus on very close details like lips and eyes for beauty shots. Photoshop Rossella uses Photoshop extensively both before, during and after the shoot. She uses it to make her mood boards and edit previews during the shoot, as well as to carry out her entire post-processing workflow. Wacom tablet This is an essential item when it comes to fashion and beauty retouching, and it’s…

1 Raw image I start by assessing my shot and identifying any problem areas. I always start from the most problematic area and then work my way towards the more subtle, creative adjustments. 2 Hair I have assessed that hair is the problem area in this image, so I tackle that first. I use a mix of compositing, Frequency Separation and Dodge and Burn to both fill in and tidy up the hair, and then finish off with a subtle use of Liquify to enhance volume and shape. 3 Skin Next, I focus on the skin. I use the Healing Brush to even out the texture and remove imperfections. After, I Dodge the skin to eliminate any dark blotchy areas to make the skin appear smoother. I treat lips at…

Round Six Natural World ERIC BROWETT from Hertfordshire is the winner of Round Six of APOY 2020. As category winner, he wins products of up to £1,000 in value (based on Sigma’s RRP). If his choice of lens is above this price, he can elect to pay the difference. For a compact and lightweight telephoto zoom, try the 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary (SRP £799.99). For extra reach, the 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary (SRP £999.99) is ideal. 1 Eric Browett UK 20pts Nikon D500, 80-400mm at 130mm, 1/8000sec at f/5, ISO 1600 A superb action shot of a hugely tricky subject. Sometimes, the impact of a kingfisher’s splash can obscure the important bit – the bird itself – but here, the droplets enhance the overall…

1 Many 120 cameras use a waist level finder, offering a different viewpoint than holding the camera up to the eye to focus. It can also help the photographer appear less noticeable when working which is always an asset and especially useful for street photography. 2 Hasselblad, Bronica and some Mamiya cameras use interchangeable film backs that are ideal if a photographer wants to switch from black & white to colour mid roll. One of the photographic assistant’s main jobs used to be keeping the 120 backs loaded during a shoot. 3 While Holga and Diana cameras are popular for the ‘creative’ look provided by their low quality plastic lenses, cheaper alternatives to consider are the older Box and Folding cameras such as the Kodak Brownie. These can be bought…

NIKON has become a major player in the full-frame mirrorless market since entering it in 2018. The Z 6 and Z 7 scooped many accolades from its critics and have gone down a storm with users worldwide so it’s not surprising to see Nikon taking the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to its third camera in the Z-series. Touted as an entry-level model, the Z 5 is much more advanced than this basic classification suggests. It’s alike the Z 6 in terms of its build quality and handling, but by making a few alterations such as equipping it with a conventional CMOS sensor, removing the top plate display and employing a lower-resolution screen, Nikon has been able to make it cheaper. Other things like the fact it…

● £59 ● www.cleyspy.co.uk THE CLEYSPY Mulepack isn’t your average camera backpack. Specially designed for wildlife and bird photographers who’d like to carry a telescope and tripod setup whilst leaving their hands free to use binoculars or negotiate tricky terrain, it’s like no other bag we’ve tested before. Intrigued to find out if it might be a useful accessory for photographers who’d like to carry their camera and lens mounted to their tripod, we decided to take a closer look. The triangular shape of the Mulepack is designed in such a way that the tripod legs attach to the bag in their splayed position, meaning there’s no wasted time when you take it off your shoulders for use. Securing it to your tripod is a fairly straightforward procedure, but this…

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…

Gods Of Malabar by Arjun Kavil Sony A9, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art, 1/800sec,f/1.4, ISO 640› ‘I took this in February, before Covid-19 came,’ says Arjun. ‘Theyyam is a traditional art form performed in Kerala, India. It tells the story of Kandanar Kelan, who died in a fire and was brought back to life by the warrior god Wayanattu Kulavan, and then became divine.’ This is a beautifully atmospheric image, relying solely on the light of the flames to illuminate not only the main performer but also the peripheral figures gathered around him. Arjun can be found on Instagram at @arjun.kavil. #appicoftheweek Win! Each week we choose our favourite picture on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Twitter using #appicoftheweek. PermaJet proudly supports the online picture of the week winner, who will receive…

SanDisk has announced updated Extreme and new Extreme Pro portable SSD drives with capacities up to 2TB. The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD now delivers write speeds up to 1000MB/s and read speeds of 1050MB/s and comes in a silicone shell, shock-proof from drops of up to two metres and water and dust resistant. The SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD, meanwhile, provides read and write speeds of up to 2000MB/s and comes in an aluminium shell. The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is on sale now in 500GB (£133.99) and 1TB (£216.99) versions A 2TB version is due for release later this year. The 2TB version of the SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD is on sale now for £418.99, with a 1TB version expected later in the year.…

13 September 1977 LADIES and gentlemen, I present the world’s smallest 35mm SLRs. Like regular SLRs but shrunk, like our cover model’s shorts, to tiny proportions. Step aside, Olympus, the Pentax ME and MX have stolen your crown. If you think modern cameras are expensive the manual-only Pentax MX cost £209.95, which is £1,526 in today’s money. In Rex Hayman’s review the MX’s meter didn’t work, but he considered that a blessing. ‘The sample I examined at Photokina had all its LEDs working, and frankly I found the five glowing coloured spots distracting.’ he confessed. Editor Martin Hodder was troubled by the new arrivals. ‘Sophistication and miniaturisation do not necessarily go together,’ he opined, adding: ‘What we want, surely, are first rate cameras of manageable proportions.’ George Hughes reviewed an…

‘RETOUCHING an image should always start with eliminating small distractions and enhancing already existing details. We can indeed take the editing further and get very creative, but it is this initial step that will make all the difference. That’s exactly what I focused on here. I removed a few skin imperfections, treated skin tones to remove some of the distracting redness, enhanced eye presence and removed some of the flyaway hairs. It’s all in the details. The key is to know what technique to use and when to stop so we don’t overdo it.’…

Write to the Editor at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk and include your full postal address. Please don’t send letters in the post as there is no one in the office to receive them for the time being. Thanks for your understanding. One camera I was out for a walk around the west end of Glasgow recently with my lovely Fujifilm X100F for company and it got me wondering – if other AP readers could only ever have one camera, which one would it be? For me it would be the X100F for digital or my Olympus Trip 35 or XA2 for film. Stuart Neville Analogue Feel free to dismiss this as a cranky, nit-picking letter. However, I am amused that the rest of the world has accepted that if a device is not…

Eric Browett, 1st Use auto ISO; it allows you to concentrate on shutter speed and aperture, and modern cameras are so effective at dealing with higher ISO numbers that for most of the time it’s an unnecessary distraction. For action wildlife shots, knowing your subject and the way it behaves allows you to anticipate its movements. Watching for a while before taking photographs can pay dividends. You also have to be prepared to accept a lot of blank frames and failed attempts before you get the intended shot. Ravi Prakash Parvatharaju, 10th For me, there are mainly two kinds of satisfying wildlife photographs – those which capture an experience that can be conveyed to the viewers, and those that bring back memories to the photographer. The first is mainly about…

Upholds the excellent handling from the Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 Performs well with Nikon F-mount lenses via FTZ adapter Build quality is superb for a camera at its price point Nikon’s first full-frame Z-series model to offer dual card slots 1.7x crop is applied when shooting 4K (UHD) video 24-50mm kit zoom is likely to be quickly outgrown Tends to produces cool-looking images in AWB mode in sunlight 4.5fps burst shooting is slow for action and high-speed subjects…