Innholdsfortegnelse for 10-oct-15 i Amateur Photographer

Working at AP is a bit like being a child in a sweet shop. There’s a seemingly endless supply of new equipment to try out. We often spend weekends taking images with a new camera, or trying out a new tripod. It’s all part of the job. Some items strike more of a chord than others, and there are products so good that on a Monday morning we rush in to tell everyone else about them, or show off the images we’ve taken. We share our experiences with each other so that we can form an overall opinion. Since we all have different interests and experiences we can then best inform you. Sometimes a piece of equipment really resonates, and we find ourselves asking the manufacturer if we can borrow…

NIKON has issued a call to amateur and professional filmmakers to enter its European Film Festival. The contest's theme is ‘Everyday Moments', and films submitted can be up to 140 seconds long. This year's jury is headed up by Asif Kapadia (above), the filmmaker behind Amy, the documentary about the life of Amy Winehouse. Films should be in English or have English subtitles, and be shot in HD format. Sub-categories include Best Narrative, Technical Excellence, Best Student Entry and People's Choice, and each winner will receive a Nikon D750 film kit. The Grand Prix winner will receive a Nikon D810 DSLR and an all-expenses-paid networking trip to the Cannes Film Festival. Entries can be submitted online from 13 October 2015 to 15 January 2016. Visit www.nikonfilmfestival.com for further details. Subscribe…

Michael Bosanko Michael’s diverse photographic approach covers modern and industrial architecture, advanced light painting (light graffiti), urban sub-cultures, bands, advertising, events and travel. He works on a range of commissions and his work has been widely published in photography magazines and blogs. Michael is currently based in South Wales. www.michaelbosanko.com 1 Invest in certain pieces of gear Light painting relies on long exposures. The environment will be dark. As with all long-exposure photography, your camera needs to be steady and undisturbed by wind movements. The first item you need to consider is a tripod, but not just any old tripod. Get the best you can afford, with independently moving legs – this is particularly helpful if you are shooting on uneven surfaces. Extend the thicker leg sections first. Thicker stems…

What a delight to read the Your guide to film supplement in AP 19 September. As an established professional in the nautical and aviation fields I have retained my use of film since the early '60s when I worked for Kodak. The jokes have now faded about my use of this format, and the pats on the back from highly respected professionals have increased. Film encourages composition, manual override and, most import of all, finger control on the shutter knowing that only 36 exposures exist. Plus, there's no going through hundreds of digital images for me – often it's just one roll! My Nikon F5s are workhorses and have never needed a service, and I often taken them to sea in all weathers. In fact, I include an image (opposite)…

At the age of 74, when most people have long since retired, Heather Angel is working as hard as ever. Her latest project, on plants and pollinators, has involved travelling to 20 countries and has taken five years to complete. The most striking of these images are on display in Heather’s new book – her 60th – titled Pollination Power . The book is an exploration of the ways in which flowers attract pollinators and help propagate the species. The resulting images are not only visually impressive but also scientifically interesting. They demonstrate the vital role a flower’s structure plays in the pollination process and show that as well as insects, such as bees and hoverflies, a range of birds, mammals and even reptiles help spread pollen from one plant…

HEATHER says the most difficult picture to shoot in Pollination Power was this night shot (above) of a mother of pearl moth (Pleuroptya ruralis) visiting ragwort to feed on nectar. It was taken in a field very close to her home in Farnham, Surrey. ‘Photographing at night is infinitely more challenging than working by day,' she says. ‘Nocturnal animals are much better adapted to night vision than humans. So spotting a pollinator has to be done with a torch, but white light invariably disturbs the insect. ‘Initially, I tried filtering the light with red Cellophane, but then I had to carry two torches and in rain the Cellophane is no longer taut. Then I found an LED headlight with optional white or red light. White light aids access to the…

Time to visit CWMORTHIN, for me, is an autumn or winter photo location – one where you want clouds clinging to the hilltops and perhaps a bit of snow blown up against the slate walls or fences for added dramatic effect. Rain-washed slate spoil heaps and the slate fence can look very moody. Cwmorthin has subject matter for everyone, from wideangle landscapes and panoramas to views shot with moderate telephotos, and enough subject matter for the macro enthusiast. It means you could be carrying a full kit bag with lenses, from a very wide 14mm to 200mm or even longer. Even a perspective-control lens could be useful in this type of environment. If you want a slightly different view of the mine and its buildings, try to get above them…

From £99.99 www.bouncelite.com Filter tray A filter cassette slides into the filter holder. This cassette also takes coloured gels and allows you to adjust the colour temperature of the flash quickly and easily. Rubber flash mounting Larger flashes such as the Canon 580EX II fit snugly into the BounceLite. For smaller flashes there are two rubber adapters included in the kit. At a glance Flashgun-mounting light diffuser Quick and easy to change and modify lighting Gels included to adapt to colour temperature BOUNCELITE began as a Kickstarter project from British inventor Tony Chau, who raised a respectable £34,000 to bring the idea to life. Light shot directly from a flashgun is often harsh, but bouncing a flash off a low ceiling or a wall is a great way to achieve…

Camera comparisons Q I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 with the kit lens and a12-35mm f/2.8 Lumix lens. With these I get pleasing A4 prints from JPEGs using most of the frame. However, I have read that the Fujifilm X-T1 is very good, especially the JPEGs. I also have several AF Nikkor lenses and have tried these on a Nikon D3300 body, but the manual focusing was hopeless and I don't like the viewfinder, which is nothing like as good as those on my old Nikon F80 and F6. Before I spend any more on the GX7, in your opinion would it be possible to detect any difference between A4 prints from JPEGs from, say, two thirds of the frame, from the GX7 plus 12-35mm, the X-T1 plus 18-55mm and…

Paul Floyd Blake Paul is a portrait and documentary photographer whose work focuses on the intricacies of everyday life. In 2012, he produced his first monograph of photographs, Personal Best , which was published by Dewi Lewis and exhibited at the Impressions Gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Since 2004, Paul has been a part of The Bradford Grid, a collective of photographers who live or work in Bradford. Visit www.paulfloydblake.co.uk. 1987 Pentax MX This was my first camera and I bought it when I was about 24 years old. I'm not a techie, so I found it easy to use. As it was manually operated, it forced me to develop an understanding of the basic aspects of taking a photograph. This was still my first choice of camera when I…

THE NEW GoPro Hero+ offers a fully-functioning action camera at a competitive price, with the added bonus of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Expanding the Hero range, the new GoPro Hero+ is a basic, no-frills version of the Hero+ LCD, removing the touchscreen but retaining wireless connectivity. It shoots 1080p and 720p video at 60fps (an improvement on the 30fps of the original Hero model), and is also capable of capturing 8-million-pixel stills. As you'd expect from GoPro, it's also waterproof up to depths of 40m. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allow users to join the camera with a smartphone via the GoPro app, which in turn allows for remote control of the camera as well as instant trimming and sharing of videos. Additional photo modes include timelapse and 5fps, while…

During a climbing trip to the Llanberis Pass in North Wales, I had just hiked up to the base of some cliffs near the Pen-y-Pass youth hostel and took off my rucksack, which had my 1985 Canon Sure Shot in a padded case attached to one of the outside straps. I then got my climbing gear together and, attached to my partner, proceeded to the first part of the ascent. At the start of the climb, I turned around in time to see a sheep walk past my rucksack and knock it over. In slow motion I saw it tumble and then bounce its way down100 metres of rocky scree to the bottom, rolling over and over. The recovered camera didn't work but, remarkably, it was repairable. At some point…

1 For shooting most insects in detail, a macro lens is essential. However, it's possible to shoot some bigger butterflies with a telephoto lens, which focuses at fairly close range. When shooting macro, the depth of field is narrow unless you stop down the lens. Without plenty of light, you may need to increase the ISO sensitivity. 2 Do as much insect watching as you can before photographing. Decide on the angle you want to photograph the insect from. If you want to show a bee with the pollen in its pollen basket on the rear legs, a side view is important. If you want to show the mouthparts used for feeding, shoot the insect head-on. 3 Approach insects slowly, at an even pace. If you rush up to an…

Jeremy Walker Jeremy Walker is an award-winning professional photographer with many years’ experience specialising in high-quality landscape and location photography for use by advertising, design and corporate clients. A belief in ‘quality is everything’ and a meticulous approach serve Jeremy and his clients well. www.jeremywalker.co.uk THE CWMORTHIN slate mine is situated just above the tiny village of Tanygrisiau, near the historic Welsh slate mining capital of Blaenau Ffestiniog. It is a mecca for photographers who want to shoot a slice of Britain's industrial heritage in an extremely moody landscape. Take care, though, as the area is riddled with ancient mine tunnels, slate caverns and industrial waste heaps. My advice is to stay on the many footpaths. Cwmorthin can be a hard place to find – aim for the tiny railway…

Ramy Youssry, Egypt Ramy, who describes himself as a graphic designer, illustrator and photographer, became interested in photography back in 2010, when he started university. While we see examples of his documentary work here, Ramy says he has no real preference for any genre and will try his hand at anything that takes his fancy. For Ramy, the appeal of photography lies in his ability to truly express himself. To see more of his work, visit www.behance.net/ramy_shokr97a7. 1 Lake Burullus In this compositionally simple scene, Ramy was particularly struck by the reflections and the contrast between the large and small boat Canon EOS 550D, 18-55mm, 1/500sec at f/7.1, ISO 100 2 Tear Gas Ramy took this image during one of the protests in the Azarita region in Alexandria, Egypt. The…

£39.95 www.xsories.com XSORIES has a great reputation for producing neat products that become almost indispensable to photographers. This 36-LED video-light array features a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery and, when tested in-studio, easily achieved its quoted 180-lux output at 1m. With multiple hotshoe mounts and a universal screw thread, it can be banked together with other units to form a larger array or adapted to any camera with a hotshoe. It does bear an uncanny resemblance, both in size and appearance, to many sports camcorders and can be paired with a GoPro on a selfie stick, without adding appreciably to the weight. If you're looking to extend and exploit the video capabilities of your camera beyond daylight hours, then the XShine is good for close-range subjects and small groups of people. With…

IT'S NO secret that prime lenses are the first choice for photographers searching for ultimate sharpness, and the arrival of the Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 will whet the appetites of many photographers who want one of the best-performing wideangle lenses for Sony Alpha 7-series cameras. As its price suggests, it's a premium piece of kit that comes with the protection and weather seals you need for shooting in the great outdoors. There's no faulting the build quality – it's solid and built to last just as one would expect from a lens engineered by Zeiss. As far as image quality is concerned, the lens resolves exceptional sharpness, and having tested it with the Sony Alpha 7R II it's clear it has been designed to excel when it's paired with cameras…

Normally, when you look at a photographer’s work, you can’t help riffling through a stack of mental filing cards: ‘Oh, yes, you can see the influence of…’ When you’re old and cynical enough, it’s also frighteningly easy to categorise just about anything as part of a genre: arty nudes, gritty street photography, whatever. It is a considerable surprise, therefore, to be faced with a body of work that defies categorisation, or where you have to stretch very hard indeed to find parallels. Jean Lecourieux-Bory’s series ‘Petit Patron’ (‘Small Businessman’) is therefore a significant shock to the system. The thing it most closely resembles is a first-class picture essay from the great days of photojournalism, beautifully shot in black & white. But even then, the resemblance is tenuous. It is a…

RICOH has revealed the HD Pentax-D FA 24-70mm f/2.8 ED SDM WR, bolstering its lens line-up in preparation for its forthcoming full-frame DSLR. The new zoom follows Ricoh revealing that its long-awaited Pentax full-frame DSLR will finally make its debut in spring 2016, having originally been slated for the end of this year. The 24-70mm f/2.8 includes a Supersonic Direct-drive Motor (SDM) for autofocus, weather-resistant construction, and HD coating. It comprises 17 elements in 12 groups, including three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) optical elements, one anomalous dispersion glass aspherical element and three aspherical elements. The lens will be available from late October for £1,149.99. For the latest news visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk…

You answered… A Yes, it’s all part of the process 47% B No, I’d much rather be taking them 28% C It depends entirely on the images 20% D No, I don’t edit my images, I just use them straight from the camera 5% What you said ‘No, it’s a necessary bore. I particularly kick myself when I have to correct a stupid error that I should have spotted when I took the original photograph’ ‘I can’t say I enjoy editing but it’s part of the deal, so I don’t not enjoy it either’ ‘Yes. I enjoy the digital post-exposure process in a similar way that I enjoy being in the darkroom and attempting to get the best out of a negative’ ‘A big yes. When I’m shooting I have…

‘AS A VISUALLY creative person I've always been interested in film, particularly the transition from stills to moving images. As my knowledge and understanding of digital filmmaking started to evolve, I became aware of the limitations of the equipment I was using. As always, you try to improve, because when you see others' creative work you get inspired. I then noticed that the name Blackmagic Design kept popping up. For me, the deciding factor in using the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera was that it didn't cost a massive amount of money. Plus, since I use Canon EF lenses, I could mount these straight away with a converter (which, again, isn't too expensive). It's a great way of getting into a range that will help you create cinematic quality. The dynamic…

FOR THIS project, Heather's main camera body was the Nikon D4, with a D800 as a back-up. To reduce the weight of her kit bag, she used two main lenses: the 105mm Micro-Nikkor, which was her ‘workhorse' for most subjects, and a 70-200mm f/2.8 for birds and butterflies, sometimes with a 2x converter. She also used a Nikon Speedlight SB-900 as a fill-in flash for photographing larger visitors such as birds, but not butterflies. ‘Butterflies tend to react to flash and, on the whole, you're better off without it,' she says. ‘They seemed to be lifting off almost before I'd released the shutter.' To reduce shadows and even out contrasty light, Heather attached a Honl Photo Traveller8 Softbox to the flash unit. ‘It collapses flat in my bag, so is…

Lens A wideangle lens is essential, and even a 24mm tilt-and-shift would be very useful. The image possibilities are endless, but if you want to limit what you carry the ever-faithful 24-70mm is a most useful lens. I would also consider carrying a tripod. Torch and whistle Carry a torch and whistle and learn the international distress signals for an emergency. There won’t always be a phone signal. Footwear This is definitely a walking-boot-type location and you may even want to consider taking a walking pole to help you on the initial steep slope up to the lake.…

Removing camera shake THIS photograph by Chris Ducker was shot in the early hours of the morning on a cloudy day (hence the strong blue cast) at a shutter speed of 1/20sec using an aperture of f/8. Even when shooting with a wideangle lens, this is pushing the limits for a handheld shot without image stabilisation. I note that the picture was photographed using a Nikon D5000. This camera model is a few years old now, but even so, in low light conditions like this it should have been possible to increase the ISO setting to 800, open the aperture to f/5.6 and shoot at a more reasonable 1/80sec. The following steps show how I was able to colour-correct the original and successfully remove the camera shake. 1 Correct white…

WHILE all neutral-density filters are designed to carry out the same purpose (that is, reduce the intensity of light that passes through the lens to the sensor), there are some ND filters that perform better than others. The research and development that Cokin has put into its new nano-metallic-alloy coating has paid dividends, and the results from our thorough testing confirm Cokin's claims that its Nuances filters deliver stunning neutrality. In an ideal world, each filter would be packaged in a solid metal tin with a protective foam insert. As I discovered, it's not practical to take the filters out in the boxes they arrive in, so transporting and protecting them in a filter pouch or wallet is a must. The fact the foam ring is removable and susceptible to…

Resolution As our Applied Imaging tests show, the centre sharpness at f/2 is excellent and is matched by good results at the corners. Stopping the lens down to f/4 improves overall edge-to-edge sharpness, with f/5.6-f/8 delivering the best results. Users shouldn’t be afraid to close the lens down to f/16 to create a large depth of field, and although f/20 and f/22 are perfectly usable, diffraction does start to hinder sharpness and fine detail at these settings. Shading It will come as no surprise that the lens exhibits most vignetting when it’s used wide open, but things improve quickly when the lens is stopped down. Vignetting is obvious at f/2, but closing it down to f/2.8 sees an improvement. By the time you reach f/3.2 and f/3.5 the obvious signs…