Innholdsfortegnelse for 20/02/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Macro photography has been one of the big winners of the pandemic crisis. You can do it at home, indoors or in the garden, and there’s an endless variety of subjects. This week we look at how to use colour creatively in close-ups. At the other end of the Covid win/lose scale is the theatre industry which, like all live entertainment venues, is in crisis. We talk to TV actor Bill Ward, of Corrie and Emmerdale fame, who is also, it turns out, a gifted photographer. He has just published a book capturing the wonderful architecture of Britain’s theatres, to help raise money to save them. Also this week Nick Turpin tells us about the challenges of street photography during this past year, and we take a fascinating glimpse into…

‘Does a variable LCD ND even need to add any significant heft and bulk anyway?’ More stills cameras should feature built-in neutral density filters. There are a few – the Fuji X100T and Sony RX100 Mk III, IV and V for example – but they’re very basic 3-stop affairs and very much the exception. By contrast built-in NDs are becoming par for the course on high-end video cameras. The popular Sony F5 and F55 that we use on The Gadget Show have switchable 3 and 6-stop filters that are frequently deployed to allow a wider aperture and less depth of field on bright, sunny days. I find the variable NDs fitted to other Sony video cameras we also use more intriguing, though. They first appeared on the FS5 and now…

A few years ago I became fascinated by colour theory. Leafing through countless books – I recommend The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair and Color Problems by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel – I was thrilled by the idea that colours can make us feel, or even act, a certain way. Having had the pleasure of looking at thousands of beautiful images since the launch of Close-up Photographer of the Year in 2018 I have seen first-hand how colour can direct the eye around the frame, repel or seduce the viewer and how individual colours can seem to magically alter when placed next to complementary or contrasting hues. It should be no surprise, then, that when it came to choosing a subject for the first themed CUPOTY Challenge in…

Damien Walmsley, Solihull About Damien Damien is a professor of dentistry, and in his photography he likes to turn his hand to everything from street and travel photos to macro. How did you get into photography? It was while I was training to be a dental specialist. During this time, I had to take pictures of people’s mouths and teeth, and it was the discipline of dental macro that refined my photo-taking skills. First camera My first digital camera was a Nikon Coolpix 950. Current kit I now use a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with an EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM. Dream purchase A Leica M10R with a 50mm lens would be great for my street and documentary work, but the body alone costs more than £7,000! Tell us about…

Connectors A 2.5mm port accepts Canon’s RS-60E3 wired remote control, and there’s a 3.5mm stereo mic socket too. Both are placed so as not to block the screen movement. You also get HDMI and Micro USB ports. Mode dial This is notably simplified compared to previous models, with the various subject-optimised scene modes consolidated to a single position. Screen This can be set to almost any direction, including for high- or low-angle shooting, or facing forwards for when you want to include yourself in the picture. Battery Battery life is one area where DSLRs still lead mirrorless models, with the LP-E17 promising 810 shots per charge, dropping to 310 in live view. However it can only be charged externally. Flash The built-in flash has to be popped up manually. It…

Lenses It’s common for current smartphones to have a three-lens set-up. All but the Pixel 5 in this group follow suit. Size Smartphones seem to have steadily got larger over the years – size is a key consideration, with some brands offering multiple options. Remote shooting The Note20 Ultra is the only one of the group to come with a stylus – which you can use to trigger the shutter remotely. Protection Although most modern smartphones have an attractive design, it’s worth investing in a case to protect it from scrapes and scratches. iPhone 12 Pro ● From £999 ● apple.com UNLIKE previous years, Apple’s top-tier iPhone models (iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max) have slightly different camera set-ups. Most people are arguably more likely to go for the…

Chorus Formation by Sasha The Albertina Rasch chorus girls who are appearing in ‘Wild Violets’. Born in Vienna, Albertina Rasch moved to the USA during the so-called American dance craze of the 1910s. There she found success by founding a troupe of dancers described as ‘highly disciplined and balletically trained girls who performed in many revues, musicals, and recitals during the 1920s and 1930s’. Rasch also had a successful career as a choreographer working with names such as Norma Shearer and Fred Astaire, being the only established female dance director working in Hollywood at the time. 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 houses over 80 million images spanning…

WITH a dearth of new DSLR models during the past few years, it’s been a long time since I last reviewed one. So shooting with the EOS 850D has been an interesting experience. On one level, it’s a highly refined and capable camera, and if you’re a glass-half-full person, you might conclude that you’re getting the best of both worlds. After all, this is a DSLR that boasts many of the best features of a mirrorless camera when it’s switched into live view. The thing is, though, that the EOS 850D actually works better in live view in almost every respect. In DSLR mode, it’s let down by its tiny, inaccurate viewfinder; in other words, the one asset that’s supposed to weigh decisively in its favour. So arguably, you’re getting…

THE NIKON School, which is now entirely online, has launched a new website. ‘It is now even easier to navigate through online courses, from virtual photography tours exploring scenic landscapes, to technical tutorials,’ said the company. In addition, ‘On Location’ courses will be added over the coming months, the Hints and Tips section for technical advice has been improved, and a new Reviews tab has been added so you can see other participants’ views on the courses. New ‘How To’ courses will include black & white photography, dog photography and proofing prints, while the ‘Mastering’ series of camera guides will include the Z 6II and Z 7II, and the Z 6 and Z 7. There are also new Digital Darkroom courses on Lightroom Classic and Capture One. Amateur Photographer readers…

18 February 1948 THREE years after the end of WW2, film was still in short supply, which created an opportunity for racketeers. The Leader offered a cautionary tale: ‘The supplying of re-spooled Government surplus film is in the main a perfectly honest and legitimate business, filling most acceptably the partial void left by the very inadequate supplies of freshly made branded film. But on the outer fringes of this honest trading there has grown up quite a flourishing racket. We have heard of a number of cases; one is worth recording as an example. A correspondent visited a hairdresser and noticed a camera or two in his window. Conversation naturally turned to photography, and as the hairdresser was administering the usual valedictory touches with a clothes brush he enquired “Would…

Utterly amazing! That is not just a comment about your excellent Christmas Special, but also the fact that, for once, I am stuck for words. How you all manage to produce so much in the time you have, plus the extra pages in the ‘monthly’ edition, is truly amazing. Full of interesting and well-thought-out articles, there’s surely something for everyone. But I do agree with Alan Sharkey’s objection in Inbox to the comment that the Canon EOS M system is difficult to recommend as a long-term investment. I use an EOS M50 with the excellent 18-150mm, 11-22mm and 28mm Macro lenses, and the original EOS M with the 22mm. Just how many lenses do you need? I don’t understand the hostility to fully articulating screens either. The one on my…

Kronstadt is a fortress on Kotlin Island, west of St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1704 to guard his new capital city which he also founded a year earlier. The modern Russian Navy began in Kronstadt and was the home base of the Baltic Fleet. The Neo-Byzantine style St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral dominates Anchor Square in the southeast of the island, the Wild West Wildlife Refuge occupies the northwestern tip. There are monuments to Arctic explorer Piotr Pakhtusov, Antarctica explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov. The parks are spacious, gardens opulent and highways tree-lined. As you’d expect from a military municipality, it also harbours a secretive, turbulent and at times, horrific past. There were several mutinies around 1905, an uprising in…

Sensor 24.1MP CMOS, 22.3x14.9mm Output size 6000x4000 Focal length mag 1.6x Lens mount Canon EF / EF-S Shutter speeds 30–1/4000sec Sensitivity ISO 100-25,600 (standard), extendable to ISO 51,200 Exposure modes PASM, Auto, Scene, Creative Metering Evaluative, partial, spot, centre-weighted Exposure comp +/-5EV in 0.3EV seps Cont. shooting 7fps (7.5fps in live view) Screen 3in, 1.04m-dot LCD touchscreen Viewfinder 0.51x magnification, 95% coverage AF points 45 (143 in live view) Video 4K 25fps, Full HD 60fps External mic 3.5mm stereo Memory card SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-I only Power LP-E17 Li-ion Battery life 800 shots (310 in live view) Dimensions 131.0x102.6x76.2mm Weight 515g inc battery & memory card…

The crops shown below are taken from the area outlined above in red We’ve seen this sensor and processor combination in previous Canon models, and it brings no great surprises here. It delivers fine image quality at low ISO settings, with strong, attractive colour and plenty of fine detail. Noise starts to become visible at ISO 800, but it’s only at ISO 3200 that it starts to have any real impact on fine detail. There’s a visible drop-off in quality at ISO 6400, though, and while ISO 12,800 is perfectly usable for smaller reproduction sizes, it’s probably as high as you’d usually want to go. By ISO 25,600 both colour and detail have deteriorated dramatically, while ISO 51,200 is barely usable. RAW ISO 100 RAW ISO 800 RAW ISO 3200…

Rubber top A rubber top and carpet drawer liners stops things from sliding around. Easy-fit Two metal rings enable the casing to be attached to the boot cargo rings. Custom-built Each Car-Boot Box is custom-built to fit the car it’s ordered for. Air Frame design Cut-outs make the case lightweight, yet still robust. ● £395 ● www.car-bootbox.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHER Peter Sturt came up with the idea for the Car-Boot Box when he was trying to find a way of stopping his dog from being ill during every car journey. He quickly realised that the problem was that she couldn’t see out and by raising her up in the boot, she would see through the window. His solution: to build a plywood frame that she could sit on top of. A bit…

Olympus Tough TG-6 ● £370 ● 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 ● £729 ● 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. ★★★★…

Thankfully it isn’t necessary that all photographs should be of a serious nature. It is perfectly legitimate, for example, that the sole purpose of a picture might be to inspire the viewer to say ‘aaahhh’ – whether actually out loud for those nearby to hear or in the depths of their consciousness where emotional reactions don’t always have to give themselves away. Pictures can be heartening, relaxing, exciting or just a pleasant incidental influence on the room in the way that the music played in lifts is designed to elevate the journey. More ‘worthy’ pictures might exist to impart factual material or to instruct us, or to inform us of events that occurred in places or times in which we weren’t present ourselves. Photographs though do need some purpose. We…