Innholdsfortegnelse for 24/04/2021 i Amateur Photographer

There are so many pros to digital that we tend to forget some of the cons – and one big unintended downside is that the art of printing has somewhat taken a back seat. Indeed, many digital images never get printed at all. To help redress the balance, we’re pleased to introduce printing expert and RPS luminary Steve Smith, who reveals how to get outstanding black & white prints that look like they could have been made in a traditional wet darkroom. Staying with classic approaches, film enthusiast Oliver Mayhall discusses the importance of ambiguity in his image-making. Hardware-wise, AP’s testing guru Andy Westlake looks back on using the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II for six years, and mulls over what the future might hold for the Micro Four Thirds…

Dalveen Pass by James Elliot Sony A7, 28-70mm, 1/100sec at f/14, ISO 160 ‘After an unsuccessful sunrise at Morton Castle, I was hoping to photograph something before I headed home,’ recalls 28-year-old James, based in the Scottish Borders, who only took up photography two years ago. ‘The road that runs through the Lowther Hills is perfect for any photographer, with the amazing scenery at either side. I managed to find a viewpoint that was ideal for capturing this image, and the light broke through at just the right time. Instagram: @james.e_photo. Casino de Monte-Carlo by James Ward Canon EOS 750D, 18-135mm, 1.3 secs at f/22, ISO 400 ‘I’m originally from Sheffield,’ says James, ‘but moved with my family to Dubai in 2016 as part of my career as an airline…

28 April 1971 FIFTY years ago this week AP’s big feature was a review of the new paperback edition of David Bailey’s Goodbye Baby & Amen, his ‘sumptuous volume’ of portraits which formed ‘a sort of resume of the swingers who made the sixties’. The pictures were very good, conceded Features Editor George Hughes, but at 95s (£75) the hardback was pricey, so the Corgi paperback, at £1.25 (£18), was a welcome development. (You can still buy this book new on Amazon: £600 for the hardback and £710 in paperback.) If Bailey’s work inspired you, then George’s What’s the gear for girls? piece advised that the best tool for photographing the ladies was a 2 ¼ square format camera like the Rolleiflex (which, of course, Bailey used a lot) along…

The methodology of this process can be expanded to control all the elements in the picture. ‘Highway One’ is a simple image but it has been taken in overcast conditions and the contrast is a little flat. This image has four different elements within the picture – the background and pier, the man, the scooter, and the bench – and each needs to be controlled independently. Each of the elements has been handled separately, with their adjustment layers and masks, and are specific to them. We can control the contrast and tonal range as we wish. Some of the changes will be subtle and there is no reason why we cannot add another type of adjustment layer to a particular element. The scooter has black tones down to 0 in…

Your article about The Clash (AP 6 February) brought back some personal memories about that wonderful man Ray Lowry. I had seen some of his works at a blues festival in about 1993. A few weeks later I was still smiling about them and wondered if I could locate him to possibly buy one of his works. A quick phone call to the venue gave me the name of a small town in Lancashire. Directory enquiries gave me a phone number. Five minutes later I was talking to Ray Lowry himself. We talked for a while then he thanked me for my interest, asked for my address and a couple of days later he sent me the two pictures I enclosed for free. The woman who would soon become my…

1 Increase Contrast I needed to add contrast, but in doing so I did not want to lose the haze. I set the Contrast slider to +100 and expanded the Whites and Blacks sliders to increase the contrast. This added more definition to the trees, which also benefited from me adding Texture and Clarity. 2 Graduated Filters I added a linear Graduated Filter adjustment to gently darken the top of the photo. Another Graduated Filter adjustment was added below to add a green tint to the bluebells. My aim was to balance the colour of the flowers in the foreground to complement the green leaves. 3 Tone Curve Next, I added a Tone Curve adjustment so that I could darken the darks and shadow tones, but without affecting the midtone…

Quick release The integrated quick release clamp accepts Arca Swiss-type plates and even sports a bubble level. Carry case The monopod comes with a padded nylon case, with a drawstring closure and a short rope shoulder strap. Lever lock Rapid height adjustment can be made using the large lever lock, through a 15cm range. ● £190 ● www.benroeu.com THE MONOPOD is perhaps the simplest item of photographic kit. Essentially, it’s just an extendable pole with a camera screw at the top, and I doubt many photographers would see it as ripe for re-imagination. So it would be easy to dismiss a £190 design with a decidedly cheesy name as a triumph of marketing over substance. It would also be wrong. In fact, Benro has taken a look at every aspect…

Cricket Coaching by William Vanderson England and Surrey cricketer Andrew Ducat coaches a group of boys to play the forward defensive stroke in cricket on 26 April 1932 at the Roehampton Club in London. Andrew ‘Andy’ Ducat played both football and cricket professionally, and is one of a select group of individuals to have represented his country in both sports. He retired from playing in 1931 and moved on to coaching and sports writing. Ducat is the only person to have died while playing at Lord’s, where he suffered a heart attack while taking part in a wartime cricket match in 1942. 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…

SAMYANG has revealed a new addition to its ‘Tiny Series’ of compact, affordable primes for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. The Samyang AF 24mm F1.8 FE introduces a new Custom Mode function designed for astrophotography, albeit one that’ll sound strangely familiar to photographers who’ve used manual-focus primes before. By clicking its Focus Hold button, the lens can be set to infinity focus to give the sharpest possible starscapes. The precise focus position can be calibrated to match your specific camera body, with an LED indicator lighting up red or green to indicate whether the focus is correct. In other respects, we’re looking at a compact, lightweight and well-priced f/1.8 prime, which strikes a welcome middle ground between the various E-mount 24mm f/2.8 optics currently available and Sony’s larger and much more…

USED photo kit specialist MPB has raised £49.8 million in its latest funding round, led by Vitruvian Partners with participation from current investor Acton Capital, joining existing investors Mobeus Equity Partners, Beringea and FJ Labs. ‘The used kit market is in a period of significant expansion as more consumers purchase sustainably in the circular economy,’ said MPB. ‘The new wave of funding will allow the company to focus on new product developments and technology that broaden the ways in which people can access kit, and bolster existing operations.’ Founded in Brighton in 2011, MPB claims to be currently ‘recirculating’ 300,000 items of gear globally each year, increasing access to photo and video kit.…

1 Open image in Photoshop Camera Raw and ensure the highlights and shadows are controlled. Adjust the Exposure, Recovery, Whites and Blacks sliders whilst holding down the Option/Alt key to see results. 2 Open your image and add a Channel Mixer 1 adjustment layer and tick the monochrome box. Adjust the contrast using the Red, Green and Blue channels, and finally adjust the Constant slider. 3 Add another Channel Mixer on top of the first and tick the monochrome box. Do not adjust any of the channels. Rename ‘Top Channel Mixer’. 4 Erase the layer mask to Channel Mixer 1 with a suitable opacity to bring back any detail in the shadows and highlights using the brush tool and black paint. 5 Certain elements of the image can be copied…

At a glance £450-£650 body only, used condition ● 36.3-million-pixel, full-frame CMOS sensor ● Expeed 3 processor ● ISO 100-6400 (extended to ISO 50-25,600) ● 51-point AF system ● 3.2in LCD screen On its release in 2012 the D800 was in many ways a game-changer for the serious enthusiast. It was Nikon’s second enthusiast-level full-frame DSLR, following the release of the D700 three and a half years earlier. The D800 was smaller and had a much lower price tag than the pro-spec, full-frame D4. Several features found on the more expensive D4 are also on the D800, namely the Expeed 3 processor, autofocus and metering sensors, LCD and video-capture capabilities.…

1 Calibration Calibrate your display so that the colours you see on the display match what you will see in print. 2 Set Luminance As part of the calibration process, set the display luminance to around 110-120 cd/m›. A higher luminance will affect your editing and may result in dark prints. For example, an LCD display at full brightness can have a luminance of around 400 cd/m›. 3 Soft proofing Use soft proofing to help predict what your print will look like. When you enable the Soft proofing feature in Lightroom, this adjusts the display preview to show you what the print will actually look like. You can then apply further Develop edits to compensate for things like a loss in colour contrast. 4 Preview At…

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. ★★★★…

IMAGING software specialist DxO has introduced a new kind of raw conversion program called PureRAW, which aims to make its image processing technologies more widely available. Designed specifically for those who currently use software from rivals, DxO PureRAW takes camera raw files and applies the firm’s proprietary demosaicing, noise reduction and lens corrections to produce partially developed files as 16-bit linear DNGs. These can then be fully processed in programs such as Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom just like conventional raw files, but with potentially better detail and lower noise. The software is designed to be very simple to use. You select the files to convert, confirm the correct camera/lens profiles, choose the noise reduction algorithm and press go. This gives access to some of the best lens aberration compensation…

Single Dad by Harry Borden. Foreword by Sir Bob Geldof £17.95, Hoxton Mini Press, hardback, 104 pages, ISBN: 9781910566893 Regular readers will recognise Harry Borden’s name, who features in our ‘When Harry Met’ series. We also published a feature on Harry’s single fathers project in our 12 September 2020 issue – at the time the book was not yet ready for release. This series focuses not on celebrities, politicians or household names, but on a diverse selection of single fathers, of which Harry is one himself. The portraits are, as we come to expect from Harry, beautifully shot, but it’s the stories behind each sitter that bring out a huge range of emotion. Poignant, powerful and compassionate, this is a book which really shows the deep love that fathers have…

Adobe Photoshop The Split-Contrast method involves the use of the Channel Mixers and Layer Masks which is best suited to Adobe Photoshop CS or the earlier versions of this software. Monitor It is essential to have a screen specifically designed for photo and graphic work. You should look upon the costs as an investment into a long-lasting relationship with a piece of kit you can rely upon and trust. Calibration Many monitors will not have automatic calibration sensors and will have to be calibrated. This is something you can do yourself or use the services of a specialist to calibrate your screen and printer. Printers Dedicated printers designed for photographic and graphic use such as the Canon imagePrograf PRO-1000 and the Epson SureColor SC-P900 will give you outstanding results. Both…

THE SPLIT Contrast method might at first look complicated but once you are familiar with the workflow it becomes quite easy. Other options available to us in Photoshop and third-party plug-ins will make adjustments to the whole image. One thing we want to avoid is putting layer after layer of adjustments to, say, the background layer. This deteriorates the finished image and control of individual parts becomes difficult. The concept behind this process is to isolate elements or areas of an image and apply adjustments specifically to these and not the whole image. It is important to retain the object on its own layer with its dedicated adjustment layer(s). After adding a Channel Mixer to each element, you can use Curves and other adjustment options to help with the contrast…

The Reader Portfolio winner chosen will receive a copy of Skylum Luminar AI, worth £79. See www.skylum.com Luminar is a fully featured photo editor for Mac and PC designed for photographers of all skill levels, blending pro-level tools with remarkable ease of use and an enjoyable experience. A new Library feature lets you organise, find and rate images easily, while over 100 editing features, plus a suite of fast AI-powered technologies under the hood, will make any image stand out.…

1 Apply a cooler white balance to emphasise the blue of the bluebells and the surrounding fog 2 Add tone contrast to cut through the mid-distance haze and emphasise the trees 3 Add Texture and Clarity to bring out the texture of the trees and flowers and boost the midtone contrast 4 Make the foreground lighter and add a green tint to make the flower stems more noticeable ‘It’s not a very good day to be taking photographs, is it?’ came a voice from behind. I turned round and replied, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I think I’ll carry on a bit longer.’ The location was Dockey Wood in the Ashridge forest, Buckinghamshire, which is well known for its fabulous displays of bluebells during the spring months. On the day that…

WITH the S21 Ultra, Samsung has delivered a really impressive flagship phone that takes great pictures. Having four camera modules rather than three really pays off, not just by giving longer real telephoto reach, but also by providing a more sensible short telephoto option that is ideal for pictures of people. The resultant lens set of 13mm, 24mm, 72mm and 240mm equivalent gives great compositional flexibility for a device that you can literally slip into your pocket, from shooting ultra-wide landscapes to zooming in on wildlife subjects. If you stick to the native focal lengths and don’t indulge in digital zoom, you’ll be rewarded with attractive-looking images under practically any lighting. Even a top-end smartphone like the Samsung S21 Ultra isn’t going to replace a high-end DSLR or mirrorless camera…

‘Quinn’s story is a fictional example of a man grieving for his past life, and his future life that has been taken away’ This magnificent view is one of my favourites in the world. It’s near the summit of mount Snowdon in North Wales. In this image, British photographer Lottie Davies reveals a Snowdonian vista devoid of the typical trail of hikers traipsing to the summit, instead, she shows us a solitary figure, Quinn, gazing wistfully down the valley in attire suggestive of a bygone era. Quinn is a character and the main protagonist in Davies’ fictional story of a young man, William Henry Quinn, who, in post-Second World War Britain, walks from the south-west of England to the far north of Scotland. ‘It becomes an epic and symbolic journey,’…