Innholdsfortegnelse for 01/05/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Studio portraiture has been difficult during the last year, but as the saying goes, where there’s a will there’s a way. The power of technology and human ingenuity should not be underestimated. During the pandemic innovative photographers and models have been using Zoom, FaceTime and a variety of other platforms to conduct remote portrait sessions, with the photographer in one location and the model in another – in some cases on the other side of the world! For our cover image, for example, the photographer was at home in Birmingham, directing the model in Cape Town, South Africa. The technology opens up the exciting possibility of creative collaborations between people thousands of miles apart who never need to leave their respective homes. Read our fascinating feature and learn how to…

WITH MORE than half an eye on the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, Canon has announced that it’s working on a pro-spec full-frame mirrorless camera, the EOS R3. As with last year’s EOS R5 launch, the firm has initially released just a few details, which include the long-overdue return of an old favourite feature. First up, the camera is based around a new, Canon-developed full-frame stacked-CMOS sensor which will be paired with its Digic X image processor. The firm says users will be able to shoot at 30 frames per second with full autofocus and exposure tracking, along with low image distortion. Secondly, the sensor is also claimed to facilitate a next-generation Dual Pixel CMOS AF system. The firm is promising high-speed tracking of subjects’ eyes, heads and bodies, and teasing the…

FUJIFILM has introduced the Fujinon XF 18mm F1.4 R LM WR for its APS-C X-system cameras. With a focal length equivalent to 27mm on full frame, it’s touted as a general-purpose wideangle prime that’s ideal for a broad range of subjects from landscapes to weddings. Meanwhile the fast maximum aperture provides extra scope for shooting in low light and blurring out-of-focus backgrounds. Optically the lens employs 15 elements in 9 groups, including three aspherical and one extra-low dispersion glass element to maintain sharpness into the corners of the image and suppress colour fringing from chromatic aberration. It employs an internal-focus design driven by a linear motor, which promises focus acquisition times as short as 0.04 seconds and enables a minimum focus distance of just 20cm. As the WR designation implies,…

4 May 1991 THIRTY years ago this week AP was skating on thin ice with its garish cover design. Inside saw the launch of APOY 1991, sponsored by Dixons and Kodak, and the offer of a free kids camera for every AP reader who took the printed coupon into a branch of SupaSnaps. John Wade was offering advice on boosting colour saturation, in the days before everyone had Photoshop. Chris George explained reciprocity failure and Joël Lacey explained how DX coding on 35mm film cassettes worked, while Dr Stewart Bell tested seven 500mm mirror lenses. (Spoiler alert: the Tamron came out on top). But the highlight of the issue was a report by Liz Walker on how a group of leading Scottish rock musicians got together to make an album…

Musicians: David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, Jon Carin, Rachel Fury, Durga McBroom, Scott Page, Guy Pratt, Tim Renwick, Margaret Taylor, Gary Wallis Released: 22 November 1988 (EMI) Best chart performance: No. 2 in the Norwegian Albums chart and No. 4 in the Australian, Swiss and New Zealand album charts Sales: Over 3,000,000. Certified as triple platinum in the USA for 1.5 million sales Fascinating fact: Delicate Sound of Thunder became the first album to be played in space. Soviet cosmonauts took it aboard the Soyuz TM-7 mission, which launched in November 1988, to dock with the Soviet Space Station Mir. Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason attended the launch of the mission. The cassette survived until Mir burnt up on re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere in 2001.…

AP: Tell us about your photography background DB: I picked up my first camera – a Fujifilm FinePix bridge camera – ten years ago after retiring. Some time later I had an urge to give wildlife photography a try after being inspired by so many brilliant wildlife images in books and magazines. This convinced me to buy a more suitable camera and I began my journey with the EOS 400D, then the EOS 550D, before moving up to the EOS 7D. I consider myself to be a hobbyist and take photos for my own satisfaction and pleasure. I have sold a few of my images, but for me, photography is more about being out in the countryside and encapsulating the wildlife I’m lucky enough to encounter. I am a member…

How can I produce more consistent light leaks? Q I’m a portrait shooter with a love of creating stylish analogue effects. There’s just something about light leaks and reflections that bring so much atmosphere to a shot! I have a prism and several DIY accessories like CDs that I use, but getting the results I want often involves a lot of trial and error. For shorter shoots where I don’t have so much time, are there any products that can help me get consistent results? Taylor Williams A Although such effects can be damaging to image quality when undesired, when used creatively, the character they bring to an image can be both beautiful and unique. But it can be difficult to replicate effects consistently, as any movement of either your…

America has been in the news a lot recently. Coverage of the USA election was such that we might almost have thought it something we could vote in ourselves, and I’m sure more people in the UK took sides than would throw a passing glance at our own political affairs. It was also one of those occasions, like Brexit, where we had plenty of opportunity to stare open-mouthed at the opinions of ‘regular’ citizens being interviewed on the street. Europeans, sometimes jealously, like to mock Americans, while ignoring the fact that every country has its own fair share of ‘interesting folk’, but maybe our friends across the pond stand out for their sheer numbers and diversity of extreme ideas. One area in which the USA really does stand out from…

Empire State Building Dedication Ceremony by Bettmann It’s been 90 years since the Empire State Building was officially opened in New York City on 1 May 1931. In this picture we see Ex-Governor Alfred E Smith, Governor Franklin D Roosevelt (later president Roosevelt) and others standing at the top of the building on the day of the official opening. It was officially completed when President Herbert Hoover pressed a telegraph key back in Washington DC which turned on all of the building’s lights. The Empire State Building has 102 stories and is 1,454-feet tall (including antenna). It stood as the world’s tallest building until 1970 when the World Trade Center was constructed. Today it is the seventh tallest building in New York City, and the 49th tallest in the world.…

THE LATEST addition to Canon’s full-frame mirrorless RF lens range is superficially a rather familiar-sounding lens. The firm has made a series of much-loved EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lenses, and the RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM takes over the mantle for the full-frame mirrorless era. But it’s not just a carbon copy of the firm’s DSLR lens, instead gaining a couple of stand-out new features that promise to make it an excellent choice for both close-ups and portraits. Firstly, the lens offers an impressively high magnification ratio of 1.4x at its minimum focus distance of 26cm, rather than the usual life-size. Secondly, the lens gains a new spherical aberration control ring, which can be used to adjust the smoothness of the bokeh either in front of, or behind the…

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has revealed the winners of the 2021 RHS Photographic Competition, ahead of this year’s National Gardening Week (26 April - 2 May). Making clever use of drone photography, Oliver Dixon scooped the title of Overall Winner for his image ‘Spring from the Air’ (above) of the garden Loseley Park, Surrey. The title of Overall Young Winner was awarded to Jack Sedgwick, whose image ‘Fantasy Flowers’ was entered into the Under 11s category. See the full list of winners at www.rhs.org.uk/promotions/ rhs-photo-competition where you can also enter this year’s competition.…

Every now and then I wonder if photographic technology has hit a ceiling. How many more megapixels could we need? Don’t we already have all focal lengths covered? How much better can noise reduction get? I often look to camera-specific advancements when trying to answer these questions. But occasionally, the biggest shifts in photographic culture and industry come from the periphery. Like Steve Sasson’s invention of digital photography while working on a side project at Eastman Kodak in the early 1970s. A year ago, in response to being confined to their homes, a number of photographers began exploring ways to stay creative and continue taking pictures. In Italy, photographer Alessio Albi became one of the first to experiment with conducting photo shoots over FaceTime and the practice spiked in popularity…

Having owned a Canon FT QL in my 20s I have returned to photography once again, seduced by the Fujifilm X-T1 and now the X-T3 system. As the number of lenses I possess outgrew my camera bag they were moved and stored haphazardly in a bottom drawer. Every photographer knows the importance of grabbing the right gear for that all-important shot when the light is intriguing but fleeting, or a buzzard is gliding overhead. More than once I have picked up the wrong lens in my rush to capture that shot. Organisation in my bottom drawer was urgently needed and this was my ‘lockdown’ solution. I stripped out the rubber sectioning panels and felt lids from an old but large redundant cantilever aluminium camera case, and added some light blue…

Andy Cowles Andy Earl is the master of pop pastiche, the perfect photographer for Pink Floyd’s surrealist shtick. It’s bang on brand, there’s no way this could be for any other band. Wandering about with a light bulb suit seems perfectly reasonable, but I do wonder about that shooting stick... Christie Goodwin Thorgerson created a visual artwork that spoke to the unconscious mind. Thinking up a concept like this is mind blowing but the execution is equally so. How do you direct birds? It was shot on a 6x7 using Ektachrome film and daylight. How many photographers would be capable of executing this? Dennis Morris I am very much into the work of Dali and Magritte. I’ve always been a big fan of Hipgnosis and Storm [Thorgerson]. To me, much…

DJI Mini 2 An excellent entry-point into drones, the DJI Mini 2 combines affordability with capability perfectly. This device has a 3-axis motorised gimbal for smooth 4K footage and shake-free 12MP stills, a very respectable 31min flight time, and at less than 250g, has less legal requirements than many models for flying as well as being extremely portable. The Mini 2 can resist 29-38kph winds making it highly stable in the air, and with Smart Return to Home, automatic take-off, and precise hovering, operation is both intuitive and safe. £419 ● 12MP stills, 4K 30fps video ● Under 249g ● Max flight time 31 minutes Parrot Anafi Drone Built around a Sony sensor, the Parrot’s camera delivers 21MP stills and 4K video at 30fps. A 3-axis electronic stabilisation system ensures…

AP picture of the week Don’t Let Go! By Michelle Hill Canon EOS 750D, 18-55mm ‘I was out walking on a sunny day and this mother and child were strolling in the sun. I saw this amazing shadow and managed to catch the side of the child’s face as the sun hit it,’ says Michelle. ‘I am disabled and a member of the Disabled Photographer’s Society, SheClicks (an amazing resource for female photographers), Crayford Camera Club and Aperture Woolwich Photographic Society. I don’t get out much now – I’ve been shielding since last March, barely leaving the house. Amateur Photographer has kept me going, so having my photo chosen as Picture of the Week has made my otherwise very boring day.’ We like the contrast between the child’s brightly lit…

In more competition news, the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards have been announced. Winners in the professional competition include three UK-based photographers: Mark Hamilton Gruchy, Laura Pannack and Craig Easton, for his series Bank Top. Easton was also named Photographer of the Year, winning a $25,000 cash prize and Sony camera kit. The Open competition was won by Tamary Kudita from Zimbabwe, for the image ‘African Victorian’ (below).See www.worldphoto.org.…

1 Prepare a mood board. Share and discuss your ideas beforehand with your model so you’re both working towards the same goal. 2 Trust is important. If you’re working with someone for the first time, arrange a FaceTime call before the shoot and start to build a rapport with them. 3 Explore the space via video before the shoot date to find the best areas for light. You need to know how to work with natural light for best results and pay attention to what it’s doing to the face and the body. 4 Approach the shoot as you would a face-to-face one. Good communication and directing still come into play. 5 Reach out to people who are willing to shoot and embrace this new and exciting way of connecting…

● £2.99 p&p ● www.fujifilmprinttoproveit.com IF YOU want to make the most of your images, there really is nothing like printing them. But this isn’t necessarily easy. If you have a photo printer at home, you’ve probably endured the frustration of prints coming out wrong; maybe too light, too dark, too high contrast, or with strange colour tints. It can be a bit of a battle to get them looking right. Fujifilm is convinced that the answer lies with using a printing service that employs its premium professional photo paper. With its Print to Prove It offer, it’s challenging photographers to test this out. Sign up and you can claim three free 10x8in or 12x8in prints from One Vision Imaging Ltd, on a choice of gloss or lustre paper. Usually,…