Innholdsfortegnelse for 26/06/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Portraiture is one genre that has been more difficult to do during the various restrictions imposed by Covid-19 so there is a lot of pent-up demand among portrait photographers and models to get back to shooting. This week Nima Elm shares his naturalistic approach to photographing people using natural light and domestic lighting such as Ikea lamps, while Ian Pack explains how to create more controlled lighting using budget flash and accessories. It really isn’t as complicated (or as expensive) as you may think, as Ian shows. Also this week we look at the world of 3D photography using digital cameras, test NiSi’s latest filter system and tell the story behind the cover of the seminal Parklife album by Britpop favourites Blur. If you enjoy our eclectic mix of features…

It was a delight to see the work of Robert Darch in a recent issue, AP 17 April. I find his ability to communicate an intense, romantic sense of place – in this case rural Devon – genuinely thrilling. For me his pictures evoke the work of mid-20th century, neo-romantic British artists like Paul Nash, John Piper and Eric Ravilious, who in turn were inspired by the earlier visions of William Blake and Samual Palmer. Their slightly surreal pictures with brooding atmospheres bristle with history and a wine-like sense of terroir. It’s an effect that’s perhaps difficult to replicate in photos with their more literal representation of place but, over the years, some photographers have managed to work the romantic magic. Edwin Smith (1912-1971) was one; his plate camera appeared…

Negative fill Instead of using a reflector to add light to the shadows, use a piece of black card, cloth or the black side of a 5-in-1 reflector. This will reduce the light reflected from surfaces close to your model and add contrast and drama to the final image. Depth of field Use a wide lens aperture somewhere between f/1.8 and f/3.2 to throw the background out of focus. It helps if the background is at least 3 metres from your model. Defocusing the background brings the model to the foreground, removing background distraction. Be different I used the gold reflective side of a 5-in-1 reflector and a small soft box designed specifically for small flash guns or Speedlites. If you look carefully at the catchlights in the model’s eyes…

Just as many weekend chefs fantasise about opening a restaurant, so many amateur photographers dream of the day they can pay the bills on the back of their talents behind the camera. What an idyllic life we’d all have, doing what we love most and keeping the mortgage serviced at the same time. If we could earn a living making only the pictures we love it certainly would be a dream come true, but there is often a dramatic abyss between the experience of shooting to suit ourselves and that of shooting on the command of another. When someone else wants a hand in how those pictures turn out, wants you to do things their way, dictates which pictures the world sees and has all the financial influence, earning your…

Peter Neill As someone who shoots live music, the art of capturing a fleeting moment is fundamental. I’ve always loved›this cover, as the composition and timing are perfect, with very intense and expressive looks from both dogs! For me, this cover always had to be in the Greatest Album Covers list. Rankin I loved that the cover made it feel like you were in on a joke. If you’d grown up in Britain you were familiar with the photo as it was in betting shops across the UK. Its use had this instant feeling of ‘knowing’ it was a clever repurposing of British iconography. It contextualised the album as being from that perspective. Rachael Wright This cover is a British icon if ever there was one. The eye contact between…

The NiSi V6 kit contains the filter holder, the 82mm-threaded adapter ring, and step-up rings for fitting it to lenses with 77mm, 72mm and 67mm threads. There’s also a plastic lens cap that pushes onto the adapter ring, along with a nicely designed nylon case. Uniquely, the firm offers kits with a choice of two different polarisers: the Standard option costs £155 and the Landscape version, £189. NiSi sells 100mm square ND filters up to 11 stops density for £122 each, along with 15- and 20-stop options for £133 and £149 respectively. Meanwhile 100 x 150mm ND graduated filters cost £129-137.…

● £42 ● www.tenba.com WHILE a specialist camera bag is likely to be the best way to transport your gear most of the time, there are occasions when other solutions are more appropriate. If you’re visiting an unfamiliar city and would rather carry something more discreet, or are restricted to using a single bag for travelling, then employing a padded case inside another bag might be the answer. Tenba makes a number of such inserts in its Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) range. This one is the largest of three offerings that are intended to be used inside backpacks. It’s not to be confused with the similarly named, but much smaller, BYOB 10 that’s designed to fit into a shoulder bag. In terms of what you can fit inside, this…

There are, as you know, many good things about photography. That we get to play with cameras is one, and with lenses is two. However, the most beneficial aspect of the photography enthusiast’s life is that we get to see things others pay no attention to at all. Not all photographers look more closely than, more carefully than or for as long as normal people do, but the good ones make a habit of it. That’s one of the things that make them good photographers. Those not blessed with an interest in photography might throw a glance at a beautiful vista and remark how lovely it is, but the photographer will be left behind whilst appreciating what makes it beautiful, and admiring the shapes, colours and the sense of scale…

Ian is a seasoned photographer based in Sussex. He works across a number of industries and runs a creative studio. To see his work visit www. winephotos.uk or Instagram@packs.hacks. Shoot-through white umbrella The shoot-through or translucent umbrella is inexpensive and versatile. They can be used to soften hard direct flash for portraits or spread light for room interiors. Kenro Speedflash KFL101 Probably the best-value Speedlite available in the UK, priced around £95. Compatible with both Canon e-TTL and Nikon i-TTL metering with a high flash sync shutter speed of 1/8000th second. Godox S2 Bracket The perfect way to fit your Speedlite to a lighting stand. The Godox S2 allows you to use umbrellas and a range of Bowens S-Type light modifiers. Flash triggers Wireless triggers offer a longer range from…

This photograph is a good example of a small flash in a relatively inexpensive pop-up softbox where the light is not influenced by reflective surfaces in a room. I needed to work quickly because there was a lot of foot traffic where I had chosen to shoot. The concept was to create a glamorous feel whilst maintaining the atmosphere of the street lights. I chose to shoot with a Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L Series zoom on Canon EOS 5D Mark II full-frame body to get compression with the background whilst maintaining focus on the model. The camera was set to ISO 320, shutter speed 1/15sec, lens aperture f/5.6 zoomed to around 200mm. Instead of using a tripod to support the lens and camera, I used the tripod to support…

When was the club founded? Launceston Camera Club – which has a wide catchment area, serving all of North Cornwall and West Devon – celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Our honorary president, Dennis Madge, was a founder member of the club. What does your club offer to new members? We assign an experienced member to act as a buddy for each of our new members for their first couple of weeks, so that they get to know our routine and have someone at hand to answer any questions. Describe a typical club meeting Members arrive early to help with setting out the chairs, projector, screen and prints boards. We all settle down at 7:30pm for the chairman’s brief news update. Guest speakers or external judges for our club competitions…

AP: Tell us a little about your photography background RC: For as long as I can remember I have owned a camera, but it was little more than taking family snaps and anything of passing interest. In 2006 I found myself with a bit more freedom and took photography up as a hobby. My passion has always been railways in general, and steam locomotives in particular. I set myself a target to get a photograph published so I contacted a railway magazine for advice. The helpful lady I spoke to gave me perhaps the best bit of advice possible: ‘We are inundated with good photographs, but they are all similar, take something different.’ The advice worked, and my first submission was published. Subsequently I have been fortunate to have many…

Demanding landscape photographers who wish to manipulate light using polarising, neutral density and graduated filters currently have a range of excellent options to choose from. NiSi’s V6 filter holder system is certainly up there, if not quite at the top, then at the lead of the chasing pack. It’s let down only by design quirks such as the small polariser-adjustment wheels that end up in different places with different lenses, and the temperamental angle locking pin. It’s also a pain swapping the polariser out in the field, indeed you’re probably best-off committing to either using it or not, depending on the light. I suspect many users will quickly compensate for these issues by adapting their working practices. But equally, you don’t have to put up with them elsewhere, for example…

This is a further article in an accidental sequence on sensor technology. Previously I discussed Sony and Nikon sensors, and this time it’s Canon’s turn, with the ‘newly developed full-frame, back illuminated, stacked CMOS sensor that makes possible high-speed readout’, which was alluded to in the announcement of the EOS R3 camera. This sensor is said to be ‘designed and produced’ by Canon. Some people have expressed surprise that Canon is capable of producing sensors incorporating back-side illumination and stacking. However, while Canon’s sensor fabrication line has its limitations, its main shortcoming is the coarse process nodes which Canon has available (180 nanometres, compared to the 65nm available to Sony). But BSI depends on being able to thin the rear side of the wafer, which is not affected by the…

AP picture of the week Squeaky McBeaky by Harvey Grenville Sony A7R IV, 1/640sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 ‘After returning from a short outing to try to get some photos of apple blossom with my manual vintage lenses, I managed to take this opportunistic shot of Squeaky McBeaky, a regular visitor to our garden this year,’ explains Harvey, an Exmoor-based landscape photographer. ‘It was taken through a rose bush to achieve a painterly look using a Leitz Wetzlar Elmaron 150mm f/2.8 fixed aperture manual projector lens, converted for use with my mirrorless cameras. It goes to prove that the best lens you’ve got is the one on the end of your camera when you only have a few moments to get a shot!’ We love the painterly effect created by…

29 June 1991 JOHN Swannell started out as David Bailey’s assistant but by the 1990s had become almost as successful himself, with his own advertising deal with Olympus. This issue led with an interview with him about his exhibition of fine art nudes, which he considered to be his best ever work. It would be hard to imagine a greater contrast with Swannell’s images than David Hockney’s joiners but the latter work, also featured in this issue, was in hindsight the more prescient. Cathy Joseph explained: ‘Hockney’s brightly coloured portraits… are produced using a Canon RC470 still video camera by taking five separate shots of the subject, starting at the head and working down to the feet. The images are stored on floppy disc, which is removed and inserted into…

The bounce card is one of the least expensive ways to modify the light from your small flash. Bounce cards rely on bouncing light forward and ceiling bounce, assuming that you’re working inside. Both make the relative size of your flash bigger and can be shaped to bounce the light when there’s no ceiling or if the ceiling is a colour other than white. The light reflected from either is indistinguishable from the other. There is one significant difference between these two bounce cards – price. The commercially available bounce card costs over £30, and the DIY version is less than £5!…

‘They’re a real nightmare to pin down because they work at night obviously and they’re not up until lunchtime and I wanted to photograph them in daylight, so there wasn’t a lot of daylight left for me and they take about four hours to get ready. That was my continual problem,’ explains photographer Jane Hilton when we meet on a park bench in north London. Jane’s portrait project, Drag Queen Cowboys, achieved 3rd Place, Professional competition, Portraiture at the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards, and it all started in 2019. She was on assignment in New Mexico and planned to swing by Las Vegas to look for new communities to photograph for her ongoing book about the state of Nevada, where she has photographed throughout her career. ‘I tapped into…

Musicians: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Dave Rowntree, Stephen Street (synths), Laetitia Sadler (vocals), Phil Daniels (narration), Stephen Hague (accordion), plus string and horn sections Released: 25 April 1994 (Food Records) Best chart performance: No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart Sales: Over 5,000,000 certified sales Fascinating fact: Whilst the Bob Thomas image for the record cover was shot at Romford dog track in Essex, all the photos of the band on the record and CD packaging were shot by photographer Paul Postle at Walthamstow Stadium dog track in east London. Walthamstow Stadium hosted its final dog race in 2008 and the site is now a housing development. The Parklife cover was among ten that featured on the GB Special Stamps ‘Classic Album Covers’ issue of January 2010.…