Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/07/2021 i Amateur Photographer

I’m sure AP readers would agree that there are few visual pleasures greater than being reminded of what a beautiful world we live in by someone as accomplished as multiple award-winning nature photographer Marsel van Oosten. His new book, Mother – a Tribute to Mother Earth, is simply stunning and I’m delighted that AP has managed to pin the globe-trotting Marsel down for long enough for him to tell us about his work and share some of his amazing images. Of course it would be irresponsible to just admire the pictures without acknowledging the existential threat that many of the subjects face, and our own role in helping to do something about it, even if only in the choices we make as consumers. One purchase I do recommend though is…

Lexar is developing a range of SD Express memory cards – a new standard that no cameras currently support. The firm says the cards will deliver transfer rates of up to almost 4GB/s, three times faster than the fastest UHS-II SD cards currently on the market. Available in SD and microSD format (up to 512Gb and 256Gb capacity, respectively), the cards will also have read speeds of up to 824MB/s and write speeds of up to 410MB/s and will go on sale next year – exact dates to be confirmed.…

Callum McInerney-Riley Callum McInerney-Riley has been a Technical Writer at Amateur Photographer, reviewing cameras and accessories. A keen photographer for over 15 years, he now runs a company that creates photography and video content for a host of large brands. www.primecreative.io. My relationship with my rucksack full of camera kit is like that of a carpenter and their tools. A carpenter doesn’t carry a drill around every day on the off-chance they can knock up a bookcase. I am the same with my heavy DSLR kit. I won’t burden myself with all that gear unless I have a purpose, good subject matter, and good light. My smartphone has given me the freedom to shoot more, worry less and have more fun. By following these tips over the next few pages,…

Use gridlines for composition Without a viewfinder, it can be difficult to compose your shots and get everything composed evenly within the frame. Enabling gridlines in your camera app settings can help you with composition and ensure you don’t have to crop too much later on in post-production. Spot metering For speed, always use spot metering and touch the focal point you want to expose for. Tapping areas of bright sky or shadowy foreground elements that interest you will ensure your exposure is good. Alhough you can adjust the rest of the image in post-production, you can’t recover detail from a blown-out sky. Use your main camera Many of the latest smartphones have an array of cameras with different uses. While the telephoto lens might get you closer to the…

The A7R II shared a certain likeness in appearance to the original A7R, however it advanced a long way in terms of features and functionality. A 42.4MP Exmor R BSI-CMOS sensor with an expanded ISO range of 50-102,400 replaced the 36.4MP chip of old and a far superior hybrid AF system consisting of 399 phase-detection and 25 contrast-detection focus points was introduced. It became the first high-resolution mirrorless camera to boast 5-axis in-body image stabilisation and was equipped with a reduced-vibration shutter. Other features include a 2.4-million-dot EVF, 3in 1.23-million-dot tilt-angle screen and single SD card slot. What we said ● ‘The way it controls noise and handles detail right up to ISO 25,600 is a real eye-opener’ ● ‘If you do bite the bullet and settle for the A7R…

BENQ has a solid reputation for creating good-quality monitors at affordable prices and while the price of the PhotoVue SW271C is likely to give pause for thought, it’s an excellent monitor that makes a significant step up from a laptop or general-purpose screen. It also comes with a well-made stand that affords a good range of movement, plus a hood to help ensure a glare-free view in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. Thanks to its size and 4K resolution, there’s plenty of detail visible when images are set to fit the screen and the colour reproduction is very good. For and against + Good detail resolution and colour reproduction + Nice size for desktop use at arm’s length + Versatile stand – Vertical orientation less useful than you might think – Calibration…

● £69.95 ● uk.bioliteenergy.com Life indicator Pressing this button illuminates the 4-bar battery life indicator. Charge time The internal battery can be charged in five hours using a USB-C connection. In/Out This USB-C port can be used to either replenish the power bank or recharge a connected device. Cold climates Biolite claims the Charge 80 PD operates at temperatures right down to -20°C. IF YOU own a smartphone then the chances are that you either own, or wished you owned, a power bank to give its battery a boost towards the end of a busy day. Also, the move towards in-camera battery charging via USB makes these portable power sources even more useful. Inside the Biolite Charge 80 PD is a 20,000mAh Li-ion battery, which means it’s more powerful than…

At the turn of the century I was shooting a reportage on England’s relationship with alcohol. My then agency director advised that I couldn’t just make amusing photographs of my inebriated countrymen, I had to create an anthropological legacy of the time. I took his advice and began reaching out to A&E wards and rehabilitation clinics. During my research I came across a list of some of the worst streets in England associated with alcohol-related incidents. Picking number one to photograph felt foolhardy so I aimed lower – number seven, Union Street in the naval port of Plymouth. One summer Saturday I took the train from London to Plymouth and headed for Union Street, took out my camera, took one picture, put my camera back in my bag and headed…

Free Chocolate by Fox Photos This week’s picture is to celebrate World Chocolate Day, which we’re reliably informed takes place on 7 July. If you needed an excuse to pick up an extra bar (or three), there you have it. This image from the late 1940s shows two children enjoying sweets ‘off the ration’ for the very first time in their lives. At the time, leading chocolate manufacturers gave enough of their stocks to allow 7,000 Dr Barnardo’s children to taste their wares. 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 the birth of photography to the digital age. Explore it at www.gettyimages.com.…

52 Cameras in 52 Weeks by Tony Kemplen Artcore Gallery, Derby. Artcoregallery.org.uk Until July 17, 2021, Mon-Sat, 11am-5pm Regular readers will be very familiar with the name Tony Kemplen. One of our most beloved contributors, his exhibition is finally opening in Derby after several delays due to Covid-19. Kemplen has been collecting cameras for over 50 years. In 2010 he decided to use them. Over the subsequent ten years, he used a different film camera each week. Since 2011 he has been writing monthly for AP about the project. The exhibition comprises a selection of these photos along with the cameras used to make them. There’s a huge array of cameras, techniques and subjects on display. The cameras range in age from 10 to 100 years, and in size from…

OnePlus 8 Pro Generally speaking, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a great phone overall, teamed with a 48-million-pixel main camera, which offers fantastic dynamic range. Sony Xperia 5 II A lot of Sony’s technology has gone into this phone’s camera and software. It boasts a 12-million-pixel Exmor RS sensor and Photo Pro app for advanced manual controls. Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max Although this smartphone comes with a hefty price-tag upwards of £1,099+, it is undoubtedly one of the best smartphone cameras we have seen. SamsungGalaxy Note20Ultra Scooping Smartphone Camera Of The Year at the Amateur Photographer Awards 2021, the Note20 Ultra was praised for its excellent colour and tonality. Google Pixel 5 A solid, all-round smartphone with great software in-camera and impressive technical specifications. It is also very reasonably…

Ampthill & District Camera Club Millbrook Village Hall, Sandhill Close, Millbrook, Bedford, MK45 2JD Meets Weekly on Thursdays 19.30 until 22.00, from early September to June/July Membership Annual Full membership is £40; £25 Associate and £10 Friend membership Contact secretary@ampthilldcc.com or via website Website www.ampthilldcc.com wonder whether the author here has ever learned about the delete button’? One workshop on photographing reptiles included the opportunity to handle some of them. One member volunteered to wrap a large boa constrictor around his neck and model for the other members. It was only after the snake was removed that he admitted it had been tightening its grip and gently strangling him. Despite this he had continued to smile for the cameras. What are the club’s goals for the future? To encourage members…

Ullswater Lake This carefully composed landscape photograph was taken on the shore of Lake Ullswater in the Lake District. The photo was shot using a neutral density filter over the lens to permit a long exposure, which explains the smoothness of the lake and clouds. Peter writes: ‘I noticed this tree immediately, sitting on a small island, with its one root stretching out to the lakeside shore. It was like the root was holding on, preventing the tree from floating away. Clearly past flooding had washed away some of the land and had isolated the tree. In some small way this was a comment on recent flooding in the Lake District.’ The raw original was a little underexposed, so I needed to lighten the exposure and shadow tones in Camera…

At first glance the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim looks like one of the hundreds of ultra-cheap and basic 35mm cameras that were common in the 1980s and ‘90s. There is, however, one important difference. While most of those had lenses of around 35mm, the ‘Viv’, as it is known to its fans, has a 22mm lens. This is wide by any standards, and led to a cult following, with prices to match. It was first introduced in the early 2000s, and was the kind of novelty gift that was given away as promotions for other goods, or in goody bags at corporate events. They were often supplied gift-wrapped, with a paper sleeve detailing the contents. The sleeve could be slid off and discarded before bestowing the gift on a…

AP picture of the week Morning Fog Over Hengistbury Head by Lorraine Finney Canon EOS 6D Mark II, 100-400mm at 300mm, 1/8sec at f/8, ISO 400 ‘I am a Dorset-based landscape photographer and I enjoy the solitude of shooting at dawn when my senses are excited in the natural world,’ says Lorraine. ‘This image depicts a blanket of fog engulfing Hengistbury Head and pouring out into the sea. I love how the pale pink dawn sky creates a soft colour palette and creates pink highlights in the sea, and how the street lights appear draped over the cliffs like fairy lights from a Christmas tree. I took it from the top of an apartment block using a 300mm focal length.’ Lorraine will be holding an exhibition of her photography at…

CANON has launched a pro-spec optically stabilised wideangle zoom, the RF 14-35mm F4L IS USM. Designed as a smaller, less expensive alternative to the RF 15-35mm F2.8L IS ISM, it accepts 77mm filters and will cost £1,750 when it goes on sale in late August. Optically Canon has employed 16 elements in 12 groups, including three glass moulded aspherical elements and three constructed from UD glass to deliver maximum detail across the frame while suppressing chromatic aberration. In addition, Sub Wavelength Structure Coating and Air Sphere Coating are employed to combat flare and ghosting. With a minimum focus distance of just 20cm, the lens provides a very respectable 0.38x maximum magnification at the 35mm setting. It employs a nano-type ultrasonic motor for autofocus, and delivers 5.5 stops of optical stabilisation,…

13 July 1977 IT’S HARD to imagine in 2021 how anyone would consider a naked family portrait like the one fronting this week’s issue to be a good idea, let alone worthy of gracing the cover. Presumably it was intended to give readers some inspiration for the Family Portraits competition that AP launched inside in which a truly enormous prize pot of £10,500 was on offer. That’s over £76,000 in today’s money. Mercifully we have no record of how many pictures of Aunt Beryl in the nude were entered, but a lucky winner did bag what today would be a £25,000 first prize, which included £1,000 (£7,200) worth of Olympus kit, £1,000 in cash and a trip to India. One family that probably didn’t submit a naked group photo was…

Capturing the amazing pre-dawn colour of the sky is what really makes this image. The blue, pink, and purple tones marry together in such a beautiful way. The secret to capturing an image like this is to ensure you have all the information you can capture in the sky. I kept a close eye on the histogram for this and made sure my exposure was bright enough to capture detail in the foreground but not so bright that I lost colour information in the sky. When it came to post-production, I used a gradient filter in Adobe Lightroom CC to darken the sky and enhance those gorgeous colours. ▲…

I’m 73 and have been reading AP since the year 2000. Before the digital age, making prints from slides was easy. But to make a perfect slide-to-slide copy was more difficult. You needed a slide duplicator or ‘duper’. Not being satisfied with the dupers on the market I decided to make my own Super-Duper. Using only pieces of aluminium and plastic coupled with some binder clips connected to articulated arms, I achieved very good results. The slide to be copied is put at the end of a tube and a flash is fired, exposing the slide onto film in the camera. The big problem is that the copy comes out with too much contrast. The solution: I bought some very expensive neutral density gel filters, then cut them into various…

WINDOWS users looking for a comprehensive image-editing solution will find a lot to like about Zoner Photo Studio X. It really does do it all, from copying your pictures off your memory card right through to creating prints and web galleries; I can’t think of anything else that provides such a complete set of features. Once you’ve familiarised yourself with how it works, it’s also reasonably easy to use, while providing an impressive range of options for advanced users to configure and work with it pretty much as they please. Some photographers will object to subscribing to software on principle, but ZPS has the twin virtues of being both inexpensive, and nicely behaved if you decide to stop paying. However, the trade-off is that while it’s capable of very decent…

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. ★★★★…