Innholdsfortegnelse for 07/08/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Modern cameras offer such great exposure latitude that you can usually get a usable image from all but the most over-exposed shots. The same cannot be said for the focusing. If you didn’t nail the focus in camera when you took the shot, no amount of software sharpening will fix it. That’s why modern cameras, especially mirrorless models, now offer so many tools to aid with this most critical function. Every brand has its own way of setting things up though so this week we look at the options offered by the most popular brands used by AP readers. Also this week, mirrorless models may dominate the new camera landscape but the DSLR isn’t dead yet. Pentax has tied its own future to that remaining the case, and this week…

Bass Rock Sea Cliff Pool by John Cuthbert LRPS Sony Alpha 7R II, Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 lens, 8 secs at f/10, ISO 100 ‘We arrived at the location two hours before the pool was due to flood,’ says John, ‘with weather conditions and tidal times perfect for what we had in mind. The image was captured on a two-second delay, with the camera mounted on a carbon fibre Manfrotto tripod, and using a NiSi Pro V filter system in place, fitted with a circular polariser, 8-stop grad and soft grad filters to slow down the exposure time and balance the lighting out.’ Want to see your pictures here? Share them with our Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook communities using the hashtag #appicoftheweek. Or email your best shot to us…

SKYLUM has released an update to its Luminar AI image-editing package. New features include Portrait Bokeh AI, which enables users to emulate selective background blur in order to make the subject stand out – Skylum claims it reproduces the ‘rich, hazy bokeh of a high-end lens at a wide-open aperture’. You can still control the amount of background blur, while also adjusting the background exposure, adding glow to highlights, setting a specific depth of field and refining edges. The update also includes tools to make it easier to align a replacement sky with the horizon for a more realistic-looking final image, and a visual preview for adding textures to images. The update is free for current Luminar AI users and full details can be found at skylum.com/luminar-ai-b. The company has…

Lydie Bréda is a macro, nature and landscape photographer who hails from France. Her passion for nature developed when photographing insects and flowers in her parents’ garden in Gironde in 2012. She is self-taught and has been a finalist in the Close-Up Photographer of the Year awards. You can follow Lydie Breda on Instagram at @lydiephotosnature and view more of her work at www.lydiebreda.wixsite.com/photos. FOR MACRO photography I mainly use the manual focus mode and I don’t feel the need to customise my focusing set-up. I focus manually by turning the ring on my lens until my subject is in focus. I also use a little trick where I move my lens forward or backward rather than always turning the ring. I find it less tiring. I do, however, use…

Will Burrard-Lucas is a UK-based wildlife photographer who usually works in Africa. He is currently a Sony Ambassador and, aside from his pictorial work, he is known for inventing camera traps and devices to help get photographers closer to wildlife. His latest book, The Black Leopard, was published in 2021. You can follow Will Burrard-Lucas on Instagram at @willbl and check out more of his work at www.willbl.com. TO PHOTOGRAPH wildlife I’m mostly using a long lens on the Sony A7R IV or Sony A1 with one of the tracking continuous autofocus modes. Mirrorless cameras have changed the way I use autofocus because their subject recognition and tracking abilities are so revolutionary. I will now use a single focus point and place it over my subject, usually over its eye,…

Musicians: Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Chris Stainton (piano), Jon Curle (newsreader voice) Released: 26 October 1973 (Track/MCA) Best chart performance: No. 2 in the US Billboard Pop Albums and UK Albums Charts Sales: Over 1,200,000 certified sales Fascinating fact: In 1979, Quadrophenia was made into a movie directed by Franc Roddam and starring Phil Daniels as the lead character Jimmy. The soundtrack features ten of the 17 album tracks, plus three tracks written by Townshend that weren’t on the 1973 LP – those tracks feature the drumming of Kenney Jones, who replaced the late Keith Moon in the band. The film’s release coincided with the ‘mod revival’ of the late 1970s.…

Open in Camera Raw After opening the original raw image in Camera Raw, I went to the Basic panel and applied some tone and colour adjustments to add more saturation and lighten the image, while preserving the highlight detail in the dress. Select Neural Filters I then opened the Camera Raw-edited image in Photoshop. In the Filter menu I chose Neural Filters. Then in the filter dialog I enabled the Depth Blur filter with the default Blur Strength and Focal Range settings. Adjust settings With the Neural Filters dialog still open I further modified the settings by dragging the Warmth slider to the left to add a cooler colour balance. I also added a brighter luminance to the Depth Blur filter effect. Apply Skin Smoothing filter After applying the Depth…

1 Lighten the image The original image was a little underexposed, so the first step was to open the raw photo in Camera Raw, go to the Basic panel and lighten by dragging the Exposure slider to the right. I then adjusted the remaining tone sliders to optimise the range of tones. 2 Saturate the colour The main thing I wanted to do with this particular photograph was to make the most of the bright yellow wall and the colour contrast with the blue-sky reflections in the windows. In this step I increased both the Vibrance and the Saturation to make these colours stand out. 3 Apply optical corrections For an architectural subject like this, I thought it was important to apply a profiled lens correction to the image. Here,…

Flash There’s no built-in flash, but a hot shoe allows use of external units such as the AF 540 FGZ II (£449), while a PC sync connector facilitates use with studio strobes. Battery grip The Pentax D-BG8 (£329) screws onto the base and provides a duplicate set of controls for portrait-format shooting, while accepting an additional battery. Power The D-Li90 battery promises an impressive 800 shots per charge. It’s charged internally using the USB-C port. Remote A 2.5mm electronic release socket is found on the side of the handgrip, while infrared receivers are placed on both the front and back. Lock button Pressing this button and spinning the rear dial allows the exposure settings to be locked for a sequence of shots. Green button This has an array of handy…

AP: Tell us about your photography background LM: I was a late starter to photography. It was only after my daughter was born that I started to take it more seriously. As for sports photography, it was 2002 when I was the 1st team player/manager of the local football team De Beers AFC in Somerset West, South Africa. I took my Fuji Finepix to a pre-season friendly and snapped away. I became inspired by sports photographer Peter ‘Bee’ Barnard who freelanced for the local paper and it was after seeing his superb images week after week that I thought I could do the same when my playing days were over. After moving back to the UK, I covered local sport, which I still enjoy the most. After a while I…

At a glance ● Reversible for right or left-handed wear ● Pockets for storing accessories / lens caps ● Safety Tether included ● Removable and washable shoulder piece ● £84 ● blackrapid.com DESIGNED by women for women, the Nicole Elliott sling by BlackRapid takes its inspiration from baby-carrying slings. With its shoulder-hugging design, the strap takes away pressure from the neck and back, promising to make your camera feel ‘virtually weightless’. Both right-handed and left-handed shooters are catered for, with a reversible design that can be quickly switched over. Not everybody likes cross-body straps, but it’s hard to argue with how well the weight is distributed. Being wide, the strap also sits well on the chest, where thinner straps might cut across uncomfortably. The shoulder-hugging flexible pad is also very…

Interfit 122cm Foldable Octabox with Grid Large enough to illuminate three or four subjects in a half-length portrait, this octagonal soft box produces pleasingly soft light that wraps around a subject for flattering images with soft shadows. Octaboxes also have the added benefit of creating natural-looking round catchlights in eyes. Easy to erect thanks to its foldable design, this particular unit comes with two removable diffusers for even greater control of light intensity, along with a honeycomb grid for reduced light spill if required. £83.99 ● Comes with inner and outer diffusers ● Honeycomb grid included ● Fast to set up Bowens Beauty Dish BW6740 Commonly used in beauty and fashion photography, a beauty dish produces a semi-hard light that has a crisp central region with a softer controlled light…

‘We have poked some big holes in our shared little life raft. What happens next is in all of our hands’ On April 11, 2015, ten cameras live-streamed online the birth of Kipenzi the giraffe from Dallas Zoo. I was one of the 1.4 million viewers who tuned in. I watched because I had a three-week trip to Dallas planned in June and was immersing myself in the life of the Texan town. Arriving in Dallas, I soon made the pilgrimage to the 106-acre zoo established in 1888, walking 3.2 miles from my hotel in 35°C maddening sunshine. I wasn’t sure which of the giraffes I photographed striding elegantly around their enclosure but I like to think I captured Kipenzi and her mother, Katie. Later in my Lone Star State…

Watch the Birdie by Fox Photos Joey the raven, the mascot of a London brewery, perches on a barrel in the yard. An ancient superstition is that the beer would go bad in a brewery without a raven to provide good luck. We’ve included this image in celebration of International Beer Day, which this year falls on 6 August. In case you needed an excuse to imbibe, the purpose of the day is to gather friends to enjoy the taste of beer, as well as to celebrate those responsible for brewing and serving it. Cheers! 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…

IN A WEEK of good news for Fujifilm users, the first Voigtlander X-mount lens has appeared, the Nokton 35mm F1.2 X. This is not, as you might think, a re-mounting of the firm’s existing full-frame Nokton 35mm f/1.2. Instead, it’s a completely new optic optimised for the APS-C sensor, which allows it to be smaller and lighter. With an eight-element, six-group design, it measures 59.6mm in diameter and 39.8mm in length, weighs just 196g, and accepts 46mm filters. The lens boasts manual focus and aperture rings and can focus as close as 30cm. It’s available to pre-order now for £599.…

TAMRON has announced that it’s in the process of developing its first lens for Fujifilm X-mount mirrorless cameras. This will come in the shape of the 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD, which will also be available in Sony E-mount. It’s an optically stabilised 16.6x superzoom that will offer a massive 27-450mm equivalent range, making it suitable for a host of applications including travel, landscape and wildlife photography. Tamron’s Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive (VXD) linear motor promises rapid and quiet AF, while the minimum focus distance of a mere 15cm at wideangle translates to half life-size magnification. In terms of construction, Tamron is promising a dust- and moisture-resistant design, complete with an oil- and water-repellent fluorine coating on the front element. A zoom lock switch has been included, to stop the…

Tom Ormerod is a landscape, seascape, astro and drone photographer. Based in Dorset, England, he is part of the Olympus ambassador programme as a Mentor, yet also works as an IT consultant in the education sector. He is best known for seascapes and astrophotography shot with the OM-D system. You can follow Tom Ormerod on Instagram @tomormerod and check out more of his work at www.tomormerod.com. I RELY on three main types of focus – Selective Single Point Autofocus, manual focus and Starry Sky Autofocus, which is currently an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III exclusive for astrophotography. I’ve tried various customising tweaks over the years, but the default settings are pretty good. I always make sure any face priority settings are disabled. I generally use Single Point Autofocus, but in…

Andy Cowles The Who truly reflected their tribe – they and their followers were mods, they saw themselves in each other. This nostalgic picture reflects that, but while Jimmy is still in the gang, the band has moved on. The mood is melancholic, the future uncertain, but the trainers are bang on brand. Rankin This cover is one of my faves but mainly because it’s one of my favourite albums. The booklet inside too was an amazing photographic portrayal of what the music was about. I’m not sure how much Townshend had to do with the cover but the inside images are right from the mind that created the lyrics and music. Mat Snow My 15th birthday present to myself in 1973, Quadrophenia was immediately – and lastingly – iconic.…

The Depth Blur feature is one of many Neural Filters that have been added to Photoshop. These all rely on cloud-based computing to analyse and apply the desired effects. Current filters include Skin Smoothing, JPEG Artefact removal and Style Transfer. But there are also a number of beta filters available such as the Depth Blur. Filters in beta development are still being refined and therefore some failings, such as the edge bleed blur, may be corrected by the time it is officially added as a Neural filter. For Adobe customers willing to take part in the participation program, you can vote using the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ buttons when processing an image and this can help train the AI machine learning to achieve better results.…

The crops shown below are taken from the area outlined above in red At low sensitivities, the 26MP sensor cleanly resolves plenty of fine detail, with barely any visible noise. Indeed it’s only at ISO 1600 that there’s any apparent loss of detail, even when examining files onscreen at the pixel level. By ISO 12,800 almost all fine detail has gone, but files should still be perfectly acceptable for many purposes. I’d count ISO 51,200 as the practical limit, which is still impressive for an APS-C camera. Anything beyond this is, to put it politely, sketchy; by ISO 204,800 the scene is drowned beneath a sea of noise, while the higher settings are simply awful.…

Haunted by Martin Dolan Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon 16-35mm F4L, 8 secs at f/11, soft grad, Kase Filters ’Living three minutes down the road, Knowlton Church has become my staple go-to place to capture interesting conditions,’ says Martin. ‘I’ve caught rainbows, lightning, mammatus clouds, snow, great light and storms here. On this morning there was a wonderful spring mist that enveloped the surrounding henge, infiltrating its banks and creating a feeling of separation between them and the church ruins. Processing the image in black & white gives the image a mysterious quality (for me, anyway) and the interplay of soft mist and textures of the grass I found really appealing.’ This is a really effective composition. The diagonal line of water leads the eye to the church, while…

VOTING is open for the EISA Maestro People’s Choice Award. EISA stands for the Expert Imaging and Sound Association, and AP is an active member. The theme of this year’s Maestro award is ‘Faces’ and some great examples of portrait photography have been shortlisted, such as the image above. The overall winner of the EISA Maestro Award will win €1,500, the runner-up gets €1,500, and third place, €750. Voting closes on 10 August so get your skates on: bit.ly/eisapeopleschoice.…

4 Aug 1943 THIS week in 1943 Ilford took over the entire cover to explain to readers that its Selo film would be difficult to obtain until the war was over, due to the fact that ‘miles of film of the highest quality’ was required for military purposes. ‘Photography is mobilised for war,’ the ad pointed out, ‘so don’t blame your dealer if he says “Sold out of Selo!” Claims of the Services, Industry and Science come first. After victory, Selo films will be plentiful again, faster and better than ever. Till then our chief task must be SERVICING THE WAR.’ But the company continued to advertise the virtues of the film, even recruiting the services of AP’s own columnist, Lancelot Vining, to remind readers just what they were missing.…

Jacob James is a UK-based, internationally published travel and documentary photographer. His images have appeared in many exhibitions and books, and he is currently a Panasonic LUMIX Ambassador. He is an active photography educator and speaker who regularly runs photo workshops around the world. You can follow him on Instagram @jacobjamesphoto and see more of his work at jacobjamesphotography. co.uk. FOR PORTRAIT photography I always used to use the single point focus mode in AF-C to ensure the eye was always sharp. Now I find myself using Eye Detection focus a lot more. Eye Detection uses the AI algorithms inside the camera to track the eye of the subject and ensure the focus point is exactly on the eye. This is essential for portraits, where having the eye in focus…

I’m a long-term AP reader, having read it often since the 1970s. I appreciate the consistency of the magazine but every now and then I read something that is a real stand-out. I wish to thank Nigel Atherton for bringing to my attention Marsel van Oosten’s latest book, Mother, which is an absolutely fabulous book. The photographs are breathtaking, to say the least. A lot of the pictures would take me days to take, and you do wonder how anyone has the time to accumulate such a volume. Barry Lowe I echo Barry’s enthusiasm for this book and am also delighted to announce that Marsel will shortly be joining AP as a monthly columnist, sharing the stories behind more of his amazing work.…

The Who’s double album, Quadrophenia, remains iconic due to its fantastic music, the gripping and emotional story of the lead character, the mod Jimmy, and an album package that featured the cover image shot by Graham Hughes and all other photography and art direction by US photographer Ethan Russell. But the road to creating this classic cover was far from smooth. Russell is the only photographer to have shot album covers for the British rock trinity of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who. He had shot the cover of The Who’s 1971 album, Who’s Next, and recalls, ‘The singer/songwriter aspect was the reason I got involved, because of the writing, because of what Pete Townshend did. The music was the most important thing but it was, for me,…

John Murray John is a software engineer and has always enjoyed photography. After joining the City of London and Cripplegate Photographic Society in 2015, it has reignited his interest. cityandcripplegate-ps.org/showcases. Yellow Wall This photograph was taken in north London near to Clissold Park. John writes, ‘I had a day off work and took my Pentax K-3 and its 16-85mm zoom for a walk along the New River Path. Architecture often draws my photographic eye, especially when patterns are present. I only took this one shot before moving on.’ I think there are two reasons why this photo works as a strong composition. There is obviously the bold colour of the yellow façade, which is contrasted with the blue reflections from the windows. There are also the repeating patterns of the…

One of the big attractions of using Pentax DSLRs is the huge range of K-mount lenses available, dating back to 1975. While you’ll get full functionality with modern AF designs, the camera still plays nicely with manual-focus lenses. You need to enter the focal length for the IBIS system to work correctly, and the camera can be set to request this when it’s switched on. The AF system will indicate when the subject is in focus, but for the most reliable results you’ll need to use magnified live view. With the oldest fully manual lenses you need to shoot in M mode and enable use of the lens’s aperture ring in the menu. Uniquely, you can tell the camera the aperture you’ve set by spinning the rear dial, which will…

The Fujifilm XF 18mm F1.4 R LM WR is a great option for landscape and street photographers and also for videographers. With many smartphone manufacturers opting to use a 27mm focal length for their main cameras, it has become an increasingly popular focal length over the last few years for all different subjects and styles of photography. However, at £879 it does cost a serious chunk of money, although you get a seriously good lens in return. But if you can live with a stop smaller aperture, the older 18mm f/2 can be found for around £500 new or just £250 used, and it is obviously smaller and lighter. This makes it a compelling alternative for street photography. In terms of the optics and autofocus, though, there is absolutely nothing…

Can you still buy film? Q I recently cleared out my loft and found a couple of old film cameras collecting dust that I’d long since forgotten about. I’ve shot digital for years now, but dragged them down with the intention of perhaps giving film a go again, if only for nostalgia’s sake. The problem is, the local shop where I used to buy all my film has long since disappeared, and I haven’t got a clue where I’d get any these days – especially the 110 cartridges that one of them shoots. Any suggestions? Terrance Williams A During the past few years analogue photography has become popular again, with many younger photographers adopting it for the first time, as well as older users rediscovering their love for it. With…

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. ★★★★…