Innholdsfortegnelse for 04/09/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Back in 1982 AP’s then Editor, Roy Green, had the idea for a pan-European body comprising the top photo magazines in each country, which would give awards for the best photo products each year. The organisation that he co-founded, EISA, is still going strong and this week we announce our collective awards for 2021. If you’re in the market for a camera, lens, or accessory, then you won’t go wrong if you choose any of this year’s winners. Also this week we look at the benefits of starting a project. Personally I find that working towards a body of work on a theme, and following a common style, gives me a greater sense of purpose than simply creating a collection of unrelated images, and you can of course have several…

4 September 1916 BIG EXHIBITIONS were an important part of photographic culture during the first half of the 20th century, and September traditionally marked the start of the ‘exhibition season’. Annual shows such as that held by the Royal Photographic Society were a much-anticipated event worthy of extensive coverage in the photo press. Sadly the 1916 RPS exhibition left AP’s correspondent somewhat underwhelmed, and pondering the reason for the absence of ‘what our American cousins would call “bite”’. Fortunately the problem was not irreversible. ‘We do not consider that the days of epoch-making pictorial results has passed,’ he added, optimistically, before setting out a list of qualities that a good exhibition picture required. ‘Photography is a very live art indeed, but progress must be made along the lines of direct…

AMY SAYS: ‘This year marks the tenth anniversary of the project I’m perhaps most proud of. After experimenting with short-lived and shallow projects, in 2011 I set about undertaking something that would allow me to go more in-depth and that I could really sink my teeth into. ‘Cardiff has a set of Victorian and Edwardian shopping arcades, all located within the city centre. Not only are they fine examples of architecture from the period, but also the shops found there are generally independently owned and often quirky in nature. A project on shopkeepers is a common one to tackle, but given the vast scope of opportunities presented here – plus easy access (I lived quite close by at the time), it seemed like a great choice for me. ‘Once I…

Ideas If you are struggling to get going, do some research and then some more. By understanding your subject well, your ideas will grow and blossom into something more substantial. Get online Make a social media account for your project. Even if you simply create an Instagram account it can be useful for getting feedback and assessing how your project is developing. Feedback Although we may not like the idea of others critiquing our work, you will see improvements in your practice if you are open to critical feedback. The end game Have a goal set in mind to keep you going as it can be easy to push a personal project to the side. Experiment Really try to push yourself to the next level. Don’t settle for shooting mediocre…

When was the club founded? The club was founded in 1981. What does your club offer to new members? A warm Welsh welcome to all, whatever their level of proficiency and areas of interest. We are not a ‘teaching club’, but we all learn from each other and from the speakers and judges we engage. Much of this is done during meetings, but also in the local pub which follows each club session. Something that’s much missed during current times! A recent new member who joined at the start of the pandemic has commented on the friendliness and encouragement that has been appreciated from the speakers, judges and members during our weekly meetings held on Zoom. Describe a typical club meeting In normal times, we would generally start to congregate…

Chester Cathedral cloisters Pictured here are the cloisters of Chester Cathedral. Mark writes, ‘I was drawn to the contrast between the light flooding through the cloisters and shadows, highlighting the texture and weathering of the stone; and how the repeating and receding pattern of the lighting added depth to the image.’ I thought this photograph showed a dramatic view of the cathedral. With architectural subjects I generally feel it is important to optimise the optical geometry and perspective. Unless I have the camera on a tripod and check the angles with a spirit level, I struggle to capture the subject perfectly. Fortunately, advanced raw processing software programs, including Capture One and DxO, now provide the tools to make your lenses appear optically correct and also allow you to define the…

Welcome to the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) awards for 2021-22, revealing the year’s best cameras, lenses, printers, software and smartphones. EISA is a group of 60 special-interest magazines and websites from 29 countries around the world, covering six subjects: Hi-Fi, photography, mobile devices, in-car electronics, home theatre display & video, and home theatre audio. Each member is renowned for its expertise within its subject area, and for the rigour and integrity of its testing. As one of the organisation’s founding members, AP is an integral part of EISA’s Photography Panel. We work closely alongside 16 other magazines from Europe, India and the USA, all of which are among the most respected in their home countries. To make sure that the winners are truly worthy of your hard-earned money,…

What’s the best way to protect equipment from the rain? Q I’ve really got into wildlife photography recently, but on more than one occasion I’ve found myself in the midst of a rain shower and had to run back to my car while trying to protect my camera. I know a lot of equipment is weather-resistant, but I’ve also heard stories of lenses malfunctioning after being soaked. Are there any cheap and lightweight protection options I could keep tucked in a coat pocket for these situations? A You’re right to be concerned, Katie, as while many camera bodies and lenses feature some weatherproofing, very few set-ups can withstand the sheer amount of water a sustained downpour can dump on your equipment in a short period of time. With Britain’s weather…

Motorwheel by Fox Photos Swiss engineer M Gerder at Arles, France, on his way to Spain in his ‘Motorwheel’, a motorcycle with a wheel which runs on a rail placed inside a solid rubber tyre. These kind of contraptions were regularly invented and tested in the 1930s, but it goes without saying that they never truly caught on That being said, to this day you can still find plenty of enthusiasts who choose to eschew a second wheel, such as those who belong to the British Monowheel Association. 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.…

WE ARE sad to report the death of Austin Mitchell, a former Labour MP and a great champion of the rights of photographers. ‘Austin Mitchell was an enthusiastic and accomplished photographer and a good friend to AP over the years,” said editor Nigel Atherton. ‘He championed photography within Parliament throughout his nearly four decades as an MP and was hugely helpful in our Photographers’ Rights campaign in the early noughties. He was also a thoroughly nice chap – warm, modest and down to earth.’ Austin first came to prominence as a regional TV news anchor, before being elected MP for Great Grimsby, from 1977 to 2015. He served as chair of the Parliamentary All-Party Photography Group and regularly exhibited in its annual photo show.…

Claire Gillo Claire Gillo is a photographer from the South West of the UK. She specialises in commercial and food photography (shooting mainly pubs and restaurants) whilst making work for her fine art practice on the side. Find out more at www.clairegillo.com or follow on Instagram @clairegillophotography. Whether you are an amateur or professional in your photography practice, there is always room for a personal photography project. There are many benefits to shooting a personal project – from there being no client restrictions or approval process to getting as creative as you like. A personal project can also greatly help you grow and develop as a photographer as it enables you to refine your style and ideas rather than just snapping away making random images that have no connection. There…

Make a book There are many ways to craft a photo book and lots of companies out there who do a great job. When designing a book, think about the order of images and how many you want to include on each page. Some pages may have multiple images, and others might stand alone. Or you may want a more uniform approach through the book. This is for you to decide what works best for your particular project. Creative framing Frames come in many shapes, sizes and materials and picking the right one(s) for your work can either make or break a project. Think carefully about what you want your images to say and how you want to display them. Exhibition Curating and organising an exhibition is a brilliant way…

Why I prefer MFT I’ve just got round to reading Andy Westlake’s feature on Micro Four Thirds, and his comments closely match my own findings. I bought into the MFT system, despite having a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and a number of L lenses, for the better depth of field, and the built-in focus stacking that Andy didn’t even mention. I started with the Olympus E-M5 Mark ll and upgraded to the Mark III when it came out, with its 20MP sensor. I’ve tried several lenses but eventually settled on just three. The 60mm Olympus Macro is superb. For long-distance work the Panasonic 100-300mm with its own stabilisation works well with Olympus’s own in-camera version. The Olympus 12-200mm can focus down to 200mm so makes a great walkabout lens.…

Drawing from her roots in Nigeria and Jamaica, as well as her experience of being a young black woman in south-east London – whose skin colour, hair, and body type were nowhere to be found in the pages of magazines – Nadine Ijewere’s approach to photography has led to some groundbreaking – and stunning – work. We see dazzling colours, dreamlike backgrounds and the fierce gazes of beautiful women. Her first book showcases Ijewere’s signature hallmarks, and it’s also clear to see her passion for challenging traditional concepts of beauty. She’s keen to embrace diversity both behind and in front of the lens. We asked her for more details. AP: What are your biggest inspirations? NI: There is nothing more powerful than the love that resides within close communities. An…

1 Lighten the image The original image was underexposed. Therefore, I needed to fix this problem first. I went to the Edit Basic panel and dragged the Exposure slider to the right to lighten the image. I also adjusted the remaining tone sliders to optimise the tone and contrast. 2 Add Saturation and Texture In the Basic panel Presence section, I increased the Texture to add more sharpness and detail to the stonework. I also increased the Clarity slightly and added Vibrance to increase the colour saturation. 3 Apply a Lens Profile Correction With an architectural subject, such as this photograph, you want the capture image to be as optically correct as possible. In the Optics panel I clicked to enable Remove chromatic aberrations. I also checked Use profile corrections,…

Amateur Photographer UK Editor-in-chief Nigel Atherton Focus Netherlands Editor-in-chief Roos Schouw Focus Numérique France Editor-in-chief Renaud Labracherie Foto-Kurier Poland Editor-in-chief Krzysztof Patrycy Fotografi Norway Editor-in-chief Pål Otnes Fotomag Norway Editor-in-chief Toralf Sandåker FotoMagazin Germany Editor-in-chief Manfred Zollner FOTOobjektiv Austria Editor-in-chief Klaus Lorbeer Fotosidan Magasin Sweden Editor-in-chief David Elmfeldt FotoVideo Czech Republic Editor-in-chief Rudolf Stáhlich FotoVideo Magazin Hungary Editor-in-chief Sándor Benko Kamera-lehti Finland Editor-in-chief Kristiina Haaga PhotoNet Greece Editor-in-chief Konstantinos Floros Shutterbug USA Editor-in-chief Dan Havlik Smart Photography India Editor-in-chief Hoshang S Billimoria Super Foto Digital Spain Editor-in-chief Jorge Coma Tutti Fotografi Italy Editor-in-chief Paolo Namias…

Q I’m an amateur photographer and passionate extreme sports enthusiast. I wondered if you could point me in the direction of some of the best action cameras under about £400 that are waterproof and can be easily positioned for capturing content on surfboards, bikes, harnesses etc. I know GoPros used to be ubiquitous, but is that still the case? I’d like decent video and stills capture, and if it does some crazy slow-motion shooting – even better! Toby Eachus A When they first hit the market, action cameras revolutionised the kind of high-octane footage and stills that the average shooter could produce. Rugged, compact, and easy to use, they could go where no camera had gone before. GoPro spearheaded this charge, but there are now some other serious contenders vying…

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. ★★★★…

AP picture of the week Sleeping Owl by Bettina Hilker Canon EOS R6, Canon 300mm f/2.8 II plus 2x converter, 1/2500sec at f/5.6, ISO 6400 ‘I am a pure hobby photographer and see photography as a balance to my job. It teaches me mindfulness. I mainly enjoy wildlife and nature photography but it depends on the situation. I also have enjoyed nature macros with flowers and insects,’ says Bettina, who lives in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ‘I had discovered the sleeping owl during the visit to a falconry near Solingen. Of course, I would have preferred to photograph a free-living one but the light fell favourably on this beauty, who sat in the dark.’ Bettina is on Instagram at www.Instagram.com/ rudi80423. Chosen by Nigel Atherton, Editor, as our #appicoftheweek Man with…

ADOBE has announced key additions and updates to the desktop and iPad version of Photoshop. More skies have been added to the Sky Replacement feature, via a Get More Skies option located inside the Sky Replacement dialogue box. Meanwhile, a new Discover panel, provides an easier way to find relevant content and offers tutorials. A new beta of Photoshop is also debuting this month, with Creative Cloud members able to give feedback directly to the Photoshop team. Photoshop for iPad meanwhile gets the Healing tool from the desktop version, for more precise image retouching, and the Magic Wand tool, useful for extracting objects from a flat background or selecting an irregularly shaped area. You can see Adobe’s blog for the full details: bit.ly/photoshopchanges.…

‘I found that moment of not being able to return to its former self fascinating and beautiful, yet so tragic’ CLAIRE SAYS: ‘I’ve always had an obsession with that moment after death. There is this definite line that cannot be crossed from something that is alive and something that is no more. There is a fascinating connection between photography and death that stretches right back to the 1800s where many of the Victorians photographed their beloved after their death, but also photography is a tool that enables us to freeze that moment that can no longer return. ‘For this project, called Layla’s Gifts, I decided to photograph the small animals my cat (called Layla) used to bring to me. It started with a starling who looked so beautiful when I…

I absolutely loved the ‘Shoot Film’ edition of AP (17 July). It brought back so many memories. The article on 120 roll film camera left me pining, not for the fjords but for my Mamiya 645J that I sold nearly 20 years ago. A wedding photographer friend had borrowed it on several occasions and made me an unexpected offer which I felt was generous: a lump of cash and a Minolta Dynax 7xi (at the time still a very nice camera). In a moment of weakness I rashly took him up on the offer. Your feature reminded me of it, and how each photograph was almost an event as the shutter clicked. With only 15 shots each one was meticulously framed in the waist-level finder. A light reading was taken…

I’ve just returned home after spending a joyous afternoon at a wine bar in the company of Homer Sykes’ book, Colour Works: The 1980s and 1990s published by Dewi Lewis (2021). It’s the third volume from his seemingly inexhaustible My British Archive and does what Sykes does best, re-visiting the 20,000 (give or take) images and curating them for publication. It’s a new book of old photographs with many of them new to me. I startled the bar staff with a yelp when I discovered unseen Sykes and this photograph was the yelpiest of them all. The 1980s were my teenage years, years of growth, love, lust, ecstasy, violence and a string of fashion faux pas, the biggest of which was arguably purchasing a pair of high-top Travel Fox trainers.…