Innholdsfortegnelse for 11/12/2021 i Amateur Photographer

Whilst there are still many situations where a tripod is essential, and without which a photograph would be impossible to take, it is nevertheless true that thanks to modern technology there are now fewer of these situations than there once were. Advances in image stabilisation and improvements in high ISO performance mean that, with care, high-quality handheld images can be obtained more easily than ever before. This week Jeremy Walker shares his tips for getting the best results. We also begin a new series looking at some of Britain’s oldest photography businesses, starting with a remarkable high street studio in Lewes, Sussex, that’s been in the same family since 1858. We look at what’s new in the latest version of DxO FilmPack, and test the latest incarnation of one of…

VENUS Optics has unveiled the Laowa 85mm f/5.6 2x Ultra Macro APO; a small, lightweight lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras that offers twice life-size magnification. By using a shorter focal length and smaller maximum aperture, it’s about half the weight of the firm’s existing Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO and two-thirds of the length. Optically the lens employs a new design, with 13 elements in 9 groups, including 3 made from extra-low dispersion glass. According to Venus Optics, this allows chromatic aberration to be essentially eliminated. The lens employs an internal focus design, with a minimum focus distance of just 16.3cm. Both focusing and aperture setting are manual. The lens is remarkably compact, at 81mm long, 53mm in diameter, and weighing just 291g in its E-mount incarnation. It…

6 December 1967 THIS week the AP time machine stops at the 1967 Christmas Presents Number, which included gift ideas from under £2 (£38 today) up to the most expensive suggestion, the newly launched Olympus Trip 35 compact camera at £25 (£476). Load it with Kodachrome and then show off the results with a Hanimex La Rondette slide projector at £20 17s 6d (£398) sat on a Dixons Pyramid de Luxe projector table, just £2 19s 6d (£57). Add a Boots screen pointer at 18s 11d (£18) to point out the best bits. One of the first photographers to try out the Trip 35 was AP columnist Victor Blackman, who considered the results to be ‘first class’. ‘At first I thought it was half-frame, it is so compact,’ he confessed.…

Security is obviously very high in the financial district in the City of London, and carrying a cumbersome backpack and setting up a large tripod is going to attract attention very quickly. The modern architecture in the area is fantastic and the best way to shoot it is handheld. Unencumbered by a tripod you can move around without hindering the office workers and other pedestrians, and shoot at will. You only have to move a few yards and the reflections, light and angles all change quite dramatically. With no tripod you have the freedom to explore the pedestrian areas without being approached by security.…

The Swinger In which photo magazine, other than AP, would you find an article about Polaroid cameras in today’s digital age (AP 2 October)? My introduction to photography came via a Polaroid Swinger my parents bought for my 16th birthday in 1968. I recall the late comedian Bob Monkhouse advertising it on TV and, like most people, I was gobsmacked at a camera that could produce a finished print within seconds of taking a shot. The Swinger had an exposure system in which you squeezed a knob until the word ‘yes’ appeared in the viewfinder after which you took your shot. It was crude but it worked well. The fact that the camera shot only black & white film also appealed as I’d often watch my dad making prints in…

The vast majority of all my images are in colour. I love colourful pictures and so do most people. This is why the most popular landscape images on Instagram are, without exception, the ones with the most vibrant sunrises and sunsets. But as great as colours can be, they can also be distracting. Colours draw attention. Warning signs use very bright colours as our eyes are drawn to them, like bees to a colourful flower. It’s great to go to the beach in your Hawaiian print shirt, but you’ll probably wear more muted colours for a business meeting. In my photography I try to use colour as a way to draw attention to the areas or elements that are important, to separate shapes and to create mood. But every now…

This year’s exhibition again combined the Archive with contemporary photographs by Tom Reeves, highlighting Lewes Town Hall, including photographs of the town’s Mayors taken by all four generations of the Reeves family. ‘What has come to light in the research, is the enormous amount of work we were not aware of,’ remarks Tom. ‘We also found some wonderful pictures taken in the Town Hall from when electricity first came to Lewes. Different electrical devices and a sign saying you can buy a cup of tea made with electrically heated water! Because we are scanning at such a high resolution, details can be seen that would never have been notified before. It’s a tribute to the original photographer that they stand this kind of enlargement.’…

Salvaged Submarine by Keystone The Royal Navy’s first submarine, the Holland I, in a basin at Devonport dockyard after being salvaged on 8 December 1982. Built in 1901, the submarine was part of the ‘First Submarine Flotilla’ alongside the HMS Hazard. The Holland I was lost while on tow to the breaker’s yard after being decommissioned in 1913, lying on the sea bed near the Eddystone Lighthouse for 69 years. The vessel was later restored and displayed at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport.…

CANADIAN photographer Edward Burtynsky is to receive the Outstanding Contribution to Photography gong at the Sony World Photography Awards 2022. Burtynsky is best known for his images portraying industrial landscapes and the wider environmental crisis. More than a dozen large-scale photos will be presented as part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022 exhibition at Somerset House, London. Also included are images from Burtynsky’s seminal work Oil (2009), a 12-year chronicle of the complex oil extraction and distribution cycle, and other major projects. Previous recipients of this accolade include William Eggleston and Mary Ellen Mark. See more at worldphoto.org.…

Your next TV could transform your photography. The thought occurred to me while struggling to erect a new LG that I was testing at home for The Gadget Show. At 75 inches it was the largest one I’d yet had to accommodate in my living room but I suspect this size will become the norm for tellies in the coming years. It’s not the enormity of the latest TVs that could spark a photographic revolution though, it’s another aspect of them that’s becoming the norm – wider colour gamuts, increased dynamic range and greater maximum brightness. Programme and film makers have been quick to exploit the potential. Watch the glorious wildlife footage narrated by David Attenborough in the BBC’s A Perfect Planet on an appropriate TV and the clarity and…

Lean on something Find a tree, a wall, or a door frame that you can brace yourself against and tuck your elbows under the camera and against your chest. This will help steady your hands and support the camera. Another option is to sit on the ground and draw your legs up to your body. Your knees become a platform which can support the camera. It helps if you can support your back against a solid structure. Use high ISO settings Modern cameras are good at dealing with high ISOs and the noise they produce. Most modern cameras can be used at ISO 1600 without a hint of noise, and many can go much further, especially with High ISO Noise Reduction enabled. I can understand a reluctance to move from…

The historic market town of Lewes is situated in the county of East Sussex, 44 miles southwest of London. Its winding streets, built on a series of hills close to the South Downs, still follow the Medieval road plan dating back centuries. Lewes is proud of its history and heritage and is home to the world-famous Glyndebourne opera house. The town is also known for its annual Bonfire Night, which sees the narrow streets thronged with torch-lit processions; its costumed participants bearing huge effigies of politicians and world leaders ready to be burnt on bonfires. In recent years, there has been much interest in the Edward Reeves Studio, which is recognised as the world’s oldest photographic studio, run since 1858 from the same premises in Lewes High Street. Not only…

SONY set itself a hard task when it came to following-up the A7 III. But with the Alpha 7 IV, the firm has produced a substantially improved camera that offers enough new not only to tempt its existing users to upgrade, but also to turn the heads of DSLR users who might be considering making the transition to mirrorless. In fact, the A7 IV boasts significant updates and improvements everywhere you look. Its 33MP sensor captures usefully higher detail than its 24MP or 20MP rivals, giving greater scope for cropping or making large prints. But it still delivers impressive dynamic range and high-ISO image quality. The upgraded viewfinder, fully articulated screen, improved handgrip and long-awaited touch interface combine to improve the shooting experience greatly, too. While many A7 III users…

WHILE there are some genuinely useful additions to this DxO FilmPack 6 software, the ‘bumper film pack’ concept feels a little bit dated – and relatively expensive – with so many options now available these days for those seeking the analogue look. The editing tools are quite limited, although the pack does integrate seamlessly with Photoshop and Lightroom, and the interface design can be frustrating at times. Yes, it’s good to have the Fujifilm presets, but X-series camera owners have them anyway, and there are cheaper ways to get a similar look for your images. Meanwhile portrait and wedding photographers are likely to stick with a more specific set of tried-and-tested film emulations for Lightroom, such as Mastin Labs’ superb Portra set, rather than going for this ‘everything but the…

This is the second article in an occasional series, which takes a look at the origins of basic photographic theory. The last article dealt with the topic of aperture. This one concerns exposure time, commonly known as ‘shutter speed’ – for reasons that will be discussed later. As before, use will be made of historical research papers, which provide a first-hand account of the conversations at various points in the development of photography. The first source is the Journal of the Photographic Society from August 1858 to September 1860. The term ‘shutter’ does not appear in any of the articles, and those that do mention the ‘time of exposure’ generally identify a suitable time as being several minutes on a bright day. A watch and a lens cap was amply…

I get perplexed and annoyed when photography is lazily compartmentalised. You know: landscape, portrait, street, travel et al with rarely any consideration of intentionality. This sort of shallowness also applies to the hierarchy of subject matter. Butterflies and flowers are probably at the top, whilst cow pats and roadkill are almost certainly at the bottom. Who would want to photograph crap, you might ask? Well, one photographer who has challenged that league table is 66-year-old John Darwell, who has photographed discarded used dog poop bags – not only in the UK but also in Australia, Belgium, Norway and Germany – as well as dumped scrap and thrown-away trash. Add to this list, abandoned letters in doorways, and stray dogs in cages and you begin to realise he is not seeking…

AP picture of the week Backlit Fungi by Kyle Tallett FRPS Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, 60mm f/2.8, 15 frames at 1/20sec at f/2.8, ISO 200 ‘This image was taken during a rainstorm! I was out in local woodland shooting woodland and fungi, it’s that time of year. It’s good to get out and walk, take images – a brilliant antidote to the stresses of the NHS at the moment,’ says Kyle, a radiographer from Ashford, Kent. ‘I was looking for the right fungi in the right place with the right background, which meant walking past a lot of examples until I got the one I wanted. The camera was on a tripod, the fungi was on a log and I placed an LED with low light behind and below…

You do not really need any specialist kit to shoot without a tripod but we do not all have the latest cameras with the best technology. The following might help. Small bean bag Useful in both urban environments and for shooting landscapes. Place it on walls, rocks, post boxes, or bollards, for example, to make it easier for shooting with slower shutter speeds. Remote control or cable release Once you have set the camera up on your bean bag you might not want to touch the shutter release, as doing so may nudge the camera and spoil your composition. Firing the camera remotely will help. Camera strap With the strap around your neck, hold the camera away from you so that the strap is taut. It will add a hint…

‘The British Legion contacted us with the idea to re-create our archive photos with modern service people using the same studio, the same painted backgrounds, the same furniture, otherwise the same physical space where the pictures would have been taken in 1914-15. We shot it on 10x8in sheet film as the original pictures were probably done on glass plates, though sheet film was available then. Pairing these photographs of modern soldiers in their battle dress with those taken 100 years earlier by my grandfather was very powerful. It drew parallels between current service people and their forebears.’…

Just as we’d expect, Sony’s new 33MP sensor delivers lovely clean images at low ISO settings, with lots of detail and no visible noise. The first sign of any loss in image quality comes at ISO 1600, with fine low-contrast detail just starting to blur under close examination. As the sensitivity is increased further, the impact of noise becomes progressively more obvious, but I’d be still entirely happy shooting at ISO 12,800, which is the default maximum in Auto ISO. Even the ISO 25,600 yields files that are usable with a bit of work in raw processing. However, the higher settings are best left alone.…