Innholdsfortegnelse for 18/01/2022 i Amateur Photographer

Whether you’re relatively new to photography or an experienced old hand, there’s never any harm in a quick refresher on the core skills that separate camera-based creative photography from casual phone snapping. An understanding of the effect of shutter speeds, apertures, ISO, lenses and other parameters enables us to truly ‘create’ pictures rather than just recording moments. This week we bring you just such a refresher, with expert tips that will help you take greater control of your photography. We catch up with our Rising Star Bursary winner Graeme Chesters, share a wonderfully crazy project by Dod Miller and get a first look at the beautiful and highly desirable new Leica M11. If you enjoy AP’s unique mix of features, why not start the new year with a subscription and…

FIRMWARE update Ver.1.10 for the flagship Nikon Z 9 mirrorless camera – which improves the duration for continuous 20fps shooting up to approx. 15 seconds from three seconds – is now available from the Nikon download centre and the Snapbridge mobile app. Nikon says this is the world’s longest burst for a mirrorless camera with a resolution over 30MP when shooting at 20fps. It claims a 15-second burst is possible when shooting in High-Efficiency RAW + JPEG BASIC (L) recording. Nikon has revealed that a future firmware update will add further improved operability and functionality for both stills and videos.…

19 January 1914 THIS week’s cover image ‘En Route for the Pyramids’ by Dr Adolphe Abrahams signposted his travelogue about Egypt. Although under British occupation, Egypt was still part of the Ottoman Empire until WW1 started six months later, and they sided with Germany. Then, as now, Egypt was a photographers’ paradise. ‘I doubt if one person in ten visits Egypt without taking a camera,’ wrote Abrahams, though he didn’t always approve of the choice. ‘I saw in Egypt almost every variety of camera that is made, and the most popular was the folding focal plane type – an instrument presumably selected for its portability, but, in my opinion, singularly unsuitable for the sort of work one encounters.’ Instead he recommended a reflex plate camera. ‘It is, of course, admissible…

‘Typical retouching mistakes are haloing: a halo effect can appear after cutting out an object from one image and placing it on a different background, or in the same way, playing with levels/curves to create whiter or darker backgrounds you get a halo effect around an object. Be subtle and gentle with the work you do. Unless specified by the photographer, we will not crop an image, to alter or change it – if you crop at the beginning and start doing all your post production and then later you decide you want the full crop, you’ve wasted a lot of time and have to start all over again. Don’t straighten/liquify images until right at the end, the same issue as above – if you need to go back to…

1 Don’t stress about sharpness Print is much more forgiving than viewing images on a high-resolution backlit monitor so even when an image isn’t 100% pin-sharp, it will often still print well. 2 Calibrate your monitor You should be editing with a calibrated monitor to ensure that colours, brightness and contrast are all displaying correctly and that the final image looks correct on all devices and in print. 3 Use a custom print profile Some labs and paper companies offer custom print profiles which are great to check and ensure that the colours in the images you’re sending to print look the way you want them to. 4 Try a border If you’d like your images to be mounted in a window mount inside a frame,…

St Ouen’s Bay It is many years since I last visited Jersey on a summer camping holiday. On such a small island you are never too far from the sea and this photo captures the Jersey Atlantic Ocean coastline beautifully. Josie Bough writes, ‘The photograph was taken at St Ouen’s Bay, Jersey, looking towards La Rocco tower on a very cold afternoon, late January. I loved the light and moody weather on the empty wet beach.’ This scene is all about the drama of the lighting, where a shaft of sunlight has picked out the defence tower and surrounding sea. The adjustments I made to this image have emphasised the contrast in the lighting. With the Basic panel tone adjustments, I wanted to preserve the dark mood in the clouds,…

Parliament Fog by Kurt Hutton The Houses of Parliament are engulfed in fog. This image was seen in the Picture Post story ‘Foggy Morning’, as published in 1939. At this time, the Picture Post was just a year old, but had already established itself as hugely successful, selling almost two million copies per week. Kurt Hutton, who took the picture, was one of the founding members of staff of the magazine. A pioneer of photojournalism in Britain, he migrated to England in 1934 from Germany and initially worked for Weekly Illustrated. 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…

ONE disadvantage of the M11’s rangefinder design is that the direct-vision optical viewfinder doesn’t support a particularly wide range of lenses. It can’t zoom to match the attached lens, so instead indicates the field of view via superimposed framelines. But many users are likely to struggle to see the 28mm framelines properly, and wider lenses aren’t accommodated at all. At the other end of the scale, the 90mm framelines are very small. For those working with wideangle or telephoto lenses, Leica is therefore offering a new Visoflex 2 electronic viewfinder. It’s neatly styled, with a square all-metal casing that nicely matches the camera, and it boasts a higher-resolution 3.69m-dot panel compared to the 2.4m-dot version for the M10. An eye-sensor allows automatic switching between the EVF and the rear LCD,…

CHINESE company Venus Optics has announced a new fast-aperture, Laowa Argus full-frame portrait prime lens – the 45mm f/0.95 FF – which is available for Canon RF, Nikon Z and Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras. The lens is the second full-frame optic in the Argus series, which also includes the 33mm f/0.95 CF for APS-C cameras and the 35mm f/0.95 FF. The latest addition includes 13 elements in nine groups, including an aspherical lens, an ED element and a trio of UHR glass elements. The lens has a 15-bladed rounded aperture diaphragm that’s said to offer ‘promising soft, pleasing bokeh’. The Laowa Argus 45mm f/0.95 FF lens is available to pre-order now for £869.…

THE MINOLTA camera brand has made a comeback in the US with a range of models produced under licence – 16 years after exiting the compact camera market in 2006 – courtesy of Elite Brands Inc. A range of new Minolta cameras is available, starting with the entry-level Minolta MN5z with 5x optical zoom, going all the way up to a $399 67x ultra-zoom bridge camera, the Minolta MN67Ze. They also offer an instant digital camera, the Minolta Instapix MNCP10e, which includes 4PASS printing using dye diffusion thermal transfer (D2T2) technology. Available from Adorama and other US retailers, the Minolta MN67Z has 20MP, optical image stabilisation, a 3in vari-angle screen, built-in Wi-Fi and Full HD video recording. It comes in black, as well as red or purple. The full range…

‘In Romania, the hotel was right in the middle of the revolution. I arrived, got a room, got in the lift to my room and there were a couple of soldiers with machine guns in there, we got off at the floor the foreigners were on. This guy from Reuters news organisation started shouting at the soldiers to get out, he didn’t want them using our hotel facilities. I rang room service for a couple of fried eggs, some toast, brandy and a couple of large coffees. Finished breakfast, went outside, shot a few rolls of film, popped back to the hotel, had some lunch, half a bottle of red wine and went back out. I thought, this is ok,’ explains photographer Dod Miller, sitting next to a giant vase…

In September 2021, The Guardian to commissioned me to shoot portraits of the co-creator of The Office, Stephen Merchant. The newspaper was launching its new magazine and wanted a strong set of pictures for the first issue. They were being published with an interview, as part of the publicity drive for his recent comedy-thriller series The Outlaws. I’m a fan of Merchant’s work, so I was looking forward to photographing him. It was actually the second time I’d photographed him. The first was for The Sunday Telegraph, in 2007, when he was launching his own radio show on BBC 6 Music. All the pictures were taken in a studio against plain backdrops. They did the job but I didn’t feel they were particularly interesting. This made me more determined to…

I’ve travelled to many countries but somehow I’d never visited Scotland until a few years ago. So, after a perilous drive from Glasgow to Glencoe through heavy rain then blinding snow in a rented campervan, I had my first shooting trip to the Highlands. It was a cold night parked next to Buachaille Etive Mòr. When I woke before dawn, the sky was heavily overcast and mist was shrouding the Buachaille, but the landscape was glistening beautifully with snow. I pulled on my waterproofs and wellies and headed out. It was still snowing so ND grads were out of the question – they’re a magnet for rain and snow, so a rain cover over my camera and lens, a lens hood and polarising filter was the best approach. This image…

Pixapro Li-Ion580 MkII Speedlite This compact hot shoe flash can be used on and off camera with a wireless trigger. It has TTL auto exposure linked to your camera exposure meter, manual setting for ultimate control and a multi-flash function for creating stroboscopic images. Rogue FlashBender 3 Large Reflector These reflectors fold flat so slip easily into a camera bag. With the addition of a diffusion panel you have a small soft box. Smaller soft boxes are ideal when working outdoors in windy conditions as they have a smaller surface area than umbrellas. Nam Grip LS-255C Carbon Fibre Light Stand Weighing 500g this stand is ideal for mounting your Speedlite. It extends to 220cm and closes to 48cm. Where weight and bulk are an issue, it’s possible to carry a…

1 Use a tripod Handholding a camera when shooting video will lead to shaky footage. If you’re new to videography it may be unlikely you have access to a gimbal, but simply locking off the camera on a tripod will keep footage nice and steady. Remember, if your lens has IS, turn it off when the camera is on a tripod as this can actually introduce blur into the frame. 2 Switch to manual mode Some cameras have dedicated movie modes, but if your camera doesn’t then don’t worry – simply turn the mode dial to select manual (M). The full manual mode will allow you to take control of shutter speed, aperture and ISO to balance the exposure. 3 Select your frame rate Go to your camera’s video menu…

1 Crop the image To apply a tighter crop I selected the Crop tool and dragged the top and bottom boundary handles to trim the clouds at the top and the beach at the bottom. I also cropped either side, keeping the tower central in the composition. 2 Set the white balance The ‘As Shot’ white balance was a little on the cool side. I did check the White Balance preset menu to see if there was a suitable preset setting, but in the end I simply dragged the temperature slider a little to the right to assign a warmer white balance. 3 Add more contrast In the Basic panel I adjusted the Whites and Blacks sliders, as well as the other tone sliders to add more tone contrast. Applying…

AP picture of the week Light Painting the Night by Matt Verity Canon EOS 250D with EF-S 10-22mm at 14mm, 30 secs at f/7.1 ISO 100 ‘This shot was taken in collaboration with three other photographers and created using a homemade steel wool spinning rig; which is a whisk tied to a rope, with steel wool and magnesium inside the whisk and two LED glow sticks attached to the rope for the colours in the middle,’ says Matt, a photographer from Fleetwood. ‘I lit the steel wool using a 9v battery and spun the rig for 30 seconds to get as much colour from the LED lights as possible. This was the last shot of the night. The rail on the ramp caught my eye, I thought it could look…

THE CEO and chairman of Canon, Fujio Mitarai, has revealed that the EOS-1D X Mark III will be Canon s last ever flagship DSLR, as the company accelerates its move to mirrorless cameras. Mitarai was interviewed by the leading Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun and is quoted as saying, ‘The development and production of flagship DSLR cameras would be completed in a few years, and that they would unify them into mirrorless cameras. The latest model, the EOS-1D X Mark III, released in 2020, will be virtually the last model. However, this statement does not mean that Canon has ceased production of all DSLRs. Mitarai admitted, ‘Demand for beginner and intermediate SLR cameras is strong overseas, so we plan to continue development and production for the time being.’ AP asked Canon…

Back at AP’s annual awards in early 2020, we announced that Graeme Chesters had been named the first recipient of AP’s Rising Star Bursary. The bursary, arranged in partnership with leading used specialist MPB, gives amateur photographers a unique opportunity to work on a long-term project on the theme of ‘change’. Graeme receives up to £5,000 in expenses, along with mentoring and support from top pro Peter Dench and the AP team, while MPB is providing him with an ongoing photography-kit loan from its extensive supply of quality used gear. For Graeme’s bursary project, he is documenting a year in the life of the northernmost town in the world – Longyearbyen. The town, located on the Island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago, has many fascinating characteristics, including three months…

If you unwrapped a photography book for Christmas or popped along to an exhibition, it was probably the result of a long and delicate daisy-chain of experts that helped put it together: assistants, managers, printers, publishers, curators, editors, sub-editors. While the photographer rightly takes the accolades, what got them there are the teams and individuals sitting behind the curtain making sure they sparkle in the limelight. Samantha Humble-Smith and Caroline Cortizo are two photography industry wizards. Samantha has worked as a picture researcher and studio manager, production assistant for Tim Flach and business manager for Mary McCartney. Caroline has 20 years experience in the industry assisting photographers and developing her expertise in post production, digital and film management including scanning. She also worked for Mary where a bond developed with…

1 White balance I always like to get the white balance looking right first. Blue hour often casts lovely blue tones across the scene but with this image it just looked like a colour cast, so I neutralised the blue using the Temperature slider in Lightroom but kept a hint of the natural blue. 2 Basic adjustments Next, I applied adjustments in the Basic tab, the Tone Curve, Lens Corrections and left Sharpening at the default amount Lightroom applies. Shadows and Highlights were used to accentuate and recover detail, while other adjustments boosted brightness and contrast. 3 Masking Tools Once the base image was looking right it was time to apply some localised adjustments using the Masking Tools in Lightroom. These were mainly used to recover more detail from specific…

Aperture Pro sports and portrait photographer Terry Donnelly opens up about aperture, exposure and depth of field Terry Donnelly With a wealth of experience, Terry Donnelly shoots professionally in top-flight sports, editorial, PR and portraiture, and regularly features in national and international news media. Find out more at www.terrydonnelly.co.uk FUNDAMENTALLY, the aperture is a tool to let more light or less light into the camera. But of course, it’s more than that. Like many pros, I tend to work at wider apertures for a variety of reasons. Yes, it keeps my shutter speed up and means I can shoot more easily when available light is low, but it also adds separation and emphasis on the subject. Ultimately apertures such as f/1.4 or f/2 can bring a more cinematic look, which…

Double-check focus Compose and focus on your image and when you are ready to shoot, check the focus again. Use the stop down button to see your image at the working, stopped-down aperture and you will see the depth of field and what is and what isn’t sharp. Check at 100% Shoot your image and then check it at 100%. Check and check again. If necessary, use a loupe magnifier such as a Hoodman to block out extraneous light to make viewing easier. Focus a third of the way in Don’t get too worked up by the depth of field and all the technicalities it can bring. Think about using a wideangle lens for landscapes, focus about a third of the way into the image and shoot at f/11. Explore…

Although manufacturers usually give a shutter speed compensation factor for their lens or sensor-shifting stabilisation systems, these are based on lab tests and the actual compensation factor varies between photographers. Thankfully, it’s easy to find out the longest shutter speed that you can use with a particular lens and camera combination as follows: 1 Find a suitable subject that has lots of fine detail and photograph it from the typical distance that you would use for the lens focal length. If you’re using a zoom lens you should carry out the test at each marked focal length. 2 Make sure that the stabilisation system is turned on and set a shutter speed that’s 1sec divided by the effective focal length: for example, 1/100sec with a 100mm lens on a full-frame…

Creative coloured gels Coloured gels are an inexpensive accessory and great fun to experiment with. They can be used to add colour to shadows, as an accent light for portraits, the key light for added interest or a background light. Flag the light Light from umbrellas can be controlled by attaching a black board or flag to the Speedlite head. I use foam core board held in place with a strip of hook and loop fastener. Get in close By moving the light closer to the subject the background becomes darker and the light more flattering when using light modifiers like soft boxes/umbrellas. The ideal distance for a light modifier from the model is equal to the longest dimension of the light modifier. Stabilise the stand It’s good practice to…

Rode GO II wireless mics ● £230 ● www.rode.com If you want to shoot videos that capture the audio with friends and family then you will need a mic (or even better) two. Rode makes this very easy with the tiny GO II mics. Power them up via the USB connection. These tiny units can be used with the supplied lav mics or you can simply attach them to the shirt of your interview subject via the clip, which doubles up as the attachment that connects to your camera’s hotshoe mount. As they’re wireless, there are no cables to trip over and the battery offers up to seven hours of use. Calumet ND8X ND filter ● £40 ● www.wexphotovideo.com When shooting video, your shutter speed will be locked to a…

IT CAN be tempting to overlook inexpensive lenses like the Nikon Nikkor Z 40mm f/2 and assume that they won’t be up to much. But in this case, that would be a huge mistake. Because while Nikon may have cut some costs in the design, it’s done so in a very sensible, well-judged way. The result is a lovely little lens that’s capable of giving fine results. Naturally it has its limitations, but in practice they’re relatively minor. And in return, its compact size and light weight mean you can happily carry it around all day, while the weather-resistant construction means that you don’t have to worry about using it in unfavourable conditions. I’m not going to pretend that the 40mm f/2 is the best lens I’ve reviewed this year.…

PANASONIC now has four compact but not tiny, lightweight, well-made and weatherproof f/1.8 prime lenses for its L-mount cameras. At £799, the S 24mm F1.8 is the most expensive. They make a nice collection of optics for £2,406 in total, and a faster alternative to the S 24-105mm F4 Macro OIS (£1,299.99) or S Pro 24-70mm F2.8 (£2,149). But of course, you don’t have to buy them all, you can cherry-pick your preferred focal length(s). The new S 35mm F1.8 would come in high on my list of priorities as it makes a great choice for street and documentary photography as well as environmental portraiture and landscapes. It’s a great ‘everyday’ lens for general photography. I’d also have no qualms about shooting at any of its available apertures because it…

There are many interesting aspects to the new Nikon Z 9. One of the less discussed is the choice of raw file options, which indicates a policy change on the company’s part, or maybe a reversion to an earlier policy. An often-made case against high pixel-count cameras is the size of the raw files. Whilst this is less of a concern in these days of low-cost high-capacity memory, it still grates with some people that they are using space for image files that have a higher pixel count than they think they need. In response to this concern, Canon introduced its ‘small raw’ format in 2007. This was marketed as a raw file with a smaller pixel count, though it is not actually that. Sub-sampling a Bayer array sensor can…

Olympus Tough TG-6 ● £369 ● 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 ● £749 ● 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. ★★★★…

I first met UK-based photographer Tim Beale several years ago at the Museum of Bath Architecture. He was working at the museum and among other things had by chance found a photo of my father in the archive. My father had been snapped ‘salvaging’ stuff from a skip some time in the early 1970s. My father was an architect. He cared for and campaigned to save, restore and conserve the buildings of Bath which were being torn down without a second thought. He was actively involved in rescuing many of Bath’s historic buildings. Much of this destruction was documented in a book called The Sack of Bath published in 1973. Fast forward a few years and Tim and I are catching up over coffee. He no longer works at the…