Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/07/2022 i Amateur Photographer

Strong summer light is a good problem to have, especially when we remember the tribulations of the murky British winter. But the fact remains that harsh July sun can cause a number of technical headaches, including hard shadows and blown highlights. Fortunately, we’ve called in some expert advice this issue to help you get the most from the summer rays – those we hear from include top Aussie travel photographer David Lazar and landscape ace Jarrod Castaing. There are some great hardware articles to enjoy, too, including the fascinating saga of a massive spy camera from the 1950s and reviews of some outstanding Fujifilm X-mount lenses from Sigma. Top movie director Barney Cokeliss also talks about his love of film photography, so there’s something for everyone. If you’d like to…

Since I began photographing high-profile people in the 1990s, Nigella Lawson has been one of my most frequent subjects; I’ve photographed her a total of eight times. For several years our paths just kept crossing in a series of editorial shoots and commercial ones for clients such as Waterstones and Wedgwood pottery. She was already a household name when I first worked with her, back in 2000. The daughter of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, she had made the leap from journalist to bestselling author of cookery books in 1998, then a year later to hosting her own television series, Nigella Bites. I’d actually photographed her first husband, the journalist and broadcaster John Diamond, several months before her. They lived in a house on London’s Goldhawk Road, in…

Photo Critique We didn’t have television when I was a child. Not because it had yet to be invented but because my parents said watching TV would rot our brains. Two consequences were that we had to find other ways to rot our brains and that we spent a lot of time reading newspapers. I loved the papers. Each front cover was a record of the events of yesterday, and over the month we built a transient historical archive, only for it to be collected and pulped by our local Scout group as they pioneered the idea of recycling. It felt wrong to destroy all those stories and pictures, but I suppose the house would have been overwhelmed quite quickly had we decided instead to hang on to every paper…

Sand Yachts by Fox Photos Sand yachts on a French beach, July 1927. Sand yachts, also known as land yachts or dirt boats, have a long history going back to the 17th century. Initially invented for transport and entertainment, in more modern times, land sailing has evolved into a racing sport. The world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle was set in 2009 when Richard Jenkins, a Brit, reached 126.1mph in his land yacht called Greenbird. 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.…

Sunrise, sunset, blue hour Jarrod Castaing Internationally acclaimed fine-art landscape photographer Jarrod Castaing is an expert when it comes to capturing natural light in his images and has shot in over 50 countries. Visit www. jarrodcastaing.com and see him on Instagram: @jarrodcastaing Bedruthan Steps Most often shot from the surrounding cliffs, this beach-level image was taken during summer when the longer days allowed Jarrod to time sunset with a low tide. After twilight set in, warm light remained on the horizon to complement the cooler tones of blue hour; one of the great aspects of capturing landscapes and seascapes during blue hour when there’s still warm light in the sky is that yellow/orange and blue are complementary colours. Although the sun had dipped below the horizon, the sky was still…

In 1981 Yelena Yemchuk’s childhood came to an abrupt end when she left her home in Kyiv, Ukraine, and emigrated to America with her parents. Her friends, cousins and grandmother Shura remained behind the Iron Curtain. She did take along a suitcase of happy memories: playing games in moss-covered forests, the smell of frying potatoes, trips to the opera and ballet, and stealing strawberries from the neighbour’s garden. Convinced she may never see her homeland again, she clung to these recollections until the surprise of Perestroika, and the subsequent independence of Ukraine from Soviet rule, allowed Yelena to return and embrace the chaos of a new nation. By the mid-nineties, over a decade since her father gifted her a 35mm Minolta camera for her 14th birthday, she was making regular…

Piano player at Uplands Park I am a regular visitor to Vancouver Island and over the years have documented the Oak Bay Parks, Recreation and Culture’s ArtsAlive project, in which painted pianos are placed in various scenic spots along the Victoria City coastline. This photograph was shot at Scenic Drive, Uplands Park. I had anticipated just taking a landscape shot of the piano at sunset. However, when I arrived there was already a man sat at the piano, who as I recall was playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata No 14 in C-Sharp Major to an audience of German tourists. As you might expect, the sound from this instrument left something to be desired, especially as the piano had been well and truly exposed to the outdoor elements. Even so, it was…

AP picture of the week Graveyard Antics by Becca Fulcher Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 300mm, 1/1250sec at f/4, ISO 800 ‘I have been a nature lover and wildlife photographer for over 10 years now and I enjoy nothing more than seeing nature at its best in our everyday surroundings. These two older fox cubs were oblivious to me and were just keen to be chasing each other around in the local cemetery. Both are still thriving in the area more than seven months on and still have their moments of playful antics.’ Instagram: @beccafulcherphotography #appicoftheweek Win! To congratulate the AP Pic of the Week winner, Fujifilm is giving the winner a £25 voucher* to spend on any photo prints or gifts at myFUJIFILM.co.uk, so that they can print their…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Praise for the X-T20 Thank you for your recent feature on the Fujifilm X-T20. I have always felt that this camera has been somewhat overlooked, with the headlines being grabbed by the likes of the X-T4, X100V and the X-Pro3 – all brilliant cameras, it should be said! I was lucky enough to be gifted an X-T20 from my wife Sue for my 50th birthday four years ago. Looking back, I feel it transformed my photography and unlocked my latent creativity. While it lacks the weather sealing of the larger models, I just love its compact but classic film camera form, the gorgeous (and immensely practical) dials, the exceptionally useful tilting screen and the terrific image quality. I also enjoy being able to use vintage lenses…

You may not have heard of Barney Cokeliss but anyone who has recently looked at a television will have seen some of his work. Currently directing WW2 drama World on Fire for the BBC, Barney is the director behind the latest NHS films promoting awareness of heart attack symptoms in which people fall over in slow motion all over the place, and the one with the man and his Jack-in-the-Box in the cancer diagnosis campaign. The films have been shown on TV and at the cinema, and the stills are in print and on billboards everywhere you go. While he spends his working life working with the moving image Barney is also a big fan of stills, and especially stills shot on film. In his downtime and days away on…

1 Crop the image For this first step, I selected the Crop Overlay tool and used the Angle tool to drag across the horizon to level the photo. Or, I could have just clicked on the Auto button to apply an auto crop. I then dragged down the top crop handle to achieve a panoramic crop. 2 Adjust the Tone and Colour Next, I went to the Basic panel, where I set the White Balance to a Daylight preset setting. This made the colours in the scene appear warmer. I then adjusted the tone sliders to add more brightness and contrast. Finally, I added Clarity and Vibrance. 3 Add a Select Sky Adjustment In this step I clicked on the Masking button, then clicked on the Create Mask button. This…

THE SIGMA f/1.4 fixed lenses are highly popular among those shooting with APS-C and Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras, and it is great that Fujifilm users can finally get in on the action. The 16mm F1.4 DC DN lens is a compelling option for those who want an affordable wideangle that produces great edge-to-edge image quality. It is a lens I would describe as a workhorse, in that it is going to do a great job when you need it, without being a glamorous or headline-grabbing option. The best part is that it is a large aperture lens that most entry-level users will be able to afford, while for more demanding users, its image quality exceeds what you would expect for the price. There really isn’t much that I can…

Tech Talk I like to keep my eye open for unusual cameras, they don’t have to be expensive or well known, just have some unusual feature or other. There have been various means of protecting a camera’s lens when not in use, including folding covers, sliding doors and lens caps, to name a few. A small number of cameras have used the barn doors approach. At the top end of the scale, a well-known example is the Voigtlander Vitessa, which I can be seen using in the masthead photo, and which incidentally appeared in a recent AP archive photo showing actor and comedian Peter Sellers using one in 1957. The Keystone Everflash 3570 is at the opposite end of the spectrum, an example of what are sometimes known as CrapCams,…