Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/4/2023 i Amateur Photographer

The old cliché that the camera never lies was never true and this week we investigate the fascinating history of how photography has been used to deceive, either for fun or with darker motives in mind. If you’re more interested in art than artifice, then don’t miss our guide to producing fine art black & white images. What makes an image ‘fine art’? Find out on page 14. Also this week John Wade looks at the diverse, colourful and collectable world of single-use cameras, a product whose history goes back further than you may think. Perhaps surprisingly they are still widely available, despite the ubiquity of smartphones with decent cameras, the very best of which, currently, is the Samsung S23 Ultra, tested this week. This week’s cover image was taken…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Imperfect is perfect for me Over past decades I have been fortunate enough to have had some photographs published in AP. Of these, one was taken with a Kodak Junior 2 (anyone remember that?) and another with an Olympus XA1 35mm compact. The late Edward Steichen – who had one of the world’s longest and most successful careers in art and applied photography – said that no photographer is as good as the simplest camera. For many years, AP has supported this view. I have been looking through some issues from the early 1940s. The excellent photographs featured were produced with equipment (including Box Brownies) that would be considered primitive today. By the end of the war most of the more advanced types (Leica, Ikonta) had…

Jack Lodge has been a full-time photographer for six years and lives in Wimborne, Dorset. He can be found on Facebook and also on Instagram @jacklodgephotography where he currently has over 31k combined followers. AP: Tell us about your photography background JL: My passion for photography began in 2014 while studying architecture at university. I bought my first camera, a Canon EOS 100D, along with a little 40mm pancake prime. Fast forward nine years and I quit my day job to follow my love of landscape photography full-time, carrying out commissions, selling prints, and running workshops and tuition across Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. Photography to me is my flow state, something I enjoy so much that I get lost amongst the landscape, forgetting everything that’s going on in life and…

AMAZON has announced that it plans to close one of the web’s oldest and largest camera review websites, dpreview.com, after almost 25 years online. The shock move comes amid news of a round of 9,000 job cuts at the Seattle-based internet retail giant, as it bids to cut costs and streamline headcount after expanding rapidly in the early months of the Covid pandemic. It appears that Amazon has no plans to sell the site, but will instead shut it down entirely. New content will be added up to 10 April, but then the site will be locked and ‘available in read-only mode for a limited period afterwards’. Founded in 1998 as Digital Photography Review by Phil Askey, the site’s first review featured the 2MP Canon PowerShot Pro70. This article notably…

THE MARTIN Evening Excellence in Digital Retouching Award is being launched by The Association of Photographers in memory of Martin, a highly respected Photoshop and Lightroom expert and a regular AP contributor, who passed away this year. ‘The Nomination Award is for digital retouching and post-production image manipulation for commissioned or personal work, applied to still and moving imagery,’ explained the AOP. The finalists from those nominated for the award will be announced in mid-June, with the overall winner announced in September. See bit.ly/eveningaward…

7 daysA week in photography AP picture of the week Beehive Car Park by Jamie Jones Nikon D5300, Nikon 35mm f/1.8, 1/800sec at f/8, ISO 2200 ‘I am based in Warrington, Cheshire, and predominantly photograph architecture, nature and landscapes. This particular photo is of a car park in Warrington nicknamed “beehive car park”. The patterns and symmetry drew me to this shot.’ YouTube.com/JamieJonesPhotography Instagram: @slice_of_jammy #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 image any way they like! Simply go to myFUJIFILM.co.uk, select what you want, then enter your given voucher code at checkout. The voucher is valid for 6 months and can…

Paul Byers, Cumbria About Paul Paul is a self-taught photographer who takes pictures in his spare time. See more of his work at clicktography.net or Instagram.com/thismonolife How did you get into photography? I owe a lot to my Granda as he helped me with certain aspects of photography and he bought my first camera in 2018. Before, I was taking pictures with a GoPro and wanted to learn to capture images that I could pass to family and friends. I watched a lot of YouTube to get me started and then taught myself by getting out with the camera. I look at any mistakes I make as a reference point for me to improve on. I work 9-5 so I enjoy my photography in my spare time. When I started…

Photo Critique In 1976, named after a millionaire industrialist who made his money manufacturing metal engine bearings, the 54ft Arun lifeboat Tony Vandervell came into service at Weymouth station. I was four years old. A year later, Second Coxswain Victor James Pitman was awarded Silver Medal for Gallantry in recognition of his courage, determination and seamanship when the lifeboat under his command saved the yacht Latifa and her crew of eight which was in difficulties one and a half miles south of the East Shambles buoy in a west-south-westerly hurricane and turbulent seas. As my youth developed, my interest in the heroics of the Weymouth lifeboat crew and volunteers increased. Buried under the blankets, on winter evenings I’d tune the radio to BBC Radio 4 for the shipping forecast. When…

DXO HAS updated its PureRaw raw-conversion software, with version 3 now featuring the AI-driven DeepPRIME XD. The company said that this will improve raw image enhancement and build on the software’s already well-regarded noise-reduction processes. ‘By using a larger neural network… DeepPRIME XD delivers greater levels of detail, improved colour accuracy, and smoother, noise-free bokeh when shooting at even the highest ISO levels,’ explained the company. ‘For example, images shot at ISO 4000 more closely resemble those captured at ISO 500 in terms of noise, colour, and clarity.’ Since noise reduction is performed as part of the raw conversion process, DeepPRIME XD can also improve the dynamic range of an image, giving photographers greater scope in low-light situations, DxO added. The original DeepPRIME algorithm from version 2 can still be…

THE ORGANISERS of Landscape Photographer of the Year have announced a special draw to win a one-to-one session with Charlie Waite, the world-famous landscape photographer and the competititon’s founder. Both the winner and a friend can join Charlie for the day-long workshop. To be eligible for the draw, you’ll need to enter the competiton from 3 April to 7 April (midnight to midnight), with the winner announced on a live draw on Instagram at 7pm on Wednesday 12 April. All levels of entry to the competition qualify. Full competition entry details at www.lpoty.co.uk…

Claire Gillo Claire Gillo is a photographer based in the South West of the UK. As a day job she specialises in product and commercial photography but as a sideline she sells her framed black & white fine art prints at Little Blue Budgie (www.littlebluebudgie.co.uk). You can find out more about her at www.clairegillo.com and follow her on Instagram @clairegillophotography Fine art black & white photography is your artistic impression of a subject or a scene. When it comes to shooting in this genre the subject matter can be of anything, however the end result is often more abstract and/or artistic and not commercial in any shape or form. The only stipulation for shooting a fine art black & white image, other than it being shot or processed with your…

Testbench CLASSIC CAMERAS Back in 1987, Fujifilm announced a revolutionary new kind of camera, which was actually described as a ‘Film With Lens’. It was called the Fujicolor Quicksnap. In fact, as well as a lens it also had a shutter and a thumbwheel to advance its 35mm film. There was no method of rewinding at the end of the roll because, when the last picture had been taken, the whole camera was dropped off at the nearest processing shop, where it was broken open, the film extracted for developing and printing as normal and everything else was thrown away. It was suggested that the Quicksnap was the world’s first disposable camera. It wasn’t. A bit of history As far back as 1886 the Ready Fotografer Company in America…