Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/13/2023 i Amateur Photographer

If you’re a raw shooter who would prefer to spend less time on the PC, or a JPEG shooter feeling guilty that you’re not getting the best possible quality from your images then you’ll appreciate our main feature this week in which seven top pros explain why they shoot JPEGs in preference to raw. The bottom line? Shoot whatever works for you, based on what you enjoy doing. When it comes to JPEGs Fujifilm cameras are among the best, and this week we consider its X-T3 as a delightful used bargain. Meanwhile John Wade uncovers the little-known story of the brief fad for cameras that used 16mm cine film, and we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush with Jim Grover’s latest documentary project. Our cover image this week…

LETTER OF THE WEEK All photography is a lie The idea that there is any ‘reality’ in any photograph is totally fallacious. The deceit commences with the decision of what to shoot, and what not to shoot. And continues in the fundamental projection of a 3D world onto a flat 2D frame. All these arguments about post-processing, and now so-called ‘AI’ interventions, are predicated on a lie; the lie that photography ever represented ‘truth’, ‘reality’. Wringing our hands over the emergence of AI imagery is like asking ‘Should I be telling a greater or lesser lie?’ We will never come to terms with such until we can take a mature perspective on the underlying concept of image making – which is to ask only one question: Am I being truthful…

Testbench LIGHTING TEST Working as a photographer’s assistant in the dim and distant past, I remember being very impressed with a pair of gigantic, but ancient, strip-light flashes that I was tasked with wheeling out on special occasions when we needed a bit of dramatic side lighting. Powered by an equally gigantic battery pack, the lights let off an alarming ‘pop’ when triggered, and the force of the blast could lift a small child off its feet. The swarm of LED tube lights currently on the market are an infinitely more convenient form of that sort of strip flash, and with their red, green and blue (RGB) LED emitters, rolls of gels are no longer required when we want to change the colour of the light. And, because modern tube…

● £319.99 (Airhed Pro kit); £249.99 (legs only) ● www.3leggedthing.com While many tripods make a virtue of being small and lightweight, the 3 Legged Thing Charles 2.0 goes in the opposite direction. It’s a hefty unit with 3-section aluminium-alloy legs. But there’s good reason for this, as where tripods are concerned, size and weight equate directly to stability. The other benefit of those long legs is height; even with the centre column retracted, this tripod will lift a camera to 1.5m, which isn’t far off eye-level for me as a six-footer. Its maximum extension of over 1.9m gives plenty of extra leeway when you need it, but the inevitable flipside is the 2.4kg weight. Each of the legs can be set independently to three different angles, and they reverse fold…

Photo Critique I first came upon this work by Sebastián Bruno via my husband, the photographer Ken Grant who lived and taught in South Wales until 2013. Bruno’s work was often spoken of in our conversations about the area and its vibrant photography and community arts culture. When I moved to the area three years ago and realised how close I was to the valley towns where this work was made, I became even more enthralled with the pictures and this project. This picture is from a wider series made as part of Bruno’s work with the local Blaenau Gwent newspaper, The Dynamic, which, for its short life span, had sought to record and document the life of the area where it was based. As the paper’s staff photographer, Bruno…

HOLLIE LATHAM HUCKER Technique Editor JPEG or raw? Hollie gathers seven pros who tell you why they swear by JPEG PETER DENCH On the 75th anniversary of Windrush, Peter speaks to Jim Grover about his photo-reportage JOHN WADE AP’s vintage camera expert looks at 16mm cameras, a format that’s now 100 years old HARRY BORDEN Portraiture pro Harry recalls his two portrait shoots with the award-winning actor, Helen Mirren BENEDICT BRAIN We bring you an extract from top UK-based photographer Benedict Brain’s first book DAMIEN DEMOLDER Former AP editor Damien is impressed by Nanlite’s latest Pavotube light…

A well-known photography web site, DPReview.com, may or may not have closed down. I remember well the first days that I frequented its site, when its proprietor was very concerned about rises in pixel density – the number of pixels per unit area on the image sensor. There was a trend within the industry at the time to move from 6MP on an APS-C size sensor to 8MP or more. The fear was that this would result in a drop in image quality, and was therefore to be resisted. The rises occurred, but the predicted drop in image quality didn’t. In fact, the new sensors, with higher pixel density managed to produce higher quality images than their predecessors. But the argument against pixel density regularly resurfaces, even today, when that…

Nikon 24mm f/1.7 Z lens for APS-C NIKON has announced the Nikkor Z DX 24mm f/1.7 lens for the firm’s range of Z-mount APS-C cameras, such as the Z 50, Z 30 and Z fc. It’s the first DX prime lens for Z-mount cameras, providing an angle of view equivalent to 36mm on full frame. It has a minimum focus distance of 18cm (12.4cm from the front of the lens), meaning it’s suitable for close-ups, as well as landscape, street and portrait photography. In addition, the lens features a stepping motor for fast and quiet autofocus, and is dust-resistant and drip-resistant. ‘With a perspective that’s close to the classic 35mm view favoured by filmmakers, this is a great little prime lens for video, too,’ claimed Nikon. ‘It’s beautifully quiet, and…

AP picture of the week Divide by Bevil Templeton-Smith Sony A7R IV, 1970 Leitz Orthoplan research polarising microscope ‘This photograph is part of a series of work that I have been creating since 2021 using my camera and a 1970 research microscope. Crystals of household chemicals make beautiful and colourful compositions when viewed in polarised light. This is crystallised sweetener, and these colours are as they appear. ‘ Instagram: @beviltsFacebook: www.facebook.com/bevilwww.alveston.london/artist/bevil-templeton-smith #appicoftheweek Win! The AP Pic of the Week winner currently wins an annual subscription to Skylum Luminar Neo, worth £99. Designed for photographers of all skill levels, Luminar Neo is an advanced but fun-to-use photo editor for Mac and PC, available also as a plug-in for Photoshop and Lightroom. Blending pro-level tools with remarkable ease of use and an…

The kind of portraits I’ve taken on celebrity shoots have been largely determined by the sort of job I’ve been doing. Even within the world of editorial shoots, I might either be given a free hand to do whatever I like, or the brief might be quite specific. For that reason, some jobs are more enjoyable – and the results more satisfying – than others. In an ideal situation my aim is to get a definitive, interesting, ambiguous picture that has a chance of not being ephemeral, but sometimes the limits of a particular commission make that difficult to achieve. I’ve photographed Helen Mirren twice and both times were quite different. The first time was in 1999, when I was asked to shoot portraits of her for a feature in…

One hundred years ago, Kodak introduced a new cine camera and film to revolutionise first amateur cinematography and then still photography. The year was 1923, the camera was the Cine-Kodak Model A and the film was 16mm. Originally, 16mm was for amateur movie makers, saving costs that meant a 100ft reel of 16mm gave the same amount of shooting time as a 250ft reel of 35mm, then the most popular cine format. The new narrow gauge film went on to become equally popular among professional cinematographers. Meanwhile, 16mm made the transition into still cameras. The first 16mm still camera Unlike most 16mm cameras, the German Mini-Fex, made by Fotofex-Mareas in 1932, uses paper-backed film with frame numbers read through a red window. Image size is 13x18mm. At only 8x3x2cm, the…