Innholdsfortegnelse for 7/25/2023 i Amateur Photographer

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Welcome

We’ve got some great features for you this issue. First we bring together two of our most popular topics: macro photography and saving money. Our cover photo was shot using a lens you can buy used for £250. Also I interviewed the curator of one of the best photo exhibitions I’ve seen in years – Civilization: The Way We Live Now. It’s well worth a trip to the Saatchi Gallery to see it but do allow plenty of time because there are 350 incredible, fascinating and thought-provoking images to get through. I spent half a day there and frankly it wasn’t long enough. We also take a quirky, retro-tinged look at England through the eyes of film shooter Ian Howorth; and we test Fujifilm’s latest mirrorless marvel, and a budget…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

AI competition kerfuffle

A PHOTO taken on an iPhone was disqualified from a photography competition in Australia after judges wrongly suspected it was generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The competition was held by the Charing Cross Photo store in Sydney, and despite looking at the metadata of the image, the judges were unable to ascertain whether the image was AI-generated or not. ‘You really can’t ignore the gut instincts of four judges,’ concluded Charing Cross Photo on an Instagram post disqualifying the image. Suzi Dougherty, who took the photograph of her son posing with two mannequins at a Gucci exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, told The Guardian that she wouldn’t know how to take an AI photo, adding that, ‘I’m just getting my head around ChatGPT.’ The competition organisers subsequently confirmed the image…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Nuclear (film) option

OPPENHEIMER, a Christopher Nolan biopic about the physicist who oversaw the first atomic bomb, was shot entirely on large-format film stock on IMAX and Panavision 65 film cameras. These are amongst the highest-resolution film movie cameras out there. ‘The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled,’ Nolan told The Associated Press. ‘The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear. You’re getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses.’ The movie is out now, see oppenheimermovie.co.uk…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

It's good to share

7 days A week in photography AP picture of the week Misty Hare by Edward Russell OM System OM-1, 150-400mm at 365mm, 1/500sec at f/4.5, ISO250 ‘Taken in South Norfolk on my walk back from looking for hares early one morning, it was misty, damp and dull and I had not seen much on my way out from the parking spot. On the last stretch back this hare popped along. I quickly and quietly laid down on the damp grass and, as luck would have it, the hare got up on its hind legs to look around. The low profile allowed for the foreground to be out of focus, and the grass either side framed it nicely. Eye level gives an instant connection to the subject. Hares are my…

2 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

A bit of the past stuck in the present

I think we all know that finding exciting things to shoot when we are close to home is much more difficult than when we are away in a new place. At home we become a little blind to the stuff we see every day and we quickly find that there’s either nothing new or nothing of any interest to take pictures of. When we are away however, everything is new and exciting, and the world seems full of opportunity. It’s annoying though when someone from outside wanders onto our home patch and discovers there’s loads to shoot – things we fail to see because we are simply too close to them, too used to them. Ian Howorth is one of those people. Born in Peru, brought up in Miami and…

12 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Fujifilm X-S20

Testbench CAMERA TEST At a glance £1249 body only £1349 with 15-45mm zoom ● 26.1MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor● ISO 160-12,800● Up to 30fps shooting● 6.2K 30P video recording● 2.36m-dot, 0.62x EVF● 3in fully articulated touchscreen● 5-axis in-body stabilisation Introduced alongside a new ultra-wideangle XF 8mm F3.5 R WR ultra-wide lens, the 26.1MP Fujifilm X-S20 follows on from the X-S10 as the firm’s mini-DSLR styled camera. It’s said to be suitable for all types of users, whether that’s stills shooters, content creators, or videographers. As such, it’s designed to be feature-packed yet easy to use, with in-body image stabilisation (IBIS), a conventional mode dial on top, and dual command wheels. This is in contrast to the X-T series, which feature more traditional shutter speed, ISO, and exposure compensation…

15 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

The Dandycam

LAUNCHED 1911 PRICE AT LAUNCH 7s 6d (37½p) GUIDE PRICE NOW £100-120 Question: Who made the first single lens reflex (SLR) instant picture camera? Answer: Polaroid. Right? Wrong. More than 60 years before Polaroid’s remarkable SX-70 instant SLR, the British Butcher company introduced the Dandycam. It took tintypes, which formed a direct positive image on metal plates. These were circular, 2.5cm in diameter, and the image produced was for inserting into pendants and brooches. The plates were loaded into a compartment in the side of the camera and held in place by a strong spring. As a lever in the side of the camera was pulled out and pressed in again, the first tintype was pushed into position behind the lens which directed its image via an internal angled mirror…

2 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

TRACY CALDER The AP regular compiles macro tips from pros and looks at kit from £5 that will help your macro shots NIGEL ATHERTON Editor Nigel speaks to the curator of the landmark exhibition, Civilization DAMIEN DEMOLDER The former AP editor interviews Ian Howorth about his new book exploring his cultural identity JOSHUA WALLER Online Editor Joshua Waller tests the Fujifilm X-S20, the firm’s latest APS-C mirrorless camera AMY DAVIES Features Editor AP’s resident smartphone expert tests the Samsung Galaxy S23…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Going Dutch

7 days A week in photography THIS image shows a former Rotterdam coffee warehouse built in 1903 being converted into the new Dutch National Photography Museum. The museum, which is due to open in 2025, will house a collection of more than six million images, and will also feature exhibition spaces, permanent facilities to house the collection, a bookshop and library, education rooms, and a rooftop restaurant with views of the Rotterdam skyline. See www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Remembering a great French photographer

7 days A week in photography MARIE-LAURE de Decker, a principled and brave documentary photographer who covered the Vietnam war, the anti-apartheid struggles and other major world events, has died aged 75. Decker, who deserved to be much better known outside her native France, switched to photography after a short career as a model, and, despite having very little experience, headed to south Vietnam at the height of the conflict in the late 1960s. The US forces were happy to ferry photojournalists around at that time, and she took some memorable images for big publications such as Newsweek, armed with a battered Leica M4. Despite her success, Decker suffered from self-doubt. ‘I said to myself: people are going to see that I’m not a real photographer,’ she wrote in…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Macro on a budget

Best current affordable macro lens ● Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM● £1,089● www.canon.co.uk Javier Lafuente It was a passion for wildlife, and a desire to go out and capture what he found in the countryside, that led Javier to nature photography. He was drawn to close-up photography due to its endless creative possibilities and the fact that you can practise it close to home, in any season of the year. Most of his photography takes place in Spain. See Instagram @javierlafuentephoto What are your favourite subjects to photograph? I enjoy photographing plants, flowers, fungi and intimate landscapes, but if I had to choose, I would say my favourite subjects are insects. Working with insects is not always easy, but it can be very satisfying. It’s also an excellent…

13 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Inbox

LETTER OF THE WEEK Frozen propellers I was taken with the photo of the WWII Mustang fighter from your Nikon Z 8 review. It suffers, I’m afraid, from a problem I recently struggled with at Shuttleworth Military Air Show – how do you show movement in the propellers? At 1/2000sec an aircraft propeller appears frozen, as if the engine has cut out, and the plane is about to meet an untimely end. After trial and error I set my OM-1 to shutter priority, no faster than 1/200sec, but even then, despite all the IBIS features and the rather good subject detection, my hit rate was quite poor. I’m happy to accept that this was more to do with my technique than the camera. This is not intended as a criticism…

3 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Samsung Galaxy S23

Testbench SMARTPHONE TEST Samsung generally announces a number of different models which all sit within its ‘S’ line. Right now, alongside the flagship Samsung S23 Ultra, we have the S23 and the S23+. These are mid-range devices that offer some excellent photographic specifications but at a cheaper price. That said, with prices starting from £849, they still sit above Samsung’s wide range of budget and cheap devices. In terms of the camera, the S23 Ultra differs in a number of ways from the S23 and the S23+, which both share the same photographic set-up, but have different screen sizes. Features For the camera, we have a triple-lens set-up, including standard (wide), ultra-wide and telephoto cameras. The 50MP main camera offers a 24mm equivalent angle of view and has…

7 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Buying Guide

Lenses Interchangeable lenses come in a huge array of types for shooting different kinds of subjects IN GENERAL, the easiest way to expand the kinds of pictures you can take is by buying different types of lenses. For example, telephoto lenses let you zoom in on distant subjects, while macro lenses enable close-ups of small objects. Large-aperture lenses allow you to isolate subjects against blurred backgrounds, or shoot in low light without having to raise the ISO too high. Meanwhile, all-in-one superzooms cover a wide range of subjects, but usually with rather lower optical quality. Lens mounts On the whole, each manufacturer uses its own proprietary lens mount. Notable exceptions are Micro Four Thirds, shared by Olympus and Panasonic, and the full-frame L-mount that’s used by Leica, Panasonic and Sigma.…

3 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Fast Voigtländer lenses for Fujifilm and Leica

COSINA, the owner of the storied Voigtländer brand, has announced a super-fast prime lens for Fujifilm X-mount, the Voigtländer 35mm F0.9 Nokton Aspherical. This new manual-focus lens provides an angle of view similar to a 50mm lens on full-frame, while offering the widest aperture of Voigtländer’s X-mount lenses. Optically it features 10 lens elements in 8 groups, including a double-sided aspheric element and a ground aspherical lens. This uses glass with a high refractive index, which helps to keep the lens down to a practical size (it’s 64.9mm long and weighs 492g). The company claims beautiful bokeh via a 12-blade iris diaphragm, and the new lens also features a durable, all-metal barrel. The lens costs £1,199. For further details and the list of fully compatible Fujifilm cameras see bit.ly/rwhitevoigt. Note…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Kodak Portra 160 contest

A COMPETITION seeking your best images taken on Kodak Portra 160 film has been set up by specialist retailer Analogue Wonderland (AW). The contest theme is ‘summer,’ which is apt as the relatively slow ISO 160 film is ideal for shooting in sunlight. Prizes are on offer from Kodak’s parent firm, Kodak Alaris, with a separate prize for AW Club members. Visit bit.ly/awportracontest for details.…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Nothing to think about

7 days A week in photography THE NOTHING Phone 2 has been announced with a minimally designed OS, a higher resolution 32MP front camera and 50MP dual rear camera system. The new smartphone captures video at up to 4K at 60fps on the main camera. The phone also comes with more photography and video features such as Advanced HDR, a new Motion Capture 2.0 algorithm which uses AI technology to detect moving subjects while shooting video and a 2X Super-Res Zoom. The Nothing Phone 2 is available now for a competitive £579 (8GB of memory and 128GB of storage), as well as various contract deals. Visit nothing.tech/pages/phone-2…

1 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

This is the Modern World

CIVILIZATION: THE WAY WE LIVE NOW How would you go about defining the full spectrum of 21st century human civilisation in photographs? That was the question that world-renowned photography curator William A Ewing asked himself back in 2010. Such an exhibition would need to be epic in scale – like Edward Steichen’s seminal Family of Man exhibition which toured the world in the 1950s and was seen by nine million people. It would be very expensive to stage and would need the support of major museums and galleries around the globe in order to be a success. Fortunately, Ewing managed to make all of these things happen. The resulting exhibition, Civilization: The Way We Live Now, comprises over 350 images by some of the world’s leading photographers, and is one…

8 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Reader Portfolio

Tom Bell, Devon Favourite subjects People in black & white. Wild landscapes. Woodland and challenging light. How did you get into photography? My father bought me a Diana camera when I was eight. I have rarely been without a camera since then. Most of my life it has been recording the ways of life around me. First in hospitals and then in the village I live in. What do you love about photography? I love landscape photography in colour ... trying to find the views on Dartmoor in a bleak landscape. I also like to record village events and ways of life here in the West Devon countryside. I love the fact it makes you think about your surroundings and the people who I live amongst. I like using a…

2 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra

● £299 ● datacolor.com Datacolor’s Spyder X2 is the latest iteration of the firm’s monitor-calibration device. It’s designed to help photographers and videographers adopt a colour-managed workflow, ensuring that their laptop screens and desktop monitors all display images and footage accurately. Compared to the previous SypderX model, the hardware looks practically identical, just updated with a USB-C connector rather than USB-A. However, the software has been substantially revised. Datacolor offers the Spyder X2 in two versions, Elite (£249) and Ultra (£299). The main difference between them is that the latter allows profiling of displays with a maximum luminance of up to 2,000 nits, which should be valuable to photographers who require such super-bright monitors for tethered shooting outdoors. Meanwhile the Elite version is limited to standard displays up to 750…

2 min

Amateur Photographer|7/25/2023

Final Analysis

You get a lot of bang for your buck on Twitter – funny memes, news, the latest Love Island updates, conspiracy theories… My partner came across ‘New Frontiers’ by Andrew McCarthy whilst in the midst of a Twitter doom scroll. My first thought was Wow. The second, How? This epic photograph of the International Space Station transiting the waxing crescent moon is what Andrew describes as, ‘one of the most difficult shots’ he’s ever attempted. Taken in broad daylight with the sun still shining where McCarthy stood in the Sonoran Desert, the Moon was much lower in contrast and difficult to focus on, but the ISS still shone brightly enough for the capture. Like myself, the majority of users have reacted in awe, but Andrew says, ‘There are a vocal…

3 min