Innholdsfortegnelse for 9/12/2023 i Amateur Photographer

SIMON MURRAY Creative professional and bokeh guru Simon reveals his tips for better bokeh using vintage lenses HARRY BORDEN Amy Davies interviews the portrait pro about his very personal photographic project WILL CHEUNG The experienced photo tutor compares key editing techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop ANDY WESTLAKE Technical Editor Our chief reviewer assesses Fujifilm’s pancake lens, the tiny, lightweight XF 27mm F2.8 R WR AMY DAVIES Features Editor AP’s resident smartphone expert reviews the well-specified Honor Magic 5 Pro ROD LAWTON Rod is a specialist in photo-editing and he shows you how easy it is to create panoramas in Affinity Photo 2…

POLAROID has announced a high-end instant camera, the I-2. It retains a similar iconic design to the firm’s other recent models, but is a major step up in ambition, with a higher-quality lens, autofocus, and full manual control. The firm claims the three-element 98mm f/8 lens is the sharpest it’s ever made, having been designed in collaboration with Japanese optical engineers. It provides an angle of view equivalent to 38mm in 35mm terms, and depth-of-field equivalent to f/2.8. Infrared LiDAR autofocus covers 0.4m-infinity, and there’s even a 49mm filter thread. A full range of shooting modes is available, there’s a large dial for changing settings, with another for exposure compensation (+/-2EV). Exposure settings are shown in the large optical viewfinder, and on a top-plate status display. There’s a built-in flash,…

AP picture of the week Weather Front by Peter Adams Nikon D750, Tamron 24-70mm, 1/10sec at f/13, ISO 250 ‘We had wandered down to Heacham beach in Norfolk to watch the sun set (a rare place in Norfolk where you see a sunset over the sea). I had been carrying my camera around and had no tripod. As everyone watched the sun setting in a very strange sky, my eye was caught by this amazing cloud formation – it looked so dramatic and angry. I took a few shots resting on a hoodie that I had with me. Back home I tweaked it a little in LR. I think there is more that could be done, but I like the undiluted drama.’ #appicoftheweek The AP Pic of the Week winner…

Panoramic images, or ‘stitchers’ as they are sometimes known, are a way to capture a much wider angle of view by merging together several overlapping images. Most smartphones and a handful of regular cameras can shoot and blend panoramic images entirely in-camera, but in order to get better quality and more control, it’s usual to shoot the frames individually and then merge them in software like Affinity Photo 2. Merging panoramas is very easy, and Affinity Photo 2 has some clever editing tools to make the results even more seamless. We’ll see how these work in this walkthrough, but first some general pointers about shooting panoramas. There are two approaches that you can take – quick and dirty, or detailed and technical. The quick and dirty approach is to shoot…

● £145 ● sony.co.uk The Sony ECM-G1 is a compact, directional on-camera video microphone which can be used with most cameras and smartphones. Its main attraction lies in its tiny size: at 50.8mm tall, 48.5mm long, and just 34g, it’s surely the smallest on-camera mic you can buy. With a super-cardioid pickup pattern, it predominantly registers sounds from in front of the camera, while feeding the same signal to the camera’s left and right audio channels. As usual, the unit fits onto your camera’s hot shoe, with a short twist of a ridged collar locking it into place. On most Sony cameras made since 2012, that’s all you need to do. The audio signal is transmitted through contacts on the multi-interface (MI) shoe, which also provides power. One catch, though,…

105 cameras listed & rated Cameras Cameras come in three types: DSLRs with optical viewfinders, mirrorless models with electronic viewing, and compact cameras with non-interchangeable lenses ALMOST all serious photographers prefer to use cameras with interchangeable lenses, as this gives the greatest degree of creative flexibility. At one time, this meant digital single-lens-reflex (DSLR) cameras, but these have now been joined by mirrorless cameras that use electronic viewfinders. The latest models are true alternatives to DSLRs, offering the same image quality and creative options. Camera manufacturers offer a range of options, from simple, relatively inexpensive beginner-friendly designs, to sophisticated professional models. In the middle of the range you’ll find enthusiast cameras with more-advanced control layouts. Meanwhile the term ‘compact’ refers to cameras with built-in lenses, regardless of their size.…

Lens technology has improved in leaps and bounds in the past few decades, offering image quality undreamed of a generation ago. The trouble is, predictable optical perfection can get a bit boring – just like people, it’s the quirks that give many lenses their unique character and charm. So we’ve asked vintage lens expert Simon Murray to reveal his favourite glass for atmospheric and unique bokeh and share his buying tips. Coming right back up to date, we look at the very lovely Fujifilm XF 27mm F2.8 R WR, the smallest lens available for X mount, we compare the image-editing features of Photoshop and Lightroom, and for Adobe refuseniks, we show how to stitch panoramas using the excellent Affinity Photo 2. Connect with us @ EMAIL US at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk with…

SAMSUNG has announced its flagship UHS-I ‘Pro Ultimate’ memory card line-up, with capacities of up to 512GB, a read speed of 200MB/s and write speeds of 130MB/s. The microSD version is available exclusively on Amazon in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB flavours, with prices starting from £19.49. The PRO Ultimate SD range will go on sale on Amazon in October, in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities, with prices starting from £15.99.…

ENJOY smartphone photography but worried about the environmental impact of all these new handsets? Dutch company Fairphone has announced its latest ‘sustainably produced’ smartphone, the Fairphone 5, now available to pre-order. This midrange smartphone features dual 50MP cameras plus a punch-hole 50MP selfie camera and supports up to 4K video recording at 30fps. It also has an OLED display and a five-year warranty. Although it’s Hobson’s Choice when it comes to memory – you get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage – the handset can take microSD cards up to 2TB capacity. The Fairphone 5 costs £620, and shipping starts from 14 September (it comes in matt black, transparent, and sky blue, though the sky blue version will not be available until the end of the month). See shop.fairphone.com…

Ten years ago, the term ‘bokeh’ was not at all common currency, but now, even quite young smartphone photographers are familiar with the concept of attractive background blur – handset makers often mention it in their marketing materials. While a lot of phones use clever technology to replicate background blur, particularly when it comes to portraits, there’s nothing quite like using a ‘proper’ camera lens for eye-catching bokeh. Even a sub-£100 portrait prime or a cheap telephoto lens will generate blur as you apply differential focus, but the unique effects you get from vintage lenses are something else entirely. Simon Murray is an authority on the subject, with a popular YouTube channel, so we caught up with him to find out more about this engrossing subject. ‘I’m old enough to…

Tech Talk I’m trying to avoid acquiring more cameras, but sometimes I can’t resist picking up an example that I don’t already have. The Rajar No.6 from the 1930s is such a camera. The design is a familiar one, with a lens and shutter assembly mounted on bellows which retract back into the body on struts when not in use. They seem to be quite common, and I’ve seen them in antique centres on several occasions, but never at a price that I thought was reasonable. I came across this one in a local Oxfam priced at £9.99, which seemed fair, as it’s in good condition without any significant chips in the Bakelite to which these cameras are prone. The Rajars were mainly distributed through promotional schemes rather than direct…

Photo Critique On seeing his first Daguerreotype around 1840, influential French painter Paul Delaroche proclaimed, ‘From today, painting is dead!’ The story sounds far-fetched, but it captures the anxieties that surrounded the technology when it first emerged. This picture, by master car (among other things) photographer John Mason, my great friend, sums up some of the anxieties about the dreaded subject of AI. Many words have been written about AI, but here are the thoughts of an old photographer in his 60s who has never known any other profession. Cards on the table time…I do not consider myself to be an ‘artist’, and have never had any desire to be one. Even as a kid (inspired by a collection of National Geographic magazines my parents found) I wanted to be…

Until 23 October, Kestle Barton, Helston, Cornwall See kestlebarton.co.uk for opening times Fay Godwin is one of the most respected and significant British photographers of the 20th century, so it’s always a treat to take a look at her masterful black & white landscapes. Her work has been described as a unique photographic survey of the British landscape, with images created for books and exhibitions between 1972 and 1994. Godwin’s work is also known for the way in which it pioneered the use of photography to uncover environmental issues. In more recent times, photographers have continued to use the landscape to consider how humans have an impact on the land surrounding them, and as such, Godwin’s work remains highly influential. Zelda Cheatle, the hugely respected curator and gallery owner –…

LETTER OF THE WEEK My favourite photograph I read John Wade’s Final Analysis, AP 8 August, with great interest. His admiration of Bill Brandt’s ‘Morning On Tower Bridge’ mirrors my admiration of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Picnic on the Banks of the Marne’, and for many of the same reasons. This is probably my favourite photograph of all time. At a glance everything about it is wrong but it holds together beautifully. A family portrait with just one face partly visible. The actions of four of them tell the story of the picnic but it takes a while to find the fifth person. The boat seems somehow wrong, but feels right. Cartier-Bresson was famous for his street photographs taken at ‘the decisive moment’, but this seems to me to be posed just…