Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 2 i Landscape Photography The Complete Manual

Choosing a camera system, lenses or accessories for landscape photography may seem daunting at first because there is so much choice out there. Manufacturers inundate us with features and gadgets that they tell us make their camera so much better than everyone else’s. Beneath all the marketing babble, there is a wealth of choice available for every budget and skill level. With a little research and keeping a budget in mind, there is some great photography gear to be had out there. The following pages will give you a head start on where to begin and what to keep in mind as you search for your gear. It’s worth noting as well that the cost of the camera is secondary to the skill and creativity of the photographer. An expensive…

If you want to take better landscape photographs, the single most useful accessory you can buy is a good quality tripod. By using a tripod you can completely eliminate camera shake, the number one cause of unsatisfactory photos. A tripod is also essential when using long exposures, powerful telephoto lenses or when shooting in low light conditions. There are many different makes and types of tripod, from cheap budget models costing under £15 up to professional grade tripods made of carbon fibre and magnesium alloy which cost hundreds of pounds. They come in all sizes too, from pocket sized mini tripods suitable for small compact cameras, to heavy studio tripods mounted on castors. The type that you should buy depends on how much you want to spend and what sort…

File format Where your camera allows, always select Raw not Jpeg. Raw is an uncompressed format that gives you much more scope when it comes to the post-processing of your images. You would be surprised how much you can recover a shot that at first glance looks either too overexposed or vice versa. It is fairly common to be able to recover up to 2-stops of exposure information before the image starts to become degraded. Focus It can be all too easy to rely on your camera’s autofocus but try and get yourself into the routine of setting it to manual focus. You may think it is ok to focus on the immediate foreground but that will result in distant objects probably being quite soft. For maximum sharpness with a…

Although the previous pages deal in the general principles of how ISO, shutter speed and f-stop settings interact with each other. We have another diagram that gives a simple overview of how those individual settings affect the look and quality of your images. We’ve laid out, in a more visual form, the basic effect of wide and narrow apertures, slow or fast shutter speeds and high or low ISO settings. Learning the interplay of these three basic values can appear daunting at first but with practice you will see how one setting affects your image and how the other settings need to work in balanced combination to give you the shots you require. “We’ve laid out, in a more visual form, the basic effect of wide and narrow apertures, slow…

For many people new to the world of photography, one of the easiest and most accessible areas first explored is the great outdoors and why not? You don’t need a studio or masses of expensive equipment. There is plenty of available light, unless you’re feeling adventurous and want to try night photography and beautiful seaside or countryside scenes are usually not too far away by car or a brisk walk. Landscape photography is an amazing and rewarding experience for both novice and seasoned professional. Whether it’s just a record of a day trip you’ve made to a new location with the family or a more serious professional endeavour, landscapes when taken well, are able to instil all sorts of emotions in the viewer of the final shot. Even if it…

Trying to pin down what an urban landscape actually is, might depend on who you ask. There are those that don’t actually count the urban environment as valid landscape material in the first place, opting for landscapes that are untouched by people and the modern world. Fair enough, it’s not for everyone but there are many who find the city full of photographic potential. From dark alleys to towering city skylines, the city has much to offer. It isn’t necessarily a thing of beauty, it isn’t always that clean but it can’t be denied that it has character by the bucket load. It’s this character that many photographers try to capture. Humans are incidental in urban landscapes, the city is the star. What lenses? Budget is always a factor but…

There will come a time when your widest lens just won’t be wide enough to capture the scale and grandeur of a particular landscape or you may not have a particularly wide angle lens at your disposal. This is where the ability to capture a panoramic sequence of shots and combine them into a much wider or higher resolution image comes in very handy. The process is pretty straightforward and just requires a little bit of thought regarding the approach to the sequence you are about to capture. “The process is pretty straightforward and just requires a little bit of thought regarding the approach to the sequence you are about to capture.” Essentially you are going to take a number of stills, rotating the camera a few degrees left to…

Your typical landscape image is normally recognisable for what it is. There are an infinite number of beautiful images to be captured out in the world, and that is absolutely fine by all landscape photographers. Now and again though, it is refreshing to see beyond the grand vista, to capture something more than what mother nature has placed in front of us. There is much debate as to whether a photograph can be classed as art. Digital photography does at least enable us to express ourselves and set our imagination free. With that in mind, let’s put the landscape photography rulebook away for a spell and uncover some interesting techniques to elevate your landscape photos to a whole new level of artistry. Why not try the long exposure panning technique…

There’s a lot more to the process of converting a colour picture to monochrome than simply removing the colour. Photographers shooting on black and white film will use coloured filters to produce certain effects in the finished photo; a yellow or orange filter will darken a blue sky, while a green filter will brighten trees and grass. When editing digital images, since colour is present in the original image some conversion methods allow you to apply similar filtering effects during the conversion process to change the tone of objects in the image. By changing the filter settings you can make clouds stand out against a dark sky, highlight trees and foliage or change the relative contrast of objects in the composition. Let’s take a look at the most popular monochrome…

groov-e SportBuds groov-e, www.groov-e.co.uk Price: £39.99/$49.99/43,99 € Do you like to watch videos or listen to music on your tablet while using your cross trainer, exercise bike or other such workout equipment? These sporting true wireless earbuds from groov-e feature an ear hook design to keep them in place while you work out and are rated IPX4 sweat resistant. Their carry case is a 1800 mAh Power Bank which lets you charge other mobile equipment as well as your earbuds. They’re a great price too. Kanex MultiSync Aluminum Keyboard Kanex, www.kanex.com Price: £59.95/$59.95/59.95 Like Apple’s own desktop keyboards, this one’s made of aluminium but unlike Apple keyboards, it can sync with up to three Bluetooth devices and switch between them at the touch of a button. Just the thing if…

Unlike most of AVM’s range of wireless routers, the FRITZ!Box 4060 lacks a built-in modem. This means regardless of how your network interacts with the Internet, you can use the 4060 by connecting it to your existing modem, which was probably supplied by your ISP. Whatever your type of Internet connection (be it ADSL, fibre, cable or mobile data), even if your Internet Service Provider forces you to use their own modem hardware, you can switch off the router section of your ISP-supplied device and connect the FRITZ!Box 4060 instead. But what advantages does this bring? As you’d expect, the router’s wireless capabilities include compatibility with the new Wi-Fi 6 protocol, which gives faster speeds, and is much better at dealing with multiple, simultaneous connections. If you’re working on your…

Twelve South has a reputation for making excellent Apple peripherals that are both useful and decorative. Unfortunately, TimePorter is not such a device. An accessory travel case and charging stand for your Apple Watch, TimePorter is the same size and shape as a spectacle case but with a hole on the top for you to fit your watch’s charging cable. You have to supply your own – there’s no Apple Watch cable in the box. So what you’re left with is a metal case with space for your spare watch bands and a rubber interior frame for wrapping your charger. Is this enough to justify the price? Not really. You could just as easily keep your cable and watch straps in a real spectacle case (who doesn’t have a spare?)…

f you’re lucky enough to have a FRITZ!Box router with DECT compatibility, you can connect up to six wireless phones and position them anywhere in the house. They connect to the phone line through your router, so they don’t need to be plugged into a telephone socket. FRITZ!Fon C6 is such a phone and it’s had an impressive makeover. The body of the phone is pleasingly ergonomic and although it’s pretty minimalist in design, a clever interface makes it easy to access its unique features such as Internet radio, answer machine, email, podcasts, RSS feeds and even a baby monitor. If you have more than one FRITZ!Fon in the house, you can make internal calls between them. The new C6 model has an excellent hi-res colour screen and you can…

Alert Indoor Security Camera is an affordable way to keep an eye on your home, but it doesn't lack in smart features. After connecting the camera to your Wi-Fi network and pairing it with the SWANN Security app on your smartphone or tablet, you can view and capture high-quality video in 1080p full HD. It has a passive infrared sensor that can detect movement at up to 32 feet, and it can also detect loud noises and heat too. The camera then sends a push notification to your phone and starts video recording. You get free cloud storage, which saves clips for seven days, and they're also stored locally for two days. A full 110-degree viewing angle decreases blind spots, and there’s a mic and speaker built-in for two-way talk…

Universal Purchases are awesome. Rolled out earlier this year, the feature lets developers bundle iOS, tabletOS and macOS versions of an app into a single purchase. Instead of having to pay once on the Mac App Store and again on the Mobile App Store, a single payment unlocks the software on all your Apple devices. GoodLinks is a read-later app that syncs your links across all your Apple gear and being a Universal Purchase isn’t the only thing it gets right. Using GoodLinks is very straightforward. When surfing the web in Safari or a third-party browser, you might come across an article you’d like to save for later perusal. Sure, you can bookmark it or add it to Safari’s Read Later list but GoodLinks gives a more comprehensive and flexible…

Ever come across a video on YouTube and wished you could download it for offline viewing, or cut it to DVD and watch it on your living-room TV? Of course you have. Everybody has. With Airy, you can do just that. It’s easy to use. Simply navigate to the YouTube video you want to download, then copy and paste the URL into the field in the Airy app, choose a resolution and click Download. You can download videos as MP4, FLV, and 3GP, with HD, 4K and 8K Ultra HD resolutions supported, or go for MP3 to download only the audio. Airy can also be integrated into most popular web browsers, such as Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Explorer too, to download directly from your bookmarks bar. If you've a…

Spam emails are the bane of everyone’s life. You know the sort of thing. Get rich quick schemes, we-know-your-password blackmail threats and some we won’t even describe. If you use email, you get spam. It’s as simple as that. Cleanfox is a free tool that helps you clean up your inbox and unsubscribe from mailing lists you no longer wish to receive. Pick out a rogue email, and with one click, you can get rid of it and all those like it. You no longer have to trawl through your mailboxes and delete the messages one at a time. It’s easy to use. Just swipe an email right to keep it, up to delete it and left to delete and unsubscribe. It covers all the popular web-based email services such…

What a lousy start to the day. You wake up in a strange apartment, stark naked and covered in blood with a wound to your ribs and a dead body in the bathtub. You have no idea where you are or how you got there. What are you to do? Unmemory, the first game from a small team in Barcelona, offers a great new take on the text and graphic adventure. There’s a lot of reading to do but don’t let that put you off. The story is well written and engaging; and really draws you into the strange world of the protagonist. Every few paragraphs, the text is interrupted by a graphic of something nearby. You can frequently interact with these graphics, sometimes immediately, sometimes later in the story…

What is landscape photography? This is a more complex question than you might at first assume. There are numerous definitions out there that try to sum up what landscape photography actually is. It can range from such matter-of-fact definitions as: “The dominant use of the term is in reference to photography of naturally occurring scenery in open spaces” to a more simple and broader: “Photographs taken outside”. Many regard a landscape to be a representation of a place that has little or preferably no sign of human activity. It is meant to be an untouched and pure depiction of nature. For others the inclusion of man-made objects that range from walls, fields, gardens and structures is just as valid a landscape image as any other. If presented in a suitably…

Is there such a thing as the perfect landscape camera? The answer is going to have to be no. It’s hard to imagine that there is a single camera out there that is perfect for one specific purpose. Certainly some cameras are more suited to landscape photography than others and there are a few key factors that are worth mentioning. Sensor size is not necessarily a prime consideration as you are most likely going to demand as much depth of field as possible in your shots anyway. Megapixel size is also not a major concern unless you are going to be producing enormous prints well in excess of A2 sizes. To be honest the idea of a one shot capture of a landscape is being overshadowed by the use of…

Filters have been an essential part of photography since its very beginnings. Used creatively they can improve a hard-to-capture scene, add an extra artistic element to an image or just provide a bit of fun. Modern digital photo editing has provided an almost too easy method to add filter effects to an image after it has been taken; some effects are better when applied by actual physical filters fitted to the camera when the photo is taken and this is particularly true with black and white photography. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of filter and how they can help to improve your photos. 1. UV filter This screw-on filter was used originally to block UV light from hitting the film in old cameras. Modern digital…

A very important part of photography in general and landscape photography in particular is to ensure that your prime point of interest, your main elements are in sharp focus. Nothing ruins a shot more than the image being fuzzy and blurry when you need it to be tack sharp. The problem however, is that in many cases in landscape photography you have a foreground element as well as a distant object that you want to be in as sharp focus as possible at the same time. Shooting with a wide angle lens and setting a very narrow aperture of f/22 or even f/32 will yield greater depth of field but you will also run into the optical phenomenon know as diffraction, which is a softening of the image due to…

Daytime long exposure The use of a 10-stop neutral density filter during the day can result in some amazing images. Instead of shutter durations of fractions of seconds, you can achieve exposures that are minutes long. This moorland scene was shot with a 10-stop ND, the lowest ISO the camera was capable of and an aperture of f/22. The shutter was open for 240s which gave the clouds plenty of time to pass through the frame of the composition to make what would have been dense fluffy clouds more wispy and conveying a sense of movement. Long exposure sunrise With the aid of a 10-stop neutral density filter, you can slow down your shutter speeds to soften moving elements in your shots such as water and clouds. On a crisp…

The blue hour is a period of time, within civil twilight, where the sun is below the horizon. This period is a prime time for the landscape photographer; neither day or night but something quite ethereal in between the two. The environment is bathed in a soft light and there can be a pinkish orange glow along the horizon, fading into to a deep blue sky. The world is full of promise as the new day begins, or conversely it is about to shut its eyes to drift off to sleep and it is this magical feeling that photographers endeavour to capture. The time of year will dictate how long this period lasts, so it’s a good idea to get to your destination in plenty of time to get yourself…

There is often a misconception among budding photographers that landscape photography is something of an easy option when deciding on a subject to capture. Sometimes it only takes a twenty minute drive to transport you from your local town and put you among the marvels and beauty of the natural world. While it is certainly true that the natural world is very accessible, it can be another thing altogether to create memorable landscape images. It isn’t just a case of arriving at a destination, firing up your DSLR and snapping away like a mad thing. The skills you may have that enable you to operate your camera are quite distinct from those that allow you to envision a beautifully composed image within the landscape you currently find yourself. Both are…

Finding a new way to capture a landscape or any scene in general is always exciting and quite invigorating. It can be helpful in getting you out of a creative rut and sparking new ideas and thoughts on how to see the world in a fresh way. One such way is crystal ball photography. In case you were wondering, it’s nothing to do with fortune telling but rather the use of a crystal ball as an additional lens in your shots. How you use it in those shots dictates its effect on the final image. Using it very close to the camera so it fills the frame means it almost acts like a fisheye lens, whilst having it further away, it becomes a small globe containing the landscape it is…

For many years, if you wanted to indulge in aerial photography, you had no choice but to hire an aircraft of some description to get you, and your expensive camera gear, aloft. Helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft are hideously expensive to hire. Basically aerial photography was strictly off-limits to your average casual photographer. This was a shame, as aerial work provides such a rare view of the landscape. For the rest of us would be aerial photographers, the ability to shoot from this unique perspective presents some obvious problems. However there are some alternatives to hiring a helicopter or aircraft that are well within the ability and price range, of the enthusiastic amateur. Some methods allow you to lift your current camera aloft. Some require additional new equipment. At this point…

If you have ever shot landscapes to any great degree, you have no doubt encountered the particular exposure challenges that go with them. Scenes with your beautiful foreground interest and far off mountains and dramatic skies are perfect landscape subjects. When you take your shots, you realise that certain factors come into play. The main one being that your camera, no matter how new and expensive, cannot see all the subtle tones and variations in light and dark that the human eye can. A typical daytime landscape of foreground and bright sky has such a large dynamic range from the brightest highlights to the deepest shadows and is far beyond the scope of your camera. You can expose your shot for the sky and have your foreground very underexposed or…

Earlier in this bookazine, we covered the procedures for shooting ultra-wide panoramas. This is a sequence of overlapping shots that cover a much wider field of view. They are a great method of capturing much bigger vistas than you could hope to manage with one shot and a wide-angle lens. The resulting images can be very large and contain a huge amount of detail. Some multi-shot panoramic images are known to have been captured that actually ran into file sizes that were measured in many gigabytes! Our panorama is a little more modest. We have a four shot sequence of the coast of Tresco in the Isles Of Scilly.…

Photoshop comes with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). It is a highly regarded Raw processing application that offers a wide range of processing options that enable you to get the best out of your photographs. It includes exposure adjustment, sharpening, noise reduction, colour correction and automatic correction for lens distortion. It is regularly updated to maintain compatibility with all the latest cameras and lenses. Camera Raw is a very complex piece of software but thanks to a well designed interface that breaks down the processing workflow into easily managed sections, it’s not all that difficult to use. Like the rest of Photoshop, it’s easy to get started but mastering the subtleties of its more advanced options takes time and practice. Let’s take a look at the interface and see what it…

It’s amazing how far display prices have fallen, while their quality continues to rise. Take this one, for example. It’s a specialist, quad hi-definition (QHD) gaming monitor with a giant 31.5-inch screen. It runs at 165Hz, has a 1ms response time and a 300 nits rating, yet it costs well south of 400 notes. The AOC CQ32G2SE Gaming Monitor features a tool-free setup. You can get it up and running out of the box in five minutes flat, without having to root around for the right spanner or screwdriver. Just snap the display onto the stand and fit the foot using a finger-turned screw. It’s no hassle at all. Around the back of the display are two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort. There’s no Thunderbolt connectivity (though you can use…

If you’re serious about your gaming, you have to get a decent controller. A joypad that feels comfortable in the hands, with all its buttons and inputs within easy reach. Something with a full range of controls, including four face buttons, a D-pad, two analogue sticks and twin shoulder buttons; a now-standard setup as used by recent Xbox and PlayStation consoles. A joypad like the GameSir G4 Pro. You can connect your G4 Pro to a Windows PC using a dongle that fits in the back of the joypad when not in use or via the USB-C charging cable supplied. Unfortunately, it’s not Mac-compatible and nor can it be used with an Apple TV set-top box. You can use it with your smartphone or tablet over Bluetooth and even with…

WaterField Designs makes deluxe bags for connoisseurs. They’re not cheap, but the quality is outstanding. You could use a WaterField bag every day of your working life, then give it to your grandchild and it would still be in good condition. This particular WaterField Designs product, the Zoom Crossbody Laptop Bag, is available in two sizes. The Compact version fits devices up to 11 x 8 inches, and is ideal for your tablet Pro and a Magic Keyboard. The Tall version can handle notebooks up to 12.75 x 8.75 inches such as Apple’s 13-inch range, including the new M1-powered MacBook Pros. It’s available in a range of colours, and sports a comfortable shoulder strap that holds your Apple gear in a portrait position. The main body of the bag is…

Risers for your computer or monitor aren’t exactly thin on the ground but as you’d expect, this model from Twelve South goes that extra yard with careful planning and design. As well as raising your iMac or external display to a more comfortable height, it features a handy space underneath for all your bits and pieces. The shelf, which is perforated for airflow, is the perfect size and shape for a Mac mini too. If you use Apple’s small form factor Mac with a monitor, Curve Riser is the ideal way to keep them tidy on your desk; saving space. Alternatively, use it for a USB optical drive, Thunderbolt hub, audio interface or just about anything else you can think of. The space underneath the riser is a good fit…

This home security camera is a different beast from the SWANN model covered elsewhere on the page. It lacks heat and noise detection, but it can detect motion at up to 16 feet. When it does so, it records 30 seconds of footage and uploads them to the cloud or your Dropbox account. It has a 130-degree angle-view and a fixed focus from between just under two feet to infinity. You can watch live too, of course, and, unusually for a security monitor, there’s a privacy shutter you can activate when you don't want the camera to record you. Video quality is excellent and it works well both night and day. It’s designed to stand on a flat surface. If you want to wall-mount it, you have to buy a…

Multiple award-winning Things is widely regarded as the best task management app for Apple devices. Those with power-user needs might prefer OmniFocus but for the vast majority of us, ease of use and a clear, Apple-like interface make Things the ‘getting things done’ (GTD) app of choice. But what makes it so good? Things is designed to help you organise every aspect of your life, from daily routines to long-term goals. When you first launch Things, there’s a tutorial project you can keep or delete. If you’re new to the app, it’s best to work your way through it; in ten minutes, you’ll have a decent understanding of how it all works and how to get the most from the app. You can then delete it when you’re done and…

JustStream is an excellent alternative to AirPlay. It can stream video from your Mac to any AirPlay or Chrome cast compatible device, as well as smart TVs from Samsung and LG, Roku boxes, Apple TV and Sony devices. It’s great for viewing slideshows of photos with the family, for example, and as it can mirror your Mac’s screen to the television, it’s good for presentations and demos too, as well as playing movies and videos. You can queue videos and play them in sequence, no need to keep running to your computer room to load the next five-minute holiday movie. Subtitles are supported, and the entire app runs from a menu bar icon and is never in the way while you're streaming. It’s very straightforward to use. Click on the…

It’s always nice to come across an app that does something a little bit differently, or takes an existing idea and puts its own unique spin on it. Especially considering that everyone is talking about Netflix’s new undead action romp, Army of the Dead. Zombies, Run! does exactly that, and it helps you to get fit as well. It’s part adventure game, part fitness app and part interactive story. The concept might sound a little strange at first but it makes perfect sense when you start using it, so you just have to trust us that it works. Zombies, Run! is an app designed to help people who want to run, but lack the motivation to actually get out there and do it. The incentive in this case is to…

It is an accepted fact that if there is one lens that is inextricably linked to landscape photography, it is the wide-angle lens. It is often said that the lens influences the shot, not the camera. That is particularly true of the wide-angle lens in landscape photography. As the name implies, a wide-angle lens captures a very wide field of view. This is ideal for capturing the broad expanse of the scene the photographer is in. It also draws in the viewer of the final image in ways that a zoomed narrow angle image does not. Good wide-angle lenses are also sharp and capture great detail. With the advent of digital cameras and their various sensor systems, pinning down what a wide-angle lens is can be tricky. If we stick…

If you are new to photography in general or perhaps you are stepping up from a modest point and shoot camera to a more fully featured DSLR, it can often be intimidating for the beginner when faced with getting to grips with the knowledge and jargon that is required to shoot more creatively. Landscape photography makes it easy to get outside and shoot straight away; it is more challenging however to do it well and consistently. Even though you may be itching to get out and shoot, take the time to explore the settings of your camera. More importantly you need to have an understanding of the relationships between aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. Things like knowing the different exposure modes available on your camera are essential to grasp…

Let’s get some of the mathematical theory out of the way. In photography an f-stop is a unit to quantify ratios of exposure. Each added stop of exposure means a doubling or increase by a factor of two. A subtracted stop is a factor of one half. So in simple terms an f-stop, or one EV (exposure value), is halving or doubling your exposure. As an example of how an f-number is calculated, we need to look at the equation N=f/D. The f-number (N) is calculated by the lens’ focal length (f) divided by the diameter of the lens aperture (D). As an example, if a 100mm lens (f) has a maximum aperture diameter (D) of 50mm, its f-number (N) would be expressed as f/2. The amount of light that…

Landscape photography is like playing a musical instrument. It takes an afternoon to learn the rudiments but it can take the rest of your life to really master it. It is a vast and rewarding field, as well as a lifelong hobby. Landscape art is not restricted to photography. People have been drawing and painting the world around them since prehistoric times. A walk around any art gallery or a quick search on Google will demonstrate that the landscape has always been a major source of inspiration to the world’s greatest artists and even a brief study of their work will show that there are as many different approaches to landscape art as there are artists. Studying how different painters have chosen to represent the landscape will also teach you…

You are out and about happily taking photographs, with gorgeous sunshine to brighten the experience. It’s your last day before venturing off home and you happen upon a scene that you want to capture. The sun is directly in your eyes but the sun’s position is creating a dramatic lighting effect. What can you do to get the most from the opportunity? The problem is that the dynamic range of the scene before you is very extreme because the sun itself is part of the shot. You have options of course. If you had the time you could wait until the next day when the sun is in a different part of the sky but then you wouldn’t have the drama of the sun low to the horizon. You could…

Coastal and seaside landscapes have always been an extremely popular subject for both artists and photographers. There is a certain something that lures us to the sea. It is both benign and unpredictable, powerful and awe inspiring. Coastal areas have a wealth of interesting features, from large flat expanses of sand, rocky pools and coves, as well as soaring cliffs and sand dunes. There are also the man made influences, ports and towns that spring up around key coastal areas. The photographic potential is vast. The coast and the sea have some of the best image capture potential that you could ever hope for. “There is a certain something that lures us to the sea. It is both benign and unpredictable, powerful and awe inspiring.” A unique environment If you…

Landscapes are great, they are often the one thing new photographers will go and shoot first. Landscapes are just so accessible, you usually don’t need to go too far before you find a local beauty spot, there is plenty of ambient light so you don’t need additional lighting, and they are great places to explore camera craft at your leisure. You will normally arrive at your destination and try and shoot the widest angle possible, feeling the need to get everything in shot. Not a bad idea, wide panoramic landscapes are beautiful. How about putting that wide-angle lens away, and for your next journey out, try something a little different. How about trying a deconstructed landscape? “…think about what actually comprises the landscape you are in…” First things first. What…

There was a time not that long ago, when image editing meant producing a print in a darkroom under an enlarger; when the image was processed and fixed, breaking out the brush and ink and physically painting on the print to ‘retouch’ it to enhance it or remove blemishes. Things have changed quite a lot since then. One of the great things about digital images is that it’s very easy to improve or alter them using the right computer software. There are dozens of image editing packages available, ranging from simple, easy-to-use programs costing under £20, all the way up to the professional standard Adobe Photoshop. It can be easy to rely too much on image editing to save a badly executed photograph. It is always good practice to get…

Welcome to the launch issue of Tech Shopper Magazine. In this new publication from Papercut Ltd, our team of technology experts combine their many, MANY years of experience to craft the ultimate buyers guide that covers all major formats. In this first issue, we take an in-depth look at all sorts of gadgets and gismos for your Apple gear. If it’s a head turner, for good or bad reasons and is compatible with a Windows, Android, Samsung, iPhone, iPad or Mac, we’ve covered it inside. In fact, this magazine is 100% reviews and previews as we devote the whole magazine to covering the latest software, add-ons and more. And we haven’t neglected software either. We cover a wide range of apps and games for all your tech gear. In the…

his wireless charger powers three of your Apple devices at once. The vertical stand on the left holds – and charges – your Apple Watch. The charger is built-in. You don’t have to use the one that came with your watch like you do with some charging stands, so you can keep that for travel. In front of it is a recessed area where you place your AirPods (2nd gen or Pro). On the right of the unit is a regular wireless charger for your smartphone, as long as it’s wireless-charging compatible. Three chargers in one. Unfortunately, there’s no USB port around the back for cabled charging. The charger is available in both black and white. The black model has a premium Ultrasuede fabric finish, while the white one boasts…

You can’t fault the price. For less than 60 notes, the Kami Indoor 360 Smart-Home Camera offers 340° rotation and 90° tilt, dual band wi-fi, two-way audio, night vision and 1080p high definition recording. It’s not at the expense of quality either. It’s robust and stylish, with an understated profile that sits discreetly wherever you wish to position it; and its recordings are sharp and smooth. It has to be used indoors, of course. The camera is not weatherproof or waterproof, so it cannot be set up outside. It has to be reasonably close to a plug socket too. A long USB lead is supplied so you can power it from the mains plug provided or a computer’s USB port but there’s no battery option. The Kami Indoor 360 Smart-Home…

Your brand-new smartphone might well be the pinnacle of mobile phone gaming but is your controller up to speed? Do you even have a controller? If not, this amazing, pocket-sized add-on could be just what you’re looking for. The Kishi folds down when not in use for easy storage and portability. When opened up it stretches out to accommodate smartphones of all sizes. A Lightning connector plugs into your phone and a through-port lets you plug in your Lightning cable and charge while you play. There’s no need to cut your gaming short because your smartphone’s battery is almost drained. There’s a free app too but this is just for firmware updates and information; there’s no heavy setting up to do. Its comprehensive control set will prove familiar to anyone…

If you remember the review we did of the devolo Magic 2 Wi-Fi Starter Kit back in Issue 2, you know that powerline adapters are a great way of extending the reach of your cabled and wireless network using your house’s electrical wiring. A powerline setup consists of at least two plugs, which fit in your household mains sockets. By connecting one of them to your router using a supplied Ethernet cable and plugging the other into any mains socket in the house, you create a cabled connection between your router and the second adapter. This unit can offer a wireless access point for your network, Ethernet ports for cabled connectivity, or both. devolo’s Magic 2 LAN Triple powerline adapter starter set doesn’t offer Wi-Fi access, but it does have…

Back in the day, you could gather your snaps in the Photos app, design a calendar, a book, greetings cards and more; and order them in print directly from Apple. You can’t do this any more but several third-party services have stepped in to fill the gap. Motif is one such service. Using the free Motif app for your Mac, iPhone or tablet, you can use your photos to create exciting books and calendars directly from your Apple device. On a Mac you can also create and order greetings cards but this feature has yet to make it to the mobile apps. Your pictures are curated automatically so your favourite memories and pictures are easily to hand; and it’s easy to make impressive, professional-looking designs. There are ready-made templates and…

Now here’s a useful app to have on your phone. It can translate typed text into and out of 103 languages, as long as you've got an Internet connection. If you're offline, it can still translate 59 languages. If your typing finger is getting tired, you can simply point your smartphone’s camera at a piece of text and translate it between 90 languages, or 50 languages at a higher quality if you use a photo. It can handle 95 languages using handwriting recognition and translate conversations in 43 languages. You can save translated words and phrases for future reference too. Naturally, it caters for all widely spoken European languages. It’s a real boon for travellers. Not only can it make communication easier, if you're confused by signage or instructions, just…

If you've played the original Life is Strange, you'll be instantly at home with this sequel. The game mechanic hasn't changed; it’s still a narrative-driven graphic adventure with the story interrupted – and guided – by regular multiple-choice options. These choices define the path the storyline takes and directly affect how it plays out. Like the first game, it’s episodic, with the story split into five, self-contained chapters. However, this Mac version bundles all five together; we don't have to keep waiting for the next one to be released, as did console and PC gamers when it came out on those formats. It features a protagonist with a supernatural ability too. But for all its similarities, there’s plenty that’s new here too. The title no longer centres on college girl…

This is more than just a racing game. It’s an entire online community. Three years in the making, the multiplayer-focused Street Kart Racing lets you race with other kart drivers from 60 different countries and keep up with the latest goings-on in a very well populated Facebook group dedicated to the game. Just the thing if you’re a competitive racer who likes going up against human beings rather than AI drivers. That’s not to say you can’t race computer-controlled opponents, though. You build your career by racing them in Cadet Karts. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Street Kart Racing is a serious simulation game designed with the help of professional kart racers to be as realistic as possible. Don’t expect to drop bananas on the track or fling turtle shells…

The First Tree had an unusual inspiration. Its developer, David Wehle, used it as a ‘creative outlet’ to deal with his becoming a father for the first time; and also losing his own dad. So naturally, family ties play a large part in this third-party exploration game. It centres around two parallel stories; a fox (the playable character) trying to find her missing family, and through narration, a son reconnecting with his estranged father in Alaska. Along the way, you uncover artefacts and stories from the son’s life as he becomes intertwined in the fox’s journey towards The First Tree. Graphics are simple but enchanting, giving a real sense of being there when combined with the melancholy music. As you run through the snowkissed plains of Alaska, a beautiful fern…