Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

Everybody thinks that autumn and winter are the best times of year for landscape photography – summer isn’t the season that first springs (ahem) to mind. Because the sun is higher in the sky in summer than in other seasons, you may think that it’s not an ideal time to produce striking landscapes. However, there’s no reason it can’t be. When I lived in Los Angeles, where it’s summer all year round (even in the winter), I had to adapt to the harsh light. Landscape photography is all about working with the light you have, not the light you want. Choosing subjects that work with the existing conditions is a great way to train yourself to consistently come up with the goods. The summer holidays are upon us, so here…

01 Create a new document Go to File>New. Choose a width and height – here we’ve gone for Width 20 inches, Height 11 inches, Background White. Set resolution to 300 pixels/inch. Click OK. Make sure the grid is in inches ( Photoshop>Preferences> Guides, Grids and Slices), then go to View>Show>Grid. 02 Draw your frames Click and hold on the Shape tool in the Tools panel and choose the Rectangle tool. Drag out a box for your first image frame, using the grid as a guide and making sure there’s room for three frames of the same size. Take the Move tool, hold Alt and drag the box to create two copies. 03 Add the first image Open your three images in Photoshop. Select the Move tool, and check Auto-Select Layer…

TEACH YOURSELF LIGHTROOM PART 7 If you’ve imported thousands of photos into Lightroom, you may be daunted by the challenge of finding specific files. Fortunately, Lightroom is packed full of tools to help you locate the image you want. In issue 45 we demonstrated how to add selected photos to Collections, so you could group images together in a similar way to putting prints into a photo album. We also demonstrated how to use the Smart Collections feature to display files according to specific metadata criteria. Lightroom displays all of your images according to the date they were captured, so you could simply scroll back and rely on your memory of when particular images were taken, but as we’ll explain over the next few issues, there are much more efficient…

01 Bounce light back The standard use for a reflector is to bounce light back at your model. When your subject is lit from one side, holding a reflector up to the shaded side will balance things by filling in the shadows. You will be able to see the difference made by tilting the reflector towards the light source. 02 Light faces from below When the sun’s overhead, you can get rather unflattering shadows on your subject’s face. Holding a reflector under their chin will bounce the light back in underneath. This fills in those shadows and gives a much nicer soft light across the image, which complements the skin tones. 03 Make a spotlight You can create a spotlight effect using the silver or gold sides of the reflector,…

01 Shoot handheld With a specially converted D-SLR there’s no need for a long exposure, so you can hand-hold the camera and freeze motion. The cost of converting is around £250, but you’ll need to sacrifice a D-SLR as the process is irreversible. 02 Find neutral For accurate colours, try setting a custom white balance by shooting a patch of grass in direct sun. This is your neutral tone, so similar foliage will come out without a cast. Shoot RAW so you have the option to tweak the white balance later. 03 Focus in Live View Focusing can be tricky for a converted D-SLR, so it’s a good idea to focus in Live View so you can zoom in to check your subject is sharp. Metering can also be temperamental,…

Photographers love shooting in the ‘golden hours’ of the day, when the sun is very low in the sky and lends a warm colour cast to a scene. However, it’s very difficult to capture the whole gamut of a sunrise’s colours and moods in a single, static image, so here’s a fun Photoshop technique that will enable you to do just that. Creating a segmented landscape like this involves taking multiple photos of a scene over a period of time – in this case a sunrise view of Bamburgh Castle on the coast of Northumberland. This technique works best when something in the scene will be changing, such as the light at sunrise or sunset. You’ll need a tripod, and you’ll need to shoot on a day without any wind,…

01 Spot the difference In Bridge, go through your images and find a series where there’s a clear difference from frame to frame. We used 16 frames in our shot. Cmd-click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (PC) to select the ones you want. Go to Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers, and your images will be opened in Photoshop, already piled up for you. 02 Mask the layers Select any layer in the layers tab, then go to Layers>Layer Mask>Hide All. Repeat this for every layer except for the bottom one. This is also a good stage to mark out any layers which contain a point of interest that you’ll want to use in the final image. We have marked each frame containing a person by right-clicking on the layer, then colour-coding it.…

The biggest challenge for the music photographer is low light. The good high-ISO performance of modern D-SLRs will enable you to push the sensitivity up to 3200, 6400 or beyond and still come away with usable shots, but even with a top-quality ISO performer like the D810 used here, it helps if you know a little about post-processing noise reduction. Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in offers a Detail panel for this (or for Lightroom users, there’s an identical panel in the Develop Module). Both noise reduction and sharpening are best judged at 100% view; you can zoom in quickly to this by double-clicking on the hand tool. The Detail Panel’s Luminance slider enables you to smooth out grainy noise, while the Colour slider works to eradicate the specks of colour that…

We reserve the right to edit any queries for clarity or brevity. You can also write to us at N-Photo Magazine, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, UK, BA1 1UA Star Letter! PHOTOGRAPHERS , NOT EDITORS I have a suggestion for a future ‘Lightbox’ section. How about devoting the entire section one month to images that come straight from the camera? No postprocessing. I’m 60 years old and I remember ‘the good old days’ using Kodachrome film, when you had to get it right in the camera. I can not deny that images today do look spectacular, but I also realise that the computer seems to be just as important as the photographer. Let’s see what today’s photographers can do without any post help. Scott Erickson, California Scott, we hear what…

When it comes to video, the key is: no jerky movements. Jerky videos are extremely irritating to watch. Keeping everything still is a safe solution, meaning the camera motionless on a tripod and no lens movements (so no zooming or out). It runs some risk of being boring, but it is also a recognised style of filming that can have the virtue of being calming and decisive. At the start, you could do worse than use this as the default set-up – a perfectly still camera always looks professional. However, video also benefits from the dynamism of a moving camera, which in the professional world means a fluid head for the tripod; slider, jib and dolly shots; and handheld shots with a stabiliser, even if it’s only a gimbal head.…

RRP WHEN RELEASED (2003): £1700 ($2300) USED PRICE: £999-£1100 ($1395) The Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR is the first generation of a now-classic telephoto zoom. Thanks to the wide maximum aperture and versatile focal length it can adapt to a number of photographic styles, from action to wildlife. The lens was released in 2003. At that time there were no full-frame Nikons, but plenty of DX options. As these models were suited to a fast burst rate, the 70-200mm f/2.8G matched them perfectly. The lens is weather-sealed, meaning it can survive outside in rain, wind and dusty conditions. Vibration Reduction makes slower shutter speeds possible, and the fast maximum aperture keeps the focus speed rapid. Five Extra-low Dispersion glass elements keep chromatic aberration to a minimum. It’s telling that…

Even in a digital and online age, there is still a huge market for traditional prints for people to hang on their walls. Pictures give a home a personal touch, an office a human feel. Most people don’t have the technology, or the know-how, to make great prints from digital files and will still prefer to buy pictures for their walls ready-made, with or without frames. So, this month we’ll take a look at how and where you can start selling prints of your images, what initial costs you’re likely to face, and what eventual returns you can expect. If you’re keen to take this route, be sure to take a look at this issue’s Big Test on page 124, where we’re comparing four home printers and four professional printing…

Within three months of completing his Documentary Photography course at the University of Wales, Newport, Paul Harris was standing in the Gobi Desert with the explorer Tim Severin. He had photographed Severin as part of a final-year project comprising portraits of British explorers. “I sent the pictures to Tim and he sent a letter back, thanking me, but also talking about what he was planning in Mongolia.” In his letter the explorer asked Paul if he knew of any photographers for his journey. “I rang him up and said, ‘Tim, I’ve got just the man for you. Me!’ Which is what I think he had in mind.” It was 1990 and Severin, who had already contributed to National Geographic, hoped to gain the magazine’s backing for this adventure. Paul recalls:…

THE CONTENDER S Home printers 1 Canon PIXMA MG7550/MG7520 £130, $170 2 Epson Expression Photo XP-950 £240, $200 3 Canon PIXMA Pro-10S £550, $700 4 Epson SureColor P600 £570, $790 Online labs 5 Loxley Colour, UK 6 Whitewall, UK 7 AdoramaPix, US 8 WHCC (White House Custom Color), US Sooner or later, every photographer will want to make prints of their best shots. A high-end photo printer from the likes of Canon or Epson is, therefore, an attractive proposition. In best-quality mode, you can expect an A4 (11x8.5 inch) or A3+ (19x13-inch) photo print in around a couple of minutes or 12 minutes respectively. That’s often less time than it takes to fill in an online order form and upload your images to an internet-based printing lab, let alone wait…

1 Instant hit With delivery times from labs taking anything from a day to a week or more, inkjet printing at home gives more immediate results and is useful if you regularly need prints at short notice. 2 High speed The type of ink also affects how fast prints are produced. Dye-based inkjet printers are usually about twice as fast as their pigment-based cousins, as demonstrated by the Canon and Epson models on test. 3 Consumable costs While it’s hard to calculate exactly, photo prints created on a home inkjet printer tend to average about £1.50 ($2) for A4 and £5 ($7) for A3+. That includes the ink and paper, but not the price of the printer itself. 4 Lab costs 12x8-inch (roughly A4) lab prints from the companies included…

Canon’s new Pro-10S A3+ photo printer is heavily based on the original Pro-10 model. It looks identical, uses the same print heads and cartridges, and has the same physical dimensions and 20kg weight. The only real upgrade is that the Pro-10S adds extra cloud-based functions, namely access to the Canon PIXMA Printing Solutions mobile app, and the more commercial Canon Pro Gallery Print app. The printer runs on nine pigment-based ‘Lucia’ inks, plus a ‘chroma optimiser’, which is designed to give a more uniform sheen to glossy prints. The inks are CMYK, photo cyan, photo magenta, red, grey and both photo black and matte black. The photo and matte black inks have their own channels in the print head, so there’s no time or ink wasted when swapping between glossy…

Serving up a feast of photo finish options, Whitewall offers acrylic, aluminium, framed products, canvases, photo prints, fine art prints and more. There’s an enormous range of some 24,000 library images to choose from, and of course you can upload your own. In contrast to Loxley Colour, the broad choice extends to paper types for regular photo prints. You can choose between lambda prints on Fuji Crystal Archive DP II, or lightjet prints on Kodak Pro Endura, Kodak Metallic, Fuji Flex High Gloss, Ilford black-and-white papers or old-school Baryta paper. It’s difficult to gauge the merits of different papers and processes by viewing examples on your computer screen, but Whitewall’s website does a very good job of explaining the differences. A free sample pack is available, with a £3.95 postage…

01 Cladonia Forest Matthew Cicanese, USA “I’ve always been fascinated with lifeforms that you have to really look hard for to observe – insects, mosses, invertebrates and other small organisms. Cladonia lichens are sensitive to pollutants, so seeing them is a sign of good ecosystem health and air quality. What strikes me the most about lichens is their sheer biodiversity, and the fact they are worldwide inhabitants. For me, exploring the trunk of a tree covered in lichens or a rotting log teeming with microorganisms yields the same thrill as a diver exploring a reef. ” www.matthewcicanese.com Nikon D800, Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro, 1/160 sec, f/20, ISO400 02 Excavation of Sand Andi Wijaya, Indonesia “The small hillside market town of Lembang in Indonesia bears witness to large-scale…

QUICK TIP! The grid view in Live Viewmode offer sanex cellent preview for framing using the ruleof thirds Whether you want to create an eye-catching wall display or a web page, a triptych is a great way to present a selection of images. It enables you to go beyond the limits of a single frame and expand upon a theme, so you could tell a story with a beginning, middle and end, or present a subject from several angles, or show different aspects of a person’s character. You may already have three images on your hard drive that would work together as a triptych (in which case, you can just turn to the Photoshop walkthrough over the page), but if you plan to shoot fresh images specifically for this project,…

The Impressionists tried to recreate the experience of seeing, rather than capturing every detail. Well, today’s Nikons capture an awful lot of detail, but as this quick and easy technique shows, you don’t have to make the most of every last pixel to get striking results. If you want to take a photograph specifically for this project, you’ll need to find a gently rippling body of water. A river or lake with a colourful scene above is ideal. The height you shoot from will affect your scene; at the level of the water the reflection will be longer but more blurred. Lift your camera higher and the reflection will be shorter, but also more sharp. You will need the water to be fairly still. Use a tripod to hold the…

01 Change the order Press G to display the Grid view. Photos are displayed by when they were captured, with the newer thumbnails at the top. From the Toolbar at the bottom you can use the Sort pop-up menu to change the way photos are displayed, such as making the highest-rated ones appear at the top. 02 Rate your photos To rate a photo, click its thumbnail, then click below the thumbnail to assign between zero and five stars. Alternatively, you can tap the number keys (1 to 5), or click a suitable star rating icon in the Toolbar. You can also right-click a thumbnail and use the Set Rating command. 03 Take your pick Double-click on a thumbnail (or press E) to take the photo into Loupe view. You…

Infrared photography shows us the world illuminated by infrared light, a part of the colour spectrum we can’t normally see, and produces beautiful, ethereal images that couldn’t be captured in any other way. Foliage and skies look especially good in infrared – blue skies will turn very dark, while green trees in direct sunlight will glow white. Infrared light is invisible to the human eye. In order to capture it, we need to block all but the infrared light from hitting our camera’s sensor, and there are two methods for doing this. The first is to mount a special filter on your lens. These are very dark, and typically reduce the amount of light by up to 10 stops, so you’ll need to get set up to capture long exposures.…

Painting and sketching might be beyond most of us, but with Photoshop we can replicate the look. You can even make it look as though you were doing the drawing! You’ll need a portrait, and a photograph of a hand holding a pencil or brush – or you can use our hand photo (it’s provided on this issue’s disc, or you can download it from bit.ly/start-48). If you want to use your own photo, try to use one with a plain background, as this will make it easier to comp in. To shoot a hand, place your hand on a white background, such as a piece of paper, and shoot it using flash. If possible, take the photo from higher up, with the hand on the paper, to increase depth…

Find the perfect spot Pick a location where something will change. If you plan to shoot at sunrise or sunset, that means a place where the light will alter within a short time. Check the sun’s position Before you head out, check where the sun will be in the sky – the Photographer’s Ephemeris can tell you this for any place in the world (www.photoephemeris.com). Compose your shot Compose your image in advance. You know where the sun will be at the start of your shoot, so take a compass to gauge where it will be by the end of the session. Prevent movement Any slight camera shake will mean your images won’t fit together in post-production, so use a tripod and shoot somewhere sheltered from any strong wind.…

If you find that your images are looking noisy or the colours are off, then why not go for a classic black-and-white treatment? Stripping out the colour gives the image a timeless quality, and draws attention to the lighting and shapes that make up the composition. It’s a particularly useful trick for photographing performers, as they’re often illuminated by different-coloured lights that can leave the skin looking unnatural in a still image. There’s a reason why many of the most iconic band photos are in black and white, and it’s not just because it looks classy. There are lots of methods for applying an effective black-and-white conversion, such as a Black & White adjustment layer in Photoshop CS/CC or the colour/mono sliders in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. Whichever method…

Your photos, your stories, your letters 01 GOLDEN HOUR Nikon D7000, Nikon AF-S DX 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G, 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO100 GET £50 FOR EVERY PHOTO STORY WE PUBLISH! My first experience with a D-SLR was only two months ago, using my girlfriend’s D600. The second I heard that shutter click, I knew this was what I was meant to do! Since then I have lived and breathed photography, trying to learn as much as I could until could I purchase my own D-SLR. I decided to call myself Spectral Photography after much debate. I’d had my eye on a D3200, and as soon as my wages came through, it was mine. The next few days were spent capturing myself, family portraits, pets, landscapes, inanimate objects; this camera was going to…

01 COMON STARLING Nikon D7000, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM, 1/250 sec, f/9, ISO800 02 Hide an d seek Nikon D800, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM 1/640, f/6.3, ISO280 03 red queen Nikon D7000, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP AF Di, 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, ISO800 I suppose I started in photography like most people – I had a compact camera to take pictures of family occasions and holidays. Three years later I took the plunge and bought a Nikon D7000. I wanted to be outside, in contact with wildlife, and as I was fascinated by small animals, insects and so on, I started with a macro lens. Next I added a telephoto zoom to my kit so I could shoot birds, deer and foxes. When shooting, I’ll…

Autofocus and auto-exposure may sound like a good idea, but they usually ruin a video shot. The first causes the lens to jump around while searching for focus and the second can cause annoying fluctuations in brightness. It’s usually much better to focus the lens manually first and then, using Live View, adjust the shutter speed, aperture or ISO until the level of brightness looks good. As mentioned on the previous page, the one exception is a subjective camera shot like a walkthrough. If possible, shoot a dry run first – a short clip is fine – and play it back to check that you’re happy with your focus and exposure. Any highlight clipping warning shows only at the beginning of playback, not while you’re filming or actually playing back.…

■ Manual mode for both exposure and focus (the exception to this is handheld subjective camera shooting in busy, light-changing situations, such as walking through rooms). ■ Video settings depend to some extent on what the end use is, but for highest quality shoot 1920x1080 at 30 fps. ■ Unless you’re using a wide-angle lens at a small aperture, always measure the focus, and don’t rely on your eye’s judgment. Shallowfocus filming with a wide aperture is a video favourite, but both the viewfinder and LCD screen are too small for focusing accurately by eye. Ideally, use the Live View zoom to set the focus before filming. ■ Picture Controls should be Standard or Neutral, with contrast at minimum, sharpness either off or low, and saturation low. Shoot flat, and…

I presently have a D5000, an 18-55mm kit lens and a 85mm macro lens, all of which I’ve had for five years now. I have simply not been able to upgrade, even though I have done as much as I can with this set-up. My dream package would be a D810 with 16-35mm f/4, 50mm f/1.8, 70-200mm f/4 and a 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. I’m working towards making this dream a reality. My main interests are landscape and macro work. The whole D810 set-up just fits my personality and photographic style like the proverbial glove. Would you concur with the above choices? Willem J. Pretorius, South Africa BODY CHOICE Nikon D810 ￡2350/$3300 The Nikon D810’s 36.3-megapixel full-frame sensor provides incredible levels of detail. With a sensor capable of capturing detail…

Even before he picked up a camera, cricket was in Patrick Eagar’s blood – his father Desmond was captain of Hampshire for 12 years, and young Patrick quickly developed a love for the game. But his route to the hallowed turf of Lord’s owed as much to another relative’s skill as his father’s own prowess with bat and ball… When you were growing up did you want to be a cricketer like your father? I suspect he wanted me to be like him! At junior school I bowled leg spin. I was almost as good as Shane Warne at that stage but it didn’t last. When you get the bigger ball and the boys get bigger, the straight slog goes for six rather than for nothing. Who introduced you to…

Image size Large-format desktop printers usually max out at A3+ (19x13 inches), but the Epson XP-950 produces smaller A3 (17x11 inches) prints, while the Epson SC-P600 goes wider with a panoramic sheet feeder. Inkjet resolution For inkjet printing, where droplets of different coloured inks need to be laid next to each other, ultra-high resolutions of 4800dpi or more are required for optimum quality. Wi-Fi All printers in the test group have built-in Wi-Fi – ideal for printing from any compatible device around the home. Printing from the ‘cloud’ is also becoming increasingly popular. CD/DVD printing An advantage of all inkjet printers in this test group is that they can print direct onto white-faced CD and DVD discs. It’s a neat way of finishing discs you create at home. Copy facility…

The MG7550 (MG7520 in the US) is Canon’s range-topping PIXMA A4 printer. Along with ‘all-in-one’ functions based on a built-in scanner, SecureDigital and MemoryStick memory slots and an 8.8cm touchscreen, it’s also well-connected. USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and even NFC (Near Field Communication) are all on hand, along with wide-ranging cloud and mobile app facilities. It uses a pigment-based black ink for document printing, and five dye-based inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, black and grey) for photo printing. The grey ink extends the colour range and improves black-andwhite photo printing. The cartridges are available in 7ml or 11ml (XL) options. The latter is more cost-effective, at around £1 ($1.64) per millilitre. Performance This is the fastest inkjet printer on test, generating highestquality borderless A4 prints in two minutes six seconds, and regular-quality…

The P600 replaces Epson’s R3000 as its flagship A3+ model. It uses new UltraChrome HD pigment-based inks, but the nine-colour line-up and 25.9ml cartridge capacities are virtually identical to those of the previous printer. The ink range includes cyan, light cyan, vivid magenta, light vivid magenta, yellow, photo black, light black, light light black and matte black. The photo black and matte black inks share a channel in the print head. Switching between glossy and matte media means a wait of several minutes while the channel is purged, wasting ink and time. There’s good Wi-Fi and cloud support. The P600 also features a 6.8cm touchscreen. Ink costs of £0.85 ($1.24) per millilitre are slightly higher than for the Canon Pro-10S, but cheaper than for Epson’s XP-950. A roll feeder is…

Like most other labs, New York-based AdoramaPix offers a wide range of printing solutions, from photo prints to books and ‘home décor’, the latter including metal, acrylic and canvas prints, as well as options for framing. Billed as a professional-quality service, there’s nevertheless no support for Adobe RGB colour space so, if you use this format, you’ll have to convert your files to sRGB before uploading them. The flipside is that ICC profiles are available to download for a variety of papers. Biased towards Kodak pro papers, the main choices are Kodak Professional Endura Supra in glossy, matte or lustre finish, plus Kodak Professional Endura Metallic at an additional cost. It’s not Kodak all the way, however, as Fuji Professional Deep Matte is a new addition to the line-up. Pricing…

Your window onto the working life of a professional photographer In January I went to California to shoot some winter landscapes. You tend to think of California as sunshine and beaches, but I was up in the High Sierra, Yosemite National Park to be precise. Yosemite is one of the most beautiful national parks I have ever visited, but it is also one of the most crowded, and the Ansel Adams connection draws a lot of photographers, too. In winter, however, visitor numbers are much lower and the conditions there can be stunning. Earlier this year, winter came to Yosemite with a vengeance. Having checked various webcams and weather forecasts in the weeks and months leading up to the trip, I decided to go for it anyway. Winter boots and…

Be consistent The three images need to look like they belong together. Here a black backdrop and consistent lighting with flash help to keep things looking uniform – other options include a consistent colour theme or an unchanging composition. Stay loose If you know you’ll be using a shot in a triptych, you’ll give yourself more options if you frame it fairly loosely to leave room around the edges. This will give you more freedom to crop or rotate the image when positioning it later. Find a balance Think about balance and symmetry. If your subject is looking one way, for example, grab another shot when they’re looking the opposite way so the two frames will balance one another out when positioned side by side. To watch the video use…

01 Turn the world upside down First, rotate your image. Go to Image>Image Rotation>Flip Canvas Vertical. Crop it so that only the reflection remains. You may need to adjust the rotation as you crop – move your mouse to the corners of the box to see the rotation icon, then drag to rotate the box. 02 Add some texture Hit Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate your image. With the copied layer selected, go to Filter>Filter Gallery>Textures>Texturizer. Choose how much grain in the paper you’d like (we used 109%), leaving the relief at 4. Hit OK. You can reduce opacity in the layers panel if needed. 03 Boost the colours To boost the colours, hit the half moon at the bottom of the layers panel to add a Vibrance Adjustment layer. We increased…

Reflectors might seem like a very basic piece of photographic equipment. They can, however, improve your images immeasurably, so long as you know how to get the most out of them. Light travels in all directions, bouncing off of everything in its path, and you can use this quality to your advantage. You can, for example, use a reflector to bounce light from a studio flash back onto your subject, instead of adding an extra ‘fill’ light to your lighting set-up. Pairing a reflector with a flash or studio flash like this is a great way to create attractive, even lighting. A reflector also comes in handy when shooting on location, because you can bounce light into shadows, fill in dark eye sockets and even block out harsh light sources…

01 Take the long view Infrared filters cut out a lot of light, so you’ll need to set up for a long exposure. Mount your camera on a tripod and work out your composition, then screw on the filter. If you’re shooting trees and foliage wait for the direct sunlight to hit them, as it’ll make the shot much more punchy. 02 Use Live View Once the filter is attached to your lens your viewfinder will be useless, but you can still get a view of the scene if you switch to Live View and temporarily turn the mode dial to P. This will enable you to fine-tune your composition and zoom in to focus on your subject. 03 Set up your camera Your metering won’t be accurate, so shoot…

01 Paint your portrait Open portrait.jpg. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + J three times to create three layered copies. Hide the top two layers by clicking their eye icons. Select Layer 1. Go to Filters>FilterGallery>Artistic>Cutout and set Levels 7, Simplicity 3, Fidelity 2. Hit OK. Set blend mode to Luminosity and opacity to 40%. 02 Add some style Select Layer 1 copy and hit its eye icon to reveal it. Go to Filters>Filter Gallery>Stylize>Glowing Edge. Set Width 5, Brightness 8, Smoothness 5. Click OK, then Cmd/Ctrl+I (to invert the layer) and Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U (to desaturate it). Set blend mode to Multiply and opacity to 70%. 03 Sketch things out Hit Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E. Next, select the top layer and click its eye icon. Desaturate and…

Get your priorities straight Use aperture-priority mode (A). Although you are aiming to see differences between the images, you also want clean, even exposures throughout. This mode will allow you to set a fixed aperture and ISO, then balance the exposure with a variable shutter speed. We used f/22 and ISO100. Shoot at intervals Go to Shooting Menu> Interval timer shooting, then set a shooting duration using the arrow keys. Make it long enough to capture the entire sunrise/set. Next, set an interval between shots of around two minutes. It is better to take more than you need so you have a choice later.…

01 SUN RISE FALS Nikon D800, Nikon AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, 1/5 sec, f/16, ISO100 To this day I remember the smell of filmdeveloping chemicals in my father’s photographic darkroom in the attic. The thrill of combining chemicals and seeing pictures emerge from blank pieces of paper was magnificent, and I was hooked on photography from that early age. Taking control of the whole creative process, from image-capture to developing, was one of the skills my father’s darkroom instilled in me, a skill which would influence not only my future digital photography but also many aspects of my life. Fast-forward a good few years to the beginning of my second passion, the purchase of a vintage VW camper [2]. After spending three long years learning how to restore my van…

01 SALT HILLS, BONNAIRE Nikon D7100, Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro HSM, 1/750 sec, f/6.7, ISO200 02 GIANT’S CAUSEWAY Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO100 03 ABANDONED CAR Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO100 I’ve owned a camera since my early teenage years, back in the days when we would take pictures using 35mm film and pray the shot was a good one! I grew up in the Dutch Caribbean, and we had to send the film to another island and wait a week or two for it to be developed. I’d always be filled with such suspense to see how they’d turn out. These days I take most of my photos around my home…

After using Capture NX-D’s tools to boost saturation and correct colour balance, you may want to share your edited images as prints. However, this can frequently lead to disappointing results, as while on your computer screen you may see vibrant colours that appear to be accurate, you may end up with prints in which the colours have shifted or look drab. This discrepancy between screen and print colour is caused by a variety of factors. Your computer’s screen produces millions of colours by mixing reds, greens and blues (RGB) together, while most desktop printers combine cyan, magenta, yellow and black (also known as ‘key’, hence CMYK) to create a much narrower range of shades. Your computer screen is also illuminated, which creates more vibrant-looking colour; a paper print can often…

VERDICT The Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/4 ED VR is an excellent lens that offers a significant saving on the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, as well much easier handling thanks to its lighter weight and more compact build. However, if money isn’t an issue and you want the ultimate in depth-of-field control and image quality from your 70-200mm optic, the f/2.8 lens is definitely the way to go. It’s bigger and heavier than the f/4 version, but the results are second to none.…

FREE VIDEO DISC! Learn all this in the next set of Nikon Skills… ■ Capture more dramatic action images ■ Shoot a zoom burst with a twist ■ Photograph sport with a tilt-shift lens ■ Get creative with toy figures ■ Mimic zoomblur in Photoshop ■ And more! Plus all this… ■ Go behind the scenes of a motorsport shoot at one of the UK’s most historic racing circuits ■ Discover a whole new way to think about composition with Nikon guru Michael Freeman ■ Inject some fun into your photography with our in-depth review of eight ‘alternative’ lenses ISSUE 49 | ON SALE THURSDAY 30 July 2015…

01 Free entry Many labs offer a ‘Remote Order Entry System’ which you can download for free. This makes all the different print size and style options easily available, as well as streamlining the process for uploading your image files. 02 Pick a style Upmarket labs offer a wide range of choices including photo books, stretched canvases and mounted or framed prints. For straightforward photo prints, you can typically choose between lustre, gloss and metallic finishes. 03 More options Print options can be massively versatile. As well as a variety of border sizes, here we’ve got options for toning (for example, black-and-white, sepia, copper), vignetting, and more besides, which can be applied to individual prints.…

Whereas most desktop photo printers have maximum print sizes of either A4 or A3+, the XP-950 is strictly an A3 (17x11 inches) printer. Physically, it’s barely any bigger or heavier than the Canon A4 printer that’s on test, and it also has a built-in scanner (only A4 in size), SD and MS memory card slots, and an 8.8cm touchscreen for direct control. The XP-950 also rivals both Canons for Wi-Fi connectivity and remote printing apps. The ink line-up is what you’d expect from a conventional A4 photo printer, with light cyan and light magenta added to the basic CMYK mix to deliver sixcolour, dye-based ink printing. It uses standard (5ml) or XL (9ml) Claria Photo HD cartridges. For A3 printing, however, even the XL cartridges run dry pretty quickly and…

Loxley Colour has long been favoured by pro photographers who demand great quality while also wanting to stretch their profit margins. Compared with Whitewall, for example, one-off or smallquantity 12x8-inch photo prints work out at £2.30 each instead of £7.95 for glossy or lustre finish, and £3.46 instead of £12.95 for metallic. That said, prices are more comparable for larger sizes from 24x16-inch up to Loxley’s maximum of 66x44-inch. The ROES (Remote Order Entry System) makes it easy to navigate the huge range of photo prints, giclée fine art prints, wall displays, framing and many other products that Loxley offers. An ICC profile is available for soft-proofing before ordering. One minus point is that there’s only a limited choice of paper for conventional photo printing: Fuji Colour Crystal Archive DP2…

Geared towards the professional market, WHCC’s product range covers everything from photo prints to proofing, cards, wall displays and an array of packaging options, with simple fulfilment and dispatch options direct to photographers’ clients as well as to photographers themselves. These all benefit from a quick and easy ROES system. WHCC’s paper of choice for photo prints is Kodak Endura Professional, available in glossy, lustre and metallic finishes. Add-ons include a variety of mounting substrates, textured finishes and coatings. Adobe RGB and sRGB colour spaces are supported, along with various ICC profiles. WHCC goes the extra mile to ensure accuracy by supplying five 10x8-inch photo prints of your own images free of charge. In our tests, this included free shipping to the UK. A free sample pack of photo papers…

You can see Wei-Hao’s astrophotography images at www.flickr.com/photos/weihaowang and at www.astrobin.com/users/whwang/ 1 MODIFIED NIKON D800 (SIN CE Superseded by THE D810, £2350, $2999; conversion £200, $350) ■ What’s it for? My D800’s IR-blocking filter has been replaced with a filter that allows deep-red H-alpha light from celestial objects to reach the sensor. ■ Plus points Incredible resolution, low thermal noise for long exposures. ■ Minus marks The D800’s EXPEED 3 engine removes useful data from the NEF file. This can be fixed by a firmware hack, and it’s addressed in EXPEED 4. 2 SIGMA 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A (£700, $950) ■ What’s it for? The 50mm focal length is useful for Milky Way and constellation pictures. I often use it to produce ‘finding charts’ to assist with target selection…