Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

It’s at this time of year we welcome many new friends to the N-Photo community. For there’s an awful lot to learn to make the most out of the shiny new Nikons found in the bottom of Christmas stockings. But even if you’re a seasoned enthusiast, you’ll find our Nikon Crash Course a useful refresher. See page 17. It’s also at this time of year that many of us have made resolutions to improve our photography, and there’s no better way than booking some professional tuition, so we round up a selection of photo workshops (p48), one lucky reader received one-to-one tuition on shooting lifestyle portraits in a yoga studio (p58), and we have projects on everything from long exposure landscapes to other-worldly paint drop shots (from p31). And if…

WINNER – NEW TALENT AWARD – DESTINATION Bwindi, Uganda Alexandre Zindy, France The population of mountain gorillas is only 800 individuals, of which 300 are found in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Nikon D750, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO2200 SPECIAL MENTION – CELEBRATION OF HUMANITY Turmi, Omo valley, Ethiopia Trevor Cole, UK Young Hamar men shot candidly whilst hanging out in a Turmi village street on market day. Nikon D810, 70-200mm f/2.8, 1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO400 COMMENDED – PRIMARY COLOURS – SINGLE IMAGE CATEGORY Kirti Monastery, Sichuan, China Jinyi Zhang, China A young Buddhist monk peeks out from amongst the robes in Kirti Monastery. Nikon D4S, 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO3600 WINNER – TALES OF ADVENTURE – PORTFOLIO CATEGORY Mon District, Nagaland, Myanmar Emiliano Pinnizzotto, Italy In recent years,…

01 Getting teacher’s attention The tutor’s time is one of the most expensive costs of a workshop, so the more people there are on the course, the less expensive it is. A high student-to-teacher ratio is not always a bad thing, but it can limit your picture-taking opportunities in some locations and with some genres. If you want more time from your tutor, look for courses that offer one-to-one training – these can be a lot less expensive than you think. 02 Location, location, location You can go on photographic holidays almost anywhere in the world. This not only means that you get to see and photograph exotic places and wildlife, but you also get to spend time with other photography enthusiasts. How far you go, of course, will greatly…

Mission: Capture the country and culture of the Jurassic coast Photographer: Steve Belasco Age: 44 Location: Weymouth, Dorset, UK Kit: Nikon D80, D600, D800, 300mm f/4, 80-200mm f/2.8, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 Website: www.stevebelasco.net The Jurassic Coast is, of course, heavily photographed on land and also increasingly from the air. I decided, a few years ago, to combine my interests in photography and boating to visually document and build an image library of the Jurassic Coast from seaward, as no one else seemed to be doing this. My mission gives me an excuse to get afloat when I can and I try to cover all aspects, from the stunning views, to the people and animals that enjoy and rely on these waters. I’m also an ambassador for the Jurassic Coast Trust. There…

As a licensed angling coach, I’m never without a camera of some sort and for quite some time, a waterproof compact has been my preferred weapon of choice. A couple of years ago however, an acquaintance passed me their unwanted Nikon D80 with its 18-135mm lens, and an interest I had in photography in my early 20s was rekindled. A (supposed) fishing holiday in Lincolnshire saw my wife and I staying in an area prolific with butterflies, and a chat with my 86-year-old lepidopterist father-in-law on my return only fanned the flames of another new hobby: butterflying (I understand that is an accepted verb, by the way). With these interests seemingly going hand-inhand, what to do but become a regular reader of N-Photo in an effort to improve my skills?…

This flashgun is over 10 years old now – and actually predates N-Photo magazine. However, we have featured it in Big Tests a couple of times, most recently way back in N-Photo 17, dated March 2013. At the time we said “If tiny is more important to you than advanced features and versatility, the SB-400 fits the bill.” And that’s still the case.…

NIKOPEDIA FREEMAN’S CREATIVE PATHS FOCUS ON OPTICS Our globetrotting Contributor at Large, renowned photographer and prolific author Michael Freeman, presents a month-by-month masterclass that’s exclusive to N-Photo, in which he explores his tried-and-tested paths to more creative photography. Michael has published dozens of books on photography, including the bestselling Perfect Exposure. A couple of months back, when suggesting that devising the look of a photograph during processing or post-production could be considered creative, I had mixed feelings. I’m now a little cautious about pushing the benefits of different lenses. In the creative worlds (from art to movies, and so on), it’s not considered very cool to be deeply inspired by the tools of the trade. Rembrandt didn’t bang on about his brushes. Photography’s not much different, and most big-name photographers…

WATCH THE VIDEO WHERE TO GET CAPTURE NX-D It’s made for Nikons, and it’s free! Capture NX-D is available as a free download from Nikon at http://nikonimglib.com/ncnxd As new Nikons are introduced, Capture NX-D should be the first software to support them. After using Capture NX-D’s suite of editing tools to boost your photographs’ saturation, balance their colours and improve composition, you may want to share your processed pictures. For best results you will have shot and edited in Camera Raw format, but to share your photos electronically (via email, for example) then you might need to export them as smaller JPEG files. Capture NX-D enables you to batch convert a group of edited Raw files as shareable JPEGs. You can post JPEG files to online galleries or share them…

TELEPHOTO ZOOMS Nikon AF-S 70- 200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR ELEMENTS/GROUPS: 22/18 OPTICAL STABILIZER: 4 stops MIN FOCUS DISTANCE: 1.1m MAX MAGNIFICATION: 0.21x FILTER SIZE: 77mm INCLUDED ACCESSORIES: Hood, tripod collar, soft case DIMENSIONS (DIA X MIN LENGTH): 89x203mm WEIGHT: 1430g PRICE: £2400/$2800 Build Supremely well engineered, this range-topping telephoto zoom boasts a magnesium alloy shell and fluorite glass element but, due to its fast f/2.8 aperture, it’s still physically larger and about 70 percent heavier than the f/4 lens. Compatibility As with other recently launched Nikon and independently manufactured lenses that have an electromagnetically controlled aperture, you can only use this zoom at its widest aperture on many older DSLRs (see Secondhand Superstar on previous page). Performance Autofocus speed is incredibly fast and the new-style ‘Sport’ VR mode makes…

N Photo AWARDS 2017 CAMERAS From top-flight pro cameras to entry-level bodies for beginners, there’s something for everyone BEST DX CAMERA Nikon D7500 ◾ £1300/$1250 ◾ www.nikon.co.uk The D500 is still cream of the DX crop, but step down a rung on the DX ladder and the D7500 is very compelling camera at a more palatable price. It may not boast any dramatic new technologies, but it does fill a significant gap in Nikon’s DSLR range, between the powerful but relatively pedestrian D7200 and the much more advanced – and much more expensive – D500. Utilising the latter’s excellent 20Mp sensor has given the D7500 much improved low-light performance, with a colossal maximum sensitivity of ISO1,640,000. Sports photographers will also appreciate the boost in burst shooting speed – up from…

The mission • Photograph moving water with a long exposure by using an ND filter Time • 30 minutes Skill level • Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced Kit needed • Tripod • ND filter set • Cable release A neutral density filter attaches to your lens and performs a simple function: it blocks the flow of light into your camera. There are a couple of reasons why we might want to do this. Firstly, at times when we want a shallower depth of field, it allows us to use a wider aperture without having to adjust the shutter speed. Secondly – and this is the most common reason – we use them to extend our shutter speed in order to blur motion. By extending the shutter speed we can create…

PAINT DROPS The mission • Capture paint as it unfurls in water for other-worldly abstracts Time • 3 hours Skill level • Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced Kit needed • Tripod • Remote release (optional) • Acrylic paint • Fish tank • Kitchen towel • Squeegee Think about those images we’ve seen from the Hubble Space Telescope where nebulae, distant stellar nurseries, form new stars in the universe. Well, those same laws of motion can be seen here on earth. Sit down for a cup of tea and you’ll surely have noticed the wonderful swirling patterns created underneath the surface as the milk is poured in. In fact, what if our cup of tea was made of glass? We could watch it unfurl in the water in real time. Well,…

01 What else will I need to pay for? Check carefully what’s included in the price of your course. Sometimes you are simply paying for the tutor’s time and expertise – everything else is extra. Typically you will need to pay separately for travel and some meals. But you will find some options where accommodation, board and travel is all included. Insurance, visas and vaccinations are all items you should factor into the cost for more exotic locations. 02 Local knowledge It can be exciting to follow a professional photographer exploring a new location, but for a workshop you will usually want someone who knows the location well, so that he or she can get you to the best vantage points at the right times of day without even having…

I recently attended a gig by The Icicle Works’ frontman Ian McNabb. I contacted him before the gig to ask if I could take some photos at it. The week before the gig I read and re-read the Apprentice feature in issue 70 to give myself some kind of idea of where to start. I’ve never done anything like it before so I was really quite nervous about how it would turn out. Kevin Nixon’s advice to start off with the camera set to ISO5000, f/3.2 and a shutter speed of at least 1/400 sec was a perfect starting place. I was using my D3300 and the 18-55mm kit lens, so I had to compromise on the settings a little as the largest available aperture on the 18-55mm was f/3.5.…

I have received every edition of N-Photo since the first. I recently changed my Nikon D7000 for the D7500, after reading many articles in your magazine. One thing that has caught me out in the June edition (N-Photo 72) is the screenshot showing ‘Limit AF-area mode selection’, where the ‘Group-area AF’ setting is recommended. Nowhere in my instruction book or in the menu of my camera can I find this. Does this mean my camera is somehow set up wrongly? This was a preview of the D7500, put together from the best information we had at the time. Indeed, Nikon hadn’t officially released any information on the camera at all, and unfortunately, despite our understanding that the Group Area AF function would be present, it didn’t end up in production models…

I first became interested in fast lenses when I learned about the Zeiss 50mm f/0.7 made for NASA, that Stanley Kubrick used to film the famous candlelit scenes in Barry Lyndon, one of my favourite films. Now, while a lens that fast was the only realistic way to film by candlelight alone (emphasis on the word film), modern digital sensors have made really wide apertures far less important. You might even say unnecessary, and wide-aperture lenses are, in any case, expensive. Just look at the secondhand prices on eBay for a 50mm f/1.2 Noct-Nikkor; I rather regret selling mine many years ago. And yet, that was the reason I gave myself for buying a Nikon-fit Zeiss 85mm f/1.4, as I was shooting for Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom and…

Profile • As well as classic and sports cars, Amy’s photographic repertoire covers motorbikes, lifestyle accessories and fashion brands. • Her clients include Lexus, Goodwood, Triumph and Jaguar Land Rover, and she is also a brand ambassador for Farer watches. • Amy’s photography regularly features in motoring magazines and websites such as Octane, Evo, Classic Driver and Revolution. • She is a Nikon UK Ambassador and the proud owner of a 1985 Mini Mayfair. When she prefers two wheels, Amy rides a 1972 Honda 350F. amyshorephotography.com Fewer than five years ago, Amy Shore was like so many other university graduates: looking forward to a summer break after finally stepping off the education treadmill with a degree that she hoped would mark the start of a career leading to great things.…

This shoot, Lighting the Spirit, was designed to show off the new Elinchrom ELB 1200 battery-powered strobe. Its Hi-Sync capabilities enable you to shoot at any shutter speed and sync with the flash, all the way up to 1/8000 sec. I helped to connect Elinchrom and Red Bull, two clients I have worked with quite a lot. Once we decided on the sport of whitewater kayaking, Red Bull introduced me to Rafa Ortiz, one of the world’s best white-water kayakers. As with any successful shoot, a lot of planning and thought went into this assignment. Throughout the development of the Elinchrom ELB 1200, I had been working with various prototypes so I knew what they were capable of. In discussions with Rafa, we decided on the location of Spirit Falls,…

The mission • Experiment with complementary colour pairs and monochromatic colour palettes Time • 30 minutes Skill level • Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced Kit needed • Coloured papers • Colourful subjects • Clamps Colour is one of the most important and active ingredients of photo composition, but it’s often forgotten about until the editing stage. In portraits, landscapes and still-life shots, colour can be used to add depth, create mood, or draw the viewer’s eye to a certain part of the frame, so it’s important to understand the basics of colour theory. You may recall from art class in your school days that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue; by mixing such-coloured paints in varying quantities you could create all other possible colours. If we arrange our…

The mission • Get up to speed the new-look Lightroom CC 2018 Time • One hour Skill level • Beginner • Intermediate • Advanced Kit needed • Lightroom CC 2018 Forget about Lightroom CS 6, from now on all you have are two choices: Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic. Both are subscription-only, but Lightroom CC is a cloud-based editing software that is seemingly designed to be the bridge between computer, phone, and tablet by simplifying all the editing tools (often by removing a bunch of them). Lightroom Classic is a nod back to the standalone Lightroom CS 6, as it has slightly more editing capabilities than Lightroom CC (with the inclusion of the Curves panel and more complex colour controls), and is similar to the old-style layout. It’s not as…

Photo workshops and holidays come in all shapes and sizes to suit every type of photographer. They can be as straightforward as spending a few hours getting to know the settings on your camera with a professional photographer, before returning home with more confidence over your camera’s controls. At the other extreme, it can mean spending a couple of weeks on the other side of the world hunting down rare wildlife with an award-winning professional photographer, combining a once-in-a-lifetime holiday with some advanced photographic training. Whichever type of course you choose, you not only get professional photographic advice, but you also create time for you to progress your photography. Holidays with the family, or days out with the kids, mean that your photography is compromised. With a photographic holiday you…

FOCUS ON OPTICS If my impulse purchase of the 500mm mirror lens was a kind of nostalgia, the 20mm f/3.5 was the first lens I bought for the first Nikon I owned, and reflected my craving to make graphically striking pictures. Or at least, that’s the way I saw it at the time, as the Nikon was bought on fairly direct instructions from Time-Life, who saw my Hasselblad as limiting – you can’t really do reportage with a medium-format camera, although for a couple of years I’d made a good attempt at that with my Hasselblad 38mm Super-Wide. That incredible lens had converted me to the possibilities of turning some normal scenes into something a bit more exciting, with strong diagonals and strong sense of depth, if you used it…

Bob Ryan is an international educator who has a love for wildlife but is passionate about all forms of photography. He has spent years developing ways to both create and assess great images. His latest book The Master Photographer aims to turn good photographers into great ones. www.wildreflectionsphotography.co.uk 3 SEPT 2009 • TSHUKUDU RESERVE, SOUTH AFRICA • NIKON D700 This, says Bob Ryan, is the first shot that he was truly proud of. Bob has a very keen interest in wildlife and nature, which shines through in much of his portfolio, as well in his latest educational book The Master Photographer. His interest in photography is, in part, thanks to his family: “I was first given an old camera by my Uncle Fred when I was six. I seriously got…

Power and stamina are key factors for any batterydriven location flash kit. Both get significant upgrades in Profoto’s new B1X kit, making it a worthy update over the popular B1. The kit comprises a flash head, mains charger, rechargeable Li-ion battery and carrying bag. The whole caboodle is small and lightweight at just 5kg, the head itself weighing 3kg. That’s complete with clip-on battery, which avoids the need for tethering the head to a separate power pack. The powerful 500Ws head has a huge output range equivalent to nine f-stops, adjustable in 1/10th-stop increments. There’s also an HSS (High Speed Sync) mode for using flash with fast shutter speeds, up to and including the fastest that your camera can muster. It’s great for overpowering the sun to darken backgrounds, as…

BEST FLASHGUN Hähnel Modus 600RT Wireless Kit ◾ £280/$360 ◾ www.hahnel.ie The Modus is a bargain at the price, packing a built-in RF transceiver as well as a hotshoemounting Viper RF transmitter boasting a huge range of 100m. Another innovation is that the flash is fuelled by a rechargeable Li-ion battery pack, enabling up to 600 full-power flashes before recharging. This also powers a super-fast recycling speed of 1.5 seconds after a fullpower flash, and just 0.7 seconds after a halfpower flash. In operation, the Modus performs flawlessly, whether firing from the hotshoe or in offcamera mode with the RF wireless Viper transmitter. TTL flash metering is unerringly accurate and entirely consistent, and the flashgun lives up to its ultra-powerful GN60 output rating at ISO100, 200mm. ◾ BUY IF… You…

NIKON 1 COMPACT SYSTEM CAMERAS NIKON 1 J5 A CSC THAT DSLR USERS WILL LOVE, the J5 has the highest resolution of any Nikon 1 camera to date (20.8Mp) and a decent sensitivity range. The top dial also gives access to semi-automatic and manual exposure modes, plus you can shoot in Raw, which is real bonus. NIKON 1 S2 SMALL IN SIZE BUT BIG ON QUALITY, the svelte Nikon 1 S2 is responsive and speedy. With a 14.2Mp image sensor, and the omission of built-in Wi-Fi or a touchscreen, it’s more basic than the J5, but still a highly capable camera that you can slip into your bag as a lightweight backup. NIKON 1 AW1 VERY MUCH THE ACTION ADVENTURER, the Nikon 1 AW1 is shockproof, waterproof to a depth…