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

Ah, the good old days of film. Being restricted to shooting 36 frames at a time, then trudging down to the chemist and waiting a couple of days before seeing the pictures you’ve taken (or converting the under-the-stairs cupboard into a makeshift darkroom stuffed with developing trays, chemicals and red-hued light bulbs). Having to shoot through an entire roll before changing ISO. And not having a clue what settings you used for any given shot… we don’t miss them one bit. Film may seem like the archaic format of yesteryear, but digital SLR photography has only really been with us for around 15 years, with the launch of affordable consumer-level DSLRs, such as the Nikon D70 in 2004. But if you were bitten by the photography bug back in the…

The long, dark nights of winter are a wonderful time to try your hand at astrophotography, but those of us who live in cities rarely have the chance to see a truly dark sky. To escape the light pollution of urban conurbations and really see the stars, you’ll need to head to a recognized dark sky area – and fortunately, most of us aren’t too far away from a suitable spot – see www.darksky.org. At this time of year, with a little planning and a bit of travel, it’s possible to reveal the full glory of the heavens in the darkest skies with a photograph and be back home for bedtime. Our galaxy, the barred spiral shape of the Milky Way, is seen side-on from earth as a band of…

Reader Tom Smith heads to Iceland to create a portfolio that is strong in style and breaks a few rules in the process This set of images was taken during a very cold and windy trip to Iceland in April 2017. Iceland has always fascinated me – from its natural beauty to its interesting geology, so I jumped at the chance to visit. After renting a car in Keflavík I spent a week exploring the southeast coast, stopping at many famous waterfalls and volcanic features, as well as some of the lesser-known locations. I took my first shot whilst on a long drive up the east coast. I wasn’t planning to stop, however I couldn’t resist getting out on the side of the road as we passed this stunning rock…

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. If you enjoy this article and want to learn more, there are 50 more paths to be discovered in Michael’s new book Fifty Paths to Creative Photography. (NB: all 50 are different from the ones featured here in the magazine.) And now (excuse the Monty Python reference) for something completely different. I’m not sure why I haven’t talked about this before actually… but while creativity, imagination and all of that is usually talked about in terms of a photographer’s skill at interpreting what’s in front of…

To help give details in a photograph more definition, your Nikon can apply some in-camera sharpening. This involves increasing the contrast around the edges of objects in the scene to give them more impact. But, too much sharpening can create ugly white or dark haloes around the edge of contrasting objects. It can also exaggerate artefacts, such as picture noise caused by a high ISO speed. If you shoot in JPEG then you’re stuck with the amount of sharpening applied in-camera. You can sharpen up the compressed JPEG shot even more in Capture NX-D, but you can’t reduce any sharpening already applied by the Nikon. By shooting in your Nikon’s Raw format you can use Capture NX-D to adjust the amount of sharpening applied courtesy of its Picture Control panel.…

VERDICT Money no object, the 24-70mm zoom is the one. It delivers top quality, has a versatile zoom range, and the bonus of VR. However, there’s still a lot to be said for shooting with two or three prime lenses in your kit bag. There’s less overall expense and weight, and you’ll have a much more compact, lightweight camera when shooting with any of the primes. Perhaps we should call this one a draw. NEXT MONTH: RECTILINEAR VS FISHEYE…

Paul Wilkinson PAGE 54 Pro portrait photographer Paul shows our Apprentice how to pose and shoot models on location using only natural light. Tom Smith PAGE 66 Tom shares his images of the frozen beauty of the rugged island of Iceland from a recent trip. We share our thoughts. Michael Freeman PAGE 78 The weird and wonderful can really make an image. Michael shows us how to find interesting subjects in the first place. Joe McNally PAGE 92 Nikon mastermind Joe takes a bite out of some of the best LA-based food trucks and talks us through how he shot them. Ole Jørgen Liodden PAGE 94 Award-winning pro wildlife photographer Ole talks climate change, gentle giants and his freezing photo expeditions. Alice Van Kempen PAGE 104 Alice brings her furry…

For many of us, Christmas is synonymous with an excess of food, and all us photographers love taking pictures to remember the holiday season. So why not combine the two and make the most of all the hard work put into making those festive treats by setting up your Nikon and taking a few tasty photographs? With a bit of diffused window light and an uncluttered backdrop, it’s relatively straightforward to make an appetizing shot; you just have to style the food the right way and selectively focus to bring attention to the mouth-watering morsels on display. The camera gear required for this type of shoot is minimal. You won’t need high-end equipment – anything from an entry-level Nikon and kit lens will do here. But what you can’t do…

Sometimes a scene might seem disappointing, only to reveal hidden delights in post. I headed to this beach in South Wales with high hopes, only to be met with flat light, grey skies and relentless drizzle. I didn’t hold out much hope for the Raws after viewing them on the back of the camera. But after opening them into Affinity Photo, I realized I may be wrong. This is often the case with Raw files – they hold more detail than you think. The trick is knowing how to tease out the details. Affinity Photo offers all the tools we need to perform some much needed edits. We can enhance tones, convert to mono and apply sharpening. There’s also powerful Overlay Paint and Gradient tools to carry out selective adjustments.…

THE PRO… NAME Paul Wilkinson CAMERA D5 Paul is one of the UK’s most sought-after portrait photographers and is in huge demand for his distinctive images. With a life-long love of photography and a passion for creating beautiful, timeless photographs, Paul has established himself at the very top of his profession as a people photographer. He is a Fellow of the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) and the MPA (Master Photographers Association), and has won an array of national and international awards for his work. www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk THE APPRENTICE… NAME Jodie Vye CAMERA D3100 Jodie works for an outdoor catering company and often sees photographers milling around, which spurred her interest in photography that she then studied in a short college course. She bought a D3100 and a couple…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Black mirrorless As a D850 user I was particularly interested in the Z7 review. It is a game-changing high-spec device and clearly represents the future, but I feel Nikon has hit the post in a few areas. Firstly it doesn’t look like a Nikon; where is the visual DNA? Secondly the Z7 spec is aimed at pro-level users but the 24-70mm f/4 lens doesn’t appear to be (and where is the gold band?). The lens roadmap doesn’t suggest much pro-level glass in the near future either unfortunately. Thirdly the FTZ adapter is going to be an essential purchase in the short term, so why not include one in the price? These may seem like small issues, but give pause for thought when dropping that kind of…

I’ve been trying to find out if the Tamron 18-400mm VC HLD is compatible with my Nikon D5300. Answers so far have been ‘maybe’, ‘possibly’, and ‘don’t know’! Can you help? Terry Hutchins JASON SAYS…The short answer is ‘yes’, the Tamron 18-400mm should work perfectly with the D5300, or any other D5xxx series camera. Here’s the long version… Like a growing number of recent lenses from Nikon and Sigma, as well as Tamron, the 18-400mm VC HLD has an electromagnetically controlled aperture. Key advantages are that exposure levels are more consistent when shooting in high-speed continuous drive mode, and functionality is enhanced for video and Live View shooting. However, aperture control is incompatible with older cameras including the Nikon D2-series, D1-series, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70-series, D60, D50, D40-series, D3000,…

WWW.JOEMCNALLY.COM Nothing like lighting on the fly, inside a small, silver box. That was the order of the day when I shot a series of portraits of super-hip, delicious food trucks in LA. First was Blast Ice Cream truck – a great looking truck. The truck is a shiny cube on wheels, which made lighting interesting in this situation. Thankfully, I had a terrific subject, Court Hackworth, who makes ice cream with liquid nitrogen! He’s got a great look, and the vapours make it appear as if he’s creating a sci-fi monster! I used all Speedlights, SB-5000 units. Two behind Court, one with a warm gel and the other with a deep theatrical blue gel. A third, also gelled warm, is up above the mixer with a snooted grid, providing…

Backpacks. Messenger bags. Holster bags. You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to ways to carry your camera gear. But it’s easy to forget that there is another way: the sling bag. Shaped like a backpack and worn in the same position, slings are distinguished by having just a single shoulder strap that’s worn diagonally across your body, like a car seat belt. This enables you to easily swing the bag to your front in a single move, with its side opening facing up at you. You can then access your gear without having to put the bag down. Accessibility is almost as easy as with a shoulder bag, but despite both being suspended by a single strap, the sling bag’s rearward resting place makes it much more comfortable on…

Adam Waring Editor When I first started shooting on film, all I had was a 50mm prime; it’s still a firm favourite and great for forcing you to ‘zoom with your feet’… adam.waring@futurenet.com Jason Parnell-Brookes Technique Editor The 85mm f/1.8 lens has magical qualities! The long focal length and wide aperture gives creamy bokeh that flatters any portrait subject. jason.parnell-brookes@futurenet.com Ben Andrews Lab Manager Lots of glass passes through the lab, but I’m still amazed by the AF-P 18-55mm VR kit lens. It offers so much performance from such a tiny design. ben.andrews@futurenet.com Matthew Richards Technique Writer I started using a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art lens on a full-frame body a few months ago, and now seldom find myself using anything else. mail@nphotomag.com…

GREAT FOR… ✓Portraits✓ Street✓ Architecture Reading the scale Many wide prime lenses, particularly those from third-party manufacturers, are manual focus only. But don’t let that put you off – manual focusing isn’t as tricky as some may fear. These lenses are largely designed for landscape photography, where you want everything from the foreground to background to be in focus. Markings on the lens barrel are designed to help you get as much as possible sharp and in focus. 01 Wide primes are usually used at narrow apertures, and are commonly marked with f/8, f/11 and f/16 on the lens barrel 02 Line up the leftmost marking of your chosen aperture with the infinity symbol to ensure the horizon is in acceptable focus 03 The rightmost marking points to the closest…

Most of us probably have a few old toy figures tucked away that would be perfect for a fun project like this. But this isn’t just an excuse to get out some cherished playthings, it’s also a lesson in the power of mood lighting. By illuminating a tabletop toy scene with a couple of torches, we can evoke a powerful, cinematic atmosphere. Over the next few pages we’ll explain how it’s done, using a long exposure so that we can ‘paint with light’. If you’re not into the war theme, then look at this as an exercise in lighting. These tricks could be used to create a Jurassic scene, or bring a Lego landscape to life. These tricks could be used to create a Jurassic scene, or bring a Lego…

One of the most useful, and simple, ‘rules’ of photography is that every shot should have a subject. This is true whether you’re shooting a portrait or a landscape. Even abstract photos work best when they have a point of focus – something to draw the eye to a certain part of the image. Sure, all rules were meant to be broken, but having a subject to draw the eye can often lead to a stronger, more cohesive shot. Some may call this cheating – there’s no substitute for being there in the moment But what if there’s no subject in sight? We’ve surely all come across beautiful scenes or gorgeous moments of light that don’t have a point of interest, but we go ahead and shoot anyway. Like our…

Travelling is what I love, so I originally took up photography to capture memories of all these amazing places I was visiting. It was an on-and-off hobby for a few years that I was only really interested in when I was out of the country visiting something new. Then, in 2012, I decided to take photography more seriously and focus on fine art architecture, mainly long exposures. After a while I realized I was looking at buildings in a new light and framing every city scene I came across – I’d made the change from a hobbyist to an artist. I own two Nikon cameras: a D810 that I like using for city, sea and landscapes as it brings out some fantastic details in my architecture photographs; I also own…

Our search for the world’s best Nikon photographer continues! Each issue the top 10 images for the monthly N-Photo POTY 2018 photo contest are selected by the N-Photo team – along with a guest judge! This issue’s competition theme is live performances, and we’ve asked pro music photographer and Nikon UK Ambassador Conor McDonnell to help. GUEST JUDGE: NIKON AMBASSADOR CONOR MCDONNELL AS A NIKON AMBASSADOR AND LIVE PERFORMANCE PHOTOGRAPHER, CONOR DEMANDS A LOT FROM THE D850 I’ve got two D850 bodies – with that much resolution, the data in the pictures is insane, like no cameras I’ve ever worked with before. I’ve never been able to crop right into a shot as much before, either, because my old system couldn’t give me what I get with the D850, and…

The way to ward off the flies is to cover yourself with cow dung mixed with ash from a fire when I shot the book on Sudan, Sudan: The Land and the People, with my old friends Tim Carney (former US Ambassador there) and Vicky Butler, high on our wish list were cattle camps. That doesn’t sound special if your idea of livestock is a dairy farm in Somerset, but in South Sudan they’re a big deal and a part of the culture. The major ethnic groups, like the Dinka, Nuer and Mandari, are pastoralists, and cattle function like a bank. They’re a source of wealth, and inevitably, a man’s status is measured by the size of his herd (it’s a completely male-dominated activity). The community’s cattle are kept together…

What constant-aperture standard zoom would you suggest for my D7200? Cameron Hutton OUR EXPERTS AT MPB RECOMMEND… Sigma and Tamron both make 17-50mm f/2.8 lenses that feature a constant-aperture design, as well as adding optical stabilization. However, we’d go for the more up-market Nikon 17-55mm. It’s a top-class lens that was designed for Nikon’s similarly professional-spec DX format DSLRs. Nikon AF-S DX 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED IT’S SIMPLY THE BEST CONSTANT-APERTURE STANDARD ZOOM LENS FOR NIKON DX FORMAT DSLRS YOU CAN GET RELEASED (YEAR): 2004 PRICE NEW: £1609/$1499 BUY AT MPB.COM TODAY: EXCELLENT £539/$710 GOOD £459/$605 Announced in 2004 to accompany top-flight cameras like the D2X, this was the ultimate DX format standard zoom until the advent of the Nikon 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR three years ago. The newer lens adds VR…

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Contact twitter.com@nphotomag facebook.com/nphotomag Monochrome Monday Your best monochrome photos from the past month Worldly Wednesday Wednesday is an opportunity to share your favourite photos that you’ve taken while on your travels After our Jason shared his spooky Halloween tutorial in the November issue (N-Photo 91, page 36) Jonathan Hillyer sent in his version of it via twitter and said, “Some photography Halloween fun after school.” What a fantastic edit! We’re not sure if its worldly, though – more underworldly… Tutorial Tuesday This month we… Show you how to seamlessly match up two photographs together for more dramatic sky shots: http://bit.ly/the-skys-the-limit Throwback Thursday Some of our readers’ favourite shots from the past Nikon Quiz Friday Question: What sort of gear did Nikon manufacture during World War II? Congratulations to everyone who…