Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

This is the time of year that we welcome new Nikonians to the fold, having unwrapped shiny SLR-shaped packages over the festive season. As such our lead feature goes back to basics, explaining the essentials of exposure, focusing and metering. But even the most seasoned of photographers will pick up a thing or two. We join our Apprentice for a stroll around the Georgian city of Bath with fine art architectural photographer Ben Brain, who explains how to ‘look beyond the postcard view’ and get original shots of places that have been shot millions of times before. With a pair of newfangled mirrorless machines joining the established lineup of full-frame DSLRs, our Big Test helps you discover which is the best full-fat Nikon for your needs. Plus we put Sigma’s…

Nikon DSLRs are designed to be beginner-friendly, but there’s still a lot to take in if you haven’t used this kind of camera before. So, taking that into account, over the next ten pages we’re going to walk you through the whole thing, step by step. And even if you already have an expansive knowledge about these cameras, you still might learn some new tips and wrinkles you didn’t know about! For our examples we’re using Nikon’s brand-new D3500, which is designed specifically for DSLR first-timers. However, most of the features and controls found on this camera also apply across the whole of the Nikon DSLR range. We start off with the basics – getting your new Nikon charged up, attaching the strap, setting the time and date, and taking…

How exposure works The lighting conditions we shoot in vary hugely, from bright sunny days outdoors to dimly-lit interiors and night scenes – and yet your Nikon DSLR’s sensor needs a fixed amount of light to produce a well-exposed photo. This is why cameras have an elaborate set of controls and adjustments for getting the exposure right. You can just leave the camera to work these out automatically, but you’d be missing out on a lot of the creative control that makes photography so exciting. It’s also useful to know how your camera’s exposure system works, so that you can do something about it if your pictures don’t come out as you expect. The three key settings for exposure are the shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO setting. Shutter speed…

While the prints in our photo albums will probably only be viewed by a few people, our digitally shared shots can be enjoyed by many through online platforms such as Instagram and twitter. You may have shot your pictures using your Nikon’s Raw format, but to share your photos electronically then you’ll need to export them as JPEG files. As you work with a batch of images you can resize them en masse to suit the requirements of wherever you want to upload your shots. For example, the maximum width and height of an expanded photo viewed via Twitter is just 1024x512 pixels (with a maximum file size of 5MB). Or, if you shoot your Raw files using a neutral Picture Control then all of your photos may suffer from…

Dandora, Nairobi, offers something different and locks on to my style of photography, which is staged scenes in places that are sometimes removed from our everyday life. The 30-acre rubbish heap in Dandora offered a completely unique setting and challenging visual. The idea of having two assignments in one week shows the two sides of my photographic ‘personality.’ The same country, 300 miles apart, staged or natural, these photos are a clear representation of what drives me – uncovering the relationship between mankind and wildlife, and seeing how this can play in different settings. The resulting shots were planned separately and use different locations, but they are connected by several things: a composition defined by behaviour, the ability to choose what I include/exclude, and, most importantly, showing two sides of…

Bigger and better, full-frame image sensors have significant advantages over their smaller APS-C or DX format siblings. With more than 2.5 times the surface area, there’s the option of adding more megapixels for capturing greater levels of fine detail and texture in images. Alternatively, a modest megapixel count enables physically larger photosites, which equate to individual pixels within images. This results in greater light-gathering potential, which can generate a dramatic reduction in image noise, especially when shooting under low-light conditions at high-ISO settings. While Nikon’s DX format DSLRs have a crop factor of 1.5x, there’s no crop factor when using a full-frame camera. Depth of field is more closely linked to the actual (rather than effective) focal length, so you can get a tighter depth of field with a full-frame…

Batteries and charging The battery that comes with your Nikon is not fully charged, so the first thing you should to is plug it in to top it up. Flashing lights on the charger indicate how charged the battery is; rapid flashing means that the power is low, while slower pulses mean it’s fuller; a solid light indicates the battery is fully charged. It’s good practice to recharge your battery after each and every shoot; as it’s a Li-ion device, you can’t damage it by charging a partially charged battery. However, the charge it can hold will diminish after time, so you might want to buy a spare or two. This is useful for long shoots, as there’s nothing worse than running out of juice halfway through a shoot. Set…

The mission • To create unique filters for under £5 Time • Two hours Skill level • Beginner• Intermediate• Advanced Kit needed • Lens• Food bags• Coloured pens• Vaseline• Photo frame As photographers, we’re always trying to find new ways to stand out from the crowd. One way to do this is to filter the image before it comes through the lens of our camera. There is a myriad of camera filters available that introduce creative effects, but for those of us who like to be original, this project helps you take that extra step to make your very own custom filtration. In this project, we’ve set ourselves the challenge of making a selection of new and interesting filters for under a fiver. Usually, photographers customize UV filters screwed on…

The mission • Use Lightroom or Camera Raw to apply lens corrections, retouch marks and enhance tones Time • 15 minutes Skill level • Beginner• Intermediate• Advanced Kit needed • Lightroom or Photoshop CC Every image requires its own tailor-made treatment, but there are a few general edits that we can apply to most, if not all, the landscapes we shoot. The subject matter and camera settings we tend to use for landscapes make some edits essential, so this tutorial explains the key ones you need to make. One such important edit is lens correction. To some extent, every lens we use has flaws. With landscapes, these flaws can be more noticeable, because we often shoot with wide angles, and these tend to display greater fringing and barrel distortion. Luckily,…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Skye’s the limit I recently spent a six-day break at Skye. During my visit I decided to do a two-day photography course on landscape photography with Chris Rutter. Well, what can I say other than it was amazing? I learned a lot from Chris who has inspired me to get out and take more photos. His patience and knowledge of Skye and photography was superb, and I would thoroughly recommend that anyone wanting to learn about photography consider taking a course, whatever their photographic interest happens to be. I’m 67 and got back into photography a few years ago, but found I was lacking something, and this course has really inspired my passion once again. Great magazine, and glad to see software other than Photoshop and…

Like it or not, most of us have deeprooted preferences (and prejudices) about the quality of light. However predictable, and even clichéd, ‘golden light’ is as a shooting choice, most people adore it. The warm glow is as much a part as the low, raking angle of sunlight, and many landscape photographers have become hardwired to wanting it. Black and white suffers very little from this fixation because the ‘golden’ aspect of this light simply doesn’t apply. Imagine a situation where this is what you’d really like for a scene, but you’re there at midday instead. Visualize the scene in black and white, and you may find that what was harsh and cold in colour becomes stronger in monochrome. More than that, golden hour or magic hour have become locked…

Profile • Moose Peterson is a Nikon USA Ambassador and Lexar Elite Photographer. • He is the author of 29 books, including Takeoff and his best-seller, Captured. • Moose has been shooting digitally since 1999, when he was one of the first Nikon photographers to use the D1. • He is a recipient of the John Muir Conservation Award and is a research associate with the Endangered Species Recovery Program. www.moosepeterson.com With a name like Moose, it’s not surprising to hear Moose Peterson’s first love was wildlife photography. But when I’m speaking down the phone to him in California, it’s a famous landscape view in Yosemite National Park that he’s framing in the early morning light. “Right now, I’m at a place called Tunnel View,” he says. “We’re watching the…

Features 01 Stretches to 375mm at the longest zoom, or 435mm including the hood. 02 Switches include zoom lock, AF/MO/MF, AF long/short/full, OS off/1/2, and Custom off/1/2. 03 The zoom lock can be used at any of the 11 positions marked with a focal length on the zoom ring. 04 The mounting ring has click-stops at 90-degree intervals and an Arca-Swiss compatible foot with extra threaded sockets. 05 Weather-seals are applied to the mounting plate, joints and switches. 06 Fluorine coatings are applied to the front and rear elements. 07 It’s compatible with Sigma’s 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters Nicknamed the ‘Bigma’, Sigma’s original 50-500mm super-telephoto lens was launched back in 2001, updated in 2006, and then revamped in 2010 with the welcome addition of optical stabilization. It was renowned for…

Z SYSTEM FULL-FRAME MIRRORLESS NIKON Z7 A DEEPLY IMPRESSIVE CAMERA, that combines the resolution, speed and build quality of a high-end pro DSLR in a compact body. It may be the company’s first-ever full-frame mirrorless, but it’s so polished and well designed that you’d think that Nikon had been making them for years. NIKON Z6 IT MAY SEEM LIKE a lesser Z7, but the Z6 improves on its sibling with incredible high-ISO performance, insanely fast 12fps continuous shooting and the ability to shoot uncropped 4K video – at two-thirds of the price. Unless you need ludicrously large images, this is the mirrorless of choice for most of us. ENTRY-LEVEL DSLRS NIKON D3500 NIKON HAS REFRESHED AND rejuvenated one of its classic designs to keep it fresh, responsive and appealing to…

ANIMAL PORTRAITS – WINNER & OVERALL WPOTY 2018 WINNER The Golden Couple Marsel Van Oosten, The Netherlands As the group of Qinling golden snub-nosed monkeys jumped gracefully from tree to tree, Marsel struggled to keep up, slipping and stumbling over logs. Gradually, he learned to predict their behaviour, and captured this male and female resting on a rock. With the sun filtering through the canopy, they are bathed in a beautifully magical light – their golden hair glowing against the fresh, leafy greens of the forest. Nikon D810, 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/320 sec, f/8, ISO1600 11-14 YEARS OLD – HIGHLY COMMENDED Small World Carlos Perez Naval, Spain Growing on the low stone wall of a house, this pyrolusite mineral looked “like oriental drawings on rice paper,” says Carlos. Crouching to capture…

Transferring photos Before long you’ll want to transfer pictures from the camera to your computer, and there are a few ways of doing this. Nikon’s more recent cameras come with Wi-Fi connections or Nikon’s own SnapBridge system. Wi-Fi is needed for remote camera control from your smart device and for transferring full-resolution photos, but Bluetooth is good for transferring smaller versions of your photos for sharing there and then on social media platforms. To get photos on to your computer you need to use more traditional connection methods. Most laptops and many desktop machines have built in SD card readers – this is the memory card format used by most Nikon DSLRs these days. You simply take the card out of the camera, insert it in the computer’s card slot…

Camera bag Now that you’ve got all this fancy Nikon kit, you’ll need something to carry it around in. Camera bags come in such a wide variety of sizes, styles and prices that it quickly gets confusing, so here’s a quick guide to help you out. Holster bags These slip over your shoulder and hold a camera with a lens attached, with a couple of pockets perhaps for memory cards and batteries. Perfect for casual photography and travelling light. Shoulder bag These hold more – typically a body and a couple of lenses. Sling bags can be swung round and worn as a kind of hybrid backpack, while messenger bags can also hold a laptop. Backpacks Good for carrying more gear over longer distances, but not so good for quick…

The mission • Shoot a moment of action with a stroboscopic flash Time • One hour Skill level • Beginner• Intermediate• Advanced Kit needed • Flashgun with stroboscopic or ‘Multi’ mode• Tripod• Stand for flash• Black backdrop This stop-motion effect is created by a pulsing flash that fires lots of times during a long exposure, freezing the action multiple times as our dancer moves through the frame. Known as stroboscopic flash, it’s an interesting technique to try on any moving subject. All you need is a dark space, a tripod and a flashgun with stroboscopic or ‘Multi’ mode. Timing plays a huge part here, and in three distinct ways. First, there’s the timing of the flash. You can choose the number of flashes and determine how quickly they fire, so…

There’s another entirely different type of reason for converting to black and white, and that’s what I call ‘corrective’. Basically, it’s when the situation you’re shooting in isn’t satisfying you, for one reason or another. Most commonly, this has to do with either the colour or the light, or both. In these cases, black and white is doing a problem-solving task. One colour-corrective situation is when the colours are insipid, as in this view that I shot just the other day in an off-the-beaten-track part of eastern China. That’s a matter of taste, of course, but in this case the subject was predetermined, so the shot depended greatly on other variables such as the light. We were travelling in an area called Taishun, in the southern part of Zhejiang province,…

NEXT MONTH: DX STANDARD ZOOMS VERDICT For attaining a tight depth of field, the AF-S lens is superior thanks to its wider aperture. But it’s cumbersome and image quality is no better than from the latest 24-70mm Sigma Art. The Z-mount lens has an accessible size and weight, despite its tough, weather-sealed build. It outperforms the AF-S lens in almost every aspect of image quality, and costs less than half as much to buy. It’s a winner!…

What, would you say, is the best thing that you have discovered about using the Z7? The Z7 does black and white better, I think, than any camera body out there. Without a doubt the black-and-white system is a cracker. The Z family, because it is mirrorless and you have that EVF, you actually see instantly in the viewfinder what you shot, and it’s very accurate compared to looking at the LCD screen. You can make the minute changes very quickly on the fly that you need for black and white. I’ve always shot tons of black and white. It’s just a gorgeous medium. It’s also easier to shoot because I don’t have to do anything in post-production really, which is what I like!…

All too often, camera bags take their styling cues from Henry Ford’s legendary Model T. They have a boxy shape and you can have any colour you like, so long as it’s black. Most are undeniably functional and durable, but they are never going to set the fashion world alight. Perhaps it’s time for a change. Sidestepping the dubious allure of black nylon, a growing number of luxury photographic bags feature premium leather and waxed canvas, or a mix of the two. Most are based on classic satchel or messenger bag styling, but add some clever design flourishes, and wouldn’t look out of place anywhere from Carnaby Street to Beverly Hills. None of the luxury bags in this buyers’ guide are a case of style over substance. They’re designed to…