Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

HALF AND HALF Andrew says… I shoot in Manual mode but use Auto ISO. This provides a halfway house between Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority because I have full control over my aperture and shutter speed, while my ISO is left to automatically compensate for changing lighting conditions. AUTOFOCUS Andrew says… I use AF-C with either Single-point AF or Dynamic-area AF (D9, with nine AF points). The latter is easier to use as the increased number of focus points allows you more room for error. But the more you practise the more you will gravitate towards Single-point AF as it’s more accurate. FIRE A BURST Andrew says… I use Continuous-high (CH) drive mode so I can capture as many frames as possible when photographing birds in flight. This is because…

Andrew says… The cliff edge and fields surrounding RSPB Bempton were clad in a vibrant pink flower called red campion (Silene dioica). This presented Tom with a fantastic opportunity to add a splash of colour to his images on what was a rather drab day. I suggested he used the flowers as foreground interest and even encouraged him to shoot through the foliage to create frames within frames. This is where the advantages of Single-point AF over Dynamic-area AF really become apparent. Single-point AF allows you to precisely target your subject through the foliage much more accurately, whereas busy foregrounds are more likely to confuse the camera’s Dynamic-area AF modes.…

Super-high-resolution sensors and near-perfect lenses have gotten us so used to ‘pixel peeping’, you could argue we’ve become slightly obsessed with image quality. But razor-sharp imagery isn’t always the be-all and end-all. You can capture amazing images by introducing distortion and flare – optical anomalies we spend most of our time trying to avoid. For a creative flare effect you’ll need some basic photographic kit, such as a Nikon DSLR, mirrorless or bridge camera with manual and semi-automatic modes and a suitable lens. A standard prime lens will work best, but you can still capture great results with a kit lens too. Shooting towards the sun with the lens hood removed is one way to introduce flare into your shots. This will create a diffused, washed out and dreamy quality,…

The magic hour has long been known as the best time of day to capture gorgeous landscape photos, but it’s being increasingly used by portrait photographers too. As the sun goes down the vibrant colours can create a stunning backdrop for portraits. And even if the sky doesn’t erupt into colour, it’s still a great time to head out for dramatic clouds. The key challenge to overcome is the strong backlighting we get when shooting towards the setting sun. This makes it tricky to get a balanced exposure, because the subject’s front will be in deep shade. If using the natural light alone we could expose for the shade, but this’ll blow out the sky, or we could expose for the bright sky, but then the subject will be in…

1 Target colours The Colour Mixer panel in Camera Raw and Lightroom is very useful for targeting and enhancing different colour ranges. Go to the panel, click the Saturation tab then drag left or right over colours in the image to change the saturation of the colours within. It’s useful for boosting oranges and yellows in sunsets. 2 Select the sky You can boost the colours selectively in the sky using an adjustment layer. First go to Select>Sky. Then click the adjustment layer icon in the Layers panel and choose your adjustment – try Hue/Saturation to boost the colour intensity, or Curves to add contrast to the sky. 3 Use Channel Mixer Here’s a quick tip for boosting sunset colours. Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. Set Output Channel: Red…

Daisy Gilardini Profile • Swiss-born Daisy Gilardini is a conservation photographer who specializes in the polar regions.• In the past 20 years, she has made over 80 expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic, including skiing the final degree to the North Pole.• Her shots have been published widely in leading magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife and Nature’s Best.• Daisy is a photographer-in-residence with Canadian Geographic, and her images are used in campaigns by NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF.• Her work has been recognized by Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Awards and Travel Photographer of the Year.• Daisy is a fellow of the New Yorkbased Explorers Club and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, as well as a Nikon Ambassador. www.daisygilardini.com Say ‘Switzerland’…

It was always my dream to visit the Faroe Islands. Their spectacular landscape and unpredictable weather is something that every landscape photographer aspires to shoot. I remember watching YouTube vlogs from photographers and I fell in love with this place. Some call it the last secret of Europe. Well, it’s not so secret anymore, as the popularity of this place grows every year, bringing tourists and photographers from all around the world. The weather on the Faroe Islands is unpredictable. Often you’ll experience four seasons within one hour! It could be raining in one place and the sun shining 30 minutes’ drive away. For that reason it’s crucial to pack plenty of wet weather gear and spare clothes, plus hats and gloves. When I visited the Faroes at the end…

1. Fishing boat at sunset JIM BROKE There’s a lot to like about this image, but we’re particularly drawn to the painterly hues of the evening sky and simple composition. 2. Esplanade bridge EDDIE SEE A cool-looking shot below an underpass in Singapore. But you could have told us that this was taken on an alien spacecraft and we might have believed you… 3. Eye of the needle LING SHUFEN This is the eye of an emden goose, photographed at Mill Pond in Banner Elk, North Carolina. We love how the eye draws the viewer into the picture.…

Matrix Measures the light across the whole scene, including focus and colour data. This is analysed while also referencing object distance, contrast, and the size and shape of highlights and shadows. These variables are used to build the metering calculations for your image. Centre-weighted Heavily biases the resulting readings to only use the light around the centre of the frame. On more advanced cameras you can change the size of the area used to calculate the exposure. Centre-weighted metering has effectively been made redundant by Matrix metering. Spot Only takes into account the light around the active focus point. Depending on your camera, you are only metering 1.5-2.5% of the overall frame, so you need to pay careful attention to the location of the focus point and the amount and…

Highlight-weighted metering is available on selected DSLRs and Z-series cameras. It is designed to ensure that, when the camera meters a scene, the highlights are properly exposed and not ‘blown out’. It can be used for both static and action shots and subjects lit by shafts of ambient light, spotlights or coloured lighting. To get the best from this metering mode, it’s best to use it with subjects such as performers on stage, a bride under spotlights in a wedding dress or wherever you have uneven lighting and your background is very dark compared to your subject or foreground. As highlight-weighted metering is designed to detect and meter for highlights, you can also use it on moving subjects that may be difficult to target with Spot metering and without constantly…

As its name suggests, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 is a cut-down version of Adobe Photoshop. To a novice photographer the full version of Photoshop can appear daunting as it is packed full of potentially superfluous features, such as the ability to draw vector-based shapes using Bézier curves, for example. Elements cuts to the chase by focusing on overcoming common photo problems (such as removing tints or colour casts, or straightening tilted horizons). As Elements contains only the essential photo-fixing tools it is far easier (and quicker) to master than the ‘full-fat’ version. Elements’ useful Guided Edit modes give you access to the key tools required to help fix picture problems. Thanks to features, such as Adobe Sensei AI, it enables you to give your shots a creative makeover without needing…

MATERIAL GAINS Pricier tripods tend to be made from carbon fibre rather than aluminium, but the weight-saving for relatively small travel tripods can be minimal. PLAYING THE ANGLES Two or three alternative locking leg angles are usually available. This can be a bonus when shooting on tricky terrain or where there are obstacles. UP, UP AND AWAY Nearly all current travel tripods have space-saving legs that swing upwards, so that the feet encircle the head when folded, with the centre column extended. THE LOWDOWN The Kenro and Novo kits include ‘low angle adaptors’ (LAA) which replace the centre column. The Peak Design has a splitable centre column. IT’S IN THE BAG With 5-section legs and sometimes 2-section centre columns, some tripods fold down to less than 40cm, making them small…

By the time you read this, the Euro football championships will be approaching the quarterfinals, Wimbledon will have served its opening matches and the Olympics will be on the horizon – so with that in mind, this issue’s lead feature comes from a photographer who’s shot all three. Nikon Ambassador Joel Marklund helps you apply his pro sports know-how to shooting your own lower-league events. Our Apprentice, meanwhile, heads out on a quest to photograph what must be Britain’s best-loved bird, the picturesque puffin. We put travel tripods to the test in our Big Test, but if even these svelte three-legged supports are too unwieldy for your liking, we also explain the pros and cons of no less then 10 monopods. In Nikopedia, we demystify metering, and explain just how…

STAY ON TRACK Andrew says… In the Custom Setting Menu select Autofocus>Focus tracking with lock-on. I use the Erratic setting for puffins and Default for everything else. Blocked shot AF response delays the AF from shifting focus; useful if the subject you’re tracking briefly passes behind an object. CAMERA SETTINGS Andrew says… Use continuous autofocus with Single-point AF or D9 and a shutter speed that’s over 1/1000 sec. An aperture of f/8 will give you a little more leeway when focusing, thanks to the greater depth of field, and Auto ISO will ensure that your exposure remains consistent. DON’T WING IT Andrew says… There’s more to capturing a bird in flight than focusing correctly and freezing your subject in mid-air. The placement of the wings has a huge impact too.…

Mallard Duck ZDENĚK JAKL Zdeněk took this shot on a pond in a park in Prague. As a family of Mallard ducklings swam past, one of them began to chase a flying fly. It highlighted the fact that the instinct to feed is a powerful force, even in the young. Camera: Nikon Z 6 Lens: Sigma 500mm f/4 Sport Exposure: 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO500 American Oystercatcher JAMES WILCOX James’s favourite time of year is when the American oystercatcher chicks hatch. This young oystercatcher is old enough to forage, but still relies on its parents for food because its beak hasn’t developed the strength to open the shells of molluscs and crustaceans. Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: Nikon 600mm f/4 + 1.7x teleconverter Exposure: 1/1250 sec, f/8, ISO400 Tufted Duck BRAD JAMES…

Heading out to shoot a sunset on a cloudy evening is always a bit of a gamble, because if the clouds completely obscure the sun you might miss the big event altogether. But if the light is right a cloudy sky can present a dramatic backdrop as the sunset illuminates the cloud cover. An effective way to add even more drama to the sky is to shoot through a neutral density filter, so you can dial in a long exposure and capture a sense of movement in the clouds. Another element to consider when photographing a moody landscape is your subject. Gnarled trees, craggy rocks and crashing waves look particularly intense against a dark and brooding backdrop. We decided to photograph Flamborough Lighthouse in East Yorkshire. Not only are lighthouses…

When it comes to landscape photography, sometimes a single exposure isn’t enough. In highcontrast scenes the difference in brightness between land and sky can make it near-impossible to capture fine detail in one frame – this could mean sacrificing shadow detail to preserve the highlights, or capturing shadow detail while blowing the sky. It’s often a problem encountered at sunset, as when shooting towards the brightest and most vibrant part of the sky the land in front can come out near-black. Thankfully, by varying our exposure across a couple of frames (taken using a tripod to keep them in alignment) we can capture the optimum amount of detail and then blend our images. Here we’ll show you how to blend your exposures in Affinity for enhanced landscape photos. Exposure blending…

1 Setting sun The best angle for our sunset portrait will usually be shooting towards the sun. The most vibrant colours will often form in this part of the sky as the sun reaches the horizon. Even if the sun disappears behind low clouds like this, you’re still likely to see dramatic cloud formations and hints of orange or pink. 2 Location Think of a location near you that will work for your sunset portrait, and consider the direction of the setting sun in advance. The rapeseed field here offers vibrant colours that match those in the sky. The beach or a lake can be great choices too, as the sun will reflect off of the water. 3 Outdoor flash A standalone flash unit, like the Godox AD300Pro here, is…

Camera: Nikon D80 Lens: 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 Exposure: 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO1000 MISSION: Document lives around the world and convey how we are all human at the core PHOTOGRAPHER: Tamás Simonyi LOCATION: Hungary KIT USED: Nikon D750, Nikon D80, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5, Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 WEBSITE: http://tomisimonyiphotography.com I started taking photos with my East German Praktica film camera when I was a teenager. I already preferred to capture photos of people – mostly my schoolmates. At university I was asked by the school newspaper to submit portraits of fellow students. This was 1970s Hungary, when commercialism was still unknown and we were surprised to find that such cover images lifted sales substantially. I travelled extensively on student trips around Europe and documented my journeys. Looking back on these…

[1] Metering controls: Some older cameras have a dial around the AE-L/AF-L button, on others it’s assigned to a specific button. Or you may have to select it from the Setup or Custom Settings menu, On Z-series cameras, you’ll find it in the ‘i’ menu. [2] Entry-level models: For 3xxx and 5xxx owners, press the ‘info’ button to activate the rear LCD screen, now use the ‘i’ button to launch the menu and navigate to select the metering mode. Press the ‘OK’ button in the centre of the multi-selector to confirm your choice. [3] Button it: More advanced models have a specific metering button on the top or rear of the camera. Hold in this button and then rotate the rear command dial to change the metering mode. Press OK…

To get a more advanced understanding of how metering works in a camera we need to take a look at reflected and incident light metering. A reflected light meter measures the amount of light being reflected across the scene. This is how the built-in light meter within your DSLR or mirrorless camera works. An incident light meter reading is taken with a handheld light meter and means you are measuring the light falling on the subject. It’s a subtle change but in certain lighting situations it can have a big effect. Reflected light metering reads the light from the entire scene and then uses an averaged reading based on 18% per cent grey. This is also known as mid or neutral grey, and is a standard in photography designed to…

Spot-metered subjects To achieve the best results with Spot metering, you need to ensure that you focus accurately on your subject so you can pin-point the light from an area of the scene. Spot metering mode is great for precise exposure readings and can often come to the rescue when you are shooting in tricky light. What to expose The key to using spot metering effectively is down to your skill at deciding which part of the scene to take the reading from in the first place. Consider a high-contrast image that has a wide contrast difference between the shadows and highlights. The camera doesn’t know which area needs to be correctly exposed, only the photographer does. AF points or Live View? You have two options to Spot meter accurately…

Q I bought a Z 6 24-70mm and FTZ mount adapter kit a while ago. What would you suggest as a compact and lightweight telephoto zoom? Jane Worsley A 70-300mm telephoto zooms have been popular since the days of 35mm film photography and it’d be great to see a Z-mount version of this lens. In the meantime, my favoured option is to make use of the FTZ mount adapter and go with the excellent F-mount AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR, at around £535/$397. It’s a high-tech lens for a ‘humble’ 70-300mm variable-aperture zoom, with the same kind of fast and near-silent stepping motor AF system and electromagnetically controlled aperture diaphragm that you find in Z-mount lenses. It’s also compact and lightweight at 81x146mm and 680g, so is easily manageable, even…

1. City in the Fog BY BORISOV EVGENY This unusual cityscape has immortalized an incredible moment in time. On the morning it was photographed, Dubai Marina was blanketed in a thick layer of fog. But from a vantage point high up on the 86th floor of a skyscraper, Borisov was able to frame other tall buildings breaching the layers of mist below. The subtle editing and thick fog creates a brooding dystopian atmosphere. Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: 14-24mm f/2.8 Exposure: 1/1250 sec, f/8, ISO200 2. Rain BY SARA JAZBAR It’s easy to forgo heading out with the camera when it rains, but this image is proof that wet weather is simply another opportunity to capture great photos. The composition, reflections, brooding sky and crisply captured pigeons all add plenty of…

Most of us like to travel light. Any outing is likely to be more pleasurable without a cumbersome tripod in tow. Indeed, conventional tripods tend to be big, heavy and unwieldy, so we often leave them at home, where they’re of no use whatsoever. By contrast, travel tripods are made to be compact and lightweight. Traditionally, though, they’ve often been flimsy, relatively unstable and too small to enable a comfortable operating height. New travel tripods aim to give you the best of both worlds. The majority have legs that swing up for stowage, so that the head is encircled by the feet. This reduces the folded height by around 8cm to 10cm. Some also include as many as five sections in each leg and a two-section extending centre column, reducing…

Andrew says… Research and observation is crucial. You’ll need to research suitable locations. Birdwatchers, hikers and other photographers are a great resource, but don’t be offended if they won’t disclose anything useful. Sometimes it’s necessary to withhold information to protect the wildlife or prevent onlookers from hampering a project – I will never disclose a location when I’ve obtained permission to operate on private land. Observation helps you learn about your subject and develop a sixth sense for behaviours that make great photos.…

Often you’ll have to constantly switch between shooting in both very bright and very dark conditions – think of a football match where one side of the pitch is in bright sunlight and the other is in deep shade due to the shadow cast by the stadium. In years gone, I would have to manually change my settings and that could make me lose the moment. Now I use the Recall Shooting setting. However, if you have a player running into the shadow with a bit of light on the face I will then continue to use the settings I’d reserved for the lighter half of the pitch as this creates a dramatic effect.…

Time-lapse photography is used in a variety of productions, from big Hollywood blockbusters to documentaries, as a way to concisely convey the passage of time. It works by taking photographs at regular intervals for an extended period and quickly cycling through those stills to create a video. We’re going to use a similar technique, but combine the images to create a single still. This is called a time-slice, because you slice your images up and stitch them together, revealing gradual changes in lighting as time passes. We shot our scene of Happisburgh Lighthouse in Norfolk from sunset all the way through to blue hour and then astronomical twilight. This allowed us to capture warm golden tones fading into blues, pinks, purples and finally the night sky. As with a time-lapse,…

Photoshop’s Brush tool is full of hidden delights, and in this project we’ll explore one of our favourites to create an eye-catching effect. Simple yet ingenious, the Symmetry Painting feature lets you paint in several places at once. There are several types of symmetrical painting options to experiment with, but the most enjoyable is Mandala. Often found in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism, mandalas are geometric patterns organized around a single central point (in fact, ‘mandala’ is Sanskrit for ‘circle’). The Mandala Brush setting in Photoshop lets you create these sorts of designs in seconds. You can also choose how many segments for your mandala design, which basically determines how many places you can paint at once. It’s simple to set up, wonderfully creative, and it’s easy to lose yourself for…

Position the flash The great thing about off-camera flash is that we get to place it wherever we like. So we can put it to one side of the subject for dramatic directional light that complements the backlighting of the sun. Try feathering the flash so it’s angled across the front of the subject. This gives more even light. Expose for the ambient Before turning on the flash we work out an exposure that best captures the sky. Set your camera to Manual mode with shutter speed at 1/200 sec and ISO100. Start off with an aperture around f/8, then take a test shot and vary it, if needed, until the sky looks right. Initially our aperture was f/5.6. Turn on the flash Next, turn on the flash and trigger,…

Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: 105mm f/2.8 Exposure: 1/20 sec, f/22, ISO800 MISSION: Aspire to photograph fine art portraits of various insects in their natural habitats PHOTOGRAPHER: André Neves LOCATION: Foxton, Cambridgeshire KIT USED: Nikon D850, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR with AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II WEBSITE: www.aaneves.com INSTAGRAM: @andre_neves_photography I have been fascinated by nature and photography since I was a child. I started my photography journey in Portugal some three decades ago by borrowing my father’s reliable Nikon SLR. I enjoyed the simplicity of the mechanics – and sorely miss the light weight of the camera body! I didn’t start taking my hobby seriously until about five years ago, when I joined the Melbourn & District Photographic Club, a…

There are various settings in your camera relating to metering. Depending on your camera model you might not have all these features and some older cameras might have different features and terminology. Metering and exposure go hand in hand, so it’s important to set up your camera to give maximum control over both. To explore these settings go to the Custom Settings menu and navigate to ‘b Metering/exposure’ B1 EV STEPS FOR EXPOSURE CONTROL This sets the increments used for shutter speed, aperture, ISO sensitivity, bracketing and exposure and flash compensation. Your options are for 1/3 Step, which gives you finer control over the exposure, the downside is it can take longer to select the exact settings you require. The other option is 1/2 Step, which is faster to use…

Enter the Matrix For most situations, start with Matrix metering. It’s most likely to produce an accurate metered result, especially if you have a scene that is evenly lit. Compensation To refine the metered exposure, set positive/negative exposure compensation as required. If you are in Manual mode, just over- or underexpose the image. Change mode If you still can’t achieve a good exposure, think about switching to Spot or Highlight-weighted metering, depending on the scene you are shooting. Focus accurately Focus accurately on your subject using Spot metering to base the metering calculations only from the light on the area under the focus point. Compare results Compare this with the Matrix metered shot. Use the metering mode that gives the best results and fine-tune with exposure compensation, if needed. Or…

With NX-Studio’s colour control points you have some very powerful local editing tools at your disposal. They allow you to perform localized tonal adjustments to areas of your images. You will find the Color Control Points sub-menu withing the Adjustments tab, nestled under the ‘Touch-up’ sub-menu. Click on the arrow to the left of the Color Control Point option to expand the settings so you can add control points. You can also access Color Control Points by clicking the icon in the top-level bar of the Adjustments menu. To start adding control points, click on the icon to the left of ‘Original Value’ and it will turn yellow. Then click anywhere on the image you wish to edit to add a control point overlay. This will also add a numbered…

Q I want an advanced camera so I can learn photography, but am still at school and on a limited budget. What would you recommend? Michael Peterson A Matthew recommends… I’d go for the Nikon D300S. It’s a high-end DSLR with pro-grade controls and is capable of superb image quality. Its age and relatively low megapixel count make it great value. Nikon D300S WITH PRO-GRADE CONTROLS, THE D300S IS A GREAT TOOL FOR LEARNING ALL THE TIPS AND TRICKS OF THE TRADE RELEASED: 2009 PRICE NEW: £1500/$1800 SECONDHAND PRICE: ‘Excellent’ £219/$245 ‘Good’ £195/$220 Replacing the Nikon D300, the D300S was in production from 2009 to 2014. A DX-format DSLR with similarly pro-grade handling was then unavailable until the launch of the D500 in 2017. The D300S has a weather-sealed magnesium…

Lab tests explained Sharpness A chart with multiple sharp boundaries is photographed, the extent of blur at the centre, mid and edges showing how many line widths per picture height the lens can resolve. Simply put, the bigger the numbers the sharper the lens. Fringing Chromatic aberration is visible as purple or green fringing around high-contrast boundaries, caused by different wavelengths being focused on different areas of the sensor. The larger the number, the worse the score. Distortion A lens that bulges towards the edges of the frame produces barrel distortion, shown as a negative score. Pincushion distortion produces a positive score. A score of zero indicates no distortion. Our awards in a nutshell The best performance, design and value A product that gives you more for your money The…

Something that often separates professional photographers from amateur photographers is access. I’m sure most of us have gazed longingly at the photographers’ pit at a music festival or the perfect vantage point near the touchline of a football pitch. Access is more important in some genres than others: sports and music photographers rely on it almost entirely, but it’s a large part of photojournalism, and documentary and wildlife photography too. Ask and ye might receive But access plays a role in almost every genre of photography and it isn’t always about gaining written permission or wearing a lanyard. Portrait photographers work hard to access sitters’ raw emotions, and wildlife photographers spend hours/days/weeks and even months building a rapport with their subjects to gain better access. Part of what makes our…