Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

Many photographers have got out of the habit of carrying tripods. With ISO performance seemingly improving with every new Nikon camera release, photographers are now able to work at higher ISOs than ever before. Whether on an extended overseas trip, or just a local photographic excursion, this has resulted in many shedding a little weight by leaving their tripod behind. But tripods have always been about more than being able to photograph in low light, and having one with you can open up a world of creative choices. Prior to the pandemic, I spent years travelling around the world, photographing in all sorts of countries. I love photographing people and festivals, and although I always packed a tripod – most of the time I didn’t carry it around with me, preferring…

“The post-production work for multiple exposure shots will be far easier if the camera doesn’t move between exposures There are many reasons why you might need to shoot two or more elements in a scene and combine them together in a single image in Photoshop, and the post-production work will be far easier if the camera doesn’t move between exposures. Multiple exposure shots don’t have to be something dramatic: recently in Dartmoor I was photographing a river in Dewerstone Wood. I used a 15-second exposure to blur the water, but the slight wind was also blurring the ferns in the foreground. This was annoying as it detracted from the blur of the river. Without moving the camera, I changed the settings so that I could use an exposure of 1/60…

For many subjects, focus stacking is a way of achieving a broader depth of field than any single image can achieve There are times when depth of field alone might not be enough to keep the scene in front of you in focus. It might be that you are shooting a macro image, where depth of field is always very shallow, or you have something in the foreground and want to use a medium aperture for a better quality image. Focus stacking is a technique where you take a number of images, each with a slightly different focus setting, and then combine them into one super-sharp image with ultimate depth of field. Place the camera on a tripod, compose your image, switch to manual focus and then adjust the focus…

The Mission – Use a long lens to shoot landscapes that are more focused Time – One hour Skill level – Beginner Kit needed – Long lens – Tripod It’s not surprising that wide-angle lenses are synonymous with outdoor photography. Wide fields of view are able to squeeze the vastness of a sprawling lake or the grandeur of a towering mountain into the frame, but they also have their limits. Wide fields of view cause subjects to diminish, so unless you’re very close or your subject is very large it can get lost in the frame. If you’re not close enough to your subject, wide-angle lenses may cram in unwanted portions of a scene too, making the composition look unfocused, untidy and unbalanced. This is particularly prevalent when you’re shooting…

The Mission – Shoot window-lit baby portraits and combine with stock backgrounds in Photoshop Time – Two hours Skill level – Intermediate Kit needed – Fast prime lens – Window – Photoshop CC Although sleep-deprived new parents might not agree, babies grow and change incredibly fast. Before you know it, a newborn is a rampaging toddler. So if you’re planning on arranging a baby photo shoot for friends or family, or for your own little bundle, now is the time to do it. But how to approach a shoot like this? A popular technique is the baby composite. For this, we take a photo of the baby then combine it with an eye-catching backdrop. You can find lots of stunning backdrops online, like the autumnal setup we downloaded from Adobe…

£79/$80 www.lowepro.com Features 1 Draw-string top and zipped back openings give easy access to the main compartment. 2 Designed to fit any of Lowepro’s GearUp inserts to keep camera equipment safe. 3 Packs away neatly into a compact 11x3.9in cylindrical roll when not in use. 4 Super-featherweight design makes it Lowepro’s lightest backpack at just 400g. 5 There are side pockets for a water bottle and tripod with pull cords for extra stability. The RunAbout Pack-Away Daypack is designed for short photo excursions away from camp. Lowepro’s lightest backpack weighs just 400g and rolls up into a compact 11x3.9in cylinder so you can slip it inside or attach it to your main rucksack with minimal impact to the overall load. It’s a welcome alternative to making camp and proceeding to lug…

The Nikon Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S is the ‘best’ lens in the group but the simple truth is that the vast majority of us don’t have £13,499/$13,997 to blow on a single lens. The Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S is still a fabulous super-tele prime but it’s only about a quarter of the price and less than half the weight, making it much more manageable in every way. And it performs brilliantly well with Nikon’s Z-mount 1.4x and 2x teleconverters, should you feel the need for greater telephoto super-powers. In comparison with these two lenses, the Tokina SZX Super Tele 400mm F8 Reflex MF looks and feels like a throwback to a different era, as reflected in its mediocre sharpness, but at least it’s small, lightweight and…

A tripod is an essential piece of the photographer’s arsenal, to be taken out when light levels are low and handholding the camera would result in shake, right? For our lead feature, travel pro Steve Davey comes up with seven reasons to always carry one, and shooting in low light isn’t one of them… Our apprentice joins us on a studio portrait shoot with a difference. Fake blood replaces makeup and the beauty dish makes way for stark horror movie-inspired lighting for a gory vampire photo session with slasher supremo Rick Jones. We also have a spooky project in this issue’s Skills section, with a ghostly-themed shoot to tie in with Halloween. We also learn how to access frequently changed settings with My Menu, shoot landscapes with a long lens…

Ptarmigan in Flight ERLEND HAARBERG On this particular winter day, I was on my way to a mountaintop by Tysfjorden to photograph landscapes. I had almost reached the summit when I spotted some rock ptarmigan tracks. From behind a rock, a small head appeared, and seconds later it took to the wing, with the mountains and fjord landscape in the background. Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 Exposure: 1/2500 sec, f/10, ISO800 Over the City AMMAR ALSAYED AHMED This image was taken from the rooftop of one of the towering skyscrapers that dominate the skyline of Abu Dhabi. It shows a line of greater flamingos flying on a morning when fog covered the city and the only signs of the urban landscape were the tops of the buildings emerging…

“Using a tripod I am able to crop tighter on the individual shots, giving, in essence, a higher-resolution image It is easier than ever to shoot a panorama – a series of images joined together to form a wide image. The built-in Panorama tool in Adobe Lightroom is not just able to splice images together seamlessly, it can also automatically attempt to deal with any white space at the edges of the image where images don’t line up exactly. This can be done by auto-cropping, filling the edges using an automated content aware fill or by using Image Warp – a slider that progressively stretches the edges of the image to fill any white space. Lightroom is so good at lining up panorama images that often I haven’t bothered setting…

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photographs have something of a bad reputation, largely due to the unrealistic and ‘plastic’ results popular a few years ago. However, they can be really useful to handle high-contrast subjects, where the range of lighting is simply too great to be captured in a single frame. You can either shoot the exposures manually or using Nikon’s Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) function, which allows you to shoot up to nine (but more typically three or five) shots at different exposures. You set the exposure difference between shots in increments between one-third of a stop to three stops (with a one-stop difference being the norm). If you use Continuous drive mode, you can take all of the requisite images in a single burst. Make sure that you have…

Sometimes, no matter how patient you are and how long you wait, you will always find there is someone walking around in your scene. If there are crowds then there is nothing that you can do, but if there are just a few people then you might be tempted to spend time in Photoshop retouching them out. This can be time-consuming though, and if they happen to be standing over a complicated background then it is well beyond my retouching skills! Luckily there is a relatively straightforward technique that can often work. Put the camera on a tripod, and compose the picture, then take a series of shots every five or 10 seconds, depending on the number of people and how fast they are moving. To magically make the people…

The Mission – Set up My Menu to quickly access oft-used camera settings Time – 20 minutes Skill level – Beginner Kit needed – Nikon DSLR or mirrorless with My Menu function Your Nikon has all manner of settings and functions that you can customize for the way you shoot. But as flexible as your camera is, finding which menu the functions you most use are kept in can be a bit of a headache. Nikon’s menu system is generally intuitive and follows a similar structure throughout the range, from beginner models through to enthusiast and pro bodies, but the more advanced the camera, the greater the customization options. What’s more, what might have been a Custom Setting on one model may have transitioned to a more general function in…

The Mission – Use the Dodge and Burn tools, along with colour adjustments, to enhance a landscape Time – 30 minutes Skill level – Intermediate Kit needed – Affinity Photo When we look at an image, our eyes are naturally drawn to the lighter parts of a photo and away from darker areas, so we can manipulate the viewer’s perception of an image with subtle lightening and darkening in different parts of the frame. This ability to guide the viewer’s journey through the frame can be hugely effective when it comes to editing landscapes. Even a simple vignette can work wonders, as it darkens down the corners of a frame and draws the viewer’s eye into the middle towards the more important details. However, with a soft, serene image like…

80 Nikon Know-How Learn all about how to use your camera’s flash 84 Photo Software Save precious hours with the AfterShoot culling app 86 Ask Matthew Techie troubles? Sounds like a job for Uncle Matthew… NIKON KNOW-HOW How flash works Your camera’s flash is more than just an emergency light source. Here’s how it works There is a time and a place for flash. It will often kill the atmosphere at a party, but there are other times when it’s the essential ingredient for a successful shot. The secret to success is to use the built-in flash on some Nikon cameras with caution. The key to getting good results is often a matter of exposure, ensuring you use settings that make the flash look as natural as possible. Using flash complicates…

Nikon Z 17-28mm f/2.8 £1199/$1199 www.nikon.co.uk Nikon has announced the latest lens for its range of full-frame mirrorless cameras. The Nikon Z 17-28mm f/2.8 zoom is designed to be a fast-apertured, wide-angle addition to the increasing Nikon Z lens roadmap. The lens is designed to be a compact, lighter and more affordable alternative to some of the wide-angle S-class zooms already in Nikon’s mirrorless optics range. At 450g (15.9oz), it is approximately 30% lighter than the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S. It is also lighter and more compact than the Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens – and thanks to internal zooming is designed to be ideal for use on a gimbal. The STM autofocus motor is claimed to be near silent which, coupled with minimal focus breathing, will also make…

£90-£130/$120-$160 www.cokin.com Features 1 When not in its frame, the filter can be used in other manufacturers’ holders. 2 The filter is held by a pair of small screws, it’s fiddly but only needs to be done once. 3 The filter proved to be neutral in tests, with no noticeable cast or drop in image quality. 4 A frame used with Cokin’s filter holder negates the need for a sealing gasket. 5 Rounded corners mean the filter slides smoothly into a holder, but it is a snug fit. Cokin is a well-known filter manufacturer dating from the 1970s, with a reputation for being the amateur’s choice. But the Nuances Extreme Neutral Density Filters have some high-end features that broaden their appeal. They are made from tough mineral glass that will withstand…

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“Introducing unexpected blur can create a novel and more artistic interpretation of an otherwise-routine subject A classic reason for using a tripod is to allow yourself to use a super-long exposure so that even slowly moving parts of the image show motion blur. In low-light night photography, photographers typically used this technique to create atmospheric light trails from moving traffic, but you can employ a similar technique in daylight for waterfalls and rivers. I have even used it when photographing swarming pedestrians in various cities, including Bangkok, London and Tokyo. This reduces pedestrians to anonymous and indiscernible streams of colour flooding between the fixed stillness of the buildings. Photographing in such a way that you introduce unexpected blur into a scene can create a novel and more artistic interpretation of…

Technological advances in ISO and star-tracking equipment has meant that astrophotography is more popular than ever, and it’s not difficult to see why. I have had some great experiences shooting astrophotography: hanging out on a rooftop overlooking the ruined kasbahs of Ait Benhaddhou in Morocco; photographing star trails amidst the temples of Bagan or in The Siq of the ruins of Petra in Jordan; even photographing the Milky Way in my own back garden in Somerset! I confess it is often as much about sitting around under the stars enjoying a couple of drinks with friends as it is about the photography. If both work, then it is a bonus! Essentially there are two distinct styles of astrophotography: where the stars appear move relative to the camera, creating long star…

The Mission – Shoot and edit a chilling series of ghostly images Time – Four hours Skill level – Advanced Kit needed – Tripod – LED light – Standard lens – Photoshop or similar editing software Nowadays, there seems to be fewer images of real-life ghosts than ever before. And that’s arguably because the emergence of digital editing software, and more recently smartphone filters, has trained us to treat any photograph that doesn’t quite add up with an increasing degree of scepticism. And indeed, it’s never been easier to create convincing paranormal illusions. So, this Halloween we’re going to show you how to create a spooktacular, spine-chilling series of ghostly portraits to freak out friends and family. We’ll begin by teaching you how to recreate a scene inspired by modern…

FREE! 20 BRUSHED BORDER EFFECTS The Mission – Give your photos an Impressionist look, with brushed borders Time – 30 minutes Skill level – Intermediate Kit needed – Photoshop CC There are several ways to turn a photo into an image that looks like an Impressionist painting. These extend from creative shooting techniques with intentional camera movement during the exposure to more obvious digital manipulation when you process the picture. We’ll focus on the latter here, with a technique that’s not only quick and easy to apply, but also doesn’t use any stock paint effects from Photoshop’s Filter Gallery; it can also be varied in all kinds of subtle ways to get a huge variety of different looks. This project involves starting with a single base image, but you’ll then…

Carolyn Mendelsohn Profile ● Carolyn Mendelsohn originally trained and worked as an actor and film-maker, before becoming a professional portrait photographer in 2008. ● In 2016, she won the Royal Photographic Society’s International Photography Exhibition gold medal for her portrait Alice aged 10, from the series Being Inbetween. ● This portrait was taken as part of her acclaimed project, Being Inbetween, which was published as a book in 2021 by Bluecoat Press. ● Her work has been exhibited across the UK and Europe, and published in international titles, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Huffington Post and Le Monde. ● Carolyn is a Nikon #Zcreator and is one of the first Ambassadors for the Royal Photographic Society. She lives in West Yorkshire. carolyn-mendelsohn.format.com We don’t always end…

Free! Worth $45 Three-month AfterShoot subscription Back in the days of film, every exposure was precious; with a mere 36 frames at their disposal before changing rolls, not to mention film and processing costs, photographers would hit the shutter sparingly. But in these digital days, with cards comfortably swallowing gigabytes of images and with no additional outlay, it’s all too easy to come back from a shoot with thousands of images, which leads to hours at the computer, sorting the wheat from the chaff in the culling process. AfterShoot automates this tedious task, trawling through all the images from a shoot to find the keepers for you, not only identifying shots that have missed focus or have blinking subjects and so on, but picking the best image from groups of…

1. Appenzellerland BY ROBERT JUVET This autumnal Appenzellerland scene’s layers add depth, drawing the viewer into the image and towards the mountains in the background. The trees’ russet hues are bathed in patches of golden light that’s also reflected off the dramatic clouds in the sky. The dash of blue contrasts against the warm hues and the tiny hut emphasizes the scene’s immense scale. A stunning scene indeed! Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Exposure: 1/80 sec, f/5.3, ISO125 2. Red Woods BY KASIA BOCHNIAK This image appears to be a clever double exposure, blending a conventional image with intentional camera movement (ICM). We like how the bottom third of the image is tack sharp, while slowly transitioning into the ICM layer thereafter. Golden light breaking through the canopy above…

Currently available in Nikon Z mount, the Yongnuo YN50mm F1.8Z DF DSM bridges the gap between cheap, plastic lenses and more exotic fare. Despite being fairly inexpensive, it has robust build quality and smart handling extras, and feels a highquality item in the hand. Its classic 50mm focal length makes it perfect as a standard prime for full-frame cameras, for everything from everyday shooting to portraiture, and it’s even better suited to the latter when mounted on an APS-C format body, giving an effective focal length of 75mm. Key features Key features of the lens include a 50mm focal length and f/1.8 aperture rating. This classic combination enables faster shutter speeds and a tighter depth of field than when using the vast majority of standard zoom lenses, in a more…

For action, sports and wildlife photography, you often can’t get as close as you’d like. A supertelephoto lens enables you to bridge the gap. As featured in June’s Big Test (issue 137), there are plenty of super-tele zooms to choose from, with focal lengths that stretch to 400mm, 500mm or 600mm. With prices starting at £699/$799, some of them make good budget buys, so why would you want to spend up to 18 times as much on a super-telephoto prime lens? In a word, the answer is ‘quality’. Top-flight super-tele primes are built to last a lifetime and withstand being put through their paces on a regular basis by the most demanding pro photographers. These primes are also typically designed to deliver the very finest image quality and the best…