Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i N-Photo: the Nikon magazine

SMC and the Magellanic Bridge MATHEW LUDGATE GALAXIES – HIGHLY COMMENDED The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is an irregular dwarf galaxy that has been disrupted and shaped by interactions with its neighbours, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Milky Way galaxy. These interactions result in intense gravitational tidal shocks, which have stripped and redistributed material from the SMC, forming a halo and numerous extended structures of ionized gas. Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro + Rainbow Astro RST-135 mount Lens: Nikon 400mm f/2.8 + telescope Exposure: Multiple 5-minute exposures totalling 51.25 hours Badwater Milky Way ABHIJIT PATIL SKYSCAPES – RUNNER UP Some of the most exquisite locations in Death Valley National Park are the salt flats at Badwater Basin. Located 86 metres below sea level, the basin is the lowest point in…

Christmas is the perfect time to try your hand at a little food photography, because the pantry is usually overflowing with photogenic goodies and it shouldn’t be too hard to find a few festive props to complement your spread as well. Flat lays are a great first start to food photography because you don’t have to worry about finding a suitable background and, since you’re working with what is essentially a two-dimensional arrangement, you don’t have to worry quite so much about depth or your camera angle, because you’re always shooting top down. You can also get by without any fancy kit. A 50mm (or equivalent) focal length is ideal, and a fast lens isn’t a requirement either. The one item of gear that will make the whole process a…

Here’s a fun project to try over the festive break, and a great way to learn new camera and editing skills. Over the next few pages we’ll show you how create a Christmas snow globe composite. We’ll shoot two separate images for this – first the children then the snow globe, and then blend them in Photoshop. To add a little extra depth and colour to the composite, we’ve also supplied a set of lovely bokeh images for you to use, either in this project or to add an atmospheric glow to any intriguing festive photo. The key here is to match up the details in both photos. The more consistency we can achieve between the two, the easier they’ll be to blend together later. So we need to think…

Access to artists was a challenge because I had no business contacts or friends in the music business when I started. The only access I had was to live shows until I had earned enough byline credits to secure vital photo passes. Working with the music newspaper the NME, especially during 1978, gave me excellent access, both onstage and off. I didn’t go to college, working instead in the City of London for a couple of years before punk came along. The main lesson I learned was to know your goal so you can take advantage of opportunities. I loved to travel, take photos and rock music, so naturally I wanted to tour with rock bands. My ultimate goals were David Bowie, Queen, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. The…

1. Hamnøy at Night BY ROBERT JUVET Hamnøy is one of Norway’s most photographed locations. But although the village’s red fishing huts are photogenic in their own right, the Holy Grail of Hamnøy shots is a night sky illuminated by the Northern Lights. The aurora in this image is about as good as it gets. Vibrant streaks of green light spread across the entire frame and are amplified via the reflection in the lake. Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: 15-30mm f/2.8 Exposure: 10 secs, f/2.8, ISO200 2. Foreground Falls BY TREVOR COLE This landscape was captured at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands and is a compositional masterclass. A slow shutter speed was used to capture streaks in the flowing water, forming excellent foreground interest. Landscapes can look flat on overcast days,…

Nikon Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S £15,499/$15,499 www.nikon.co.uk A 600mm super telephoto lens has been A on Nikon’s Z-series roadmap for some time, and now that we have the full juicy details, it’s sounding like a lens that’s well worth the lengthy wait. A welcome surprise is that it comes complete with a built-in 1.4x teleconverter, much like the recently released Nikon Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S. This effectively makes it two primes in one, transforming to a 840mm f/5.6 at the flick of a switch. While we’ve yet to put it through our lab tests, Nikon claims that there’s no discernible drop-off in image quality with the teleconverter. Not only that, but as the lens is fully compatible with Nikon’s TC-1.4x and TC-2.0x telecoverters, it can be converted…

£100/$100 www.datacolor.com The Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo is designed to fix the variations in camera sensors and lenses, which can shift colours and tones. It’s a simple and portable colour swatch tool in a folding case that works with Spyder Checkr software to deliver colour corrections in Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw apps. Place the Checkr in the scene you’re photographing and, in the same lighting as your subject, take a photo and then use this to carry out straightforward calibration and colour-correction process. The Spyder Checkr Photo opens out two ways to display a regular colour checker swatch set used by the Spyder utility, and a set of black-and-white swatches, with 18% and 50% grey shades for ad hoc white balance and exposure adjustments. With the Spyder Checkr…

Winter is upon us, and so this issue we persuaded landscape and nature pro Ross Hoddinott to part with 25 of his hottest tips for capturing the coldest of seasons, sharing his secrets for supreme shots of everything from snowy scenes to winter wildlife. Our apprentice opts to stay inside the comfort of a cosy studio and learns to shoot portraits with a difference, with the models submerged in a huge Perspex tank, for images that have an extraordinary ethereal feel. This issue we present our Gear of the Year awards, with a roundup of the very best kit that’s passed through our labs and into the hands of our expert reviewers over the past year. Plus we rate Nikon’s cut-price Z 17-28mm f/2.8 ultra-wide zoom – with a fast…

Get 3 issues for £/$/€3 Don’t miss out on our brilliant introductory offer! SAVE UP TO 92%** Print, digital and bundle options Instant access via iOS or Android device N-Photo is the only magazine for Nikon enthusiasts by Nikon enthusiasts!Adam Waring Editor Reasons to subscribe • £/$/€1 an issue for three months! Save up to 92%** off the newsstand price with this special introductory offer • 100% Nikon – 100% relevant All our tutorials and features are Nikon focused and we only cover Nikon-fit kit • Learn from top Nikon photographers Top-name pros write our features and columns, and appear in our interviews • Expert tutorials and free videos View our accompanying video tutorials on your computer, tablet or smartphone • Downloadable gifts Many issues come with a free ebook…

If you’re looking for a suitable subject to photograph with that brand-new camera, tripod or lens that Santa left beneath the tree, why not consider enlisting your faithful furry companion to be your sitter? You might think you need a studio to capture indoor pet portraits, but so long as you can set up a dedicated or makeshift backdrop next to a window, you’re halfway there. Some pet photographers use flash to capture our four-legged friends, but you can get fantastic results using continuous and affordable LED lights or even household lamps. Continuous lighting is also ideal if you have a nervous pet, since they’re more likely to feel at home under softer, consistent beams of light than quick, powerful flashes paired with that curious recycling hiss. You will not…

Compositing is one of the most creative techniques in image editing, and it’s easier than you might think. All it takes is a few simple layer skills. Affinity Photo offers a host of useful compositing tools to get you started, from clever selection features that let you isolate and cut out objects, to intuitive masking and transforming tools that let you position each element with ease and blend everything together into a cohesive whole. In this project we’ll explore these tools and features while creating a fabulous flower portrait composite. We begin by cutting out our subject so that we can place flowers in front and behind the figure. Once done, we can copy in a range of flower images, using selections and masks to remove their backgrounds and then…

NIKON KNOW-HOW What’s the ISO setting all about? You can use your camera’s ISO setting to keep shooting in poor light, but what is ISO? In the days before digital, film came in a variety of speeds. The ‘faster’ the film, the more sensitive it was to light, allowing you to use faster shutter speeds. Using these higher-sensitivity films was useful for moving subjects, particularly in low light. This film speed was measured using the standardized ISO system. With digital cameras, the same ISO scale is now used to measure the camera’s sensitivity to light. Although the sensor cannot be changed to suit the subject (unlike film), its sensitivity can effectively be boosted by the camera’s circuitry. This is done with the ISO control. The signal from the sensor is…

Q Can you recommend a DSLR kit as a first camera gift for my 12-year-old grandson? William Jones A Matthew recommends… I’d go for a Nikon D3500 kit. It was very popular as a first camera for beginners, so there are plenty of used models on the market. Nikon D3500 kit and AF-P DX 18-55mm VR THE NIKON D3500 AND AF-P DX 18-55MM F/3.5-5.6G VR KIT IS TAILOR-MADE FOR BEGINNERS RELEASED: 2018 PRICE NEW: £590/$650 SECONDHAND PRICE: ‘Excellent’ £390/$420 ‘Good’ £340/$380 The last in the line of Nikon’s D3xxx series DSLRs, the D3500 is finely honed as a beginner’s camera. Now obsolete, it was commonly sold as a kit with the latest edition of Nikon’s equally popular 18-55mm retractable zoom lens. I’d definitely go for a kit that includes the ‘VR’ version…

£1199/$1199 The Nikon Z 17-28mm f/2.8 neatly picks up the baton from its Z 28-75mm f/2.8 sibling, with a seamless handover in focal lengths. Like the preceding standard zoom, this wide-angle lens was originally developed by Tamron, to suit another manufacturer’s full-frame mirrorless cameras. Nikon obviously knows a good thing when they see it, and have repurposed and rebadged both lenses for its Z-system line-up. We’ve already given the Nikon Z 28-75mm f/2.8 a sparkling review, so it’s interesting to see how the newer Z 17-28mm fares. Nikon already has two of its own wide angle zooms on the market, in the little and large shapes of the Z 14-30mm f/4 S and Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S lenses. Thanks to its retractable design, the former is shorter than the new…

“I don’t think anywhere else in the UK is doing what we do,” said co-founder and managing director of TankSpace, Kai Coombes. Brian stepped inside a large black tent and gazed at the studio’s 10,000-litre tank as studio manager and N-Photo pro for the day, Halo Haynes, pulled up a stool and sat down directly in front of the aquarium-sized container. “A lot of people sit here with a zoom lens and never move,” she said as she looked through her Nikon Z 6II’s EVF. “Think how much better their photographs would look if they started rolling around, exploring different perspectives and angles?” Brian looked through his D610’s viewfinder and moved about the room. “Will I need my flashgun?” he said. Halo shook her head. “We use continuous light sources. You miss frames…

Winter is coming! While these immortal words might take on a very different meaning to fans of the TV show Game of Thrones, for outdoor photographers it simply promises an array of unique and seasonal photo opportunities. Snow, frost, fog and big storms provide magical conditions for atmospheric and dramatic landscape, nature and abstract photography. Yes, it might be cold, wet, and windy outside, but provided you are kitted out appropriately, adverse weather shouldn’t be considered an obstacle. For many photographers, this is their favourite time of year – and it is not hard to understand why. The hours of daylight might be short, but the light remains good throughout the day thanks to the sun’s lower elevation. Freezing conditions can provide some of the most magical conditions for photography. Even…

In this age of instant, one-click smartphone filters that apply an indiscriminate effect to a picture, it’s a real joy to take a little extra time to customize your shots when you want to take a different creative direction. Retro and lo-fi finishes allow you to wind the clock back a few decades, but a homogenous effect will seldom offer the discerning photographer the control and fine-tuning that considered shots require. Light leaks – those ‘happy accidents’ that fogged the film by inadvertently exposing it to light – can give a real sense of age to any modern shot. In this issue’s download, we have 32 different effects to choose from. Offering single-edge and double-edge light leaks in both horizontal and vertical formats, the specially created files will add a…

For the first 15 years of her life as a music photographer, Scarlet Page succeeded in making her mark without, as she says, “using my dad’s name to get on.” So adept had she become at keeping the name of her famous father to herself, that the picture editor of The Sunday Times commissioned her to shoot him without making the family connection. That man is legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist and founder Jimmy Page. Scarlet has now chalked up nearly 30 years photographing rock stars, including her father’s contemporaries. Many feature in her book and exhibition Resonators, a collection of guitar heroes including Paul McCartney, Mark Knopfler, Peter Green, Brian May, Jeff Beck to name but a few. Naturally, I ask her if being the daughter of Jimmy Page has…

MISSION: Carry a camera at all times to take advantage of fleeting photo opportunities PHOTOGRAPHER: Neil Greenhalgh LOCATION: Middlesex KIT USED: Nikon D5100, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro FACEBOOK: https://bit.ly/3KieENC INSTAGRAM: @neilsie88 It was a crisp autumn day – the kind where the world looks golden – when something quite remarkable happened, which I will never forget. My colleague and I were working in Stanmore, Middlesex. The sun was emerging from behind the clouds and warming the area, so we decided to spend our lunch break outside. We sat down on a bench overlooking a nearby lake and ate our sandwiches. Golden foliage reflected in the water and we both remarked on how picturesque the scene looked. What does the fox say? As we marvelled at the…

Whenever you shoot a JPEG image on your Nikon it’s processed in-camera, and a significant factor in the final look of the shot is the Picture Control that your camera is set to. Popular Picture Controls, found on the vast majority of Nikons, include Portrait, Landscape, Vivid and Monochrome. Some also include an additional number of more outlandish Picture Controls, which have a hyper-processed vibe with names such as Dream, Beached and Melancholic. And on some Nikon models, you can also create your own custom Picture Controls, both in-camera or by using Nikon’s free Picture Control Utility 2 software. This not only offers you the comfort of using a larger computer display, but enables you to use a preview image to see the effect of your Picture Control edits. In…

£229/$269 www.loupedeck.com Over the years certain keyboard shortcuts will have become second nature to us, such as using Cmd+C and Cmd+V to copy and paste a selected asset. Keyboard shortcuts save us the time and hassle of dragging the mouse to delve into menus and sub-menus on our PC screen. When working in apps such as Lightroom and Final Cut Pro we’ll use some keyboard shortcuts to speed up our workflow (such as pressing Shift+Z to zoom out in Final Cut Pro’s timeline to display every clip). Keyboards for video editing such as the Loupedeck Live provide keyboard shortcuts on steroids! By tapping a button or rotating a dial you can alter a host of properties in a range of apps in a tactile and ergonomic way. The Loupedeck Live…

This month N-Photo attended the awards ceremony for Environmental Photographer of the Year 2022. It was a humbling experience that hammered home the urgency of the environmental crisis, thanks to a shortlist of powerful images from photographers who managed to find a jarring beauty within some deeply disturbing scenes. We’ve also revealed the shortlist for the very last round of our own photography competition N-Photo Photographer of the Year 2022 (page 90) and the first rounds for NPOTY 2023. When you read this Christmas will likely be imminent or you’ll be polishing off the last few turkey – or nut roast – sandwiches. Either way, you’ll probably be thinking about the year ahead and maybe even considering the odd New Year’s resolution. Well, here’s an idea; how about entering a…