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

1 BASE SETTINGS April says… I use Manual mode. In the studio, my shutter speed is around 1/125 or 1/200 sec to suit my Z 7II’s sync speed. I won’t exceed ISO400 unless I’m shooting in natural light. I like a creamy, shallow DoF, so my aperture is around f/1.4 to f/2.8 or f/5.6 for 3/4 or full-length images. 2 HOTTER OR COLDER April says… If you’re shooting Raw (you should be!), you can tweak your white balance in post, but I like to get it right in-camera by adjusting it manually. I tend to start at 5000 kelvins, take a test shot and increase or decrease the value, depending on whether I want it cooler or warmer. 3 SEEING IN THE DARK April says… While the EVF’s ability to…

Northern Serengeti, Tanzania ARTUR STANKIEWICZ The dramatic wildebeest crossing of the Mara river in northern Serengeti. The vast number of stampeding animals raised massive dust clouds as they entered into the waters. Camera: Nikon D5 Lens: 180-400mm f/4 Exposure: 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO360 Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe DANA ALLEN An African elephant is framed by another from the same herd. An ultra-low shooting angle, a mere handful of inches above the ground, lends a real sense of drama to the attention-grabbing shot. Camera: Nikon D4 Lens: 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 Exposure: 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO800 Van Mijenfjorden, Svalbard, Norway ROIE GALITZ Capturing polar bear courtship is very rare, as the animals usually only mate once every three years. During this particular courtship, a blizzard and a whiteout made for very difficult conditions…

These are my favourite landscapes, often shot on challenging terrain and in unpredictable weather, with variable but potentially exciting lighting conditions. Opportunities range from shooting at elevation for wide-open views to ground level to include a mountainous backdrop to a foreground feature. Weather conditions can change and happen very quickly in the mountains, so always stay alert, and handhold your Nikon where possible, which allows for speed and flexibility, as well as the ability to travel light. 1 WAIT FOR PASSING SHOWERS Mountain landscapes are known for their rapidly changing weather. One of the most striking effects in the mountains can be achieved with passing heavy showers, backlit with sunlight from above. This creates an attractive translucent light effect emerging through the rain. Look for a weather forecast of ‘frequent…

I’ve lumped these together as they are often found in close proximity at the same location; upland landscapes with waterfalls often drop into wooded areas at a lower level, so they are very frequently within the same landscape type. They also present similar challenges relating to the management of light and shade, and the need to simplify an image from potential clutter. 1 LOOK FOR SIMPLE PATTERNS IN TREES One way of simplifying your woodland images is to look for simple patterns in the trees. Use the verticality of the tree trunks as a basic form for the image and look for a composition that uses the branches in an interesting way. This image of larch trees in the Brecon Beacons was taken after snowfall in early spring, so the…

Spring is often known as the season of rebirth. For many photographers, it’s an ideal time to get out into the landscape with their camera. As winter starts to fade into memory, nature awakens and, at this point, the leaves begin to return and seasonal flowers start to bloom. This provides a myriad of creative opportunities. Capturing the essence of spring is all about exploring changes in the landscape. This requires an understanding of the season in terms of the weather, light and colour, as well as your camera skills. My approach to shooting spring is a tale of two halves: the art of observation and a good understanding of how to record the landscape with my camera. Here’s how to shoot spring and boost your landscape skills in the…

We can create all kinds of stylish glow effects in Affinity Photo with the Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer effects command. We’ve chosen to use the Affinity Photo logo as a shape, but you can use the same skills to make any glowing shape. With simple layer and masking skills, we can combine our shots with a portrait or other image of our choice. It works best if the image is dark, to allow the glowing lines to show through. We begin with the Pen tool, which allows us to trace a simple outline around the logo. Once done, we can copy the shapes over to our portrait, add our glow effects and experiment with masks so that the shapes intertwine with our subject. Finally, we can tint our…

1 Dark room We need our backdrop to be as dark as possible, so that the only ambient light is coming from our LEDs. Either close all the curtains or shoot outside at night. A plain, dark background will ensure the blur is as clear as possible. We fastened some black material for the background and floor. 2 Constant lights The constant lights shining here illuminate the subject from behind to the right side as he moves. Effectively, they’re for the blurry part of the long exposure. We’ve used two LED lights here, one fitted with a red gel, the other fitted with a snoot to control the spread of light and set to create a warm colour. 3 Flashes Two flashes are placed to the left of the subject…

As well as blurring the motion of the subject, we can also use camera motion to create blur. For this shot we had the subject stay still, and I panned the camera from one side to another to create the blur. There are lots of other ways to get creative with shutter drag too. If you have a zoom lens you can get interesting results by zooming in or out during the exposure. You could also try including other lights in the frame, like fairy lights or coloured LEDs. To take it further, why not experiment by firing the flash at different points, like halfway through the exposure? Or perhaps experiment by having your constant lights pulse so that the blur is staccato. When you start to experiment, you’ll find…

Only available on Nikons ‘lower’ down the range (D3500, D5600, D7500, D750 and Z 50), you can choose one of 10 different digital effects as you shoot. • Night Vision simply records in black and white at high ISOs.• Super Vivid increases both saturation and contrast for a more vibrant image.• Pop increases saturation for a super-saturated look.• Photo Illustration sharpens outlines and simplifies colours for a poster effect.• Toy Camera Effect adjusts saturation and increases peripheral illumination for images that look like they’ve been shot with a cheap toy camera.• Miniature Effect creates images with sharp bands of focus to look like models.• Selective Color gives a colour pop effect, so only selected tones are in colour while the rest of the image is in monochrome.• Silhouette makes subjects…

Welcome to one of the most powerful and versatile image editing packages you’re likely to use. Filter Forge offers thousands of effects you can apply to your photos, helping you find precisely the look you want to achieve. Search and Favorite options make it easy to locate the effect you want quickly. If that’s not enough, you can also use Filter Forge’s integrated editor to make your own effects. You can arrange blurs, gradients, colour adjustments, distortions and more into a ‘network’, with controls that dictate how one effect combines with the next. You can also share your effects with the online Filter Forge community, and enjoy access to more than 12,000 additional effects through that same community. While it is, perhaps, of less use to photographers, Filter Forge also…

Q I’m planning an upgrading from a D80 to either a Z 6II or Z 7II. Which model would you recommend for printing up to 13x19 inches in size?Andy Cutting A Both cameras have more than sufficient megapixels for creating A3+ (13x19-inch) prints and even larger. The key attractions of the Z 7II are its 45.7MP image sensor and greater 493-point phase-detection autofocus system. The Z 6II has a 24.5MP sensor with 273 phase-detection AF points. However, that’s still way ahead of the 10.2 megapixels of your D80, and its 11-point autofocus system. The smaller megapixel count of the Z 6II actually has various advantages. The standard sensitivity range stretches to ISO51,200 instead of ISO25,600, and high-ISO image quality is less noisy. It also has a faster maximum drive rate…

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…

Most macro prime lenses have a maximum magnification ratio of 1.0x (sometimes written as 1:1), meaning they can reproduce objects at full size on the camera’s image sensor at their shortest focus distance. So an area of 36x24mm would fill the sensor of a full-frame Nikon. The Laowa lenses on test go further, with 2.0x magnification. That might not sound particularly impressive but the thing to bear in mind is how much larger the resulting image is when you view it on screen or in print. The scope for enlargement is simply stunning. Tiny garden bugs can become giant, alien creatures and you’ll see levels of fine detail that are invisible to the naked eye. Get in close with a macro lens and ordinary, everyday objects turn into something truly…

£424/$429 Tokina’s recently launched ‘atx-i’ range majors on wide-angle lenses but there’s also this 100mm macro. The lens has a lot in common with the original AT-X model, which was launched back in 2006. Indeed, the optical path appears to be identical, based on nine elements in eight groups and featuring two aspherical glass elements and two Super-Low Dispersion glass elements. The construction is unusually compact but the inner barrel extends as you reduce the focus distance from infinity towards the shortest focus setting. Even so, the working distance between the front of the lens and the subject is pretty respectable in full macro mode, at 11.5cm. The autofocus motor isn’t particularly fast and is clearly audible, by stark contrast to ring-type ultrasonic and linear stepping motor systems. As with…

Most of the lenses on test deliver a 1.0x maximum magnification ratio. However, some prime lenses that carry the ‘macro’ badge only give a maximum magnification of 0.5x, and it’s even less for most zoom lenses labelled as macro, which sometimes only stretch to around 0.3x. The Laowa 90mm and 100mm bump things up to 2.0x – sharp enough to reveal even more.…

£519/$499 There are two very similar editions of this Laowa lens for Nikon cameras, available in either F-mount or Z-mount. Both give twice the maximum macro magnification of most macro primes, at 2.0x. The only real differences are that the Z-mount edition is 30mm longer and has a more well-rounded aperture, based on 13 diaphragm blades rather than seven. Like the Irix on test, the Laowa is a manual-focus lens but, this time, there are no electronics at all. You therefore need to set the aperture manually via the on-board control ring, and no lens-based EXIF data is recorded in image files. On the plus side, focus peaking is available in Nikon mirrorless cameras, as well as in-body stabilization where featured, if you dial in the Non-CPU lens information. A…

With such a tight depth of field in macro photography, it’s impossible to get three-dimensional objects sharp from front to back unless you use a bit of trickery. Focus stacking enables you to shift the point of focus slightly throughout a series of shots, which you can then merge together to form a single composite image. You generally need to alter the focus manually, or use a macro focus rail like the Manfrotto 454 Micrometric Positioning Plate pictured, But some Nikon cameras have an automatic Focus Shift feature built-in.…

£1049/$1047 This is Nikon’s now-obsolete 105mm F-mount macro lens reinvented for mirrorless. A more high-tech affair, handling extras include a customizable control ring and Lens-function button, as well as a multifunction OLED display. As such, it inherits all of the trappings of Nikon’s already legendary top-end S-line lenses. Unlike the Z MC 50mm lens on test, focusing is fully internal and the working distance at shortest focus setting is boosted from 5cm to a much more convenient 15cm. Autofocus is virtually silent, powered by a Dual-Motor Multi-Focus STM (Stepping Motor) system. Another bonus over the Z MC 50mm is that the 105mm adds optical VR. Driven by voicecoils, it’s rated at 4.5 stops compared with the 3 stops of the discontinued F-mount 105mm lens, and effectiveness is further boosted by…

With temperatures rising, days lengthening and foliage blooming, it’s a great time of year to get out and about with your Nikon. So this issue we’ve got a landscape masterclass from pro photographer Nigel Forster, who reveals 25 tips for shooting mountains, coast, woodlands, waterfalls, lakes and rural scenes. So wherever you are, there’s a photo op near you. But if you prefer the comfort of the studio, why not join this issue’s apprentice as he learns to shoot fashion portraits with a professional model under the expert tuition of Nikon Creator April Alexander. We put no less than eight macro lenses to the test, and with a wide range of options to choose from, for DSLRs and mirrorless, full-frame and crop-sensor, and ultra-macro models that stretch to an astonishing…

1 GET CONNECTED April says…I use the TetherTools TetherPro USB-C to USB-C 15ft cable – a wired connection has never let me down – to tether my Z 7II via Capture One for iPad (apple.co/3A4wlgw). Not all Nikons and lenses are compatible, but you can check your setup here: bit.ly/3UI7JUf. 2 AUTO APPLY EDITS April says…Tethered images are stored in a folder called All Captures. I find a function called Next Capture Adjustments particularly useful. This automatically assigns your choice of base edits to every image captured, so you can instantly preview their potential when edited, on the fly, in the studio. 3 SUPER SPEEDY EDITS April says…Tethering allows me to quickly edit manually in the studio, too. I’d never do a full edit, but it occasionally comes in handy.…

A sandy beach surface will produce straight, smooth streaks, while pebbles create a more distorted effect Possibly the most popular of all landscape subjects, the coast is generally accessible to people of all physical abilities. Our emotional attachment to maritime features, big unobscured skies, and ready-made sunrises and sunsets offers a very broad and enticing appeal to Nikon photographers. 1 USE A RECEDING WAVE Try using the effect of streaks of water to draw your eye into the image. There are a few things to look for to make sure that this works. The wave needs to be going out, so wait for one to come in and press the shutter as it’s about to turn and recede. You’ll need a shutter speed between around two to five seconds, so…

Our inland water landscapes provide fantastic photographic opportunities. Rivers, waterfalls and the sea are all well and good, but they rarely have the reflective qualities of inland water bodies. The sight of morning light on a mirror-image reflection can be truly magical; particularly when you add a layer of mist lying on the surface and a passing swan… 1 GET CLOSE TO THE WATER Try to choose a shooting position close to the water; you’ll get a symmetrical composition, whereas a higher position will result in an unbalanced image. Also, while you might be lucky and get a mirror-image reflection, there will often be some turbulence where the water is deeper in the middle. When you go low down, the camera will capture most of the detail from the edges…

Nikon recently invited N-Photo to its ‘Nikon is the Future’ event at Printworks London, where it showcased some of its latest and greatest camera tech. This provided us with the chance to play around with a near-complete range of Z-series cameras and lenses in a variety of different studio-portrait setups. One of our favourites was this stunning, neon-lit futuristic scene, arranged by Nikon School Training Manager and occasional N-Photo contributor, Neil Freeman. We paired the Nikon Z 6II with two new Z-mount primes: the Z 26mm f/2.8 and Z 85mm f/1.2 S, and set to work alongside model @veebaginski. But while neon lights can be used to create stunning futuristic portraits akin to Blade Runner or Star Trek, they can be tricky to photograph. If you underexpose too much they…

Of all the edits you can make to an image in Photoshop, cropping could potentially be the most transformative. A tighter crop can elevate a photo to another level. It can help to remove distractions around the edges, create an unusual aspect ratio or lead to a stronger composition. Here, a cinematic aspect ratio of 16:9 lets us come in tighter to our subject, enhance the mood and remove extraneous details around the edges. Cropping can also be functional. We might need to straighten a wonky horizon, correct sloppy framing or prepare an image for printing at a certain size. With so many uses – both creative and practical – it pays to know the ins and outs of the Crop tool. It may come as a surprise to learn…

1 The first curtain The default for flashes is to fire at the start of an exposure, which is referred to as the first or front curtain. But when using a slow shutter speed, it can appear a bit strange. I took a shot of myself running from one side to the other. The blurry parts overlap the sharp parts and in this image, it appears that I’m actually moving backwards. 2 Set rear curtain sync To fire the flash at the end of the exposure instead, use rear curtain sync. If you have a compatible wireless trigger, set it on the trigger. Or you can use a hotshoe-mounted Speedlight, then set the off-camera flashes to optical trigger mode so they fire on detecting the Speedlight. 3 Natural motion When…

1 Raw processing The NEF (Raw) processing option is at the top of the Retouch menu. Press OK, then select the image that you would like to edit, and press OK again. 2 Menu display The image is displayed on the left of the screen, and the processing options are on the right. NX Studio offers more, but all the essentials are here. 3 Size and quality Choose the Quality and Size settings for the JPEG version you’re about to produce. These are the same as the camera’s regular image quality settings. 4 White Balance The White Balance settings are the same as those you see when setting up the camera. This is a chance to check whether the original setting was right. 5 Alter the exposure The Exposure compensation…

1 For Windows users, enter www.bit.ly/ff9pro_pc into the Location or Address field of your web browser. For macOS, you need to enter www.bit.ly/ff9pro_mac. Don’t enter these addresses directly into Google or another search engine: they won’t work. 2 Visit the registration page – which can be found at www.bit.ly/npfilter – and complete the form to receive your licence code via email. Your details will not be passed on to other companies. Note that Filter Forge only accepts registrations from ‘whitelisted’ email providers, such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo, to avoid invalid email addresses being used. 3 You can install your copy of Filter Forge 9 Professional as soon as you’ve downloaded it: it will work as a trial edition until you receive your licence code via email. 4 Use this…

1. Tamron reveals it’ll release more Z-mount lenses In a recent interview at CP+ 2023 with Kota Misawa, Marketing Planning Manager in Imaging Products at Tamron, the French website Phototrend revealed some interesting future plans from Tamron, particularly concerning its development of lenses for the Nikon Z-mount system. https://bit.ly/42TFuFR 2. The Nikon Coolpix P1000’s 125x zoom is mind-blowing Bridge cameras often get a bad rap, but the Nikon Coolpix P1000 is still one of the damnedest cameras I’ve ever seen. And it’s all down to its signature party trick: its 125x zoom, which equates to a jaw-dropping 24-3000mm focal range. I still remember the first time I used the Coolpix P1000, sitting outside a café in Cologne after the very last Photokina. https://bit.ly/3Zl2jzq 3. Pro Dave Hogan talks Madonna kissing…

Nikon Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR £379/$360 www.nikon.co.uk Nikon has slowly but steadily been fleshing out its Z-mount lens range for its Z-series mirrorless cameras, but three-and-a-half years since the launch of the Z 50, its first crop-sensor mirrorless, one glaring omission has been an ultra-wide DX zoom. Until now, that is, with the announcement of the Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR. With an 18-42mm zoom range in full-frame terms, it’s ideal for landscapes, interiors and any other shooting scenario where you need to squeeze more into the image frame. It’s not quite as wide-angle as the Nikon AF-S DX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED for Nikon’s DX DSLRs, with an effective 18mm rather than 15mm minimum focal length, but it does stretch quite a bit further at the telephoto…

£359/$569 Like the vast majority of macro lenses, Sigma’s full-frame compatible 105mm focuses all the way to infinity and works equally well for general shooting as it does for extreme close-ups. The f/2.8 aperture enables quick shutter speeds even under dull lighting, while the fast ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system is good for tracking action. To speed up autofocus in tricky conditions, there’s also a three-position range limiter, with which you can select just the short or long focus range, either side of 0.45m. The lens has fully internal focusing and adds the bonus of image stabilization. It has a 4-stop effectiveness in general shooting and comes complete with switchable static and panning modes, however it’s relatively ineffective for full macro shooting. Build quality is very good throughout, although the lens…

Macro lenses are generally designed to be high-precision technical optics. As such, they’re usually ‘flat field’ lenses that have no field curvature, so if you shoot a flat object from front-on, the whole of the surface covered by the image frame should be rendered sharply. Similarly, distortion is usually very minimal or virtually non-existent, especially with macro lenses that have a focal length of 60mm or more. As our graph shows, however, there’s a slight variance of barrel and pincushion distortion amongst the lenses on test.…

£459/$557 Nikon offers two DX format F-mount macro primes, the other being the AF-S DX 40mm f/2.8G Micro at £299/$277. Although the 40mm is very compact, the choice of focal length for macro shooting has more to do with working distance than anything else. As such, this 85mm Micro has a considerably longer working distance at its closest focus setting for full 1.0x macro magnification. Another plus point is that focusing is fully internal, so the inner barrel doesn’t extend as you shorten the focus distance. The net result is a comfortable 14.5cm between the front of the lens and the subject in full macro photography, compared with just 3.5cm for the 40mm lens. Further benefits over the 40mm lens are the addition of an ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element and…

Levels of colour fringing are minimal with the macro lenses in this test group. Lateral chromatic aberration is generally negligible, even towards the extreme edges and corners of the image frame, although the Tokina doesn’t perform as well as the other contenders in this respect, whereas the Nikon Z MC 50mm is a star performer. Either way, this kind of colour fringing is automatically corrected in all current and recent Nikon DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, either in-camera or when processing Raw files in Nikon software.…

£679/$647 If you don’t major on macro shooting, it makes sense to buy a lens that can perform dual functions. Most have a portrait-friendly focal length but this one works better as a standard prime for general shooting, as well as having full 1.0x magnification for extreme close-ups. Close-up shooting actually is pretty extreme at the minimum focus setting, with a working distance of just 5cm between the front of the lens and what you’re shooting. That’s partly due to the focal length, but also because the inner barrel extends. A plus side is that focus distance and magnification factor scales are printed on the telescoping inner barrel. Focus distance and macro magnification scales are highly unusual in lenses that feature stepping motor-based autofocus systems. The optical path includes one…

The 1.5x crop factor or ‘focal length multiplier’ of DX format cameras give you a boost in telephoto reach. For example, shooting with a 100mm lens on a camera like the Z 50 gives you an ‘effective’ focal length of 150mm in full-frame terms, therefore giving the same field of view as using a 150mm lens on an FX camera. The same applies to the maximum ‘effective’ magnification factor.…

Many of us live in – or close to – rural areas that are dominated by farming and agriculture, giving rise to field patterns and textures, and lending themselves to simple abstracts and open landscapes with isolated features. However, they can often be somewhat challenging to shoot, with many features cluttering the landscape, and can also lack strong foregrounds, particularly within sheep-farming areas dominated by grassland. Some fields, on the other hand, are given over to colourful crops, grown by farmers to generate income; for example, bright yellow fields of sunflowers have become increasingly popular in recent years and are therefore a common sight. 1 LOOK FOR SEASONAL COLOUR Our rural landscape changes from the ploughed fields and weather-beaten grass of winter to the fresh greens of spring and bright…

This star-trail image was captured at the foot of the iconic Glastonbury Tor. I combined multiple long exposures of the night sky to convey the movement of the stars’ rotation around the north celestial pole. Lining up the centre of the rotation with the tip of the Tor was intentional, but took a lot of planning. 1 Let’s make one thing clear Check the weather forecast ahead of time and continue monitoring it as the day approaches. Longer periods of clear sky are preferred for long-exposure astro shoots. This way, any clouds that would otherwise interfere with the end result shouldn’t disrupt the final exposure when blending together your star-trail stack. 2 Pole position If you want to capture the circular rotation of stars to create the spiralling trails seen…

A burst of flash lets us freeze motion and a long exposure lets us create motion blur. Both are great skills to learn in their own right, but if you’re looking for a creative approach to action shots, the slow sync flash technique lets us have it all in a single frame. Sometimes called shutter dragging, this is where we use a flash with a longer-than-normal exposure to introduce motion blur. It’s a great trick to try for action or sports subjects, like our taekwondo expert here. By using a combination of flash and gelled LED lighting, we can create streaks of blur to convey the movement of the subject, along with flash to freeze the motion. Whenever we use flash, we are effectively making two exposures in one. First…

1 Enhance the colours Open the image into Camera Raw or Lightroom and hit K for the Brush tool. Paint roughly over the blurry parts of the scene, then try increasing Clarity using the settings shown. This will crisp up the flowing lines for more defined blur. Of course, you can also lighten or darken the blur using the tool. 2 Tidy the edges There are likely to be parts of the frame that look messy, either because you’ve included areas of backdrop or because of lens flare. Hitting K again will create another brush mask. Paint around the messy areas then decrease Exposure to darken them. Repeat, if necessary, until they’re fully black. 3 Check the shadows Use Photoshop's Burn tool set to Range: Shadows to ensure the backdrop…

1 Select your picture Find your picture in Playback mode and press the i button (OK on older Nikons) then select Retouch. Alternatively, press the Menu button and choose an effect – you’ll then be prompted choose an image. 2 Retouch options Scroll down the list in the Retouch menu. Each option offers tools for adjusting the effect, and if you choose Filter effects you’ll see an array of additional options, such as Soft (focus) and Cross screen. 3 Apply your adjustment The Cross screen filter, for example, creates a ‘star’ effect around highlights. You can set the number of stars, the intensity of the effect and even the length of the points. 4 The camera saves a copy Make your settings and select Save, and a new version of…

You can set your camera’s Picture Control to Monochrome before you start shooting because this will help you ‘see’ in black-and-white and create the most effective compositions. The most important thing, though, is to shoot Raw files, not JPEGs, because you can experiment with the Picture Control settings when you’ve got more time. 1 SHARPENING, CONTRAST AND BRIGHTNESS You may want to leave any sharpening for later on in Photoshop or other software, since the degree of sharpening is best chosen to match the output device (print or web, for example), but if you want to create a strong, graphic effect, try pushing the Contrast right up to maximum. 2 FILTER EFFECTS Traditionally, black-and-white photographers would use yellow, orange, red or green filters to make certain colours in the picture…

1 Textures You might not use Textures too much – they’re made more with 3D artists in mind – but it’s still worth exploring this area. 2 Search Filter With thousands of effects to choose from, this simple search box can save you a lot of time when you’re looking for the perfect filter. 3 Filter Library Choose from thousands of effects in the online Filter Library: frames, distortions, glitches, watercolour and cartoon effects, and more. 4 Filter Editor You can open library filters in Filter Editor to examine and tailor them for your needs, or create a Custom filter from scratch. 5 Presets & Settings Save favourite combinations of settings as presets. Re-open the filter later and choose a default or saved preset. 6 Before & After The main…

When we reviewed the Nikon Z 9, we called it: “Simply the best camera ever!” And now, together with Nikon UK, we’re giving you the chance to win the flagship Z camera. It’s an incredible prize that’s worth a whopping £5299/$5499. All you have to do is enter any of the 12 rounds of NPOTY 2023 to be in with a chance of taking Nikon’s most advanced camera home and being crowned N-Photo’s Photographer of the Year 2023. Mirrorless behemoth The Nikon Z 9 features some truly ferocious specs, as you’d expect from a pro-grade, full-frame, flagship camera. It boasts a stacked 45.7Mp CMOS sensor and runs via Nikon’s EXPEED 7 image-processor. It also packs Nikon’s most advanced AF system and can shoot bursts at an astonishing 120fps, making it…

£529/$499 www.nikon.co.uk The Nikon Z 26mm f/2.8 is so small and lightweight that when you take delivery, you might feel you’ve been handed an empty box. Nikon’s skinniest Z-system lens to date, it follows in the diminutive steps of the Z 28mm f/2.8 and Z 40mm f/2, both of which are available in standard and SE (Special Edition) flavours. Those two lenses aren’t massively bigger or heavier, at 70x43mm, 160g and 70x46mm, 170g. Another lightweight is the 135g Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR which is 70x32mm in size, although that’s mostly due to its retractable design, and the lens extends to as much as 60mm in length when in use. Ultimately, if you’re in the market for the smallest and most lightweight lens in Nikon’s Z line-up, and one that’s…

To test real-world performance, we use lenses in all sorts of lighting conditions, for indoor and outdoor shooting scenarios. We check for good build quality and handling, smooth and precise operation of all controls, and we test the speed and accuracy of autofocus. We typically test full-frame compatible lenses on a range of FX and DX bodies, whereas APS-C format lenses are tested only on DX cameras. These include DSLRs including the D850 and D7500, and mirrorless cameras such as the Z 7II and Z fc. In-camera and Raw processing corrections for chromatic aberration, distortion and vignetting are disabled where possible, throughout lab-testing, to better reveal the true optical performance of each lens. In our lab, we test lenses under controlled conditions, shooting specialist test charts and processing the results…

£449/$495 Irix’s 150mm macro is an imposing F-mount full-frame compatible lens that weighs in at 831g, and comes complete with a tripod collar. This enables a much better balance in tripod-mounted shooting, especially in portrait orientation. Build quality and finish are impeccable, based on high-quality optical elements and a weather-sealed magnesium alloy barrel. Unlike ‘dumb’ manual-focus lenses, the Irix comes with built-in electronics. As such, there are no restrictions on shooting in the full range of PASM modes, and lens-based EXIF information is recorded in image files. Unlike with the Laowa manual lenses on test, illumination of the camera’s focus assist and confirmation lamps are enabled in the viewfinder, along with a display of the aperture setting. The aperture itself remains very well-rounded when stopping down, thanks to an 11-blade…

Depth of field can shrink to just a couple of millimetres at full macro magnification. Even at a slightly longer focus distance that gives 0.5x magnification, these shots of a matchbox-sized model bus show how small the depth of field can be. For reference, the back of the bus is 4cm further away from the camera than the front.…

£569/$499 Picking up the baton from the Laowa 100mm lens, also featured in this big test, the newer 90mm is designed purely for mirrorless camera bodies and, again, delivers a mighty 2.0x maximum macro magnification at its shortest focus distance. As such, it captures small objects at twice life size, as measured on the image sensor. As a fully manual lens with no electronics, you have to set the aperture manually, as well as the focus distance. That’s certainly not a deal-breaker in macro photography, where a hands-on approach is often preferable. The lens focuses internally, rather than physically extending at shorter focus distances. However, while the front element remains fixed in place, the inner elements are deeply recessed at the infinity focus setting, and move forward right up to…

If you’re seriously into macro photography, the Nikon Z MC 105mm is a fabulous lens. Everything about its handling, all-round performance and image quality is so spectacular that it puts every other Nikon-fit macro lens in the shade. The Z MC 50mm is also an excellent lens but its relatively short working distance for full 1.0x magnification makes it less practical for macro photography, and it lacks the finer features and handling exotica of its bigger sibling. For both FX and DX format DSLRs, the Sigma 105mm is an excellent macro lens that’s unbeatable value for money and it works really well on Z system cameras via a mount adapter. We always preferred it to Nikon’s now discontinued F-mount 105mm macro lens, and it’s a smarter choice than the Tokina…

CROP-SENSOR DX DSLRS NIKON D3500 IT’S GETTING HARDER to find the D3500 in stores, but it’s worth the effort. With a classic design making it easy to learn, it’s a perfectly capable camera with fantastic image quality that makes a fitting choice for people looking to take their first steps into the world of DSLR photography. Bundled with 18-55mm kit lens. TESTED IN ISSUE 95 ● SECONDHAND-ONLY/$650 Sensor 24.2Mp, DX (6000x4000) Processor EXPEED 4 Viewfinder Pentamirror, 0.85x, 95% ISO 100-25,600 AF 11-point (1 cross-type) LCD 3-inch, 921k Max burst (buffer) 5fps (16 Raw) Memory card One SDXC UHS-I NIKON D7500 AN ADVANCED DSLR that’s easy to use, the D7500 delivers superb performance and image quality, plus great value. The D7500 steals most of the best bits from the now-discontinued pro-grade…