Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2014 - February 2015 i Photo Review

Picking up a new camera in the departure lounge duty-free is not generally a good idea. Sure you may pore over the manual on the flight out while everybody else is watching movies or playing games on their seatback displays, but really there’s no substitute for a proper, extended period of hands-on shooting experience with new kit before a big trip. But that’s just what your editor intends to do immediately after we put this issue to bed. (In mitigation, I plead half a century of picture taking experience and the fact that the camera is my sixth from the same maker, so the overall handling characteristics promise to be familiar.) While I will indeed work my way through the manual on the 13-hour trip to Los Angeles, my more…

Joshua Holko encountered his first iceberg in, appropriately perhaps, Iceland. It was 2006 and the Melbourne native was at that stage still earning a living in the corporate world. But when man met ice, a passionate interest was born that would lead him to a new career as a photographer of the world’s polar and sub-polar regions. Asked what it was that first drew him to the bitterly cold and remote ends of the earth, he said, ‘It was a combination of factors. One of the big things was that when you’re that far north (or south), you have hours of golden light for photography. Where I live in Australia, we have really harsh, contrasty light most of the time. You only get nice soft light for two minutes or…

A compact, high-performing Olympus OM-D E-M10 Simply submit up to three of your favourite images for your chance to win an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Single Lens Kit. Send your image(s) to imagereview@photoreview.com.au • JPEG format, maximum 6MB • image caption/title • camera/lens used • image description/comments Image Review 3 Two Olympus OM-D E-M10 kits to be won. Ends 31 January 2015 - see terms and conditions at www.bit.ly/imagereview3…

Don’t put your camera away once the sun goes down; there’s plenty of magic to record after dark, whether you’re in a bustling city or an isolated landscape. And you don’t require elaborate equipment if you decide to hand-hold your camera. Taking pictures after dark requires the same key controls as you would in daylight – but they may be pushed to their technical limits in some situations. Understanding these limits enables you to modify your shooting practices to produce interesting and technically competent photographs. Shooting in low light levels requires you to make some important decisions about how to balance three vital controls: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This balance pivots on shutter speed, since it’s the function that determines whether your shot is sharp. So the first parameter…

They may be plentiful, but birds are easily one of the most challenging and elusive photographic subjects. As anyone who’s tried to capture one of these skittish creatures knows, their rapid and unpredictable movements make it supremely difficult. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then, that Photo Challengers consistently had their best results when the winged ones were not in flight. That’s certainly the case with our winner Chris Melloy’s amusing untitled image of a row of Crested Terns taking a break from fishing. Chris will soon receive a Lowepro Pro Roller Lite 250 AW (RRP $345) to pack all his gear in for his next photo adventure. We liked the way our first runner-up, Jenny Stephens captured a pair of Sea Eagles against the sky. And keeping the background simple as…

Why Visit? Whether you’re interested in walking, mountain bike riding or photographing wildlife, you’ll find fascinating places to go in the Mount Kaputar National Park and plenty of subjects for your camera. There’s enough to see and photograph to justify spending a whole week there, although it’s possible to pick out highlights for a weekend’s visit. There are also opportunities to meet the local wildlife and sleep under the stars in a pristine environment that is accessible by normal vehicles. Caravans are not permitted beyond the park entrance, although they can be taken to areas like the Sawn Rocks, which is also within the park area but accessed via the Killarney Gap Road. Closer to Narrabri and also inside the park is the Deriah Aboriginal Area, which is co-managed by…

Life’s Mosaic  by Mark Dafey Canon EOS 5D; EF20mm f/2.8 USM; 1/125s;f/11; ISO100 Jerusalem was one of the last places I wanted to visit after seven years living in the Middle East. I wanted to explore and stay in its Old City - a goldmine for photographers. This is the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, just outside the Old city walls. It is one of the Muslim religion’s most holy sites and can be seen with Judaism and Christianity’s holiest sites in the same day. à Don’s response Judging from the near absence of shadows on the figures just off-centre, photographer Mark Dafey captured this image at midday - which isn’t often the best time to be taking pictures. And yet this image works very well thanks, as…

Way back when digital photography was but a dream, manufacturing variability was a regular topic of discussion in the photography courses I attended at Sydney TAFE. The issue arose when students were comparing equipment from different manufacturers. Our lecturer pointed out that cameras and lenses coming off the manufacturers’ production lines are not necessarily identical. Some variability is inevitable in the manufacturing process, even with today’s relatively tight quality controls. This, he added, can explain why one photographer is totally satisfied with the camera and/or lens he/she is using while another with exactly the same brand of camera and/or lens has nothing good to say about it. Back in those days, the difference between the best sample and the worst from a production line could be substantial. Modern manufacturing techniques…

Until recently, if you wanted the best possible lenses to go with your camera, your choice of brand was pretty well locked in the day you handed over your hard-earned for the body. Sure, elite professionals and orthodontists could maybe consider luxury alternatives from Zeiss, but most of us would be looking longingly at the best the camera makers had to offer. Lens makers such as Tamron and Sigma have for decades offered value-for-money alternatives in the high volume sector of the lens market, but just recently they have moved up the totem pole with genuine premium models, and it’s changing the dynamics of the market. Canon in the US recently announced across-the-board price reductions of up to 33 percent on its premium 'L' series range. They said it was…

The Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation tools are some of the most useful adjustments for enhancing digital images. To use them effectively, you must understand how they work and what they can achieve. While most people understand what is meant by ‘clarity’ and many can comprehend ‘saturation’, the concept of ‘vibrance’ is relatively new and often poorly understood. So even though most image editors provide adjustments for clarity, vibrance and saturation, many photographers are unsure about what each tool does and how best to use it. We’ll look at all three tools in this feature. Clarity The Clarity slider is a fairly new tool that has only been available in a few raw file converters. It’s provided in Phase One’s Capture One 7, and Adobe’s Camera Raw and Lightroom applications. It’s…