Innholdsfortegnelse for March - May 2021 i Photo Review

By the time you read this, we’ll be well on our way into the 20th year of the 21st century. 2020 seemed to reach a crescendo of awfulness in the first week of January. The pandemic which had been spreading relentlessly all year, was then approaching the grim milestones of 100 million cases and more than two million deaths. And, from the very heart of the most powerful country in the world, came extraordinary scenes of insurrection. Flashing up on mobile phone screens across the planet, the images and video were captured and shared in real time by the perpetrators themselves. Just two weeks later, the new American president was inaugurated. On the first day of the Biden era the USA re-joined the Paris climate accord, dozens of egregious decisions…

Image stabilisation (IS) has quietly revolutionised picture-taking since it first appeared in the mid 1990s and has become a hot feature in the imaging arena, with different manufacturers offering different stabilisation systems. Essentially, there are two components in an imaging system where stabilisation can be applied: in the camera body or in the lens. Initially, Canon and Nikon started out with stabilised lenses, while Sony, Olympus and Pentax worked on sensor-shift technology. But with the passage of time most have seen the advantage of combining both systems, even though they work differently and involve different components. Today, all leading camera manufacturers include IS in their cameras and lenses, using labels like VR, OS, OIS, VC, SR and variations on those themes. When the first stabilised products were developed, the degree…

Most people have collections of old photos they want to preserve because they contain precious memories. Old photos are usually the first things people pack when they’re forced to leave their home in the event of catastrophes like fire and flooding. The best way to make sure these memories are protected and kept safe throughout the years is to digitise them. Digitising also makes them easier to share and use in projects like family histories or personal recollections. No matter how well they have been handled in the past, old photos will change over time so they won’t look as good as they did when they were originally taken. Fortunately, when done with care digitising can provide a way to bring them back to life. But there are a few…

Nature being nature www.bit.ly/pr87ne1 2020’s Nature Photographer of the Year is one of many annual nature photography competitions, so in that respect it isn’t remarkable. However, the judges have plainly enforced a high standard and they’ve created an impressive number of categories. This means there are lots of beautiful and inspiring photos to browse through as you’re enjoying your morning coffee. Control from afar www.bit.ly/pr87ne2 The website blurb puts it succinctly: “qDslrDashboard is a cross platform application for controlling Nikon, Canon and Sony cameras.” Having used it with two different Nikons, your editor can report that it does what it says on the label - namely allowing the user to operate a broad range of camera features from the comfort of their mobile phone (particularly noteworthy are the time-lapse and…

“It was a “now or never” kind of mentality that pushed me to make the best decision of my life.” Peter Yan discovered his photographic talents when he took a trip to the USA in 2011. He’d taken along his first DSLR and as he travelled he posted some of his pictures on Facebook. The positive feedback he received was, he said, ‘very refreshing and exciting to me.’ At that point in his life, Peter was happily building a successful career at Apple and while he enjoyed picture-taking, it was not his primary focus. ‘I didn't take photography seriously,’ he explained, ‘until late 2014 when I bought the then-new Olympus OM-D E-M10 as a Christmas present for myself.’ Saying that he didn’t know much about cameras and photography at the…

According to Wikipedia, a lens is considered wide-angle when it covers an angle of view between 64 and 84 degrees. Anything wider than that is considered ultra-wide-angle, with fisheye lenses being a special sector of the ultra-wide category. Popular wide-angle lenses for cameras with 36 x 24mm sensors have focal lengths of 35mm, 28mm and 24mm; ultra-wide-angle lenses include the 21mm, 20mm, 18mm, 15mm, and 14mm focal lengths. For digital cameras, many of which have smaller sensors than the 35mm film on which these definitions are based, wide-angle lenses have focal lengths shorter than the short side of the sensor. This equates to about 15mm for an APS-C sensor or 13mm for Micro Four Thirds. Usage Photographers normally use wide-angle lenses when they want maximum depth of focus in the…

While most serious photographers have printed their images on a range of so-called ‘Fine Art’ papers, surprisingly few have chosen to print them on canvas; yet it’s just as easy with the latest inkjet photo printers and the end results look great. Some readers may have had images printed on canvas by photo labs or office supply stores but doing the job at home with your own equipment and media is a lot more satisfying and you have total control over the process. Why print on canvas? The main reason for making prints on canvas is to display them on the walls in your home and/or office. The ‘look’ of a canvas print creates an impression that is subtly different from prints made on textured Fine Art papers and it’s…