Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2015 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR, TAKE A VIEW 2014 Landscape Photographer of the Year awards are run in association with the awards’ sponsors, Visit Britain and Countryside is Great. Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 8 is out now (AA Publishing, £25). See www.take-a-view.co.uk…

Manage your colours 1 Go to Edit > Color Settings. In the Color Settings window, choose an appropriate location-based profile such as Europe Prepress 3. This will ensure Photoshop uses a print-friendly colour space called Adobe RGB (1998) instead of the default sRGB one. Leave the Profile Mismatch boxes ticked. Convert the embedded profile 2 Open print_start.jpg. The embedded colour profile of this image describes its colours using the screen-friendly sRGB colour space. You can change the sRGB profile to a printer-compatible one by ticking the ‘Convert document’s colors to the working space’ button. Click OK to close the dialog box. Gamut warning 3 To discover remaining unprintable colours, choose View > Gamut Warning. Problematic colours will appear as patches of grey. You could use a Vibrance adjustment layer to…

Choose a font for your text by clicking this drop-down menu [1]. You can modify compatible fonts to turn them into bold or italic versions with this drop-down menu [2]. Increase the value in this field [3] to change the selected text’s vertical scale. By adjusting the baseline shift [4] you can raise the text up or down. By adjusting the leading [5] you can narrow the gap between lines of text (or make them overlap). Adjust Tracking [6] to widen the gaps between the letters. Increase Horizontal scale [7] so that shorter words on one line will stretch and match the width of longer words on another. Click these icons [8] to turn lower case characters into capitals or underline text, for example.…

Canon PIXMA PRO-10S and PRO-100S Web: www.canon.co.uk Prices: PRO-100S £500/€600; PRO-10S £700/€830 Canon’s excellent PIXMA PRO printer range gets upgraded in the shape of the new PRO-100S and PRO-10S, which offer new connectivity to enable you to print your photos with ease. Whether you need to print from cloud storage services such as DropBox, Flickr, Facebook, Google Drive and direct from Canon’s PIXMA Cloud Link, or set up to print via Wi-Fi, Ethernet, PictBridge or via mobiles or tablets, the choice is yours. The printers are also compatible with Canon’s new Pro Gallery Print app, which enables you to connect to cloud photo-hosting services Zenfolio and SmugMug from your tablet, so that you produce top-quality prints. Phottix Indura500 TTL Studio Light Web: www.phottix.com Price: £1,110/$1,199 This 500-watt studio light makes life easy…

www.canon.co.uk Favoured by professionals, the Mk II edition of this lens has earned an excellent reputation for its image quality, tough build and versatility. The design features top-grade fluorite glass and five UD (Ultra-low Dispersion elements), a virtually circular aperture based on eight diaphragm blades, and a dualmode Image Stabilizer, all wrapped up in a tough, weather-sealed magnesium alloy shell. At 1.49kg, this lens is marginally heavier than the other two Sigma and Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses in the group but it feels more solidly put together, in keeping with its fully professional aspirations and higher asking price. Indeed, it’s about twice the price of the competing Sigma 70-200mm lens. The ultrasonic ring-type autofocus system is super-fast, snapping into accurate focus even under dull lighting conditions. When the going gets…

www.canon.co.uk What a difference an f-stop makes. Whereas Canon’s 200mm f/2 prime lens is one of the heaviest lenses in the group, this lens matches it for focal length but, with its narrower maximum aperture of f/2.8, it’s much smaller and lighter in weight. Whereas the physical diameter of the f/2 lens is too large for a filter attachment thread, this lens takes regular, modestly sized 72mm filters and weighs in at just 765g instead of 2.52kg. Most L-series telephoto lenses are painted off-white, to minimise heat build up when shooting under hot sunshine. It’s not such an issue with smaller lenses, so this one is finished in black and looks rather more inconspicuous. Worse news is that, unlike most L-series lenses, there are no weather-seals. Autofocus is fast and…

www.sigma-imaging-uk.com Compared with the Canon 200mm f/2 lens that’s on test, this Sigma is a stop slower but has a longer telephoto reach with its 300mm focal length. It’s also only about half the price, but looks rather low-tech. Whereas the Canon is positively bristling with fancy features and controls, the Sigma lacks an image stabiliser, doesn’t have a focus range limiter, and there are no weather seals or trick focusing preset facilities. Despite all this, this Sigma lens feels very solidly built and is of a very similar size and weight to the Canon 200mm lens. Unlike the other two Sigma lenses on test, there are no ‘fluorite’ quality glass elements, but the two largest elements at the front of the optic have an ELD (Extraordinary Low Dispersion) classification.…

“I’m an ocean lifeguard who works the summers in Australia and photographs the world during the winter months. During my travels I have developed a special friendship with the Himba people of Epupa, Namibia. This relationship sees me travel to the country each and every year – I have been doing so for the past decade now – and I run regular photographic tours during which I am able to share my contacts and knowledge with other like-minded photographers. This shot was actually set up as a demonstration while on my Namibian Photographic Experience tour in 2014. I don’t usually lean towards posed images but I wanted to demonstrate how effective a single Canon 580EX II Speedlite can be to light up a group evenly. I had one of the…

Join the club! letter of the month I was asked by a fellow photographer if I would start a camera club as it was something we were short of in the local area. I wasn’t too keen at first, but I got involved and now think it’s a super idea as lots of people want to learn how to take decent photos – and some might even want to be great photographers. So now I run the Mercat Camera Group at the Mercat Centre in Kildary (7.30pm, every second Tuesday). It is good fun, attended by a friendly bunch who vary in ages, abilities and cameras, from compacts to D-SLRs; it doesn’t matter how old you are or what camera you have, you are welcome at the club! We have…

Place incense stick 1 Begin by setting up a dark background to shoot against (such as a blanket). Position the incense stick in front, then set up your camera. You don’t have to use a tripod, but it makes things more convenient. Focus on the incense stick then switch your lens to manual focus to prevent hunting between shots. Position your flash 2 Place your flash behind the incense and off to one side, and angle it so that the light is directed away from the background and back towards the camera. Set the flash to Slave mode, so that you can trigger it with your pop-up flash (if your camera is a model with no built-in flash, you’ll need to use a wireless trigger). PhotoPlus Phrase Book Screen blending…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/PP_98 GET THE ENTIRE 50-PART TEACH YOURSELF PHOTOSHOP IPAD VIDEO APP! http://bit.ly/typsapp Your guide George Cairns The Horizontal Type tool and its Tool panel compartment cousins enable you to enrich your creative projects in many ways, such as providing posters or book covers with eye-catching typography, or turning text into a key component of an illustration by inserting a photo into the fonts. At first glance, the Type tool works in a similar way to word-processing packages. As you move the mouse onto a Photoshop document a text cursor will appear. Click to place the cursor on a particular spot and start typing on your keyboard to add text to the document as a new layer. You can treat this text layer like any other Photoshop layer,…

Your guide James Paterson WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/PP_98 In this month’s Masterclass we’ll show you how to shoot incredible ‘time stacks’. To do this we set up our camera just as we would for a time-lapse, so that it takes a series of shots at regular intervals. Typically a sequence like this would then be combined into a video, showing the rising sun in a matter of seconds. But rather than do the usual time-lapse thing, we’re going to try something a little bit different. Taking inspiration from the photography of time stack maestro Matt Molloy, we’ll combine the lightest parts of an entire sequence of images into one incredible frame. It’s exactly the same method you would use to combine night-time star trail images, but used on a sunset…

Handily, your camera’s Auto ISO function works in Manual exposure mode. This means that you can dial in a precise combination of aperture and shutter speed, but let the camera adjust the ISO according to the lighting conditions. Use this option when you’re shooting in low light, as you’ll be able to set an aperture to provide the depth of field you need, along with a shutter speed for shake-free results. As long as you have a sufficiently high ISO available on the camera, you can record a picture with this combination regardless of how dark it is. Auto ISO and Manual exposure make a great combination for movie shooting too, as the exposure will remain consistent while you record footage.…

TAP TO VIEW IMAGES! Meet our panel of experts Canon EOS 1100D Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 III USM Aperture f/4.5 Shutter speed 1/200 sec SHOT OF THE MONTH Hayleigh says “I took this shot at the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey last November, as part of my BA Hons Photography project on urban wildlife. I wanted to show the urban fox, which is regarded as a pest by many people, in a more positive light, and this particular fox had crept out of its den to the frosty grass on an early November morning. Its dog-like mannerisms were comical to watch as it waited for one of the keepers to toss it another piece of chicken, and I managed to capture this slightly surprised-looking expression. I used an aperture of…

TAP TO VIEW IMAGE S! Canon EOS 650D Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD Aperture f/5.6 Shutter speed 1/500 sec Steve says “This was taken at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire. The day started with brilliant sunshine, but by the time we got to the snow leopards it had turned overcast with a light drizzle. One of the younger leopards took an interest in my daughter as she peered through the fence, so I took the opportunity to get this shot. I’ve only recently started using Manual mode, and I adjusted the settings to compensate for the lighting. I don’t edit my photos – I like the finished image to be what I’ve shot – but in this case it’s in desperate need of rescuing!” Hollie says “This is a…

The Canon EOS 700D was more evolution that revolution when it launched in 2013. The three real differences between the 700D and 650D were: the 700D introduced a new mode dial that rotated 360 degrees, it had a more durable external finish and it offered real-time previews of its Creative Filters in Live View mode. Let’s take a look at the key differences between the 700D versus the new 760D and 750D. 01 Sensor and processor The EOS 760D and 750D feature a new 24.2Mp CMOS sensor, an increase of just over 6Mp on the 18Mp 700D. So, while 700D Raw files and Large JPEGs are 5184x3456 pixels (43.89 x 29.26cm at 300dpi), the maximum image size from the 760D/750D is 6000x4000 pixels (50.8 x 33.87cm at 300dpi). This makes…

www.canon.co.uk Shaving about half the weight and a third of the price off Canon’s 70-200mm f/2.8 lens that’s also on test, this one is an f-stop slower at f/4. That makes it the slowest lens in the whole group, but upsides include a remarkably compact build, with a relatively small filter thread of 67mm. Weighing in at 760g, the lens is also lightweight enough for even prolonged stretches of handheld shooting. The layout of control switches is practically identical to that of Canon’s 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, with a focus range limiter (this time locking out the 1.2-3m range), AF/MF focus modes, stabiliser on/off and stabiliser static/panning modes. The zoom and focus rings have the same orientation in both lenses but, while the focus rings are in approximately the same position,…

www.sigma-imaging-uk.com Looking every inch a bargain, this Sigma lens goes into direct competition with Canon’s 70-200mm f/2.8 image-stabilised lens, but at a shade under half the price. Highlights include quality glass, with two FLD (F Low Dispersion) elements, which are claimed to rival top-class fluorite glass, a further three SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, and Sigma’s Super Multi-Layer Coating to reduce ghosting and flare. The ring-type HSM ultrasonic autofocus system is very fast and supersmooth in operation and the dual-mode static/panning image stabiliser is rated at four stops. Look a little closer, however, and there are some minus points in the lens’s construction. As you might expect at the lower price, it lacks the Canon lens’s magnesium alloy barrel sections, instead relying on high-quality plastics, and the Sigma also lacks…

THE APPRENTICE… Name: Erliena Mitchell Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mk III Erliena, 58, is a keen photographer who’s been subscribing to PhotoPlus since 2008. Originally from Indonesia, she’s been living in Dumfries, in the Scottish Borders, for over 30 years. Her first Canon EOS was a 50D, but she’s since upgraded to a full-frame 5D Mk III. She loves venturing out with her Canon D-SLR and lenses to photograph the surrounding beautiful scenery, but asked for our help to improve her shots. THE PRO... Name: Chris Rutter Camera: Canon EOS 6D Although growing up in relatively flat Suffolk, professional landscape photographer Chris, 47, is most at home surrounded by big mountain scenery. Following a 15-year photo magazine career, he’s recently relocated from Bath to the Isle of Skye (which he’s…

“I was recently privileged to be given the opportunity as the first landscape photographer in the world to put the new EOS 5DS through its paces on an eight-day shoot in the Western Cape of South Africa. It was a fabulous opportunity to evaluate the capabilities of this impressive new camera, with its super-high-resolution 50-megapixel sensor. My initial impressions of the 5DS were how seemingly similar it was to its predecessor, the 5D Mk III, and this was borne out in the field. I was able to start working productively with the 5DS immediately; all the controls seemed very familiar, and that continuity was a reassurance. But I was very aware that, to achieve the best results and to make the most of the incredible 50Mp sensor, I had to…

TOOL COMPARTMENT 1 The Horizontal and Vertical Type tools function as their names suggest. Hold down Shift and tap T to cycle through the four versions of the Type tool in this compartment. MARVELLOUS MASKS 2 The mask versions of the Horizontal and Vertical Type tools create text-shaped selection marquees as you type. You can then paste a copied photo into the layer to add texture to your typography. FONT FAMILY 3 Click here to open the drop-down font family menu and then scroll through the dozens of options to find a font to suit your needs. If the text layer is highlighted, use the up or down arrow keys to change the fonts. ALIGNMENT 4 If you press Enter while typing, you will create a new line. If you…

Not all zoom lenses have a consistent maximum (largest) aperture throughout the zoom range, but have what’s known as a ‘floating’ aperture instead. For example, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens offers a maximum aperture of f/4.5 at 100mm, but by the time the lens reaches 400mm the aperture has narrowed to f/5.6. The camera won’t make any allowance for this in Manual exposure mode, so remember to set the exposure after you’ve zoomed. If you’re lucky enough to have to a zoom that offers the same maximum aperture at all focal lengths, then you can zoom in and out regardless……

How to get your back issues! Whether you’ve got an Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch – or an Android, Kindle or Nook tablet – you can download PhotoPlus back issues. You can read on your laptop or desktop computer, too. To see the full range of devices, go to http://bit.ly/ppdigi A limited number of back issues of our print editions are available at http://bit.ly/ppprint BUY A BINDER FOR YOUR PRINT EDITIONS! Prefer print? Keep your mags together with our binder, which neatly holds a year’s issues www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/photoplus-offers ISSUE 92 OCT 2014 Mountain landscapes! Climb new heights with your Canon photography by capturing beautiful mountain scenes ● Apprentice: creepy crawly close-ups! ● Essential eight-page guide to Canon Digital Photo Professional 4.0 & Irista ● Super Test: superzoom lenses ● Help…

www.canon.co.uk Canon’s latest line of ultimatequality, high-tech telephoto primes include 300mm and 400mm f/2.8 lenses at around £4,900 and £7,800 respectively, but this one’s the fastest at f/2. It’s certainly no lightweight in terms of build or price, tipping the scales at 2.52kg and costing £4,450. However, the fully professional build is rock-solid and there’s the usual up-market mix of fluorite and UD elements. The extra-wide front element precludes the fitment of an attachment thread, but drop-in filters can be placed at the rear of the lens. This is where most of the controls are located, including the usual AF/MF, focus range limiter, stabiliser on/off and stabiliser mode switches. On top of that, you get a focus preset switch with audible beep option. Further forwards are four autofocus stop buttons…

www.sigma-imaging-uk.com This enormous lens dwarfs most others in the test group. It measures a whopping 121x291mm and weighs a massive 3.39kg, so handheld photography isn’t something to be taken lightly. Even so, the lens features Sigma’s dual-mode image stabiliser for static and panning shooting, which is well worth engaging even if you’re using a monopod. The lens is unique in offering a zoom range that stretches to 300mm, while also having a fast f/2.8 constant aperture. Two FLD elements and an SLD element are used in the construction which, unusually for a Sigma lens, also boasts weather seals. As one of Sigma’s S (Sport) lenses, it’s compatible with the company’s optional USB dock. This enables customisation of focus range limiting, autofocus speed and stabilisation attributes, which can then be accessed…

www.tamron.eu/uk Tamron’s 70-200mm lens goes toe-to-toe with the equivalent Sigma. Similarities include fast and efficient ring-type ultrasonic autofocus, image stabilisation and high-quality glass, in this case employing XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) and LD (Low Dispersion) elements to maximise sharpness and contrast, while also aiming to minimise colour fringing. Both lenses also omit a focus range limiter switch. A notable difference between the Tamron and Sigma 70-200mm lenses is that the Tamron adds weather seals. Naturally, this is a bonus if you’re shooting outdoors in inclement conditions. However, a drawback of the Tamron is that its VC (Vibration Compensation) system lacks a panning mode like other lenses tested in this group. Tamron claims that its proprietary system should work well for panning but, in our tests, the Canon and Sigma stabilisation…

Bushnell Excursion HD Binoculars Price: £279.95 Bushnell Excursion HD 8 x 42mm binoculars are perfect for spotting wildlife. With a wide field of view, the housing is nitrogen filled and sealed for 100% water and fogproof performance in all weather conditions, ensuring you don’t miss a thing. The textured rubber armour provides a non-slip grip, whilst the large and lockable centre focus wheel is easy to use when it’s cold, wet or you are wearing gloves. Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM S Web: www.sigma-imaging-uk.com Price: £1599.99 The new benchmark in telephoto zoom lens technology, Sigma’s 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM S lens features dust and splash-proof construction, twist and push/pull zoom action with zoom locking at every focal distance, water repellent coating, a new MO mode switch and new (optional)…