Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2018 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

After the bonkers snow storms that stifled the start of spring in the UK, the warmer weather and nature’s bloom has been more welcome than ever. Although the snow scenes looked impressive, the -4ºC temperatures, 4-foot snow drifts and 40mph winds meant getting to photograph the landscapes was difficult and, at times, just plain dangerous. So, thank you spring, for making a dramatic appearance and giving us photographers some colourful scenery and flowers – along with lovely warmer weather! Make the most of spring this issue as we help give your Canon DSLR skills a spring clean, with a top-to-toe techniques guide to help you master key camera skills and improve your photos (page 28). Britain’s best garden photographer, Clive Nichols, invites our Apprentice to the peerless RHS Wisley gardens…

APPRENTICE NAME: STEVE JARRATT CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D Mk III STEVE, 55, is a keen amateur photographer living in Bath. After 25 years working on video game and technology magazines, he’s now a freelance writer and editorial trainer. His first proper camera was a Canon T70 film camera. After several compacts, he upgraded to his first Canon DSLR, an EOS 5D Mark III with L-series lenses, three years ago. While costing a small fortune, after seeing the images his kit produces, he has no regrets. Steve shoots everything – architecture, animals, gardens – but the shallower the depth of field the better. CANON PRO NAME: CLIVE NICHOLS CAMERA: CANON EOS 5DS R CLIVE, 55, is Britain’s best garden photographer and a regular contributor to PhotoPlus. Based in Banbury, he started out as a chef,…

RHS GARDEN AT WISLEY, SURREY THE blue camassia meadow had reached its peak of flowering and I waited until late in the day so I could capture the low backlighting on the flowers and cherry tree behind. MORTON HALL, WORCESTERSHIRE THIS garden is famous for its meadow of snake’s head fritillary. I arrived at sunrise, shooting into the sun with a wide-angle focal length of 24mm, being careful to avoid flare getting in the lens. KEUKENHOF GARDENS, HOLLAND SHOT at probably the best spring garden in the world. I used a 70-200mm telephoto zoom lens at 200mm for a frame-filling shot of one of the borders, packed with tulips and daffodils.…

TAKING control of exposure with your Canon DSLR means actively deciding which part of a scene you want to expose for, and how bright or dark your shots are overall. Exposure is determined by the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO (as demonstrated by the exposure triangle diagram on the right). Together, these three settings control how much light reaches the sensor inside your camera. Remember that different setting combinations can capture the same brightness in an image – for example, 1/500 sec at f/4, 1/125 sec at f/8, or 1/30 sec at f/16. Each image taken would be equally bright, but the depth of field (how much of the scene is in focus in the resulting shot) would change with each different aperture setting. Exposure triangle TOP TIP…

THE simplest way to compose balanced and visually pleasing images is with the rule of thirds. To get started, divide your scene into a rough 3x3 grid and then position key objects or areas along the lines or within the grid squares. This approach works well for landscapes if you place the horizon line on the top or bottom third of the frame. TOP TIP Use grids to compose WHEN you shoot in Live View mode, you can display a grid on your Canon’s LCD monitor. This will overlay your scene, and can be used to align or position objects when composing images. On most models, there are several options to choose from. To activate the grid feature, head to your Canon’s main menu, then navigate to Live View Settings,…

“Sometimes I create pictures in my head before I take them, and this is one of those,” says Neil. “I’ve set up a place in my local area where I photograph red squirrels and I knew that a squirrel on this branch, shot from a certain position in the late afternoon would be backlit. There would also be a glow in the birch trees behind. I placed some nuts off to the left, out of the frame, and waited. The area is only lit like that for half an hour, and it took a few tries before I got the combination of light and the squirrel jumping. For this kind of picture, you need a minimum shooting speed of 1/1600 sec to get the animal sharp. I particularly like this…

My first mountain and waterscape photography trip in 2016 focussed on Glencoe. There are many hotspot photography locations in that area, which was very exciting. I visited a couple of these places before finding myself following the River Etive towards Loch Etive. The way the river has carved through the landscape fascinated me, with its high rock gorges and many waterfalls that positively flowed with energy. From the riverbank, I noticed a section where the river had widened, revealing a broad waterfall on a bend. I approached the edge and knew straightaway that this was where I wanted to shoot, but I struggled to find a good composition from the raised bank. Carefully, I climbed down the rocks towards the water level – a compact lightweight tripod and small day…

DPP’s Tone Adjustment tool Adjust curves to tweak shadows, midtones and highlights, as Peter Travers explains If shooting in a high-contrast location, it can be a challenge to capture detail throughout the scene’s tonal range. If you expose for the brightest highlights, the shadows are plunged into underexposed darkness, hiding interesting detail. By opening the aperture (or slowing down the shutter speed), you can reveal more shadow detail, but you run the risk of blowing out (or clipping) the highlights. To shoot our high-contrast street scene, we set our Canon’s metering mode to Evaluative, so that our camera would measure the light in both the brighter and darker parts of the scene, then attempt to capture detail throughout the frame. Our shadows in the unprocessed version of the image are…

Get critiqued! Email photos to EOSSOS@futurenet.com with the subject "Rate My Photo' Nuthatch PAUL RIDGES, FROM RAMSGATE, SAYS… I took this picture in the local woods; the nuthatches are easy to find and willingly come in for an easy feed. They often stuff as much food in as possible and then whizz off. This was my first trip out with my new Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens and I’m pleased with the results. I used my EOS 5D Mk IV and shot in Raw. I process my Raw files with Canon’s DPP software. I adjusted the sharpening, highlights and shadow settings, and cropped the picture a little. BRIAN SAYS… A great shot, with all the characteristics of excellent wildlife photos. The background is clean and out of focus, the bird appears…

The EOS 2000D effectively replaces the existing EOS 1300D, bringing a higher resolution sensor, while the EOS 4000D is a whole new camera, designed to be the cheapest entry point ever to the Canon DSLR system. There are some key differences between these two new cameras, but they have a lot more in common. The EOS 2000D and EOS 4000D are both aimed at first-time DSLR users, and people who are upgrading from a smartphone to their first ‘proper’ camera. Both, in Canon’s words, offer a “step up to effortless DSLR storytelling”. They offer Canon’s Scene Intelligent Auto mode for basic point-and-shoot photography, in-camera guides to help novices master photographic principles, and built-in Wi-Fi for transferring photos to a smart device for sharing – the EOS 2000D also has NFC,…

£395/$350 This is Canon’s third EF-S prime lens designed exclusively for APS-C format SLRs, following the 60mm macro lens (opposite) and 24mm pancake lens. It features a stepping motor autofocus system with an electronically coupled focus ring, and no focus distance scale on the barrel. Equivalent to a 56mm lens on a full-frame body, the viewing angle makes it ideal as a standard prime, even without taking its macro abilities into account. Hybrid image stabilization is inherited from Canon’s range-topping 100mm L-series lens. It’s able to correct X-Y shift as well as vibration. Uniquely, it has a built-in LED Macro Lite, with two levels of brightness and the option to use both sides or just the left or right. It’s a good thing, too, as the front of the lens…

£800/$800 It’s nearly a decade since Canon announced this ‘revolutionary’ macro lens, and it remains the top-flight option in Canon’s macro line-up. Its main claim to fame is that it was the world’s first lens to feature hybrid image stabilization. This corrects for shift in the X-Y planes, as well as for the more usual angular vibration or wobble, making stabilization more effective in close-up shooting. The system has since found a home in Canon’s EF-S 35mm macro lens, while Tamron has developed a competing hybrid system for its latest 90mm macro lens. In all cases, however, focus distance is so critical in full 1.0x macro shooting that a tripod is all but essential. The quality of this lens isn’t just about its stabilizer. As an L-series optic, it boasts…

£350/$525 Compared to all the other lenses on test, this Tamron is a whole f/stop faster. That’s of little practical benefit for macro photography but, given that this APS-C format lens matches the Canon 60mm for focal length, it’s useful elsewhere. For example, the Tamron works well for portraiture, where the extra-wide aperture lets you better blur the background. It’s also good for boosting shutter speeds in dull lighting conditions. Build quality is similar to that of the Canon 60mm, combining high-quality plastics with a sturdy metal mounting plate. Further similarities include a focus distance scale under a viewing panel, and the lack of an autofocus range limiter switch. Despite both lenses having the same focal length, the Tamron’s minimum focus distance is a little longer. This results in a…

To search for past tests and articles, download our PhotoPlus index, which dates all the way back to issue no.1. Get it at downloads. photoplusmag.com/photoplusindex.xls Star player I have been into photography for about five years, and this was my first attempt at a star trails shot. I turned up at Fairfield Church, near New Romney, Kent, about 8:30pm on a Saturday night to be faced by freezing -2?C temperatures. This magical church is surrounded by dykes, occupied by families of swans, and in the fields nearby are hundreds of sheep. The sky was so clear, with millions of bright stars, and after I’d located the North Star (Polaris) using the Sky Scanner app, I set up two tripods – one for my Canon 760D with 10-20mm lens, and the…

RAW POWER “ALWAYS shoot in Raw,” says Clive, “as it’s the best image quality and you can easily adjust exposure, contrast and colours post-shoot in Adobe Camera Raw, as well as adjusting settings like white balance easily.” Steve adds, “I often shoot in the M-Raw size images as they’re big enough for my needs, save on space on memory cards and my Mac, and still offer the same ability to edit as a full-size Raw file.” AV MODE CLIVE got Steve to shoot in Av (Aperture value) mode to set the aperture, and so his camera will adjust the shutter speed for a standard exposure. “This way, you can control the depth of field. Set a wide aperture (such as f/4) for shallow depth of field; everything will be blurred…

FULL AUTO (the green square icon) is often the starting point on the Mode dial for a new Canon owner. It’s a good way to build confidence, as the camera chooses all the settings for you. However, it’s also hit and miss, because the camera doesn’t know what you’re shooting. Manual mode gives you the most control over exposure settings, with a meter reading displayed in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen to guide you. It can also slow things down and cause you to miss key moments of action, however. The semi-auto modes, Aperture (Av) or Shutter (Tv) priority, offer a compromise. Use these when conditions or subjects are rapidly changing, or to concentrate more on composition and movement, instead of wrestling with camera dials. Semi-auto modes TOP…

Learn how to read your histogram at DigitalCameraWorld http://bit.ly/histogram_help 01 UNDERSTAND IT A histogram shows the tonal range of your image. The left side corresponds to shadow details and the right side to highlights, so you can see what tonal detail is recorded and how much is lost. 02 FIND IT You can view the histogram of images both as you compose in Live View mode and afterwards when reviewing shots. To display the histogram, press Info until it appears on the LCD screen. 03 READ THE SHAPE A bell-shaped histogram indicates a correct exposure. Shots skewed to the left contain darker tones, while those to the right have more highlights. Clipped tones touch the edges of the graph.…

Beech tree in Everlanes Wood, near Milborne Port, Somerset, UK. November 2017 DAVID NOTON Pro travel & landscape photographer DAVID IS AN AWARD-WINNING Canon photographer with more than 30 years’ professional experience. During his career, David has travelled to just about every corner of the globe. In 2012, Canon invited David into its Ambassador Program by designating him an Official Canon Explorer. Info and photos at www.davidnoton.com 06:00 I awake before the alarm goes off as usual, thinking through what I need to get done today. Having mostly been out of the office over the last couple of months, there are lots of things awaiting my attention: emails, editing, writing, preparation for events, the usual stuff. I lurch out of bed, steeled to just get on with it. Then I…

There are many groovy reasons why you might want to pair your camera with a mobile device. Canon’s Camera Connect is a handy app that can be used for connecting a mobile device to any Canon camera that supports wireless communication. To start with, pairing devices means that images taken on your camera can be downloaded and saved on your smartphone. This means you can share images on Instagram and online quicker. A niftier feature is that the camera can be operated and even triggered from a phone. The Camera Connect app has a super-simple interface as well. On the home screen is an Easy Connection Guide, which takes you through the steps needed to connect any type of Canon camera. From this home screen, there’s also an option for…

“The most exciting part about cityscapes in Dubai is the fog season, which we get every year” Professional photographers reveal their top six tools of the trade they couldn’t shoot without I started my photo journey with landscapes, as I lived in south Germany. When I moved to Dubai, I enjoyed shooting the impressive skyline and architecture of the emirate. The UAE offers some of the darkest places in the desert, with little to no light pollution, so it’s a perfect place for astro. The most exciting part about cityscapes in Dubai is the fog season, a rare phenomenon where warm air from the sea travels into the desert, where it cools down and flows back out to the sea. It takes a lot of planning (watching weather reports online…

01 PREVIEW It helps to see a before and after version of an image to compare edits with the tones captured in-camera. Click the ‘1/1’ icon at the bottom. 02 BASIC PALETTE Toggle open the Advanced tools. By dragging the Shadows slider right, we can selectively lighten shadow detail. By dragging the Highlights slider left, we can selectively restore some detail to the blown-out sky. 03 TONE CURVE PALETTE Click here to access the more powerful and selective tone tweaking tools, so you can improve on what you started in the Basic palette. 04 AUTO LIGHTING OPTIMIZER This tool can lighten underexposed shadows in a click. Reveal detail by dragging the slider towards Strong. 05 LIGHTEN THE SHADOWS This point on the curve has been dragged upwards. As it overlaps…

With evaluative metering, the exposure is locked when you half-press the shutter release in One-Shot AF mode. This isn’t the case when you’re shooting with one of the other metering modes; the autofocus might be locked when you half-press the shutter, but the meter stays active and exposure settings may change. When you’re using AI Servo AF, the evaluative meter reading, like the autofocus, isn’t locked when you half-press the shutter release. As with the partial, spot and centre-weighted average metering modes, the meter stays active and the suggested exposure may change from one shot to the next. If you want the exposure to be consistent throughout a sequence, use your camera’s AE lock button – the one marked ‘*’. Lightly press the shutter release to activate the meter –…

Back in issue 130’s super-test of super-telephoto lenses, we were quite taken with the new Sigma 100-400mm Contemporary zoom. Compared with Sigma’s 150-600mm C lens, it’s physically shorter and narrower, and only about half the weight. Tamron has followed suit, with its own new 100-400mm lens that’s similarly lightweight and compact, downsizing from the 150-600mm G2. It also only weighs about two-thirds as much as Canon’s own 100-400mm IS II USM. Measuring 199mm long and weighing 1.1kg, the Tamron is easily manageable for a super-telephoto zoom, and light enough to use for prolonged handheld shooting. As is usual for this type of lens, the physical length nearly doubles when zooming to the longest focal length, but focusing is fully internal. Despite the reasonable asking price, build quality is excellent. The…

£380/$400 Introduced in 2005, this was Canon’s only macro prime lens for APS-C format DSLRs until the advent of the EF-S 35mm macro, last year. The 60mm is more conventional, without image stabilization or a built-in Macro Lite. It feels rather more substantial than the 35mm, weighing 335g compared with 190g. Up-market features include a ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system, with the usual full-time manual override, and a distance scale beneath a viewing panel. This time, however, you need to pay extra for the optional ET-67B hood, which costs around £30/$27. With an effective 96mm focal length in full-frame terms, the viewing angle is more telephoto than standard. Indeed, combined with its fast f/2.8 aperture rating, this lens doubles up well as a portrait lens. The minimum focus distance of 20cm…

£360/$570 Astonishingly good value in the UK, this Sigma is nevertheless a full-frame compatible macro lens that’s packed with high-end features. The list of attractions includes ring-type ultrasonic autofocus, four-stop image stabilization, a focus distance scale under a viewing panel, and a three-position autofocus limiter switch that can lock out both the short and long sections of the full range. Unlike many Canon lenses, the Sigma is supplied with a hood. Better still, it also comes with a hood converter, for improved effectiveness with APS-C format cameras, and a smart padded soft case. The build quality and overall handling are excellent, although it doesn’t feature weather-seals. And while the stabilizer isn’t a ‘hybrid’ system, it does have switchable static and panning modes, which are very useful when using the lens…

£580/$650 We’ve seen some fabulous G2 (Generation 2) Tamron lenses over the last year and, while this doesn’t bear the G2 moniker, it’s still a new generation of the 90mm VC USD lens. Like G2 and other recent Tamron prime lenses, the gold ring around the barrel is ditched in favour of a silver band, making it easily distinguishable. Compared with the previous edition, this has upgraded optics, doubling up on top-notch XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) elements, while retaining an LD element, and adding two types of nano-structure coatings. Like the Canon stabilized lenses, the Tamron has a hybrid image stabilizer to cancel out the effects of X-Y shift and vibration. Build quality is excellent. The lens is particularly solid and well made, with a precision feel to the comfortably…

IT’S VERY tempting to skip outside with your camera at the first sign of sunshine, but while inspiration is a vital ingredient for good shots, taking the time to understand how your camera works is equally important. By getting to grips with all the different settings, menus and options available, you’ll know how changing them will affect your final images. So, let’s start with the basics: image quality. Your Canon can be set to shoot JPEG or Raw images in different sizes, or both simultaneously. With JPEGs, the camera does much of the processing for you, but the disadvantage of this is that lots of image information is discarded. Raw files, on the other hand, preserve exactly what your camera recorded, which is much more than appears in the captured…

01 GO MANUAL Rotate the mode dial on top of your DSLR to M. Press the Q button on the back to bring up settings. Decide whether a particular shutter speed or aperture is more key to your image. 02 DIAL IN SETTINGS Now set your most important setting first – we’ve set our aperture first. Meter the scene by half-pressing the shutter button, then input a shutter speed and ISO that balances the exposure. 03 CHECK LIGHT METER When the light meter’s line is in the middle of the exposure level indicator (seen in Live View mode or viewfinder) the photo is correctly exposed. Fire the shutter. Tweak settings if lighting changes.…

WHEN composing shots with your Canon, there are many different tricks and devices for producing striking results. To get you started, we’ve outlined the most popular ones here. You need to consider both the subject and background elements of your scene, taking care to avoid distractions and cluttered backdrops. You also need also decide whether a landscape or portrait orientation will best suit the scene at hand. The key to strong composition is finding a way to draw the viewer’s eye into the frame. More often than not, this is done by positioning your main subject off to one side, rather than bang in the middle, to make the frame more dynamic. Remember that shooting height and view also affect the composition. If your Canon has a tilting LCD screen,…

Only takes 10 mins! Take part in our new 2018 survey and enjoy an exclusive 10% reader discount on magazines (not subscriptions), books, DVDs and binders at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk FILL IT OUT Spend five minutes filling out our survey – do it on your computer, tablet or smartphone YOUR OPINION Tell us a bit about yourself, your camera kit, and your opinions on the magazine GREAT SAVINGS After you’ve filled in our simple survey you’ll be given a 10% discount code EVERY issue, we do our best to create a magazine that you love to read, and we’re always looking for ways to make it even better. So, we’d like your help in improving PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine and all you need to do is answer some quick questions about yourself,…

01 PINE MARTEN “This was taken one evening in Perthshire,” says Neil, “at the house of a friend who had encouraged pine martens into his garden.” Lens Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Exposure 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO2000 SOME WILDLIFE photographers travel far and wide in pursuit of exotic species, but Neil McIntyre prefers to focus on animals in his home area. Admittedly, Neil does have the benefit of living on the doorstep of one of Britain’s most beautiful regions, the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands, with its wide range of wildlife. Having lived there for 40 years, he knows it like the bac “My aim is simple,” Neil says, “to enjoy, appreciate and be inspired by the wildlife and landscape of Scotland and beyond. By doing…

01 WATERING HOLE A misty summer morning Lens Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM at 17mm Exposure 1/3 sec, f/11, ISO100 Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike As the River Stour meanders through cattle-grazed meadows along the Essex/Suffolk border towards the North Sea, it passes through the Dedham Vale, an area of outstanding natural beauty, also known as Constable Country after the artist John Constable, whose romantic landscapes put the area on the map. Constable said of the Vale, “I should paint my own places best” and this resonates with me. I grew up a stone’s throw from here and still live in the area, so with my interest in landscape photography, it makes sense to shoot what’s on my doorstep. I’ve spent many hours along this river with…

Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon DSLR? Email EOSSOS@futurenet.com When photographing fast-moving action and sports, many photographers find they don’t get the results they want. They’ve invested in the gear and expect it to do the job for them. Here’s the problem: you need to understand the sport you are photographing, and how your camera and lens can be configured, for the greatest chance of success. When you want to photograph a new sport, build up your knowledge of the sport, venue and competitors. Research event information first and check out other photographers’ shots of the same place or event. This means that when you arrive, you know what will happen, who is involved and where the best action spot is. For most sports, you need to use continuous drive…

The launch of the EOS 2000D and 4000D shows that Canon is serious about its DSLR range, but at the same time, it’s hedging its bets with mirrorless cameras, too. Canon’s EOS M range hasn’t hit the same levels of popularity as its EOS DSLRs, but the EOS M50 is a sign that Canon is beginning to wise up to the mirrorless market and what its rivals are doing. The EOS M50 is aimed at “confident” smartphone and compact camera users who are considering upgrading to a system camera, and while it may look like just another beginner-orientated Canon camera, the technology working away inside is highly significant. There are two main features that set this new Canon camera apart. The first is that it has a built-in electronic viewfinder,…

THE CONTENDERS Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM £395/$350 Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM £380/$400 Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM £420/$600 Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM £800/$800 Sigma Macro 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM £360/$570 Sigma APO Macro 150mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM £780/$1,100 Tamron SP AF 60mm f/2 Di II LD (IF) Macro £350/$525 Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Macro £580/$650 One of the luxuries of DSLRs is that you can get into just about any kind of photography, simply by changing your lens. At one end of the scale, an ultra-wide lens enables you to squeeze vast landscapes into the image frame. At the other, a macro lens fills the frame with the tiniest of objects. In fact, all…

£420/$600 There’s a lot to be said for image stabilization but, for extreme close-ups, its effectiveness is limited. Even Canon’s four-stop hybrid system, developed for macro lenses, reduces to three stops at 0.5x magnification, and just two at full 1.0x magnification. Indeed, for full macro shots, stabilization is no substitute for using a tripod. The lack of stabilization in this older Canon 100mm macro lens therefore isn’t a deal-breaker, especially as it’s only half the price of the stabilized L-series lens in the UK. There’s less of a saving in the States, but the non-stabilized edition lacks weather-seals and its ET-67 hood has an add-on cost of around £30/$35. Ideal as a combined macro/portrait lens, this has a near-identical focal length on full-frame cameras as the EF-S 60mm on APS-C…

£780/$1,100 This is the only lens on test that weighs over a kilogram – 1,150g, to be precise. To put that into context, the Canon 100mm L-series and Sigma 105mm weigh 625g and 725g respectively. It’s also about an inch longer than both of those, at 150mm. As usual for modern macro prime lenses, however, focusing is internal, so the lens doesn’t physically stretch. Build quality and handling are essentially the same as the Sigma 105mm lens. Features in common include ring-type ultrasonic autofocus, dual-mode stabilization for static and panning shots, and a three-position autofocus range limiter switch. Again, it comes with a hood and APS-C hood converter, plus a padded soft case. This time, however, a tripod mounting collar is also supplied. The number of SLD optical elements is…