Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2019 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

SPRING FIELD! Improve your skills this Spring with our big guide on how to shoot everything from flowers to wildlife to landscapes Page 30 Editor Well, after the weird, stormy and (sometimes) wonderful Winter weather we’ve had, I couldn’t wait for some warmer, sunnier and proper Spring conditions. But it’s what Spring brings with it that makes it such a photogenic season; flowers and blossom on trees appear, birds and animals come back to life, and landscapes begin to appear more and vibrant. This issue, we’ll help you capture all of Spring at its best, from flowery woodlands to lush landscapes, close-ups of nature to birds in flight, we’ll help you master your Canon camera, lenses and kit to take best-ever Spring photos this year, see page 30. This month…

CRESTED GECKO CRESTED geckos clean their eyes by licking them, which means that after walking through some wet foliage she gave me a chance to capture this in the studio, with the lights positioned to throw some light across the lizard. PANTHER CHAMELEON CHAMELEONS are always so photogenic with their colours and alluring textures – not to mention the shape! The iconic tail curling is typical of chameleons, the real challenge being to get the eye looking at you. TAWNY EAGLE THIS tawny eagle was shot with natural light outdoors against a background of dry bracken to give a nice neutral setting – this helped the detail of the eagle pop. Timing, focus and depth of field were the main challenges.…

Whether you’re a professional photographer or keen enthusiast, the best way you can showcase your photographs is with some high-quality CEWE WALL ART. Available in a massive range of sizes and a fantastic array of specialist finishes, they are real statement pieces not to be missed. Using CEWE WALL ART you can proudly display your favourite photos while breathing new life into any room. Based in Warwick, CEWE’s products are crafted by its team of experts in its dedicated UK lab. The company has more than 50 years’ experience and was awarded Best Photo Print Service Worldwide by TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) in 2018. CEWE also offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, along with 24/7 UK customer support so you know you’re in good hands. Let’s take a look at…

Spring has well-and-truly sprung – the gardens are blooming, the flowers are flourishing, and the birds are singing! And yet, capturing all the beauty this colourful and vibrant season has to offer can prove challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing. In our big Spring skills guide this month, we aim to help you improve all aspects of your Canon photography. You’ll learn to take better exposures of bright flowers and you’ll master metering. You’ll learn to use the right aperture and focal length for controlling your depth of field; get close up with your macro lens, or use a long telephoto zoom for far-away wildlife. You’ll learn everything you need to know to take your best Spring shots yet……

Landscape photographers eagerly anticipate the arrival of Spring, as the combination of dramatic light, early morning mist and vibrant colour never fails to get the creative juices flowing. Perfect conditions can be brief, though, so it’s important to be prepared. 01 The golden hours Early morning and late evening are the best times for capturing beautiful landscapes with warm, golden lighting and colourful skies. Watch weather forecasts and avoid overcast or cloudy days. Clear skies with just a smattering of cloud cover create the most colourful skylines. 02 Avoid blown-out skies You’ll invariably encounter skies that are much brighter than the foreground – expose for the sky and the foreground will be plunged into darkness; expose for the foreground and the sky will be completely blown out. The way around…

Shooting from up high Shooting from up high hasn’t really worked here. Bare patches are obvious and distracting. The small aperture of f/9 has also made the scene sharp from front to back, which makes the image look flat. Shooting while kneeling By kneeling down and getting lower, the snowdrops are compressed, and although they don’t take up as much of the frame, they do have more impact. The scene is so full of white flowers it almost looks like a snow-filled forest. Shooting from down low A wide aperture of f/2.8 at 60mm has compressed the snowdrops even more. This combination has also thrown the trees in the background and the flowers in the foreground out of focus, giving the image added depth.…

Viana do Costelo. Norte, Portugal. 6:43am. 3 May 2018. “I’m sitting on our balcony by the tripod with a roomservice toastie and scotch waiting for the light” 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 Okay, I’ll accept that maybe last night’s pit stop in a motel behind a Shell service station just off the Autopista outside Santander, was not the most evocative of starts… We’re trying to hide our dismay at the weather forecast Wendy’s got up on her phone, but just look at…

01 EXPOSE FOR THE SUN When you’re shooting outdoors with a Speedlite it’s possible to use the sun as a key light and the flash as a fill, or viceversa. Just like before, we begin here by metering for the key light while leaving the fill off, resulting in a rather high-contrast sun-lit portrait. 02 POSITION THE SPEEDLITE Next we turn on the Speedlite and position it opposite the angle of the sunlight in order to fill in the shadows and reduce the strong contrast over the subjects face. The flash is in Manual at 1/2 power and fired through a diffusion panel from a 5-in-1 reflector to soften the light. 03 LIFT THE SHADOWS The Speedlite fills in the shadows and reduces the contrast. The burst of flash also…

01 CAMERA ON TRIPOD Use a good tripod so it makes it easier to blend your two Raw exposures after. We’ve also used a wide-angle EF 16-35mm f/2.8L lens to fit in a large part of the scene and sky. Compose and focus on what’s crucial to the scene – the building in our image. 02 COMPENSATE YOUR EXPOSURE Shoot in Av mode at an aperture around f/8 for good depth of field. Now you can leave the settings, leave the composition and focusing, and with your aperture still fixed at f/8, adjust the shutter speed using exposure comp. 03 EXPOSE FOR THE SKY & SCENE To capture an exposure for the brighter sky we used 1/400 sec, f/8 and ISO200. For the second shot that captured the darker parts…

It’s a sad fact that no Canon bodies possess in-body image stabilization (IBIS). If you’ve ever tried to handhold a shot with a slow shutter speed, or you’ve tried to expose an image at night with minimal light and no tripod, you’ll no doubt have ended up with plenty of camera shake in your images. In-body image stabilization enables you to shoot without those wobbles, whether you’re trying to take a handheld shot or you want to keep your shutter speed as low as possible to let more light into your frame. Thankfully, we’ve got something that’s better: YBIS – your body image stabilization! Whereas IBIS uses a magnetic field to stabilize the sensor itself, with YBIS you’re going to use your own body to stabilize the entire camera. By…

01 OPEN FILTERS To start adding some creative flare effects to the image, click on the drop-down menus at the top of the screen and open the Filter section. Now select Render, and Lens Flare – this will open the box for the effect. 02 CHOOSE YOUR FLARE You have the choice of four different lenses, each producing a unique flare effect. Try starting with the 105mm Prime at a brightness of 137, and drag it to the far right of the frame to add an accent light. 03 ADD AND EXPERIMENT Try different lenses and brightnesses, and drag them around the frame to see what works. We’ve placed another flare on one of the lights at the top, creating the illusion that it’s shining on the crowd. 04 DON’T…

Like most photography magazines, our imageediting advice has usually centred around Adobe software. This isn’t because of bias or shady backhand deals, it’s because – with Photoshop and Lightroom – Adobe have consistently offered the best photo editing tools, and they’ve done so since the dawn of digital photography. But, since Adobe embraced the subscription model in 2013, plenty of photographers – unhappy with the idea of paying for an image editor ad infinitum – have been looking elsewhere. Whether you’re a casual user or a pro the good news is, there are other options out there, and some of them are actually good… This brings us to Serif’s Affinity Photo. It’s an image editor very much in the Photoshop mould. Anybody who’s familiar with Photoshop will recognize lots of…

Lush pinyon, ponderosa, cottonwood, oak, maple and fir create a shady canopy while fern, lupine, horsetail, wildflowers and ivy cover the forest floor. The high Sonoran Desert. I’ve been hiking here for years and formed my education in photography in this forest classroom. In 2015, while doing an overnight backpacking trip here, seven miles into the canyon, I fell from the trail into the creek. I was evacuated out by the Coconino County Search and Rescue with significant injuries. I took my last injection into my back from the injury in August 2018. In October 2018, I took this photo. Of all the hundreds of images I’ve taken of this enchanting place this one is special to me. Gone was the fear of the canyon that lingered after the incident.…

An Image Stabilizer (IS) lens helps combat the effects of camera shake. The technology can only compensate for small movements of the camera and lens, rather than jelly-scale wobbles, and it has no effect on moving objects in the picture; if the shutter speed is too slow to freeze them, you’ll still end up with a soft image. Not all IS lenses are equal in terms of their shake-stopping power, but four ‘stops’ of stabilization is routine. This means, in theory, the lens can be handheld at shutter speeds that are four stops slower than suggested. So, 1/400 sec is the minimum recommended shutter speed for sharp handheld photos with a 400mm lens, but that can drop to 1/25 sec with a four-stop stabilizer on board. Before you can activate the…

INCREASING the ISO allows you to tap into faster shutter speeds or smaller apertures, both can deliver sharper images. The problem with high sensitivities – north of ISO3200 – is picture noise also increases. Noise can also be exaggerated by digital sharpening. Your camera has a High ISO Noise Reduction option, which kicks in at these higher sensitivities. The trouble is that it can remove some of the detail in an image. You can adjust the strength of this, or switch it off. It may be better to have some noise and a more ‘defined’ shot than no noise at all. Shoot Raw when in low light – where you’d usually use high ISOs – as you can forget this setting and apply noise reduction when you process.…

01 3 Legged Thing Ellie Ellie could be a must-have accessory £65/$70 www.3leggedthing.com ELLIE is designed to fit a large range of Canons. The base can be precisely adjusted, and the length of the base itself can be altered for better alignment. It all helps make the setup more balanced and less susceptible to snags and knocks. 02 Bowens XMT500 British brand gets a second lease of life £699/$700 www.wexphotovideo.com PHOTOGRAPHIC equipment brand Bowens, which ceased operations in 2017 after 94 years, has been resurrected by Wex Photo Video, which announced the Bowens XMT500 as the first relaunched product. The flash supports manual and TTL shooting, high speed sync up to 1/8000 sec, and features both sync delay (from 0.01 to 30 seconds) and a strobe mode to deliver up…

For those looking for a lightweight tele zoom lens on a budget, this EF 70-200mm f/4L IS Mark I lens has become relatively inexpensive in some world regions, costing little more than the non-stabilized version. An image stabilizer is a key advantage for handheld telephoto shooting, making this lens a smart budget buy. Better built than Canon’s non-stabilized 70-200mm f/4L lens, this one gains weatherseals. It’s a bit slimmer, shorter and lighter than the new f/4L IS II USM lens (see page 108), and about half the weight of most 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. There’s the usual autofocus range limiter switch, and the minimum focus distance of 1.2m matches Canon’s f/2.8L. The new second edition of the Canon f/4L lens can focus down to 1.0m, giving a greater max magnification ratio.…

Nearly all of the lenses in this group have a popular 70-200mm zoom range, with a constant aperture of either f/2.8 or f/4. The Tamron 70-210mm f/4 lens is similar, but two of Sigma’s ‘fast tele’ lenses are notable exceptions and unique. As mentioned at the start of the test, the 50-100mm Art lens for APS-C format cameras gives an effective zoom range of 80-160mm, whereas the 120-300mm Sports lens goes large in reach. This sequence of shots shows how the focal lengths work out in practical terms.…

It’s a big ask to deliver 50 per cent more telephoto reach than a 70-200mm lens while maintaining a constant f/2.8 aperture. The result is a big lens that weighs almost 3.4kg. And while it retains internal zoom and focus mechanisms, the lens also measures about 1.5 times longer than most 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses and has a wide girth, along with a 105mm filter thread. It’s also about twice the price of Sigma’s new 70-200mm Sports lens. Despite being the first lens in Sigma’s Sports line, it still features a Custom modes switch, with autofocus speed, autofocus limiter distance and optical stabilization effects – customizable via the optional USB Dock. It was also Sigma’s first lens to feature weather-seals, although it doesn’t have fluorine coatings on the front and rear…

Canon, Sigma and Tamron all make 1.4x and 2.0x extenders or ‘tele-converters’, the latest editions of which are fully compatible with the respective brands of lenses on test. The only catch is that, if you use a 2.0x extender with an f/4 lens, the widest available aperture shrinks to f/8. This will make autofocus unavailable unless you have a fairly recent, high-spec camera.…

The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM is a lush lens. But, the new Sigma 70-200mm Sports lens delivers sumptuous image quality and all-round performance, and is sharper when shooting wide-open at both ends of the zoom. It has a more refined feature-set with customization options via the USB Dock. It’s also much less expensive to buy. Our only complaints are that it’s a little bigger and heavier than most 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. The Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 is nearly as good as the Sigma but, despite having a 5-stop, triple-mode stabilizer, stabilization isn’t as effective when panning. If you want to downsize to a 70-200mm f/4 lens, the new Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS II USM is a great pick – the original is…

FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ▪ Landscape composition cheats ▪ How to operate a tilt-shift lenses ▪ Plus new Photoshop Elements, CC and Lightroom, and new Affinity Photo editing guides PLUS ALL THIS… ▪ Super Test: Super massive telephoto lenses! ▪ Big Canon tips guide: Find out how to capture amazing photos of wildlife ▪ Canon School: new in-depth techniques, more answers to your tricky questions ▪ The Interview: Christian Ziegler, awardwinning German wildlife photojournalist ISSUE 152 ON SALE 30 APRIL…

35 Number of essential Canon tips for taking better photos of everything this Spring (p30) 180 degrees The field of view of a Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens – learn how to use one on p54 £599 Price of Tamron’s 70-210mm tested against seven other fast telephoto zoom lenses (p104) 35-150 Focal length of a new Tamron full-frame f/2.8-4 Di VC OSD ‘portrait zoom’ lens (p94) f/2.8 Aperture Richard Maidment used for all his shots in Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo (p74) 10.3 secs Shutter speed Valerie Millett used to capture Monument Valley in Arizona (p66)…

FACTFILE Miles Herbert’s photo studio AROUND 12 years ago Miles started CaptiveLight offering photography days for fellow photographers to take photos of various animals, such as: birds of prey, reptiles, amphibians, harvest mice and other small creatures. The studio is located at Liberty’s Owl, Raptor, Reptiles centre in Ringwood, Hampshire. If you want to know more, head over to captivelight.uk cewe THE PRINT SPECIALISTS FROM photo books to prints, wall art to gifts, CEWE can turn your favourite photos into something extra special. CEWE is a European company with over 50 years of experience in all things photo printing. Based in Warwick, their state of the art production facility houses the very latest in printing technology, and delivers millions of photo products each year. From photo books to prints, and…

Create a coffee-table book and show off your best images! Whether you choose a Classic, Gloss or a Matte finish, your shots will be printed on premium-quality Fujifilm 300gsm paper* that has a wider colour range and more luxurious than regular photo paper. The result is faithful, traditional print reproduction at much higher resolution than digital printing can achieve, with vibrant hues, and smooth colour gradients. Every CEWE PHOTOBOOK with photographic paper is bound Layflat, so the book opens flat across a double page, with no arching and no gutter in between – perfect for landscape shots across a double-page spread! * CEWE also offer Photo Books in a range of digital papers, rather than Fujifilm 300gsm photographic paper, and these are perfect-bound rather than Layflat…

The sumptuous colours of flowers instantly draw photographers into gardens and the countryside during Spring. The intense hues and varied palette create eye-catching pictures, but it’s essential that you set up correctly, if you’re going to do justice to their natural beauty. 01 Avoid bright sunlight A bright day is usually not the best time to shoot flowers – light cloud cover is actually better. This offers soft, diffused light that illuminates blooms evenly. Direct sunlight, however, comes into its own when you backlight flowers to capture the translucency of their leaves or petals, like these poppies (below). 02 The background Try to choose a background that complements the colour of the subject rather than overpowering it. Out-of-focus grass, trees, or a hillside all provide an uncluttered background. If a…

Using a macro lens to get up close with insects, mushrooms and other wonderful subjects opens up a whole new world of creative opportunities. The term ‘macro’ is loosely applied to all sorts of lenses that can focus a little bit closer than normal, but strictly speaking it’s a lens that can reproduce the subject at life size or larger on the sensor. This means being able to get close enough to something as small as, say, a bee and fill the frame with it. 01 Above and beyond When shooting bugs and other wildlife, it’s too easy to get wrapped up in what your subject is doing without paying attention to what’s going on in the background. Usually, the only way to change the background is to change your…

The treetops and skies of the UK come to life in the Spring, particularly during the daily dawn chorus, as birds flirt, fly and feed. Getting frame-filling shots that are pin-sharp is a real challenge, but armed with the tips outlined below, you’ll be well on your way… 01 Take control For full creative control it’s best to manually select your AF (autofocus) point. If you leave your camera on AF auto point selection when photographing birds, it can resort to focusing on the objects closest to you in a scene – such as unwanted branches in the foreground rather than your chosen subject. For a more interesting composition, position your subject off-centre and then select the AF point that’s closest to the bird’s head or eyes, as in the…

IN EACH of our three portraits here the key light is metered at f/8, while the fill has been varied by reducing the power setting by 1.0 in each – one stop. On the left the fill is at f/5.6, which is one stop below the key. This gives us a 2:1 ratio, as the key is double the strength of the fill. In the middle pose the fill is at f/4, giving a 4:1 ratio – this time the key is 4 (or 2²) times stronger than the fill. On the right the fill is three stops below the key at f/2.8, giving us a ratio of 8:1 as the key is 2³ times stronger than the fill. But which is right? It’s down to preference. A 2:1 setup…

A fisheye lens enables you to capture a unique perspective on the world. However, it can be surprisingly difficult to get shots that make the most effective use of that rather unique perspective. It can be hard to see past the “fisheyeness” of the lens, and fall into the common trap of shooting lots of similar, gimmicky shots – and then leave the lens gathering dust on your shelf, because you think that’s all it can do. Like any other lens, a fisheye is a tool, however, where most lenses are tools for very specific purposes – a portrait lens is for shooting portraiture, a tilt-shift lens is for taking architectural shots and so on – a fisheye lens’ specific purpose isn’t a genre, but simply creativity. Some people insist…

01 PUT A RING ON IT First of all, you’ll need a 1/4-inch hinged D-ring screw. These are available for about a pound or so on sites like eBay, or alternatively you could just remove one from the mounting plate on your tripod – keeping it all nice and simple from the start. 02 TWIST AND TURN Screw the D-ring into the mounting thread on the bottom of your camera body. Obviously do it up as tightly as you can, to ensure that it doesn’t come loose (it’s liable to get turned and twisted when you attach the hook, so screw it in well). 03 ROPE-A-DOPE Now you’ll need a travel bungee cord – which costs less than a fiver, and comes pre-looped with a hook attached – or a…

If you can blend photos together in a convincing way, you can create all kinds of imaginative scenes with Photoshop. Five different photos make up our teacup composite here – the cup image acts as a base for all the others. Then there’s the images of the windswept trees and the wave that fills the teacup – plus two photos of clouds and lightning that have been blended together for the sky. Can you see the seams between each? The trick here is to use layer masks to blend the different shots together. We can either use precise masks to cut out objects like the trees, or create gentle transitions to blend images together like the clouds in the sky. We’ll explain both methods here. To build our composite we’ll…

01 CHOOSE A PERSONA One of the biggest differences with Affinity Photo is the Persona system. Accessed by buttons in the top left corner, these are divided into Photo, Liquify, Develop, Tone Mapping and Export. Each brings different tools to the fore. So, if you open a Raw photo into Affinity it’ll appear in the Develop Persona. 02 RAW TOOLS The Develop Persona is Affinity Photo’s Raw editor (although we can edit other file formats here too). We can begin by enhancing tones and make selective tonal tweaks with Overlays. Once done, we can click the Develop button to commit the changes and send our image into the Photo Persona for further editing. 03 FREQUENCY SEPARATION This is an ace retoucher that separates detail and tone – great for skin.…

I am an artist who creates because it’s a part of my being. All my life, I’ve expressed my point of view with the creative arts via my writing, music, comedy, acting, mixed media art and photography. Many years ago, I wrote a song called Crayons and one of my favourite lines I wrote in the song says, “We are crayons in the box, different colours but all made the same, for one purpose: to colour the picture.” Life is my canvas and I love using every creative medium I can to explore my colourful moments in time. When I really got into my personal photography, I was trying to learn about my Canon EOS 80D, so I was trying different settings while shooting anything and everything. At work the…

01 BROWSE TO START FILE Open CrossProcess_start.jpg in Digital Photo Professional 4’s Folder view. Click its thumbnail, then the Edit Image button, so the shot fills the workspace. Click the Color Adjustment panel’s tab to access its colour-adjusting tools. 02 CREATE CYAN SKIES Drag the Blue channel’s Hue slider left to -16. This gives the ordinary blue sky a more stylized Cyan hue. There’s some Aqua colours in the sky too, so drag that channel’s Hue slider left to -4 to complete the sky’s Hue adjustment. 03 ADD A MAGENTA HUE You can target and tweak specific areas, such as the red brickwork. Drag the Red channel’s Hue slider left to -20 to add a magenta tint to the building on the left. Drag the master Saturation slider left to…

Locking your camera on a tripod improves your chances of taking sharp shots even more. You can use a low ISO to get the best quality images, and use a smaller aperture to increase the depth of field, without having to be concerned about holding the camera still during the exposure. It won’t make any difference if the subject moves, but it does remove the worry of wobbly camera. It’s good for shooting in Live View – or when using a mirrorless EOS – where it’s harder to support the camera handheld. To make full use of the benefit of a tripod, make sure all the joints and knobs are fully tightened before you take the shot. Use the camera’s two-second self-timer or a remote release to fire the shutter,…

How do you use Eye-AF on the EOS R, I use face detection, but it never seems to concentrate on the eyes? Andrew Young, Surrey BRIAN SAYS… Eye AF is not active by default when you choose the face detect AF method. Eye AF can either be set in the menu, or press the AF select button on the camera, then the M-Fn button to choose face detection, and finally press INFO to activate Eye AF. The icon will change from a face to an eye on the LCD. At the current time you can only use Eye AF when the camera is set to one-shot focus, not servo AF. When it’s all setup you focus on the face, the camera detects the face and then identifies the position of the…

CLAIRE COLSTON, IWADE SAYS… Photography has been a passion of mine since I started processing my own photos in my mum’s bathroom. Twenty years ago I photographed a friend’s wedding and now shoot twelve weddings a year, though photography is not my main job. I decided to indulge my passion for photography and hired a Canon 100-400mm lens to try photographing some wildlife at a local nature reserve. I shot this picture from the comfort of my car, with the camera pointed out of the window. I processed the Raw file with Lightroom and just tweaked vibrance, contrast, saturation and the shadows a little bit. Lens Canon EF 100-40mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Exposure 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO1600 BRIAN SAYS… The overall flat lighting of an overcast rainy day gives…

Despite rumours that it would be a professional-grade version of the Canon EOS R (which is indeed coming), the Canon EOS RP is instead a more populist version of the company’s full-frame mirrorless model. Indeed, the ‘P’ in the name stands for ‘popular’, in the sense of meaning ‘for everybody’. This tells you exactly who the EOS RP is intended for. The company listened to feedback and realized that there was a lot of interest in the EOS R from advanced amateur photographers: the kind who already own an APS-C camera (such as a Canon EOS 77D or M50) and want to take the leap into full-frame, but don’t need the specialist features and don’t want the bulk and weight. The EOS RP, therefore, sits adjacent to the 6D Mark…

Canon seems to have been content to stick with its winning formula when updating its top-flight 70-200mm zoom. An ASC (Air Sphere Coating) has been added to the 19th element in the optical path, to reduce ghosting and flare, and fluorine coatings are applied to the front and rear elements, to repel moisture and grease. It has top build quality and handling, and the same optical configuration that includes fluorite and Super UD (Ultra-low Dispersion) elements. But, for high-end features, the Canon loses out to the latest competitors from Sigma and Tamron. The Tamron has a more effective image stabilizer, complete with an additional operating mode, and the Sigma has dual autofocus modes and the availability of two custom modes. Performance Compared with the previous edition of the lens, Canon…

Typically, fast telephoto zooms exhibit minor barrel distortion at the short end of the zoom range, negligible distortion at mid-range settings, and a little pincushion at the long end. That’s true of nearly all the lenses in this test group, although the Sigma 50-100mm and 120-300mm lenses are virtually distortion-free at the short end, the latter having minor pincushion throughout its entire range. Automatic in-camera corrections are available for the Canon lenses, as well as the Sigma 70-200mm Sports and 50-100mm Art, although the latter may need a firmware update.…

This Sigma lens is designed exclusively for APS-C format DSLRs, on which it gives a relatively short effective range of 80-160mm. The flip side is that it’s 1.33 f/stops faster than an f/2.8 lens, which can give significant advantages. For one, you can shoot with faster shutter speeds under low lighting conditions, freezing the action for indoor sports. However, as one of Sigma’s ‘Art’ rather than ‘Sports’ lenses, it’s designed more for enabling a tight depth of field for creative effect. It’s ideal for still life and portraiture, when you want to combine sharpness with beautiful bokeh – the quality of defocused areas within images (see Sharpness and blur). Up-market glass includes FLD (Fluorite-grade Low Dispersion), SLD (Special Low Dispersion), high-refractive-index and high-dispersion elements. Performance With no image stabilizer, the…

All of the lenses here manage to keep colour fringing to a minimum. For most, lateral chromatic aberrations are barely visible, even towards the extreme corners of the frame, when shooting at either end of the zoom range. Fringing tends to be more negligible at mid-zoom. The least impressive in the group are the older edition of the Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens at its longest zoom setting, and the Tamron 70-210mm f/4 at its shortest zoom setting.…

The newest telephoto zoom in Tamron’s stable stretches to a longer focal length than the competing Canon f/4 lenses and has a matching constantaperture design. It’s a little heavier, at 860g, but still slimmer and lighter than any of the f/2.8 lenses here. Like Tamron’s f/2.8 G2 lens, this one is compatible with the company’s optional TAP-in Console and tele-converters (see ‘Extend your reach). As an f/4 lens, however, the aperture rating shrinks to f/8 when using a 2x tele-converter, so autofocus will be unavailable unless you have a fairly recent, up-market camera body that supports autofocus at f/8. There’s no autofocus range limiter switch, nor multiple switchable stabilization modes. There are basically only two switches on the lens barrel, for VC on/off and AF/MF. As with the Canon f/4…

Limited back issues of PhotoPlus print editions are available on our MyFavouriteMagazines secure store at http://bit.ly/getphotoplus. But if you’ve got an iPad, Android, Kindle or Nook tablet, or iPhone or Android smartphone, you can download PhotoPlus back issues from the following digital edition options: • Got an Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch? Get the free PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine app in the App Store or at bit.ly/photoplus_app then browse through our back issues or subscribe through the app. • Kindle Fire or Nook HD? Simply search for PhotoPlus on Amazon’s Newsstand or in B&N’s Nook store. • Android/Google Play? Go to bit.ly/photoplus_googleplay to subscribe to PhotoPlus on your Android device. • Windows or Mac? Use Zinio to read PhotoPlus on your laptop or desktop computer! Go to bit.ly/zinio_photoplus where…

An Affinity with software Re John Earl’s letter in the March issue of PhotoPlus, I also use Affinity Photo software, and agree completely with John’s request that you include Affinity tutorials. I have used Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, but from what I understand Affinity is becoming increasingly popular. Is it likely to replace Photoshop? Probably not, but it certainly has it’s place and I would welcome tutorials that include the package, not simply Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials. Good magazine, by the way. Lynne Whatmore, Manchester Thanks for your email, Lynne. This is one of many positive responses we’ve had from our readers requesting that we cover Serif’s Affinity Photo sofware. We like to listen to our reader’s feedback, so you’ll be pleased to know that from this issue onwards, we’ll…

The best stories this month on DigitalCameraWorld.com New Canon EOS R due in 2019 Canon to reveal high-res 70Mp EOS R by the end of the year, with IBIS stabilization, two card slots and a joystick. Find more at DCW via bit.ly/new_eosr 10 newborn photography tips Baby photography can be challenging yet hugely rewarding, Canon pro Karen Wiltshire shows how to get great photos of newborns. More at DCW via bit.ly/newborn_photos Compact cameras buyers guide superzooms to point-and-shoots The best compact cameras money can buy, from superzoom and travel cameras to premium point-and-shoots. More at DigitalCameraWorld via bit.ly/compacts_dcw…

MANUAL MODE FOR LIGHTS IN MILES’S studio he has three lighting heads set up to ensure he’s in total control of the lighting: “And for Robin to take control of her exposures she needs to shoot in Manual,” suggests Miles. “This enables you to set the aperture and shutter speed to get the results you want, and is essential when shooting with lights. With your exposure fixed in Manual, you can then adjust your lights for different brightness. This way you control which parts of your wildlife subject and backdrop are lit and which areas are bathed in shadow.” WHITE BALANCE SETTINGS MILES advised Robin to set her white balance manually to 5500K: “From experience I know that when shooting with my Elinchrom lights, this white balance setting produces the…

Lens Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Exposure 1/160 sec, f/22, ISO200 ROBIN’S COMMENT By now I was feeling more confident and once I’d focused on this red-eyed tree frog, Miles suggested I composed for the frog to be on the right of my frame, so I had space for him to use his pipet to squeeze small drops of water gently to the side. I fired away and captured shots with water drops splashing up. That being said, I prefer this image as the drop doesn’t distract from the frog, plus the resulting ripples on the water’s surface bring the shot to life. MILES’S VERDICT Although Robin hadn’t shot using studio lights before, she quickly became accustomed to our setup and was happy getting stuck in up-close to…

01 RHINO BLACK AND WHITE BY PAUL NASH This stunning black and white study of a rhino makes the most of its monochrome tones to highlight the textured skin and the majesty of this wonderful animal. Taken at a focal length of 160mm on the Canon EF 75-300mm, the aperture enables the lens to render the details with tack-sharpness, captured with the great resolution of the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. Lens Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM Exposure 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO400 02 RED-EYED TREE FROG BY SANDRA COCKAYNE This sensational shot won the Animal Planet contest, and deservedly so! It has it all: character, composition, colour, timing and technique. The way the leaf bisects the image shows very accomplished framing, and the way its curvature mimics the shape…

f/22 f/5.6 HOWEVER fast your shutter speed, there’s no guarantee that everything in your picture will be sharp, because lenses can only precisely focus on one distance at a time. Fortunately, parts of the image at other distances don’t necessarily look out of focus – there’s always a range of distances that look acceptably sharp to the human eye. The range that appears in focus is known as the depth of field. This can stretch for miles (from your feet to the distant horizon), or be restricted to just a few millimetres. Three factors dictate how much depth of field you have to play with: 01 Focusing distance The closer you are to a subject, the less depth of field you capture. This is why depth of field is so…

Few scenes shout out that Spring has arrived more than a forest floor blanketed by bluebells, snowdrops or wild garlic. Such scenes are easy enough to find up and down the country, but to capture inspirational photos of these quintessential British flowers it’s essential you get to grips with the right techniques – from framing and focusing to depth of field and exposure. 01 Stay focused It’s tempting to try to fit in the treetops, but if you do this, the flowers will tend to disappear into the scene, and the trees will become the most dominant feature. Instead, make sure the flowers are the main focal point, do this by tilting your camera downwards, or you can use a long lens or getting down low (see Get Things In…

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Key and fill is one of the most fundamental concepts in lighting. It’s a reliable technique not just for portraits, but for many different subjects. Over the next few pages we’ll look at how this simple setup can lead to great portraits in the studio, and all kinds of other scenarios. In essence a key and fill are two light sources – one slightly stronger than the other. The key light is the main light used to illuminate our subject, while the fill light provides a lift to the shadows. It’s such an effective technique for lighting because it gives depth and form to our subject. It provides a play of light and shade across them and it’s this that creates a sense of depth and shape to the face.…

HERE WE’VE switched to studio flash for our key and fill, using one large softbox to the left of the camera for the key, and a smaller softbox to the right for fill (the three portraits opposite are lit with this setup). We’re in Manual, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO100. WE METER the flash by holding an incident light meter up to the face, angled towards each light (with the other one turned off). With our key measuring f/8, we can choose to set the fill at between f/8 and f/2 to control the strength of the shadows.…

One common dilemma many amateur Canon photographers face when photographing high-contrast scenes when the sun is low in the sky – at sunrise and sunset – is being unable to take a balanced exposure in one image. This is especially true when you’re photographing a scene or building that’s backlit by the rising or setting sun. The difference in brightness between the landscape area in shadow and the bright sky can be anything up to three-tofour stops in exposure terms. There are a few solutions to fix this problem: you could use an ND Graduated filter to darken the sky. But these can be expensive, a faff to use if you don’t know what you’re doing, and only really work well if the horizon is perfectly straight – unlike our…

01 FISHEYE LENS CHOICES There are many fisheyes, but Canon’s EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM with a 180-degree angle of view enables you to create circular fisheye images, as well as shots with full-frame coverage. 02 F/8 AND BE THERE Fisheye lenses enable you to achieve a large depth of field. So we’re going to shoot with an aperture of f/8, to maximize this, and use the ISO and shutter speed to control the brightness of our exposures. 03 GET LOW! With its enormous field of view, we can get down and close to the subject, exaggerating the perspective. This achieves a low angle that wouldn’t be possible with a normal lens unless we dug a hole in the ground! 04 BACKGROUND IS KEY With a portrait lens and/or a…

As the days get longer and the sun pokes its nose out more and more, you might start catching a hint of lens flare if you’re shooting outdoors without a lens hood. Often the effect is so pleasing that we don’t try to avoid it, but rather actively incorporate it into our images. Of course, living in the UK, we can’t rely on the sun cooperating when we want this special effect. And it’s not just outdoor images that benefit from lens flare; any strong, direct light source that’s captured in your frame can accommodate a hint of flare. So it’s fortunate that Photoshop Elements makes it easy to add this lens characteristic to your images, with relative ease, in the postproduction stages. Just because it’s easy to do it,…

01 CUT OUT THE CUP Open teacup.jpg and the Pen tool. Use it to trace the front edge of the teacup as shown (or, use the Quick Selection tool). Once done, right-click and Make Selection, then hit Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the selection to a new layer. Open the wave shot (Pixabay 3119563). 02 ADD A WAVE Grab the Quick Selection tool and paint to select the wave. Click ‘Select and mask’ and increase Radius to about 50px. Set Output: Layer Mask and hit OK. Copy the wave over with the Move tool and drag it below the top layer, then hit Cmd/Ctrl+T and move it in the cup. 03 SELECT THE TREES Right-click the wave layer and ‘Convert to Smart Object’ then add a layer mask and paint black to…

ALTHOUGH she is a prolific blogger with a huge following, Valerie Millett prefers to let her photos do all the talking. Her love of the great outdoors is indisputable – she devotes most of her free time to capturing the landscapes of her adopted home state, hiking deep into the Arizona wilderness, often for days at a time, never happier than when she has a canyon trail, or river bend all to herself. Unlike many of her peers, Valerie rarely seeks the limelight and maintains a low profile, despite the growing popularity of her landscape imagery and regular publication in American magazines, calendars and web platforms. Interviews have been few, particularly on this side of the Atlantic, but we wanted to hunt her down to find out more about her…

Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike This is a selection of images taken from my most recent project, which focuses on the workers within the world renowned Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan – the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. I visited the market several times leading up to its closure in October 2018, when it was relocated to a brand new facility at Toyosu Market, which is about 1.5 miles away. Opened in 1935, Tsukiji Market was one of the oldest and largest fish markets in the world. Indeed, sources state that over 2000 tons of seafood was sold every single day. When I first visited the market I became fascinated by the people who worked there, and I returned multiple times up until…

It’s not just a job or a diversion for me, it’s a real labour of love – I can’t imagine doing anything else I specialize in pet and equine photography. It’s not just a job or a diversion for me, it’s a real labour of love – I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’ve spent a lifetime around animals, studying their qualities, mindfully watching their antics and getting them to trust me behind the camera. The interaction and bond I see between pets, horses and their owners and what they do for each other continually amazes me. I love to capture that in photographs. I work in a natural light studio and use available light on location. I believe in keeping all things natural, especially when animals are concerned. My…

01 GLOBAL ADJUSTMENTS Dragging the master Saturation slider to the right boosts all colours in the shot equally. This can make weaker colours look better, but may oversaturate more vibrant ones. You can also adjust the Hue of all colours at once with the master Hue slider. 02 COLOUR RANGE Each colour slider affects a particular range of colours. This gradient preview bar enables you to discern precisely which range of colours will be adjusted by the adjacent slider. 03 EMPHASIZE SEASONS By boosting the oranges in the photo we can tease out remaining hints of autumnal colours clinging to the trees in our spring-sourced shot. A boost of the Orange channel’s Saturation slider also helps the gold window frame pop out a little in contrast with the green engine.…

You can only focus a lens on a single point, but other parts of the image in front of and beyond this will still appear sharp. This is known as the depth of field (DoF), and it varies according to a few bits; how close you are to the subject and the size of the camera’s sensor, for example. The easiest way to control the DoF is by changing the aperture. Larger ones such as f/2.8 and f/4 reduce the DoF. Small apertures, like f/11 and f/16 increase DoF. The problem with using a small aperture is that it lets less light into the camera. This means the sensor has to be exposed for longer to record an image – that increases the risk of camera shake. You could increase…

The final piece of the sharpening jigsaw is digital sharpening, which is applied to an image as it’s processed – either in the camera or in software. When sharpening is applied digitally, it essentially boosts the contrast between the edges of objects and their surrounding areas. The stronger the digital sharpening, the greater the emphasis made to outlines in an image. Digital sharpening can be separated into ‘input’ and ‘output’. The input sharpening is what was dialled in on the camera when shooting a JPEG, or the sharpening applied when processing a Raw. Shooting Raw gives you more control. To adjust the strength of the sharpening on your camera, you’ll need to visit the Picture Style menu – each preset has a set amount of Sharpness. The Standard and Landscape…

The Canon EOS R has polarized opinions since launch, but what’s it like in reality? With the launch, Canon also released a new lens mount that is the future of the EOS system. However a lens mount needs a camera and lenses. The EOS R is made from several elements seen on other EOS cameras, and two of the new RF lenses were announced to show what is possible with the new mount. The EF-EOS R lens adapter takes all the old EF and EF-S lenses, it’s just a spacer and adapts the electrical contacts to the new RF mount. The EOS R “speaks” both RF and EF lens protocols natively. When using EF or EF-S lenses with Image Stabilizer the IS unit runs continuously, so that the camera can…

When the EOS RP was announced, some critics scoffed at its ‘unambitious’ specs, and while this may be the case when it comes to video, where the RP suffers from compromised 4K shooting, this is a superb full-frame camera for stills photography. The image quality is top-notch, the autofocusing is rapid and responsive (especially in low-light conditions), and in spite of its entry-level billing, this would make a worthy second body for many pros, such is its performance in the field. While for amateurs looking to sample that full-frame flavour, at the very competitive price of £1399 (with an EF-EOS R adapter) it’s almost a no-brainer. The RP is a capable camera that’s a joy to use; paired with the RF 35mm f/1.8 lens, it might just be our favourite…

Over recent years, Tokina has become something of a wide-angle zoom specialist. Its popular 11-16mm lens for APS-C format cameras dates back to 2008. A Mk II edition was launched back in 2013 but the Canon-?t version was only a minor refresh, with updated coatings. This 11-20mm goes further, literally, by extending the overall zoom range while still maintaining a constant-aperture design, delivering f/2.8 at all focal lengths. One of the things that made the original 11-16mm lens so popular was its combination of sturdy build and good optical performance at an attractive selling price. The 11-20mm feels similarly robust and features a weather-seal ring on its mounting plate, which is lacking in both of Canon’s own-brand 10-22mm and 10-18mm wide-angle zooms for APS-C format SLRs. The Tokina has better…

To test real-world performance, we use lenses in all sorts of lighting conditions, both indoors and outdoors. We check for good build quality and handling, smooth and precise operation of all controls, the speed and accuracy of autofocus, and the effectiveness of image stabilization, where fitted. We test full-frame compatible lenses on a range of fullframe and APS-C format bodies, whereas lenses that are designed for APS-C format bodies are only tested on the latter. In-camera corrections for chromatic aberrations and peripheral illumination are disabled throughout all testing, to reveal the true performance of each lens. We also run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master and DxO Analyser suites. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms, then analysed…

Whereas the upgrades in Canon’s new f/2.8 zoom are minimal, there’s a comparative feast packed into the second edition of this lens, both of them being launched last summer. Updates include a revamped optical path, but it still features high-end fluorite and UD elements. The AF gains a new processor for increased speed and accuracy, and the replacement stabilizer is the most advanced of any Canon lens here. Indeed, the new-generation stabilizer has a 5-stop rating, gaining two full stops over the stabilizer in the original lens. Not only that but, unlike the stabilizers in the two other Canon lenses on test, this one has three operating modes, similar to the Tamron 70-200mm G2. The second-edition lens gains 4mm in girth and length, and has a larger 72mm filter thread.…

More than just an update, this new lens is redesigned from the ground up. The new optical path features 24 elements in 22 groups, incorporating nine FLD elements and one SLD element. There’s also a well-rounded aperture, based on 11 diaphragm blades. The autofocus system can be switched to Auto-Priority or Manual-Priority modes, the latter enabling manual override even in AI Servo autofocus mode. The design also features three AF-stop buttons, with the option of use as AF-on buttons via custom functions menus in enthusiast/pro grade cameras. The new optical stabilizer has switchable static and panning modes, the latter working in landscape, portrait and even diagonally. As we’ve seen in a number of other Sigma lenses, dual ‘Custom’ modes can be switched on. These can be set up with the…

The Tamron G2’s optical design has been refined to increase sharpness and contrast, while reducing colour fringing, ghosting and flare. The autofocus system is uprated for faster, more accurate performance, and the VC (Vibration Compensation) system has three switchable modes and up to 5-stop effectiveness. Along with a full set of weather-seals, the lens has a fluorine coating on the front element. As with the Sigma 70-200mm Sports lens, the Tamron G2 has a tripod mount ring with an Arca-Swiss compatible foot. But, the Tamron’s mounting ring can be removed, without leaving a protruding stub. The lens is also noticeably smaller and about 300g lighter than the Sigma, and has a more typical 77mm filter thread. Another similarity with the Sigma lens is connectivity with an optional USB docking station.…

When you need more telephoto reach than your lens can supply, an extender is an attractive option, as featured on the previous page. It’s cheaper to buy than a bigger, more powerful telephoto lens, and much easier to carry. But, an extender is much like a glorified magnifying glass. It magnifies a small section of the image circle produced by the lens to which it’s attached, but it also magnifies every flaw. You may notice a slight loss of sharpness, while AF speed and accuracy can take a hit. For the best performance, invest in a super-telephoto zoom if you need greater reach, like the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, at £2000/$2050. Sigma and Tamron have recently launched high-tech yet lightweight 100-400mm lenses, at a more modest price…