Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

Editor Life can throw many challenges at you along the way. It’s how you stand up and handle them that counts. This issue we have a world-exclusive interview with award-winning nature photojournalist Christian Ziegler. He reveals how he suffered a severe stroke and lost essential language skills… losing the ability to write, as well as to speak German, English and French that he’d spoken fluently previously. Christian could understand all these languages still, but could not speak them. But this massive challenge did not stop him! Christian persisted relentlessly over a period of 18 months of rehab to communicate again, working intensively for eight hours a day Thankfully, Christian hadn’t lost the ability to use the language of photography. His determination is even more amazing than his wildlife images of…

Every passionate photographer will benefit from the top-class print quality of a CEWE PHOTOBOOK displaying their favourite images in true style on beautiful photographic paper. Printed on luxurious 300gsm Fujifilm paper, and available in Classic, Gloss or Matte finishes, photographic paper has a wider colour range compared to traditional digital photo paper. It’s also heavier, with a textured feel that oozes quality when held in your hands The result is a faithful, traditional print reproduction of your photographs at a much higher resolution than digital printing can achieve, with vibrant, saturated hues, and smoother colour gradients. Furthermore, the paper is covered with a light-reactive chemical coating before projecting the image onto the paper, which will then develop as in a traditional wet print process. For your peace of mind, there’s…

Get down low to eye-level Good wildlife portraits rely on impact to engage the viewer. A great way to achieve this is through direct eye contact. Shoot with your Canon DSLR level with the animal’s eyes for a more intimate portrait. Rest your telephoto lens on a bean bag – or your camera bag, if necessary. To capture a relaxed expression, wait for the subject to naturally look in your direction. Take plenty of shots and keep your eye to the view finder, as the animal’s facial expression can change quickly and it may do something unexpected. Frame tightly or crop in post-processing to concentrate attention on the subject’s face. Keep the eyes in focus To ensure accurate focus, align a single autofocus point with one of the animal’s eyes.…

Know your subject There is added satisfaction to be had by photographing a subject over the course of a season. Choose a subject that is local to you so you can make repeated visits. Build up a thorough knowledge of the animal’s behaviour; many are territorial and have routines, such as the pheasant (right) which means you can plan your shots around this so you’re in the right place at the right time. Take shots remotely A wide-angle lens is a great way to photograph wildlife in its natural habitat. As your camera will need to be closer, so you don’t scare the animal, set up the camera in a likely spot and use a remote trigger to fire the shutter remotely. Keep going back When working on a single…

There are lots of areas of photography that only require you and your camera. Landscape, street, architectural – you can just head out on your own and start shooting. Portrait photography, however, is something that you can only practice with the aid of another person… unless you know how to get ahead of the game! If you can’t find a subject to sit for you, or you don’t yet feel comfortable enough to hire a professional model, it can be next to impossible to practice your portraiture and especially your lighting skills. Yes you could try self portraits, but to really learn how to use your lights and how their placement affects your subject, you need to be on the other side of the camera. The solution? Purchase a mannequin…

Capturing images with flattering colours is one of the great joys of photography. Shooting a subject with auburn hair and a mustard jacket against an autumn backdrop of red and ochre leaves can result in spectacular photos – but what if you don’t want to wait for the seasons, or backgrounds, to change? Using a combination of hue adjustments and layer masks in Photoshop Elements, you can turn an evergreen wood into an autumnal adventure, or even transform it into a fairy tale fantasy realm. This powerful editing technique is surprisingly straightforward, so the only limit is your imagination… and possibly your subject’s wardrobe! In our sample image, the subject is wearing a sugar-pink dress worthy of a Disney princess. However, despite the lovely woodland setting, the image would take…

IN THIS AGE of mass tourism, the Himalayan mountain kingdom of Bhutan remains relatively untouched and shrouded in a relative mystery as persistent as the clouds that obscure the snowcapped peaks rising above the verdant montane forests. This is not an easy country for field work. Steep trails, high humidity and altitude are a constant reminder of the need for physical stamina and mental resilience. For Christian Ziegler, renowned for working months at a time in such testing terrain, returning to Bhutan would normally seem like a familiar undertaking. However that feeling of familiarity is something that was recently denied to him following a life-threatening setback. For the World Press Photo winner and tropical biologist, each visit to the mountain kingdom has represented a further upward step, both physically and…

Digital Photo Professional 4 isn’t compatible with every camera in the Canon range. It only works with files captured by current cameras – and a number of older high-end models, such as the Canon EOS 7D or 6D. DPP 4 is designed to work alongside your camera, enabling you to alter the results produced by various in-camera settings to make better looking pictures. However, in order for this hardware and software double-act to perform at its best you need to be capturing your images in Raw format. When working with a Raw file, DPP 4 can provide you with similar tools to those found in your camera so that you can adjust white balance presets, experiment with different picture styles, and tweak other key in-camera settings to overcome production problems…

Rating images in-camera seems like it’s an extra layer of work – after all, isn’t it easier to select your best images when you can see them on a larger computer monitor? Being being able to produce a shortlist of ‘keepers’ before you sit down in front of a keyboard, however, can trim some time from your editing workflow. The ratings you apply in the camera are recognized by Canon’s Digital Photo Professional and popular software such as Photoshop, allowing you to quickly select only the images you’ve given a specific rating. The same goes for browsing shots on the camera’s display: using the main dial you can jump to the next image that has a specific rating, once you’ve activated this feature under ‘Image jump’ in the Playback menu.…

Will my old Vivitar 285 flash work with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera?Mike Grundy, Cheshire BRIAN SAYS… While the main centre contact aligns with your camera’s hotshoe, you are in danger of frying the camera with old flashes. In the past, cameras used mechanical switching to trigger flashes and it was able to withstand high voltages. Some flashes including some Vivitar 285 models have a trigger voltage up to 300 volts. Six volts is the max for most EOS cameras these days. If you have another more modern flash, set it to Manual mode, and then use an optical slave to trigger your Vivitar flash when another fires, or even an inexpensive radio transmitter. Unless you measure the voltage with a digital voltmeter to confirm it’s six volts…

If you want to shoot eye-catching photos like a seascape with smooth water, city streets absent of people, or light trails at dusk, a neutral density – or ND – filter is a must. This requires a long exposure, but if you’re working in daylight, the necessary super-slow shutter is likely to over-expose. Shooting at your lens’s smallest aperture and your camera’s minimum sensor sensitivity can help, but for a really long exposure, you’ll need to restrict the amount of light entering your lens using an ND filter. These come in various density options, each defined by several numbering scales. For instance, ND 1.8 and ND64 are two ways to describe a filter that cuts light transmission by six f-stops, meaning you can use a speed six stops slower than…

Following on from last month’s Super Test of ‘fast’ telephoto zooms, we’re going extra-large this month. You could extend your reach by adding a tele-converter or ‘extender’ to one of the lenses we reviewed previously, but a purpose-built super-telephoto zoom is likely to deliver better image quality and all-round performance. Favoured focal lengths used to be around the 100-400mm range for supertele zooms, giving twice the max reach of a 70-200mm lens. Canon has mostly stuck to its guns, but its 200-400mm zoom with a built-in extender is a notable exception. Sigma and Tamron have pushed the envelope over recent years, stretching the max focal length first to 500mm and more recently 600mm. The extra reach of current Sigma and Tamron super-tele zooms is nice, but it does come with…

The Sigma 60-600mm on test goes shorter than most, but the typical focal length extremities offered by super-tele zooms tend to be 100mm, 150mm or 200mm at the short end, and either 400mm or 600mm at the long end. The Canon 200-400mm with its built-in extender works out to 560mm at the long end, which is pretty close to the 600mm mark. This sequence of shots shows the amount of pulling power that each major focal length gives you.…

Sigma and Tamron advertise that their super-tele zooms in this test group can be used with each company’s latest teleconverters. We wouldn’t advise this as the aperture towards the long end of the zoom range would narrow to f/9 or f/13, using a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter respectively. The 1.6x crop of an APS-C body gives no loss of aperture, and image quality is likely to be better. The ‘effective’ max focal length of a 600mm would be boosted to a huge 960mm. FULL-FRAME: 600mm APS-C: 600mm…

Professional sports and wildlife photographers often opt for prime super-telephoto lenses rather than zooms. They usually give superior image quality and have faster aperture ratings, more ideal for freezing the action with rapid shutter speeds under dull lighting. But, they tend to have a big, heavy builds and can be expensive. Top choices include the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM (£12,000/$12,000), the EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM (£8300/$9000), the EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM (£13,000/$13,000) and the EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM (£12,200/$13,000). As with super-tele zooms, Sigma offers a relatively cut-price alternative with its 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM | Sports lens (£5000/$6000).…

WIDE-ANGLE ZOOMS TELEPHOTO ZOOMS STANDARD ZOOMS SUPERZOOMS WIDE-ANGLE PRIMES STANDARD PRIMES TELEPHOTO PRIMES MACRO CHOOSING LENSES Key factors to watch out for THE MAIN factors to consider in a lens are its focal length, maximum aperture, and whether or not it’s full-frame compatible. We’ve categorized lenses by focal length range–from wide-angle to telephoto. The larger a lens’s maximum aperture, the ‘faster’it’s considered to be–allowing you to control depth of field more, and offering better options in low light. Zooms are more flexible than primes, but tend not to have such fast maximum apertures. Full-frame lenses will also work with ‘crop-sensor’EOS DSLRs, but crop-sensor lenses aren’t compatible with full-frame cameras. CONTACTS Canon www.canon.co.uk Peleng www.digitaltoyshop.co.uk Samyang www.samyang-lens.co.uk Schneider www.linhofstudio.com Sigma www.sigma-imaging-uk.com Tamron www.tamron.co.uk Tokina www.tokinalens.com Voigtlander www.robertwhite.co.uk Zeiss www.zeiss.co.uk…

Watermarked I go on holiday to Weymouth quite a lot and I took a photo of the harbour at night a few years ago. I used to have it as my Facebook cover photo and have entered it in a local camera club competition. But I recently found out that a pub on the harbour is using it for their Facebook cover photo now. I thought it looked very similar and have compared photos and it is the same – boats and even vehicles in same positions. I’m not sure where they have got it from, they certainly haven’t got it from me directly. I don’t really mind and it is nice that people like it, but should they have used this image without my permission? Huw Crabb, Newport, Wales…

In association with 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 wall art to gifts, CEWE help you to bring your best shots to life. www.cewe-photoworld.com/photoplus CANON PRO Name: Andy Farrer Camera: Canon EO S 5DS Andy is a full-time landscape photographer. In 2015 he won the coveted Landscape Photographer of the Year competition with an image of a snowy beach in his home county of Dorset. He…

ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO THIS harbour on the Atlantic coast is jam-packed with blue fishing boats. The rough textures of this upturned boat next to the walls of the city caught my eye. THE COBB, LYME REGIS THE gorgeous curved harbour wall is very photogenic both with calm seas as in this image, or with colossal waves breaking over it (photographed from a much safer distance with a longer lens!) HAMNØY, NORWAY I WAS lucky to shoot following fresh snow on the village and mountain behind. This viewpoint from the bridge connecting this island has become a classic photograph in recent years.…

01 THE NOOK BY CARMENWATKINS This evocative shot was taken in Vienna on a Canon EOS 5DMark III, making use of that sensor’s low light capability to really push the ISO. Even shooting wide open at f/4 and 1/15 sec, it’s cranked all the way up to ISO25600 – this produces an almost fifilmic level of grain, and adds a sense of texture to the claustrophobic chamber with its highly unusual architecture. Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM Exposure 1/15 sec, f/4, ISO25600 02 WINDING ROAD BY LOU FISCHER Photographers dream of finding a winding road like this one! Like strings of spaghetti weaving through the wilderness, the road markings carve their curves through the trees and tarmac of Peninsula State Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. Lens Unknown…

Capture the decisive moment To capture the peak of the action requires good planning, anticipation and quick reactions. You can never be exactly sure what an animal is going to do next, but you can learn to anticipate when it might do something. Watching for signs of activity, or certain behaviour, will give you the heads-up that something is about to unfold. You can then train the camera on the subject with your finger poised to fire the shutter. Set your Canon DSLR to its highest Continuous drive speed (frames per second) to allow you to capture as much of the action as possible. Shutter speed A shutter speed of between 1/500 sec (‘slow’ moving action) and a 1/4000 sec (explosive action) is required for sharp wildlife images. Increase the…

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In this project we’re talking composition in landscapes. But this isn’t going to be just another straightforward guide to the rules of composition, and there’ll be no mention of the rule of thirds. Instead, we’re going to cheat a bit. Now hear me out! Composition and framing are essential skills, especially for landscape photography. In essence, a strong composition is about arranging the elements in front of you into a smooth frame. Normally this is done by careful choice of camera angle lens and perspective. But here we’ll look at a few ways in which we can do creative landscaping to aid our framing. On a stormy grey day, like the one we were met with on our trip to the south coast of England, we couldn’t rely on beautiful…

Whether it’s for action-packed product shots or cosplay projects, the ability to make an object levitate in your frame can add punch and production value to your photographs. There are a few different ways to achieve this effect. The most fun way is to spend a few years attending Hogwarts, but you can also make objects float using a program like Photoshop with the aid of multiple layers and some nifty masking skills. However, you can get a much more realisticlooking effect in-camera – it can be much easier than wrestling with those layers in post. You’ll need to pick up an expandable shower rod, which costs about a tenner from somewhere like B&Q, and a roll of catgut or fishing wire, which will only run you a few pounds.…

As the name suggests, the Dehaze command reduces atmospheric haze in landscape images. Found within Lightroom and Photoshop’s Camera Raw workspace, the command is a slider that not only lets you reduce the haze, but also allows you to go the other way and make your photos look more hazy. Of course, the effect isn’t a magical trick that actually eradicates haziness. Instead, it works by applying a boost in contrast and sharpness to a specific part of the tonal range – the part that usually correlates with hazy highlights in landscapes. As such, we can exploit the effect not just for hazy scenes, but also for other types of shots where we might want to use the boost in contrast and detail in other, equally effective ways. Take, for…

Last year I was lucky enough to travel to Colombia and Panama with cameras in tow. I had a few activities planned, and high on the priority list was getting into the national parks to capture some new natural history images. I thought I’d write a little about what I took with me and why. It’s interesting to note that, while you could buy a nice car for the value of the equipment I brought along, it’s also a budget-conscious setup. I took the Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a tiny 100D. The quality and focus accuracy are far superior on the 5D, but the little one accepts all my EF-S and EF lenses, it’s light and having an APS-C sensor increases the magnification of the optics by a…

Are you the type of person who only hits the playback button to check an image isn’t blurred? Then you’re missing out on some of the handy features of your camera. Basically, the camera’s playback function lets you view an image and varying degrees of info. By tapping the INFO or DISP button while reviewing a shot, you can cycle through the display options – from a full-screen image, to a view that includes key shooting information like aperture, shutter speed and ISO, along with two types of histogram. The brightness histogram gives an indication of the exposure of an image, while the RGB histogram is a guide to the colour saturation and gradation. With the histograms, mostly, you want to avoid shots that push off the right edge, otherwise…

As well as reviewing and rating images, you can carry out post-processing in-camera. Advanced bodies allow you to convert Raw files, saving them as new JPEGs on the memory card. The options are more limited compared to full-on Raw software, but they do allow you to quickly knock out a file that you can share with others while you’re still out. It’s handy when you’re travelling or when you might be between computers. With a Wi-Fi-enabled camera and the Camera Connect app installed on a phone (see School Tip), you can also post it online rather easily too. You can choose to do a quick conversion based on the settings used at the time the image was shot, or make adjustments to the core settings. The result won’t be as…

YOU CAN review your pictures on a TV via HDMI cable (not with your camera). Plug the cable into the camera and TV before switching either of them on, then select the correct input on the TV when everything is powered up. No image will appear on the camera when you press play, but the controls will be active, so you can access all the playback functions, and even use the touchscreen where applicable. If no photographs appear at the start, check to make sure that Wi-Fi isn’t enabled on the camera body (if it is, power down, unplug the cable and switch deactivate Wi-Fi) and that the Video system option in the yellow Set-up menu is set to the correct video system. You may also be able to use…

Unlike many wide-angle and even standard zoom lenses, distortions tend to be relatively minimal in supertelephoto zooms. The two Canon lenses on test show a little barrel distortion at their shortest zoom settings, but it is really negligible with the 200-400mm lens, and they both have the usual slight pincushion towards the long end of the zoom range. Most competing Sigma and Tamron lenses have slight pincushion throughout their entire zoom range. The only exception is the Sigma 60-600mm, which has more noticeable barrel distortion at its short end than either of the Canon lenses…

For handheld shots, it’s said you should use a shutter speed that’s at least the reciprocal of the focal length of a lens. So, 1/500th of a second when shooting at 500mm on a full-frame body, or about 1/1,000th of a second when shooting at 600mm on an APS-C. This can be hard, with the widest available aperture often being f/6.3. Image stabilization enables sharp results, with shutter speeds up to four stops slower. Stabilization off Stabilization on…

For a zoom lens with sheer super-telephoto clout and great performance, you can’t beat the Sigma 150-600mm Sports. It’s well-engineered, weather-sealed, has many high-end features and ace image quality. It’s also superb value. But, it is massive. The Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary and Tamron 150-600mm G2 lenses are more manageable, the Sigma edging ahead for features and image quality, while the Tamron has more better weather-seals. They’re both good value but, on balance, the Sigma is better. The Canon 100-400mm is smaller and lighter than any of the 150-600mm lenses and, while it doesn’t give such long reach, it’s a great lens with a faster aperture rating and superb build quality.…

BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE ON YOUR TABLET, PHONE, PC OR IN PRINT 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…

Manua l mode “Graham would mostly use Av mode for daytime shots but Andy gave him the confidence to shoot in Manual mode for more control. He set his shutter speed and apertures independently for the best exposure. For scenic shots use narrow apertures around f/8 to f/11 for good depth of field, so harbours are sharp from foreground to background. These are also the optimum apertures for the sharpest shots from corners to centre on most lenses, such as Gary’s 17-85mm,” explains Andy. Live View for best shots “With your Canon DSLR on a tripod, you have both hands free to use Live View on your LCD,” says Andy, “Live View is for both focusing and composing accuracy. First I’ll compose my shot, zooming in or out, moving back…

Lens Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Exposure 1/25 sec, f/11, ISO100 In association with GRAHAM’S COMMENT We were up at 5am to park at Snapes Point National Trust car park to make the short walk with torches, in the neardarkness, to the big hill on Snapes Point for amazing views overlooking Salcombe – just as the rising sun lights it up. The difference is very noticeable when shooting with low light compared to harsh daytime sun – the pink colours in the sky were a sight to behold. As the light levels were lower and the water is so still at this time (around sunrise) we didn’t need an ND filter to slow our shutter speeds to smooth the sea, so our exposure was only 1/25 sec at f/11…

Every season offers its own unique opportunities for great wildlife photography, and perhaps none more so than in mid Spring, when weather conditions are more favourable, and nature is more active. In the beautifully vibrant Spring, young animal siblings frolic and explore new worlds, mums and dads are busy hunting for food, and the light levels are getting better. In this big Canon skills guide we’ll teach you how to master your camera settings, you’ll learn to use a variety of lenses for better composition, and we’ll drive-home the importance of key settings, such as autofocus, white balance, and nailing a good exposure in camera, plus how to use the environment. From local wildlife in the park down the road to exotic elephants on safari, we’ll help you take great…

Craft your composition Shooting animals in their environment requires a good eye for composition, since this aspect of the photograph is equally important to the subject. Placing the subject according to the ‘rule of thirds’, whereby it is roughly one third from the edge of the frame (right or left) creates a strong composition. This is enhanced by placing the subject on one of the intersections of thirds, towards a corner of the frame. Be bold and shoot with even more ‘negative space’, as Canon pro Ben Hall illustrates with his photo above – using the large expanse of mountains and sky in the frame. Include complimentary surroundings The surroundings should complement, rather than overwhelm, the main subject. Simplicity is key to keep the surroundings uncluttered and free from distractions.…

Despite a wobbly first impression, David Noton explains what it took to shoot the impressive, Canón do Sil in Spain Lens Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II Exposure 2 secs, f/11, ISO100 Lens Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L III Exposure 0.4 sec, f/11, ISO100 Over the border, and into Galicia. After another dawn shoot back in Portugal the length of the days are catching up on me as I head up into the mountains on twisty roads, searching for a camp site that’s turns out to be resolutely closed. Knackered, dispirited and less than enamoured with my initial impressions of the area I reach for my phone to book a B&B just for the night; I’ll head on for the coast tomorrow. Or maybe not. At the rustic Caserio de Fontes the…

Using a Canon TS-E tilt-and-shift lens can offer a huge amount of control over the depth of field and perspective in your photos. They allow you to move the body of the lens in relation to the sensor. Tilting the lens rotates the plane of focus, enabling you to increase or decrease the amount of a scene in focus; ace for ‘toy town’ effects. The shift movement keeps the lens parallel to the sensor, but moves it up, down or from side to side, allowing you to control the perspective of your shot. This is what makes these lenses very popular with architecture and interior photographers, as a TS-E lens’s shift movement corrects converging verticals. When composing to shoot a tall building like this church from ground level, to get…

Welcome to one of the most versatile editing packages you’re likely to use. filter forge offers thousands of effects you can apply to your photos, helping you find precisely the look you want to achieve. search and favorite options make it easy to locate the effect you want quickly and efficiently. If that’s not enough, you can also use Filter Forge’s integrated editor to make your own effects. You can arrange blurs, gradients, colour adjustments, distortions and more into a ‘network’, with controls that dictate how one effect combines with the next. You can also share your effects with the online Filter Forge community, and enjoy access to over 12,000 more effects through that same community. While it’s of less use to photographers, Filter Forge also offers a library of…

Sometimes a scene may seem disappointing, only to reveal hidden delights in post. I headed to a beach in South Wales with high hopes, only to be met with flat, grey skies and constant drizzle. I didn’t hold out much hope for the Raws after viewing them on the back of the camera. But after opening them into Affinity Photo, I realized I may be wrong. This is often the case with Raws – they hold more detail than you think, the trick is knowing how to tease them out. We can enhance tones, convert to mono and apply sharpening. There’s also powerful Overlay Paint and Gradient tools to carry out selective adjustments. The Raw editor in Affinity Photo is called the Develop Persona. When we open a Raw file…

At PGD Modelling and Photography Studios, we play host to a Leicester group on Facebook called ‘The Photography Social’. Through this we operate a wide variety of photography workshops, such as: #LearntoLight, #getinspiredbydance, as well as weekly group shoots and themed events for everyone. After some back and forth with The British Motor Museum we were asked if we would be able to take over their studio workshop. This fitted nicely with the #LearntoLight workshops we were running, and gave us a wider variety of subjects to teach. We ran our first session featuring the Mark Webber 2004 F1 Jaguar, and had a sell-out audience. To light this we used a subtractive lighting technique. Luckily for this shot the museum has some stunning architecture, including a reflective aluminium ceiling. This…

Miss that crucial moment and it’s lost forever. The photos will (hopefully) be treasured for a lifetime After completing my BA (hons) degree at Norwich University of the Arts in 1998, I wanted to shoot documentary photography covering war and features. For my final degree show I travelled to Bangladesh, to document the work of a blood and eye donation charity, and spent five weeks living with the medical students. It was intense. I now shoot weddings and lifestyle photography! I love shooting weddings, as I have to make use of my entire repertoire of photography skills in one day. Landscape, architectural, close-ups/details, portraits, reportage… all under crazy pressure. Miss that crucial moment and it’s lost forever. The photos will (hopefully) be treasured for a lifetime. The lifestyle photography I…

Amemory card may contain hundreds of images, so moving through them one by one will take some time. But there are quicker options. Using Index Display allows you to view several thumbnails on the camera’s display. The method for doing so varies according to the camera – on some bodies you have to press either the ‘minus’ or ‘plus’ magnification glass buttons to skip between the display options. On others you hold down the button with a magnification glass icon and turn the main dial. Even when you’ve set the camera to display single shots, you can jump forwards or backwards through your collection according to the parameter you’ve set under ‘Image jump’ in the blue Playback menu. The default is to display images one by one, but you can…

ALTHOUGH ONLY a few cameras allow you to process Raw files, all of them allow you to edit JPEGs to some degree. The options available vary according to the camera being used, and can include applying Creative Filters, cropping JPEGs to improve the composition and saving a smaller version of your image. The original JPEG is left untouched and a new version, complete with the edits, is saved to the memory card. There are some restrictions – you won’t be able to re-crop or resize an image you’ve already cropped – and the more edits you do on a JPEG, the more likely you are to see image quality suffer, but at least the options are there. Cropping YOU MAY be able to crop JPEGs according to the aspect ratios…

Canon’s EOS system launched in 1987 with the introduction of the EF lens mount. EF – electro focus – swapped mechanical links for a series of electrical contacts to transfer information between camera and lens. EF lenses ushered in a new era of fast accurate AF. EF lenses and mounts include a red circle to ensure you can align the lens and camera. Macro and tilt-shift lenses without AF, use the designations MP-E and TS-E, but fit any EF mount camera. Although designed for film cameras, the EF mount was used for the early digital SLR cameras with APS-C sensors. With the advent of digital and smaller Canon APS-C size sensors it became necessary to make shorter focal length standard zoom lenses. But to reduce lens size and weight it…

The EOS 250D/Rebel SL3 is actually a development of the existing Canon EOS 200D/Rebel SL2, which currently tops our list as the best Canon camera on digitalcameraworld.com, but with a new DIGIC 8 processor that adds a big list of new features. These include 4K video capability, for the first time in a DSLR aimed at beginners at this price level. This works alongside improvements to the Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system to make the camera’s vari-angle touchscreen display even more effective for composing photos and videos. [[pg100]The Dual Pixel system now offers an amazing 3,975 user-selectable focus points across the whole screen in Live View mode. Unusually for a DSLR, the EOS 250D/Rebel SL3 works just as well, if not better, when you’re composing shots on the rear screen…

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 typically test full-frame compatible lenses on a range of full-frame and APS-C format bodies, whereas lenses that are designed specifically for APS-C format bodies are only tested on the latter. In-camera corrections for chromatic aberrations and peripheral illumination (where available) are disabled throughout all testing, to better reveal the true performance of each lens. We also run a full range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master and DxO Analyser suites. Photos of test charts are taken across the range…

It may have class-leading zoom range, but the Sigma 60-600mm exhibits the worst colour fringing of any lens here. Still, fringing only tends to be noticeable at the short end of the zoom and is even less apparent at mid to long zooms. The second worst is the Canon 100-400mm at its shortest zoom setting, but there’s almost no fringing at the long end. The Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens produces negligible fringing in the mid sector of its zoom range.…

DSLR CAMERAS ENTRY-LEVEL ENTHUSIAST PROFESSIONAL MIRRORLESS CAMERAS APS-C EOS M FULL-FRAME EOS R What to look for Canon EOS cameras Canon splits its EOS DSLR lineup into entry-level, enthusiast and professional ranges; the 4000D is the most basic, the 800D and 77D for intermediates, the 80D and full-frame 6D Mk II for more advanced enthusiasts, while the 7D, full-frame 5D and 1D lines have pro-level features. With more expensive models, expect greater handling, more robust build quality (weather-sealing and magnesium-alloy shells), more advanced features, and full-frame rather than APS-C image sensors. We also now have the full-frame EOS R cameras for mirrorless fans, the EOS RP as an ‘entry-level’ and more affordable option, with the EOS R for more serious photographers. Plus not forgetting Canon’s compact system APS-C EOS M…

FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ▄ Top tips for photographing big cats in local safaris and zoos ▄ Landscape photo project ▄ New Photoshop Elements, Adobe CC and Affinity Photo tutorials PLUS ALL THIS… ▄ Super Test: From wide-angle to telephoto we test superzoom lenses that cover it all ▄ The Apprentice: Learn to take evocative portraits on location with our Canon pro ▄ The Interview: Next issue we talk to a pro wrestler photographer, the aptly named James Musselwhite ISSUE 153 ON SALE 28 May * Content subject to change PhotoPlus CanonSkills • VIDEO DISC…