Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

HELLO KITTY! We get up close with some impressive big cats in our special wildlife photo project this issue – top tips and free video guide on Page 50 We pride ourselves at PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine for producing content to specifically help Canon camera users. This issue is no exception and we’ve collated our top ten essential Canon skills, from mastering metering and focusing, to better exposures and compensations; and from the best lenses to use, to setting shutter speed and controlling depth of field with apertures. Learn all of the above and more from page 30 inside. This issue we also test Canon’s new budget EOS 250D, the new DSLR for beginners, which is also the world’s lightest DSLR with a moveable touchscreen and 4k video capability, see…

GOLDEN HOURS ENGAGEMENT SHOOT GIRL IN THE BLUE DRESS PRO TIP CHANGE YOUR POV AFTER getting your exposure and focusing right, next you can concentrate on composition for better portraits. Rebecca explains, “Jessica had a good eye for a photo, and just needed to work on her compositional skills a little bit. I got her to change her point of view, getting up high, or getting really low down to the ground and edge of the water. For this shot, we asked Rosa to change into an outfit for a mermaid-style theme by the lake.” TOP GEAR #3 Portable ladder “I ALWAYS carry a little ladder with me for portrait and wedding shoots, as I’m quite short (5ft 4in). It allows me to get higher for a nicer angle for…

01 UNTITLED BY JI Í ŠNEIDER A haunting portrait that begs somany questions. Who is the child, why is the child behind a cage, what are those big almond eyes saying? On a technical level the image also boasts fantastic isolation, even at f/4.5, and Šneider has absolutely nailed focus, despite shooting through fencing. Lens Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM Exposure 1/250 sec, f/4.5, ISO400 02 BLACK PERPETUAL BY TEMIDAYO JOHNSON “I had Rume (the model) over at the studio and we were experimenting with different looks but none captured how his skin looked,” says Johnson of the contest’s winning shot. “I decided to go through my prop stash. I went with this wooden neck piece and placed it over his face.” Lens Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Exposure…

Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal, Ireland. 7:02pm. 10 April 2019 Rocks encrusted with lichen and seaweed on Five Fingers Strand, Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal Lens Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II Exposure 1/25 sec, f/16, ISO100 “I love the depth in this image. It’s a classic example of the advantages of tilt and shift lenses” Donegal is, I think, one of the friendliest places I have ever been. Complete strangers wave as I pass by, be they walking the dog, driving, tending the garden, or sitting on a tractor. Where else in the world does that happen? Within minutes of arriving in Carndonagh Gerald (you see; first name terms already), a local who stopped to chat as I unloaded the car, was giving me useful advice on the minor road to Malin…

01 WIDE-ANGLE LENS If you want to include foreground interest then you need a lens that’s wide enough to fit in both nearby details and far-off scenery. I used a 16-35mm. Here it lets me emphasize the strong line that runs from the rocks at my feet towards the castle in the distance. 02 NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTERS A set of Neutral Density filters is a useful addition to your kitbag at seaside locations, as they allow you to extend your shutter speed to several seconds and blur the movement of water and clouds. We used a 6 and 10-stop ND filter on our shoot in this instance. 03 DISTANT SUBJECT Our subject – Bamburgh castle in Northumberland – is a dream. But in any awesome scene you can usually find…

Don’t let rain stop you from getting out with your camera! Just after a heavy rain shower can be the perfect time to get out and capture an environmental portrait with a difference, by using the reflections found in puddles. The mirror-like reflections in the water surface enable you to explore an alternative perspective, and flipping the image so that the reflection becomes the main point of focus, gives a rather surreal quality to your shot. With a bit of practice trying out angles and perspectives, you can get straight into shooting and capturing the perfect shot, once that perfect weather arrives. Make sure you have your settings dialled in before shooting too. Using semi-automatic exposure modes, such as Aperture Priority, means the camera does some of the work for…

Love them or hate them, photo-editing filters are one way to give shots a specific look, or just apply a fun effect. There are two types of filter – those that let you add effects, like turning your photo into a sketch, and those that have more practical uses, such as sharpening and blur. While Affinity Photo’s list of filters can’t compare with the number on offer in Photoshop, there are thankfully more of the latter than the former. Here we’ll look at a few of the best. Amongst the list of filters on show you’ll find powerful sharpening tools; a range of blur tools for crafting all manner of depth-of-field effects; and a haze-removal tool that manages to out-perform the similar feature in Photoshop. When it comes to applying…

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER James Musselwhite has been a professional photographer since 2003. An ongoing project since 2014, Portrait of a Wrestler, the project he’s nest know for, has taken him to the biggest wrestling bouts and tournaments all around the world. As well as the ringside action, Musselwhite also shoots studio publicity portraits and promotional videos. Away from the ring, Musselwhite runs a successful family and child portrait photography business from his Portsmouth home studio and has clocked up nearly 10,000 portrait sittings in his massive 15-year career. He is a Canon Ambassador and a Fellow of both the Master Photographers Association and the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. Twitter @y2jimbob Instagram @y2jimbob Facebook/portraitofawrestler www.portraitofawrestler.com Next issue: Ivor Prickett, freelance war photographer who works on New York Times…

When a liquid lands in another, you may notice a column of liquid appear. If a second drop collides with that, the resulting collision is over so quickly, it’s almost invisible. But if you light those drops with a short flash you open up a world of fascinating shapes. Use coloured liquids against a coloured background, and the permutations are endless. Stop-motion photography can capture a bullet coming out of a gun, or a balloon bursting but you end up with a technical image, not art. Water drop photography is different! A decade ago it was difficult to capture those collisions, requiring endless patience and some luck, but the advent of microcontrollers, coupled to solenoid-controlled valves, transformed the technique. You can control the size and timing of multiple drops, creating…

Although Digital Photo Professional 4 has plenty of the tone-adjusting tools, there’s no effective substitute for getting as much of the exposure correct in-camera. This is because DPP 4 has its limits when correcting exposurerelated problems, especially in high-contrast scenes. If a shot is very underexposed then you can brighten up the shadows in DPP 4 to reveal more detail, but you will probably get artefacts, such as colour and luminance noise, to the targeted shadow sections of the shot. By correctly exposing the shadows in-camera you’ll reveal detail in the darker regions while keeping nasty noise at bay. If you fail to correctly expose the highlights in a location then DPP 4 can boost underexposed highlights and reveal missing detail quite successfully. However, if the highlights are overexposed then…

YOU MAY prefer to use the viewfinder to frame shots; I find that blocking out light – and the rest off the world – by pressing my skull against the eyecup allows me to focus on the subject effectively. You can use an LCD screen loupe to block out distractions when using Live View, but that’s more kit in the bag. Not all cameras offer a grid display in the viewfinder, but once you’ve used the rule of thirds a few times it soon becomes second nature. Still, you can always take advantage of the AF points in the viewfinder, and place the subject so that they correspond with one of the off-centre points. PhotoPlus EXPERT MARCUS HAWKINS PHOTO EXXPERT Marcus has been passionate about photography for more than 25…

Tilting your camera can often make the right image appear more dynamic – it can add a literal creative twist to shots of fast subjects such as cars and motorbikes, for instance – but most of the time you’ll probably want to make sure the horizon is level before you take a shot. This is especially true when it comes to landscapes that include a lake or the sea, as a titled horizon can make the water appear to pour out of one side of the shot. Your Canon camera has a number of features that can help banish wonky horizons – and vertical lines, such as the edges off buildings, too. The rough-and-ready option is to use the AF points or display in the viewfinder, lining up the horizon…

WHERE YOU stand, the focal length you’re using and the aperture you select have a major role to play with composition. All three have an effect on the depth of field, or how much of the image appears to be sharply focused; and the more blur there is, the easier it can be to direct a viewer’s attention to the sharp subject. The image in an EOS DSLR’s viewfinder is always shown at the largest possible aperture, so to see how much of the image will appear sharp, use your camera’s depth-of-field button. The Canon 1300D, 2000D and 4000D don’t have a dedicated button, but you can assign the preview function to the SET button via the Custom Functions menu. Even if your camera does have a dedicated button (near…

Lion and Lioness IAN COX, SOUTH AFRICA SAYS… I took this image on safari in Botswana. We had a few days of early morning starts, as that’s when the animals are usually most active – the light is often better too. There was a pride of lionesses chasing a group of giraffes, but the trees blocked the view. While waiting for a better shot, this pair of lions walked out of the trees, unconcerned with what was going on around them. I felt the light was off, with the sun throwing long shadows and the lions backlit, but took I still took the shot – it was a rare opportunity. BRIAN SAYS… This is a great shot of the lion and lioness, I actually think the backlighting and long shadows…

01 G-Drive Mobile R-series SSD Turbo boost your external storage £130/$179 (for 500GB model) www.g-technology.com THE G-Drive Mobile SSD R-series for USB 3.1 Gen 2 offers the fast data transfer speeds we’d expect, but also a water- and dust-resistant case that can stand a 3m drop and a 1000lb crushing force. It comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities and each uses a USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection with a max data transfer rate of 560MB/s. We tested the 500GB drive using the Black Magic Speed Test Utility and achieved impressive read/write speeds of 525MB/s and 326MB/s. 02 Joby GorillaPod 3K Pro Bendy tripod gets a metal makeover £70/$80 www.joby.com JOBY’S bendy-legged tripod can wrap around branches, posts and other bits of scenery. The GorillaPod 3K Pro steps up to…

Despite their modest zoom, the two Canon 18-135mm lenses on test don’t give less barrel distortion at the short end, or pincushion at the long end, compared with the Sigma 18-200mm and 18-300mm lenses, or even the Tamron 18-400mm. The Tamron 18-200mm has slightly worse barrel distortion at the short end and, as expected, the Tamron 16-300mm has the heaviest barrel distortion at its shorter 16mm focal. In recent Canon cameras, automatic corrections are available for all of the Canon and Sigma lenses here, but the Sigma lenses may require a firmware update.…

At their shortest zoom, most of the APS-C lenses on test give the same amount of fringing towards the corners of the frame, but the Tamron 16-300mm is worse. It’s almost the same at the long end, where the Tamron 16-300mm is again the poorest but is joined by the Tamron 18-400mm. The Sigma 18-300mm has little fringing at the long end, and it’s minimal in all of the lenses at mid-zooms.…

Letter of the month As a regular subscriber from issue one, I always enjoy reading and reviewing the topics covered. However, in PhotoPlus 152, the opening image of the Apprentice article on page nine had me recoiling in horror as I saw the professional’s tripod foot being perilously close to the edge of the harbour wall, with the expensive 5DS and lens attached. One knock or inadvertent movement and… expensive tears. Believe me, I’m no pro, but safety and stability of expensive equipment feature very highly on my list. Peter Malley, Louth, Lincolnshire Glad to hear you’re a dedicated subscriber, Peter, and enjoy the regular dose of PhotoPlus. However, sorry the image of our pro, Andy Farrer, has you worried! Do not fear. Andy was totally aware where his tripod…

APPRENTICE NAME: JESSICA BILLETT CAMERA: CANON EOS 7D MK II JESSICA, 20 years old, is from Frome, Somerset, and is a 2nd year BA Photography student at Falmouth University. She’s been hooked on photography since she was 11. Initially she used her phone camera, but quickly moved to her first DSLR, a Canon EOS 500D, when she was 13. Jessica studied photography at GCSE and A level, and is interested in portrait photography. Jessica has a little experience shooting weddings and christenings, but wanted to know how to capture better portraits under harsher light on location and against backlighting. 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…

Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Exposure 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO100 JESSICA’S COMMENT It was such a great spot in the colourful rapeseed field, we asked Rosa to play around, and it worked well when she was walking away, as it allowed for her to interact with the surroundings. We shot near the edges of the field, careful not to damage the farmer’s crop, using the hazy sun as a side-light to create soft highlights on Rosa’s back. Rather than using my 24-105mm at f/5.6, I used Rebecca’s 24-70mm lens at a wider aperture of f/2.8 and 70mm which meant I could blur the surrounding flowers more. REBECCA’S VERDICT Jessica had a great understanding of her camera and was confident setting exposures and focusing. She just needed some guidance composing…

1 CONTROL DEPTH OF FIELD WITH AV MODE Understand how changing the aperture affects which parts of your image are sharpest 1 CONTROL DEPTH OF FIELD WITH AV MODE Understand how changing the aperture affects which parts of your image are sharpest USE AV MODE on your Canon DSLR to set the aperture and control depth of field. The aperture determines how much light reaches your camera’s sensor. Measured in f-stops, values range from f/1.2 to f/32 and above, depending on your lens. The lower the number (eg f/2.8), the wider the aperture, which means more light is allowed into the camera lens, making images brighter. Conversely, the higher the number (such as f/16), the narrower the aperture, therefore less light reaches the camera sensor, contributing to images being darker.…

Wildlife doesn’t get wilder than lions, tigers and jaguars. But jetting off to Africa, Asia or South America to go on safari isn’t available to everyone, and there’s no guarantee of you coming across these fierce felines even if you do. Wildlife parks, in your local area in the UK, on the other hand, offer assured access to these amazing animals, but the drawback is that there’s a physical barrier between you and them. No bad thing, considering these are predators that could consider a photographer to be a snack, but by following our tips, you can take brilliant and naturallooking images that look like they could have been shot in the wild. You’ll need to try and get closer access than a regular zoo can provide. We headed to…

Camera shake – it’s one of the banes of a photographer’s existence. Sometimes it happens when you’re being too ambitious with your handheld shutter speed. Sometimes it’s a side effect of trying to be quick on the draw when there’s action happening, and trying to grab a frame before it stops. The other times it occurs when you’re shooting on long lenses without stability or stabilization. You can reduce camera shake at the point of capture with good camera craft – or by recreating the stabilization rig in our “YBIS” project from issue 152. However, if you’ve already got a potentially great shot that seems to have been ruined by camera shake, there’s still a way to save your images. Photoshop Elements has a fantastic feature that’s as good as…

01 THE ONE TO BEAT Women’s champion Toni Storm gives an intimidating look after another inspiring tournament victory Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Exposure 1/160 sec, f/9, ISO500 WHEN I speak to James Musselwhite, he is in the middle of a picture edit, but the subject is completely different to what I was expecting. “I’m just ploughing through some nursery images,” he says. “We photographed a children’s nursery recently, took some photos of some toddlers and now I’m photoshopping snot and dribble. How glamorous,” he laughs. Working from his home in Portsmouth, James has found plenty of glamour in the world of professional wrestling. Here, theatrical and costumed posturing meets rehearsed thuggery by six-packed personas for whom the ring is the stage. With names like Jimmy Havoc, Chuck Mambo,…

For this ongoing project I wanted to photograph the beautiful birds of South Africa while also showing off their wings in full display with lovely, clean backgrounds. Something that is not always very easy here in Africa. Some of this set was taken on the west coast of South Africa in the St Helena Bay area. But I then moved to Hoedspruit, in the Limpopo Province, which presented me with a new set of challenges as we were surrounded by the dense bushveld! I don’t have the latest gear nor the fastest lenses – I use the Canon EOS 400D and 1D Mark II N, with the Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM – which makes the challenge greater – but the success is all the sweeter. Because I…

01 HELPFUL HISTOGRAM We can see from the photo’s original histogram that it is underexposed. The graph is clumped towards the shadows at the left and the midtones in the middle. There’s no strong highlight information at the right. This is a classic example of an underexposed shot’s histogram. 02 CLIPPING WARNING The Show Highlight/Shadow Warning displays clipped (underexposed) shadows as blue patches, which print as pure black. Clipped (overexposed) highlights appear as red patches, which will be white. By default, DPP 4 uses a wide threshold to display clipped shadows and highlights that can cause clipping warnings to appear where they’re not really needed (which can cause you to over-process your shot). We show you how to reduce the threshold warning so that only the darkest and brightest pixels…

he aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of an image, and it can have a dramatic effect on composition. Regardless of if you use a camera with an APS-C sensor or a full-frame one, the standard ratio when the camera is used horizontally is 3:2 – and this makes full use of the area of the imaging sensor. You don’t have to use the default 3:2 – you can crop the image to suit the subject matter in post – or stitch several frames together, if you need a panoramic image. Your camera can also record images in a different aspect ratio: there are three choices – 4:3, 16:9 and 1:1 – which you can select in the Live View section of an EOS DSLR. Select…

“My new EOS camera includes a Fine Detail Picture Style, as well as auto, which is the best for general shooting?Maria Tyler, Telford” BRIAN SAYS… There are differences between each Picture Style, and in my view Fine Detail is a great everyday choice and I use it on all my cameras, unless I’m shooting black and white or movies. The Auto Picture Style uses in-camera tech to determine the kind of scene you’re shooting and then selects from a look based on the Standard, Landscape or Portrait Picture Style. I do prefer to know which is in use to choose the style rather than use auto. The standard Picture Style is designed to be general purpose, with punchy colours, and reasonable sharpness. Landscape boosts the saturation of blues and greens…

Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon DSLR? Email EOSSOS@futurenet.com I Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon DSLR? Email EOSSOS@futurenet.com In recent years as the number of AF points increased, so did the options for grouping nearby AF points. Groups of points make it easier to focus on dynamically moving subjects. These groupings of AF points are termed AF areas or methods, and with a range of choices it might not be obvious which one to use. The centre AF point of many cameras has high precision capability when f/2.8 or faster lenses are used, supporting the idea that the centre AF point is always the best. Single point is great for portraits, landscapes and general photos, but if the subject moves around the frame you need a high level of…

The new EOS 250D has features we’ve already seen in other Canon cameras, so it’s not really breaking any new ground technically. But it’s aimed at beginners, who don’t need the latest tech, just an affordable, effective camera that’s easy to use and delivers the goods. And Canon pretty much has that nailed. The EOS 250D offers point-and-shoot simplicity, a Guided UI (user interface) to walk new users through the basics of photography, and a Creative Assist mode for more adventurous photographic effects. Underlying all this is the manual control you’d expect in a DSLR, sothat when you’re ready to move on to more manual techniques, the EOS 250D can stay right with you. Inside is a 24.1-megapixel APS-C sensor of a type we see in lots of Canon cameras.…

One of the attractions of Canon’s EOS R and RP full-frame mirrorless bodies is their compact, lightweight build compared with full-frame DSLRs. To follow suit, the RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM standard zoom lens shaves off 11mm in length and 95g in weight, compared with its EF L-series counterpart. By contrast, the RF 28-70mm is a beast. It’s much bigger at 104x140mm, and about twice as heavy, at 1430g. It’s also nearly twice the weight and twice the price of Canon’s top-spec 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, weighing about the same as a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom. The RF lens’s upscaled build is mainly due to it being a full f-stop faster than most premium standard zooms. The optical elements need a larger diameter to let in more light, as such, the lens…

To test real-world performance, we use lenses in various lighting conditions, indoors and outdoors. We check for 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 full-frame and APS-Cs – lenses that are designed for APS-Cs are only tested on the latter. In-camera corrections for chromatic aberrations and peripheral illumination (where available) are disabled in 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 of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations…

Canon’s 18-135mm lenses on test use either STM (Stepping Motor) or Nano USM autofocus systems. The latter edges ahead for smooth AF transitions when shooting movies, as well as giving faster performance for stills. Both have an electronically coupled focus ring, which remains stationery during autofocus but can be used for manual override. Most Sigma and Tamron superzooms rely on ultrasonic motors. Unlike ‘ring-type’ ultrasonic systems, they use a motor and gearwheels. Operation tends to be slower and more audible, but the space-saving element is a bonus. The Tamron 16-300mm is unusual for an ultrasonic system – fulltime manual override is available and the focus ring doesn’t rotate during AF.…

HOT SHOT #1 JESSICA’S COMMENT For this shot we wanted a dreamy backlit feel. We started late in the morning so there was still a hazy quality to the light. Once our model, Rosa, was in position, we tried shooting from a low perspective. Rebecca explained that shooting low and wide worked well, as including the whole tree ensured that the hazy light was displayed at its best. In this image I shot at 24mm on my 24-105mm. Lens Canon EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Exposure 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO320 SHOOT IN MANUAL MODE REBECCA encouraged Jessica to take control in Manual mode, so she could set her aperture for the depth of field, and shutter speed for sharp shots when shooting handheld. “I was keen for her to use…

Canvas has long been the material of choice for portraiture, used by the great artists since the days of the Renaissance, and it’s just as versatile today for displaying digital portraits shot on your Canon as it is those created by the graceful strokes of a paintbrush. With a huge range of style and size options, there’s no better way to commit your photos to canvas than with CEWE. CEWE Canvas Prints  (4cm for canvases larger than 80x80cm) and finished with artist backing tape – delivered ready to hang. They are available in six different styles of frame in a vast range of sizes, from 20cm square to well over a metre both horizontally and vertically for statement masterpieces. Every photo is unique and tells its own story. That’s why…

Great reasons to subscribe now! Get a Vanguard Oslo 22BY bag A stylish, compact shoulder bag that will fit a Canon DSLR and standard zoom, plus other lenses and kit. Great savings Subscribe from only £60* and get your issues delivered to your door, plus this large Vanguard camera bag worth £39 Free Video Disc Each issue, you’ll receive a Video Disc packed with fantastic photo projects Option 1: 6-month subscription £26 • 6 issues of PhotoPlus print edition delivered Option 2: Regular subscription £60 • 13 issues of PhotoPlus print edition delivered • Expert PDF handbook • 20% off entry to The Photography Show Option 3: Premium subscription £99 • 13 issues PhotoPlus print edition delivered • Digital edition for your phone or tablet • PhotoPlus magazine binder •…

In the last issue we looked at how to cheat at composition by – among other things – faking a foreground. This issue, we redress the balance by exploring more natural ways to compose a scene – after all, composition is often about balance. We’ll explore a few techniques for making use of foreground interest in your landscape photography. While in search of the perfect foreground we’ll encounter core landscape skills like depth of field control, long exposures and focus stacking. But what is foreground interest, and why is it so useful in landscape photography? Often we might come across a scene – perhaps some distant mountains or a silhouetted castle – that is picturesque, but a straightforward photo of it may look slightly underwhelming. By framing the scene to…

As seasoned shooters know all too well, depth of field when shooting macro – even at narrow apertures – is so thin that it can be impossible to get the whole subject in focus. That’s where the magic of focus bracketing comes into play. This process involves taking multiple shots, gradually shifting the focus point each time, and then ‘bracketing’ them together to create a single image with a large depth of field. It’s not a new technique, by any means, but the recently released Canon EOS RP is the first ever Canon camera to feature a built-on Focus Bracketing function, enabling you to automate the process. This makes it possible to capture macro shots with apertures as wide as f/1.8 and still get the whole scene in focus. You…

It might be one of the trickier tools on offer in Photoshop, but the Pen tool rewards those who persevere with a control like no other. It works by letting you plot a series of anchor points. Each anchor point spouts control handles that let you determine the curvature of the line. At first it might seem complicated and unwieldy, but with some practice the controls become second nature. In this tutorial we’ll use the Pen tool to trace around the car then, once done, use a layer mask to hide it’s original background and drop in an entirely new one. There are different selection tools for different tasks in Photoshop. If you want to make a rough selection then you might use the Lasso tool, and if you want…

01 PHOTOLIBRARY PANEL Find the folder that contains the images you want to enhance. The right side of the screen shows thumbnails of the images in the selected folder and, above that, a preview of the photos you picked. Optical lens correction profiles are located and applied automatically. 02 DYNAMIC SEARCH FIELD This is a brand new feature – start typing in this box and PhotoLab will automatically offer matching search options. Enter the number ‘5’, for example, and the display will offer to show images taken at a focal length of 5mm, exposures of 5 secs or a lens aperture of f/5. 03 CUSTOMIZE PANEL For detailed adjustments and enhancements, swap to the Customize mode. Your photo is then displayed filling the window, with an optional before-and-after view to…

A handful of high-res EOS cameras, including the EOS R, 5DS/R and 5D Mark IV have an ‘Add cropping information’ feature tucked away in their Custom Functions menu. This gives you the chance to select an alternative aspect ratio from a list based on popular mediumand large-format options, such as 6:7 and 4:5. These can be selected when the main ‘Cropping/aspect ratio’ option in the Shooting menu is set to 3:2 or Full-frame. This option displays two vertical lines on the Live View (or in the viewfinder in the case of the EOS R) so you can compose shots effectively. But the full 3:2 image is always recorded to the card without being cropped. DPP will automatically crop the image to the aspect ratio you specified, but you can select…

Placing the subject close to the edge of the shot and looking out of the frame can create a dramatic look, inviting the viewer to question what the subject is looking at. But most of the time, leaving more space in the frame in the direction that a subject is looking, or moving towards, creates a natural-looking result. One trick to help you do this is to manually select an AF point on the opposite side, as that’ll force you to leave more space in front of the subject when you move the camera to compose. For instance, if the subject is looking towards the left of the picture, use an AF point on the right side of the AF point array.…

WE LOVE a good printer, but keeping it fed with inks and premium paper can start to hurt your pocket. However, with lots of online printing companies offering to print your shots at 6x4-inch size for as little as a few pence each, it can be a cost-effective and hassle-free way to get prints. Some companies that also have high street shops may even let you have your prints delivered to a local store for free! But not all photo prints are equal, and there can be a marked difference in print quality between printing companies. To separate the eye candy from the eye sores, we uploaded a selection of colour and black and white images of various subjects, including some portraits to assess skin tone reproduction. All our prints…

Every single lens in this test group features optical image stabilization, which is great for shooting stills, especially towards the long end of the zoom. But, the benefit is negligible during movie capture. Help is at hand in some of Canon’s new bodies, in the shape of 5-axis ‘Movie digital IS’. Available from the movie shooting menu, this is a system that moves the camera’s image sensor to offset vibrations in handheld movie capture, enabling a more stable moving image. Movie digital IS is currently featured in the EOS 250D, 800D, 77D, 6D Mark II, R and RP. Standard and enhanced forms of movie stabilization are available. A downside is that the focal length of the lens is slightly cropped, more so in enhanced mode.…

How much reach do you need? If the answer is 135mm, then Canon’s APS-C format lenses are great choices. Although optically identical, the newer edition’s revamped Nano USM AF system makes it the better buy. But, if you want to supersize your super reach, the Sigma 18-300mm gives the greatest range without giving up much in quality. It’s sharper than the Sigma 18-200mm and not much bigger. If wide-angle coverage is top of your wish list, the Tamron 16-300mm beats all other lenses on test and, although it’s not as sharp as the Sigma 18-300mm, it has better handling characteristics with a more refined autofocus system. For a small, lightweight and inexpensive lens, the Tamron 18-200mm is unbeatable value, whereas the newer Tamron 18-400mm is the lens to go for…

FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ▪ Take your macro skills to the next level ▪ Get creative with motion blur ▪ Sunrise shots ▪ New Photoshop Elements, Adobe CC and Affinity Photo tutorials PLUS ALL THIS… ▪ Super Test: eight travel tripods get tested see which supports Canon DSLRs the best ▪ Big Canon skills guide: Discover how to make the most of high dynamic images from in-camera settings to Photoshop techniques ▪ The Interview: Next issue we talk veteran war photographer Ivor Prickett ISSUE 154 ON SALE 25 JUNE * Content subject to change…

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