Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

Photography is the process of capturing how light interacts with the scene in front of you and derives from the Greek words ‘photos’ and ‘graphe’, meaning to draw with light. How you capture light through the lens of your DSLR or mirrorless camera is a core part of any photo, and you’ll likely be familiar with the terms under- and overexposure which mean there is too little or too much light in your frame. Canon’s EOS cameras use advanced metering modes to help you get consistently balanced exposures, though like all art it is subjective and you may want to take total control of your exposure, to get it looking spot on. There are many factors at play that can affect your exposure, such as your aperture, shutter speed and…

Canon’s creative EOS cameras have metering modes that let you prioritize which parts of the frame you want to be correctly exposed. These are Evaluative, Partial, Spot and Center-weighted average on the majority of them. Spot metering only takes into account a very small area, or ‘spot’, which will usually be the central AF point set through the viewfinder, or on the rear LCD, and will make sure this tiny area dictates the exposure. This can be useful for things like bright highlights that would otherwise clip to pure white such as with jewellery or a catchlight in a person’s eye. The Partial Metering mode is similar to Spot, but pulls information from a slightly larger area making it a little easier to use. The Evaluative metering mode scans the…

A tea plantation near Hatton, Central Highlands, Sri Lanka. A panorama image stitched from ten vertical frames Lens Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Exposure 1/13 secs, f/1.4, ISO100 should know by now, always eat the local fare. The chicken sandwich ordered in my jet lag fug was a big mistake. I’m now eyeing Sashi’s rice and curry enviously. I end up shamelessly raiding his accompaniments; I’d forgotten how good Sri Lankan food is. That’s it, from now on I’ll go native. It feels good to be heading east up into the hills, pictures on the wall of the roadside rest stop indicate this is where the film Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed. I can see why. We’re only a couple of hours out of Colombo, but already the…

THE MISSION Shoot a portrait and blend it with toy blocks for a fun composite Time needed Two hours Skill level Intermediate Kit needed • Whiteboard • Toy blocks • Tripod • Photoshop CC or Elements • Flash kit (or window light) he best composites are often those that are photographed specifically with the final result in mind. This means that rather than attempting to merge a disparate array of unconnected images, we can instead combine a set of carefully composed, consistent frames that look like they belong together. What’s more, the work done in-camera makes the Photoshop technique much easier and simpler than you might think. We’ll explain how it works here, with careful lighting and positioning of the different elements that make up our playful block face composite.…

THE MISSION Capture a mini vortex swirling inside of a glass Time needed 30 minutes Skill level Beginner Kit needed • Coloured paper • Milk frother whisk • Speedlites (optional) Here’s a fun project you can try at home this month that’s sure to leave your friends and family asking how on earth you pulled it off. We’re going to show you how to create this head-turning tornado in a wine glass effect, though any glass will work. You’ll need a large sheet of paper to use as an infinity curve to give the glass a clean backdrop. We went for a bright blue piece of card which really helps add a good kick of colour to the image – a white background could look quite boring. You’ll also need…

THE MISSION Use the Inpainting and Clone tools in combination with selection skills to remove the messy bars behind the bird Time needed 20 minutes Skill level Beginner Kit needed Serif Affinity Photo Sometimes a photo-worthy moment happens so quickly that it’s near impossible to compose the frame properly, like when a great white pelican appears next to your boat. At moments like this, a messy, distracting backdrop is often hard to avoid. Here the metal bars intrude on the composition rather than enhance it. But if we like we can remove distractions like this with simple retouching tools in Affinity Photo. One of the most powerful is the Inpainting tool. It’s a clever feature that’s conveniently easy to use, even for a complete beginner. We simply paint over parts…

FOR MANY photographers, the darkroom is a sacred place, a fiercely guarded sanctum of creative magic where the alchemy of developer and paper under a dim red light conjures faces from the past. When I call, Simon Annand is in his darkroom looking actors squarely in the eye as they emerge on the prints he’s preparing for the latest showing of his celebrated exhibition The Half at the Lawrence Batley theatre in Huddersfield. I feel as if I am intruding on this important stage of his work, but then I imagine that he has a similar sensation when opening the door of a leading actor’s dressing room as they get into role for that evening’s performance. These are familiar faces, the leading lights of the West End stage, but his photos offer…

01 SAFE HAVEN All five kittens would cram into the log when they felt threatened Lens Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 II USM Exposure 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO800 In May earlier this year the Pallas cat at the Miller Park Zoo, Bloomington, Illinois, USA, gave birth to five kittens. As the retired zoo director, I volunteer to occasionally do their photography. As such, I have a great level of access to the animals, meaning I’m in a fantastic position to catch some incredible moments as they grow up. The zoo had Pallas cats, three boisterous brothers for several years, but this was the first birth of this species, felis manul, at the zoo. These tiny cats from central Asia may be small but they have a massive attitude, growling and snarling…

Gear Update Brand new Canon kit Buyers’ Guide Every EOS and Canon-fit lens STREET LENSES CANON EOS 90D TEST WIRELESS FLASH TRIGGERS TESTS & AWARDS WHEN IT comes to testing Canon DSLRs, lenses, photo gear and services in PhotoPlus, we tell it like it is. We’re 100 per cent independent and we use our in-depth lab tests to find out how kit really performs and compares. Here are our main awards… Buy for the best combination of quality and value Only the best of best win our coveted award Ben Andrews Lab Manager ben.andrews@futurenet.com Welcome… CANON’S latest DSLR has entered the lab for a real shakedown. Is this the best all-rounder APS-C camera ever? Find out on page 94. In this month’s Super Test we review eight fast-and-wide prime lenses…

The EOS 90D is the most exciting thing to happen in the Canon DSLR world for quite a while! Canon has really raised its game with a all-new 32.5-megapixel sensor with 25 per cent more resolution than any of its existing APS-C cameras. But while it’s the new sensor that’s grabbed most of the headlines, there’s much more to the EOS 90D than a few more megapixels. For a start, it looks like this is a fusion of the existing Canon EOS 80D and the high-speed EOS 7D Mk II: you get the higher resolution sensor in the same enthusiast-friendly body as the 80D, plus the 10fps continuous shooting speed of the 7D Mk II too. Canon’s new camera brings a combination of speed and resolution we haven’t seen before.…

FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ▪ Get creative with shutter speed ▪ Learn how to take fast-action shots ▪ Use a polarizer to boost images ▪ Photoshop Elements, CC and Affinity Photo tutorials PLUS ALL THIS… ▪ Super Test: Fast 85mm prime lenses for portraits like the pros ▪ Canon techniques guide: How to use filters for better landscapes ▪ The Interview: Ulla Lohmann, German adventure photographer and Canon Ambassador ISSUE 159 ON SALE 12 NOVEMBER * Content subject to change…

CANON PRO NAME: DREW GIBSON CAMERA: CANON EOS-1D X MK II Drew, 35, is a London-based professional motorsports photographer with an eye for creative imagery. He travels the globe to shoot everything from World Endurance Championships to Formula E. His clients include car manufacturers, like Bentley, Aston Martin, and Nio, as well as Top Gear, Goodwood Revival and several race teams. To check out Drew’s amazing portfolio, go to www.drew-gibson.co.uk. APPRENTICE NAME: UWE DEFFNER CAMERA: CANON EOS-1D X MK II Uwe is a retired IT consultant, originally from Münster, Germany, who moved to the UK over 25 years ago. His first Canon was a Canon FTb film camera, and his first DSLR was the EOS 450D, but he soon progressed to a EOS 5D Mark III, and more recently, a…

There are three main variables at work when taking an image on your Canon EOS digital camera, these are: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. The aperture is a series of blades inside your lens that make up a diaphragm which can be set to let in more or less light. Doing so also directly affects your depth of field. Shoot at wide apertures such as f/2.8 and you’ll flood the sensor with light, but also have a very shallow depth of field with a small area of your frame in focus. But if you shoot at a narrower aperture of, say f/22, the light will be restricted to a mere sliver, and you’ll also have a much larger, more forgiving zone of sharp focus to work with, so this is…

NO DISC DRIVE? LINKS TO VIEW VIDEOS ONLINE O N THE PAGE! Technique editor dan.mold@futurenet.com Welcome… MOST keen amateur photographers will have heard of the term ‘depth of field’ before. But do you really understand it? Well, be sure to check out editor Peter’s photo project to learn how to create shallow DoF effects (page 48). Prefer to get everything pin-sharp? Then our focus stacking technique, on page 50, is perfect for you! We show you how to achieve total sharpness all the way through the scene. If you find yourself at a loss on a rainy day why not try out our abstract still life project? With just a few household items you can create a head-turning tornado in a glass. See page 54 for all the details. More…

THE MISSION Learn how to manage depth of field in your shots Time needed One hour Skill level Intermediate Kit needed • A ‘fast’ lens (optional) One of the joys of using a Canon DSLR is the ability to use different lenses, such as lenses with a wide maximum aperture (eg f/2.8) to really blur backgrounds behind subjects, so they stand out in shot. This is called using a shallow depth of field (DoF). The depth of field is a measure of the physical distance between the closest and furthest points in a scene that will be rendered sharply in an image. With a larger depth of field, more of the scene will look sharp, from front to back. While a shallower DoF will mean a smaller area in the…

THE MISSION Work up your Raw files in ACR in Elements to give them more impact Time needed 10 minutes Skill level Beginner Kit needed Photoshop Elements Modern digital cameras have many advantages over film, but arguably the most useful is the ability to shoot Raw files, that contain masses of exposure information. This creates a safety net if your exposure or white balance isn’t quite right and also enables you to tweak the images to exactly how you want them. Raw isn’t an acronym, instead it literally refers to the raw data coming straight from the camera’s sensor. Each camera manufacturer has their own raw file format, usually .CR2 files on most Canon cameras. Raws are usually 5-10 times larger in size than JPEGs, varying from body to body,…

Editing your photos can transform them, bringing out the vivid colour and incredible detail you saw in person while you were taking the shot. But photo-editing skills take time to learn, and more time is needed to get the best from each image. Photolemur takes a different approach, doing all the hard work for you. Just drag and drop a photo onto the Photolemur mini-window, then watch as it analyses your shot in a dozen different ways before producing a brilliant result. Use the software to pay special attention to enhancement. Go beyond the initial results with Photolemur Styles, which enable you to choose different looks for your photograph. Photolemur is being offered free of charge until 31 December by Skylum. Other great programs in the Skylum roster include: •…

Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike 01 CHARLES LECLERC, FERRARI-2 Intense action caught in a brief 1/320 sec shutter speed Lens Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM Exposure 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO100 was lucky enough to shoot the Formula One Grand Prix in March this year at the ultramodern Bahrain circuit where Brit Lewis Hamilton took first place. I wanted to create a rush of motion in the moving cars, so I used a long exposure and the panning technique in many of my shots to keep the cars sharp, but blur the background just enough to convey that sense of movement. How I chose my shutter speed depended on the speed at which a car was moving, the focal length of the lens and the distance between…

I spend countless nights wandering around London scouting for new neon signs and windows When I’m not doing my day-to-day headshots and promo work, I create content for my own personal portrait projects. As a self-confessed night-owl, my favorite has to be taking portraits in the dead of night, lit by neon signs and artificial lighting. I spend countless nights wandering around London scouting for neon signs and illuminated windows. When I find a great spot I’ll then find a model to work with, agree on a style and then go out and see what we can get! It amazes me how you can achieve striking portraits with nothing more than the available light in an urban location at night. I incorporate glass windows for reflections and try to achieve…

Is it possible to disable the touchscreen LCD on the Canon EOS RP, if so how? Tim Crowthorne, Lancashire BRIAN SAYS… Yes it is. It can be done either completely or partially. The SET UP menu includes a touch control setting, and you can set this to disable all touchscreen access. It is completely possible to navigate menus, move AF points and other settings without using the touchscreen. You might need it in cold conditions when you are wearing gloves. If you simply just want to avoid the touchscreen some of the time – stopping your nose changing AF point accidentally for example – you can use the settings of the multi-function lock switch on the top of the camera to disable the touchscreen whenever the lock is set. It…

THE CONTENDERS Street photography is all about reacting to your environment, anticipating events as they unfold and capturing the definitive moment. More often than not, classic street images will include people set against urban surroundings, photographed candidly as they go about their lives. You’ll therefore need a camera and lens combination you can use fairly discreetly, which enables you to shoot with next to no setup time. With all this in mind, 35mm prime lenses for full-frame cameras have been the most popular option over the years. They give a comfortably wide viewing angle and a natural perspective, while avoiding any time lost to zooming in and out. More perversely, manual focus lenses have traditionally been very popular, as you can set the focus distance in advance and shoot instantly…

Letter of the Month I received my much anticipated PhotoPlus issue no.157 today and I saw your travel photo on the cover with a lovely view of the eternally beautiful Santorini, Greece. As it happens, I was there just a few days ago as part of a cruise holiday. I found out a couple of things when trying to get similar photographs on my trip. The first thing that occurs to me is that it may be better to do as I did and shoot the blue domes from a distance – when you get close there are so many people about that it’s nearly impossible to get a clear shot. Secondly, there are many signs warning tourists to keep off some of the vantage points on this area as…

01 ZOE VS ZOE BY HENRY SZWINTO Henry’s shot of young international Modern Pentathlete, Zoe, is a composite of her playing both fencers and has been cleverly stitched together in Photoshop. It’s a brilliant way of showing her battling her inner demons and the execution of the idea is fantastic. The mono treatment adds loads of atmosphere and has helped him fight off the competition to win first place in this month’s Sports Day contest. Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM Exposure 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO100 02 GOLDEN BOY BY AZEEZUR RAHMAN KHAN Azeezur tells us: “This was my first time shooting a boxing match and I was lucky enough to see Adli ‘GoldenBoy’ Hafidz take on his opponent – the brutal speed and accuracy of his punches was mind…

The sensors in Canon’s EOS digital cameras have improved dramatically over the years and are able to capture an incredible amount of detail and definition. But there’s a limit to the range of tones you can achieve in a single frame, even when shooting Raw files. This is referred to as a camera’s dynamic range. It can be near-impossible to catch the full range of tones in high-contrast scenes from dark foregrounds, to bright highlights in the sky, so you’ll have to bias your exposure towards one or the other. But, there’s a technique where you can create an High Dynamic Range (HDR) image which will give you the full gamut of tones. You’ll combine multiple images taken at different exposure values to create a single image with the full…

Great reasons to subscribe now! ✓ Get a Vanguard Vesta Strive 30 bag An ideal compact and stylish messenger bag for a small DSLR with medium lens attached ✓ Great savings Subscribe from only £12.50* and get your issues delivered to your door, plus this great Vanguard camera bag worth £49.99 ✓ Free Video Disc Each issue, you’ll receive a Video Disc packed with fantastic photo projects Option 1: Quarterly subscription £12.50* • 3 issues of PhotoPlus delivered per quarter Option 2: Regular subscription £51 • 13 issues of PhotoPlus print edition delivered • Expert PDF handbook • 20% off entry to The Photography Show Option 3: Premium subscription £69 • 13 issues PhotoPlus print edition delivered • Digital edition for your phone or tablet • PhotoPlus magazine binder •…

Abstract portraits Create quirky baby portraits with toy blocks and Photoshop Get pin-sharp images Learn how to focus stack for totally sharp landscape images Retouch skin easily Use Photoshop CC to smooth skin and make it look flawless Master depth of field Get to grips with Aperture Priority mode to control your DoF Give Raw files a boost Make a basic Raw conversion with ACR in Photoshop Elements Tidy up distractions How to tidy up a messy background in Affinity Photo Whip up a storm! Create the illusion of a tornado inside of a wine glass VIEW THE VIDEOS WHENEVER you see this icon you’ll find an accompanying video on our Video Disc. You’ll also find these videos online – so you can view them on a tablet or computer…

THE MISSION Take images you can focus stack Time needed 30 minutes Skill level Intermediate Kit needed • Tripod • Kit lens or wide-angle lens Depth of field is a term used in photography that you’ll likely be familiar with, referring to how narrow or wide the aperture of your lens is and therefore how much of the scene is rendered in focus. A wide aperture of, say, f/1.8 is usually preferred for portraits, giving you a shallow depth of field and making it possible to blur the background. But for landscapes you’re more likely to want a narrow aperture of around f/11 to give you a much larger zone of sharp focus, so that the viewer can clearly see everything from the foreground to the background. However, the laws…

THE MISSION Enhance skin with a simple smoothing technique Time needed 10 minutes Skill level Beginner Kit needed Photoshop CC The most successful portrait retouching tricks are those that let you enhance the subject – so that they look their best – without resulting in hyper-real or unnatural effects. In this tutorial we’ll look at how to boost your portraits with a simple technique in Photoshop CC for smoothing out skin tones. A cunning combination of filters and blend modes is employed to create the effect. The best thing about it is the results are not over-the-top. Plastic-looking skin, devoid of detail and texture, is one of the worst sins of retouching. With this technique, we can avoid this by smoothing out blotchiness while retaining the natural texture. The other…

Make lens corrections Fix lens-induced artefacts such as vignetting, distortion and chromatic aberration Even the most expensive lenses can add geometric distortion to a photo. As light is focused through a lens onto the sensor, it can cause horizontal and vertical lines to bulge (or barrel) outwards in the photograph. In most cases this geometric distortion is subtle and you’ll only notice it when toggling the correction on and off (see our video lesson). Different amounts of light may enter the lens at the edge of the frame. This uneven exposure can cause the edges of the photo to become vignetted and appear darker than the rest of the image. Vignetted edges are especially noticeable in clear patches of blue sky, as we see in our example image. While geometric…

SENSOR SIZE SHAKEDOWN From the beginning of digital cameras there’s been only one headline specification: megapixels. But there is much more to understand about pixels and sensor size than some might think. There are two main kinds of sensor in EOS cameras, full-frame measuring 36x24mm and APS-C measuring approximately 22.4x15mm. The size of the sensor reduces the lens’s angle of view, as if it was a longer focal length and that gives rise to the indicative crop factor. If you take a full-frame image, and mark the size of an APS-C sensor on it you can see the effect of the crop factor. Put a 400mm lens on the EOS 7D Mark II and it will have the angle of view of a 640mm lens thanks to the camera’s 1.6x…

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…