Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

Never have I been more excited to greet the new year. With 2020 being a huge challenge around the globe for obvious reasons, 2021 couldn’t come soon enough. Plus, now with mass vacations rolling out, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel for us all, and a return to new ‘normal life’ is in sight. With this in mind, we’re making a fresh start, and will make 2021 the year you take your Canon camera skills and photography to the level you’ve always dreamed about. Inside this issue, we talk to landscape photographer Matty Graham as he reveals his secrets for taking brilliant winter scenic shots, see page 28. Experienced pro landscape photographer Andrew James teaches our Apprentice how to take great seascape photos on the north…

APPRENTICE NAME: ADRIAN STILLWELL CAMERA: CANON 5DS, 5D MK III 55 YEAR old Adrian is ex-bomb squad, turned IT Manager. Back in his army days he spent many months clearing mines between Sherringham to Blakeney Point along the Norfolk coast. Having been able to get to know this coastline like the back of his hand he frequently revisits it to shoot (a bit different from what he was doing before!) seascapes and has asked for us to help him improve his Canon photography. CANON PRO NAME: ANDREW JAMES CAMERA: CANON 5D MARK III WITH MORE than 20 years working on photo magazines, Andrew now runs online photo learning site www.foto-buzz.com as well as tutoring on landscape workshops on the Norfolk coast. His Canon images have won prestigious photographic awards and…

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In 17th century Holland a trend emerged for larger-than-life still-life paintings of flowers. Galvanized by the fledgling disciplines of botany and horticulture at the time, Dutch artists like Jan Brueghel the Elder, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and Roelandt Savery painted bulging bouquets brimming with allegory. Impossibly overblown arrangements full of tangling stems and masses of overlapping blooms were typical of the work of the time. These works of art would go on to influence both painting and flower arrangement for centuries. We’ll take inspiration from the Dutch masters in this project to craft our own impossible flower arrangement. By holding our flowers in various positions over a series of frames we can elevate the bouquet to a height that defies the laws of physics. Of course, this also means we can re-use…

FAKE FLOWERS are ideal as they usually have bendable stems, so you can make them look as if they’re snaking upwards. When holding them in place, be sure to stand on the opposite side to the light so that you don’t cast a shadow over the scene. AS YOU hold the flowers in various different positions, clasp the stem with just a couple of fingers. The less your hand overlaps the flower, the easier it is to remove later. Alternatively, use a pair of tongs or a suitable clamp to grip the stems. WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_174_1…

01 COMPUTER WITH HDMI PORT To display the image on your laptop to the TV or monitor you’ll need to connect it via HDMI. Our Macbook didn’t natively have this port, so we used an Anker PowerExpand Direct 7-in-2 USB-C PD Media Hub to connect the HDMI cable. 02 LARGE DISPLAY SCREEN You’ll need a reasonably-sized computer display or monitor that can plug into your computer via HDMI. We used a 23.5-inch Samsung monitor, which was gave us a good amount of room to play with. You could use a TV for an even larger area. 03 ROYALTY-FREE FIRE IMAGES We found some great royalty-free pictures of fire and fireplaces perfect for this project on www.pixabay.com, although having a hi-res image is preferred it’s not hugely important, as it’s going…

01 UPDATE YOUR EOS FIRMWARE Be sure to check that you’re running the latest firmware version for your Canon camera – updates are regularly released on Canon’s sites to improve the autofocus performance and can sometimes add completely new features as well. 02 TURN ON FACE DETECTION We used an EOS R5. If your EOS camera features Face Detection you can go into the AF menu and choose AF Method to see all of the AF options, then choose Face Detection & Tracking mode (the Face Detection looks like a smiley face). 03 CHANGE THE SUBJECT PRIORITY If your camera is capable of Animal face and eye detection AF, you’ll be able to change it in the AF menu under the ‘Subject to detect’ option. Though if you only have…

One of the main challenges with landscapes is in balancing out bright skies with any darker landscape areas, especially if the foreground is in deep evening shade. Let’s be honest, many of us when editing a landscape like this where the contrast between land and sky is too great, might simply lift the Shadows and drop the Highlights. It’s a quick universal fix that may help to pull detail out of the lightest and darkest portions of the frame, but can also lead to an image looking over-processed, or almost HDR-like. Sometimes it’s better to take a more targeted approach instead. By making local adjustments that are tailored to different areas of the image, the results can look more natural and ultimately more successful. In this tutorial we’ll look at…

01 SELECT THE BIRD Open our bird_before01.jpg image (download link bottom left) in Affinity, making sure you’re in Photo Persona, grab the Selection Brush from the toolbar. Check ‘Snap to Edges’ in the options at the top, then paint over the bird and perch to select it. If you pick up parts of the backdrop, hold Alt and paint to subtract. 02 USE THE REFINE TOOL Click Refine in the options. Choose an overlay from the dropdown that gives you the best contrast between the subject and background – here the black overlay works. Increase the Border Width slider to expand the area of refinement, so that it covers the longer feathers and picks up all the detail in between. 03 FINE-TUNE THE EDGES The Adjustment Brush options in the…

01 PREPARE AND PHOTOGRAPH THE JAR Wash the jar and carefully remove all the labels. It’s best to choose a jar with no logos or text around the side of the lid. Apply black tape to the back of the jar, making sure that the tape is not quite visible at the sides of the glass. Photograph the jar on a white background like a sheet of photo paper. 02 ENHANCE CONTRAST Open the jar photo in DPP and then select the Curve Adjustment tool. You’ll need good black tone for the back of the jar, and clear highlight for the rest of the shot. Move the curve down in the shadows, and up in the highlights to increase contrast, while maintaining mid-tones. Crop or straighten the image if required.…

One overlooked but essential camera customization option is the ability to change the brightness level of the rear display on an EOS camera or the electronic viewfinder of a mirrorless EOS body. While it’s very useful to have a bright, backlit screen that allows you to compose and manually focus with precision, it can give a false picture of the exposure. If the brightness is set too high, then the image on the rear screen or in the EVF can look like it’s well exposed, even when the actual exposure may actually be too dark. Routinely checking the histogram will flag up any problems – if the histogram is humped towards the middle or left of the display, then the chances are the image will be a lot darker than…

Customizing your camera doesn’t start and end with the buttons, dials and menus. You can also tailor the camera’s image processing options to complement your style of photography and film-making. For example, you can register a custom white balance setting that you will then be able to choose at any time from the White Balance menu. It might seem a little extra effort to go to, when you’ve already got a range of white balance presets to choose from, but creating a custom setting can give you more accurate colours when you’re shooting in mixed or unusual lighting. To create a custom setting, you first need to photograph a white or grey object in the same lighting that you’ll be shooting in. Then, select the Custom White Balance menu option…

It’s time to explain why you should be checking your cameras, lenses and accessories to see if there’s an update for them that you can apply to improve performance of capability. Inside most modern electronic goods there’s firmware, the software that makes the hardware work in the way the manufacturer determined. Often during the life of that product the firmware gets updated to add features or fix bugs. Say you bought an EOS 5D Mark III in 2012, then in 2014 you buy the just announced EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. Out of the box all works just fine, so you add an Extender EF 1.4x III, but there’s no AF as the combination of lens and extender has a maximum aperture greater than f/5.6. But what if…

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01 TREE IN STYTHWAITE MEADOW BY DAVID KIDWELL BLACK AND WHITE, COMMENDED David tells us: “I decided to concentrate on photography I can do within walking distance from home, as this forces me to engage with the people and landscapes in my immediate neighbourhood. I love shooting trees throughout the seasons and on this winter’s morning we had a rare snowfall. I awoke with excitement making my way to my favourite tree and set up my camera to capture the stark silhouette standing out against the white snow. But I was not alone, for over the brow of the hill came a flock of eager sheep hoping that I was a source of their feed and this suddenly changed the landscape.” Lens Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Exposure 1/1250…

The Isle of Eigg, Scotland. 11 January 2011 Lens Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Exposure 0.8 sec, f/16, ISO100 I turn the pages of another book, the rain running down the windows, the start of our second day on the Isle of Eigg. Scotland in the winter is always a risk. Right off the ferry we greet our ‘taxi,’ taking us to our cottage, a Mitsubushi Shogun piled up in the back with palettes. “This is the second car I've had since I arrived here in 1968,” we're informed. The story unfolds; his last one was a classic Mini Cooper, shipped there with the owner from East London. The Shogun got so rusty that the suspension collapsed and was replaced with a railway sleeper. You would think the last straw…

01 FLOWERS The flowers we’re using here are a mixture of real and fake. The fake flowers are sturdier and we can bend the stems to create eye-catching curves. But the real flowers will of course look more natural, so it’s a good idea to use a mixture of the two. 02 VASE AND TABLE In keeping with the look of the famous Dutch paintings of the 17th century, we used a large porcelain jug to hold our bouquet. A wooden table complements the look. You’ll probably have items around the house that will work just as well. 03 LIGHTING Our scene here is lit with two studio flashes from a home studio kit – one on the backdrop, the other on the flowers. If you don’t have studio flash…

01 LOAD INTO LAYERS Navigate to the images you want to use in Adobe Bridge, then hold Cmd/Ctrl and click on each to highlight them. Go to Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers. This will load all the images into a single document. 02 ARRANGE THE STACK Choose a frame to act as a base and drag it to the bottom. Think about how each flower will fit, and drag the layers with the flowers you’d like to appear at the front of the bouquet to the top. After, hold Alt and click the eye icon of the lowest layer to hide the rest. 03 ISOLATE THE FLOWER Highlight and reveal the layer above the bottom layer, grab the Lasso tool and drag around the extra flower. Next, grab the Magic…

STEP 1 SET UP YOUR COMPUTER DISPLAY The first thing we did was to position our glass on a wooden table just for reference. The wooden table will also help us to mimic the look of wooden flooring too, giving us a more realistic looking image. We then needed to raise up our computer monitor so that the bottom of the display was just sitting below the top of the table. To do this we used a sturdy wooden crate, books and some DVD cases until it was at the perfect height and leaning forward ever so slightly. We then connected the power and connected it to our computer by HDMI using an Anker adapter before switching it on. We ran the display in dual screen mode. STEP 2 LOAD…

01 ENHANCE THE SKY Open the image and go to Select>Sky. Go to the Layers panel (Window>Layers), then click the Create Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom and choose Levels. The active selection will convert to a mask, allowing you to make a local adjustment to the sky. Drag in the black point to darken the sky. 02 BOOST THE LAND Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the thumbnail of the mask to load the sky as a selection, then go to Select>Inverse. Now the land is selected instead. Once again add a Levels Adjustment Layer. Drag the black and white points inwards as shown to boost contrast, then tweak the midpoint to control brightness. 03 ADJUST THE FOREGROUND Highlight the background layer then grab the Quick Selection Tool from the Toolbox.…

Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike I find a tremendous amount of joy from creating art with photography using cameras, optics and light. This series, which I call Aurora with EOS, is an idea that was conceptualized over a decade ago and took six months from start to finish when I decided how I was going to do it. For this project I used my Canon 5D Mark I, the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, and a light wand known as the Photonic-crystal fibre. This form of fibre-optics was first explored in the UK at the University of Bath in 1996. Its flexible, transparent, fibre became popular for making novelty lights, and light emitting cables. It got me thinking in the late 1990’s… Photography is defined as, “painting with light.” What if…

Professional photographers reveal their top six tools of the trade they couldn’t shoot without My main source of portraiture are families and newborns. I’ll do longer sessions for newborns as it takes a lot of time and patience to perfect each photo while still allowing babies to be babies! Newborns are my favourite type of photo shoot, as there is more of an opportunity to be creative with the baby being asleep and not active yet. I enjoy photographing families for different reasons, such as being able to capture the beautiful moments and natural bonds shared between one another. It’s something that can be overlooked in day-to-day life, which makes it such a treasure to have captured in a photograph. Through the pandemic this has been harder, but I encouraged…

In this edition of Digital SLR Essentials we explain all you need to know about customizing your Canon to suit you If you’re new to EOS cameras, it can be daunting trying to get to the good stuff. Lots of menus and sub-menus overflowing with options, and buttons and dials that do different things, depending on what mode you’re in. The good news is that there are a vast number of ways that you can tweak, adjust and override the default settings so that the camera suits the way you like to work. Your first stop in custom-fitting your Canon is the Custom Functions menu (itself, buried in the yellow Set-up menu of some cameras, including the EOS 250D pictured here). The number of options available depends on the complexity…

Canon’s EOS R cameras offer a vast range of customization options, including the ability to assign a function to the control ring of an RF lens or the EF-EOS R control ring mount adapter. As with the other forms of camera customization, there are a greater number of options available with the more advanced cameras. So, while the beginner-friendly EOS RP lets you adjust the aperture, shutter speed, ISO or exposure compensation, the EOS R5 and R6 go even further. These cameras allow you to not only make the image brighter or darker with a quick twist of the control ring, but change the white balance or add some flash exposure compensation. The advanced EOS R cameras even allow you to use the control ring to select the AF method.…

ADVANCED CANON Speedlites can also be customized to how you like to work – from simple things such as changing the distance indicator display from meters to feet, to disabling functions such as the AF-assist beam firing. You can also enable previously locked features, such as activating an audible beep when the flash has recycled after firing (which is useful when you’re using a number of remote flashguns). Rather than fiddling around on the back of the flashgun, you can make adjustments on your camera, when the Speedlite is attached to the hotshoe. Just select the Flash control option in the camera’s red Shooting menu, and scroll down to ‘External flash C.Fn setting’. The flash custom functions menu is presented in the same way as the camera’s own Custom Functions…

01 Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM An affordable nifty fifty for the EOS R £219/ $199 www.canon.co.uk WHILE IT has the same aperture, motor, and similar dimensions to the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, this new RF 50mm F1.8 STM boasts a new optical formula said to deliver superior sharpness. In addition to a PMo (precision moulded) aspheric lens, it also features Canon’s Super Spectra Coating to eliminate ghosting and flare. The STM stepper motor is quick and quiet, and its control ring can be toggled between manual focus and custom input. Like most fast 50mm primes, this lens doesn’t have IS. But when paired with the IBIS systems of the Canon EOS R5 or R6, it can achieve up to 7-stops of image stabilization. 02 Canon RF 70-200mm F4L…

What to look for Canon EOS cameras Canon splits its EOS DSLR lineup into entry-level, enthusiast and pro ranges; the 4000D is the most basic, the 850D 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. Over the page, we also have the full-frame EOS R mirrorless cameras, the EOS RP as an ‘entry-level’ and more affordable option, the EOS R and R5 for serious photographers. Plus not forgetting Canon’s smaller compact system (also mirrorless) APS-C EOS M camera range. DSLR CAMERAS…

Letter of the Month You recently asked which parts of the magazine we enjoy most and where could you improve. I’m rarely short on an opinion, so I’m pleased you asked. I enjoy The Apprentice the most. I can mostly relate to the amateur’s position and it would be rare that I don’t cut out a tip or two to save and refer back to. All the advice is very practical too. For example, this month (following issue 173’s Apprentice article) I’m taking away the view from the tower of Great St Mary’s church together with the possibility of setting up a tripod in the church. I am working on a Cambridge project at present trying to capture views not normally seen of the city, such as my recent portrait…

Apro photographer for over 15 years, Matty Graham started out as a journalist before adding cameras and lenses to the pen and paper tool kit. Working across multiple genres, Matty’s true love is landscapes and he feels a magnetic pull towards northern destinations… Every pro landscaper has an in-built compass that attracts them to certain scenes and continents. Many UK shooters will head south, exploring Europe’s Mediterranean gems, while others are drawn to the light of African lands. East and West also provide a multitude of lush scenes, but for photojournalist Matty Graham, the needle pointing north has always been the winner. The Northumbrian native added the photography string to his bow more than a decade ago – a move that opened new doors and opportunities to travel, discover new…

STILL LIFE LIGHTING WITH FLASH A home studio lighting kit is worth the outlay if you want to capture still life photos. Flash gives your images a clarity that is difficult to achieve with ambient light alone. Our simple two-light set-up here lets us light both the flowers and the backdrop. When using two lights, experiment with the output of each to change the ratio of the lighting. It can be helpful to build the lighting one flash at a time, by turning each on individually (after setting your exposure) to see how it affects the lighting as a whole. 01 USE A DARK BACKDROP Set up a dark backdrop – we used a grey roll of paper for ours. Set up a table in front of the background for…

Green screen is so last year, with many film studios now preferring to shoot with a live background on a giant LCD screen behind the cast of actors. This not only helps the actors and actresses feel more grounded to the scenes they’re in, but the light emitted from the screens helps them look more natural too and no Chroma key cutouts are needed when editing. We’re going to try the very same principle at home, albeit with a much smaller screen. We used a 23.5-inch Samsung display, though as we’re hooking it up via HDMI you could even use a full TV screen if you needed an even larger backdrop. We wanted to take a warm and cosy picture of a glass of mulled wine in front of a…

01 MOVE, SCALE AND DUPLICATE If there’s an object in your photo you’d like to reposition, open it and go to the Guided Mode then Basics>Move & Scale Object. You can then brush over your object to select it and move it or duplicate to another part of the frame. 02 ADD A STYLISH DUOTONE Open the image you’d like to add a duotone to and go to the Guided Mode> Fun Edits>Duotone Effect. Now choose one of the duotone-looks you like and adjust it further with the strength and opacity sliders below. 03 PERFECT LANDSCAPE Bring the landscape you want to edit into the Guided Mode and go to Special Edits> Perfect Landscape. Now you can easily add a new sky here, then use the Opacity and Brightness sliders…

Replacing a backdrop is a fun way to transform your photos, and it’s a simple task with Affinity Photo’s selection tools. Whether you want to transport your subject to a faraway place or make an accurate cutout, this technique will give you results. We’ll begin by selecting the bird using the handy Selection Brush. This can lock on to the edges of the figure, allowing us to isolate it with a few clicks. Next, we can improve our selection using the Refine control, which lets us knock out all the messy, bits of background that show through the bird’s feathers. Automated tools can only get us so far, so we may need to finish off our cutout manually by painting on a layer mask to fine-tune what is hidden or…

While the layout of Canon’s menus have been refined over years to the point where you can move from one EOS body to the next and pretty much know where things are, it can still be easy to get a bit lost. There are multiple pages of menu options to navigate on an advanced EOS camera such as the 5D Mark IV, whose Shooting menu contains six pages of settings, while its AF, Custom Functions and Set-up menus have five pages each. In Scene Intelligent Auto mode, the options available are greatly reduced, but then you’re not making the most of your camera in this shooting mode. Thankfully, there is an easy way to avoid going down the rabbit hole, and speed up your menu work: My Menu. Select the…

ENTHUSIAST EOS cameras give you the option to save your own customized camera set-up so that you can return to it at any time. In fact, the EOS RP and a number of other models allow you to save up to three ‘Custom’ modes, that you can switch between using the ‘C’ options on the mode dial. To create the custom mode, you first need to configure the camera how you want it, then head to the ‘Custom shooting mode’ option in the yellow Set-up menu in order to register the settings. Your set-up can include a near-complete config, including the current shooting mode, Picture Style, White Balance, Custom Functions and more. If you change shooting settings when the camera is set to a Custom mode, such as dialling in…

Our technical guru is here to help. No Canon conundrum is too big or small. Get in touch today at EOSSOS@futurenet.com What do I need to trigger a second Speedlite 430EX III-RT, I have a Hahnel Tuff TTL transmitter and receiver for my existing 430EX III-RT? Rob Lear, Surrey BRIAN SAYS… You will need an extra receiver unit for each additional Speedlite you add to the system. However you could also change the approach and make use of the Speedlite 430EX III-RT’s built-in radio transmitter and receiver capability. You can place a Speedlite 430EX III-RT on the camera and use it as a commander to control up to fifteen remote units, the commander can flash or not. You may want to use both flashes off-camera, so you need a suitable…

What to look for Canon EOS mirrorless cameras When it comes to choosing mirrorless EOS cameras over DSLRs, there are pros and cons to consider. Canon’s full-frame EOS R cameras are packed with the very latest tech including IBIS, Animal AF and 20fps via the electronic shutter in both the EOS R5 and R6. Without the mirror, R bodies are smaller than their DSLR equivalents (but only a fraction lighter). Compared to Optical Viewfinders on DSLRs, using an R’s Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) is slower to focus due to lag and refresh rates, yet focusing via Live View with AF points all over the touchscreen is better. EOS R cameras can also use the next gen Canon RF lenses and their superior image quality (and superior size), but most R cameras…

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. 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. For Canon EOS R System mirrorless cameras you need dedicated Canon RF lenses. 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…

THE NO.1 MAGAZINE FOR CANON USERS! FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ■ Capture colourful portraits ■ Frozen fruit in ice imagery ■ Build fantasy landscapes in Photoshop CC ■ Make surreal 3D shapes in Affinity Photo ■ Photoshop Elements tips PLUS ALL THIS… ■ Canon techniques: Big guide to getting more from your camera ■ Pro interview: The inspiring Timo Stammberger, animal rights photojournalist ■ Super Test: The best superzoom lenses for Canon EOS cameras ISSUE 175 ON SALE 2 FEBRUARY 2021 * Content subject to change…