Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

To be the best, you need to learn from the best, which is why we use the best in the business when creating each issue of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine. We feature the best Canon EOS experts and the best professional photographers in their field. For this issue’s big skills guide, we reveal how pros at the top of their game capture great landscape and seascape photos. From using the right kit for the job, to challenging conditions on location, to maximizing image sharpness and advanced techniques, the pro tips begin from page 28. Also inside, Canon pro Jade Keshia Gordon teaches and shows our Apprentice some photographic hot spots on the streets of London to take great portraits outside, from page 8. In our Canon Skills section, from page…

Successful landscape photography has always placed a lot of emphasis on detail and sharpness. However, with Canon’s range of EOS cameras with modern high-resolution sensors, sharpness and the techniques needed to achieve it have become increasingly important. So what contributes towards image sharpness? Equipment obviously has a bearing on this, starting with your choice of camera. Sensor size has an effect, as does sensor design, lenses also have a significant impact. It used to be the case that primes were noticeably sharper than zoom lenses, but in recent years Canon’s exceptionally good zoom lenses have revolutionized choices. While good lenses don’t come cheap, spending a bit more will usually result in more quality. The good news is that the most useful lenses for landscapes are wide angles, which are considerably…

VANGUARD VEO RANGE 32M BAG! • Fits inside: Camera with lens attached (such as Canon EOS 800D with EF-S 18-135mm lens), flashgun, plus extra lenses, 13-inch tablet, personal gear and travel tripod • Internal dimensions: 320×135×230mm • External dimensions: 360×165×250mm Get this great Vanguard Range 32M bag by subscribing today online www.magazinesdirect.com/php/range32 or you can call 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘BM24’ * Terms and Conditions: Offer open to new UK subscribers only. Pricing is guaranteed for the first 12 months and we will notify you in advance of any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). Your gift will be delivered separately within 60 days after your first payment has cleared. Gifts only available to subscribers…

Colour gels are a cheap yet wonderful way to enhance your lighting and add impact to your portraits. By placing a gel in front of a flash or LED you can tint the light to any shade you like. Whether you want a bold colourful backdrop or an atmospheric colour tint over your subject, gels can be a great choice. What’s more, they’re inexpensive, and can be used over equally affordable Speedlites. So a simple lighting setup with a couple of gelled Speedlites won’t cost the earth. And you don’t really need a studio to create beautiful colour gel portraits, any large space will do. In this project we’ll look at a range of techniques for creative gel photography, from bold vibrant looks to moody low-key effects. We’ll explore complementary…

Every photographer crosses their fingers for a stunning sunset on a landscape shoot, but what happens if the sky is so bright that you struggle to be able to properly expose your image? Luckily, that’s where the Graduated Filter tool in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC comes in. In lieu of using a physical filter to cut down the amount of light entering the lens and darkening the sky, this virtual version uses the information within your image to mimic the effect. This means that you can simply select the areas of your image that you want darkened or lightened and Lightroom will do the rest. You can download the same Lightroom_before.jpg start file we’re using here (see link bottom right), or open one of your own landscape shots into Lightroom…

Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike Graeme Green is a British wildlife photographer and conservationist who, for the past two years, has been working with over 250 wildlife photographers and various charities across the globe to create a ‘New Big 5’. The idea is to change the stigma around the ‘big five’ associated with hunting lions, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo in Africa and instead create a new big five for photographers. He tells us: “It’s our way of celebrating the amazing wildlife across the globe and photography is a powerful conservation tool too, exposing the brutal realities of animal cruelty, deforestation and habitat loss. When I started this project I wanted to create an inspiring new bucket list for travellers, wildlife lovers and photographers to see in…

DESPITE THE advanced technology of Canon’s flash system, you’ll still need some old-school techniques to get the best from it. Photographic umbrellas and softboxes, for example, will help to spread and diffuse the light emitted from an off-camera Speedlite. It’s trickier to soften the light from a pop-up flash, but there are a few commercial options available. Alternatively, you can create your own by cutting up a translucent plastic milk carton. If you want to prevent the light from the flash spilling everywhere and produce a more focused beam of light to pick our a detail, then a grid or a snoot attachment can help here. There are also some built-in features that can help you achieve more natural results. A Speedlite which enables you to angle its head and…

Our Canon expert Brian explains how to use Canon’s free Digital Photo Professional to sort your shots Raw images offer the largest range of adjustment after the shutter is pressed, but you need to learn to use suitable Raw editing software. Digital Photo Professional extracts amazing quality from Canon Raw images, and simplifies the process by using your camera settings as the starting point for great looking results. DPP is free to download from Canon, you just need your camera serial number to get the latest version. If you mostly shoot JPEGs then Raw can seem complicated with all the options open to you in post. Using DPP simplifies Raw processing, and maximizes image quality. Start by putting the Raw in a folder and open DPP, then browse to the folder.…

01 SanDisk introduces Professional range New ‘mission-critical’ storage for pros From £TBA/$TBA https://shop.westerndigital.com DATA STORAGE specialists SanDisk are introducing three new products to launch its Professional lineup: the Pro-Cinema CFexpress VPG400 memory card, a Pro-Reader series of card readers and the Pro-Dock 4 card reader docking station. Launching with a 256GB capacity, the Pro-Cinema CFexpress VPG400 card can sustain 400MB/s video write speed for the entire capacity of the card, making it ideal for the demands of 4K and even 8K video. The new Pro-Reader card reader series feature USB 10Gbs connectivity and will be available for CFast, CFexpress, CF, SD, microSD and Red Mini-Mag. The readers can be used individually, or within the Pro-Dock 4 four-bay reader dock. 02 Atomos Shinobi 7 See the bigger picture when shooting video…

Any outing is likely to be more pleasurable without a cumbersome tripod in tow. Conventional tripods tend to be big, heavy and unwieldy, so we often leave them at home, where they’re of no use whatsoever. By contrast, lightweight or ‘travel’ tripods are made to be compact and easily manageable. Traditionally, though, they’ve often been flimsy, relatively unstable and too small to enable a comfortable operating height. The new breed of travel tripods aim to give you the best of both worlds. The vast majority have legs that swing upwards for stowage, so that the head is encircled by the feet. This reduces the folded height by around 8cm to 10cm. Some models also include as many as five sections in each leg and a two-section extending centre column, reducing…

Adecade ago, the Giottos company launched a series of Vitruvian tripods, named after Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing, The Vitruvian Man. As in the drawing, the legs swing upwards but, in the case of the Giottos tripods they swung up completely, adopting a vertically upright orientation for stowing away. The trick was that, by fully extending the centre column before swinging the legs up, the tripod head no longer extended beyond the length of the legs, making the carrying size smaller. Another neat trick of Vitruvian tripods was that you could unscrew one of the tripod legs, detach the centre column, and join the two together for use as a monopod, complete with ball head.…

A ll but two of the tripod kits on test come with ball heads, so the quality of the head is an important buying consideration. Smaller, more lightweight tripods tend to have a lower maximum load rating of around 4-6kg. They’ll typically have relatively small ball heads but can still perform well with the payload for which they’re designed. Some kits with heftier 8-15kg load ratings have chunkier, more heavy-duty heads. They tend to have ball heads that feature adjustable friction dampers and an independent panning release. Exceptions are the Manfrotto Befree 3-Way Live Advanced, which has a conventional 3-way head, and the Peak Design Travel Tripod, which features an integral head.…

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 PRICES QUOTED ARE BODY-ONLY UNLESS STATED…

APPRENTICE NAME: SHANA-ROCHELLE GRAVILLIS CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D MARK III SHANA-ROCHELLE is based in London and loves all avenues of photography and currently does all of the product and stock photography for her mother’s candle making business. She’s an avid portrait photographer too, but has asked for some help on how to get the best poses from models and which settings are best for different lighting situations when shooting outside. We’ve paired her up with Jade Keshia Gordon to take some portraits around London’s bustling Blackfriars and Southwark locations. CANON PRO NAME: JADE KESHIA GORDON CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D MARK IV JADE KESHIA Gordon is a professional beauty and fashion Canon photographer based in Peckham, London, and has been taking portraits for more than 10 years, since she was 17.…

The most effective way to improve sharpness is also the simplest: mount your camera on a tripod. Choosing the right tripod and head can be difficult, however, there are many manufacturers and models to choose from. It’s important to choose a tripod that is sturdy and has a useful maximum height (there will be occasions when you will want to shoot above head height), as well as the ability to set up low to the ground for more dramatic perspectives. Apart from this, the basic choices to be made are the material it’s made from, the number of leg sections and whether or not it has a centre column. Tripods are usually made from either aluminium or carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is more expensive, but considerably lighter, which is important,…

Sometimes, if you have very close foreground interest, you need to be a little more precise than double-distance focusing allows. For every combination of focal length and aperture, there is one focusing distance that generates maximum depth of field – the hyperfocal distance. The calculations are quite complex, but fortunately there are charts and apps that work it out for you. So for example, if you are shooting with a full-frame camera at 28mm and f/11, your app will tell you that the hyperfocal distance is ten feet; find an object at that distance and focus on it. As depth of field extends from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity, everything from five feet will be sharp. But be careful not to overuse the hyperfocal distance. It’s only necessary when…

St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall. 00:00am. 3 June 2020 It is June 2020 and it's all now the right way up, as the strangest three months of upside down have ended. Cycling my way through the first lockdown has been the only respite, as spring passes me by photographically and we emerge from the strangest time of isolation. In July, Milky Way season begins. It can actually start in May, but the results can be rather under whelming. With exceptionally long days and the nights that never get fully dark, the best place to be is in the south, which is why so many people head to Devon and Cornwall to soak up the celestial rays. It is all about the galactic core, the very centre of our galaxy, which finally…

If you’re a fan of doodling, then this project will be perfect for you. We’ll look at how to transform a portrait into a piece of scribble art. It might look like a complicated effect, but it’s actually rather simple to pull off. We begin by cutting out our subject (using automated selection tools to speed things up), then we hide the portrait behind a mask, grab a brush and start scribbling. Of course, scribbling is best done with a pen and tablet, as this way you can make use of pressure and tilt to vary your strokes. But if you only have access to a mouse then it’s still easy to create the scribbles, as we can use helpful features like Smoothing on our brush tip to combat the…

I took these portraits just before the winter lockdown last year when it was safe to shoot indoors, so I made sure to get in a few last photoshoots. Most of my shoots are done in my attic studio and this is where I have most experience, though I’m always keen to learn new skills. But I wanted to explore different techniques by using new lighting techniques. I usually shoot with stark moody lighting in my home studio and this is the look I was going for with gym-goer Yvette. I wanted to use harsh and moody lighting to add contrast, make it look more gritty and show off her toned physique. “I arranged a shoot with Dennis at a local basketball court as I wanted to go for a…

Although you can attach a Speedlite to the camera’s hotshoe where available (not all EOS M cameras have one), taking the light off the camera and positioning it somewhere interesting is the goal. To do this, however, you will need a way of controlling the flashgun remotely and triggering it when you shoot. There are two ways to do this: using a wired connection or going wireless. A few years ago, we would have happily recommended the wired route, using an off-camera shoe cord. One end of this cable attaches to the hotshoe on top of the camera, while the other end is fitted with a hotshoe that the Speedlite slots into. While they’re okay for close-up photography, they can be a proper trip hazard for longer distance work. But…

“When reviewing images on camera, autofocus points are normally shown as a square or group of squares, but not seen at all on other images?”Patrick Johns, Whitchurch BRIAN SAYS… Autofocus (AF) frames are shown when two conditions are met, the AF points are set to be shown in playback, and one or more of the AF points was in focus when the picture was captured. This can be when the focus lock occurred for One Shot AF. With Servo AF it is possible that the camera didn’t think it had achieved focus, so no AF point is displayed. Also if you use back button AF, it’s essential to be pressing the back button while the shot is taken, so that focus is active and, therefore, the in focus and active…

If all your photos are fast filling your computer’s storage space – or you need to keep your digital portfolio portable – then it might be time to invest in a portable SSD. A conventional portable HD drive still offers the most bytes for your buck, but for top transfer speeds, a solid state drive – SSD – is a must. SSDs are also far more robust. With no moving parts, there’s no mechanical wear and tear to worry about. They’re also less power-hungry, and are usually powered via the host computer’s USB connection. The best portable SSDs are also a fraction of the size and weight of a conventional portable hard drive, and though an SSD’s speed and portability still commands a premium over a usual HD, pricing is…

Up-market tripods are usually made from carbon fibre instead of aluminium. They have a more luxurious feel, a smarter looking finish, and can be slightly more resistant to vibrations. Carbon fibre can also feel less cold to the touch but, then again, most tripods of either material tend to feature comfort padding on at least one leg. The main advantage of carbon fibre is that it’s more lightweight than aluminium, giving it a clear advantage for lightweight tripods. But that’s not the whole story. Although the weight-saving can be substantial in full-sized tripods, it’s much less noticeable in small tripods. For most kits available in aluminium and carbon fibre options, the latter typically only saves around 200g in weight. Considering that the carbon fibre editions are usually about 50 per…

A ll of the tripods on test have legs that can be locked at multiple angles to the centre column. Typically either two or three alternative angles are available, in addition to the legs being able to swing up. This can help when you’re shooting on uneven terrain, or when there are obstacles in the way. For example, you might need to use one or two legs in a near-horizontal orientation and place the feet on a wall or table to get into position. Also, by splaying the legs to a wider angle when shooting at low operating heights, you can increase stability and reduce the risk of the tripod toppling over. Using wider leg angles also gives you a lower minimum shooting height when needed.…

The Benro GoPlus Travel FGP18A is an older design that’s been a previous winner in our Super Test, and is still available. It’s solid with all of the usual features, plus the addition of a pivoting centre column. Unlike the system featured in the Kenro Ultimate Travel, its design enables you to lock the centre column at a large number of incremental angles through a full 180-degree arc. A pivoting centre column can be handy for close-ups with macro lenses, and using ultra-wides or fisheye lenses. But the Benro and Kenro tripods weigh in at around 2kg and, given the lightweight nature of most compact tripods, there’s a risk of them toppling over when using the centre column as a horizontal boom.…

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 Zeiss www.zeiss.co.uk…

01 WINNER SAINT PRIMOZ CHURCH, SLOVENIA BY PETER ORR Peter’s taken a beautiful landscape here with a clear focal point provided by the church which helps to anchor the foreground, fantastic snow-capped mountains and an incredible blood orange sky. It has all the elements of a great landscape and shows off the great outdoors at its best, making it the winner of our competition this month. He tells us: “This is a panoramic view of the Julian Alps at sunset and the composition of the church in the wider landscape was fixed before the sky gradually turned a lovely pink colour for a few minutes, which gave the image a wonderful boost.” Lens Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Exposure 0.3 sec, f/11, ISO100 02 BALD EAGLE BY BUDDY…

Each location and viewpoint presents its own challenges when it comes to achieving sharp images. Pro landscape photographers also frequently find themselves battling the weather and lighting conditions, which can have a negative impact on sharpness. Anywhere that requires a long walk can be a challenge, especially if you have to carry lots of heavy equipment with you. The temptation might be to save weight by leaving your tripod behind. This would be a mistake, however, as hand-holding, even in good lighting, just doesn’t work for most landscape images – you will almost certainly find yourself compromising by shooting at a higher ISO or wider aperture than is desirable. Uneven ground on hills, soft ground on beaches and muddy paths, slippery surfaces and vibrations (for example, people walking on the…

Flash photography isn’t a dark art – learn to embrace the flash light instead! In this project, we’re going to show you to manually and remotely control a Speedlite, plus explain how to use the HSS (High-Speed Sync) mode for better action shots in bright sunlight. You may have used some fill-flash before, such as taking portraits in daylight to reduce harsh shadows and lighten up people’s faces. However, Canon EOS cameras have a maximum flash sync speed – eg 1/180 sec to 1/250 sec, depending on your EOS camera. This means in bright conditions when using a pop-up flash or flashgun, you can’t shoot at faster shutter speeds or wide apertures (eg f/2.8 at 1/2000 sec) without ending up with overexposed images, or a black band across the bottom…

Compositing is one of the tasks that Affinity Photo does best. With a few simple skills, we can cut out our subject and transport them anywhere we like. There are a few important factors to consider for a successful composite. The first is your initial subject selection… We begin by making a precise cut out using selection tools. The best place to start is usually Affinity Photo’s Selection Brush, which has a ‘Snap to Edges’ setting that lets us quickly isolate a person. It helps if the subject is photographed against a plain backdrop like a wall, sheet or any other surface that contrasts with them, as this makes it easier for the tool to snap onto the edges. After, we can enhance the selection using the Refine Selection command.…

E-TTL II is great when you’re starting out with flash, or when you’re shooting in a fastmoving situation and don’t have time to keep altering the flash exposure. But its key advantage can also be a negative. With the camera making automatic adjustments, you can never be sure of consistency. Change the framing and composition, and there’s a chance the camera will also change the flash exposure. It can also be influenced by a change in the tone or colour of the background. Manual flash gives you a consistent burst of light for each shot. Once you’ve set the power level for the flash, it will stay that way. This does mean that you need to understand how to increase or decrease the flash exposure, as the camera won’t don’t…

PART 4 Next issue: Everything you need to know about HDR JUST AS you can lock in a normal exposure using the AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) button – the one with the asterisk/star – you can do the same with a flash exposure. The same button doubles up as FEL (Flash Exposure Lock). Locking the flash exposure in can be useful if the main subject is small or positioned to the side of the picture, where the camera might struggle to create an accurate flash exposure. To use this, ensure the subject is in the centre of the frame and the flash is ready, then press the FEL button. The flash will fire without a picture being taken, and the exposure setting will be saved. Then reframe and take the…

Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon DSLR? Email EOSSOS@futurenet.com Larger (or wider) aperture lenses have two characteristics that allow you to create photos that are different. Firstly, you have the option for shallow depth of field, great for separating a subject from the background, or blurring an otherwise busy background that would detract from the main subject. This look is commonly used for portraits, but works for other subjects too. Secondly, the amount of light passing in to the camera is greater with a fast lens with a wider aperture, and this has other positive effects; better AF performance and faster shutter speed or lower ISO. Lenses with a fast maximum aperture are often thought to be expensive and specialist items. Many fit that description, but the cheapest EF 50mm…

GuruShots is billed as the world’s leading photo game. It’s an online platform that gives global exposure to people who love taking photographs. GuruShots members start out as Newbies and compete with other photographers to win challenges, increase their ranking on the site and eventually progress to coveted Guru’ status. Challenges are voted on by Gurus and the wider GuruShots community, and there’s a fresh challenge every day – such as street photography. Winners receive prizes from GuruShots’ sponsors, including Lowepro, Kodak and Lensbaby. Check out www.gurushots.com to find out more.…

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 is a cut-down version of Adobe Photoshop. To a novice photographer the full version of Photoshop can appear daunting, as it’s packed of potentially superfluous features, such as the ability to draw vectorbased shapes using Bézier curves, for example. Elements cuts to the chase by focusing on overcoming common photo problems (such as removing tints or colour casts, or straightening tilted horizons). As Elements contains only the essential fixing tools it is far easier (and quicker) to master than the ‘full-fat’ version. Elements’ useful Guided Edit modes give you access to the key tools required to help fix picture problems. Thanks to features, such as Adobe Sensei AI, it enables you to give your shots a creative makeover without needing years of photo-editing experience. The interface…

We measure the max operate height of each tripod and its folded height for carrying. We also measure the combined weight of each set of tripod legs and head, using electronic scales, and measure the diameter of all leg sections, from the widest to the thinnest, using digital callipers. We check the ease of use, smoothness and precision of all available adjustments in each set of tripod legs and heads. This ranges from adjusting leg sections and pivot facilities (where available), to the locking mechanism of the ball head, as well as independent pan and friction damping adjustments, where fitted. To check overall stability, we shoot with a range of DSLR and mirrorless camera bodies fitted with wide-angle, standard, telephoto and macro lenses. We look for good resistance to flexing…

Multi-angle legs help reduce the min shooting height, but the limiting factor is usually the point at which the centre column touches the ground. The min height is therefore the height of the centre column plus the ball head. A two-section extending centre column can help to further reduce the operating height, as well as the carrying height. Better still, the Kenro Ultimate Travel and Novo Explora T5 kits are supplied with a short, stubby ‘low angle adaptor.’ You can attach this to the tripod head and use it instead of the centre column. Being able to shoot low to the ground with your camera stable on a tripod is very useful for close-up flower photos in low light conditions.…

THE NO.1 MAGAZINE FOR CANON USERS! FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ■ Creative night scenes with a projector■ Landscape photo series part 3■ Product photography■ Image-editing guides in Affinity Photo, Lightroom & Photoshop CC PLUS ALL THIS… ■ PhotoPlus Apprentice: Pro tips on shooting Bristol's great buildings ■ Canon School: Part 4 of our series ■ Summer skills: Canon techniques ■ Super Test: We test eight great super-telephoto zoom lenses ■ Pro interview: Emmett Sparling ISSUE 182 ON SALE 17 AUGUST 2021 * Content subject to change…

Limited back issues of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine print editions are available on our new MagazinesDirect.com secure store at www.magazinesdirect.com/photoplus-magazine-single-issue 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 or iPhone? 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. • Windows or Mac? Use Zinio to read PhotoPlus on your laptop or desktop computer or via the app! Go to www.zinio.com and search for PhotoPlus where you can buy back…