Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2022 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

We all know that keen amateur Canon photographer who’s got all the gear and no idea! However, it’s the enthusiast with basic gear who’s got an idea (of how to use it) that will end up taking better photos. At this time of year we get lots of new readers who have just bought their first Canon EOS camera, and 90 per cent of the time it’s the camera with the basic kit lens. In this issue’s big Canon skills guide, we’re going to show you how to take great winter photos with minimal kit. Whether you’re a beginner with new Canon kit, or an experienced enthusiast with prime lenses, we’ll prove that you can get great winter photographs with a simple setup. See page 26. Also inside this issue,…

MANUAL MODE RAJU MOSTLY shoots in the semi-automatic Shutter Priority mode, so Sean was keen to bring him out of his comfort zone and get him shooting in the Manual mode where he’d be able to take more control of his camera settings. This is where you can independently set the three exposure parameters: shutter speed, aperture and ISO value. Sean also set Raju’s camera to shoot Raw, he did this because Raw files capture more detail and exposure information, making it much easier to adjust the exposure, white balance and more when editing images later. CAMERA SETTINGS SEAN PUT Raju’s camera into Manual mode and set the White Balance to Cloudy, as it was a very overcast day. He dialed in a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec, which was…

01 JOKULSARLON SUNSET BY NICK TSIATINIS Nick’s captured some unbelievable light in this Icelandic landscape. Not only are the incredible sunset tones sublime, he’s found a composition in the scene that works well, using blocks of frozen ice to anchor the foreground. In lighting conditions like these it can be tricky to balance the bright sky and dark foreground, but Nick has done a stellar job of controlling the light with his filters. It’s a truly incredible landscape and one worthy of the top spot in this month’s ‘frozen’ contest. Lens Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Exposure 2 secs, f/11, ISO100 02 JEWEL BY ZELTNER EVELYNE This is an astonishing close-up shot that Zeltner has captured in amazing detail with her Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. The ice patterns in…

There’s an effective technique that you can use to capture lots of information: high-dynamic-range (HDR) photography. This is where you shoot a series of bracketed exposures to capture detail from the shadows all the way to the highlights, and these are then merged into a single image in Lightroom or specialist HDR software. The technique is typically shot with the camera on a tripod, but with a steady hand you can successfully shoot handheld. Shooting HDRs handheld requires keeping the camera as still and steady as possible, while the three exposures are taken using auto exposure bracketing (AEB); this reduces the amount of cropping required when Lightroom automatically aligns and crops the three exposures during processing. You also have to set the ISO high enough that the shutter speed for…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_188_1 Have you ever wished your toys and models were life-size? In this project we’ll look at how to make them appear massive with a combination of shooting skills and editing tricks. One such skill is forced perspective. Used in all sorts of productions, from fun YouTube videos to big-budget Hollywood movies, forced perspectives enable you to play with scale by combining objects of different sizes into a realistic whole. Best of all, it doesn’t need any fancy Photoshop skills, just a few items and a little time spent perfecting the angles. Another trick we’ll employ here is the age-old technique of ‘smoke and mirrors.’ The term refers to the old magic trick of creating floating objects with mirrors while using smoke to obscure the tell-tale seams…

01 SHOOT FOR A STACK The problem we often have with toy photos like this is that the subject is close to the camera, which limits depth of field even at narrow apertures. Focus stacking is the answer. If you camera has this feature, set it up to take a series of focus-shifted frames. 02 ALIGN THE LAYERS Go to the set of images in Adobe Bridge, highlight them all then go to Tools> Photoshop>Load files into Photoshop layers. Next, hold Shift and click between the top and bottom layer in the Layers Panel to highlight them all, then go to Edit >Auto-Align Layers. Set Auto and hit OK. 03 BLEND THE SHARP PARTS With all the layers still highlighted go to Edit>Auto-Blend Layers. Use the auto settings and hit…

01 LONG LENS Any Canon EOS camera and telephoto zoom lens will work for these silhouette portraits. We used a full-frame Canon EOS 5D Mk IV and a focal length of 155mm on our Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L to frame and isolate our subjects against the sky. 02 SHOOT AT SUNSET We need a bright, clear and spectacular sky to contrast against our silhouetted subjects. The best time to shoot is just after sunset to make the most of the warmer colours. Don’t worry if the sky in your images doesn’t look very colourful in camera. 03 AIM HIGH We used a park bench on top of a hill for the best angle to show the clean outlines of the children, with the bright sunset sky behind. You can also…

01 EDGE ADJUSTMENT AND SKY BRUSH The automatic sky selection Photoshop makes is usually very good, however it may not be perfect every time. Use these sliders to fine-tune the transition between land and sky. Shift Edge pushes the edge up or down, and Fade Edge makes the edge harder or more feathered. You can also use the Sky Brush in the toolbar to reveal more sky; hold Alt and paint to remove the sky. 02 CHOOSE A SKY Open a scene, then go to Edit>Sky Replacement to begin. If you just want to select the sky without replacing it, choose Select>Sky. Photoshop automatically isolates the sky and then replaces it with another. Choose a new sky from the dropdown. They’re divided into categories like Blue Skies, Spectacular and Sunsets.…

Brushes and layers are two of the most creative features in Affinity Photo, and in this project we’ll combine the two to create a fun portrait paint-splash effect. While it may look complicated, the technique is actually very easy and makes use of fundamental Affinity Photo tools like masks and blend modes. The technique is broadly split into two stages. In stage one we’ll use a variety of layer skills to prepare our portrait for the splash effect. We’ll convert it to black and white, then use Levels to squeeze the tones so the highlights are blown out and the shadows are black. Then we’ll use a blend mode trick to add an array of colours over the face. With our portrait prepared we can get down to stage two,…

“I go to Africa quite a lot and every corner you turn there’s a photograph to be had, it’s an amazing place. In early 2018, I took some portraits of Samburu warriors standing next to these decaying statues of rhinos and elephants, which had belonged to a plush hotel. There was metal and plaster hanging off them, and I thought that was a powerful image, because it was very much in keeping with what’s going on in the real world in Africa with the eventual decay and destruction of wildlife. I’d been back to this place three times and each time I’d seen the decaying statues on the side of the road, and I thought “I’ve just got to make this happen…” So, I got talking to these guys on…

We are originally from the UK and when our two sons were very young my husband was offered an opportunity to work and live in Japan, so off we set for what we thought would be two years. We ended up living there for three years and then moved to Belgium, then Australia and finally New Jersey, USA where we are currently settled! My love for photography developed during our travels, and it initially served as a wonderful visual tool to document our fast changing lives. Photography fulfils my desire to connect to the beauty of my environment and fully appreciate the people and nature that surrounds me. It also allows me to channel my creative needs and I enjoy every aspect, from deciding on the subject that I want…

Shutter speed THE SHUTTER speed is the time that the sensor is exposed to light. It’s commonly measured in fractions of a second, e.g. 1/30 or 1/60 sec, but at night you’ll might be dealing with exposures that last over 30 seconds and beyond. This means that you’ll need to use a tripod or other support in order to get sharp results, although raising the ISO and using an image-stabilized lens (and/or one of the EOSR stabilized bodies) can help you achieve sharp results when you’re shooting handheld. ISO YOU CAN avoid camera shake by pushing the ISO higher. Noise can be an issue, particularly when you go north of ISO3200, but this can be dealt with by enabling High ISO Noise Reduction when you shoot JPEGs (if you shoot…

You can take advantage of longer exposure times and colourful illuminations to create light trail photos. There are two main ways to do this: photograph moving lights with a stationary camera, or shoot fixed lights with a moving camera or lens. The latter doesn’t require the use of a tripod, and it’s less reliant on releasing the shutter at a precise moment. There are a range of techniques that you can employ, including moving the camera in one plane to create ribbons of light or using a zoom lens and twisting the zoom ring during the exposure to create a burst effect. Also, try keeping the camera stationary for part of the exposure before jerking or twisting the whole camera to create unique results. There are a range of subjects…

FURTHER TWEAKS Picture Styles are powerful and making your own is often a process of refinement based on multiple images. As such it is good practice to save two versions of the Picture Style file, one that can be edited and one to be transferred to the camera. The unlocked style can be used as the base for further refinement with a different starting image. 01 CREATING YOUR OWN PICTURE STYLE To create your own Picture Style you’ll need a Raw file from your camera. It is ideal if your starting image has a good range of colours and tones, so you can see the effect of your adjustments. If you are aiming for a specific look on certain colours make sure to use an image with those colours in…

THE CONTENDERS Adobe Photoshop £9.98/$9.99/month Corel PaintShop Pro Ultimate 2022 £89.99/$99.99 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 £86.56/$99.99 DxO PhotoLab 5 ££199/$219 (Elite edition) Adobe Lightroom £9.98/$9.99/month Exposure X7 $129 Adobe Lightroom Classic £9.98/$9.99/month Canon Digital Photo Professional Free Affinity Photo 1.10 £47.99/$54.99 ON1 Photo RAW 2022 £93.73/$99.99 Capture One 21/22 £299/$299 or £24/$24/month Skylum Luminar AI £69/$79 Alot of things have changed since Photoshop first came to dominate the photo-editing market. We’ve all got much larger more complicated photo libraries now and we need software that can organize, search and share these growing collections. There’s also a growing interest in more evocative ‘looks’ that can be applied quickly and simply. And most of all, we want to be able to change our minds – hence the rise of non-destructive or ‘parametric’…

£86.56/$99.99 Lots for beginners to play with, but dated Photoshop Elements is Adobe’s novice-orientated version of Photoshop. You can buy Photoshop Elements on its own, or as a bundle with Premiere Elements for video editing. Either way, it also comes with a separate Organizer app. This fills the same organization role as Lightroom in the Adobe Photography Plan, but is a much more novice-orientated tool. Elements tries hard to make things simple by offering easy Quick Fixes, a Guided Edit mode that walks users through a process so they learn at the same time, and an Expert mode that offers more hands-on control. That being said, Elements isn’t that user-friendly. The modes for editing your photos are designed to cater for different user levels, but also introduce a lot of…

£47.99/$54.99 The substitute for subscription haters Affinity Photo is the closest thing to a Photoshop alternative here. Like Photoshop, it’s designed as a powerful, in-depth, image enhancement tool. It’s also available subscription-free and is the cheapest option here. Where Photoshop is designed to dovetail with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, Affinity Photo works with and alongside Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. The combined price for all three is little more than one year’s Photography Plan. Affinity Photo works in ‘personas.’ There’s a Develop persona for Raw processing, a Photo persona where most of the editing work is done, a Tone Mapping persona with ace HDR tools, and an Export persona for generating processed images. Affinity does not offer any image cataloguing tools or creative oneclick presets, but it does have focus…

£199/$219 (ELITE EDITION) Superb Raw processing and local adjustments DxO PhotoLab is a combined image browser and Raw processing/editing tool designed to deliver the best possible lens corrections and Raw processing, together with local adjustments. It does integrate with DxO ViewPoint 3 (perspective corrections) and DxO FilmPack 6 (analogue film and processing simulations), but these cost extra. It’s a non-destructive ‘parametric’ editor, so if you want layered image composites, which can only be achieved by direct pixel adjustments, you will still need to send images to a program like Photoshop. An interface redesign has made PhotoLab 5 easier to use than it was, but it’s still a technical program suited to experts – though its default corrections require no user input and make a big difference. The quality of the…

£93.73/$99.99 Huge scope at a modest price ON1 Photo RAW 2022 is another ‘do it all’ photo editor that covers everything from editing, non-destructive Raw processing and preset effects, right through to multi-layer composites, still within its non-destructive workflow. It covers a lot of ground. The 2022 version has a new Sky Swap AI feature, which can be as effective as Luminar’s groundbreaking Sky Replacement, it incorporates ON1 NoNoise, previously a standalone product, it can use Photoshop-compatible plug-ins directly and it handles focus stacking, panorama stitching and HDR merges too. This is probably the most complete single program here. It even has a library of effects presets to rival those in Exposure X7. If it has a weakness it’s the interface, which can be fussy to navigate. The results from…

What to look fo Canon EOS cameras Canon splits its EOS DSLR lineup into entry-level, enthusiast and pro ranges; the EOS 4000D is the most basic, the 850D and 77D for intermediates, the 90D 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. PRICES QUOTED ARE BODY-ONLY UNLESS STATED ENTRY-LEVEL…

40 landscape photography rules for taking your best-ever scenic shots Learn everything you need to know to take your landscape photography skills to the next level with our 40 top tips on our brilliant website DigitalCameraWorld.com via quick link bit.ly/40scenictips Elinchrom One portable lighting review The Elinchrom One packs power, portability and performance in a flash head the size of a 70-200mm lens. Is this ‘the one?’ Learn more in our review via quick link bit.ly/Elinchrom1 plus loads more of the latest Canon related kit tested on DigitalCameraWorld.com Camera rumours in 2022: what cameras are coming, officially and otherwise! The camera rumours are flying thick and fast! Here are the most credible rumblings and reports about what’s coming next. More Canon news at DigitalCameraWorld.com via quick link bit.ly/camera_rumours INSTAGRAM www.instagram.com/PhotoPlusCanonMag…

DALMATIAN PELICAN A Dalmatian Pelican, photographed in Lake Kerkini, Greece. The time of day before the sun breaks the horizon is known as the blue hour and it is pretty obvious to see how it gets its name. BISON I TOOK this shot on a crazy cold winter morning in the Białowieża forest, Poland. I exchanged a quick glance with this male bison among the wintry landscape with the sun rising, and took this image quickly before he headed off to the safety of the forest. VIXENS I’M NOT sure what these vixens were fighting over, other than territory. One was taking a drink in the dyke, when the other shot across the bank and went in for this unprovoked vicious attack!…

In this big Canon skills guide, we’re going to show you how to take great winter photos with minimal kit. Whether you’ve just got your first Canon EOS camera and basic kit lens, or you’re an experienced enthusiast, these tips will help you. Another way of looking at this – photography is as much a game of chance as it is a well-planned exercise; you never know when the shot of a lifetime will present itself, so it’s best to always be prepared to capture the unexpected. Always carrying a camera is something many street photographers do as a matter of course, although landscape and portrait photographers can also benefit from this practice, despite traditionally using much more gear. However, rather than carrying everything, try adopting a ‘bare-bones’ set-up of…

Noise stacking and exposure stacking are shooting techniques that use similar settings and steps. Noise stacking requires 3-5 shots to be taken of the same scene in quick succession, at a high ISO setting, and then they’re blended in Photoshop to reduce noise. High ISO noise has irregular patterns so blending several exposures averages out the noise and produces a result that is far superior to noise reduction of a single exposure in Raw editing software, for instance. Exposure stacking is a technique that mimics the effect of ND filters: combine about 10 shots of the same scene, merge them in Photoshop and the result looks like a long exposure. The image opposite uses both techniques to reduce high ISO noise and to make it look like an ND filter…

Jökulsárlón, Iceland. 01:00am. 12 December 2013 Some of the most challenging moments can produce the best results. Anything that tests your skills to the extreme is character building and memorable. I truly believe that when you search hard enough, you will find a result far greater than you can ever imagine and this was very much the case one night in Jökulsárlón, Iceland. It is cold, Icelandic cold, and the cabin is warm. With clearing skies opening a window of opportunity, it’s that time again. The layers of merino wool are back on, camera bag checked – it’s time to drag my exhausted self outside in the name of a creative photo endeavour. After a day of wandering the frozen coastline, I want to capture something different, familiar but with…

01 TRIPOD A tripod allows you to set up your framing and then leave the camera in place while you arrange the toys. It also enables you to take a sequence of photos, then combine the best parts of each. What’s more, it gives you the option to shoot for a focus stack and extend your depth of field. 02 PLATFORM To create a forced perspective, look for a suitable scene with a road or other surface that will be easy to mimic, then create a platform that looks similar. We drilled a hole into a piece of wood and attached it to a tripod plate, then fastened sandpaper on the top to look like the surface of the road. 03 FLURRY OF SNOW Atmospheric details like snow, rain or…

IF YOU’D rather not take your toys out of the house then why not set up a scene at home? We’ve created a Godzilla-like scene using a dinosaur toy (it’s a Therizinosaurus, if you’re asking). Like our forced-perspective image we’ve also used flour and baking powder to create snow. Shot in a darkened room, torches are used to backlight the falling snow and dinosaur for a dark, moody result. To make the torchlight look like headlights, we captured two torches next to the car, then copied the highlights and pasted them over the car using the Lighten blend mode in Photoshop to combine the brighter parts. We also added a cityscape in the backdrop to lend depth to the scene.…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_188_7 01 CONVERT TO MONO Firstly, open the portrait, go to the Layers panel, click the circular adjustment icon at the bottom and choose Black and White. Adjust the settings to fine-tune the mono conversion. Next, add a Levels Adjustment layer. Drag the Black and White points in as shown to add strong contrast. 02 PAINT BOLD COLOURS Click the new pixel layer icon in the Layers panel, then grab the brush tool. Choose a large soft brush tip and paint colours over the image. Pick colours that will work with one another. Once done, click the Blend Mode dropdown at the top of the Layers panel and choose Overlay. Lower the layer opacity slightly. 03 GROUP THE LAYERS Highlight the top layer in the Layers panel,…

One useful accessory for taking pictures at night is a lens hood. It’s great for when you’re shooting in urban areas, where the light from street lamps and vehicles can produce lens flare. While a bit of flare can enhance the mood of some shots, most of the time it provides an unwelcome distraction. Lens hoods that are supplied with telephoto lenses are much deeper and more effective than the shallow lens hoods you typically get with a wide-angle lens. The reason that wide lenses have such short hoods is to prevent the hoods appearing in the corners of the shot. While this is an obvious advantage, it does mean that it’s easy to end up with stray light spilling into the picture, particularly if the camera is angled upwards,…

YOUR EOS camera may allow you to set the minimum shutter speed for Auto ISO. This is handy if you’re shooting in low light using Aperture Priority or Program exposure modes, as it can help to reduce both camera shake and subject blur. If your camera offers the function, you’ll find it in the ISO speed settings sub-menu. You can leave it set to Auto or choose Manual. With Auto activated, the camera will attempt to achieve a shutter speed that’s equivalent to the focal length of the lens, although you can choose to use a faster or slower shutter speed. Select Manual, and you’ll be able to select a specific shutter speed. If the camera can’t hit the required shutter speed using the maximum ISO available in the Auto…

EXPERT BRIAN WORLEY CANON PRO Brian is a freelance photographer and photo tutor, based in Oxfordshire. He has unrivalled EOS DSLR knowledge, after working for Canon for over 15 years, and is on hand to answer all your EOS and photographic queries “Custom shooting modes on my new camera work differently to my old one, how do I change them?” Martin Golder, Timperley BRIAN SAYS… When a camera leaves the factory it has the manufacturer’s defaults, a set of general settings suited to a wide range of photography. Custom shooting modes are a copy of program modes. You’ll need to copy the custom mode settings to the new camera. The first and most important setting is to note what exposure mode has been assigned to the custom mode. On the…

ALLEN & LINDA SIMMS, NORTHANTS SAYS… Inspired by the article featuring Sue Bleiweiss in the December issue of PhotoPlus we thought to send in this picture of a swan’s nest with cygnets. The picture was taken with an EOS 80D and a Canon Extender 2x to ensure the birds were big enough in the frame while we maintained a suitable distance from them. We don’t edit our photos to tidy up the landscape, hence the reeds are partly covering the birds, but this is how the swan’s nest is, and it also keeps them safer from predators. BRIAN SAYS… You did well to spot this nest with the cygnets, and I think you have captured a nice moment with the swan’s wing over the top of the cygnets. There’s good…

Cataloguing tools Some folk can get by with a simple folder system to keep their photos organized, but most of us need something a little more powerful. By the time your photo collection hits the tens of thousands, you’ll really benefit from a tool that can bring them all together into a single searchable database. With cataloguing tools you can also create albums/collections to bring images together without having to move them from one folder to another. With cataloguing software you can also use keywords to find images quickly and even filter photos by the camera used, the date they were taken and more. One-click presets Photo-editors like Photoshop are designed for people who already know what they want to do and don’t mind spending a little time doing it.…

£9.98/$9.99/MONTH The web-first Lightroom needs cloud storage Adobe has made things complicated by splitting Lightroom into two versions! You get both with the Adobe Photography Plan, but they look and work in different ways, so we’ll look at them individually. ‘Lightroom’ is the name Adobe now uses for its newer, web-first version. Lightroom is a stripped-down version of Lightroom Classic that’s a lot more pleasant to use, but comes with requirements and restrictions. First, all images must be stored in the cloud, so for an image collection of any size at all, that means paying £9.98/$9.99 extra per month for 1TB of storage. Second, it doesn’t support external editors or plug-ins (except for Photoshop). Lightroom is very effective, however, if you want to capture, browse and edit images seamlessly across…

£299/$299 OR £24/$24/MONTH A superb but expensive Lightroom alternative By the time you read this Capture One 22 will be out, adding panorama stitching and HDR merge tools. This review applies to Capture One 21. Capture One comes in an ‘all cameras’ edition. All are available on subscription or for a one-off fee. Capture One is a direct alternative to Lightroom, offering the same combo of image cataloguing, non-destructive editing, local adjustments and preset effects. It does not offer cloud sync, but is strong on tethered shooting. Capture One works in a browsing/editing window using a customizable system of ‘tool tabs’ and drag-off floating palettes. Lightroom now has AI-powered sky and subject masking, but Capture One has an effective Magic Brush selection tool, and layer and mask-based local adjustments. Apart…

$129 Beautiful presets and an elegant workspace Exposure X7 is another all-in-one program that can browse, catalogue and edit images non-destructively – but this one is different. Exposure X7 is great at regular image adjustments, but specializes in analogue film effects and darkroom processes. Exposure X7’s presets apply a series of adjustments that you can browse and modify manually. These include image borders, light leak effects and textures that you don’t get in regular all-in-one programs. However, Exposure X7 also works as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop, and as an external editor for Capture One, so you can use these programs for your organizing and Raw processing, and Exposure X7 solely for its effects. You might want to do that, because if Exposure X7 has a weakness, it’s Raw…

£69/$79 Remarkable AI editing tools Luminar AI is not the latest incarnation of Skylum’s ever-changing photo editor. The company has been pushing and pre-selling its next Luminar Neo product for months, though it’s now not scheduled for release until February 2022. Luminar AI will continue, and right now it’s the only version you can buy and use. With Luminar AI, Skylum pushes the AI angle, with the excellent Sky Replacement and equally excellent AI Portrait enhancement tools, which can find and enhance facial features naturally without turning people into caricatures. The AI Composition tool is less impressive, AI Structure doesn’t seem to add much, and the promise of automatically selected Looks doesn’t come off. Other disappointments are that layers are no longer supported and the catalogue tools still don’t include…

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 EOS R…

MORE TECHNIQUES, TUTORIALS & TESTS! iStock FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… Cinematic shots with LEDs Studio light accessories for portraits Cool DoF skills New image-editing tutorials Tool School Photoshop CC Affinity Photo tips PLUS ALL THIS… ISSUE 189 ON SALE 8 MARCH 2022 * Content subject to change…

APPRENTICE NAME: RAJU MISRA CAMERA: CANON EOS 77D RAJU IS a ex-police sergeant of more than 30 years from Cheshire who, since taking retirement, enjoys nothing more than getting out with his Canon EOS 77D. He has a love for wildlife photography and managed to go on two safaris in Africa before the pandemic hit. Raju has written to us asking for help with bird photography as he’s a little unsure of settings and how to get the best out of his Canon EOS 77D and Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens. CANON PRO NAME: SEAN WEEKLY CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D MK IV SEAN LIVES in rural mid-Wales working as a professional wildlife photographer and a guide for Wildlife Worldwide travel company, leading numerous photography trips. On top of that, he also…

After spending your hard-earned cash on all the lenses, filters and accessories you need to shoot your favourite subjects the way you want to, reducing your kit down to the minimum might seem a bit counter-productive; you bought those items to be able to respond to a range of situations, after all. But what we’re suggesting isn’t a permanent solution; instead, it’s a way of making your camera more manageable, so you can carry it with you most – or all – of the time, in situations where you can’t or don’t want to lug your main set-up around. Here we outline the medium zoom lens and compact EOS camera options available to help you to create a bare-bones camera kit that you can carry with you all of the…

The 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm lenses and their equivalents for APS-C are great options for shooting portraits because of the flexibility they provide in terms of focal range and the large f/2.8 maximum aperture. Whether you’re shooting outdoors on location, or in a home studio, we’re going to look at how to shoot great portraits with basic and budget Canon kit. PRO SHOT Wonderful portraits with natural light For great portraits on location, shoot in the shade to avoid ‘top light’ (and ugly shadows on faces) with your subject facing the light. We’ve framed our subject using this beautiful arch of foliage. Using an affordable Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM prime we’ve utilized the focal length and f/2 wide aperture (a 70-200mm at f/2.8 is also ideal) combo for a…

01 FLASH AND ‘SCOOP’ MODIFIER For this setup a standard 18cm reflector modifier, also called a ‘scoop’, is ideal on a flash head. But you can use other light modifiers like a softbox with each providing its own soft or hard edge to your shadows making them more defined or subtle. 02 BEST LENS CHOICE An 85mm lens is a great focal length for portraits on full-frame cameras. Prime or zoom lenses covering any range between 50-135mm will be best for portraits without distorting facial features and giving you a comfortable working distance. 03 BACKGROUND SETUP Although this lighting style will work fine on a light background, Rembrandt-style lighting images are often dark and moody, with deep shadows blending in with the background so we used a dark grey background…

01 LOAD THE BRUSHES With Photoshop running, double-click the supplied brush abr file to load the brushes. Grab the brush tool (B) then click the brush picker in the options. Scroll down the list to find the new 10 mist brushes. Choose one of them then hit D and X to set colour to white. 02 PAINT THE FOG Click the New Layer icon in the Layers panel to make a new layer. Click around the shot with the brush tool to paint in mist. Use the] and [keys to vary your brush tip as you paint. Each time you click, the brush tip will change shape and orientation for a random result. 03 SELECT THE TREE Highlight the bottom layer, grab the Object Selection tool and click the tree…

AT THE end of each year, the lexicographers who update our dictionaries, announce their ‘word of the year.’ Usually, it’s a new phrase or piece of slang that has entered popular usage due to a major trend or change in societies. In November 2021, the Collins Dictionary announced their word of the year was the abbreviation, ‘NFT’, which stands for ‘non-fungible token.’ According to Collins, use of the NFT abbreviation rose by more than 11,000 per cent in 2021. But what exactly is an NFT, and what is its connection with photography? Collins defines NFT as “a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible.” In other words, digital artworks – including original images, viral…

Photo essays from PhotoPlus readers and professional photographers alike I live within a short drive of the Yorkshire Dales, Yorkshire Moors and many coastal scenes, such as Runswick Bay, Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby. They provide some excellent photographic locations. I have learned that some of the most dramatic shots are taken on the edges of weather fronts. I class myself as a learner and attaching myself to my local Yarm Photographers group provides many great learning opportunities. On a trip to Dunstanburgh Castle with my photographer friends we were presented with a vortex in the sky, creating a surreal swirl of clouds above the castle. I knew that I wanted to show some movement in the clouds. So I opted to use an ND filter and an exposure time of 20…

Discover how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together in low-light conditions When you’re photographing in a more well-lit location at night, then you can simply expose your pictures as you would normally – just be prepared for longer exposure times (and be ready to use a tripod) due to the low-light conditions you’ll find yourself in. When it gets really dark then you might see ’30’ flashing in your camera’s display. This is because your camera can only automatically exposure a scene up to 30 secs, so the camera is warning you that the scene will be underexposed or too dark. To remedy this, you’ll need to switch to Bulb mode and time the exposure, which we’ll elaborate more on below.…

Our resident Canon expert Brian explains how to make the most of Picture Styles for better results EXPERT BRIAN WORLEY CANON PRO Brian is a freelance photographer and photo tutor, based in Oxfordshire. He has unrivalled EOS camera knowledge as he’s been working for Canon for over 15 years, and will help you master all EOS products. www.p4pictures.com Picture Styles are similar to applying a preset or recipe in your favourite image-editing software, they change colours, sharpness and contrast. EOS cameras have six or seven built-in Picture Styles and the possibility to add three more of your own choosing. Picture Style Editor is the software for creating your own unique looks that can be used in-camera or with Digital Photo Professional (DPP). Picture Style Editor is used to create your…

£9.98/$9.99/MONTH Still the best, but there’s a lot it doesn’t do Photoshop is the most famous editor, and while it was once an expensive pro purchase, it’s now part of the Adobe Photography Plan, so that Photoshop, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic are yours for £120/$120 per year. Photoshop is solely an in-depth image-editing tool. It has no image cataloguing, no library of preset effects and does not support nondestructive editing in the modern sense, but you can build adjustment layers and smart objects into your shots to provide ‘unravelling’ and ‘reworking’ opportunities. Photoshop has a reputation for being hard to learn, but its interface is a model of clarity, helped by workspaces available for designers, photographers and illustrators. You’d likely not use Photoshop on its own. It relies on the…

£9.98/$9.99/MONTH Still the best for most users Lightroom is an all-in-one image cataloguing, Raw processing, editing and effects preset tool that can tackle just about any kind of photo enhancement, short of multi-image composites, type and illustration effects – but there’s always Photoshop, also included in the regular Photography Plan. Lightroom Classic is the desktop-first Lightroom, and the version likely to be used by most. Images are stored on your own computer (though collections and smart previews can be synced online) and you can use plug-ins and external editors freely. The most recent update has added powerful masking tools, including very effective AI-powered sky and subject masking. As Lightroom Classic’s capabilities grow, you may find you need a regular photo editor like Photoshop less and less. You can get great…

£89.99/$99.99 An old-school editor with a broad scope PaintShop Pro has been a go-to Windows-only photo editor for years, undergoing many reincarnations. This one seeks to offer a photo-editing solution for beginners, learners and advanced users, via ‘Photography,’ ‘Essentials’ and ‘Complete’ workspaces. Like Elements, PaintShop Pro caters for a more traditional audience looking – probably – for value and familiarity, rather than bold new directions in image editing. The Ultimate editing comes with a host of add-on applications and tools included, such as Corel Painter Essentials, PhotoMirage Express (cinematographs) and AfterShot 3 for image organizing and Raw processing. You get a lot for your money – though these are more like a themed job lot at an auction… PaintShop Pro comes with new AI tools, including AI Portrait mode and…

FREE (WITH CANON CAMERA SERIAL NO.) Free and powerful but dated and technical Canon Digital Photo Professional is a free Raw processing and image optimization tool available to anyone with a Canon camera and that camera’s serial number. Its features are limited to basic browsing and Raw image enhancement, but the technical adjustments available are deep – and targeted at many of the more obscure settings in Canon cameras. It’s not really an image cataloguing tool, though it does offer folder browsing with thumbnails, and it’s not really an image editor because its adjustments are largely confined to finessing fine technical settings. It does offer local adjustments of a sort – a basic adjustment brush – but you wouldn’t use it as an image editor. DPP is extremely good at…

Adobe is in a unique position in this roundup. It has two (three, if you count both versions of Lightroom) very different programs in the test that each deserve to be here on their own merits – yet you get both for a single subscription fee via the Adobe Photography Plan. However cheap Adobe’s rivals might be, this still has to be just about the best value of all. But Adobe’s Raw processing is not the best. It’s likely to be fine for most users, but Capture One and DxO PhotoLab are better, and DxO’s DeepPRIME high-ISO image processing is extraordinary. Neither is cheap, but the best rarely is. The story doesn’t end here, though. ON1 Photo RAW 2022 and Exposure X7 are intriguing all-in-one programs that can catalogue your…

Choosing lenses Key factors to watch out for THE MAIN factors to consider in a lens are its focal length, maximum aperture, and if it’s full-frame compatible or not. We’ve categorized lenses by focal length range from wide-angle to telephoto. The larger a lens’s maximum aperture, the ‘faster’ it is. 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 mirrorless cameras the dedicated Canon RF lenses are best, but using Canon’s Mount Adapter EF-EOS R enables EF-S and EF lenses to be used on EOS R 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 Zeiss…

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 appintheAppStore or at thenbrowsethroughourback issues or subscribe through the app. Kindle Fire or Nook HD? Simply search for onAmazons Newsstand or in B&N’s Nook store. Windows or Mac? Use Zinio to read onyourlaptopordesktop computer or via the app! Go to andsearchfor whereyoucanbuyback issues or subscribe. isalsoavailableonMagzter, PocketMags and PressReader. LAST MONTH Issue 187 February 2022 CANON FILM CAMERA GUIDE Embrace the retro return of Canon film cameras with our guide that details…

Letter of the Month I’ve been a regular reader of your fine Canon magazine for about three years now, and wanted to say how much I enjoy your Canon School section. I love how your expert Marcus Hawkins goes super in-depth into specific areas such as Canon camera menus, and different genres of photography. His article last issue on setting up for still life at home was very helpful for me while I was isolating at home in early January! Brian Worley knows his Canon stuff as well doesn’t he! His EOS SOS was, to be honest, a bit over my head when I first bought my Canon EOS DSLR camera. However, now I have a better understanding, and he answers lots of queries I’ve had myself. I never fail…