Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

I can still remember – although it was years ago now – when I first mastered the art of shooting portraits with studio lights. It was a wonderful feeling when it just clicked, and the portraits looked bright and vibrant on the screen on my Canon camera. However, I’m well aware that many amateurs find it daunting trying to shoot in Manual mode and set up flash lights. The great thing is, you’re in total control of the lighting, and your camera – which actually makes everything easier! To help simplify and demystify the world of studio portrait photography, we’ve enlisted experienced Canon pro Phil Barker who teaches our amateur Apprentice simple setups, to more advanced techniques using coloured gels, for some great portraits of our model Tyla. See page…

Photography is a wonderful art form that enables us get out with our Canon EOS cameras and flex our creative muscles. For many of us it’s just a hobby that fits in with our lifestyles, while others have turned it into a full-time or part-time career. In this big expert guide, we look at five exciting and varied revenue streams available for photographers and show you how to take the first steps from being an amateur or enthusiast photographer to becoming semi-pro and, eventually, run a successful business as a professional photographer. If you got into photography purely to make a quick buck then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, but there are ways to make some extra money with your camera. We’ll go over the five main ones…

Wedding photography has to be one of the most lucrative ways photographers can make money with their cameras, but they also come with large amounts of stress and responsibility – you can’t ask everyone to come back again to retake a shot if you mess it up! If you have an interest in wedding photography it’s worth finding a professional that will let you be an assistant or second shooter, even if this is free or low paid the experience will be invaluable giving you an idea of the flow of events, responsibilities required, and you’ll have some shots for you portfolio, too. You’ll need to have top-quality people skills and the drive to market and sell your photography services before you think about making money. Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends…

There are all kinds of objects and details that look incredible in close-up, but insects are perhaps the most beguiling. Ultra macro photography allows us to blow their tiny features up to a tremendous scale, revealing alien-like features, vibrant colours and incredible details But how do we get close enough to see these details? You can easily spend a lot of money on macro photography. From specialist objective lenses to bellows and motorized focus rails, close-up photography can get expensive very quickly. But for those looking to dip their toes in the wonderful world of ultra macro photography, there is a cheaper option – extension tubes. These enable you to convert any lens for macro use by allowing for closer minimum focusing distances, and if you already own a macro…

01 STACK THE SEQUENCE We used Helicon focus to combine our focus stack sequence (there’s a free 30-day trial). We simply drag our sequence in then choose one of the three stacking methods and hit render, then save the image. We created one stack for the head, and a second for the abdomen. 02 MERGE TO A PANORAMA If we treat the insect like a panorama by shooting in segments then we can use Photoshop’s panorama stitching features to combine our stacked images. Open Photoshop and go to File>Automate> Photomerge and load in the stacked images to stitch them together. 03 RETOUCH DISTRACTIONS No matter how diligently you clean them, insects are likely to be covered in dust and other distractions. So we need to spend time retouching these unwanted…

QUICK TIP You can boost the blurry-foreground look at the editing stage by painting in some additional out of focus areas with a soft brush in Photoshop and or selectively sharpening your model’s eye and facial features. For our shot we used the out of focus blossom by adding a new blank layer and then, carefully, painting over the out of focus area with a soft white Brush tool, though you’ll need to tweak the colour depending on the colour of your flowers. We used a low opacity brush to build up the effect and get it looking just right. 01 DIAL IN THE SETTINGS Set your camera’s Aperture Priority mode (Av) and dial in your widest available aperture, such as f/2.8 or f/1.8, and an ISO of 400 to…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_3 EXPAND YOUR PORTFOLIO Props and accessories are a fantastic way to maximize the variety of image styles you can get from a single photo shoot, and if you’re paying for a model will give you best bang for buck too! Having lots of choices is fun, but it can be overwhelming if you’re not used to working with models who require multiple wardrobe changes. Instead of a full costume change it can be more useful to change small details, props and accessories instead to get a fresh new look quickly and is brilliant way to rapidly broaden the styles in your portraits portfolio. 01 HEADWEAR Headwear can add loads of extra personality to your shots. There are many types to try, from traditional, cultural, fashionable and…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_4  Whether you use them on a candle flame, a setting sun or a street lamp, starburst effects are a great way to add atmosphere to any night shot that has light sources in the frame. They occur naturally under the right conditions when you use a narrow aperture, but when the effect is stored as a brush, you can use them to enhance any image quickly. For this issue’s download, we have a brush kit with 16 effects, and they’re simple to install. Copy the ‘Starburst Effects.abr’ file to your computer via the link on the left. To get them into Photoshop, open the Brushes panel (Window>Brushes) and click on the flyout (the four-line icon in the top-right). Select Import Brushes from the list, then navigate…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_5 01 CLARITY IN EYES Clarity can work wonders over eyes. In particular, the iris will benefit, especially if you apply Clarity along with a slight increase in Exposure and Saturation. Use the Adjustment Brush and paint precisely over the iris, then increase Clarity to boost the detail in the iris. Make further local adjustments to boost the whites of the eye and darken the edges of the iris. 02 MIDTONES A photo’s tonal range is split into shadows, midtones and highlights. In a histogram, midtones occupy the central third of the graph, with the shadows on the left and highlights on the right. Clarity affects the midtones by increasing contrast in this area. You might see the peaks near the centre spread apart as the midtones…

When I was seven I was diagnosed with autism. It’s challenging to make friends and perplexing to communicate with people. I take longer to think and to process things. The world is always so noisy and intense. I also have a very rare condition called MDP syndrome that only me and 13 other people on the planet share, it’s where my body doesn’t store fat. I’m also deaf and find walking difficult, so I now see that, for me, photography has been a way to take my mind off things. When I’m looking through the viewfinder of my Canon camera it’s like I’ve flicked a switch that turns off the rest of the world – it’s just me and the shot. By taking a photograph I can freeze time and…

Is your Canon EOS camera still set up in the same factory fresh configuration as the day you unboxed it? Then it may be time to explore some of the ways that you can personalize the buttons, dials and other on-body controls to make it easier to use for the type of photography you prefer to do. Once you change a control function it can take a little time to re-train your muscle memory, but in the long run you may find that it saves time and improves performance. The extent to which you’re able to customize the buttons on an EOS camera varies between bodies and camera generations. Higher end cameras, such as the EOS R3 and EOS R5, have such a huge depth of features that they offer…

One customization option worth exploring is the way in which you can assign autofocus operation to different buttons on the right-hand side of the camera. The options available differ between bodies, but at the very least you’ll be able to remove the autofocus function from the shutter release button and assign it to one of the buttons where your thumb rests – either the AE lock button (*) or the AF-ON button. This is what’s known as ‘back button focusing’. It’s a technique that some photographers swear by, but it can take some getting used to. Having to press one button to meter and another to start and stop the autofocus just feels odd after you’ve spent years using the shutter release to do both these functions. Separating the AF…

01 SET THE WHITE BALANCE Colours change with depth and there’s no underwater white balance preset, so the best option is to use a custom white balance with the eye dropper to sample a neutral part of the scene. In this shot there is little that is really neutral, so the best compromise was the models skin tone, and even then some magenta white balance shift was added. 02 BOOST REDS AND WARMER TONES With even shallow water, the reds and warmer tones will fade, so select the adjust image colours tab to access the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders for individual colours. In this image the person is close to the surface and there’s little red in the picture, so increase both red and orange saturation. You can manipulate…

With last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday merging into Christmas and this January’s sales, you might have treated yourself to a new Canon mirrorless camera. There are certainly plenty to choose from, ranging from compact and lightweight EOS M series models, to pro-spec EOS R series bodies. However, with all of the other seasonal spending taking its toll, chances are there’s not much left in the kitty for lenses. The good news is that there are some splendid budget Canon and independently manufactured lenses on the market, which deliver excellent image quality while keeping purchase prices to a minimum. We’ve picked out some of the best money-saving options to suit a wide range of shooting requirements. The lenses we’ve chosen typically have a compact, lightweight build, entirely in keeping…

One of the joys of a camera like the EOS RP is that it’s wonderfully compact and lightweight for a full-frame body. The same can’t be said of many RF-mount lenses, the design of which puts impeccable image quality before size and weight considerations. The RF 16mm redresses the balance, so to speak, with its featherweight 69x40mm, 165g construction. That’s astonishing, given its ultra-wide-angle 16mm focal length and fast f/2.8 aperture. Stepping motor-based AF is typically near-silent and combines rapid performance for stills with smooth transitions for movie capture. With a minimum focus distance of just 0.13m, you can get in close and exaggerate perspective effects, making full use of the short focal length. The lens is also great for astrophotography. There’s no separate customizable control ring, but the manual…

You might not think that the price tag of this lens puts it in the ‘low-budget’ category. But super-telephoto primes tend to be very expensive and real heavyweights. As a point of reference, the Canon RF 600mm F4L IS USM weighs in at over 3kg and costs around £13,400/$13,000. By contrast, this remarkable 600mm lens is only a fraction of the price, less than a third of the weight and has a retractable design that enables it to shrink in length to just 200mm. A major factor in the downsized design is the use of diffractive optics, along with a ‘slow’ aperture rating at f/11. Given that you’re unlikely to want to shoot at a narrower aperture than this, Canon has saved weight, complexity and expense by omitting an aperture…

What to look for 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.…

THE NO.1 MAGAZINE FOR CANON USERS! FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ▪ Wall-length stacked panoramas ▪ Floral still life photos ▪ Gels on lights for portraits ▪ New image-editing tutorials Tool School ▪ Photoshop CC ▪ Plus Affinity Photo PLUS ALL THIS… ▪ The Apprentice: Shoot for the stars as our amatuer reader learns to take ace astro photos with pro Chris Grimmer ▪ Photo Stories: Street photographer Chris Porsz tracks down people he shot 40 years ago for his new book ▪ Tested: Best-buy lenses for EOS DSLRs ISSUE 190 ON SALE 5 APRIL 2022…

Letter of the Month I started taking pictures back in the ‘70s when I was in the US Coast Guard with trips to the Arctic circle, the Caribbean and Europe. But life got busy and the camera got put on the shelf, but I knew one day I’d be back. It was in 2009 when I bought a new Canon Rebel T1i, which I still use. A few years ago, I upgraded to the 5D Mark IV, took a few courses and read lots of articles/books, along with many hours of trial and error. In 2020 I was in the local Barnes & Noble looking for books on composition and I saw my first copy of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine. I was hooked – it has to be one of…

CANON PRO NAME: PHIL BARKER CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D MARK III PHIL, ORIGINALLY from Yorkshire, is a Bath-based professional photographer. Now 25 years old, he began as an assistant photographer when he was just 13 years old! Phil studied photography at the University of Derby, and has been working at Future PLC as a studio and location photographer for the last four years. He specializes in portrait and product photography. For his stunning portfolio go to prbphotography.co.uk APPRENTICE NAME: MICHAEL BROWN CAMERA: CANON EOS 5DS R MICHAEL IS a PhotoPlus subscriber, 59, who lives in West London, and is a retired airfield operations officer. He’s been into photography since he was a teenager and the days of 35mm film. His first Canon EOS camera was an EOS 600D, then he bought a full-frame 50Mp…

Sending your favourite images to a magazine or entering a competition is a great way to get your name out there when you’re trying to go semi-pro. It pays dividends to have a good sorting system in place to organize your shots, adding the relevant copyright material, metadata and keywords in programs like Lightroom can be a godsend for editors looking for additional information when considering your shots. Make sure you only submit your very best images, ensure that the focal point is pin-sharp, the depth of field is adequate and your exposure is good before sending your shots in, otherwise you could stick out in an editor’s mind for the wrong reasons! Get featured in magazines Getting featured in a magazine is a numbers game so be sure to…

It’s easier than ever to share your images with the world on social media, but the feeling you get from seeing your photos on physical media like a fine art print is hard to beat. Luckily, there remains a strong demand for people looking to adorn their walls and office spaces with art. Decide whether you want to produce your own prints or have them made by a professional printing company. Printing is somewhat of a dark art, requiring lots of equipment like screen and printer calibration tools to set up correctly, not to mention picking the right paper and inks for your shots, matte or glossy finishes and so on. If you want to produce prints larger than A3+ you’ll almost certainly want to consider outsourcing this to a…

Callinish, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. 01:58am. 25 May 2013 Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM Exposure 30 secs, f/8, ISO800 I only upgrade my cameras when it is necessary. Over the years, running a business makes you more frugal. I only upgrade if I'm itching for new features that will push my creative mind to greater heights. When the Canon EOS 6D came on the scene, I was staggered that this compact full-frame DSLR not only had GPS, but Wi-Fi too. The latter of which can come in handy… I have visited the Isle of Harris/Lewis a few times over the last ten years and I am always looking for new and exciting ways to photograph popular locations. I had been thinking about Callinish stone circle, a remarkable neolithic site with some…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_1 01 TRIPOD FOR STACKING Focus stacking involves shooting a sequence of images while making minute adjustments to the focus, in order to capture sharpness across the subject. The frames are combined afterwards using stacking software like Helicon focus or Zerene Stacker. We need a tripod to keep our Canon camera still throughout. 02 RELEASE & MIRROR LOCKUP Any tiny vibrations are amplified in close-up photography, so we don’t want to touch the camera at all. A cable or wireless release is a must to fire the shutter. It’s also best to use Live View or set mirror lockup to prevent mirror vibrations. Plus our subject needs to stay perfectly still while we shoot our focus stack sequence. 03 FOCUS RAIL We used an inexpensive four-way Neewer…

The images that we take for the focus stack – and the incremental changes in focus between each – will dictate how much depth of field we have, so to an extent we’re free to choose any aperture. Different apertures not only affect depth of field, but also sharpness. Narrower apertures can result in diffraction (which softens images), while the ‘sweet spot’ for lens sharpness is usually around f/5.6. But at f/5.6 we found it tricky to record enough sharpness in the different segments that made up our stack, resulting in bands of sharpness and blur. This is partly down to the focus rail – a rail that allows for shorter shifts would make things easier, but these can be expensive. So as a compromise, we used f/14, which gave…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_3 Here we are focusing on including accessories in your portraiture. Accessories can add huge amounts of style and personality to portraits and are a useful addition to any photographer’s bag, you may even already have some around the home. There’s no end to the amount of accessories and props you can use to add personality, create a set or even add a narrative to your picture. Gather inspiration from things around you and objects you have spotted in shops. The trick is knowing how much accessorising needs to happen before it becomes too much, as it’s easy to overdo. For this portrait photo (right), we decided to keep things simple and demonstrate how a small piece of red fabric can be used in different combinations to…

01 MAKE A MOOD BOARD When planning your shoot, put your ideas together and share them with the model. It helps explain the mood and style of the images you aim to achieve. Gather images that inspire, or sketch ideas you have in your mind. Pinterest is a great place to collect ideas, share and collaborate. 02 START COLLECTING Look around and see if there’s anything you could incorporate into your portraits. Think of things to hold, or wear, or to have as part of the scene. Collecting props and accessories like scarfs, fabric and jewellery and they will spark your creativity and give you ideas to try out. 03 SWITCH UP YOUR STYLE Instead of trying to fit everything into one shot, take lots with different looks. Ask your…

01 CREATE A NEW FILE Go to File>New and create a document of 2500x 2500px. Click Create, open the Rulers (Ctrl/Cmd+R) and drag out two guides. Add a new layer and press D to reset the colours. With the Pencil tool set to 5 px, draw a black line from about 25% to 75% along the horizontal guide. Go Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and, with Angle at 0 and Distance 150px, click OK. Go to Filter> Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a Radius of 1px to soften the edges. Click OK, and press Ctrl/Cmd+J to copy the layer. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T for Free Transform. Hold Shift, drag to rotate the line so it’s vertical. Press Enter, then Ctrl/Cmd+E to merge the lines into one layer. 02 SAVE YOUR FIRST BRUSHES You now have a…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_6 Composites are one of the things that Photoshop does better than any other image editor. With a few simple selection and layer skills you can combine a wide array of photos into one magical scene like this. We’ve used several free downloadable images from pixabay.com to create our fantasy composite. If you want to follow the technique in full then download the start images (see Download free images for reference numbers, right). Or, why not learn the techniques then apply them to your own selection of images? Perhaps you could start by shooting your own ‘base’ image then overlaying objects taken from downloaded images. When searching for images to combine, keep in mind that some will fit together better than others. There are two important factors…

Growing up in the 1970s I thought I would never see a wild otter, let alone photograph one. The species has slowly recovered and I finally saw my first wild otter in August 2010 and even managed to get a very grainy photo with my old Olympus DSLR and 50-200mm lens. As I became more serious about my photography I switched to Canon, primarily for the quality of the telephoto lenses. I booked a week on the Isle of Coll in July 2021, my first holiday in 18 months, as a break from the stress of helping to run a large secondary school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The island is very calm and peaceful, just what I needed, and the B&B I was staying in looked out over the main sea…

Camille Seaman was born in 1969 to a Native American (Shinnecock tribe) father and African American mother. She graduated in 1992 from the State University of New York at Purchase, where she studied photography with Jan Groover and John Cohen. Her photographs have been published in National Geographic, GEO, TIME, New York Times Sunday magazine, Newsweek, Outside, Zeit Wissen, Men’s Journal, Seed, Camera Arts, PDN, American Photo and many others. Her books include The Last Iceberg, Melting Away and The Big Cloud. Since 2007, Camille’s work has been exhibited across the USA including a solo show at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC. An inspiring speaker, Camille is a TED Senior Fellow – her 2011 TED Talk has been viewed more than a million times. She strongly believes in…

DEPENDING ON which camera you’re using, you’ll be able to customize the controls in one or two places. On a beginner-friendly DSLR, such as the EOS 4000D or EOS 250D, for example, you can change the functions of individual buttons in the ‘Custom Functions’ section of the yellow Set-up menu. High-end EOS DSLRs have a dedicated Custom Functions menu, which is where you’ll find a ‘Custom Controls’ sub-menu. More recent EOS R mirrorless bodies have a whole page of their Custom Functions menu dedicated to control customization, including separate sections for the buttons, dials and RF lens control ring. Your camera may also have a Custom Controls option on its Quick Control menu, which you can access by pressing the Q button. This option allows you to rapidly adjust your…

ALTHOUGH THE customization options are gathered together in the Custom Functions area of the camera menu, you’ll find some additional button and dial adjustments available in other sections in the main menu. For example, the option to reverse the dial direction highlighted on the opposite page is listed separately in the Custom Functions menu of some cameras. You’ll also find tweaks that you can make to the operation of the INFO and RATE buttons in the yellow Set-up menu of some EOS cameras, along with the touch controls for those cameras with a touchscreen. PART 12 Next issue: How to capture sharper shots with your Canon…

Winters Day DAVID IBINSON, NORTH EAST SAYS… I strive to create images that are a little different from regular photography. On this occasion I was inspired by the wintery conditions and low-angled sunlight at Hurworth Reservoir to capture the sun’s last rays over the snowy scene. I composed the shot thinking that the road would act as a leading line to draw the eye towards the centre of the frame. I had considered using a tripod, but this shot was handheld as the light gave a fast enough shutter speed. I used Photoshop to adjust white balance and enhance the saturation of the blue and warmer tones. BRIAN SAYS… Individual and different images are captured by going out in the cold while other photographers sit at home. I like the…

Think ultra-fast primes and you’re probably thinking of hefty lenses with horrific price tags. This 7Artisans lens will make you think again, shoehorning a phenomenally fast f/1.05 aperture into a compact 61x86mm package that tips the scales at a mere 606g. And it does so at just a fifth of the price of Canon’s mighty RF 50mm F1.2L USM. This is a manual-focus lens that lacks any built-in electronics, as such, you need to adjust the aperture via an on-board, stepless control ring instead of on the host camera. This takes Programme AE and Tv (Time value) shooting modes off the menu, but Manual and Av (Aperture value) modes work well. Despite its budget price, the lens features two ULD (Ultra Low Dispersion) elements, a metal barrel and a metal…

Canon has made a number of EF 50mm f/1.8 primes for 35mm film cameras and DSLRs down the years. They’ve always been popular for combining a natural viewing perspective with a fast aperture rating, at an decent price. Repurposed for EOS R-series cameras, the new RF lens picks up the baton, with an enhanced build quality and optical performance in a small, lightweight package. The stepping motor-driven AF system is quick and quiet, fast enough for sporty stills and smooth enough for video. An aspherical element contributes to centre-to-edge sharpness, and Canon’s Super Spectra Coating reduces ghosting and flare. The 50mm focal length combined with a shallow depth of field enabled by the f/1.8 aperture work well for half-length portraiture, and even for tighter head-and-shoulders. Build quality feels a step…

All of the lenses here do well to minimize lateral chromatic aberration, which is mostly seen around high-contrast edges within a scene, towards the edges and corners of the frame – think branches, twigs and leaves of trees against a bright sky. ‘Fast’ lenses with wide aperture ratings also often suffer from axial or longitudinal chromatic aberration’ This occurs anywhere in the frame, around the edges between focused and defocused objects.…

The Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM and Canon RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM are stand-out lenses here by delivering extreme barrel distortion. The Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary lens for EOS M-series cameras produces noticeable pincushion distortion. It’s a bit of a moot point for the EOS R system, however, as lens designs for these mirrorless cameras are becoming more reliant on auto corrections, both in-camera and when processing Raw files in Canon DPP, where the auto corrections can’t be switched off.…

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…

01 WINNER DUBAI BY WIM SOLHEIM This is an outstanding scene overlooking Dubai in the moments before sunrise. Shooting in the ‘magic’ hour, the time before sunrise (or after sunset), he’s caught some fantastic cool blue and pink hues in the sky as it’s not totally lit yet by the sun – and this colour palette really helps to balance the warmer tones on the intricate road system in the bottom third of the frame. Wim’s cityscape is packed full of colour, atmosphere and detail. Great job! Lens Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM | Art Exposure 1/50 sec, f/2, ISO1600 02 GRAND CANAL BEFORE SUNRISE BY JULIA MARTIN Julia has captured a fantastic shot of the Grand Canal in Venice. We’ve seen countless photos of this picturesque spot over the years, but not many…

While stock photography takes a fair amount of time to set up it can be very lucrative for photographers, as it can just tick along making money in the background, which enables you to get back out shooting your next project. It’s very rare for a stock library to be the primary source of income for a professional photographer, but they can still be a valuable addition to your overall income, especially if you’re doing workshops and selling prints at the same time. Your images will need to be popular and appeal to a wide range of customers, as you could have all manner of publications looking at your shots to use from anything like magazine articles to holiday brochures. The money you make off each image used will vary…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_1 FOCUS STACKING OPTIONS There are a few ways to shoot for a stack – we could use the focus ring on the lens, or if the Canon camera has a focus stacking mode we could try this. Canon cameras such as the mirrorless EOS R5, R6 and RP, and Canon EOS 90D DSLR, have a built-in automatic focus bracketing feature. But if we’re using extension tubes, especially cheaper ones that are all stacked together, then they can prevent autofocus from functioning, so camera auto-stacking features won’t work. This is why we chose to use a focus rail instead. It takes a steady hand and lots of patience to move the rail ever-so-slightly forwards or backwards between frames when shooting for a focus stack. Motorized focus rails…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_189_2 When it comes to a shallow depth of field we often think about bokeh circles and blurred backgrounds, however, using a shallow depth of field to transform elements in the foreground of your portraits into a pleasing blur can be just as effective. Shallow depth of field is achieved using a combination of wide aperture and a close focusing distance – the closer something is to the lens the easier it will be to transform into a diffused blur. We’ll use this second point to our advantage here, holding some spring flowers close to the camera lens, forcing them out of focus and creating a fantastic wash of colour. It’d be worth using a lens with a wide aperture like f/1.8 or f/1.4 to exaggerate the…

01 ACCESSORIES You could choose from a variety of accessories that you already have around the home, or you could buy items – keep an eye out for timeless pieces. You can also ask models to bring a selection of outfits and accessories that suit your theme. 02 BACKGROUND Choose a background colour to go with the mood and style of your image. Seat the model away from the backdrop and use a grid on your strip lights so that no light hits the backdrop, as this will increase contrast and helped the red scarf to pop. 03 LIGHTING Using a grid on the front of your soft box gives you greater control over the direction of light. You can focus the light towards one area rather than it wrapping…

WHEN SHOOTING portraits you still want your subject to be the main focus of the image. Props can add context to your photo and tell a story or add to the personality. Be sure to choose props and accessories that are complementary and minimal. Consider patterns, colours and tones that blend well together and a backdrop that will also work well. For this shot I chose props and a background with similar, muted tones, while a bright red book on the table would’ve pulled the viewer’s eye away and be too distracting.…

There are lots of tools that can help your images pop out of the screen or from a print, but few have as instant an effect as Clarity. Available in Camera Raw and Lightroom, Clarity works by increasing the contrast in midtones, the range of tones that sit either side of the middle grey point in an image. By increasing midtone contrast, the brighter parts of the midtone range become brighter, and the darker parts go even darker. Understanding how it works isn’t all that important. All you need do is open an image and experiment with Clarity to get a feel for the amazing effect it has on details. Above, for instance, a bold increase in Clarity boosts the contrast around the dog’s hairs, making each wet strand stand…

DOWNLOAD FREE IMAGES Our project here is made up of an array of free downloadable pictures from pixabay.com. To get the shots that we used search for image numbers 547324 (toadstool) 4274633 (bee) 1028727 (clothes line) 4916366 (sparkles) 3578206 (windmill) 1854161 (light bulb) 3999489 (chimney) 2467437 (smoke). 01 SELECT THE MUSH-ROOF Open the images (see far right for download info) and go to the toadstool. Grab the Quick Selection tool and paint over the top of the toadstool to select it, then click ‘Select and Mask.’ Increase the Radius to improve the selection edge, set Output: Selection and hit OK. 02 DROP IN THE BUILDING Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the selection to a new layer. Next, repeat the process to select the foreground moss and copy to a new layer.…

ALTHOUGH one of the world’s most renowned photographers of the Arctic and Antarctica, Camille Seaman may never have ventured to the earth’s vast polar regions if she hadn’t decided back in 1999 to give up her seat on a flight. It’s commonplace in America for domestic flights to be oversold, and passengers are enticed to give up their seats in exchange for a free return flight at a future date. In Camille’s case, she was offered “a free round-trip ticket to anywhere the airline flew.” She had recently moved from New York to California to escape the harsh east coast winters and, as she puts it, “Had no desire, ambition, or interest at all to go to any place cold.” But all that changed. Camille’s free ticket was with Alaska…

I have always admired the Renaissance era art and worked on my own paintings for some time. Once my life changed with the appearance of three beautiful kids, I stopped painting as it was time consuming and too messy! But my artistic nature demanded a way to get unleashed, so I developed an interest in photography. It began as a hobby but quickly transformed into something more serious. My youngest daughter Mia with her charming and bubbly personality inspired the name for my brand – Mama & Mia Photography. I mostly work in fine-art portraiture, because of the tasteful dramatic combinations of rich colours, textures, looks and, of course, the magical light. Despite being a photographer for six years and counting, I always find room to grow, overcome ongoing challenges…

Some EOS cameras have an external M-Fn (Multifunction) control that essentially exists to be customized. For example, the original EOS R has a (somewhat controversial) M-Fn bar, which can be assigned with shooting functions such as ISO, White balance or Movie recording. You can even fine-tune the function so that swiping the bar or tapping each end of it will perform a different operation. Some cameras have a M-Fn button, which is positioned close to the main dial near the shutter release. This can be assigned with a wide range of functions, such as FEL (Flash Exposure Lock), focus peaking and Touch & Drag AF on compatible cameras. The M-Fn button is small and fairly stiff, so it’s easy to discern from the shutter release button and intuitive to operate…

As well as changing the functions of buttons, you may be able to tweak the way that the dials operate, adding your preferred function to the Control Ring on an RF lens or adaptor, for instance. Some RF lenses don’t have a dedicated control ring, but you are able to assign the control ring function to the manual focus ring. The simplest adjustment you can make is to reverse the way the dials increase or decrease the aperture or shutter speed when shooting in Av or Tv mode. This may be useful if you’re moving to Canon from a different system. With an advanced EOS R series camera, you’ve got three dials to play with (four if you’re using an RF lens with a Control Ring). While you may prefer…

Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon DSLR? Email EOSSOS@futurenet.com It’s clear that Canon has moved on from DSLRs with a focus on mirrorless models. If you are planning on getting a new camera then mirrorless is likely to be what you’ll choose, and that means a new lens mount. Don’t be too concerned, though, as the mount adapter lets you use all your existing EF and EF-S lenses on a mirrorless EOS camera. Many of you will look at your bag of lenses and wonder how you can afford a complete system change when, in reality, a mirrorless camera works fine with your existing lenses. RF lenses are often shorter in length, and cheaper RF options are lighter than equivalent EF lenses, but there are many more EF lenses than…

To test real-world performance, we use lenses in all sorts of lighting conditions, for indoor and outdoor scenarios. We check for build quality and handling, smooth and precise operation of all controls, and we test the speed and accuracy of autofocus. We typically test full-frame compatible EF lenses on a range of full-frame and APS-C format bodies, whereas EF-S lenses that are designed for APS-C bodies are only tested on cameras like the EOS 90D and 7D Mark II. EF-M and RF lenses are tested on respective EOS M and EOS R type mirrorless bodies. In-camera corrections are disabled throughout all testing, to better reveal the true performance of each lens. We also run a full range of lab tests under controlled conditions. Photos of test charts are taken across…

Much smaller and more lightweight than the up-market RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM standard zoom, this one is convenient for walkabout shooting. Naturally, it has a slower, variable aperture rating compared with its constant-aperture sibling, shrinking to f/7.1 at the long end of the zoom range. Canon’s EOS R-series cameras maintain fast and accurate AF in dark conditions, and deliver impressive image quality at high ISOs. And you can still get a reasonably tight depth of field when shooting at close range, especially at the long end of the zoom range. For extreme close-ups, the lens features an impressive 0.5x magnification ‘Centre Focus Macro’ facility. Other neat features include a 5-stop image stabilizer, and the same ‘Focus/Control’ switch as in the RF 16mm and RF 50mm lenses on test, along…

With such a diverse collection of lenses in this month’s Super Test, it’s hard to pick an outright winner. A lot boils down to what you want the lens for. Even so, if we had to pick one, it would be the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM. Its natural perspective and fast aperture makes it great for many shooting scenarios. If you don’t mind focusing manually and want to boost your bokeh, the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.05 is the lens to go for, whereas the Samyang MF 85mm f/1.4 RF is a better option if you want a more portrait-friendly focal length. If you want to go XL on your viewing angle or reach, the RF 16mm F2.8 STM or RF 600mm F11 IS STM are the best budget options. The…

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.…

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…