Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine

When you’re taking photos with your Canon camera, what’s the first thing you adjust when you’re perfecting your exposures to the correct brightness? Do you tweak the aperture, shutter speed or ISO? If you’re a beginner, you may well use Auto exposure modes and don’t tend to fiddle with any of these settings. If you’re a more experienced enthusiast, do you use Av or Tv mode to boss the aperture or shutter speed? Whatever your preference, it’s important to have a good understanding of the core exposure principles. Learn all you need to know to take control of key settings so you can take better exposures of everything from classic landscapes and seascapes to action shots of fast wildlife and motorsports, starting on page 28. Our Apprentice gets a treat…

APPRENTICE NAME: MARK BRAYBROOK CAMERA: CANON EOS 6D FIFTY-FIVE-year-old Mark worked as a professional photographic printer at Colour Processing for 25 years. He recently wrote to us asking for some tips and advice on how to get the most out of his Canon EOS 6D camera and he has also acquired a Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens. As he’s based in South Wales, we paired him up for the day with wildlife pro photographer Drew Buckley and they headed off to Skomer Island to practise puffin portraits and fast flight action. CANON PRO NAME: DREW BUCKLEY CAMERA: CANON EOS R5 DREW IS a Canon professional landscape and wildlife photographer based in South Wales, a regular PhotoPlus contributor, and has taken pictures for publications such as Photographing South…

PRO TIP CROP FACTOR WHILE cameras with a crop factor are usually cheaper than full-framers, don’t let that deter you using an EOS APS-C camera for wildlife – as they have a smaller sensor size, your images actually appear more ‘zoomed-in’ which can be a benefit. This is because the focal length of your lens is effectively multiplied by 1.6x on EOS APS-C cameras, which means that if you fit a 300mm lens to an APS-C Canon, it gives you an angle of view similar to a 480mm, and if you’re using a 600mm lens, it becomes 960mm! TOP GEAR #4 Teleconverters CANON’S extenders, also known as teleconverters, sit between your lens and the camera body, and magnify the light to give your lens a more zoomed-in feel. Drew uses…

01 CHESS BY CLAIRE NORRIS Claire has won us over this month with her incredible still-life shot of a king chess piece on a glass chessboard with atmospheric blue smoke. It reminds us that simple still-life subjects can have a huge impact when approached artistically. Choosing a glass object that can be illuminated from the underside is a very clever consideration. Lens Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Exposure 1/10 sec, f/7.1, ISO100 02 A FORK BY HOWARD MASON Howard’s still-life shot is incredibly atmospheric, focusing on the four tips of a fork prong with a macro lens and using a wide aperture to blur the rest of the fork into an ethereal blur and create this amazing abstract shot. The black and white conversion also works wonders. Lens Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE bit.ly/pp_194_1 THE POWER OF TWO SPEEDLITES With two speedlites, you have the freedom not only to light your subject from different angles, but also to experiment with lighting ratios so that each flash complements the other. As such, we can build a simple two-light setup, with an overhead fill light to lift the shadows and a key light directed towards the face. Alternatively, we could place one of the lights behind, angled back towards the subject to create an edge light, or instead train one of the lights on the background to give it even illumination. 01 CRAFT A SPEEDLITE HOLDER We wrap a small piece of cardboard around the end of the speedlite, leaving an overhang. We tape it in place, then cut down each bend…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_2 Film noir is a style of portrait photography that originated in Hollywood in the 1940s. It’s characterized by its moody, dramatic ambience. Today, this style is still popular and many portrait photographers use film noir techniques to achieve atmospheric images by using low-key lighting and high contrast. The key to successful film noir photography is finding the perfect balance between light and shadow. By carefully controlling the lighting, you can create a sense of mystery and drama. Film noir portraits often have a quality of sophistication and glamour that is unique, so if you’re looking to add a touch of Hollywood glamour to your own portraits, dramatic B&W photography is the perfect style for you to try. To help with this theme, we used a gobo.…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_3 01 EOS R MIRRORLESS BODY You need a full-frame Canon EOS body from the EOS R range to be compatible with the RF 100mm. The EOS R, RP, R5, R6 and R3 all work perfectly. Using a cropped mirrorless, like the EOS R7 or R10, produces a more telephoto (160mm) look. 02 CANON RF 100MM F2.8L LENS The RF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS USM lens is the much anticipated native macro lens for Canon’s full-frame RF mount cameras and is the successor to Canon’s EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens for Canon EOS DSLRs. 03 STURDY TRIPOD A tripod offers the sharpest shots for macro photography, eliminating camera shake from handholding the camera. We used a Manfrotto 055 tripod with a three-way head and switched off…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_4 There are several ways to turn a photo into an image that looks like an Impressionist painting. These extend from creative shooting techniques that use intentional camera movement to more obvious digital manipulation when processing the picture. We’re focusing on the latter here, with a technique that’s not only quick and easy to apply, but also one that doesn’t use any stock paint effects from Photoshop’s Filter Gallery. This method can also be changed in all kinds of subtle ways to get a huge variety of different looks. This project involves starting with a single base image, but you then blend that image with multiple copies of itself, each of which is shifted and blurred to break up the continuity of the edges, until you achieve…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_5 01 BETA NEURAL FILTERS Photoshop’s Neural Filters employ artificial intelligence to recognize the subject and other objects in your photos. The Depth Blur Neural Filter is one of several beta filters that Adobe has released; it’s not the finished product, but is likely to be soon. The filter enables you to create realistic background blur. Simply go to Filter> Neural Filters, then click the test tube icon to access and download Depth Blur. 02 BLUR STRENGTH The Blur Strength slider controls how heavily the details are blurred out. Anything over 70 tends to look too strong. Because all the processing for Neural Filters is carried out in the cloud, you may find that each time you tweak a slider it takes a while for the changes…

MANY photographers trace the beginning of their passion to the moment they received their first camera – usually a birthday present – followed by some priceless tuition from a parent or other family member who was bitten by the photography bug long before. But it’s not just about that first camera; for travel photographers such as Jeremy Flint, family holidays are a major factor in determining their future path: “I guess that passion for travel developed when my parents used to take my twin brother and I to the south of France on a motoring holiday every summer when we were teenagers.” Jeremy says he fell in love with those annual road trips and became fascinated with the different cultures and landscapes that a life of travel could offer. By…

Mastering minimalism Mostafa photographs incredible minimalist landscape scenes from around his home town in northern Iran I am an Iranian artist and self-taught photographer based in Gilan, on the northern coast of Iran. I’ve been hugely inspired by minimalism and black and white photography, and have created my own minimalist style incorporating powerful themes, ideas and symbolism in my photos. While photography is my preferred medium today, my background is in painting and I recognize the link between the two art forms. I often try to include painterly aspects in my photos, which I think gives them a certain style and unique look. These images are all from the mountainous and beautiful village I was born in: Gilan in Rudbar, Iran. My work is highly symbolic, and barren landscapes, steps…

APS-C vs full-frame cameras What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two Canon EOS sensor sizes? With the launch of the EOS R7 and EOS R10, Canon has given photographers and content creators more food for thought. As the first cameras in the EOS R series to have APS-C-sized sensors, they open up new and affordable opportunities for those who don’t need a full-frame camera. They’re not Canon’s first mirrorless APS-C cameras, of course. The EOS M range has offered the benefits of APS-C and mirrorless tech for over a decade. But the EOS R system, with its familiar, DSLR-like bodies and burgeoning line-up of hi-tech RF and RF-S lenses offers broader appeal. So, what’s the big deal about smaller sensors? EOS camera bodies can be more compact and…

There are five different mounts in the EOS camera system – RF/RF-S, EF/EF-S and EF-M – with each one being natively compatible with lenses that have the corresponding lens mount in their title. Adapters are also available that enable a lens to be fitted on a camera with a different mount, but not in all cases. It can be a little confusing if you’re new to the Canon EOS system, but we explain the permutations in detail below. There are also some lenses that don’t list the lens mount in their name. Canon’s TS-E lenses are tilt-shift lenses designed for the EF mount, for example. But as they are manual focus only, they don’t have the EF (Electro Focus) prefix. It’s the same deal with the MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x…

WE’VE highlighted the advantage that the 1.6x crop option in the EOS R range of full-frame cameras can be when you can’t get physically close to a subject. When this option is enabled under Cropping/Aspect Ratio in the main menu, the camera crops the centre of the sensor to give the same tighter view as if you had an EF-S, RF-S or other APS-C lens attached. Bear in mind that unlike the other aspect ratio options available, the 1.6x crop is permanently applied even when you shoot Raw files – and there’s no undoing it in software. When you attach an EF-S lens to a full-frame EOS R body via a mount adapter, the 1.6x crop is automatically applied and you can’t select any other aspect ratio. PART 17 Next…

JONATHAN THOMPSON, CANADA SAYS… I moved to this area outside of Vancouver to allow me to be closer to more of the Canadian wildlife. Just a short walk away is the Lions Bay Beach, where I took my EOS 80D to capture some of the environment. While it is a very quiet area, at certain times you need to watch out for bears, so it’s best not to be out around dusk or dawn. I used a GorillaPod to steady my camera for the long exposure and did a little minor adjustment with Lightroom to get this shot. BRIAN SAYS… This shot has a great depth of field – the f/8 aperture on the 10mm focal length gives enough that the image is appropriately sharp front to back. The choice…

THE CONTENDERS: CANON EOS DSLRS THE CONTENDERS: CANON EOS R MIRRORLESS CAMERAS Canon has been making Electro Optical System (EOS) cameras for 35 years. The original development project was dubbed the Entirely Organic System and the first EOS 650, with its fully electronic EF lens mount, was an instant hit. More recently, mirrorless RF mount cameras have taken everything to a new level. Canon engineers in Japan describe the difference in data communication speed for EOS R system cameras in relation to recent DSLRs as like that of a bullet train compared with a moped. The RF mount enables levels of performance in autofocus tracking and image stabilization that could previously only been dreamed of. Canon’s world-class EOS R system cameras are a force to be reckoned with. But they’re…

Launched in August 2019, the EOS 90D is a heavyweight replacement for the trusty EOS 80D, packing a 32.5MP sensor and fast 10fps maximum drive rate that matches the speedy and now obsolete EOS 7D Mark II. It’s tailor-made for enthusiasts who demand resolution, speed and advanced handling characteristics. When you add in the crop factor of the APS-C format, which increases the effective focal length of lenses by 1.6x, the 90D is a compelling camera for wildlife and sports shooters looking to get closer to capture the action. We haven’t noticed a huge step up in real-world resolution compared to the 80D, but additions include a new joystick controller on the back, improved battery life that leaves mirrorless cameras dead in the water, and even a weight reduction. Performance…

Smaller and lighter than the EOS 850D, the EOS R10 is particularly travel-friendly and can take on pretty much any shooting scenario along the way. It’s based around a new 24.2MP APS-C format image sensor that really bumps up data output speeds. The result is super-fast drive rates of 15fps, rising to 23fps in electronic shutter mode. The latter boosts the maximum shutter speed from 1/4000 sec to 1/16,000 sec, too. Better still, the budget-friendly R10 inherits the same Dual Pixel CMOS AF II autofocus system that’s featured in the R3, R5 and R6, with deep-learned AI tracking for people, animals and vehicles. The camera can also capture 4K movie footage, although 60p comes with a crop mode. Not much bigger than some of Canon’s EOS M system mirrorless cameras,…

A long with the higher-resolution EOS R5, the 20.1MP full-frame EOS R6 brought in a raft of enhancements compared with the first-generation EOS R and RP. The headliners are in-body image stabilization, a new artificially intelligent deep-learned autofocus system, and dual memory card slots. Stabilization has up to 8-stop effectiveness, even when using some lenses that lack optical image stabilization. The world-leading autofocus can recognize people, animals, birds and vehicles. Slightly more lightweight than the R5, the R6 has a marginally smaller vari-angle touchscreen and a lower-resolution electronic viewfinder, although it’s still highly detailed with 3.39 million dots. Unlike with the R5, video capture tops out at 4K rather than 8K, and with less need for speed in data throughput, both the memory card slots are SD/HC/XC UHS-II, rather than…

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…

Letter of the Month I’m a PhotoPlus subscriber and avid Canon amateur, and have used EOS DSLRs for years. My current camera is a 7D Mark II, which I love using with an EF 100-400mm lens for shooting birds, wildlife and motorsports. I’ve been enjoying reading in your magazine about the new fancy AF tracking technology appearing in EOS cameras such as the R6, R3 and the R7 and R10 mirrorless cameras. While it’s incredible what improvements Canon has made to the AF tracking modes, so you can easily follow and lock on to moving subjects like cars, motorbikes and animals, is this taking the skill and satisfaction of focusing away from us? With the advanced pro-level EOS R3 also offering Eye Control AF, used in conjunction AF tracking, it…

TOP GEAR #1 Telephoto zoom IN PARTS of Skomer, the puffins come very close, so you don’t always need a huge zoom. In fact, a wide angle is worth experimenting with. As puffins are quite small, a telephoto lens is still ideal for getting frame-filling shots, so Drew’s lens of choice is a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, which can be zoomed out to 100mm if the birds land nearby or zoomed in to 400mm if they’re further away. Lens Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C Exposure 1/4000 sec, f/6.3, ISO1000 MARK ’S COMMENT “I met up with Drew in Marloes with plenty of time to spare to get our tickets for the ferry to Skomer. It was a beautiful summer’s day and as soon as…

MARK’S COMMENT “While we were at The Wick, we had a few opportunities to catch the puffins coming in to land. I found that although my camera and lens set-up did a decent job at puffin portraits when they were stationary, I really suffered with the in-flight photos because my 6D camera struggled to lock on to the fast little puffins and was hindered by the slower AF, burst rate and limited autofocus points. Drew showed me how effortless it was taking images like this incredible flighty action shot on his Canon EOS R5 using the new Animal Eye Detect autofocus, and he’s certainly given me some ideas for upgrading my equipment.” TOP GEAR #3 Full-frame Canon EOS camera DREW recently switched to Canon’s mirrorless EOS R5. It has a…

Shooting landscapes into the light “I shot into the sun for this landscape in Tuscany, which created beautiful evening light and long shadows. Even though the scene has a wide range of tones, the excellent dynamic range of my Canon mirrorless EOS R5 enabled me to capture all the detail in a single Raw file. I used Manual exposure at 1/80 sec, f/11 and ISO100, in combination with the histogram to set the exposure to ensure there was detail in both highlights and shadows,” says Canon pro travel, landscape and wildlife photographer Guy Edwardes. “I also used my EOS R5’s electronic shutter mode to make sure no mechanical vibration softened the image.” Getting to grips with your exposures is a fundamental part of photography, and yet it’s an area many…

Top reasons to subscribe now! ✔ Great savings Get a rolling annual subscription at the discounted prices listed below – you just pay every six months. Choose from three options. ✔ Free Lowepro camera bag The Lowepro Nova 160 AW II is ideal for carrying your Canon kit on day trips. Option 1 – SAVE 28%! Print subscription every 6 months from £28 13 issues of printedition Delivery to your door included in the price Free Lowepro Nova 160 AW II bag worth £67! Option 2 – SAVE 39%! Digital subscription every 6 months from £27.50 13 issues of digitaleditionforyourdevice Instant digital access Available on iOS or Android Gift not included with digital subscription Option 3 – SAVE 57%! Premium subscription every 6 months from £35.50 13 issues of printeditiondeliveredtoyour…

With a cost-of-living crisis, spiralling inflation, eye-watering petrol prices and an unprecedented fall in living standards to consider, for many of us, shelling out money on photography kit or a trip to a professional portrait studio just isn’t a priority at the moment. But there are ways to create outstanding portrait photos without expensive costs. In this project, we set ourselves a challenge: to craft high-end studio portraits on a shoestring budget of only £75, which was basically enough to buy two cheap second-hand flashguns and a green sheet for the backdrop. We supplemented this with a few items found around the house – an old garden bag, a bust brolly, bin liners and kitchen foil – to build our own DIY home studio. The key to studio lighting is…

01 JUST THE FILL A fill light should result in an underexposed subject. We leave our softbox off and only fire the overhead umbrella. With exposure settings locked (Manual mode, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO100), we adjust the flash power until it results in a gentle fill like this. 02 ONLY THE KEY Next we turn off the fill light and turn on the key light (our DIY garden bag softbox) and angle it towards the face. We want this light to give us a correctly exposed subject, so we adjust the flash power manually until it looks right, at 1/4 power here. 03 BOTH KEY AND FILL Finally, we turn on both speedlites and fire them together for balanced key and fill lighting. By building the lighting one flash at…

01 GET YOUR GOBO Gobos are metal templates that you place in front of a projector to cast a specific shadow on to your scene. We used the Complete Kit gobos from Pixapro and a Pixapro Optical Snoot Spot Projector to project the light through the template. 02 SET UP YOUR GOBO A prime lens such as a 35mm or 50mm is a good choice to attach to your optical snoot or projector. Now select a suitable gobo that resembles a window or blinds, insert it into the gobo holder and slide it into the slot behind the lens. 03 SETTINGS Set your camera to Manual mode and dial in shutter speed 1/125 sec, aperture f/8 and ISO800, but increase it further if the image is too dark. Set the…

IN ADDITION to the focus ring and spherical aberration control (see Tip 3 over page), the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L IS USM macro lens has a control ring, enabling you to assign a function to quickly tweak things such as ISO value. ATTACH the lens hood when shooting outdoors in harsh direct sunlight to reduce flare and increase contrast and sharpness in your macro photos, or use your hand to block the sun if you don’t have the hood with you.…

01 LOAD YOUR IMAGE Open the shot you want to turn into an Impressionist-style scene and make sure your Layers Panel is on screen (Window>Layers). You see just one Background Layer in the panel – to duplicate it, press Ctrl/Cmd+J twice. This makes two copies of the layer, so you have three layers in total, all exactly the same. Click on the middle layer to make it active and switch off the eye icon on the top-most layer. Click where it says Normal and change the Blending Mode to Lighten, then press Ctrl/Cmd+T to enter Free Transform Mode. Pull out the corner handles to make the image a little larger, then drag the cursor outside the bounding box to rotate it slightly. Press Return once you have a staggered effect.…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_6 Affinity Photo is a great tool for photo editing, but it’s also brilliant for making abstract images and incorporating elements of graphic design into your photography. In this project, we explain how to combine your photos with triangle shapes for an inventive effect that would look great as a wallpaper for your computer or phone. The technique for this encompasses lots of fundamental Affinity Photo skills, from shifting images and shapes around to using shadows and adjustment layers. It’s also a good example of how you can make use of shortcuts to speed up your editing. While the build-up of shapes here might look complicated, it really only takes a few minutes to create. We begin by making a handful of triangle shapes and a few…

Framing the Brandenburg Gate is a much-executed composition, but the cyclist was a bonus. How long did you have to wait for that moment? I was in position for that shot, waiting for something to happen, a kind of carpe diem situation, but looking for that moment that may never even happen. It’s all about planning and anticipation. I was in position probably for about five or 10 minutes. The sun was rising quite quickly. My original thought was to capture the morning light on the Brandenburg Gate, so I was photographing from a different angle, and I thought why not try to get it with some lighting behind? I thought that if I got myself into position, I probably had a five-minute window to capture that shot with something…

Back in 2018, I had the fantastic opportunity to photograph an emperor penguin colony on Snow Hill Island in Antarctica. On 11th October, our ship, the Kapitan Khlebnikov, arrived at the ice island. The expedition team went off in one of the two on-board helicopters to confirm the position of the emperor penguin colony and check the sea ice that the ship was on to ensure it was safe for us to go ashore. The following day, the ship moved a little closer to the colony and we set off in the helicopters with five passengers on each trip. Once ashore, we embarked upon a two-mile trek through knee-deep snow. This was hard going, especially with a rucksack full of camera gear. We weren’t allowed to take any food ashore…

An APS-C sensor is approximately 1.6x smaller than a full-frame sensor, so it’s exposed to a smaller area of the image projected by the lens. This ‘crop factor’ needs to be taken into account when choosing and using lenses. If you mount a lens with a focal length of 100mm on to a camera with an APS-C sensor, for example, you get a view that’s equivalent to 160mm on a full-frame camera. In order to get the equivalent 100mm full-frame view, you’d need to use a focal length of around 60mm on an APS-C camera (60mm x 1.6 = 98mm). The APS-C extra reach has advantages for long-lens photography, such as wildlife and sports. It can often be difficult to get physically close to some animals and athletes, but the…

EF mount The EF mount was introduced on the EOS 650 35mm film camera in 1987. It’s the lens mount used by Canon’s DSLRs, and there’s a vast range of current and back-catalogue EF lenses that are compatible with it. Good news! You can use EF lenses on both full-frame and APS-C DSLRs with the EF mount. You can also use EF-S lenses on DSLRs that have an APS-C sensor. Bad news… You can’t use EF-S lenses on full-frame DSLRs because the larger mirror would hit the back of the lens. Nor can you use RF, RF-S or EF-M lenses on the EF mount. RF mount Canon’s reimagined lens mount for mirrorless EOS R cameras inherits the wide 54mm internal diameter from the EF mount, but has a shorter flange…

Get more from Canon lenses Ensure that your camera has the right lens profiles and use lens corrections in DPP Better lenses take better photos, so make sure you take advantage of the optimum lens processing when capturing and processing your images. Canon software in-camera and on your computer can apply lens processing to extract the best results, which are free from distortion and optimized for contrast and sharpness. Follow our guide to help your camera and software get the most from your Canon lenses. Canon EOS DSLRs can have up to 40 lens corrections loaded; 20 to 30 of the most common and recent lenses are usually pre-installed. EOS R mirrorless cameras have all the RF lenses’ info, as long as you have the latest camera and lens firmware…

Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon camera? Send your questions to EOSSOS@futurenet.com The latest Canon EOS R10 and R7 APS-C mirrorless cameras have been equipped with one of the most amazing AF systems for tracking moving subjects, taking much of the AF capability from the R3. Autofocus with this much ability is brilliant, but you need to make clear choices for AF settings. Even the commonly used single point in the middle aimed at a subject has been given a new way of working by default. The first lesson is that the new way of working applies to Servo focus, but it means that any subject that moves, like people, is better with Servo AF. Every AF area, from a tiny spot AF point to the whole frame area, tracks…

THE BEST drawing tablets for photo editing might sound like an oxymoron, but plenty of photographers use drawing tablets for that very task – and with good reason. After all, a pen and drawing tablet can feel much more natural than using a mouse or touchpad. By definition, graphics tablets need to be sensitive, and the best models register anything up to 8192 distinct levels of pressure, so you can be very precise with your photo editing, which is useful when standard resolutions are getting higher and higher every day. So, what’s the best drawing tablet for photo editing? Well, it depends what you’re looking for and what your budget is. We’ve found 10 great options and all the facts and figures to find the right fit for you. Let’s…

The latest in a long line of mid-range cameras, the EOS 850D picks up the baton from the preceding 800D. Alluring upgrades include iTR AF, which aims to improve face tracking during autofocus, along with eye-detection in Live View mode. The other main addition is 4K movie capture. The camera is based around a 24.1MP Dual Pixel CMOS image sensor paired with a recent-generation DIGIC 8 processor. It has the same viewfinder-based autofocus module as the EOS 90D, with 45 AF points, all cross-type, able to resolve detail in both horizontal and vertical planes; 27 of the AF points also work at apertures as narrow as f/8. The pentamirror viewfinder has slightly less magnification than in the 90D and only gives 95 per cent rather than 100 per cent frame…

For capturing fine detail and texture, it’s no surprise that the 45MP EOS R5 leads the way. The EOS 5D Mark IV takes second place, followed by the EOS 90D, EOS RP and EOS 6D Mark II. With megapixel counts that are rather modest, compared with that of the EOS R5, the EOS R3 and EOS R6 look less impressive in terms of lab test results but still deliver immensely detailed images in real-life shooting. The same goes for the rest of the cameras in the group, which, like the EOS 90D, feature APS-C format image sensors.…

Classified as a professional grade camera, the EOS 5D Mark IV has a 30.4MP image sensor that generates higher-resolution images than the bulky EOS-1D X Mk III, and much cleaner high-ISO quality than the obsolete 50.6MP 5DS and 5DS R. Many find it a perfect compromise. Naturally, the 5D Mark IV is bigger than its mirrorless EOS R counterpart, and 230g heavier, but it packs in some useful extras. For viewfinder-based shooting, the 61-point autofocus system is highly competent at tracking fast and erratically moving objects. A control lever on the back panel (lacking in the EOS R) is great for shifting the active autofocus area around. Crucially, the 5D Mark IV also has dual memory card slots, so you can create instant backups. Dual Pixel AF enables excellent autofocus…

Literally a small wonder, Canon’s new EOS R7 packs some serious firepower into its diminutive APS-C format build. Like the even smaller R10, it features all of the latest, deep-learned AI autofocus facilities, but in this instance they’re coupled to an even faster turn of speed, with mechanical shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 sec and a maximum drive rate of a blistering 30fps when using the electronic shutter option. And that’s despite the EOS R7 having a high-resolution 32.5MP image sensor. Another major plus point of the EOS R7 over the R10 is that it features in-body image stabilization, with up to 8-stop effectiveness depending on the lens, even for lenses that don’t feature optical stabilization. The electronic OLED viewfinder has the same dot-count of 2.36 million but this…

With the kind of integrated vertical grip typical of top pro cameras like the EOS-1D X series, the R3 replicates all the most important buttons and dials for shooting in both landscape and portrait orientations. And does so in style, with epic build quality and a classy finish. The 24.1MP image sensor seems low in megapixel count but there’s an upside in terms of speed. Thanks to its stacked, back-illuminated design and ground-breaking technology, it has super-fast readout speeds that enable a 30fps constant drive rate for stills, and with no viewfinder blackout. Another major plus point for both stills and video are that the readout speed virtually eliminates the rolling shutter effect, and shutter speeds go up to an incredible 1/64,000 sec. For video, the R3 bridges the gap…

What to look for Canon EOS cameras Canon splits its EOS DSLR line-up 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 better 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 are full-frame EOS R mirrorless cameras, with the EOS R3 and R5 for more serious photographers, and the EOS R10 as an entry-level affordable APS-C option. Plus Canon’s smaller, older compact system, the APS-C EOS M mirrorless camera range. DSLR CAMERAS PRICES QUOTED ARE BODY-ONLY UNLESS STATED CANON…

MANUAL MODE MARK USUALLY uses Aperture Priority mode, where he sets the aperture and the camera works out the shutter speed. Drew wanted to take Mark out of his comfort zone, so set his Canon EOS 6D to its Manual mode, so that he could take control over all of the key exposure parameters of shutter speed, aperture and ISO. The trick to using this mode effectively is to regularly check your shots are coming out nicely exposed and adjust your settings if needed or the lighting changes. STARTING SETTINGS MARK HAD set his camera to shoot Raw and JPEG, so Drew changed this to Raw only, to make his memory card’s buffer less likely to clog up when shooting a fast burst of images. He then set the shutter…

Lens Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Exposure 1/5000 sec, f/5.6, ISO800 MARK’S COMMENT “High Cliff was a brilliant location for catching shots of puffins in flight, overlooking the cliffs and giving us a great vantage point. That’s where Drew took the stunning in-flight shot of a puffin returning to its burrow with a beak full of sand eels. It’s packed with brilliant colours, and the orange beak and feet really pop out of the frame in the sunshine. Thanks again to Drew and the PhotoPlus team – I had a fantastic day and feel like my camera knowledge has doubled. My main takeaway was getting to grips with Manual mode, as I’d never used it, and understanding the limitations of my set-up. I think I’m due an upgrade!” DREW’S VERDICT…

When you’re exposing for a particular scene, you’re actually carrying out a balancing act. The aim is to get just the right amount of light coming through the lens to hit the camera’s sensor by adjusting three core variables: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. If you’ve only ever used Auto and semi-auto modes before, you might not have noticed that when you change a setting, the camera automatically changes the other variables to create a balanced shot. Close the aperture and the camera needs to extend the shutter speed to let in more light, or boost the ISO to make the sensor more sensitive to light, and so on. There’s always a bit of a compromise to be made, so to get the best creative results you want from your…

Lens Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Exposure 0.3 sec, f/11, ISO400 I can’t believe it’s 15 years ago when I took this sequence of images. That’s vintage digital, for sure. In the future, will anyone care about my beloved Canon 5D? It was a landmark camera that made professional-level digital imagery accessible to the public for the first time. It even had better dynamic range than the waning flagship Canon 1Ds and was £5000 cheaper. It changed everything for me and I gave a triumphant two-fingered salute to the hell I had suffered shooting and scanning film. My global travels were just beginning and after a disastrous start in Bali the year before, this was a reboot – my first major European excursion. Rachel and I were flying into Rome, taking the…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_1 01 GARDEN BAG SOFTBOX Our key light here is a second-hand Godox speedlite, bought for £30 on eBay. We have crafted a softbox using an old garden waste bag with the front covered in a white bin liner. There is no TTL mode on the flash, only manual power, but that’s all we need. We set it to 1/4 power. 02 OLD UMBRELLA Our fill light here is a second-hand Yongnuo speedlite (£40 on eBay), fired into an old umbrella covered in tin foil and bin liners. It’s placed directly above the subject and set to 1/8 power to provide a gentle fill light. As the budget couldn’t stretch to a light stand, we simply tied it to the ceiling. 03 GREEN SCREEN Green screens –…

A GREEN screen can be transformed into any colour you like with a few simple Photoshop skills. Just make sure that there’s no green in the subject (like the green balls here) or this changes colour, too. If you like to use Camera Raw/Lightroom, head to the Color Mixer Panel, grab the Hue target tool and drag over the green background to change the colour. In Photoshop, the most effective tool is the Color Range command. Use it to select the greens, then change to any colour you like with a Hue/Saturation layer (or any other adjustment layer you like). If you want to completely remove the backdrop (which is useful when stitching several frames), in Photoshop hit Cmd/Ctrl+F for the Find menu, then use the Remove Background Quick Action.…

Canon released its full-frame mirrorless EOS R camera four years ago, in 2018, and while lenses for the new RF mount have steadily trickled out over the years, one optic we’d been pining for is a successor to the EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. Many Canon photographers who upgraded to mirrorless continued to use the trusty Canon EF 100mm prime with an EF-EOS R adapter, but now we finally have the native RF mount version, which comes with a raft of upgrades, including image quality improvements and features such as a 1:1.4 reproduction ratio, spherical aberration control, image stabilization, a focus limiter and much more. A true macro lens has a reproduction ratio of 1:1 – this is called lifesize because it means your subject is reproduced at the…

WATCH VIDEO ONLINE http://bit.ly/pp_194_3 TIP 1 GETTING STARTED Set up your Canon EOS R mirrorless camera on a tripod with the RF 100mm F2.8L lens attached. Now set the shooting mode to Manual to take full control of the settings and start by dialling in a shutter speed of 1/60 sec, an aperture of f/5.6 and an ISO of 1600. As it gets brighter throughout the day, you need to bring the ISO down and push the shutter speed up to compensate, but always check your exposure on the back of the screen to make sure it looks good and then make any changes if needed. You also have a focus limiter on the side of the lens barrel that makes focusing faster if you know your subject is a…

Neural Filters are part of a new wave of image-editing tools that make use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. These tools analyse the content of the image and are able to recognize people, animals and other objects. Such tools now allow for automated processes that we could only dream of a few years back. For photographers, one of the most interesting Neural Filters is Depth Blur. It enables you to alter the depth of field in your photos and create both background and foreground blur, with realistic fall-off in between. Previously, this could only be done by carefully isolating the subject, then applying blur manually to the background. Depth Blur does away with all that pesky masking work. Instead, it’s able to recognize and isolate the subject for you,…

01 MAKE A TRIANGLE Open your portrait and grab the Polygon tool from the toolbar. You can set a number of sides for the polygon in the options at the top. Set it to 3 (the Polygon tool makes it easier to plot equilateral triangles than the Triangle tool). Hold Shift and drag to make a triangle. 02 COPY AND ROTATE Grab the Move tool, hold Alt and drag the triangle to make a copy. Position it elsewhere. Hold Shift and drag the rotation control at the top of the bounding box to rotate the triangle 180 degrees. Continue making more copies, resizing and positioning them. 03 GROUP AND RASTERIZE Grab the Rectangle tool and plot thin lines between the triangles. When happy, highlight the bottom shape layer, then shift-click…

Justin Hession Based in Switzerland, professional photographer Justin shoots commercial portraits – both indoors and out – with his essential Canon EOS setup… I picked up a camera for the first time in my 20s, when I went backpacking. After getting a taste for it, I decided to study photography when I got back to Australia. I was into sports and adventure photography, so to end up in portraiture 20 years later still surprises me. I guess it was the challenge of working with people. I always liked having people in my images and the more I learned, the more I found satisfaction in needing to control and shape them. I also like the versatility of shooting on location – on a typical shoot, I never know what I will…

A full-frame sensor is the same size as a frame of 35mm camera film, and it has no crop factor to consider. This is advantageous when you’re shooting with a wide-angle lens, but you don’t get as much reach with telephoto lenses as you do with an APS-C camera. You can crop a full-frame image to achieve the same view as an APS-C camera, but this has an effect on the image size. For instance, the EOS RP’s full-frame sensor has a resolution of 26.2MP and the EOS R6’s goes to just 20.1MP – both of which are less than the 32.5MP resolution of the EOS R7. Applying a 1.6x crop to the maximum resolution of either of the full-frame cameras produces an image that is considerably smaller than that…

When you switch an EOS camera from photo mode to video mode, the image appears cropped on the rear display and in a mirrorless camera’s EVF. While all cameras crop the top and bottom of the image so that it fits the standard aspect ratio for video (16:9) and plays back correctly on a widescreen TV, some can only shoot 4K video using a cropped area in the middle of the sensor. The EOS RP’s 4K crop is about 1.76x, for example, although the camera does record Full HD video using the full width of the sensor. If your camera crops the image during video recording, there are two potential issues. The first is that you might need to reframe the shot if you composed it while the camera was…

01 IN-CAMERA LENS CORRECTION Many Canon EOS cameras have the ability to apply lens corrections as you shoot, making your JPEG images look their best using the DIGIC processor. Ensure that lens corrections are applied and you have the profiles in the camera. When using a less common lens, you may need to add a profile to your camera to get the best results. 02 ADD LENS PROFILES TO YOUR CAMERA Use EOS Utility to add lens profiles to your camera. From the main screen, select Camera Settings, then Register Lens Aberration Correction Data. If the lens on your camera isn’t already installed, it will be automatically when the software starts. Lots of different lens profiles can be installed and you can change installed lens profiles if needed. 03 DIGITAL…

The Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM is a new 8.3x superzoom kit lens that’s been specifically designed for Canon’s new line of APS-C EOS R cameras, the EOS R7 and EOS R10. With a full-frame equivalent focal range of 28.8-240mm, the Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM provides a compact superzoom that’s made with the Canon EOS R7 and Canon EOS R10 in mind. Using the same RF mount as full-frame bodies such as the Canon EOS R and Canon EOS R5, it can also be mounted on these full-frame cameras – however, it does switch to a cropped shooting mode with reduced resolution, so this lens isn’t really intended for full-frame users. That limitation aside, does the Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM rank as one of the…

For real-world results, we test cameras with a selection of lenses, in wide-ranging shooting conditions, from bright sunshine and dull outdoor conditions to interior lighting and night shots. We pay particular attention to the accuracy and consistency of autofocus and metering systems, auto white balance and all other shooting parameters. All aspects of image quality are checked. We also judge cameras for their handling, ease of use and how well the menus work, including factors such as the intuitiveness of touchscreens and vari-angle screens. We also run a series of lab tests on cameras, enabling us to give quantifiable results for various attributes of image quality. These include signal-to-noise ratio, dynamic range and the ability to resolve fine detail. All of these facets are measured in Raw quality mode, at…

The EOS 6D Mk II is a heavily revamped version of Canon’s original enthusiast-grade full-frame DSLR. Improvements include a higher-resolution 26.2MP image sensor with Dual Pixel AF, a newer DIGIC 7 processor, a 45-point autofocus system in which all of the points are cross-type and 27 work at f/8, and a new metering module. The continuous drive rate rises from 4.5fps to 6.5fps, and the basic rear screen is replaced with a vari-angle touchscreen. Most of these improvements are inherited by the EOS RP, which pairs the same image sensor with an even newer generation of processor. Both cameras have the same sensitivity range of ISO100-40,000 (50-102,400 expanded). For stills, the 6D Mk II edges ahead for burst rate but, for video, it tops out at 1080p whereas the RP…

With the same full-frame image sensor and a similar set of core features, the EOS RP is very much the newer, mirrorless version of the 6D Mk II. Aimed at enthusiast amateur photographers, it undercuts its DSLR sibling for price. You’d expect a mirrorless camera to be more slimline but the RP is much smaller than the 6D Mk II and 280g lighter. That’s great if you like to travel light, but the downsizing brings compromises. The thinner RP has a smaller battery and, coupled with the need to drive an electronic rather than optical viewfinder, battery life is only sufficient for a paltry 250 shots. The 6D Mk II can keep going nearly five times longer. The slimness and smallness of the body also make handling feel a little…

Although barely larger than the R6, the R5 packs a much higher-resolution 45MP image sensor, a dazzling (in a good way) 5.76-million-dot electronic viewfinder, a 3.2-inch 2.1-million-dot vari-angle touchscreen and CFexpress as one of its dual memory card slots. As well as delivering feverishly high-res stills, it takes video up to 8K at 30/25/24fps, as well as turning out 4K at up to 120fps. Not just a phenomenal camera for hybrid stills/video photographers, you can shoot both formats simultaneously. As well as capturing stills at up to 20fps in electronic shutter mode (12fps mechanical), you can shoot 8K video at 30fps and extract 35.4MP stills from individual frames, albeit in 16x9 aspect ratio. Naturally, the R5 shares all of the ground-breaking autofocus and image stabilization advantages that we’ve covered in…

What to look for Canon EOS mirrorless cameras Canon’s full-frame EOS R cameras are packed with the latest tech including IBIS, Animal AF tracking and 20fps via the electronic shutter in both the EOS R5 and R6. While the new APS-C crop-sensor EOS R7 and R10 are more affordable, more compact, yet still offer 15fps bursts and latest intelligent AF tracking, and more. Without the mirror, EOS R full-frame 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…

FREE VIDEOS! In the next Canon Skills chapter… ◼ Shoot the Milky Way ◼ Remove people from scenes ◼ Use a pan and tilt tripod head creatively ◼ New Photoshop CC and Affinity Photo image-editing guides PLUS ALL THIS… PhotoPlus CanonSkills VIEW THE VIDEOS ISSUE 195 ON SALE 23 AUGUST 2022 * Content subject to change…