Advanced Photographer 34 by Bright Publishing

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real-life test

Olympus

OM-D Why four readers dumped their DSLRs for this CSC

War & pix

Photo 24 The full story of our all day shoot in the capital

Shoot blood-free conflict images

lift-off!

Must-shoot events to give your photography a boost HANDS-ON preview

SAMSUNG GALAXY NX

A first look at this game-changing CSC

comparison test GROUP REVIEW

Sensor sense 85mm AF lenses

Advice for cleaning your cameraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Five tasty primes tested, sensor, plus what gear to use we name the winner

AP.indd 1

20/6/13 16:34:08

Welcome will cheung FRPS, editor

Will has worked in photo mags for over 25 years and been taking pictures for even longer. His photographic interests are very broad, from nature to portraits.

Hello and welcome to an action-packed issue. Literally. Sports photography is a challenging subject and catching the decisive moment or the atmosphere of a sporting event demands practice and first-class hand-eye co-ordination. Luckily, our portfolio subject, Harish Chavda, is more than a little handy at the subject as you can see from his portfolio. If slower moving action is more your thing, try shooting battle reenactments and living history events. There are plenty of them around this summer, which means plenty of chances to try your hand at it. If you’re lacking inspiration, check out James George’s portfolio of atmospheric images. For more ideas on where to take your camera this summer, our Great days out guide should help. It’s our pick of some popular, family friendly venues that also happen to be good opportunities for the camera. In other words, you can kill two birds with one stone during the summer holidays. In Photo kit, we try out a selection of devices for keeping your sensor in top-notch condition. Crud on the sensor can make life difficult so keeping it sparklingly clean can save hours of cloning if the camera’s built-in system is ineffective. While the prospect of cleaning the sensor is scary, it’s not that difficult, provided you use the right gear and that’s what our test is all about. Finally, Photo 24, our first 24-hour group shoot in London, took place on 21 June. It was a blast and I just wanted to say thank you to all the photographers who came along, many of whom stayed the course for the whole 24 hours. Well done and thanks to all concerned. Happy shooting with your camera.

Will Cheung FRPS, Editor

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Contents

TOP SPOT: Brighton

PHOTO 24: A hard day’s night

The cover story... Our colourful cover image is from Clive Minnitt’s book, Bristol Hot-Air Balloons (ISBN 978-0957062016). “It was taken at Ashton Court Estate in Bristol – the home of the International Hot-Air Balloon Fiesta, which takes place each August.” Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, Lumix 14-45mm at 19mm, 1/250sec at f/8, ISO 200.

www.minnitt.co.uk

See PAGE 76 For details

Inspiration, technique, opinion 6 UPFRONT All the latest news, launches (both Fuji and Canon have new cameras out) and competition winners.

INSPIRE: Sport for all

10 on your marks: INSPIRE Get set, go. Action photographer Harish Chavda takes us trackside with his sporting shots.

18 sporting success: CAPTURE Fingers on

shutters, ready to capture some action masterpieces? Well, take your finger away from the shutter and read our advice before you fall at the first hurdle.

24 TOP SPOT: BRIGHTON Oh, we do like

SEE PAGE 62 FOR DETAILS

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to be beside the seaside, and what better spot than the south coast resort of Brighton. A local snapper takes us on a tour of its most photogenic sights.

31 EXPOSED Always one

for the gee-gees, editor Cheung trots off to Appleby Horse Fair, oh and Crosby Beach and London and a poppyfield in Banbury. No rest for the wicked, hey?

32 wartime spirits: INSPIRE With authentic

kit and clothing, and plenty of subjects only too willing to pose, air shows are the perfect photo opportunity, finds James George.

40 dressing up: CAPTURE Top tips and

expert shooting advice to equip for (photographic) battle at re-enactments.

46 photo 24 It was the

longest day of the year, and for our photographers, it was the longest shoot of the year. Read the story of our first ever 24-hour group shoot.

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Contents

INSPIRE: Making history

GO SHOOT: Carnival time

100 ONE YEAR LATER: Olympus OM-D E-M5

Photo Kit: the latest gear tested 54 go shoot: notting hill carnival It’s one

of the most flamboyant and colourful events in our capital city but how do you photograph this busy, bustling event?

76 SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS Never miss an

issue of your favourite mag, get it delivered to your door – and it’s cheaper than buying it off the shelf!

78 LIGHTING academy

In his third masterclass, pro John Denton goes back to basics, working outdoors with just natural light and a single reflector.

84 RAW MASTERCLASS Forget rose-tinted glasses, you just need a little Lightroom magic to add a large dollop of nostalgia to your re-enactment photos.

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130 NEXT MONTH We’ve

90 85mm lenses It’s the prime focal length for perfect portraits, offering super shallow depth-of-field and double-creamy bokeh. So which of these famous five AF primes should get a spot in your kitbag?

59 free 16-PAGE days out SPECIAL pull-out section

96 PREVIEW: SAMSUNG galaxy NX With its

plenty to keep you busy, from tips for perfect panoramic shots to advice for starry, starry nights. And, of course, more gear than you can shake a tripod at.

Plenty of ideas and inspiration for brilliant summer day trips with your camera. Don’t forget to take the wife/ husband/kids/dog along with you too…

Android operating system, Samsung’s latest CSC could be confused with one of the company’s phones or tablets, but thanks to its Smart technologies and 20-megapixel resolution, it’s mostly definitely a camera, just not as we know it.

Want to read Advanced Photographer on your iPad? Save up to 35% by subscribing at the App Store today!

100 One year later

When four members of a photo club switch to one particular camera, they must be onto something, surely? We find out why these four togs all ditched their DSLRs in favour of a CSC, the Olympus OM-D E-M5.

106 SENSOR CLEANERS

It’s a dirty (and daunting) job, but somebody’s gotta do it – clean your camera’s sensor, that is. And if you decide to take the task on yourself, then you’ll need one of these cleaning kits.

ISSUE 34 advanced photographer 5

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inspiration

Sport for all

A sporting chance WORDS LYNNE MAXWELL PICTURES Harish Chavda ARPS

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inspiration

Sport for all

Second time round is proving even better for Harish Chavda’s photography

hotographic life has come full circle for Harish Chavda, who first took up the hobby some 30 years ago, pre-digital, then gave it up, only to return to it 20 years later, even rejoining the same camera club. “I joined South Birmingham Photographic Society in the 1980s but left to concentrate on my studies for a BSc in mechanical engineering. The course took up all my spare time for about the next four years and in my last year of study I got married, bought a house and then along came the children, so there wasn’t much time left for hobbies,” says Harish. Épée fencing, Excel arena, London. “There are not too many images of this sport about so I was quite pleased to have got the chance to photograph the event.” Nikon D3s, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 135mm, manual mode, 1/640sec at f/2.8, ISO 1250

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inspiration

Making history

He’s a history buff keen on the Second World War; he’s an LRPS – and he’s only 25! Meet James George WORDS LYNNE MAXWELL PICTURES James GEORGE LRPS

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inspiration

Making history

ames George, LRPS. Has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? James has recently achieved his LRPS with a panel of reenactment images, including one of those shown here. His camera club (Brighton and Hove) regularly holds distinction workshops run by members who have served or are serving on the distinction panel of the RPS. His re-enactment shots were picked out as something completely different, giving him the confidence to put a panel forward for assessment. “On the day itself I was feeling confident until the first panel came up, at which point I was thinking about how much better the photos were than mine! Mine was the eighth panel up and every one so far had been passed. When my panel went up, there was a murmur of discussion in the room and the assessors went up to look at it. They spent a good 15 minutes discussing the panel during which I was getting more and more nervous until they finally announced that it had passed. I felt so relieved!” says 25-year-old James. He’s currently pulling together his aviation images for a solo exhibition (he’s exhibited twice before with an aviation artist) at the end of August at Shoreham

“This photo was taken at Shoreham Airshow. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to pose this reenactor on the wing of a Spitfire. I did not have long to get the shot set up before the Spitfire was due to display, but I was very pleased when I saw this shot on the back of the camera.” Sony Alpha A850, Sigma 2470mm f/2.8 at 55mm, 1/320sec at f/14, ISO 250

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London

46 advanced advancedphotographer photographer ISSUE ISSUE 34 34

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in association with

PHOTO 24 21 June was the longest day in more ways than one. Of course, it’s the summer solstice so the day with the most daylight hours, but it was also the day we planned the first Advanced Photographer group shoot and it was to last 24 hours. Here’s the story of the day Words WILL CHEUNG PICTURES various

Over 150 photographers gathered at a central London hotel for a 6pm start. It was the only formal part of the event where photographers registered, collected a badge that would help them identify each other once out on the streets of London and picked up details of the photo contests with fabulous Samsung prizes to be won. To kick the evening off, I gave a short welcome briefing, and then everyone organised themselves, their kit, buddied up with fellow togs and generally readied themselves. It wasn’t long before little groups set off, looking fresh, and with a spring in their step, set to shoot whatever took their fancy. The shooting plan was as simple as it was informal. The general idea was to just enjoy London as photographers and to share their adventures with like-minded people. Any subject or part of London was up for grabs, although we suggested three areas to shoot sunset – Tower Bridge, Westminster Bridge and Canary Wharf – and those three points were where the AP team headed.

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Lighting 34 Part A c a d e m y

Pro photography and lighting expert John Denton goes back to basics to show us how he makes the most of natural light using nothing but a reflector Words & pictures john denton

Sometimes it’s good for your creative soul to return to basics and leave all the complex lighting kit and set-ups alone for a while and that’s what I’m going to do with the next two masterclasses, working outside in this issue and indoors next month. I recently toured Scotland armed with nothing apart from available light and a reflector. My reflector of choice is the California Sunbounce Mini, fitted with a white and silver sleeve. This costs around £180, but, of course, reflectors are available from other makers including Interfit, Lastolite and Westcott. I generally use the silver side to enhance the light quality and crisp up skin tone. If I’m working in intense sunlight (very rare here I know, but it does happen) then the white side can provide a gentle lift to the shadows. On occasion I will swap the sleeve for a gold-sided one. Generally this is when working at the ‘golden hour’ of the day when the light tone is warm. The golden side will add a matching tone to your subject.

The first place I look for when using natural light is an area that will give soft, even light. Typically this will be an area that has top cover and shields the subject from extreme light and high contrast. This can be a doorway, bus shelter, bridge – anything that provides cover and muted light. In this example we were in a subway under the main road into Inverness and the light looked great on Nikki. 1 I positioned Nikki a few feet into the tunnel so that the light was totally even across her face and torso. Shooting with a 70-200mm lens, I stepped back so I could shoot at the 200mm end to compress her features. Opening up the aperture to f/2.8 gave a shallow depth-of-field and a fast shutter speed of 1/500sec at ISO 200. You can see in the catchlights in her eyes that the final addition was the reflector positioned on the ground to lift any shadows under the chin and the eyes. If your subject has deeprecessed eyes, this reflector is an essential addition to prevent the ‘panda eyes’ look.

This shot was processed in Adobe Lightroom 4 using the Cross Process 3 preset. The lighting diagrams were created using the website, www. lightingdiagram.com. See the site for diagrams from fellow photographers.

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Lighting A c a d e m y

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Photo Kit

85mm prime lenses

85mm AF primes

Super shallow depth-of-field and double-creamy bokeh are the hallmarks of an 85mm prime – just perfect for portraits. Prices range from surprisingly affordable to throughthe-roof. So in our test of AF primes we check what you get for your money? WORDS & PICTURES richard hopkins

As a prime focal length, 85mm has always been one of the classics. All camera manufacturers have them in their range, and now Sigma, too. Famous as a great portrait focal length, 85mm works well on both full-frame and APS-C formats. 85mm primes are mainly about just one thing – very shallow depth-of-field. They’re good for low light too of course, but these days that’s usually sorted with a couple of clicks on the ISO dial. Used wide open, depth-of-field is extremely shallow. A head-and-shoulders portrait taken on full-frame at 1.2m (4ft) distance, depth-of-field at f/1.2 is just 13mm, at f/1.4 it’s 16mm, and at f/1.8 it’s 20mm. That compares to a fast f/2.8 zoom at 31mm. Things change on APS-C cameras that deliver greater depth-of-field compared with full-frame when the subject is the same size in the viewfinder. The crop factor is used to calculate depth-of-field equivalence in the same way as angle-ofview – simply f/number x crop factor. For example, Canon’s 85mm f/1.2 behaves like a 136mm f/1.9 lens on an APS-C 1.6x

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in terms of framing and depth-of-field. In round figures, the depth-of-field difference between the two formats is fractionally over one stop (check it out at www. dofmaster.com). These lenses are also prone to spherical aberration, in common with other very wide aperture primes. In one way this is a good thing, as it helps to make the background bokeh smoother, but can also cause focus-shift and purple fringing (axial chromatic aberration). Focus-shift occurs when a point is accurately focused at maximum aperture like f/1.4, then on stopping down to say f/2.8 the plane of sharp focus moves backwards. That sounds like a problem when depth-offield is so narrow anyway, but the shift is very slight, within the zone of sharp focus and also within camera manufacturers’ autofocus tolerance. It’s something to be aware of, but in reality, the main difficulty in nailing sharp focus with these lenses is subject or camera movement. Just normal breathing is enough to alter the focusing distance, unless your subject is nailed down and

the camera is on a tripod, so it needs a bit of practice. And on a related issue, bear in mind that most DSLR’s focusing screens won’t show the true extent of shallow depth-of-field at these very wide apertures. They’re optimised for general use and typically anything below about f/2.4 looks the same through the viewfinder. The true depth-of-field is shown in Live View of course, and modified focusing screens are available for some cameras. Some purple fringing is also more or less inevitable, visible around very bright overexposed light/dark edges, such as specular highlights. It usually goes away at higher f/numbers, or can mostly be removed in post-processing. Enough of the bad news, and don’t make too much of it, because we’ve saved the best till last – sensational sharpness. These primes are the sharpest group of lenses we’ve tested – sharper than any zoom, sharper than 50mm primes, and macro lenses, too. Check out the MTF sharpness graphs, where these primes are pushing 90 per cent and more, a good 10 per cent higher than most other high grade lenses.

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Photo Kit

85mm prime lenses

KEY FEATURES

CHEAPEST 85MM AF PRIME AVAILABLE ULTRASONIC USM FOCUSING SMALL AND LIGHT CANON-FIT ONLY STREET PRICE £300

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

CANON EF F/1.8 USM STREET PRICE: £300 CONTACT: www.canon.co.uk FORMATS: Full-frame and APS-C

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THE VERDICT

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

846385+ 70+8779+9285+9187+9086+8179+76

100 090 080 070 060 050 040 030 020 010 000

Centre

Edge

91 87 90 86 81 79 76 76

f/1.8 f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16

ABOVE Very high central sharpness, though edges lag slightly at lower f/numbers. Resolution peak – excellent. Chromatic aberration – very good.

ANALYSIS USING IMATEST SOFTWARE (WWW.IMATEST.COM)

GOOD V. GOOD EXCELLENT

% MTF @24 Ipmm

POOR FAIR

Compared to the f/1.2 and f/1.4 options, this 85mm f/1.8 model is almost dinky – much smaller, half the weight, and at just £300, very significantly cheaper. The specification reads well, with nine elements in seven groups, and an aperture diaphragm with eight rounded blades. Focusing is ultrasonic USM with full-time manual override – the AF is good, fast and smooth. Build quality and standard of finish are high, making a well-rounded package, though a lens hood is extra. The difference is in that maximum aperture, and for bokeh-hunters it makes quite a bit of difference. F/1.8 is 0.7 stops smaller than f/1.4, and that translates directly into greater depth-of-field and slightly less background blur. It’s still very shallow, just not quite wafer-thin at head-andshoulders distances, for example, if depth-of-field is 16mm at f/1.4, it rises to 20mm at f/1.8. Sharpness is extremely high in the centre. Right from f/1.8, it’s straight into the excellent zone and stays there, peaking at 92% at f/4. Edge sharpness isn’t quite so spectacular, but the difference is unlikely to be noticed at f/stops higher than f/2.8. Aberration control is very good, particularly distortion – almost undetectable. Purists might say that there’s just a hint of ‘onion-ring’ pattern to the out of focus highlights, but that’s being hypercritical and primes tend not to suffer from this anything like zooms.

ABOVE Well made, with good controls and fast USM focusing. No lens hood supplied though.

For Canon users looking for shallow depth-offield and bokeh on a budget, the 85mm f/1.8 USM is a no-brainer. It’s a great lens, extremely sharp in the centre and though edge definition can’t quite match it until mid-range apertures, it’s still very useable. With careful technique, that can mostly be worked around, and on APS-C format it’s far less of an issue anyway. The flip side of that on APS-C though is that depth-of-field is increased, so you don’t reap the full benefit. It’s well made, with fast ultrasonic focusing, small and light, neat and nimble. Best of all is the price, and at £300 that’s half the cost of the nearest alternative, the Sigma, though that’s f/1.4. Also consider the Canon 100mm f/2.

how it rates FEATURES

20/25

HANDLING

25/25

PERFORMANCE

20/25

VALUE FOR MONEY

24/25

Ultrasonic AF, full-time manual override, but aperture of only f/1.8 rates lower Small and light, and everything works as it should

Very sharp in the centre, but in this company edge performance lags a little ABOVE Vignetting measured -1.5EV in the corners at f/1.8 – very good. Distortion +0.1% barrel – excellent. RIGHT Out-of-focus highlights show a tiny hint of onionring pattern.

DESIGN: 9 elements 7 groups APERTURE RANGE: f/1.8 to f/22 DIAPHRAGM: 8 rounded blades ANGLE OF VIEW: full-frame 29°; APS-C 18° 1.6x

The cheapest 85mm AF lens on the market, and great value

OVERALL

89/100

Sweet, neat, sharp and affordable. An easy choice for Canon users on a budget Pros Size, weight, performance, price Cons Just slightly below par edge sharpness

MINIMUM FOCUS: 0.85m MAX REPRODUCTION RATIO: 1:7.7 AUTOFOCUS: Ultrasonic USM MANUAL FOCUS: Full-time override FILTER SIZE: 58mm

WEATHER SEALED: No DoF SCALE: No FITTINGS: Canon only DIMENSIONS WxL: 75x72mm WEIGHT: 425g

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Editorial Team Editor Will Cheung FRPS  01223 499466 willcheung@bright-publishing.com Technical Writer Ian Fyfe  01223 499456 ianfyfe@bright-publishing.com Sub Editors Lisa Clatworthy and Hannah Bealey Contributors this issue Richard Hopkins, Harish Chavda, James George, John Jones, Terry Draper, Anthony Clay, Malcolm Sales, John Denton, Carol Saunders LRPS, Del Barrrett ARPS, Ben Harvey Advertising Team Business Development Director Dave Stone  01223 499462 davestone@bright-publishing.com Sales Director Matt Snow  01223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com Key Accounts Maria Francis  01223 499457 mariafrancis@bright-publishing.com Key Accounts Mike Elliott  01223 499458 mikeelliott@bright-publishing.com Design Team Design Director Andy Jennings Design Director Dean Usher Senior Designer Alan Gray Design & Production Manager Grant Gillard Web Team Flash Developer Ashley Norton Publishing Team Publishing Director Andy Brogden Publishing Director Matt Pluck Editorial Director Roger Payne Head of Circulation Chris Haslum Contributing to Advanced Photographer Advanced Photographer is always looking for photographic talent so if you feel your pictures are worthy of being featured on the magazine we would love to hear from you. In particular we want creative pictures showing the use of popular and innovative camera techniques. By post: Send us a CD with 12 images or fewer, together with a contact print of images, and a brief covering letter outlining your ideas and photographic credentials. In terms of file size, please ensure that the image is at least A4-size (21x29.7cm) and 300ppi resolution. If you prefer, up to 12 unmounted A4 prints can be submitted. Please enclose a stamped SAE if you want the CD/prints returned.  Advanced Photographer, Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ.

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n Advanced Photographer is published on the third Thursday of every month by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge, CB22 3HJ. n No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. n ISSN number: 2045-3892 n Advanced Photographer is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. n The advertisements published in Advanced Photographer that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. n The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.