Advanced Photographer 50 sampler

CANON EOS 7D MkII CREATIVE STUDIO FLASH NEW First LOOK! look at 10fps speed demon Brilliant results from simple set-ups

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

Why shoes and stones make great projects

THE MAGAZINE THAT TAKES YOUR IMAGES SERIOUSLY

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FULL TEST

NIKON D750

Is it time to ditch your APS-C DSLR?

Night-time landscapes

Pack a thermos and stay out after the golden hour for superb moon shots

16-PAGE PORTRAIT SPECIAL

Stay in, keep warm, shoot stunning portraits. We show you how FEATURED INSIDE: NIKON D750 CANON EOS 7D MkII CANON EOS 5D MkII NIKON D800 FUJIFILM X-T 1 SIGMA 150-500MM TAMRON 150-600MM 5 MINI TESTS ap50-001 cover subbed.indd 1

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ISSUE 50

Welcome WILL CHEUNG FRPS, EDITOR Will has worked in photo mags for 30 years and been taking pictures for even longer. His photographic interests are very broad, from landscape and nature to portraits, indoors and out.

Welcome to our 50th issue. Whether this is the first time you’ve picked the magazine up, joined us along the way or have been with us from the beginning, a huge thank you for your support.

Imaging has changed a great deal since our very first issue, not just in terms of the gear we use but also how we produce and use images, especially with the advance of social networking sites. Back then I was in Photoshop every single day; now it’s almost all Lightroom and I have the same version of Photoshop as I had four years ago. Anyway, we’ll take a look back to the beginning in this issue.

People photography is our main focus this month and we explore the many techniques you can enjoy to get all creative with this most popular and challenging of subjects. I think because ‘people’ is a fairly accessible subject, some photographers don’t work as hard as they could do to produce their most stimulating results. Hopefully, with our advice you won’t fall into this trap.

In Photo Kit, we’ve a full test of Nikon’s latest full-frame DSLR, the D750, a look at two long telezooms and a first peek at Canon’s latest, the EOS 7D Mark II, and much more.

Goodbye for now, and we look forward to your company next issue, which has a low-light theme.

ENAHDACONNCTEENDT IP

AVAILABLE

Will Cheung FRPS, Editor PAGE 72 COVER STORY

NIKON D750 TEST

PAGE 6 COVER STORY

LANDSCAPE MASTERCLASS

PAGE 26 COVER STORY

PORTRAIT SPECIAL

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ISSUE 50

CONTENTS PAGE 6

LANDSCAPE MASTERCLASS

Imparting his scenic know-how editor Cheung shows us how it’s done. This issue, he shoots for the moon.

PAGE 10

UPFRONT

Excited about photography? You bet! This issue we’re drooling over the Nikon prize pot and the big bang.

PAGE 17 & 47

COMPETITION TIME

Two great opportunities to win big with Samsung. Which do you fancy your chances at?

PAGE 18

WE’RE 50!

DREW BUCKLEY

Would you credit it? The first issue of AP hit the shelves in December 2010. Let’s celebrate with a review of the last 49 issues and four years of lovely, lovely kit.

PAGE 110

INSPIRED PAGE 57 COVER STORY

This isn’t just any snapshot of your nearest and dearest, or candid on the street, these are well-crafted, creative portraits, planned and executed by you.

PAGE 51

PROJECTS

THE BIG FEATURE: PEOPLE

PAGE 26

LIGHTING ACADEMY

Going solo – perfect portraits with just one light.

PAGE 57

PAGE 51 COVER STORY

JASON FRIEND

LIGHTING ACADEMY

PROJECTS

Practise with a project. Whether it’s small or grand, it’ll fire your imagination and polish your skills.

PAGE 110

INSPIRED

Great images spark yet more great images. Get your monthly dollop of inspiration here. This issue, it’s seascapes.

PAGE 114

AND FINALLY…

What have packed lunches, German sausage and new kit got in common?

PHOTO KIT PAGE 65

GEAR NEWS

If it’s new, it’s here; if it’s hot, it’s here. This is your monthly round-up of all the latest kit – wish list to hand…

PAGE 68

CANON EOS 7D MARK II

First look. What does the second incarnation of the EOS 7D have to offer?

PAGE 18 COVER STORY

PAGE 72

WE’RE 50!

NIKON D750

It already boasts more full-frame DSLRs than any other brand, now Nikon’s introduced the D750. Let’s find out how it fits into the landscape.

PAGE 82 COVER STORY

PAGE 82

SIGMA V TAMRON

It’s the battle of the super-telezooms as the Sigma 150500mm goes up against the Tamron 150-600mm.

SIGMA V TAMRON

PAGE 87

LONG-TERMERS

Find out what it’s like to use a camera day in, day out as the AP team and readers share their kit experiences.

PAGE 68 COVER STORY

SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE SEE PAGE 48 Advanced Photographer is also available as a fully interactive magazine – go to iTunes now!

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CANON EOS 7D MKII

PAGE 94

MINI TESTS

The bits and pieces that are guaranteed to improve your shooting experience.

ISSUE 50 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHER

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10/10/2014 10:45

Happy birthday to us! We’ve been a familiar face on the magazine stands for fifty issues now and to celebrate we take a look back at some of the kit and photo highlights from the past four years

D

ecember 2010 was an unforgettable month in British magazine history.

Newsagents around the country were overrun with enthusiast photographers, elbowing each other out of the way to get their hands on the very first issue of what was touted as the most inimitable advanced photography mag on the market. At least that’s how we like to remember (read imagine) how it was. It’s been four years since then and Advanced Photographer is

now celebrating its 50th issue. Those of you who’ve been with us since the Great Magazine Mob of 2010 will have been privy to the glut of talented photographers we’ve featured on our pages, whose areas of interest have ranged from portraiture to aerial to composites to black & white to landscapes and pretty much anything and everything in between. We’ve also tested, reviewed and featured more cameras than you can shake a tripod at. From putting

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the wallet crippling Pentax 645D through its paces in our debut issue (we scored it a favourable 92/100) to testing out the new Pentax 645Z in the last issue which scored an impressive 96/100.

Over the next six pages, we’re taking a trip down memory lane, reacquainting ourselves with some of the photographers who’ve graced our pages over the years as well as some of the kit we’ve featured too.

Here’s to another 50!

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SHOOT PORTRAITS

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@advancedphotog

info@advancedphotographer.co.uk

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10/10/2014 09:39

SHOOT PORTRAITS WITH MEANING

SHOOT PORTRAITS

WORDS KINGSLEY SINGLETON

CHARLES HILDRETH

A simple head and shoulders shot is no longer enough – it’s time to create portraits with meaning and mood. There’s no checklist you can follow for this, despite what some people may try to sell you – it’s all down to planning, the choices you make and staying true to your creative vision

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10/10/2014 11:27

PHOTO KIT CANON EOS 7D MKII

SPECS CONTACT canon.co.uk SENSOR 20.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS IMAGE DIMENSIONS 5472x3648 pixels ISO RANGE 100-16,000 (expandable to 51,200)

WORDS ROGER PAYNE

FIRST LOOK:

CANON EOS 7D MARK II

AUTOFOCUS MODES AI Focus, One Shot, AI Servo

Five years in the making, Canon’s update to the incredibly popular 7D is here. Roger Payne was among the first to get hands-on

SHUTTER 30secs-1/8000sec, plus B EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ±5EV in 1/3EV or 1/2EV steps METERING Evaluative, centreweighted, partial, spot SHOOTING SPEEDS Single, continuous (up to 10fps), self-timer, silent FOCUSING POINTS 65 cross-type AF points INTEGRAL FLASH GN11 (ISO 100) FLASH MODES E-TTL II, manual, anti red-eye, 2nd curtain sync, Speedlite Transmitter FILE FORMATS JPEG, Raw, MOV MOVIE SIZES 1920x1080, 1280x720, 640x480 LCD SCREEN 3in fixed, 1040k dots STORAGE MEDIA Dual slots: CompactFlash and SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-1 DIMENSIONS (WXHXD) 148.6x112.4x78.2mm WEIGHT 910g (without battery and memory card)

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@advancedphotog

info@advancedphotographer.co.uk

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10/10/2014 11:58

CANON EOS 7D MKII PHOTO KIT

Y

ou could be forgiven for thinking that CSCs are now the dominant force in new camera sales. Sure, CSC manufacturers are making hay, but recent sales figures suggest that in the UK four digital SLRs are sold for every CSC. Flappy mirrored models have still got plenty of life in them yet, it would appear.

Part of the reason why CSCs may appear to be more popular is that a number of the key players are electronics manufacturers.

The Sonys, Panasonics and Samsungs of this world are used to short product life cycles, with a model often superseding another faster than it takes me to grow a beard. It’s not the same when it comes to DSLRs. The recent D750 from Nikon replaced the six-year-old D700 and now Canon has ended a five-year wait for an upgrade to the EOS 7D with the EOS 7D

Mark II. When the original 7D came out, the Fujifilm X-series was nothing more than a glint in a designer’s eye and the Olympus PEN range was a few months old. Has the wait been worth it? We’ll be able to answer that fully when cameras arrive in the UK next month but I’ve been able to draw some initial thoughts together based on the preproduction 7D Mark II I got my hands on at the camera’s official launch.

If you’re expecting a big change in the way the camera looks, you’ll be disappointed. The 7D MkII isn’t an exact

THE SONYS, PANASONICS AND SAMSUNGS OF THIS WORLD ARE USED TO SHORT PRODUCT LIFE CYCLES. IT’S NOT THE SAME WHEN IT COMES TO DSLRS

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mirror image of the 7D, but it isn’t a polar opposite. The new model has put on some bulk over the five-year period with the body weighing 910g (the 7D is 820g), as well as being wider, taller and deeper by a few millimetres. The body is now claimed to be tougher and more weather-resistant. I can confirm that it feels solid, exuding a real sense of purpose and durability.

The sensor size may not have changed – it’s still an APS-C sized affair – but both the resolution and the sensitivity have been improved. The 7D MkII’s 20.2 megapixels

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PHOTO KIT NIKON D750

SPECS STREET PRICE £1799 body only CONTACT nikon.co.uk SENSOR

24.3 megapixels, CMOS, 35.9x24mm IMAGE SIZE

6016x4016 pixels ISO RANGE

100-12,800,

expandable to ISO 50-51,200 AUTOFOCUS MODES AF-S, AF-C, AF-A. 51 AF points, 15 cross-type EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ±5EV in 0.3, 0.5 steps. Bracketing available SHUTTER 1/4000sec30secs, Bulb, Time, flash sync at 1/200sec METERING RGB sensor with 91,000 pixels.

Matrix, centreweighted, highlightweighted, spot EXPOSURE MODES PASM, Effects, Scene, green square, flash off SHOOTING SPEEDS 6.5fps in continuous high.

Mirror-up and self-timer LCD SCREEN

3.2in, 1229k dot

resolution

STORAGE Twin SD slots, SD, SDHC, SDXC DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) 140.5x113x78mm WEIGHT (INC BATTERY & CARD) 840g

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FULL TEST: NIKON D750 WORD & PICTURES WILL CHEUNG

Promoting full-frame is very much on Nikon’s agenda right now, and the D750 is its third FX format DSLR launched this year – and it’s yours for £1799 body only If there is one camera brand really pushing 35mm full-frame digital capture you could argue quite successfully that brand is Nikon.

In recent times, we’ve had the game-changing D800/800E, cameras that offer medium-format level resolution, the latter with a low-pass filter cancelling feature for optimum resolution. The D810 has taken the idea further by doing away completely with an optical low-pass filter. Then there was the nicely priced D600 but its reputation was sullied early on with the ‘oil on sensor’ issue and it has been superseded by the D610. At the pro end the D4 and D4s have set new standards in shooting speed and high ISO performance. And there’s the ‘retro’ Df complete with the D4’s sensor and with knobs and locking buttons.

So the D750 has arrived amid a backdrop of the biggest range of fullframe DSLRs offered by a single brand, so where does it fit?

Priced at £1799 body only, it’s nearly £500 more expensive than the D610 but £400 and £600 cheaper than the Df and D810 respectively. Basically, it sits nicely in the middle of Nikon’s FX range and has a specification aiming to tempt those photographers thinking of moving up from an APS-C DSLR sensor or those wanting a backup camera to their existing full-frame

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHER ISSUE 50

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IPAD CONT AVAILABLEENT

DSLR. Whether it will tempt D600/ D610 owners to upgrade is a moot point because you could argue that the benefits – at least on paper – aren’t great, but let’s see.

As a D800 owner, I was struck immediately by how compact and small the D750 is and it’s lighter too.

The D750 does not have the body depth of the D800 while its handgrip is roughly the same size, so the net result is extra finger room; the D750 is a pleasure to hold. Comfort rates highly and it also has clear benefits on stability and security too.

During the test I found myself carrying the camera (of course with the shoulder strap wrapped around my wrist) by the handgrip because it felt so comfortable, even with something like the Nikon 28-300mm fitted to the front. With the on/off collar around the shutter release it meant I could be ready to shoot very quickly.

With exposure compensation, metering pattern selector and the customisable video record button all falling to the right forefinger, fine-tuning exposure was really straightforward. The movie record button I set to change ISO in conjunction with the rear input dial – other options on this particular button are changing white-balance and image area selection. @advancedphotog

Using a 91,000 pixel RGB sensor, you would expect exposure metering to be accurate and there’s no doubt on this one. More than 1000 shots taken, mostly in Matrix and aperture-priority AE modes, and very, very few total rejects. The failures (the Raws at least) could still be recovered to some degree in processing but because they were mostly direct into the sun shots, the contrast was extreme and the chances of highlight recovery limited.

I also experimented with the Scene and Effects modes as well as exploring manual metering using Matrix, spot and the highlight-weighted measuring method.

For autofocus my default way of working is using the right-thumb operated AF-ON button that Nikon provides on its pro-oriented products.

The D750 does not have an AF-ON button but the AE-L/AF-L can be customised to behave as one.

Autofocusing is accurate and swift with not much in the way of hesitation or hunting. It’s also very responsive even in very low lighting.

The system has 51 autofocus points with 15 of these being cross-type sensors and these are grouped in the marked central area. With the release of the Samsung NX1 which has 209 phase-detection sensors, 153 of these being cross-type and covering 90% info@advancedphotographer.co.uk

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10/10/2014 09:03

SPONSORED BY

NIKON D750 PHOTO KIT

www.castlecameras.co.uk

NIKON D750 ANATOMY FROM THE FRONT The shutter release combined with the on/off/LCD illuminator control 1 has been a Nikon fixture for a long time and it certainly works well enough so why change it?

The front command dial 2 directly below is positive and allows quick adjustments. The revamped shutter/reflex mirror mechanism 3 is one reason why you can get more than 1000 shots from a fully charged battery. The sensor 4 has its own cleaning system and bucking the recent trend, it also has an optical low-pass filter to help avoid moiré. The function button 5 can be reassigned to a host of different functions at a single press or in conjunction with a command dial. The same applies to the Pv or depth-of-field preview button 6 . The auxiliary AF light 7 comes on to help the AF system and also lights up during self-timer countdown. You can turn it off for the former but not the latter function. Under the pentaprism 8 housing lurks a flash with a GN of 12 and pressing the control 9 activates it as well as offers flash compensation.

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FROM THE BACK The articulating screen 1 feels solid and flips up or down for low-level or above the head shots. It’s not touch sensitive. The screen provides a bright viewing image so live view composition in bright daylight is no problem even at a distance. Still or movie live view is selected here 2 .

Altering AF point is done with the thumb-operated multiway pad 3 and directly above is the info button 4 which brings up key shooting data on the monitor.

Completing the right-side’s control line-up we have the rear command dial 5 and customisable AE-L/AF-L button 6 . Ranged down the left side is the usual line-up of mostly self-explanatory buttons. Three are dual-function depending whether you’re in capture or review mode.

Pushing the i button 7 in still, video or playback mode shows a number of popular menu items such as, in still capture, image area and Active D-Lighting. Important images can be locked using this button 8 to avoid unintentional deletion. Personally, I have never used it – my policy is not to delete any image in camera so the button is redundant. It would be much more useful if it could be reassigned as an image rating feature, as another camera brand does, especially if that rating was carried through to image cataloguing software such as Lightroom.

FROM THE TOP Several key controls are perfectly placed for the right forefinger. The on/off switch 1 has a third position for the LCD illuminator. The exposure compensation control 2 is another stroke of design genius and so conveniently positioned and the same applies to the movie record button 3 . The latter might not matter to still photographers but the control is customisable so it can be set to alter ISO speed thus making it actually useful to most users. The D750 has four methods of light measuring – spot, centre-weighted, spot highlight-weighted and

Matrix – all selectable with this button 4 and the rear command dial. The contoured handgrip 5 is excellent and thanks to its relatively large size and thinner body there is plenty of room for fingers to tuck in and provide a secure grip. The dedicated hotshoe 6 is compatible with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System. The camera does not have a PC sync socket so the accessory shoe is needed for a trigger as well as optional extras like the GPS GP-1A unit. The combined exposure mode and drive mode dial 7 has locks to prevent unintentional operation.

Articulating monitors are not perceived to be ‘professional’, probably because they compromise a camera’s robustness.

The D750’s feels quite substantial and should withstand regular use without loosening up or falling apart. One handy aspect is that it folds down almost 90° so if you want to shoot with the camera directly overhead you can with the screen facing you directly rather than at an angle like most cameras with tiltable monitors. The provided image is firstrate too.

The combined exposure/drive mode is an example of thoughtful design. Both operate smoothly and, importantly, both controls are securely locked in position until an unlocking button is held down. The drive dial includes selftimer and mirror lock-up settings. You’ll see that the D750 was Scene and Effects settings. Among the 16 Scene options you get Landscape, Child, Sunset, Autumn colours and Food while the seven Effects modes include Night Vision, Miniature and Low key.

Exposure bracketing is so popular nowadays that it often gets its own button and that’s the case on the D750.

The AF/M button is excellent and makes it very difficult to slip into manual focus by mistake. Push the dimpled pad and with the front command dial you can switch from AF-S to AF-C or AF-A, while using the rear dial switches from single zone AF to group AF and Auto. Hidden under the protective flaps are the HDMI, USB, microphone, headphone and remote release interfaces.

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