Photography News Issue 23

News

Previews

Clubs Tests

Exhibitions

Techniques

Interviews

Competitions

Photography Produced by

Issue 23 17 Aug – 16 Sept

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

News

Previews

Clubs Tests

Exhibitions

Techniques

Interviews

Competitions

Photography Produced by

Issue 23 17 Aug – 16 Sept

news

Your FREE newspaper packed with the latest news, views and stories from the world of photography

GET YOUR

FREE DIGITAL EDITION every month

at absolutephoto.com

The competition pros just love to win The Hasselblad Masters 2016, page 22

WIN!

Bailey’s Stardust in Scotland’s capital

Pentax’s flagship DSLR on test

Samsung memory duo

Looking back on his 50-year career, page 28

Turn to page 34 to see how the K-3 II fares

Enter the competition on page 62

Three more from Nikon As well as updating the popular pro 24-70mm, Nikon launches two more pro spec lenses

Nikon’s most widely used pro zoom, the 24-70mm, has had a revamp. The AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR sells for £1849.99 and is available from 27 August. Its VR system offers a four EV benefit and its new optical construction features an aspherical ED glass element developed specially to combat both chromatic aberrations and coma.

A long telezoom lens has joined the line-up too. The AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR, priced at £1179.99, puts in a high spec performance thanks to its 19 elements in 12 groups, with three ED glass elements, and boasts Sport VR for perfect panning.

Completing the trio is the AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.8G ED, offering

a super-close focus distance of just 0.23m and a travel-friendly size. Its 12 elements in nine groups design includes two extra-low dispersion elements and two aspherical elements. It’ll set you back £629.99.

Release dates for the 200-500mm and 24mm are yet to be confirmed. nikon.co.uk

Full-frame and fully bright A constant fast aperture throughout the zoom is the headline feature of this Sigma wide-angle zoom Continue reading on page 5

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News ...Continued from cover

Panasonic breaks the 20-megapixel barrier Undoubtedly the camera release that’s got everyone talking this month is the new Panasonic Lumix GX8 interchangeable lens, Micro Four Thirds format camera. Taking what made its predecessor, the GX7, great and running with it, the GX8 incorporates cutting-edge 4K technology, which includes a 4K Photo mode allowing in-camera extraction of eight-megapixel photos from your footage. It’s also the first of Panasonic’s models to feature dual image stabilisation, which combines a lens optical image stabiliser and a body image stabiliser to counteract severe camera shake.

At the GX8’s heart is a 20.3-megapixel Digital Live

Full-frame and fully bright A constant fast aperture throughout the zoom range is the headline feature of this Sigma wide-angle lens

Changing the very definition of what constitutes a zoom lens, Sigma’s latest offering, the 2435mm f/2 DG HSM is one of a kind. It maintains its large f/2 aperture throughout the zoom range, which incidentally covers

the range of three fixed focal length wide-angle lenses. It incorporates large-diameter aspherical glass elements including one FLD and seven SLD elements. Super Multi-Layer coating reduces flare and ghosting whilst a nine-

blade rounded diaphragm creates stunning bokeh.

It’s priced at £894.99 and Canon and Sigma fittings are available now, with Nikon to be confirmed. sigma-imaging-uk.com

MOS sensor, which is the highest resolution Micro Four Thirds sensor yet seen. It has improved levels of light saturation and a wider dynamic range that’ll deliver a more authentic colour in your images whilst a Venus Engine with a quad-core CPU supports up to 8fps continuous shooting. The GX8 also has a new 2360k-dot Live View Finder that’s tiltable to 90° and both the LVF and touch-sensitive LED screen have been designed to keep up with fast-moving subjects thanks to their quick response times.

There’s a review of the Lumix GX8 later in this issue. panasonic.co.uk

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News

Xtra support

News in brief Capture the night Beck’s Vier has teamed up with light artist Michael Bosanko and Time Out to launch the #CaptureTheNight campaign to celebrate the arrival of 24‑hour tube travel in London from September.

The winners will see their images appear on a limitededition travel card wallet. timeout.com Stare into space Find your way into astrophotography with the new Astrophotography Manual (£31.99). Aimed at beginners, the manual takes you through the entire process from choosing your kit to setting up and processing your images. bit.ly/WoodhouseAstro Bags of style Fashion and functionality combine in the new Python catch bag (£220) from Booq.

It’ll carry up to two DSLRs along with four lenses and a 15in MacBook Pro Retina, and has dense padding to keep it all safe and secure as well as a rain cover for dry kit. booq.co.uk

Lenses for video

Manfrotto’s 290 range offers an extra sturdy option with four leg angles Manfrotto has unveiled its latest range of tripods, the new 290 collection, which includes four models and accessories.

The high point of the range is the 290 Xtra, which approaches the concept of a tripod from a fresh angle. The three-leg section Xtra has four leg angle positions to give an even sturdier base and it comes in either carbon fibre (£194.95 legs only) or aluminium (£99.99 legs only) with lever leg locks providing reliable support.

The 290 Dual (£129.95 legs only) has aluminium legs and the 90° centre column concept found in other Manfrotto tripods. It takes just one finger to lift up the centre

column and swing it out to the side, without removing the centre column, for low-level shooting.

All the 290 tripods are available as legs only or in various kits with ball or three-way heads. See the website for the latest prices, kit options and full specifications.

As well as tripods, there’s an 804 three-way head which includes retractable levers and a 290 foursection monopod to add to the range too, featuring new rubber leg warmers an angled wrist strap.

The 290A4 is aluminium and costs £49.95 while the 290C4 is carbon fibre and costs £69.95. manfrotto.co.uk

All-in-one printer

Canon’s newest PIXMA isn’t a jack of all trades; it’s master of them all Scanning, printing, copying; it’s all part of the package with Canon’s latest inkjet printer, the PIXMA MG3650. It’s totally wireless and all those images that have sat on your smartphone or in your camera’s memory card (providing your camera is compatible) can be sent straight to the printer via the Canon PRINT app, which you can also use

to print images from Instagram too.

If you’re a cloud user, you can print straight from there too as well as from Facebook, Flickr and sites like Dropbox and Google Drive. You can get your mitts on the MG3650 in September for the more than reasonable price of £69.99. canon.co.uk

Lowepro bag it Samyang has announced three pro-level video lenses in its XEEN range.

The three new optics are all primes – 24mm, 35mm and 85mm – and all boast the same T1.5 aperture. Designed for maximum resolving power these lenses are ideal for highdefinition videos and feature Multi-Nano coatings for minimal flare and ghosting.

All three will be available in Canon, Nikon, Sony E, Micro Four Thirds and PL fittings – and each lens costs £1600. xeenglobal.com

Four new backpacks for adventurous, all-weather photographers Lowepro has expanded its bag collection with the Whistler backpack range and updated its adventure backpack offering with the Photo Sport II series.

The Whistler range offers the BP 350 AW at £257 and the BP 450 AW at £286. Four season technical backpacks, the Whistlers are ideal for adventure photographers needing to carry a mix of camera and outdoor kit. Access to the interior is via a hinged and zippered lid and the rigid internal support means it

can support the attachment of a tripod or an ice axe. As you’d expect, an extra-protective construction including a waterproof base keeps kit safe.

The Photo Sport II series offers the BP 200 AW at £118 and the BP 300 AW at £147.

For active photographers, the Photo Sport II is very portable and provides protection without compromising speedy access.

Both ranges are in-store now. lowepro.co.uk

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News

Canon’s helping hand Canon has partnered with the British Red Cross for the second-ever Humanitarian Citizenship Awards photography competition. The awards celebrate young people who make extraordinary contributions to society. This year’s theme is ‘celebrating your community’, which competition organisers hope will shine a light on some of the amazing acts made by individuals and communities for the good of

News in brief New Ricoh recruit Top UK photographer Brett Harkness, who covers everything from weddings to fashion, has joined Ricoh as its latest ambassador using the Pentax 645Z. He’s known for his unobtrusive reportage style and will be working with Ricoh to promote its products. ricoh-imaging.co.uk

others. There are two categories to enter: 17 and under, and 18 to 25.

Canon has put up some enviable prizes: the winners of each category will take home a Canon EOS 760D and four runners-up will each bag a Canon compact.

Entries need to be in before 20 September and winners will be announced in November. redcross.org.uk/theaward

All kitted out Sigma’s new dp0 Quattro kit aims to make the most of its ultra-wide angle

Last year’s winner of the 18-25 category taken by Souvid Datta.

Sigma has packaged the ultra wide-angle dp0 Quattro with an LVF-01 LCD viewfinder. The dp0 incorporates a 14mm f/4 lens including four low-dispersion glass elements, two special lowdispersion elements and two aspheric elements which work to give less chromatic aberration and distortion so you can make

the most of this impressive wideangle. The viewfinder included in the kit gives the dp0 the feel of a DSLR, incorporating a highperformance lens and coating.

The dp0 Quattro kit is available for £999.99 and there’s a review later in this issue. sigma-imaging-uk.com

Bear joins Canon Adventurer and rugby fan Bear Grylls is collaborating with Canon and Getty Images’ leading rugby photographer Dave Rogers to give a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Rugby World Cup, giving tips on how to capture the greatest moments. canon.co.uk Connect with Corning Corning’s latest range of USB3 optical cables provides a robust, reliable solution to keep you connected at speeds up to 5GB/s. Thin, light and tough, these cables can be twisted, bent or knotted. corning.com

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News © Joe Cornish

© Steve Caplin

Royal expo Join the RPS for a day of inspiration and advice to improve your imaging skills On Sunday 20 September, the Digital Imaging Expo 2015 takes place at the University of Warwick. Organised by the Royal Photographic Society, it is the biggest ever event staged by the Society and aims to amaze, inform and inspire attendees with its unique blend of talks, demonstrations and workshops.

The three keynote speakers are renowned landscaper Joe Cornish, Photoshop expert Steve Caplin, and Eddie Ephraums, book publisher and workshop leader. Then there’s pro photographer Wayne Johns running a Bowens live studio, Mike McNamee representing Epson and demonstrating how to get the best-quality prints, and David Mallows on maximising the power of Photoshop and Lightroom.

Finally, there will be trade organisations including among others Nikon, Sigma and Panasonic running product demos and workshops on their stands. For the latest details see the website.

This Epson-sponsored event is open to everyone of all abilities, with tickets priced at £35 each for

non-RPS members, £30 for RPS members and £25 for members of the RPS Digital Imaging Group. In the panel (right) is a code for nonRPS members to get 15% discount off the price of a ticket. Car parking is free.

It sounds like a great event and well worth getting along to. To find out a little more about it, we caught up with the Group Chair of the RPS Digital Imaging Group, Janet Haines ARPS. Why should people go to the first RPS Digital Imaging Expo?

JH: To learn more about photography, regardless of their ability, and to be shown new techniques and be stimulated by new ideas.

There will be presentations and workshops from highly regarded professionals in a wide range of subject matter. The unique format of this event will enable you to choose what to listen, watch and participate in.

What governed your choice of speakers and can you give us a bit

more detail on what they will be speaking about?

JH: We listened to what photographers wanted to know about, then booked high-quality speakers, presenters and specialists in those areas.

For example, the three keynote speakers are there to inspire and stimulate attendees. Joe Cornish, reknowned for his amazing landscapes, Steve Caplin, a highly creative worker in the manipulated imaging arena and Eddie Ephraums will look further into the art of photography to find better ways to express a personal viewpoint through the lens.

With so many events run by dealers at lower costs or even free, what do you think visitors will get from attending the day?

JH: Unlike commercial events we are not aiming to promote any brand or make a profit from attendees. Our aim is to educate and provide the opportunity for learning in an easy and enjoyable way. ‘It’s all about knowledge.’

There is no extra charge beyond the event ticket; all sessions are included in the ticket price. DI Expo 2015 is good value for money and will be a great day out.

Money off tickets here Non-RPS members and readers of Photography News can get 15% off tickets. The offer runs until 19 September and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or discounts. Registration on the RPS website is essential prior to getting to the online booking system.

To book tickets go to rps. org/DIGExpo and follow the links. The discount code is EXPOPN15.

rps.org/DIGExpo

Girls! Girls! Girls!

On show, more than 50 pictures of gorgeous girls shot by some of the world’s greatest photographers

© Roxanne Lowit

See the works of some of the portraiture greats, all under one roof at the Little Black Gallery’s Girls! Girls! Girls! Part Two exhibition. Photographers from Bob Carlos Clarke to Mike Figgis, Marco Glaviano and Roxanne Lowit to Alistair Taylor-Young and Vee Speers will be showcasing their work which features some of the most-photographed women in the world, including Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss and Rachel Weisz to name a few. It’ll be running from 17 September until 31 October. thelittleblackgallery.com

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News © Oliver Hecht

News in brief CyberLink’s new Media Suite Media Suite 13 from CyberLink uses the latest versions of the firm’s award-winning software to provide a complete multimedia suite offering 12 software solutions in one package. Get yourself a free trial from the website if you don’t already own it. cyberlink.com

Nikon’s coveted Photo Contest has another name to add to its winners list, as it unveiled the 2014-2015 Grand Prize photo winner, Japan’s Katsuhiro Noguchi.

‘Fukushima Flowers’ was the series of images that landed Katsuhiro the top spot, beating off an incredible 89,000 other submissions from 164 different countries and impressing a panel of 17 judges, which included current photographers, creative directors and imaging experts. Judge Stephen Mayes said of the winning images: “Using the descriptive detail of the

External storage upgrades StarTech’s new dual-bay RAID enclosure for 2.5in SATA drives makes it easy to expand your laptop’s storage, all through a single USB 3.0 host connection. It’s small, taking up minimal desk space, and works with a broad range of operating systems, costing just £81.99. startech.com/uk My Passport My Passport for Mac and My Passport Ultra portable hard drives have been redesigned, now coming in capacities up to 3TB and in four colours: Classic Black, Brilliant White, Wild Berry and Noble Blue.

They’re available now with prices ranging from £59.99 to £159 depending on capacity. wdstore.co.uk Perfect portraits Updates have been made to the award-winning portrait retouching software, PortraitPro, with version 12.5 now available to download for existing customers free of charge. portraitprofessional.com Don McCullin awarded Internationally renowned photojournalist Don McCullin has had his work and contributions to journalism recognised with an honorary doctorate from Bath Spa University. He’s covered youth gangs in his childhood neighbourhood for the Observer and has collaborated with the Sunday Times Magazine to cover conflicts from in Northern Ireland to Cambodia and Israel. bathspa.ac.uk Kingston’s big card Kingston has added a 512GB card to its range of Class 10 UHS-1 SD cards. It has a write speed of 45MB/s and read speed of 90MB/s. Price is expected to be £163. kingston.com/us/flash/ sd_cards

Grand prize winner photographic process, the images describe nothing, but instead offer a meditation, first visually and then intellectually and finally emotionally as their significance emerges. And the lasting emotion is of hope plucked from the very earth that betrayed its inhabitants in 2011.”

A further 107 winners will be announced on the Nikon Photo Contest website, where you’ll also be able to look through all the winning images. nikon-photocontest.com/en

B&W winner announced

The first winner of Tetenal’s B&W European Classics Award has been announced as Oliver Hecht. His image titled ‘Mood’ (above) was selected out of entries from 16 different countries.

Managing director of Tetenal, Matthias Hübener said: “We are delighted that many photo fans are currently focusing again on black & white photography and that it is almost experiencing a renaissance.

We are of course also thrilled about the submitted photos, they were all of a high quality, often wonderfully magical, artistically fascinating, provocative, witty and original or of unusual aesthetics.” tetenaluk.com

Gitzo on the move Excellent stability in a small size is the promise of the latest Traveler tripods Gitzo has updated its popular Traveler tripod range. All feature a 180° leg-folding mechanism and carbon-fibre eXact tubes for greater stiffness. Three series are on offer – 0, 1 and 2, the 0 series being the lightest and most compact. The Series 0 GT0545T costs £559.95; the Series 1 GT1555T and GT1545T cost £639.95 and £619.95 respectively; and the Series 2 GT2545T is £699.95.

To partner the Travelers, Gitzo has introduced the GH1382TQD, GH1382QD and GH3382QD ball heads. Their design enables the tripods to be folded to minimum size and they accept most Arca Swiss plates. Prices start from £264.95.

Industrial Britain Capture a photo that celebrates Britain’s manufacturing industry, whether that’s the design stage, technology in action or the finished product, and send it in to EEF/Lombard’s photo comp for a chance to win a share of £5,000 worth of Canon photo kit.

It’s the sixth year the competition has been run and there are three categories to enter: professional, amateur and young photographer (14-19 years old). Get your entries in before 30 September and await the winner’s announcement in December. eef.org.uk/photo

gitzo.co.uk

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Tell us your club’s latest news, email: clubnews@photography-news.co.uk

Club news

Camera club news If your club has any news that you want to share with the rest of the world, this is the page for it. Your story might be about your club’s success in a contest, or a member’s personal achievement; it could be about a group outing you had recently or when the annual exhibition is on show. Any news is eligible for inclusion, so club publicity officers please take note of the submission guidelines and get your stories in

State-ofthe-art venue for Bristol PS

Society buys new club rooms in city’s Montpellier district

Bristol PS’s new home.

How to submit

Deadline for the next issue: 10 September 2015

We need words and pictures by 10 September for the next issue of Photography News, which will be available from 21 September.

Write your story in a Word document (400 words maximum). Please include contact details of the club, exhibition or event – website, meeting times, opening times, whatever is relevant. Images should be JPEGs, 2000 pixels on the longest dimension and any colour space. If the story is an exhibition or event, please send a picture from the exhibition (not the publicity poster) or one from the event. If it includes people please identify them.

Attach the Word document and JPEGs to an email and send to clubnews@photography-news.co.uk.

Visit the Ross Cup On Saturday 17 October the Ross Cup takes place at The Gold Room in Eastbourne’s Winter Gardens.

Camera clubs from South London, Sussex and Kent are participating, with around 250 images entered into the Cup, sponsored by Kent County Photographic Association and hosted by Eastbourne Photographic Society. Viewing starts at 12.30pm and judging and scoring will commence at 2pm. All picture lovers are welcome, and entry costs £5, which includes the catalogue and a cup of tea or coffee.

Above The Shopkeeper by Roy Morris, from last year’s Ross Cup. kcpa.co.uk

Gardener’s delight

Heswall PS kicks off the new season with garden photography talk

After 40 years based in the heart of Bristol’s Clifton area, Bristol Photographic Society had outgrown its premises and was looking for a new venue. The search culminated with the purchase of a new property, which, after extensive building works, now offers top-end photographic and presentation facilities.

Bristol PS’s new home boasts a Bowens HiGlide studio system, enough room for an exhibition of around 150 prints and full conference facilities. The society meets there weekly throughout the year, and from September its annual photography course will be run there. Other photographic organisations can also hire the facilities.

The annual photography course is open to members and nonmembers alike and offers guidance for those just starting out as well as those seeking to broaden their photographic horizons. Email the organiser at bps.ptc@gmail.com to find out if there are still spaces.

One of the oldest photographic societies in the country, Bristol PS organises the Bristol Salon of Photography, now in its 70th year. Each year the salon receives over 12,000 images and those accepted into this internationally acclaimed exhibition go on show in Bristol and other South West venues. Check the website for details of the 2016 salon. bristolphoto.org.uk

© Joe Wainwright

To start the season, on Friday 11 September Heswall Photographic Society is hosting commercial and editorial photographer Joe Wainwright.

Joe will talk about his garden photography, including his win in the 2014 International Garden Photographer of the Year competition, as well as showing some of his images.

During the season, Heswall PS meets every Friday at 7.45pm.

The full 2015/16 programme is on the website. Visitors are always welcome and they can book a seat for talks of interest on the website. heswallphotosoc.co.uk

Potters Bar out & about Potters Bar & District PS members get a soaking at the Lee Valley White Water Centre.

During the short summer break, Potters Bar & District Photographic Society members met for two outings. The first to St Albans Abbey for an evening shoot, only to find the abbey covered in scaffolding (luckily they found a pub); the second to Lee Valley White Water Centre, where the Olympic 2012 kayaking events took place. This outing was more successful, even if it was raining; the photographers got wetter than the water sports participants.

The society’s season starts again on Monday 14 September. Possibly the highlight in the run-up to Christmas is a talk by Bill Coster on 16 November. One of the UK’s best wildlife photographers, Bill will be giving the Dennis Andrews Lecture, talking about the Pacific Northwest.

Potters Bar & District PS meets weekly, Mondays 8-10pm, in the Wyllyotts Centre in Potters Bar. pottersbarphotosoc.org.uk

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Exhibition Interview

Mistresses of Light Vanda Ralevska and Beata Moore are the driving forces behind the Mistresses of Light exhibition, which celebrates the work of women landscape photographers and is soon to be on show at the trendy OXO Tower in London. We chat to both organisers to find out more Interview by Megan Croft

© Cheryl Hamer

What are your backgrounds in exhibiting?

Beata: I have never put on an exhibition of this scale; it was a daunting task, but sharing the responsibility with my friend and fellow photographer, Vanda, made it a bit easier.

Vanda: I have been involved in other exhibitions, but similarly to Beata, I have never organised an exhibition on such a scale. It has been a very steep learning curve for me, and it certainly made it easier to share the journey and workload with my friend. Supporting each other and sharing the frustrations as well as the joys made it a life-changing experience for me.

Above Pebbles and Pastels by Cheryl Hamer.

Right Golden Waves by Sue Bishop.

What can visitors expect from the Mistresses of Light exhibition?

Vanda: In my opinion there is something for everybody. The visitors can admire stunning grand views or the intricacy of intimate landscapes, black & white images depicting quintessentially English countryside, serene long-exposure seascapes, soft tones of autumnal scenes or extraordinary light on the shifting sands and dunes. The variety of individual interpretations connected by the magic of light on the land and sea.

Beata: I firmly believe that all visitors will find something interesting in the exhibition. There are classic and modern images, open vistas and details, plenty of colour but also sublime monochrome. The images flow effortlessly, taking viewers on an artistic journey through landscapes and light.

There are many talented women who enjoy taking photographs in the great outdoors, they just don’t seem to be known to the public

© Sue Bishop

What inspired you to put on this exhibition?

Vanda: Beata and I have shared the passion for landscape photography for years. We often wondered if there were other women who felt the same way. Let’s be honest, you don’t see a lot of women landscape photographers being published or talked about.

We started a community called Landscapes

by Women, to support and encourage other women to share their work with the rest of the world. After running the group for three years it felt natural to do more than just show our work on social media and our website.

Lately, I have seen more and more work by very talented women so I asked myself, how can I bring their unique and compelling images to a wider audience? What better way than an exhibition in London?

Beata: The idea behind the exhibition is to showcase and promote the work of female landscape photographers. I am convinced that an exhibition in such a prestigious location will give women photographers more exposure and a fair share of the attention they deserve. Getting to know some of the extremely talented photographers around us in person made me think about an exhibition which would bring together their beautiful work and which would show the diversity of their approaches in seeing and capturing the surrounding world.

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Exhibition © Vanda Ralevska

Above As Dawn Greets the Day by Vanda Ralevska. Below On Shifting Sands by Marianthi Lainas.

© Marianthi Lainas © Deborah Hughes

© Beata Moore

Above Fallen Flight by Deborah Hughes.

Left Harris Blues by Beata Moore.

Charlotte Gilliatt – exhibitor I have been a member of the Landscapes

by Women community for over two years now. We are quite a close-knit group, always offering support and inspiration to each other. The exhibition just seemed to be the next logical step for us. For me, being part of Mistresses of Light is a huge opportunity, not only to display my work next to some of the most influential female artists in the business but also at one of London’s premier venues! The chance of an opportunity like this coming around again is pretty slim… who wouldn’t be attracted!

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Exhibition

What was the reason for favouring landscape as the genre?

Beata: I am a landscape photographer and this genre is the closest to my heart. I love taking images of everything in the natural world, from wide vistas to the smallest details.

I share the same passion with many female photographers from Landscapes by Women.

Our perception of landscapes is incredibly varied but we share the passion for them, so the choice of a genre was really obvious.

What kind of photographer did you want involved in the exhibition?

Vanda: I suppose a photographer who has a similar approach to photography to mine: being true to themselves, having passion for the beauty that surrounds us, and finding joy in what they do.

Beata: One word describes the kind I was looking for: passionate! I don’t mind classic or progressive, colour or black & white.

How did you come by and decide on the final 12 exhibitors?

Beata: Although I know many more talented female photographers, it is the size of the OXO gallery that dictates how many images can be displayed there. All the approached photographers willing to take part and presenting a strong portfolio were accepted in the exhibition.

Vanda: We couldn’t accommodate all the photographers we wanted to because of the size of the venue. Though we are hoping that we can find a larger space in the future.

© Linda Wevill

Why have you gone for a women only exhibition? Have you noticed or experienced an absence of women in the landscape genre?

Vanda: In the past I thought there was an absence of women in landscape photography.

However with time I realised that it was just a perception. There are many talented women who enjoy taking photographs in the great outdoors, they just don’t seem to be known to the public. Therefore I think, and hope, that by bringing together an all-female exhibition the perception might change; and women in general will be inspired and encouraged to show more of their work to a wide audience.

Beata: I am aware that art knows no gender, so possibly the next exhibition will present work by both men and women, but at this stage, I feel strongly that women photographers could benefit from more publicity.

How and why did you come to host the exhibition at the OXO Tower?

Vanda: I walk past the gallery every day on my way to work, and see many exhibitions there. It is an ideal place to show your work.

The extraordinary light, the remarkable space, the vibrant location in the middle of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Beata: For years I have been visiting OXO and have been enchanted with the great light and atmosphere of it. I love everything about it, the high windows allowing plenty of light from outside, the vibrant energy of the area combined with the restful influence of the River Thames.

We are very proud that the selection panel of the OXO was satisfied with the quality of our images and the idea behind this exhibition and as a result, that we have secured such a prestigious gallery.

Were you quite selective in who to involve and who not to?

Beata: Yes, the selection process had to be established and we were very lucky to work with a great panel that was assessing submitted images.

Vanda: We were selective about the images displayed, but not about the photographers

© Rachael Talibart

© Sarah Medway

Top Three Trees in the Mist by Linda Wevill.

Above Frosty Morning on the Wey by Rachael Talibart.

Above right Frosty sunset at Monsal Head

by Karen Frenkel.

Right Boat Arriving in Fog by Susan Brown.

Left Bow Beech Calm by Sarah Medway.

Cheryl Hamer – exhibitor I feel it’s really important to get more women involved in photography for all sorts of reasons. The Landscapes by Women community is a fantastic way to do this, and the exhibition will really help to raise the profile of women in photography – and inspire more women to express their creativity in this way.

This is one of the ways that I am trying to raise my own profile within the world of photography. I love what I do – both making my own images and helping other people to develop, and this will enable me to build on both of those things. I run some workshops exclusively for women to provide a supportive environment in which women can express themselves photographically, and therefore play my part in inspiring female photographers.

The exhibition dovetails with this wonderfully and I am very happy to be part of such a groundbreaking enterprise.

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Exhibition © Karen Frenkel

involved. We wanted to create a show that would portray the diversity of our work but that would also work together as a whole.

What were people’s reactions when the idea was pitched to them?

Beata: It was a very enthusiastic reaction.

We had overwhelming support from day one and a lot of practical help from all the participating ladies.

Vanda: Yes, we had a very positive reaction from the members of the group. We are very grateful for all the support and help we are getting from the participants along the way.

Were the pieces curated specifically for the exhibition?

Beata: Most of the pieces are new and were not exhibited anywhere else. There was no official brief, as I felt strongly that each participant should show their favourite subject and technique. After all, freedom of expression underpins art and allows artists to flourish.

Vanda: The images for the exhibition were curated. We wanted the individual participants to express themselves through their art, but at the same time we wanted to make sure that the whole display has a natural flow, and creates a lasting experience for the potential viewers. We worked together with a panel of photographers who have an extensive experience in organising exhibitions to help us and hopefully succeed in our original aim.

Deborah Hughes – exhibitor Women bring a unique perspective to landscape and nature photography.

A photograph taken embodies the photographer behind the lens as much as the subject in front of the camera or the camera itself. Showcasing women’s distinctive frame of reference is not about setting apart or lines in the sand, but a celebration and enlargement of our humanity. I am honoured and delighted to be a part of this exhibition. © Susan Brown

You have said in the exhibition introduction that it emphasises the importance of photography in contemporary modern art, tell us more.

Beata: Many people still argue that photography is not an art form. I strongly believe that as an individual expression of our vision and creativity is involved, it is art.

The fact that we use technology (cameras and computers) may confuse some people, but it is not the camera but the photographer that makes the image. It is high time to focus the attention of the art world on the qualities of photography, be it literal or impressionistic.

Hopefully, the exhibition on this scale, in central London, will create a lot of interest and persuade people that the place of photography is firmly established in modern art.

Vanda: As Beata mentioned, quite often photography is not considered to be art.

However if art is defined as a creative skill resulting in works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power, then I believe that photography has its rightful place in this category. I hope the images in this exhibition will demonstrate that camera work can be, and should be, considered an art form; that the showcased works are not just recordings of reality but express the exhibitors’ perceptions and emotions, and hopefully convey those personal impressions to the viewers.

To me photography is in part the experience of being in a particular place and trying to capture the emotions that the moment in time evokes in me. Similarly to the artists who paint their works of art based on the emotions they experienced.

What are you hoping to achieve with the exhibition? What are your ambitions for it?

Beata: I just want to celebrate the fact that there are more and more talented female photographers around and to bring their unique images to a wider audience.

Vanda: For me the exhibition is a celebration of our passion for landscapes and photography.

A celebration and joy of sharing that passion with so many other people.

Do you have any plans to do something similar again in the future?

Vanda: At the moment, I am just trying to focus on the task in hand, and hopefully, together with the rest of the participants make this exhibition a success. After that I am sure we will start thinking about the next steps and potential future exhibitions.

Beata: I am sure that in a couple of months I will forget about the mammoth administrative and organisational tasks associated with such a large exhibition and the thrill of executing such a rewarding event will push me into a new artistic adventure.

See it yourself The Mistresses of Light exhibition, consisting of the 12 photographers’ landscape images, is on at London’s OXO Tower Wharf gallery on the South Bank, from Wednesday 9 September until Sunday 13 September.

It’s open daily between 11am and 6pm.

Admission is free. oxotower.co.uk/events/mistresses-of-light

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Profile Biography

Susan Brown Susan started out in photography in 1979 as something to keep her occupied whilst pregnant with her first child. Today, she’s one of the selectors for the Devon Guild of Craftsmen to advise on photographic entries and also judges exhibition for charitable organisation, The Photographic Angle. She’s also very involved with the Royal Photographic Society, sitting on the Licentiate panel as well as Pictorial and Creative panels for the Associateship and Fellowship.

Sue’s also involved in the Mistresses of Light exhibition, featured in this issue.

Home club I am not a member of a local camera club at the moment but a member of the Arena Group, which is affiliated to the PAGB. Favourite camera I love my Canon EOS 5D Mark III but I try not to get too hung up on the equipment I use.

Favourite lens The 24-70mm L series f/2.8, it’s a lovely lens, very clear with high performance and the zoom covers most of what I use.

Favourite accessory Because I am so fussy about an image being sharp where I want it to be, I use a Zacuto Z-Finder which fits over the viewing screen and magnifies the image by 3x.

Favourite photographer Bill Brandt, I love his moody tones and contrasty monochrome work.

He certainly influenced my early work in the darkroom.

Favourite subjects The sea and its changing moods and tides have become a passion.

I enjoy playing with varying shutter speeds from around a second and up to five minutes.

Right Seaweed on the beach at Bigbury Beach, South Devon.

Before the Judge

Susan Brown FRPS, EFIAP (b) DPAGB Each issue, a respected judge or exhibition selector shares their thoughts and experiences. This month, we hear from Susan Brown, whose long list of awards includes a Gold Medal in the Edinburgh Salon Words by Susan Brown When I lived in Buckinghamshire I did quite a lot of club judging; living in Devon it seems more remote but as a PermaJet lecturer I travel a lot anyway so now do less club judging.

The first Salon I helped to select was the Midland Salon back in the 1980s and not long ago I enjoyed going back to my first club to select the Bristol Salon. Most recently, I’ve selected at the Edinburgh Salon and I look forward to joining a team at Tallaght in Ireland this October.

These are most enjoyable occasions, if time consuming; the organisers are very hospitable and I have been extremely well looked after.

The most rewarding part of club level judging is with beginners. I usually discuss technical aspects and then focus on how an image may be improved, either at the taking or post stage. It may be the photographer won’t agree, but hopefully they’ll try my suggestions before deciding. I try to inspire rather than impose my views.

When confronted with a snapshot, I try to remember we

all started here – I am aware the picture may be from a beginner. I look for the technical aspects first which are not too challenging, then discuss the possibilities of change of viewpoint or shutter speed which may improve the image, but always finish on a positive. I hope to give them something to think about.

The standards in clubs and RPS panels alike seem to be getting higher and more diverse. I find some clubs can work too much to a formula; they are wary not to express individuality in case it does not conform, which is sad. It is better to stand out as an individual and if a judge likes it, it’s a bonus. Many judges enjoy seeing something different which may sway the result.

With technology improving, producing quality images with little or no knowledge of photography is getting easier, and the standards are continually rising. It is therefore now more important to take the camera setting off auto and see what it is really capable of – it’ll make a world of difference!

It is better to stand out as an individual and if a judge likes it, it’s a bonus. Many judges enjoy seeing something different It is rare that I am at a loss for words, but on one occasion I had to speak about an image that I found quite distasteful and the execution had emphasised this. I always try to start and finish on a positive note but on this occasion I was embarrassingly stumped, I just could not think of anything positive to say. Thank goodness it doesn’t happen often. The opposite of that is when an entry is so outstanding that it is inspiring. It is lovely to see an image and feel ‘I so wish I had taken that’. When quality, execution and subject matter all come together in the right conditions: magic! These images are in a class of their own and remain in my memory for years.

If there is a failing in competition images it is being a slave to fashion.

There are times when I wonder what has happened to individuality. When competing, some photographers are frightened to think outside of the box and try something different for fear of failure. Failure is part of a journey to success, we all have to progress and need to keep pushing the boundaries.

To me there are no rules in photography. The rule of thirds is a reasonable guideline for a beginner doing a landscape; but the best images are often those that break the rules for a dynamic, successful shot.

It was Edward Weston who said: “Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk.”

We all have a pet hate and mine is HDR and the overuse of plug-ins,

when subtlety has gone out of the window. I do not like to see an image in which the software has decided on the outcome; just using a preset is so often obvious, overdone and unbelievable. However, if used with discretion so that the photographer has controlled the outcome that he or she wants to achieve, that is a different matter.

There will always be trends in competitive photography, as well as HDR there is now more experimentation with surrealism.

Some outstanding photographers have enormous success with their images so many try to emulate them.

The other trend is the tendency to go on workshops. Workshops are fine as a learning tool if they encourage self-expression. Sadly there are some ‘spoon-fed’ workshops around and we see time and time again: similar images from the same workshops. Finally there is the trend of models. There are some models on the circuit at the moment who must now be very wealthy, I can almost guarantee seeing one of them in every competition. It’s quite refreshing to see an inexperienced model that the photographer has had to direct and has succeeded in getting a super image of.

If asked to give advice to a photographer starting out I would say, be true to yourself and follow your passion. Just keep trying, you will know when an image finally feels right and what an exciting moment that is. susanbrownphotography.co.uk

What do you think?

Have you seen a photographic judge at work who you’d like to see profiled in Photography News? If so please drop us a line to opinion@photographynews.co.uk with the judge’s name and, if possible, their contact details.

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Interview Biography

Profile

Greg Schern Tamrac bags have been around for nearly 40 years and last year the brand got a new owner, GuraGear, LLC and a new boss, Greg Schern. We caught up with the new boss, who also runs Gura Gear and Ogden Made, and asked about his future plans

Years in the photo industry?

I was introduced to photography at high school, so since 14 years old.

Current location Ogden, Utah Last picture taken A motocross stunt rider taken at an Ogden pioneer’s day event.

When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always thought that I’d be some type of zoologist. I grew up in Arizona and had my own back garden zoo with ten to 15 animals including snakes.

Dogs or cats?

Dogs, definitely.

Toast or cereal?

I’m a toast man.

Email or phone call?

Email or face-to-face. I‘m not really a big fan of the phone and I often travel halfway around the world to have an important conversation.

How did you become president of Tamrac?

Tamrac filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2014. My business partner and I put in a bid, and ultimately, we acquired Tamrac in June 2014. I’ve been familiar with the Tamrac brand since forever, and as I looked into things I realised it was a solid brand with a solid heritage but what it needed was a solid business plan behind it.

Was there much competition to buy Tamrac?

Yes and that was one of the challenges for us, trying to understand what the competition would do.

We were the minnow swallowing the whale because we are a small business and many brands in the business with much deeper pockets were looking at Tamrac too. So it was competitive and exciting too.

What about Tamrac appealed?

Well, there is the soft, emotional side of it. It was founded in 1977 so had been around for most of my life – my first bag was a Tamrac.

Having that heritage behind a brand is something you can’t build overnight, so becoming part of that heritage was really appealing.

And despite the bankruptcy and financial issues, customers around the world remained loyal to the brand and that spoke volumes to us.

In the year that you have owned Tamrac, what have you achieved?

We had to build our new team in Utah and new facilities had to be leased and built as well as our relationships with suppliers had to be expanded quickly. We also had to put world-class systems in place to manage that growth and to take the business where we wanted to take it.

Literally on day one we started in product development. At any given time we have 50-60 development projects running and the Anvil line of pro rucksacks is the first of those projects to have come to a market ready position.

The original design philosophy for Anvil was to take a product line that had been a top seller for 20 years and learn what made it so successful

Tamrac bags are very well known in the UK, so what’s going to be different with the new Tamrac products you’re introducing?

We own a brand called Gura Gear and this has always been a high end, niche brand. We knew we had to take that model and apply it to Tamrac. The customers are different but that model can apply.

So we looked at products through a fresh lens and took the best practice from Gura Gear to build products to really fit what Tamrac customers

Above Building on Tamrac’s heritage, president Greg Schern led his team developing the new Anvil range of backpacks (right), which reflects all that made the Expedition range so successful for many years. need but to a much higher standard.

So the Anvil line is the best product featuring the best materials and the best workmanship, backed up by great service.

Tell us more about the Anvil. How did you work on that?

The Anvil line took about 12 months, which is six months quicker than what it would normally take us to develop a product. The original design philosophy for Anvil was to take a product line that had been a top seller for Tamrac for 20 years, the Expedition series, and learn what made it so successful, and without losing that make it completely new.

We literally started with fresh sketches and a new design specification list. We had a list of things that this product has to do and a list of things we wished it could do, and hoped we could make the wish list happen at the same time during the design process. The removable belt and accessories that go with it are an example of this.

We took into account not only functionality but also the look and feel of the bag. From there we went into 3D sketches and then made samples out of paper like a giant origami project. That allows us to see if the size, shape and placement of things make sense before going through to the effort of patterning it.

During the process, were you getting feedback?

As soon as we had design iterations

we handed them off to our trusted friends and professionals to try to get some feedback to make sure we were heading in the right direction.

We also took advice from our entire supply chain, from our material suppliers down to the factory sewing level to ensure we’re not only building a product that looks great and works well but one that is also efficient from a production standpoint.

Are you working with suppliers you were working with already?

We do have fantastic partnerships throughout our supply chain and those partnerships are partly why the products are so great. They are smarter than us. The day we are the smartest people in the room, is the day that we’ve failed. We make sure that we are surrounded by people who are experts at every little piece of the business.

What was the biggest challenge with Anvil?

From my perspective, the biggest challenge was adding functionality to the side attachment points for the Arc and MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) accessories and the belt.

It’s easy to add bits and pieces to a bag, but it is really hard to add them and then keep them clean.

That was the biggest challenge and quite frankly that was sampled, resampled, rethought and started over multiple times.

When you think you have the answer and make it and use it, and you find it’s not the right answer, you have to start again from scratch.

That happened several times with that part of the bag.

What aspect of the Anvil line are you most proud of?

It’s hard to live in the world of ‘mosts’ but I am proud of several aspects.

I am very proud of the craftsmanship. I am also incredibly proud of the final result from a functional perspective. It’s a great bag to use and it’s comfortable and, ultimately, I think it sets the new high mark for the Tamrac brand and that’s a proud moment too.

What has been the reception from retailers?

Phenomenal. It has already exceeded our expectations from a production standpoint. From the retail side it is nice to have something fresh and new at a quality level that isn’t seen much in the market any more.

What else can our readers expect from Tamrac in the near future?

They should expect a phenomenal range both at the professional and consumer levels. The Anvil is just the first of four professional lines and what we are doing at the professional level will translate to our consumer bags. tamrac.com guragear.com

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Competition Exhibition

The Masters

The Hasselblad Masters is the competition every pro photographer wants their name associated with. In the final stages of judging for the biennial competition we catch up with global marketing director Michele Channer to find out more © Bara Prasilova

Interview by Megan Croft What was the motivation behind establishing the Hasselblad Masters competition?

The Hasselblad Masters was originally a marketing campaign devised by the corporate marketing department more than 20 years ago, whereby 12 photographers were chosen to be represented in a Hasselblad calendar. In 2001, the scheme evolved to become a competition, broadening the appeal to not only Hasselblad photographers but all professional and young, ambitious and aspirational photographers across the world.

What’s your involvement in the competition?

As the global marketing director for Hasselblad, I have a general overview of the competition, and it is great to see all the entries coming in and the fantastic level of work photographers are creating. One of the categories, Project//21, is open to all amateur photographers, students, assistants and young professionals making it a very exciting genre and one that I look forward to seeing the entries from.

How has the competition grown over the years?

The competition is proving to be increasingly popular each year, and this year despite only having ten categories instead of the previous 12, we received approximately 12,000 entries, which is our new record.

What’s been the most memorable year of the competition?

2008 saw the transition away from Hasselblad-chosen photographers to a competition open to all photographers, giving us a format

similar to what we have today. This was a key year for the competition, with photographers competing to become a Hasselblad Master in ten categories covering different photographic genres.

The competition has changed up a bit for 2016, including adding a new Street/Urban category. Why did you feel the competition would benefit from this new addition?

We like to try and keep the competition fresh from year to year and Street/Urban is a genre that is quite trendy within the industry at the moment, whilst also considering that our H5D-50c CMOS sensor camera, with its flexible ISO performance, is well suited to shooting street/urban images.

There are ten categories in total now, is there any one that always draws in a particularly

outstanding standard of images or attracts the most entries?

Categories such as Fashion/Beauty, Portraits and Landscape always attract the majority of the entries due to them being popular genres of photography, but also genres that are usually associated with professional shooters.

What’s the reason behind asking photographers to enter three images into any one category?

Again, to help keep the competition fresh from year to year, it is good to mix up the format of the competition from time to time and this year we decided to up the stakes a little and have the competition judged as single images. This meant that the photographers now had to try and showcase their talent in just one image, so we decided to allow each photographer the opportunity to submit a shortlist of three images for

© Antonio Pedrosa

Considering the proliferation of photo competitions at the moment, what do you think makes the Hasselblad Masters a worthy competition to enter?

Hasselblad is a highly respected brand within the photographic industry, standing for high quality and professionalism, and generally photographers love to be associated with the brand, whether or not they own a Hasselblad camera. The Hasselblad Masters is one of the opportunities photographers have to engage with Hasselblad and to be successful in the competition carries a certain amount of notability for them and their careers.

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Competition

As well as an internal jury and prestigious Masters Jury, the competition gives weight to a public vote. Does the competition benefit from popular opinion as opposed to just expert analysis?

Yes, very much so. The public vote allows the photographic community to influence the result and engage with the competition, which in turn helps promote the competition within the industry. However, we are keen for the competition not to turn in to a popularity contest, so the public vote is anonymous to the majority of voters and votes are limited to just one per account on our website to avoid repeat votes.

Also, whilst we have a Masters Jury consisting of some of the very best industry experts, it is great to also get the opinion of what can be a more general audience as anyone can evaluate an image for how they interpret it.

Clockwise from left: 2014 Hasselblad Masters winners – Fashion, Bara Prasilova; Wildlife, Rafael Rojas; Fine Art, Rafal Maleszyk; Underwater, Chris Straley; and Editorial, Antonio Pedrosa.

Another change made for the 2016 competition is the way voting works. Can you explain those changes and why you’ve chosen to make them?

Previously the public vote was just a simple vote for your favourite set of images in each category. This year we decided to give voters the option to select their top three with a first, second and third place ranking in each category, which helps provide a more even spread of results and gives voters the flexibility in not having to choose just one image. The public vote then carries a ‘seat’ on the Masters Jury, contributing to the main Masters Jury votes, which in turn gives us our winners.

© Rafael Rojas

each category, which in theory gave them three opportunities in each category and took the pressure off them to select just one image.

We decided to up the stakes a little and have the competition judged as single images. This meant that the photographers had to try and showcase their talent in just one image

© Rafal Maleszyk

The Masters Jury always draws in some big names; can you share any with us?

The jury hasn’t been announced yet, but it contains the usual mix of wellknown and respected photographers and industry experts.

© Chris Straley

The most challenging stage of voting surely must be the internal vote, in which thousands of entries are whittled down to 100.

How does that process work and what’s it like to be involved in it?

The internal jury is mainly made up of all Hasselblad employees, which provides a mix of both photographic and non-photographic minded people, depending on the position they hold within the company. Their votes provide us with a shortlist of entries in each category, and then there is a small committee that finalises the top ten in each category.

The process of whittling down the many entries to just ten is a very hard and brutal process, but we are very happy with the finalists this process has produced.

What does it take to be a Hasselblad Master? What are the juries looking for in an image?

Photography can be viewed in many ways; whether it is for technical ability, its creativity or the story the image is telling.

Our advice would probably be for photographers to demonstrate their compositional skills; conceptual

strength and technique – anything that contributes to the art of photography.

For those looking to enter in the future, what is the most important consideration when selecting images for the competition? How can a photographer stand out from the rest?

Each of the Hasselblad Masters winners is required to shoot a project for the new Masters book following the competition; so submitted images should ideally demonstrate the sort of images the photographer can produce for the book in terms of style and quality.

Where did the idea for a commemorative book come from?

We have produced a book since 2008 and it has become a highly sought-after and collectable book.

For Hasselblad, it is also a great way of showcasing the quality of images that can be produced with our cameras and it also gives the photographers involved some great worldwide exposure.

Have you any examples of the competition having an affect on the career of a photographer?

It is difficult to say exactly what affect the competition has had on the careers of the winners, as all the photographers are obviously very talented and their success could well have materialised regardless

of their Masters accolade, but it is definitely fair to say that becoming a Hasselblad Master certainly doesn’t harm a photographer’s career and can only be of benefit to their reputation within the industry and with their clients.

Have you seen any big names come through the competition?

While they might not have necessarily been regarded as bigname photographers at the time, the likes of Anton Corbijn, Michael Grecco, Charlie Waite, Beat Presser, Marco Grob, Peter Mathis, Chase Jarvis and Hans Strand are all listed as Hasselblad Masters, and this is a very impressive list of names.

What about the future for the competition, what can we expect from it for the coming years?

We hope that the Hasselblad Masters competition continues to go from strength to strength in the future, continuing to promote the Hasselblad brand with a high level of images and showcase the work of some very talented photographers.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

The 2016 Hasselblad Masters competition culminates with the launch of the book and the awards ceremony in September 2016 at Photokina in Cologne, Germany. hasselblad.com

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Technique © Will Cheung

Shooting tips and ideas

F/8 and be there?

Well, sure there’s more to it than that, but for great pictures you also need great opportunities. The good news is that they’re all around, so this month pick an event and give it your all. First though, see how the PN team handled a variety of photo days out…

Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton, Will Cheung & Daisy Dickinson Are good photos just a mix of technical skill and creative ideas? No; opportunity is the other vital ingredient, or to put it another way, being in the right place at the right time. And brilliant photo opportunities are something we’d all love to happen more often, right? Well here are the facts; the only way you’ll find yourself in the right place at the right time is by getting out and shooting. You’ve surely heard the phrase ‘the more you practise, the luckier you get’, and that’s never been truer than when applied to picture taking.

So how do you increase your exposure to great subjects? Well, specialist events can be a simple and fruitful way of doing it, where you’re assured of plentiful shooting.

Whether they’re specifically organised for photographers or open to the general public, you’ll find a wealth of opportunities, and be right in the heart of the action to record them.

An event could be anything from a day at the

races to a zombie walk through your local town. You might visit a museum or a parade.

It could be an air show, or a boat show, or a flower show… just get yourself into the mix and put your own spin on the proceedings.

Before you go Grasping your opportunity with both hands takes a little planning as well as skill in your shooting. Naturally you’ll want to watch the weather, and the timing of your visit will make a big difference to the light (and may also affect the size of the crowds you’ll have to deal with). Taking the right gear is also important, especially if you’re dealing with specialist subjects. Most importantly though, have an idea of what you want to achieve and how you’re going to do it before you arrive.

This month, see how the PN team tackled three events – and find out how you can get the best results from your own days out.

Above Organised event days are a great opportunity to shoot enthusiasts engaging in their hobby, here adding scale, context and human interest to the vintage railway scene. © Daisy Dickinson

© Kingsley Singleton

Above Star attractions like the Battle of Britain-themed RAF Typhoon are fleeting, so catch them while you can.

Above If you’re looking to focus on detail, car shows are a great place to find it, with polished specimens aplenty.

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Technique © Kingsley Singleton

© Kingsley Singleton

Above Creative effects: ometimes the imperfect has more drama. Here, a silhouetted exposure and lots of grain add a dose of WWII authenticity.

Watch the skies Summer skies are filled with thrilling aircraft, and capturing them at an air show event is as rewarding as it gets. Wing Commander Kingsley Singleton unscrambles the action

For me, air shows go with summer like gin goes with tonic. I love military and vintage aircraft, and the east of England where I live is so cluttered with airfields that you couldn’t ignore the lively skies if you tried. Sometimes it feels like the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight whizz past to celebrate the opening of a packet of crisps. Fine by me – I’d happily live under a Hurricane’s wing.

In fact, 2015 has already marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, but there’s loads more to see with shows contining country wide, right up to the early autumn.

Check out www.air-shows.org.uk for what’s still available.

As well as the thrills, you’ll get a pretty stern examination of your photo skills if you want to capture aircraft in flight; I visited Biggin Hill Festival of Flight, and it confirmed the main problems of air show shooting. Planes are fast, small (or at least far enough away to appear so), and lots of people want to see them. Good positioning and/or long focal lengths helped me overcome two of those; while shooting fastmoving subjects was a matter of setting the right focusing modes and relying on a smooth panning technique.

the direction the plane is passing to improve balance. I support the lens at the end to cut down camera shake and, in continuous drive mode, squeeze off shots as the subject passes, still turning even after I’ve finished shooting – it all increases the chances of a sharp shot.

Get in a spin The settings I use are governed by the subject and its speed. I find fast jets are easier to shoot than prop-driven aircraft as the shutter speed can be kept high, while on the latter you have to go slower to show the props spinning.

Slower speeds and shooting at longer focal lengths mean you face camera shake, so good handling is important, and if your body or lens has image stabilisation, then use it!

Shooting prop-driven planes, I start in shutter-priority (S or Tv) at around 1/250sec, and work down depending on the results. Any faster will freeze the propeller, making the aircraft look static. Checking I’d got enough blur in the props but that the rest of the subjects were sharp, I dialled down the speed until I reached the limits of my handholding and shake started to creep in. At around 1/125 or 1/160sec you should get a good spin, and avoid shake with steady handling.

For jets, I set the shutter faster, particularly for higher altitude passes where there’s no background to consider. A speed of around 1/1000sec is usually enough to hold the subject still and means that I’m not pushing the aperture too wide or cutting the depthof-field too much. If the jet is low, I drop the shutter speed to pick up movement in the background, just like a regular panning shot.

Use your creativity While technique is important, remember you’re a creative photographer; a pin-sharp, frame-filling Spitfire is a joy to behold, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. Framing your subject smaller among the clouds makes more sense of its environment; including treetops in your pan adds a sense of speed, and catching a plane with a glint of light always looks great.

On the move Whichever type you shoot, following the aircraft with your focus, and panning smoothly is important. Try shooting in continuous AF mode and using more than a single AF point – a grouping of points (9, 27, etc.) will help you keep the focus on the subject. You’ll also need to follow it physically, which is where good panning technique comes in. I keep my feet planted at shoulder width and point them in

To feature an aircraft large in the frame you need lenses that are capable of long focal lengths, but this doesn’t mean spending a lot – you can do plenty with an entry-level telephoto zoom like a 55-300mm on an APS-C format sensor. How much magnification you need depends on your position, so if you’re close to the flight line you’ll naturally require less reach and even a 70-200mm lens on an APS-C or full-frame body will give you plenty of scope. Further back, where most people will be, or for shots where you want to see the pilot’s fillings, a lens like the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 will stand you in great stead and at around £850, it’s a steal. Pros also often use two bodies, one with a 70-200mm and the other with a 400mm lens which allows a quick change of options and retails the highest quality.

Whichever type you shoot, following the aircraft with your focus, and panning smoothly is important

© Kingsley Singleton

Take a stand Alongside getting the right glass (see panel), the most important thing in achieving strong compositions and avoiding distractions is shooting position. I aimed to get close to the flight line, which meant arriving early, because closing the distance to the subject cuts down the focal lengths required – and the shorter you shoot, the lower the risk of camera shake.

A good position also requires an unobstructed 180° view – or you can bet your sharpest shots will be those with the subject behind an ice cream truck or someone wearing the world’s largest cowboy hat.

Like all subjects, the angle of light makes a big difference when shooting at air shows, and while the positioning of the flight line means you won’t have much control, try to avoid shooting directly into the sun as you’ll get silhouetted exposures (not always a bad thing,

but only if you want them). Even with the sun in the right place, contrast between plane and sky can be high; with the subject large in the frame, switching to centre-weighted metering helped. Shooting in Raw also means you can crush highlights or fill shadows in post.

Flying gear

Top right and left Include clouds, smoke, vapour trails or buildings in the backdrop to give the planes a proper environment and create a more satifying composition.

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Technique © Will Cheung

Timeline events Timeline Events run by Neil Cave has been in business for 17 years. “There are other people organising rail shoots like this, but I’m the only one doing it as a business,” he says. “I am a professional photographer and do weddings and other commercial work but I do work mostly on this business now. My goal is to make good events for photographers and I’m aiming for 100 events a year.

“Trains and railways is a big area for me because that’s where the business began and I have a passion for the subject. It started because you couldn’t go to a preserved railway and get good pictures when the trains were running for the public – so it’s case of organising it for yourself. Now it’s all about detail.

“Aircraft, boats, buses, vintage vehicles, anything heritage, and I always try to put a human element into the shoot. We are doing more events which are just people so we have re-enactors in scenes. Last month we ran one with 20 re-enactors and we just recreated scenes from the past.

“The re-enactors make the shoots. I have an event with a Lancaster bomber with seven crew members, all dressed according to where they sat on the plane. They bring that attention to detail and we just direct them. The Lancaster shoot we’ve done for five years and each time we have in excess of 100 people.

“I’m happy to look at anything so if anyone has an idea, let me know. I’m looking at doing a vintage ploughing contest next summer with horses and steam traction engines. Generally, it’s heritage subjects we shoot, with the odd exception. For instance, we have had a few days with the yachts during Cowes week.” timelineevents.org

Steaming ahead For close-up access to great subjects, try an organised photo event. Chief conductor Will Cheung gets stoked up to tackle some vintage steam locomotives

There are many steam preservation railways around the country and they are popular tourist attractions. For photography, their popularity can be a challenge but there are plenty of photographer-friendly events at reasonable prices where there is greater freedom and the chance to get shots that would otherwise not be possible.

For my foray into the world of steam I attended a Timeline Event at Didcot Railway Centre. I packed a Nikon D800, 16-35mm, 24120mm and 70-300mm zooms plus a Fujifilm X-T1 with the 56mm f/1.2. A tripod and remote release completed my kit.

The joining instructions said that I should be on-site at 5pm – the Centre closes to the public at 4.30pm – for a briefing by Neil Cave, who runs Timeline Events. He basically gave © Will Cheung

There are plenty of photographer-friendly events at reasonable prices where there is greater freedom to get shots Above Better access: shooting at organised events, like this one at Didcot Railway Centre, means you have greater freedom to use creative techniques like long exposures.

a run-down of timings, of what was going to happen and what the overall plan for the evening was, with events ending around 10.30pm with fire disposal (pictured above).

Speaking to my fellow shooters and looking around I’d say that there was a mix of people with different needs and ideas. I’d guess that the majority were steam enthusiasts first and photographers second, some were photographers who enjoy steam and some, like me, were just aiming to get the most from this special opportunity.

Facing the crowds As with any group shoot (there were 44 people on this one), there are limits and frustrations. I prefer to get in close exploring detail and enjoy wide-angle lenses. That meant I got in the way – not by design – a couple of times. During the evening I wasn’t the only one to stand in the wrong place or walk into shot to spoil an exposure. Late on, a torch-wielding chap walked straight into my two-minute exposure but the shot was rescued on the computer.

That sort of thing happens so you just have to deal with it.

Not wanting to get in the way, I shot more with a telezoom and went for tightly framed shots. I think not being a steam enthusiast helped because I didn’t feel the need to get more of the overall scene in shot. The evening had started with cloud cover but we got bright sun a couple of hours later. Regardless of the light, one of the technical issues was exposure.

When you have very dark subjects even a grey sky means that contrast is extreme.

I was shooting Raw with both cameras in aperture-priority AE and multi-segment metering. I checked the histogram and used compensation occasionally but mostly I left the cameras to their own devices, with my fingers firmly crossed that the latitude of Raw would give me the chance to recover tones later in Lightroom – it did!

Set up for success?

Neil and his team, including volunteers from the Centre, set up scenes, posed willingly and generally got photographers in the right place for the set-up shots.

Some set-ups, to be honest, did nothing for me on a creative level but were still worth recording and just enjoying. Taking on coal and an engine on a manual turntable were interesting but I didn’t shoot much. To be fair, I think I was the exception.

Things got much more interesting later on at twilight, when lights were set up, engines moved around and volunteers posed for us.

With exposures running into several seconds, Pete, one of Neil’s team, took control and told us when to shoot as the models held their poses for a minute or so. He also dispensed exposure advice, too.

With so many photographers and limited viewpoints across the front of the engine shed, Pete did encourage – with modest success – everyone to move around so that we would all have the chance to get various shots from different viewpoints.

The event was fun and I got a couple of nice shots but all I did was push the remote release so I’m not sure how much of me was in those shots. This is no reflection on this event, but this is the nature of group shoots.

The final staged event was the engines emptying the coals. The chance for a couple of long exposures as the driver, under Neil’s guidance, sprinkled coals down from footplate.

With that, most people headed for the exit – it was very late by now – and I’m sure they had some great shots on their cards to enjoy and got their money’s worth. It cost £50 per person and for a five-hour experience that is very good value indeed.

Events like these do throw up photo opportunities not available when such places are open normally, so they’re definitely well worth considering.

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Technique

Pedal to the metal From super-speedy action, to retro show & shine, car shows offer excitement and versatility when it comes to picture taking.

Petrolhead Daisy Dickinson gets in the driving seat

© Daisy Dickinson

Switching gear I used to pack my DSLR on a days out, but carrying tons of lenses around took its toll and I couldn’t enjoy the event with the niggles of aching shoulders.

Often I opted to just take one kit lens in place of cumbersome extras, which in turn meant I was missing shots. Since switching to the mirrorless, Micro Four Thirds Olympus PEN system I’ve found I can pack a zoom, macro, portrait, and wide-angle lens, along with camera body for less total weight than just my DSLR and kit lens. It’s incredible really, and the quality – thanks to the 16-megapixel MOS sensor and 5-axis in-body image stabilisation – is stunning. Combined with 9fps continuous shooting, Wi-Fi and a tiltable touchscreen, and it’s the perfect camera to carry with you all day.

Trackside candids Getting up close to the drivers before a race gives you the chance to mix people with the machinery. Go mono to heighten the documentary feel. You’ll also find a wealth of automotive details to enjoy. space, and shooting macro will allow you to steal abstract details. For more distant subjects, a decent standard zoom or telezoom will work wonders. I journey to Goodwood each year, packing light with an Olympus PEN E-P5.

Elbows out There’s nothing more frustrating than being ready to press the shutter, and someone walking (and staying) in front of you. This is guaranteed at busy events, so unless you want to wait for a shot that might not happen, be prepared with a wide-angle lens like the Olympus M.ZUIKO 9-18mm f/4-5.6. With an 18-36mm 35mm-equivalent this lightweight lens gets me

a mere 25cm from the front of the glass to the car. Getting in close and low with a wide-angle will give an exaggerated perspective and can make the car look more powerful. Going for an aperture around f/7.1 will keep most of the car sharp, but give enough background blur to avoid distractions. American muscle like Mustangs and Chevys look great shot wide straight on, with all focus on the air bulge.

© Daisy Dickinson

Don’t forget the details Locate the paddocks, switch to macro and spend an hour just concentrating on details: a Bugatti’s grille, Camero’s exhaust, or a shiny carburettor. These are often elements missed, but provide an excellent opportunity to create an image that’s different. I packed the M.ZUIKO 60mm f/2.8 macro, which gave great scope. Look beyond the exterior too, if it’s a softtop search for interesting patterns and lines in the leather upholstery, chrome gear knobs, or quirky badges, but remember to be considerate; don’t touch the cars – and if the owner is around, be courteous and ask permission first.

Document your day A great thing about Goodwood Revival is the variety of options. The grandstand gives you a chance to bag action shots – you’ll need a zoom for this – but you can get pretty close to the track, too, and use a lens like the 12-40mm f/2.8. Goodwood uses straw bales so you’re even blessed with a fairly neutral, uncluttered backdrop for panning shots.

Not a speed-demon? Wander to the holding compound before a race where cars line up for around 20 minutes, and you’ll find the

© Daisy Dickinson

As a classic car owner, summer for me means bringing my beloved Capri out of the garage, dusting the winter off and hitting the road – but it’s also great for automotive photography.

With car shows aplenty, from local club meets to large-scale race events, it shouldn’t prove too tricky to find some shiny subjects. A trip to an event like Goodwood Revival (taking place on 11-13 September 2015) rewards you with stunning horsepower on show but be warned, you’ll have to share it with thousands of others.

Overcoming crowds can be troublesome, be it photographers with their own agendas, or spectators in the background. Packing a wideangle lens helps you get up close and claim your

racing drivers gathered, chatting – it’s gold dust for candids. Switch to monochrome for concentrated attention to the expressions, capturing the pre-race excitement and nerves.

Access all areas Revival isn’t just about beautiful cars; spectators are encouraged to dress in retro attire, and with a ‘best dressed’ award up for grabs, people go all out! Visit the Richmond Lawn at 3:45pm for the crowning of ‘best dressed’ each day. It’s a friendly affair, so don’t be afraid to approach people for a shot – most will be flattered. Carry business cards with a link to your work, or offer a print a to thank them.

One of my favourite ways to end the day at Goodwood is heading to the car park (bear with me) just before close. Many visitors come in their own classics, making it a secret hotspot for photography – and the best news, no elbowing others out of the way. As the sun dips, focus on reflections and rich contrast in bodywork, look for juxtapositions with other cars nearby and shoot to your hearts delight!

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Exhibition David Bailey

Bailey’s Stardust

David Bailey’s career spans more than five decades and covers every facet of portrait photography, from fashion to cultural and the latest, and largest, exhibition of his work is now showing at the Scottish National Gallery

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Exhibition

Previous page Nagaland, 2012.

This page (clockwise from left) Papua New Guinea, 1974; Kate Moss, 2013; Jerry Hall and Helmut Newton, 1983, Catherine Bailey, 1989; Rio Club, East London, 1968.

Words by Megan Croft He made his name in the sixties and simultaneously can be credited for making the name of a few others in his wake too, not least of all the woman considered the world’s first supermodel, Jean Shrimpton. It was Jean who knew him affectionately as Bailey, a cognomen that’s lasted the distance of his more than 50‑year career and is now synonymous with fashion and celebrity portraiture.

Landing his first Vogue cover in 1961 marked the beginning of his burgeoning career and the start of the swinging sixties, a cultural phenomenon that Bailey was not only a part of but was also in part responsible for. He became a celebrity in his own right, hanging out with those he photographed and living the rock and roll lifestyle to the full.

Towing the line was never an option for Bailey who locked horns with editors unwilling to compromise on their creative vision. Speaking to CNN Style earlier this year, he admitted himself that he isn’t the most amenable photographer to work alongside: “Most people don’t like working with me, especially fashion editors, because I don’t agree with them,” he explained.

“I’m not going to have someone telling me how a girl should look. A girl looks like how I want her to look. If they want her to look like that, either get somebody else, or do it themselves,” he added.

It’s not just models who have been privileged to be captured by Bailey: musicians, cultural icons, artists… the list goes on. Anyone who is anyone is likely to have had their portrait taken by Bailey, big names including the likes

Most people don’t like working with me, especially fashion editors, because I don’t agree with them of Salvador Dali, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp and Francis Bacon have all sat for him. He’s famously captured The Rolling Stones on tour and in their most candid moments, as well as creating album artwork for the band. He has confessed in the past that he doesn’t take images, but makes them, a technique he credits to talking, listening and teasing conversation out of his subjects ready for those few perfect moments when he clicks the shutter for the portrait.

Shunning the world that once made him a household name and much-clamoured after artist, Bailey openly admits now that it would take a lot of money for him to return to work in the fashion industry because of the creative differences and clashes that he has faced over the years.

Although perhaps best known for his fashion work, Bailey is much more than just a fashion photographer. Born in the East End, his fascination with people encompasses much more than celebrity. Early on he was known for capturing the social scene in London’s East End, shooting the people, the cafés, clubs and pubs before the regeneration.

In 1974 he travelled to Papua New Guinea to capture portraits of the tribespeople and more recently has travelled to the Naga Hills, between Burma and India, to take portraits of the local elders.

To top off what is an already enormously successful career, David Bailey received his CBE in 2001 and in 2005 was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s prestigious Centenary Medal.

Bailey in Edinburgh The UK’s largest exhibition of Bailey’s work, Stardust, is now on show in Edinburgh’s Scottish National Gallery, displaying more than 300 images that span right across his career, from his early fashion photography up to his global portraiture and photos of his wife and muse, model Catherine Bailey. Bailey curated the exhibition himself and personally directed the Edinburgh edition of the touring exhibition with most of the portraits being newly printed.

You can catch Bailey’s Stardust until 18 October 2015 and tickets cost £11/£9. nationalgalleries.org

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Previews Pro focus

Last chance salon

Their portraits rejected by an esteemed photo contest, two photographers wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

Read how they set up their own exhibition in an exclusive extract from Professional Photo magazine...

Written by Terry Hope

portraitsalon.co.uk

Rejection from Taylor Wessing was the catalyst to setting up the Portrait Salon

© Michael Clement

create their own Portrait Salon zine with Miniclick.

“Following that the show will travel to The Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery in Tokyo, where it will be part of a collaborative project called ‘I/Land’, in association with Miniclick and photography curator and editor Yumi Goto. There will also shortly be a new publication that will look back at the past four years of Portrait Salon.”

All selections from each year are also featured on the Portrait Salon website, with a link to the individual photographer’s website. Over the past few years this has become a valuable resource of contemporary portrait photographers.

Submissions for the next Portrait Salon are invited now and these can be made through the website.

Every photographer who enters will have one print selected from their portraits rejected by the 2015 Taylor Wessing Prize.

It costs £7.99 to enter, and while the intention is to remain not for profit, charging a small fee (this is the first year there’s been a charge) will offset the costs of the exhibitions and the new publication.

Visitors to the print exhibition at the Embassy Tea Gallery will also be able to vote on their favourite three portraits and the selected photographers will be able to choose from one of four prizes: a portfolio review with Lucid Representation Photographic Agency, a full day’s retouching at Stanley’s Post, a bespoke one-to-one session at Metro Imaging and a portfolio review and career advice session with the Creative Advice Network.

© Chris Jelley

The prime thing to remember about any competition is that it’s entirely subjective, and the shots that come out on top are not necessarily the ones everyone would have voted for. Of course, that’s the name of the game. We throw ourselves on the mercy of the judges every time we enter, and for most of us it’s just a case of accepting things, moving on and hoping for better luck next time.

However, for portrait photographers Carole Evans and James O Jenkins rejection from the prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize in 2011 was the catalyst to setting up the Portrait Salon, an alternative showcase for some of the stunning work that misses out on the top prizes each year. Given all the effort that photographers put into their entry each time this competition comes around it was simply a way to ensure this wouldn’t entirely be wasted, and it would give the public a chance to make its own mind up about the pictures the judges had overlooked.

“Back in 2011 there were a lot of photographers on Twitter who’d

had their work rejected and were bemoaning the fact,” says Carole. “I sent out a tweet that said ‘We should set up a salon des refusés’, and James direct messaged me saying that he thought it was a great idea and that we should meet up.

“We didn’t know each other at the time,” she reveals, “but after we met and discussed the idea we decided that, as long as it didn’t cost us anything, we should give it a go. It seemed to really capture the imagination and was very popular right from the first year.”

Very much set up in the spirit not of challenging the result of the Taylor Wessing but of complementing it, the salon’s aim over the past four years has been to encourage debate about what makes a great portrait and to present alternative and equally valid viewpoints. Some photographers regard current trends in portrait photography as stale and believe that the big competitions are attracting entries from photographers who have simply submitted something they feel might have a chance of getting in, rather than a shot their gut tells them is a good picture.

“The National Portrait Gallery can only showcase around one per cent of submissions,” says Carole, “so there’s a lot of great work that doesn’t get a look in. We try to make Portrait Salon much more accessible than that, and we’re looking to get it out there to the widest possible audience again.

“Last year’s exhibition toured to five venues across the UK and this time around we’ll be showing at the Embassy Tea Gallery in London from 19 to 22 November, where participants will also have the chance on 21 November to

This page Images entered and rejected from the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, which were subsequently featured in the Portrait Salon.

You’ll find more insight in latest Professional Photo – the only mag dedicated to full-time and aspiring pro photographers

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Technique Lighting academy

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For striking portraits use your camera’s manual white-balance setting to put a spin on traditional colour correction techniques

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Creative colour with flash & gels

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Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton This month we’re trying something a little different: a technique that takes the principles of colour correction filters and gels, and turns them on their head. Colour correction (CC) filters and gels are used to adapt your camera or flash to different temperatures of light (see About Colour Temperature on page 33 for a refresher). Of course, they’re used far less often in the age of digital photography because their most common application was in adapting daylight-balanced film to work with indoor, tungsten lighting.

If you shot a lamplit portrait on daylight film everything would look too warm, but with the right strength of Colour Temperature Blue (CTB) filter on the lens you’d cut out some of the warmer tones, creating hues in your image closer to what your eye sees. Conversely a Colour Temperature Orange (CTO) filter would make daylight look like you were shooting with a tungsten light source.

Naturally, on a digital camera, this is no longer an issue; instead of needing to adapt the light or shoot with correctly colour-balanced film, you’d simply set the white-balance to Auto (or specifically Tungsten/Incandescent or Daylight, and so on) and shoot away as normal. Another modern alternative is to shoot in Raw mode and correct the colour temperature when processing your images.

However, CC filters and gels are still very useful when lighting is mixed and you need to balance two colour temperatures; for instance when using flash (which is usually balanced at around a 5500K temperature) and tungsten lighting (around 3000K) in an interior. In these cases, even the auto white-balance of a modern camera will struggle and you’ll end up with either the flash light too cool, or the tungsten light too warm.

But place a CC gel over one of the light sources and you’ll either warm it up or cool it down to be in sync (or as close as possible).

Gels, of course, are also often used to add a hint of colour to a portrait or still-life image, which is along the same lines as what we’ll be doing this month.

Getting creative with colour correction So how do we get from the traditional route of using CC filters for lifelike results to the otherworldly look of the images here? That’s all down to putting a creative spin on how you use colour correction and how you adapt to the colour temperatures in the scene.

Essentially the purpose is still to follow the regular colour correction process and end up with lifelike skin tones on the subject but instead of setting the camera’s white-balance to correctly reproduce the colours in this daylight scene, it’s manually set at a much

When the flash that’s lighting the subject is used with a CTO filter, their skin tones will appear close to normal lower level. This means that when the flash that’s lighting the subject is used with a CTO filter, they’ll appear much closer to normal.

That’s a lot to get your head around in the space of a paragraph, but get to grips with the following technique and all will become clear.

Setting up We started off by setting up one Lencarta Safari 2 light on a stand to Amber’s left, positioning it slightly higher than her eyeline to give an angle, similar to the sun.

Wanting to keep the light quite hard, which would complement the odd colours we’d end up with, we simply used a standard reflector dish as a modifier. In this configuration we metered for the ambient light, getting a reading of 1/100sec at f/11, ISO 200, and then, in manual mode, dialled in 1/160sec at f/11, ISO 200, in order to underexpose the background scenery a little. At these settings the flash power required to properly expose Amber was around 1/16th.

Next we needed to fit the Colour Temperature Orange filter, covering the flash and adapting the light for the look we wanted. For this, we used a sheet of CTO filter, wrapped over the reflector dish and fixed using electrical tape. After test firing, it was obvious that the gel was diffusing the light slightly and lowering the illumination, so the power was increased to 1/8th.

With Amber bathed in orange light from the gel on the flash, it was time to adapt the camera’s white-balance, simultaneously cooling off the background while making her skin tones look more natural. We first switched to the Incandescent white-balance setting (3000K), which was much lower than the Auto White Balance that recorded the scene at 5100K. Checking the results on screen, there was still too much orange, so we took the white-balance even further south by switching to the manual Kelvin setting and applying the lowest level (on the Nikon D810 we were using, this was 2500K).

With this new setting the colours were getting into the right area, but due to the

White-balance at 2500K, with CTO filter on flash.

White-balance at 2500K, no filter or flash.

A CTO filter taped over a Safari 2 flash head.

Above In the lower pic, setting the whitebalance to 2500K makes the colours very cool as it’s not accurate for the natural light.

But using the Colour Temperature Orange filter on the flash gives warmer colours and more natural skin tones, while though the background remains cool.

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Technique strength of the gel it was obvious that a little more colour work would be required. For that reason, although you could shoot this technique in JPEG mode, it’s good to have the safety net that comes from shooting in Raw. Practically, all you need is a further shift of the Temperature and Tint sliders when processing your file, but you can also experiment with stronger or less intense CTO filters to perfect the look in-camera.

Building up the lighting Once the combination of filters and whitebalance is working you can get more experimental with the lighting. For instance we positioned a second Safari 2 flash at 90º to Amber’s right in order to add a highlight, and tried this light with both a CTO gel and just the naked flash.

Fitted with a standard reflector dish as before, the gelled version gave an improved, more three-dimensional look to Amber’s figure, allowing more separation from the background. This worked even better when turned to a slightly higher power than the first light, giving a kicker-light look.

Trying the second light without the CTO gel gave an interesting split to the colours on Amber. The unmodified flash is around 5500K in colour temperature, not far off the ambient light in the background, so it was therefore a lot cooler looking than the rest of the light on her when recorded with the camera’s lowered white-balance, and looked a bit like a cool-toned spotlight on stage.

The kit we used

This page Using a second flash allows a choice as to whether further gels should be used to balance the colour (below right) or not (below left), which gives a cooler contrast.

Above In this setup, the warm and cool lighting is down to modifying only one of the flashes with a Colour Temperature Orange (CTO) gel. With the camera’s white-balance set to 2500K the available light looks cooler, and so would Amber were it not for the CTO filter on the main light. The second light, at the side, has no CTO filter, and because the temperature of the flash is close to daylight its colour looks cooler, too.

As we were shooting on location we used Lencarta’s Safari 2 flash system, which not only allows you a lot of power and extended shooting time (the 600Ws flash generators can manage up to 400 shots between charges at full power, and this runs into 1000s when used lower), but also a surprising level of toughness. We were caught in several heavy showers on the shoot and although the Safari 2 system isn’t actually waterproof we managed to keep on shooting. Care was taken to protect the heads and the tops of the generators using plastic bags, but because the battery is sealed, it’s safe to stand in wet conditions (so long as the water doesn’t reach the charging point, which is 10cm from the base).

When it comes to buying your own Colour Temperature Orange gels, pro versions are inexpensive and take some of the guesswork out of the technique.

Gels can be bought in varying strengths, much like you would get with ND filters, but in this case it’s the temperature of the light which is incrementally changed.

Typically gels are sold in single sheets or in long rolls and are usually available from ⅛ through to full, so while a ⅛ CTO filter might only alter the temperature of the flash by a few hundred degrees, from 5500K to 4900K, for instance, a Full CTO gel would take the flash’s 5500K to close to the tungsten white-balance setting (around 3000K).

If you’re looking to buy, a sheet of Rosco E-Colour+ 204 Full CTO gel would set you back around £6 from stagedepot.co.uk.

For more lighting advice and information about Lencarta flash and continuous light equipment please visit lencarta.com.

Full CTO

1/2 CTO

1/8 CTO

About colour temperature Whether the light you’re using is the sun or a lamp, colour temperature is a description of how warm or cool the illumination is. The human eye is pretty good at adapting to different light temperatures, making everything look ‘normal’, but digital cameras need some help and that’s where the white-balance (WB) comes in; a camera’s method of interpreting the colour.

So, in theory, if you set the correct white-balance, anything white in the image will look perfectly neutral whether the light hitting it is warm or cool. Colour temperature is measured in Kelvin (K), and the only confusing part is that lower temperatures mean the light is warmer looking (a household tungsten bulb might be around 3000K), and higher temperatures means that the light is cooler looking (overcast daylight might be as high as 8000K). In this technique, we deliberately set the white-balance incorrectly, so that the natural light appears much too cool and the light of the flash, fitted with an orange filter, looks normal.

Thanks to This month’s model was Amber Tutton, amber-tutton.co.uk.

Find out more about Lencarta lighting kit at lencarta.com, where there is also a blog with detailed lighting tutorials and practical advice on getting the most from your lights in different situations.

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Camera test Specs Price £750 body only, £829 with 1855mm WR kit, £999 with 16-85mm WR kit Sensor 6016x4000 pixels, CMOS 24.35 megapixels, 1.5x crop factor, APS-C 23.5x15.6mm ISO range 100-51,200, Auto Shutter range 30-1/8000sec, flash sync 1/180sec

Full test

Pentax K-3 II

Pentax’s flagship APS-C DSLR has an impressive specification at a competitive price, but how does it compare to its competitors?

Words by Kingsley Singleton

Drive modes Single, continuous (up to 8.3fps), self-timer (12s, 2s), remote (0s, 3s, continuous), mirror up, HDR capture, multi-exposure, interval shooting, interval composite Metering system TTL multi-segment, spot, centreweighted Exposure modes PASM, Sv, Tv, Bulb and 3 user modes Exposure comp +/- 5 EV in 1/3 and 1/2 steps, AE bracketing at 2, 3, or 5 frames, up to +/- 2 EV in 1/3 or 1/2 steps Focusing Single, continuous, manual, 27 point (25 cross type), spot, select, expanded area (S, M, L), zone select, auto Video Full HD (1920x1080, 60i/50i/30p/25p/24p), HD (1280x720, 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p) Storage media SD, SDHC, SDXC, EyeFi, Flucard Dimensions (wxhxd) 131.5x102.5x77.5mm Weight 785g (with battery and card), 700g (body only) Contact ricoh-imaging.co.uk

It’s really solid all round and you can feel the snugness of sealing in places like the hinged battery compartment door

Like many DSLR manufacturers outside the ‘big two’, Pentax has to bring something different to the table for attention and with a host of innovative features, its latest DSLR, the K-3 II, certainly delivers.

As its name suggests, it’s an update of the K-3 and outwardly there’s little change, although it’s a little larger and lighter, and the pop-up flash has been removed. The latter hints at Pentax’s positioning of the camera – its features are aimed at the serious enthusiast to semi-pro level, and the camera offers many items you’d pay more for on other makers’ bodies.

For instance, the build quality is very high with a magnesium alloy shell over a stainless steel chassis, it’s also fully weather sealed, and will operate down to -10°C. In short, it’s really solid all round and you can feel the snugness of sealing in places like the hinged battery compartment door. The shutter is rated at 200,000 cycles, which also puts it in the prolevel durability bracket. Other highlevel features include a top shutter speed of 1/8000sec, a very brisk 8.3fps burst mode (for 60 JPEGs or 23 Raws), a top-plate LCD, a sensor design with no optical low-pass filter boasting increased sharpness (an OLPF effect can be added if moiré is noticed), and dual SD card slots. It’s also only available in black.

But the K-3 II’s most interesting features come from innovative uses of its sensor. The 24.35-megapixel resolution is a minor upgrade on its

predecessor (which continues in the range), but, allied to the in-camera Shake Reduction (SR) and GPS features, it’s capable of some very exciting things. The first of these is Pixel Shift Resolution which uses the SR function to nudge the sensor by a pixel in each direction during an exposure, thereby allowing each photosite to record ‘true’ red, green and blue data (see page 37), producing more natural colours and finer details than traditional sensors. The K-3 II also has a Diffraction Control function (turned on by default), which adds sharpness at small apertures.

In the same vein, the SR mechanism can use data from the built-in GPS unit to shift the sensor during longexposure astrophotography; this works like an astro tracker attached to a telescope, allowing you to compensate for the movement of the Earth by shifting the sensor, and lets you shoot longer exposures without star trails. Another feature along the same lines is Composition Adjustment; after switching it on, you can nudge the frame around and rotate it, which proved very useful, especially in macro shooting where fine adjustments are required. The only drawback here is that minor vignetting can creep in and that it makes an odd clunking noise; strange as no other SR functions do.

AF performance is the best I’ve experienced on a Pentax DSLR and right up there with other models in the enthusiast bracket. The SAFOX

11 system uses 27 phase-detect AF points, 25 of which are cross-type, which is the same number as on the K-3. It’s rapid, even in low light and using the continuous (AF.C) mode with nine- or 27-point auto area made following subjects very easy (see page 36). This is lower than some competitors though and the K-3 II would benefit from a wider spread and more points. Switching between AF areas and modes is easy thanks to a dedicated button on the front, just above the AF/MF lever.

One problem found was changing the AF point in SEL 1 (selectable single-point) mode. On entering that mode, the four-way controller lets you navigate through the points and remains in this state until you press the Change AF Point button on the rear to lock it. That’s all fine, bar a rather uncomfortable bend of the thumb. However, once the AF point is locked, the four-way controller defaults to its regular shortcuts for the White Balance, Drive Modes, Custom Image or Flash, and you have to hit the Change AF button again to move the point. It’s largely user error, but the locking/unlocking process does make it easy to slip into changing a mode you don’t want to. If that sounds picky, compare it to competitors where the process is more streamlined; it’d be better achieved by linking the four-way controller to the AF mode button.

This chimes with some other (minor) handling issues. For instance

only the drive modes can be changed on the top plate LCD – to alter whitebalance, you have to do it on the main screen. You can hold the button and cycle through the options using the dials, which speeds things up but you should be able to do more without the screen. Dedicated buttons or dials for more commonly used functions would be a good thing and the K-3 II gets this spot on with its ISO button.

Other buttons can be remapped, but the choice is limited and the GPS and RAW/FX buttons could be better employed to my mind.

The User modes make up for this – there are three, accessed from the Mode dial, and they make it simple to save oft-used settings. I immediately set one up to use the excellent Pixel Shift mode and another to bracket scenes for potential HDR use.

In the hand, the K-3 II feels great, with a well-contoured grip. Long fingered types might find the shutter release a little close, and the rubber coating on the body could have been extended to the memory card door, but those are minor flaws. The locking mode dial is welcome, and the viewfinder is impressively bright for an APS-C body, the only downside there being there’s no sensor to turn off the screen when you bring the camera up to your eye. It can be turned off by default though. Using the K-3 II’s multi-segment metering mode throughout this test gave excellent results and very few exposure problems were encountered.

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Camera test Anatomy From the front • T he K-3 II has few visible inputs from the front, apart from the lens release button, but there is also the front command dial (one of two E-Dials, as Pentax calls them), and below that, on the grip is the selftimer lamp and remote-control receiver. Next to the grip is the AF assist light.

•T he handgrip itself is very well sculpted with a deep groove for your index finger and treated to a rubberised coating to prevent slipping.

•O n the opposite side of the lens mount is a host of buttons and these include the Focus mode switch, AF mode button, RAW/Fx and GPS buttons. The latter could be better used, while integrating the AF mode button with the Focus mode switch would have freed up more buttons.

From the top •T he top-plate features a good-sized,LCD screen displaying shooting info. In front of that is a dedicated ISO button, the exposure compensation button and finally the shutter release, around which sits the on/off button. An additional stop on the latter provides the depth-of-field preview.

•O n the left of the top-plate is the Mode dial, which features a locking mechanism to avoid slips. The Mode dial includes the usual exposure modes, plus TAv and Sv, the former essentially being Manual with Auto ISO. The latter is Sensitivity priority, in which you set the ISO and the shutter and aperture compensate. It also has full Auto, Bulb, and three excellent User modes, in which you can store settings.

•T here’s no pop-up flash on the K-3 II, so you’ll be required to buy an accessory flashgun to light your subject.

From the back • Dominating the rear is a fixed 3.2in 1,037k-dot monitor, which can be switched to Live View using the LV button next to the viewfinder. The screen certainly gives a good crisp view and a ‘quick’ menu can be brought up using the Info button. Herein you can switch to settings not possible from the buttons.

• When shooting, the Info button switches the display between a status screen that shows camera settings, an electronic level, an electronic compass or it can be switched off. There’s no eye sensor to switch off the screen automatically when shooting, so it’s best left off until needed. The compass uses the built-in GPS to show positioning data which is potentially useful when trying to locate geographical features or the path of the sun.

• On the right of the screen is the rear command dial and below that is the mysterious Green button; in Manual mode, this sets autoexposure, which is rather handy, and it also switches to Auto ISO when adjusting sensitivity.

• A lever switches between stills and video, and the four-way controller doubles up as shortcuts to the drive mode, white-balance, etc, which isn’t ideal. Next to that is the Change AF Point button, which locks/unlocks the AF

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Camera test ISO performance

Full-frame image

The K-3 II has an ISO range of 10051,200 and this can be adjusted in 1, 1/2 or 1/3 step increments. JPEGs and Raws can be shot throughout the sensitivity span. Its Auto ISO function can run across the range, or be limited to as little as 100-200 for fine control. Switching to TAv (shutter-and-aperture-priority) allows the user to set shutter speed and aperture with the ISO on Auto.

Like all Pentax DSLRs, the K-3 II has an Sv (sensitivity-priority) mode, wherein ISO is manually chosen and shutter speed and aperture calculated to match; an interesting function, but I’m yet to find a compelling reason to prioritise sensitivity over setting the aperture or shutter speed – it’s a bit like going back to film.

The K-3 II’s ISO performance is a big plus for the camera. We set up a still-life in simple window lighting and shot it through the ISO range, starting with a base exposure of 0.5sec at f/11, ISO 100. Images show excellent noise control and as you’d expect, the default Noise Reduction on the JPEGs gives them a smoother finish than the unprocessed Raws.

Noise levels at ISO 1600 are perfectly acceptable for general use, though details do soften slightly at that stage. At 3200 JPEGs start to look more blotchy, and you wouldn’t want to go above 6400 if possible. At those settings, the grain of the unprocessed Raws is preferable. Colours remain acceptably true up to 12,800.

ISO 800 Raw

ISO 1600 JPEG

ISO 1600 Raw

ISO 3200 JPEG

ISO 3200 Raw

ISO 12,800 JPEG

ISO 12,800 Raw

Fast and steady

Retro mode

Miniature mode

ISO 800 JPEG

Toy camera mode

The Pentax K-3 II uses an in-camera image stabilisation (Shake Reduction, SR), so it’s compatible with all lenses, and it’s especially useful when shooting with telephoto lenses handheld. SR on the K-3 II is rated at 4.5 stops, so, in theory, you can shoot at speeds up to four and half times slower than normal and still achieve sharp images.

Keen to test this, along with the K-3 II’s AF tracking modes, I put the SR function through its paces at the East Kirkby Air Show, using the camera with the HD DFA* 70200mm f/2.8 ED DC AW. Camera shake and/or slipped focus was a big risk, but the combo didn’t disappoint.

At its 200mm setting, you’re looking at a 300mm equivalent thanks to the 1.5x crop factor of the K-3 II’s

APS-C sized sensor, so you’d expect to need a minimum of 1/320sec to keep the image sharp, along with some steady handling. Reduce 1/320sec by 4.5 stops and you have something around 1/15sec, at which I certainly returned sharp images of still subjects – it was a really impressive performance.

For panning shots of prop-driven aircraft, I tend to shoot at around 1/160sec, and the intentional movement of following the subject causes further problems. I still had a big proportion of hits at this setting, like the one below, and the continuous AF (AF.C), used in nine-point auto mode, followed subjects very well, even when turning towards the sun where some systems can struggle.

100% view

Digital Filters Most digital cameras in the consumer bracket feature digital filters which can be applied to images in shooting or with in-camera editing. And despite being stacked with features aimed at a more enthusiast market, the Pentax K-3 II also includes these under its Digital Filters mode. The effects range from Bold Monochrome, and subtle vintage film looks (Toy Camera and Retro), all of which can be added in shooting. There are also more elaborate finishes like Sketch and Watercolor that are activated in playback editing. All the filters can be personalised, so for example you can apply more or less blur, as well as change its position in the Toy Camera effect, which works well. Subtler shifts in colour can be achieved via the Custom Color menu when shooting.

1/160sec at f/13, ISO 100; 350mm continuous AF and 9 point Auto area mode, Shake Reduction on

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Camera test HDR modes

HDR auto

HDR mode 3

Accessible from the Info menu, the K-3 II can create in-camera High Dynamic Range (HDR) images (JPEGs only). There are four modes, Auto, 1, 2, and 3, the latter numbers producing increasingly exaggerated tone-mapping effects. For example, Auto and Mode 1 are quite natural looking and very useful for highcontrast scenes, while Mode 3 is, much more artificial.

The effect is nicely adjustable besides these modes, and from the Shooting menu you can define whether Auto Alignment is required (for handheld shooting), and how widely the images are bracketed from +/-1EV to +/-3EV. Shoot in Raw+JPEG mode and you’ll get an HDR JPEG and a regular Raw which you process differently if required.

Like the Pixel Shift Resolution, the only downside is the speed of processing, as the camera takes around 10secs to process the image and the same again to save it, during which time you can’t shoot.

HDR mode off

Full-frame image

Pixel Shift Resolution In Pixel Shift Resolution mode, the Shake Reduction system moves the sensor by a single pixel in four directions during the exposure. This records extra colour data, resulting in truer colours and increased clarity, as you can see from the comparison pictures. The mode can be quickly activated via the Info screen, but because of the way it works, it requires the camera position to be locked off. For obvious reasons, Shake Reduction is disabled in this mode, and images take while to process, which locks the camera up for a few seconds. The increased level of detail is very welcome indeed.

Pixel shift off

Verdict

This is Pentax’s best-ever DSLR, so if you’re already a user, put the paper down right away and seek it out

This is Pentax’s best-ever APS-C DSLR, so if you’re already a user, put the paper down right away and seek it out. Is it improved enough over the K-3 to justify an upgrade? Well, that depends on the lure of new modes like the excellent Pixel Shift Resolution (PSR); it’s a brilliant system but one of just a few top-line additions. For new DSLR users the K-3 II should be near the top of their list to try.

The only puzzling thing about the K-3 II for me is that it seems to be straddling too many markets. Some features, like the build, weather sealing and Pixel Shift Resolution make it a joy for serious enthusiasts. The AF, burst mode and Shake Reduction are equally top-notch. But then the handling feels more like a consumer model, because there’s a lack of dedicated buttons and those that are there are could have been better used. The rarely used GPS function, in my opinion, could have been activated from a menu, and its space used as an additional function button. Likewise, the prominent placing of Digital Filter modes in the Quick menu feels more entry level; they’re fun, but are they for the serious enthusiasts that the other features will attract? Write times and processing of HDR and PSR mode are also a bit sluggish, so a bigger buffer would have helped, but overall it’s a great camera at a great price.

Well done, Pentax.

Pixel shift on

How it rates Features Has almost everything, bar built-in Wi-Fi, but can use Flucards

24/25

Performance Great shooting speed, AF and image quality, but write times are sluggish 23/25 Handling Comfortable grip, but some fiddly issues with dual-function buttons

22/25

Value for money Lots of pro-spec features for consumer cash

24/25

Overall Pentax’s best APS-C DSLR yet, but there’s still some room for improvement.

Better handling and a bigger buffer would have tipped it into the exceptional.

Pros Price, build, image quality, AF… too many to mention Cons Handling niggles and processing speed 93/100

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

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Camera test Specs Price £999 body only, £1699 with 1235mm f/2.8, £1399 with 14-140mm Sensor Live MOS, 20.3 effective megapixels Sensor format Micro Four Thirds 17x13mm, 5184x3888 pixels max. 14-bit Raw and 3 JPEG levels. 4 aspect ratios.

4K Video 3840x2160 pixels ISO range 200-25,600 in 0.3EV steps.

Extended range to ISO 100 Shutter range 60secs to 1/8000sec mechanical shutter, 1/25-1/16,000sec electronic shutter, Bulb up to 30mins, flash sync 1/250sec or slower

Full test

Panasonic Lumix GX8

It’s the first Micro Four Thirds camera to break the 20-megapixel barrier, but the GX8 has so much more than high resolution to excite Words by Will Cheung

Drive modes 8fps with mechanical shutter, 10fps with electronic shutter, selftimer (2 or 10secs, 3 images) Metering system 1728 multiple zone, spot, centreweighted average Exposure compensation +/-5EV in 0.3EV steps. AEB 3, 5, 7 shots in 0.3, 0.6, 1EV steps up to +/-3EV Monitor Articulating 3in touch sensitive OLED with 1040k dots, 100% field of view Image stabiliser Image sensor shift type Focusing Contrast-detection type AF. Modes: Face/eye detection, tracking, 49 area, custom multi, single area, pinpoint Creative modes 22 options in still (17 in video) including Toy Effect, Bleach Bypass, Miniature Effect, Fantasy and Rough Monochrome Connectivity Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, micro HDMI, 2.5mm remote socket, 2.5mm microphone socket

The body feels really solid in the hands and that promotes steady shooting

Dust reduction system Supersonic wave filter Storage media 1xSD/SDHC/SDXC Power Li-ion battery pack, battery life 340 shots approx Dimensions (wxhxd) 133.2x77.9x63.1mm Weight 487g with battery Contact panasonic.com

The Micro Four Thirds system has a great deal to offer photographers wanting small, lightweight cameras and lenses without compromising on image quality.

The Panasonic Lumix GX8 is the latest Micro Four Thirds camera to arrive and priced at £999 body only, it’s a feature-packed, top-end model.

Among the headlines, the GX8 is the first Micro Four Thirds camera to have a resolution over 20 megapixels, it can shoot 4K video and there’s a new Dual Image Stabilisation system. Other key features include a hinged and tilting three-inch LCD that shows 100% of the image; 4K Photo mode which enables capture of eight-megapixel files at 30fps; and a contrast AF system using DFD (Depth from Defocus) technology.

The GX8 is a large camera by Micro Four Thirds standards and that helps with handling, with plenty of space for the many knobs and buttons. It has a heft too (for a Micro Four Thirds model), so the body, which is also dust-sealed, feels really solid in the hands and that promotes

steady shooting. Steady shooting is helped in no small measure with the Dual Image Stabilisation system.

In still shooting, this means the two-axis lens stabiliser and the five-axis system in the body work together – or you can have just one system working. I shot handheld down to 1/4sec and got very sharp pictures, which gives you some idea of the system’s efficacy.

It is always worthwhile spending time setting a camera up how you like it to work, and the GX8 offers so many options. In the REC menu there are eight pages and a total of 37 options, while in the custom menu, there are nine menus with 45 options. Go into the function buttons menu and you’ll see 13 function buttons (physical and virtual), and each offers up to 52 options.

Of course there is an upside to the great many options and that is, the GX8 is very adaptable to different needs and preferences. All you have to do is get used to the camera’s set‑up once you have explored the many possibilities.

Accessing frequently used features is done with dedicated buttons (which you can change), via the Q menu or via one of the DISP options, which displays the camera’s set-up. The Q menu can be customised too with 33 options to choose from. The touch-sensitive monitor makes choosing and altering a setting really swift.

Speaking of the monitor, the GX8 has two viewing options, the threeinch monitor or the built-in EVF. The monitor flips out to the side and can be rotated to face forwards for easy selfie shooting, but for most users perhaps the ability to look down, including when shooting upright-format images, to compose is more appealing. So for sneaky street shots or very low viewpoints, the articulating monitor is ideal and the touch-sensitive screen means you can focus a shot with your finger.

The annoying thing with the touch-sensitive monitor (and this is not just on the GX8) is that you can be happily shooting away one second and the next your nose or a brush of

the finger has moved the AF point to the edge or corner of the frame. After this happened the first few times, I allocated one of the function buttons to enable or disable the touchscreen so I didn’t have to delve into the menus to do it. Besides, there are plenty of function buttons to use.

The EVF can also be rotated 90°. It’s firmly clicked for normal shooting and can be set to a different angle in an instant. It’s a neat little feature and much more useful than an integral flash that would normally take up this space.

In terms of overall performance the GX8 does well. I had no issues with exposure, white-balance or autofocusing. The camera consistently delivered high-quality pictures. The lens supplied for review was the Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8, one of the leading lights in the Panasonic range.

At full resolution, images opened up big enough to give a 17x13in print at 300ppi without interpolation so there is plenty of scope for highquality prints.

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Camera test ISO performance The Micro Four Thirds format sensor measures 17x13mm, so significantly smaller than APS-C ones and that’s one reason these cameras are less good on noise performance. However, that’s changing as illustrated by the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II and this Panasonic.

The impact of noise on fine detail rendition at the top ISOs of 12,800 and 25,600 is significant and best avoided unless you have no choice. But at ISO 6400, image quality is presentable and probably the best

quality yet seen at this speed from a Micro Four Thirds camera. Noise is evident and there is loss of saturation and image clarity, but it’s not horrible and if you need to shoot in dismal light it’s a viable option.

Naturally, quality gets better as ISO decreases and ISO 800 and 1600 are good enough for critical use when the light is poor.

This scene was shot at twilight and the exposure at ISO 100 was 15secs at f/8 so it was pretty dark.

Full-frame image

Shooting stills with 4K Photo

ISO 100

ISO 1600

Most modern cameras can capture Full HD video, and an increasing number offer 4K video shooting and that includes the Lumix GX8. With 4K video capture you can grab an eightmegapixel still image in software later, but with the GX8 you can do that in-camera thanks to the 4K Photo mode.

There are three options. You can press the shutter release and the camera will shoot video at 30fps for as long as the release is held down. You can press once to start shooting and press again to end shooting. Or you can use preburst which means the camera starts recording at 30fps a second before the shutter button

is depressed and ends a second after the button is released.

Then on the camera monitor you can scroll through the MP4 format footage and pick and save the image you want as an eightmegapixel JPEG complete with EXIF data.

Choosing and saving your best shot from a 4K sequence is simple enough but an option to save more than one still image at a time would be really handy.

An eight-megapixel still from the GX8 is 3328x2496 pixels so good enough for a 300ppi print of 11x8in without interpolation – the image above is a 4K still. That, to be honest, is not bad at all and is good enough for most needs.

Verdict ISO 3200

ISO 6400

Panasonic’s latest high-end Micro Four Thirds camera is highly featured and has much going for it, including a vari-angle monitor, adjustable EVF, good noise performance and a 20-megapixel resolution. Its 4K Photo mode opens up action shooting to everyone because you can shoot video at 30fps and then cull a peak of the action, eight-megapixel still picture from the footage. It’s also an enjoyable camera to use once you get familiar with its handling.

For £999 the GX8 offers an attractive option if you want a capable Micro Four Thirds camera.

How it rates

ISO 12,800

ISO 25,600

Features An impressive list of useful features

24/25

Performance Sensor is very good, so too is the GX8’s exposure and AF skills

24/25

Handling Good, but a lot of function buttons and command dials a bit clunky 22/25 Value for money You get a lot for your cash including 20-megapixels and 4K video 24/25 Overall A fine camera with lots of creative potential Pros Long features list, handling, image quality, vari-angle LCD, EVF 94/100 Cons Overly complex to set-up, large for an MFT camera

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Camera test Full test

Sigma dp0 Quattro The unique design of the Foveon sensor means every photodiode can detect all colours of light with the promise of accurate colours. Does the Foveon X3 Quattro in the dp0 deliver?

Specs Price £899.99, £999.99 kit comprising dp0 & LVF-01 LCD viewfinder Sensor Foveon X3 Direct Image CMOS sensor, 29 megapixels effective approx Sensor format 23.5x15.7mm, 5424x3616 pixels maximum. 14-bit lossless Raw and three JPEG levels, fine, normal and basic. Six aspect ratios available ISO range 100-6400 in 0.3EV steps Shutter range 30secs to 1/2000sec Drive modes Single, continuous, self-timer (2 or 10secs) intervalometer Metering system Evaluative, spot, centre-weighted average Exposure modes PASM Exposure compensation +/-3 in 0.3EV steps. AEB 3 shots up to +/-3EV in 0.3EV steps Monitor 3in LCD TFT with 920k dots Focusing Contrast-detection type AF with 9 points select mode. Free move mode. Face-detection mode option. Manual focus possible Colour modes 11 styles including Landscape, Cinema, Sunset Red, Forest Green, Monochrome Connectivity USB, cable release Storage media 1xSD/SDHC/SDXC Power Li-ion battery pack BP-51, battery life 200 shots approx Dimensions (WxHxD) 161x67x126mm Weight 554g with battery, with battery and LVF-01 818g Contact sigma-imaging-uk.com

Words by Will Cheung Sigma made its reputation as an independent lens maker producing high-quality lenses for the leading SLR brands. Cameras came a bit later and when Sigma went digital with the SD9 in 2002 it took a unique approach. Rather than use sensors with a mosaic pattern where red, green and blue light wavelengths are captured by separate red, green and blue pixels, Sigma used the Foveon X3 sensor where all light wavelengths are captured at every pixel site. The theory makes perfect sense and better colour resolution has been the claim right from the beginning.

And that’s still the case now, although naturally the Foveon sensor has moved on and the latest cameras use the Foveon X3 Quattro sensor, of which more later.

The dp0 Quattro belongs to a family of large sensor compact cameras each fundamentally identical with the exception of the fixed lens. The dp1 has a 19mm f/2.8 lens (equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm format camera), the dp2 has a 30mm f/2.8 (45mm equivalent), the dp3 has a 50mm f/2.8 (75mm equivalent) and the dp0 tried here has a 14mm (equivalent to a 21mm).

The guide price for all these cameras is £899, with street prices around the £799 mark.

The dp0 is now available as a kit with the LVF-01 LCD viewfinder for £999.99. This finder fits the other Quattro compacts too.

The finder mount screws to the base of the camera and the finder then slides into position. It’s an optical finder that magnifies the LCD by two and a half times so enables critical focusing checking and accurate composition regardless of the external light.

The camera’s styling is eyecatchingly different, and very Marmite – you either love or hate it.

The wide body has handling benefits and there’s plenty to grab hold of.

Also, although Sigma calls it a ‘compact’, it is nothing of the sort with a seven-inch wide body and a lens that protrudes four inches from the body. Add the LVF-01 and it protrudes from the back as much as the lens does from the front. Lens front to eyepiece distance is now similar to a 70-200mm f/2.8.

Although bulky, for convenience the finder can be left in place even when the camera is being carried.

With or without the finder, the dp0 is a conspicuous piece of kit, although its size and shape does give a secure shooting platform. With the left hand supporting the lens and the camera up to the eye it is just like using a DSLR so that adds stability straight away.

The lens itself has a thin serrated barrel to assist manual focusing but

actually most of the barrel rotates so no problem here and it is worth noting that the lens front does not rotate during focusing which filter users will appreciate.

At the dp0’s heart is the Foveon X3 Quattro direct image sensor, a sensor with three photodiode sensor layers – the top layer captures brightness and colour information, the bottom two layers capture colour data only. Each diode captures all light wavelengths vertically whereas conventional sensors have diodes arranged in one horizontal layer where each sensor can only capture red, blue or green light. Foveon’s sensor design means no low-pass filter is needed either.

The sensor is 5424x3616 pixels, which gives a 19.6-megapixel resolution, but the Foveon sensor captures twice as much information as a conventional sensor so the dp0’s effective resolution is 39 megapixels.

A Raw file is around 55MB on card and a JPEG around 12MB. Fullsize JPEGs and processed Raws can give a print size, without any interpolation, of 18x12in at 300ppi.

The dp0 delivers excellent image quality at its lower ISO settings, but venture into the ISO 800 and beyond range and the files are not suited for critical use.

Colour reproduction is excellent at ISO 400 and slower. Although this is not a sensor technology comparison, I did shoot the same

The dp0’s styling is eye-catchingly different, and very Marmite – you either love it or you hate it

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Camera test Original image

ISO performance These images are Raws processed using Sigma’s PhotoPro6 software using default noise reduction settings. The exposure for the ISO 100 picture was 1.3sec at f/8.

You can see plenty of detail in the glass window at ISO 100 and that quality is still there at ISO 400 but it falls away quickly soon after. Noise and detail are less impressive by the time ISO 800 is reached and there is the risk of colour artefacts too.

In summary, image quality in the ISO 100-400 region is comparable to other APS-C format sensors, but once into the higher ISOs, the dp0 compares much less favourably.

ISO 100

scene on several occasions with the Panasonic GX8 (also tested this issue) with its conventional mosaic sensor. In many cases straight-outof-the-camera JPEGs were broadly similar but, for example, with some bluebell flowers the Sigma seemed to be more accurate and less mauve than the Panasonic. Generally, with both cameras on standard colour settings, the Panasonic seemed more vibrant and lively with colours, while the Sigma was more restrained and subtle. One was not ‘better’ than the other, just different – and this was with out-of-the-camera JPEGs. The camera itself performed well.

AF was quick and accurate, while the exposure and white-balance systems proved commendably accurate.

Despite the bulk of the LVF‑01 finder, I preferred using the camera with it attached because you can just concentrate on the composition. I did notice I was getting a few sideways glances from other people so this might put some people off.

One downside is the magnified view does reveal that the monitor’s resolution isn’t great – this is not just the dp0’s because I tried the finder (just holding it in place) on other monitors too. It means checking critical focus, even with the x8 magnifying function, takes a little extra time and the focusing distance scale along the bottom of the finder image helps too.

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

Verdict

Picture performance

If you want a fast-handling, quick shooting, high capacity, pocketable largesensor compact, the Sigma dp0 is not for you. It’s bulky, comparatively slow and the battery capacity is modest.

But it’s not all doom and gloom because there is a great deal to enjoy too. In a world where cameras are anodyne and very much ‘me too’, the dp0 has character and personality. Importantly it produces high-quality, lifelike images, notably at the lower ISO setting thanks to the Foveon sensor and the impressive 14mm lens.

How it rates

Leaving aside the question of the sensor technology, there’s no doubt that the Foveon X3 Quattro sensor can deliver fine-quality, accurate colour pictures.

My straight-out-of-camera JPEGs, in standard colour mode, look very lifelike and natural. I did shoot some side-by-side shots with the Panasonic Lumix GX8 and the Fujifilm X-T1,

and both of those cameras seemed to give slightly more punchy results, again using the standard colour modes.

Sigma dp0 Raws were quite similar to the JPEG files when they were first opened in Sigma’s PhotoPro6 software, but there is definitely plenty of potential to tweak files if needed.

Features It’s a bulky fixed lens camera but appeals because it’s unusual

19/25

Performance Excellent image quality up to ISO 400. Exposure and AF good

20/25

Handling With or without the finder, the dp0 is different but it works well

20/25

Value for money Expensive for a fixed lens camera

19/25

Overall The dp Quattro series offers an interesting alternative so worth a look Pros Image quality at low ISO settings, lens sharpness 78/100 Cons Bulky, poor high ISO performance, limited Raw support

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Reviews

First tests Accessories

We get our hands on the latest kit and share our first impressions – so you know whether or not to add it to your wish list Words by Kingsley Singleton and Will Cheung

Specs Type Drop-in filter system and screw-in circular polarizer Sizes Drop-in filters: 100x150mm Circular polariser: 82mm Construction VFH100 Holder: Aircraft-grade aluminium Drop-in filters: Multi-coated Ultra-White Schott glass Circular polariser: Anodised aluminium and multi-coated Ultra-White Schott glass Contact vufilters.com

Verdict There’s no doubt this is high-quality gear, but of course it comes at a price. The holder and 82mm circular polariser have a guide price of £150 each. The drop-in grads are priced at £180 each so a lot more than top-quality resin versions. Build and image quality are undeniable though, and they come with a five-year warranty, so there’s plenty of peace of mind as you part with your cash.

Overall Putting anything between the lens and the scene you are recording has the potential to spoil the ultimate quality of the result, and that’s why high quality filters are essential. The Vu range is certainly high quality but it comes at a price.

Pros High-quality products with an innovative design and a build that should see them last a lifetime Cons Slightly fiddly to remove the polariser and a chat with bank manager probably required before purchase

Vü Filters’ Sion ND Grads & 82mm circular polarizer £180 & £150 Review by Kingsley Singleton Vü is a relatively new name to the filter market, but the company is hoping to distinguish itself with a range of first-class optical products. On the strength of what we have seen so far, it seems sure to do it.

We reviewed both the company’s Sion square filter system comprising the VFH100 holder and 100x150mm drop-in glass hard and soft neutral density grads, as well as its Sion 82mm screwin circular polariser, which functions with the holder in a uniquely simple but effective fashion.

Starting with the holder, it comes supplied with both 77mm and 82mm adapter rings as standard, so will fit many pro- and enthusiastlevel lenses straight out of the box. We tested it on Nikon 16-35mm f/4 and 20mm f/1.8 lenses.

Step-up rings for smaller filter threads (67mm, 72mm etc) can easily be bought online as a bridge, and don’t affect the functioning.

Like the supplied adapter rings, the holder is made from machined aircraft-grade aluminium and you can feel the strength and durability in it straight away, as well as a reassuring (but not oppressive) weight.

The process of attaching the holder onto the adapter is simple enough with some practice and smooth turning, knurled screws securely lock the holder in position. All round, it’s a world away from the cheaply made plastic or ‘pot-metal’ versions you often encounter.

The quality continues in the non-scratching ABS resin spacers at the front, into which you can slide up to three 100x150mm filters. Out of the box, it’s a snug fit, and while the spacers can be loosened with an Allen key, which is handy, we didn’t find the need.

Fitted to our 16-35mm f/4 at 16mm there was no sign of vignetting at all.

This brings us to perhaps the holder’s most interesting feature; it has a front-mounted thread where the slimline Vü Sion-CPOL 82mm polariser screws in and this sits behind the first of the drop-in filters. Once a slide-in filter is in position it would normally be impossible to rotate the polariser but there is some innovative thinking here. The design means you can rotate the ring that holds the polariser from the rear of the holder, next to the front element, meaning you can perfect your skies or reflection effects without messing with the other filters.

So to the filters themselves. The 100x150mm grads are made from impact-resistant UltraWhite Schott glass, boasting superior strength and light transmittance, and using a mix of UV and other coatings to prevent reflections and ghosting. They also feature a hydrophobic layer to make cleaning easier. In use, the grads produced very neutral results with no discernible colour cast and a seamless transition from dark to light. Nor did we notice any perceptible softening of the image, even when shooting with all three spacers filled. The 2.5stop hard grad proved particularly striking for

seascape shots, but it was nice to have the 1.5stop version too, for a more subtle effect, and of course the filters can be stacked to multiply the loss of light.

The 82mm Sion-CPOL 82mm also put in a great performance. Using the same aluminium as the holder, the added strength should keep it from warping and the anodised metal means the thread remains truer than untreated surfaces.

With the same coatings as the drop-in grads, the polariser gave excellent sharpness and was easy to turn either from the front via its ridged bezel or from behind the other filters as designed.

The only difficulty we encountered was that it wasn’t the easiest to remove. Screwed into the ridged adapter ring, the slimline mount means there’s very little to grip, so removal was best done by taking the ring off, positioning it upside down and unscrewing it with a little help from gravity (and with a microfibre towel below, just in case). In either case, it led to fingerprints on the filter and it would be even harder in gloves.

Ideally you’d buy a second adapter (£30) and leave the polariser permanently in place.

In terms of filter factor, there’s light loss of at least -1.0EV and this rose to around -2.3EV at the maximum polarisation.

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Reviews

Tamrac Anvil Slim 15 £239 Review by Will Cheung Tamrac is a popular camera bag brand and its products are a common sight in photo stores everywhere. What you might not know is that the brand went into bankruptcy last year, since has been bought and now, under the auspices of its new owners, is in the process of being revitalised. For more on the Tamrac story, see this month’s Profile on the company’s new president, Greg Schern.

The Anvil line of six professional backpacks is the first of the new Tarmac bags to come to market. Three models are for deep-bodied and full-frame DSLRs and there are three Slim models targeted for CSC as well as DSLRs. The numbers after each product name tells you the bag’s internal capacity in litres. On test here is the Anvil Slim 15.

Photo rucksacks can be surprisingly heavy even when empty so it’s a good start that the Anvil 15 seems light for its size, weighing in at just over 2kg. Tamrac says that with the considered choice of materials including the foam used for padding, weight savings of around 30-35% have been made compared with its preceding backpacks.

The main compartment comes with a full set of padded adjustable dividers and despite its Slim name tag, the bag is deep enough for my Nikon D800 full-frame DSLR without a grip.

That’s great news because its suits both my fullframe system and my Fujifilm X-series system.

Capacity-wise, the Anvil 15 can swallow a good-sized outfit. Two full-frame Nikon bodies, one with lens attached, plus five more lenses and a flashgun can be comfortably accommodated with space for filters and other accessories.

Three clear-fronted zipped pockets are available for memory cards, spare batteries and so on and the zips have little ‘garages’ to slip into so there’s no chance they’ll rub against your kit. The Anvil has a separate, well-padded compartment for a 15in laptop too.

Three pockets are available on the rear of the bag and are big enough for things like remote releases, snacks and the supplied rain cover.

Tripod attachment straps (which can be removed entirely if that’s what you prefer) are

Above I tested the Anvil Slim 15 but it is still deep enough for a full-frame DSLR (without any grip). There’s plenty of capacity too for a very good-sized outfit without compromising protection levels. provided to hold it in place with the legs stowed in the base rear pocket. Full-size tripods are not so convenient to attach to the rear but travel or more compact models fit fine.

Many photo backpacks have waist or hip straps for enhanced carrying comfort, but most are permanently anchored in place, which can be a nuisance because you don’t always need them. A neat innovation on the Anvil is that the waist strap can be quickly removed entirely – a couple of clips and a large patch of Velcro holds the belt in position. That saves a bit of weight too. Better still, it can be used as a waist-belt and independent accessory carrying strap. It has various hoops and Tamrac has a range of Arc pouches that fit, and MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) accessories from other brands fit too. I have a couple of Lowepro pouches I use for filters and these fit onto the Anvil strap no problem.

Of course this extra carrying capacity is also available when the waist strap is in use too – a good place for a water bottle perhaps.

If you want to go full out, there are two accessory attachment straps on each side.

There are plenty of thoughtful design touches.

For example, the hand carrying handle at the top of the bag is padded for carrying comfort. The clear face of the interior pockets are made from TPU, a material that remains supple in extreme temperatures. And the sternum strap design means adjustment is easy but there is no way that the straps can become detached as I have experienced with other brands.

There is much to like about the Anvil so how was it in use? Loaded with my two-bodied, fivelens outfit, flash, filters, spare batteries and an 11in Macbook Air, the whole lot weighed a little under 10kg so a substantial load. I wouldn’t want to walk too far or for too long with that burden but the Anvil did make the walking I did with it bearable. The shoulder compression straps, the support from the waist strap and the sternum strap all played a part in the comfort stakes. I still had a sweaty back but that was inevitable.

Protection levels are high so no worries there and that didn’t compromise gear accessibility.

There are a few things I would’ve liked to have. An elasticated pouch on the bag’s side to hold a water bottle within easy reach as standard would be good, as would a wallet or phone-sized zip secured pocket on the waist belt.

Specs Material 600D Tripod holder Yes with removable straps Sternum strap Yes Laptop pocket Yes, 15in Waist belt Yes, removable, and with hoops to hold accessory pouches Zips YKK Dimensions (WxHxD) Exterior 31x47x21cm; Interior 28x44x12cm Weight 2.1kg Contact intro2020.co.uk tarmac.com

Verdict If the Anvil range is a sign of serious intent from Tamrac’s new owners, then there are exciting times ahead. The Anvil Slim 15 is a quality, thoughtfully designed product at a competitive price that is excellent to use. If you need a photo backpack this collection is definitely one for the shortlist.

All in all, though, this is a fine bag that does its job very well indeed and competitively priced at £239.

Above Three clear-fronted wallets in the main compartment are perfect for spare batteries, extra cards and cleaning aids like the LensPen. Right A travel or medium-sized tripod can easily to strapped to the back. All these straps can be taken off if you prefer.

Overall A good backpack is worth its weight in gold and usually you only discover a bag’s flaws after a few week’s use. It’s fair to say I haven’t found any flaws in this Tamrac, so I can highly recommend it.

Pros Versatile, well made, plenty of storage Cons Missing a couple of design niceties

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Reviews Specs Printing technology Advanced Micro Piezo® AMC print head with ink-repelling coating technology, 8-channel, drop-on-demand, inkjet print head Nozzle configuration 180 nozzles x 8 Minimum ink droplet size 2 picoliters, Variable Droplet Technology can produce up to 3 different droplet sizes per print line Maximum print resolution 5760x1440dpi Maximum paper width 13in Max/min cut-sheet size 13x19in/3.5x5in Maximum printable area 13x129in CD/DVD printing Yes using included tray Ink Pigment-based Epson UltraChrome® HD ink technology: Photo or matte black, cyan, vivid magenta, yellow, light cyan, vivid light magenta, light black, light light black Replacement ink cartridges Epson intelligent ink cartridges. Cartridge fill volume: 25.9 ml Interface Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (1 port), 100Base-T Ethernet (1 port). Wi-Fi CERTIFIED (802.11n only), Wi-Fi Direct, Epson Connect 4: Epson iPrint Mobile App, Apple Airprint, Google Cloud Print™ Operating systems Windows® 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) Mac OS® X 10.7.x, 10.8.x, 10.9.x, Power consumption Printing approximately 21W, sleep mode: less than 3W Dimensions (WxHxD) 61.4x81.2x42.4cm (printing mode) 61.4x36.8x15.2cm (storage) Weight 15.8kg Contact epson.co.uk

Verdict A quality photo printer is a serious investment but one thoroughly worth making, in my view. If the notion is appealing to you too, then the Epson SureColor P600 is most definitely one worth considering. It’s versatile in terms of media, has the benefit of Wi-Fi and its quality inkset means you get high-quality, lightfast prints. There aren’t too many options among A3+ printers but this is the best I’ve used.

Overall Epson is the market leader when it comes to photo inkjet printing and with products such as this, it is easy to see why. It’s a capable machine and worth the money.

Pros Print quality in colour and mono prints, versatile as regards media choice, touch control panel, WiFi Cons Loud intermittent whirrings as prints made spoils the otherwise very quiet operation, initial set-up hiccup

Epson SureColor P600 £540 Review by Will Cheung Holding a finished print in your hands a few minutes after clicking on the print button is priceless. Yes, getting your prints done by an online lab is all well and good and massively better than viewing your best shots on-screen irrespective of how good your monitor is, but the ultimate satisfaction is doing it yourself at home on the media you’ve chosen.

If you don’t own a decent photo printer or have one which is a few years vintage, then check out Epson’s latest, the SureColor P600 A3+ printer.

It sells for around £540, has a nine colour inkset including three blacks for the best possible monochrome prints and each cartridge holds 25.9ml of ink – about twice as much as some older Epson printers. Spare cartridges cost around £22 each.

Epson UltraChrome inks are renowned for their fidelity and lightfast qualities so no issues – assuming suitable media is used – with print longevity. The inks the P600 uses are the latest generation HD inks and with Epson’s Resin Encapsulation Technology gives deep blacks and a high level of sharpness. On Premium Gloss photo paper, Epson claims a Dmax of 2.84, the highest yet seen on one of its printers.

It can also cope with a wide range of media from popular finishes like baryta and high gloss to art finishes and posterboard. You can print on DVDs/CDs too. There is a rear feed option that is used for most general media and front feed for art media and thicker materials.

Setting up the driver is straightforward and the enclosed CD takes you to an Epson support site. The only issue I had was that the link I was taken too installed the driver with no printing profiles for Epson papers. In the end, I went to esupport.epson-europe.com and got a driver complete with a wide range of profiles for Epson products. After uninstalling one driver and installing the new one, I was ready to go. Generic profiles for the other papers I used I got from the respective websites.

I used a Mac Mini connected to the printer via its USB 2.0 interface, but the P600 also has Wi-Fi connectivity so I tried that too. The convenience of wireless printing was too tempting to resist and it certainly makes life easier in the home.

There is a 2.7in touch-sensitive panel, and the whole control panel can be angled up for convenience. To start with, the printer couldn’t find my Wi-Fi network using the set-up wizard – it found six others though – so I tried Push

Above The P600 can be used for printing from tablets and smartphones via Wi-Fi and media choice and paper size can be set using the touch-sensitive control panel. Below The control panel can be angled out for greater ease of use. The printer’s Wi-Fi feature makes it easier too so no need for a cable connection. In our tests, printing speed with the USB 2.0 cable and Wi-Fi was more or less identical.

Button Setup (WPS) option. Here, press WPS on the network router, then the Proceed button on the printer and let the devices get acquainted.

Five minutes later the symbol on the touchscreen confirmed I was connected – at the first attempt too. If that sounds like I was surprised, you’d be right because it usually takes me a couple of attempts to get wireless devices linked to my network.

I made prints on a variety of Epson, Fotospeed, Hahnemühle and Permajet papers, including art surfaces to try the printer’s Matte Black option.

It’s a quiet printer – although you get a few intermittent, quite loud whirrings during the process – and fairly quick too. Whether with the USB connection or via Wi-Fi an A3 print came out in just under seven minutes.

The results, as you are entitled to expect from Epson are very impressive in terms of quality of colour and tonality. I had no serious physical problems either, so no random ink blotches or drive wheel indents on the surface. The only mechanical issue I had was when I deliberately tried one paper with curly edges that I know suffers from head strike. It was the same issue on the P600, so much so that the printer had to be restarted.

Rich monochromes is one promise of the P600 and that is certainly borne out. Blacks are solid but that doesn’t come at the expense of blocking up detail and if there are details in the deep shadows, they will show through.

Highlights and mid-tones are very smoothly rendered too.

In colour, if you like your prints rich and punchy the P600 will suit very nicely. That said, I found strongly coloured landscape scenes came out overly vibrant while the slight injection of life suited more delicately coloured scenes. Foliage

and blue sky came perfectly naturally again with a punch that looked good and can be easily toned down if desired.

My portraits were too warm and unacceptably red. These portraits print fine on my printer so for the P600 need reworking, but such teething issues with a new printer is not unusual and getting used to the sort of files needed sorts this.

I printed some shots from my iPhone 5C with Airplay and that worked too. I don’t know why but I got a mix of image sizes – borderless A3 or 6x4in on the corner of A3.

The ultimate capacity of the ink cartridges I can’t pass judgement on. The test printer arrived with the cartridges installed and a few prints had been made already, and I made 36 A3 and A3+ prints. The levels of the yellow and photo black inks were the lowest but still over half full.

Above The P600 has a nine colour inkset and that includes four blacks – Matte or Photo Black and then Light Black and Light Light Black. Whether Matte or Photo Black is used depends on the paper’s finish.

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Reviews

Fujifilm XF16mm f/1.4 R WR £729

Specs Construction 13 elements in 11 groups Angle of view 83° Aperture range f/1.4-16 Filter thread 67mm Minimum focus 15cm Aperture blades 67mm Lens mount Fujifilm X-bayonet Weight 375g Contact Fujifilm.eu/uk

Verdict Above The 16mm is ideal for interiors and in situations where space is at a premium. The interior of the Emmanuel Chapel in Cambridge was exposed at 1/40sec at f/2 and ISO 200. The lens does not have VR but handholding at relatively slow shutter speeds is no problem at all.

The Fujifilm 16mm f/1.4 is a high-spec wide-angle from the top drawer and it is priced accordingly. But £729 does buy you a first-class, very versatile optic that delivers an impressive optical performance at every aperture setting.

Overall There is a great deal to admire and enjoy with this high quality, fast aperture wide-angle lens and it’s very much a class act, mechnically and optically. Definitely a lens for X-system owners to shortlist.

Review by Will Cheung In my opinion, one key reason why Fujifilm has been so successful with its X-system, aside from the cameras being able to deliver excellent results, is its lens system which is generously endowed with fast-aperture, high-spec primes of useful focal lengths.

So we have beauties like the 23mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4 and the 56mm f/1.2. They have now been joined by the 16mm f/1.4 that with the format’s 1.5x crop factor means it is equivalent to a 24mm f/1.4 in the 35mm format. Thus this lens has great potential for documentary, street, interiors and scenics and much more. Potentially, it’s an excellent all-round wide-angle lens.

One thing with the equivalent spec lenses for the 35mm format is that they are generally quite chunky pieces of glass – the Canon 24mm f/1.4 weighs in at 650g. So you won’t be surprised to hear that the Fujifilm 16mm f/1.4 is a solidly made lens but much lighter at 375g and of course it is physically smaller although its filter thread is still 67mm.

Its 13 elements in 11-group construction includes two aspheric and two extra-low dispersion elements, and each lens surface is coated with Fujifilm’s HT-EBC. HT-EBC stands for High Transmittance Electron Beam Coating that was originally designed for TV broadcast lenses to help achieve clear images in difficult lighting and is now used on consumer Fujifilm products. Finally, one surface has Nano GI coating that’s said to reduce ghosting and flare from diagonal incident light.

One important feature is that the lens is weather and dust resistant with nine seals in eight areas around the lens barrel. A design that minimises the temperature difference between the inside and the outside of the lens plus the use of electronic parts enables the lens to perform perfectly in temperatures as low as -10°C. The smooth aperture ring is clicked-stopped in 0.3EV steps like other X-series lenses and

Pros Very useful focal length, close focusing skills, image quality Cons No focusing tweaking in AF mode, price slightly on the high side

there are no other controls apart from the focus barrel that clicks back to give manual focusing.

Manual focusing itself is smooth and minimum focus is 15cm – focus this closely and the lens front is a couple of inches away from the subject. Being able to focus this closely and shoot at f/1.4 gives plenty of potential for creative focusing effects.

A rare sight nowadays is the lens’s depth-offield scale, which has become less important now with the instant feedback of digital but still a welcome feature.

Of course having a fast aperture counts for nought if it can’t deliver sharp pictures. No worries here though, and this lens can be used at maximum aperture with confidence – just get the focus right particularly when you are in close. It means you have the freedom to set the aperture to suit the depth-of-field you want in the scene and not worry about setting an optimum aperture.

I made several 19x13in prints from f/1.4 shots, using an Epson P600 printer (tested opposite).

With default sharpening in Lightroom CC, the quality is excellent. If the scene has fine detail this lens will do a great job of recording it.

Stopping down does have a benefit but the standard is so high wide open that the improvements are relatively limited. Diffraction at f/16 has an impact too but not too much and the lens is perfectly good for critical use at its minimum aperture.

Autofocusing is quick thanks to the lens’s Rear Focusing System driven by a high torque DC coreless motor. I used it on an X-T1 running v4 firmware and the new X-T10 and had no issues with AF speed. Accuracy was good too, just make sure that you move the AF point to

focus in the right part of the scene when the lens is wide open.

One small negative is a feature available on some X-lenses is not available on this lens. With manual focus override, you can fine-tune the camera’s attempt at AF manually even in AF mode. On this lens, you can’t although it is only marginally slower pulling the lens collar back to engage manual focus – it’s just less instinctive.

Above left Scenes rich in fine detail are no problem for the 16mm f/1.4, even when used at its wider apertures. In fact, stopping down increases depth-of-field but does little to improve the already impressively high standard of optical performance.

Above The 16mm f/1.4’s minimum focusing distance of 15cm from the focal plane means you can get in very close, and shoot at f/1.4 but it means depth-of-field is very shallow indeed. For such shots, using focus lock risks poor focusing so the camera’s AF point needs positioning over the subject. Exposure was 1/340sec at f/1.4 and ISO 200.

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Accessories test Buyers’ guide

LASTOLITE Brolly Grip and Umbrella Kit £27

On-location lighting gear

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These days you can use flash in almost any environment and well-engineered products make it simple and easy to do – but you also need to modify and tailor the light to suit your subject. To help, this month we’re shedding some light on some must-have accessories…

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HÄHNEL Capture Remote Trigger £60

The first time you use an accessory flashgun (or ‘speedlight’) it feels like a big step forward. You get more power, less time between flashes and more control than the pop-up flash on your camera can provide. That extra control comes via a speedlight’s tilting and swivelling head, meaning you can reflect the light onto the subject for softer shadows and to avoid redeye in portraits. To further this, your accessory flash will also most likely come with an integrated bounce card and/or diffuser to soften the light even more. It’s a huge improvement over a weak, harsh and uncontrolled pop-up flash, but with the right gear the fun doesn’t end there.

The next stage is to further modify your flash and start using it off camera, and that’s where the freedom really begins, opening up all sorts of more creative lighting effects. Because speedlights are small and light, they’re the perfect travelling companion and can be easily positioned in a range of places, so you can apply sophisticated and dramatic lighting in almost any spot – often places where studio heads and modifiers would be too bulky to use. With the right kit, you can also filter, channel or diffuse the light in ways that better suit the subject and your creative intentions.

Many photographers use DIY modifiers, and while these can cut down your spend and help you learn what works and what doesn’t, there’s a definite benefit to buying off-the-shelf products which will last longer and function better, having been designed with input from photographers like you. Kit needs to be light and portable, too, because you don’t want a bad back putting you off shooting. You should also consider non-flash gear that can work with your set-up to solve problems and add special effects.

With that in mind, here are some recommendations to get you started…

Firing the flash Many people have an unfounded fear of offcamera flash – it seems complicated and difficult to control – but it’s very easy to trigger, either using an oldfashioned sync cable, or with radio or infrared signals.

Most photographers use radio triggers, but many cameras can now control compatible guns from the body alone, usually via a preflash from the built-in flash.

The advantage of radio triggers is extended range and that lineof-sight isn’t necessary for them to work, so you have more freedom.

On the other hand, controlling a flash from the camera lets you use through-the-lens (TTL) metering for easier exposures.

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PIXAPRO Padded 80cm Bag £50

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Lastolite Brolly Grip and Umbrella Kit £27

Proving you don’t need to spend big to improve your lighting, here’s Lastolite’s Brolly Grip and Umbrella kit – while lighting stands are vital for more complex set-ups and larger diffusers, the essential benefit of getting the flash off the camera is just as effective if you’re holding it at arm’s length, as this grip allows. The Brolly Grip mounts your flash in a horizontal position, aiming it like a pistol, letting you use it as the main light or to fill in shadows while you shoot with the other hand. For diffusion, into the grip slides an included 50cm translucent umbrella (you can buy the grip alone for £20), and shafts of 8mm or 10mm will fit if you have another brolly to use. Using the grip at arm’s length you don’t even need a trigger – a sync cable does the job perfectly. For versatility it can also be mounted on a regular light stand spigot, and the whole assembly weighs only 340g packed up in its 48cm long carry case. lastolite.co.uk

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Hähnel Captur Remote Trigger System £60

Wireless triggers let you to place flashes at a greater distance and in more creative positions than using sync cables. There are lots of triggers on the market, but

LENCARTA Safari 2 £700 Hähnel’s new Captur range of remotes offers a great blend of quality and value.

The basic Captur unit is a remote shutter release (also allowing AF, continuous and Bulb shooting) and wireless flash trigger remote in one. You can use the system at up to 100m. The system is available for Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic and Sony models, and additional receivers are available for around £40, allowing you to trigger more than one flash (or camera) at a time. The tuning is via a digital system, so you can also trigger different flashes at different times, useful for more creative open-flash techniques. The system runs on AA batteries, and you can build on it with accessories like the Captur Module Pro and Module IR which allow high-speed, time lapse, and motion-triggered effects. hahnel.ie

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Pixapro Padded 80cm Bag £50

When you get into lighting you’ll end up with lots of bits and bobs that improve results and make the job easier. You need to get all that from A to B in a safe and orderly manner, so a good, affordable and adaptable bag is a must. This one from Pixapro certainly fits the bill, with extrathick padding at the sides and bottom to protect your gear, and internal Velcro

strapping to secure it on the move. Like a regular camera bag, there are modular internal dividers to isolate kit, and an upholstered sheet runs the full length, wrapping over kit for further protection.

Grab handles and a shoulder strap make it easy to carry, and the main compartment has a wide, double-zippered opening to improve access. The outer is heavy, waterrepellent canvas and the bag measures 80x31x30cm (75x21x26cm internally), so it can swallow a lot of kit. There’s also a long zippered pocket at the side, suitable for boom arms, or lighting stands such as Pixapro’s own 190cm model (£15 and folding to 66cm). essentialphoto.co.uk

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Lencarta Safari 2 £700

Speedlights are an easy choice for flash on location, but they’re limited in power and performance. For more output (and more options in your lighting) consider a set-up like Lencarta’s Safari 2 which offers studio flash specs and portability in one. The Safari 2 has compact head, and a 600Ws flash generator (much higher than a speedlight) but it’s small and light enough to carry in a backpack (a metal case is supplied). The power is adjustable over five stops down to 1/32 in 1/3EV increments and you can get up to 400 full-power flashes per charge. It

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Accessories test LUMIQUEST Location Portrait Kit £78 6 5

METZ 64 AF-1 Digital Flashgun £299

EXPOIMAGING Rogue FlashBender 2 XL Pro Lighting System £85 7

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WESTCOTT Flex 1-Light Daylight Kit £650

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BOUNCELITE Venue £120 can be triggered in slave mode, using a cable/remote trigger, or with Lencarta’s own Wavesync Commander system which also controls power remotely. The generator is connected to the head by a heavy-duty cable of about 3m in length, so there’s plenty of scope in positioning one away from the other. It also has a 15W LED modelling lamp (equivalent to 150W), letting you check modelling unlike with an accessory flash and uses S-fit modifiers so you can use your studio modifiers outdoors, too. lencarta.com

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Metz 64 AF-1 Digital Flashgun £299

A good speedlight needs to be durable, powerful and controllable – like this Metz 64 AF-1. With a maximum output of GN64, it’s among the most powerful models available, but that punch can be delivered in precision 1/3EV increments all the way down to 1/256. With a zooming head, the light is tailored for focal lengths of 24200mm and a built-in wide-angle diffuser extends it to 12mm. The head swivels up to 300° horizontally and between -9° and +90° vertically, and there’s an integrated reflector card for bounce flash effects.

With a robust build, it’s controlled via a large, well-laid-out touchscreen and the display rotates 90° when shooting

vertically, which is neat. The 64 AF-1 has TTL-metering, so you can use it hotshoemounted and expect first-class results in its auto mode. Like other high-spec (and higher-priced) camera brand guns it can be used as a master or slave, and supports wireless triggering from the camera, so you can use Nikon’s CLS or Canon’s E-TTL to control off-camera flash at a lower cost. metzflash.co.uk

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LumiQuest Location Portrait Kit £78

Photographers need to travel light but still have lots of options, and catering for exactly that is this kit of modifiers and filters from LumiQuest. For softening naked flash, the kit includes a large Promax Softbox III, measuring 20x23cm, and for more concentrated accents or hair lighting, there’s a Snoot XTR with a telescoping end, cutting spread to around 5° for precise control. Both modifiers fold flat into the included wallet and the whole thing weighs only 425g, so you’re unlikely to notice it’s even in your bag. The kit includes an FXtra gel set allowing you to blend flash with tungsten and fluorescent light via three strengths of CTO filter and two green filters (plus blue, yellow and red for other effects), combining with the softbox and snoot if required. The filter

holder and other modifiers attach via LumiQuest’s UltraStrap accessory, two of which are included. These neoprene straps are compatible with all LumiQuest products and fit standard accessory flash guns. snapperstuff.com

ExpoImaging Rogue 7 FlashBender 2 XL Pro Lighting System £85 An obvious difference between studio and on-camera flash is the softness of the light created; the larger the light source compared to the subject, the more diffused the light will be. So, bigger is better if you want softness and though you can fire a speedlight through a regular softbox, it’s not always ideal in terms of the size and weight. A great alternative is ExpoImaging’s Rogue FlashBender 2 XL Pro Lighting System, comprising a FlashBender 2 XL Pro Reflector, Pro Soft Box Diffuser and Pro Strip Grid. Like its predecessor, this new FlashBender can be sculpted to throw the light as you wish, but at 391g it’s lighter than before and the XL version measures 33x41cm, creating a large light source, without sacrificing portability. The reflector attaches securely using a belt and buckle. Add the diffuser and you’ve got lower-contrast light whenever you want it, while the Strip

Grid Attachment restricts the spread for rim lighting effects. The whole set-up packs neatly into the included bag, too. www.colorconfidence.com

8

BounceLite Venue £120

Although most accessory flashes come with an integrated pull-out bounce card and a clip-on diffuser, you can really only use one or the other at a time.

The BounceLite accessory is different, combining both of those features, but building on them, too. In its simplest set-up the BounceLite works as a small softbox, with its white inner and large diffusing front panel spreading and softening the light more than a smaller clip-on diffuser can manage. There’s also a flip-up bounce card reflector (also much larger than a flash’s integrated version), and this can be used at the same time to vary your lighting effects, either directing the light towards the subject or bouncing off a wall or ceiling. Using the two together, and also rotating the flash direction, gives a serious amount of lighting options. At 250g, the BounceLite is light enough not to unbalance your flash, but has a sturdy feel and attaches to almost any accessory flash via a rubber strap, which stretches around the back and clips securely at the opposite side.

There’s also a rubber ‘mount pad’ spacer for smaller ’guns. The kit also includes two filter cassettes and a wallet of six CT gels to control mixed lighting, which together slot in neatly at the base, as well as a neoprene case. bouncelite.com

9

Westcott Flex 1-Light Daylight Kit £650

Using the right flash kit and accessories, you’ll find a way to light almost any location… almost. Sometimes you need a more innovative solution like this one from Westcott – the Flex 1-Light – a highly adaptable mat of LED lights that can fit places a flash can’t. The Flex 1-Light is water resistant so it’s suitable for a wide range of locations and weather, but more importantly its mouldable black frame makes it pliable, wrapping to uneven surfaces. The light also comes with a X-shaped mount to use it as a regular lighting panel. Its surface is covered with 256 LEDs with a consistent output of 55W, making it useful for both photo and video work. Measuring 25x25cm and weighing only 200g, its very portable, too. Crucially the light is both dimmable down to 5% and can be softened further using an included diffusion panel. It’s available in daylight- or tungsten-balanced versions. fjwestcott.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Technique Photo school

Camera class

Step by step How to shoot HDR

Everyone has to start somewhere, even pros, and in Photo School we look at the core skills every beginner needs. This month, how to shoot and process High Dynamic Range pictures in camera and in Adobe Lightroom Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton

Because a camera’s sensor responds to light differently to your eye, it’s not always capable of recording the world how you see it, most noticeably when shooting a scene with very bright parts and very dark ones. These highlights and shadows look normal to you, but in the picture, detail is lost in one or the other area, so you just get pure black or pure white pixels. The answer?

Well, one method is to make a High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture – one that reproduces a greater level of highlight or shadow detail than possible in a regular exposure.

The best way to create HDR pics is to shoot different exposures and combine them in software, but on some models you can also do it all in camera, which is good for quickness.

Whichever route you use, multiple exposures of the same scene need to be produced, then merged (either by you or the camera), some of which record detail in the highlights and some in the shadows.

HDR from Raw? Alternatively, due to the extra information contained in Raw files, just one shot in that format can

contain all you need to make an HDR image; you just need to convert the Raw file once for the highlight detail and once for shadow detail, saving those versions of the picture as separate files. Next, combine them using an HDR package like HDRSoft’s Photomatix Pro 5, as described right, or blend them manually using Photoshop layers.

Going HDR from a single Raw file is great for scenes with moving subjects, like flowing water or crowds of people. On the downside, if you lighten or darken the Raw too much you can lose quality.

Before

After

1. Lock position, aperture and focus The camera should be on a tripod so there’s no movement between the frames. The depth-of-field and point of focus should also be consistent, so shoot in aperture-priority mode (A or Av), focus on one part of the scene, then switch to manual. Set ISO manually, too, so that when the bracketed exposures are created it’s only shutter speed that changes.

2. Bracket the shots Activate the camera’s bracketing mode and choose the number of shots. This depends on the scene’s dynamic range, the exposure difference between each shot and what your camera offers. So, while three shots at +/-1.0EV would cover one scene, a contrastier scene will need more – like five or seven shots.

Switch to self-timer, and shoot until all the exposures are recorded.

3. Merge the exposures Load the light and dark exposures into your HDR software (here we’re using Photomatix Pro 5), and within the main interface you can choose how the exposures will be combined – a process called tone-mapping. Very different results can be produced, from photorealistic to gaudy via presets, which can be adapted using sliders to control brightness in the highlights, midtones and shadows.

Software skills Photo Merge HDR in Lightroom Making HDR files is a new feature for Lightroom, and is found with the Photo Merge options. It works very well, giving a more photorealistic look than a lot of stand-alone packages, without the emphasis on lots of micro-contrast.

And what you get after merging multiple JPEGs or Raw files is a much larger file with a lot more exposure latitude within in. This behaves just like a regular Raw file, just one in which you can make a greater level of adjustments to settings like the Exposure (on a regular Raw file, the Exposure slider runs from +/-5 stops, but on an HDR Raw it’s +/-10 stops.

Very few Develop settings, like Exposure or Highlights, that are applied to a file will be carried over to the new HDR DNG file when the process is complete, so any creative editing, also including using the Graduated filter tool, should be saved for after the HDR process. Here’s how it’s done...

1. Select the pictures

2. Control the blending

3. Final editing

In the Library module, or via the filmstrip at the bottom of the interface, highlight the files that you want to use, then either Ctrlclick or right-click on them and go to Photo Merge>HDR (you can also find this option under the Photo menu). The more files you add the higher the quality, but the slower the process, so try sticking to around five shots.

In the dialogue box that appears are options to Auto Align handheld pictures (deselect if you shot on a tripod) and Auto Tone, which applies exposure changes (this is undoable later). The Deghost Amount sets the level of correction for moving parts of the scene, like trees or water, depending on the amount. You can also tap O to show areas being corrected.

Hit Merge and after a few moments a DNG file will be created with the suffix ‘-HDR’ (making it easy to search for). This file can be processed like any other, but is much larger in terms of file size, as it contains more data. To heighten the HDR ‘look’, try moving the Highlights and Whites left while pushing Shadows and Blacks right. Finally, add some Clarity.

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Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Competition Editor’s letter

Letter from the editor

WIN!

Samsung memory duo

Capture life’s special moments across all devices with the ultra-reliable Samsung SD memory cards. Samsung’s latest SD cards can write data at an impressive 40MB/s and read data at an even higher 80MB/s. The cards are also amazingly reliable being water, temperature-, X-ray-, magnet- and shockproof, so shooting in the most challenging conditions isn’t an issue. We’re giving away two 32GB Samsung PRO SDHC UHS-1 cards to two lucky winners. Just complete the wordsearch below, and you’ll find one word in the list that’s not in the grid. Email us on puzzle@photography-news.co.uk with that word in the subject line by 21 September 2015. samsung.com and search for memorycards

I don’t know who first said that ‘the best things in life are free’, but it’s a sentiment that’s impossible to argue against. Whether you’re a regular reader or a newcomer to Photography News, it is a unique publication in the photography market because it is free.

Distributed to UK camera clubs and available through selected leading photographic retailers, Photography News is always free, and it’s also available online. For the latter, all you have to do is register on absolutephoto. com and each time an issue comes out we’ll email you so that you can just log on to read it. Simple.

If you don’t belong to a camera club, live miles away from a photo retailer or simply just want your own physical copy every month, Photography News is available on a subscription, for £14.99 a year – that just covers the cost of posting a copy out.

Editorially, the premise of the publication is very Ronseal, ie. we do what the title says: we bring you the latest news from the exciting world of photography, especially new kit, from camera and lens launches through to new cleaning cloths and batteries. If it’s new and relevant to imaging you will read about it in Photography News. With the imaging world such a fervent cauldron of activity, new products bring with them ever-more opportunities to enjoy photography, and in the way you want to enjoy it.

Product tests are also a pivotal part of our editorial content, and each month we take an independent look at the latest arrivals and give you advice on how to spend your money wisely. To be frank, we are blessed to live in an age where there is no truly awful kit – it’s all good – but it is also true that there are relative differences and some things are ‘better’ (however you want to define or interpret that word) than others. Those differences can be really tiny, and many, of course, are subjective too. Regardless, our honest views will steer you in the right direction.

Photography News’s very wide remit means we offer up opinions from across the spectrum, not just ours, as well as details of what’s happening in the wider world of imaging too. Each issue we look at the latest imaging techniques, exhibitions and competitions too – and it’s all for free.

Plus we are always open to ideas. So if there is a product you particularly want to see tested or an area of imaging you feel we should cover, please feel free to email me at editor@ photography-news.co.uk.

All the best for now and see you next issue, out on 17 September.

Register on absolutephoto.com and you can read Photography News online on your smartphone, tablet or computer as soon as it’s published.

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HDR Histogram JPEG Levels

Mirror Mouse Optic Pan

Peaking Retro Salon Scan

Advertising Team

Publishing Team

Editorial director Roger Payne

Sales director Matt Snow 01223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com Sales executive Krishan Parmar 01223 499462 krishanparmar@bright-publishing.com

Managing directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck Head of circulation Chris Haslum

Contributing editor Kingsley Singleton kingsleysingleton@bright-publishing.com Features writer Megan Croft megancroft@bright-publishing.com Sub editors Lisa Clatworthy & Catherine Brodie

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If you do not want to receive any marketing information from Bright Publishing or our partners, in your email entry please type NO INFO.

Editorial Team Editor Will Cheung FRPS 01223 499469 willcheung@bright-publishing.com

Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire, CB22 3HJ www.bright-publishing.com

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Drone DSLR Filter Firmware

Read Photography News online

Photography

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Design Team Design director Andy Jennings Designer Katy Bowman Junior designer Lucy Woolcomb

As well as your local camera club, you can pick up Photography News in-store from: Calumet, Cameraworld, Castle Cameras, Jessops, London Camera Exchange, Park Cameras, Wilkinson Cameras

Photography News is published on the third Monday of every month by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Photography News is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Photography News 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. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. While Bright Publishing makes every effort to ensure accuracy, it can’t be guaranteed. Street pricing at the time of writing is quoted for products.

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Advertisement feature Rugby World Cup offers

Win Rugby World Cup tickets with Canon!

Canon is kicking off this month by offering its customers the chance to win a pair of tickets to this year’s Rugby World Cup as well as a free Gilbert Official Rugby World Cup 2015 ball Want to capture the action of the 2015 Rugby World Cup? What better way than to upgrade to a stellar Canon shooter and at the same time be in with a chance to win one of 50 pairs of tickets to the Rugby World Cup.

Buy any of Canon’s key players, such as the EOS 7D Mark II, the EOS 750D or the PowerShot G7 X, between 20 August and 9 October 2015, and you could win a pair of tickets to the Rugby World Cup 2015 – you just need to upload your

EOS 7D Mark II

Specs Sensor size/type 22.4x15.0mm CMOS Resolution 20.2 megapixels ISO sensitivity 100-16,000 Shutter speed range 30secs to 1/8000sec Dimensions (wxhxd) 148.6x112.4x78.2mm Weight 910g (body only)

Speed junkies look sharp, the 7D Mark II is one of Canon’s key players built to keep up with the action. Bagged tickets to the Rugby World Cup this year?

The 7D Mark II’s continuous shooting speed of up to 10fps will come in handy for freezing the moment bang on cue. Its 65-point wide-area autofocus delivers pin-sharp shots, especially in fast-paced environments where you’re looking to track your subjects without losing focus for crisp, sharp and accurate photos.

Whatever you’re into photographing, the EOS 7D Mark II’s newly designed 20.2-megapixel sensor works in tandem with rapid Dual DIGIC 6 processors to deliver extremely detailed results, with a responsive performance and minimal lag. Weather sealing means you can keep shooting come rain or shine and dual memory card slots are ideal for keeping you going throughout the day without interruption.

WIN

RUGBY WORLD CUP

TICKETS!

receipt and product serial number online to enter the draw.

You’ll also get a Gilbert Official Rugby World Cup 2015 Replica ball. Full details including terms and conditions are available at canon.co.uk/rwc2015.

EOS 750D

Whether you’re an expert or brand new to photography, it really doesn’t matter with the EOS 750D. This DSLR is designed to make taking pictures whatever your experience easy and stimulating. It features a range of shooting modes from basic to creative to fully manual, perfect for every level of shooter, whatever you’re trying to capture.

Details won’t escape the powerful 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor, which gives you plenty of control over depth-of-field, as well as reduced noise and improved dynamic range.

An articulated LCD screen is particularly useful if you want to capture shots a little out of the ordinary; high up or awkward angles are a struggle no more.

It’s touch sensitive too. More of a traditional shooter?

There’s a built-in intelligent viewfinder that offers accurate framing and a sturdy shooting position.

Specs Sensor size/type 1.0-type CMOS

CLAIM

AN OFFICIA L

Resolution 20.2 megapixels

RUGBY B AL

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ISO sensitivity 125-12,800 Shutter speed range 1-1/2000sec Dimensions (wxhxd) 103.0x60.4x40.4mm Weight 304g (including battery and memory card)

WIN

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RLD CU RUGBY WO

TICKETS!

PowerShot G7 X

Need something that’s powerful but pocketable? The G7 X could be the small but mighty answer to your quest.

When you’re using a fixed-lens camera, you want that lens to be the absolute best that it can be and that’s what you’re getting on the G7 X. A bright aperture of f/1.8-2.8 lets in lots of light for maximum detail in your shots and the aperture is made from nine blades so you can achieve beautifully smooth and blurred

backgrounds. The 4.2x optical zoom power is more than enough to capture a full range of shots even when your subject is in the distance.

With Wi-Fi connectivity, you can share your pictures right there and then, living right in the moment. Although fitted with five-axis image stabilisation which guarantees you a steady shot, if you want to boost your chances of steady shot still further, you can use Wi-Fi to shoot wirelessly from your phone.

Specs Sensor size/type 22.3x14.9mm CMOS

Shutter speed range 30secs-1/4000sec

Resolution 24.2 megapixels

Dimensions (wxhxd) 131.9x100.7x77.8mm

ISO sensitivity 100-12,800

Weight 555g (body only)

Photography News Issue 23 absolutephoto.com

Special Canon advertisement feature

Photography news

Editorial Team

Advertising Team

Publishing Team

Editorial director Roger Payne

Sales director Matt Snow 01223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com Sales executive Krishan Parmar 01223 499462 krishanparmar@bright-publishing.com

Managing directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck Head of circulation Chris Haslum

Editor Will Cheung FRPS 01223 499469 willcheung@bright-publishing.com Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire, CB22 3HJ www.bright-publishing.com When you have finished with this newspaper, please recycle it

Contributing editor Kingsley Singleton kingsleysingleton@bright-publishing.com Features writer Megan Croft megancroft@bright-publishing.com Sub editors Lisa Clatworthy & Catherine Brodie

Design Team Design director Andy Jennings Designer Katy Bowman Junior designer Lucy Woolcomb

As well as your local camera club, you can pick up Photography News in-store from: Calumet, Cameraworld, Castle Cameras, Jessops, London Camera Exchange, Park Cameras, Wilkinson Cameras

Photography News is published on the third Monday of every month by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Photography News is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Photography News 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. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. While Bright Publishing makes every effort to ensure accuracy, it can’t be guaranteed. Street pricing at the time of writing is quoted for products.