Photography News Issue 27 by Bright Publishing

News Tests Clubs

Exhibitions

Techniques

Interviews

Competitions

Reviews

Photography Produced by

Issue 27 19 Dec – 18 Jan

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Portraits in a flash

Sony A7R Mark II

Taking it slowly

Samsung memory duo

Master studio shooting on page 24

Turn to page 36 to see how it rates

Get to grips with slow-sync flash, page 30

Enter the competition on page 56 © Tony Hill

Pick the gear of the year Register your votes for what you consider to be simply the best imaging kit that money can buy The Photography News Awards aim to recognise great kit and it is you who decides who wins. The PN Awards categories cover all aspects of modern imaging from pro cameras and lenses to camera supports and colour management devices. In most categories we have done some of the work for you by nominating a number of products. In the remaining categories, such as Best Retailer and Best Processing Lab, there are no nominations so you have a completely free choice. You can vote in all categories, but if you prefer, just vote in the categories where you have a strong opinion. Everyone who votes will be entered into a prize draw, with a 12-bottle case of wine going to one lucky reader, chosen at random after voting closes on 24 February 2016. We look forward to receiving your votes – online or by post; see page 34.

Camera Club of the Year 2015-16 It’s ‘scores on the doors’ time as we announce the round 1 winners… … continue reading on 18

absolutephoto.com

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

News

More from Manfrotto

News in brief

This month sees more bags from Manfrotto. The company’s Advanced and Pro Light collections have been added to, with the Pixi Messenger, Befree Messenger and Redbee- 210 backpack. Prices stars from £69.95. Priced at £159.99 is the D1 Drone backpack, designed for quadcopters like the DJI Phantom 3, providing high protection levels but with comfort and lightness. Action camera owners will appreciate Manfrotto’s Off Road Stunt poles, lightweight sticks for GoPro and action cams. These poles are fast to set up, comfortable to use and nicely priced from £39.95. Finally, from Manfrotto we have Lykos LED lights. These give daylight quality output with the option to change colour temperature and output rates at 1600 lux. The two units are Bluetooth ready so they can be controlled remotely with a smart device with the free downloadable app optional dongle. Prices start from £299.99 and £39.95 for the softbox and £75.95 for the Lykos dingle.

Nikon open up Last month, Nikon confirmed that it has the D5 pro DSLR, SB-5000 flashgun and Wireless Transmitter WT-6 in development. No release dates, details or prices were supplied. Nikon.co.uk

manfrotto.co.uk

Lie flat books

Photobox’s A4 Pro Lay Flat book is a great way to show off your best shots. The premium glossy pages not only show your work to great effect, they are also coated to avoid any fingerprint issues. Each book comes in a box and the hardback cover adds a touch of class. Prices start at £45 (you get 26 pages for that price) and if you want more pages they are £1.49 each.

swpp.co.uk/convention photobox.co.uk

Money off Broncolor owners can save 20% off accessories but you have to hurry as the offer is only valid to 31 December 2015. Contact your local Broncolor dealer for details. broncolor.com Rosco opens up in the Middle East Rosco is known for its filters among other products. It has now opened an office in Dubai to capitalize on the sales potential in the Middle East. Rosco.com Leica SL firmware update If you’ve treated yourself to a Leica SL, v1.2 firmware is now available. uk.leica-camera.com

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

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

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

How to submit

Clubs Deadline for the next issue: 7 January 2016

We need words and pictures by 7 January for the next issue of Photography News, which will be available from 19 January. 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, any colour space, and image credits should be included. 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.

The David Noton experience

The winning club received...

Camera Club of the Year 2014-15 winners Amersham PS recently enjoyed a day with David Noton, as part of their prize. Club chairman John Caton tells us about the experience “It had been raining for days. We kept looking at the weather forecast, but there was just a small window of possibility for a decent afternoon. So the brave and hardy 23 from Amersham Photographic Society assembled at one o’clock in drizzle at Ivinghoe Beacon car park, awaiting the arrival of David Noton, landscape photographer extraordinaire to begin the field workshop that we had won. “The rain was still tipping down so we headed for the woods looking for some autumn colour. David began his tutorial with some words of wisdom on exposure, using the histogram on his camera to expose as far to the right as possible. Then he moved on to a bit of tripod theory and explained his use of filters for trees on a rainy day. “Suddenly it was looking much brighter and we decided to head for the hills. “It was a 20-minute walk to Beacon Hill. When we got to the top, it was blowing a howling gale, but not raining. In fact, the sky had turned into a thing of awesome beauty with a massive black cloud filling most of it, but the sun was winning the battle and those

much-maligned weather forecasters may have actually got it right. “We moved on in the direction of Whipsnade. David explained his use of filters on landscapes to us. He only uses three types and, specifically, only Lee Filters. The sun had now taken control and it had become a beautiful fine late afternoon. “We all set up our tripods and carefully took shots of the landscape. The view towards Whipsnade had become quite wonderful and the constant trickle of walkers made a good focal point in our images. David talked to each of us individually, giving each of us the benefit of his experience. “An excellent day was coming to an end. In small groups, we headed back to the car park, most of us still shooting all the way back as the low light was playing marvellous tricks on individual trees and bushes. “Thank you, David Noton. Thank you, Photography News. We had a splendid day!”

Our winners of the Camera Club of the Year 2014-15 competition, Amersham PS, won a day out with David Noton as part of their prize. The Club also won a Canon XEED WUX450 top-end projector worth £3000. That prize came in especially handy as the Club’s own projector was not behaving itself and was due for replacement. Also part of the prize was 25 free year-long subscriptions to Canon’s Irista. The usual cost of this is £45. Irista lets you manage, store and share your pictures online. It is not brand specific so any camera user can benefit from its features which includes 50GB of storage. For more details on Irista, click on irista.com. This year’s overall winners will scoop a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 A2 printer. We’ll be testing this fabulous machine in the next issue of Photography News.

Could your club be this year’s Camera Club of the Year? Turn to page 18 for more details.

amershamphotosoc.com

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

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

Clubs

Winning ways

Smethwick PS wins the 10th FIAP Clubs World Cup Beating 196 clubs, Smethwick Photographic Society has won the tenth FIAP Clubs’ World Cup, an annual competition run by the International Federation of Photographic Art. To win Smethwick submitted 20 images, with a maximum of two per photographer, and two club

photographers won individual medals for their pictures. Peter Siviter won a Bronze medal with his picture, Argentine Tango (below), and John Moore won a judges medal for his image Pure Power. smethwickphotographic.com

Celebrate with Colchester You’ve still got time to visit and enjoy Colchester Photographic Society’s A Celebration of Photography exhibition. On until 11 January, the exhibition comprises more than 70 mono and colour prints by the club members. It’s at the Mercury Theatre’s Digby Gallery, which is

open 10am until 6pm, and the images can also be viewed prior to theatre performances. Entrance is free and the theatre’s restaurant sells refreshments. colchesterphotosoc.co.uk

Gateway to success Gateway Camera Club has finished the year on a high note, with Yuletide celebrations as well celebrations for their new chair’s winning streak. Recently elected club chair, Jeremy Broome-Smith has also recently received his DPAGB award, scoring 19 points more than required. He then went on to win the club’s own Photograph of the Year competition, with Tony Scarfe coming second. It wasn’t a clean sweep for the chair though, as Arthur Woodward won the DPI of the Year award… with Jeremy Broome-Smith a close second. Gateway Camera Club meets on Thursday evenings at Crabble Corn Mill, River, Dover. Potential new members are welcome to enjoy their first meeting for free. gatewaycameraclub.co.uk

Race for nature

Clacton Camera Club plays host to nature photographer Join Clacton Camera Club in welcoming nature photographer Steve Race on Friday 12 February. The multi award-winning photographer and naturalist is presenting a lecture, Yorkshire Coast Nature. Inspired by the

natural world around him, Steve has been a keen naturalist for more than 30 years and in that time his work has been commended by both the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and British Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions.

His talk on Friday 12 February is at Frinton-on-Sea’s McGrigor Hall. It starts at 7.30pm and tickets are £8 including refreshments from the club’s website. clactoncameraclub.co.uk

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Profile Biography

Before the Judge

Ross McKelvey MPAGB FIPF EFIAP/B ABPE Each issue, a respected judge or exhibition selector shares their thoughts and experiences. This month, we hear from award junkie and relative newcomer to the judging scene, Ross McKelvey Words by Ross McKelvey

Years in photography Ten years in competitive photography Home club Founder of Catchlight Camera Club, Belfast in 2012. Served as chairman in first two years. Favourite camera Canon EOS 5D Mark III Favourite lens 70-200mm f/2.8L IS – it’s never off my camera! Favourite photo accessories Wireless flash triggers Favourite photographers Yousuf Karsh, Gregory Heisler and Guy Bourdin, amongst many Favourite subject or technique I am primarily a people photographer and I tend to adopt the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ approach; either a beautiful or striking female subject, or a male subject with character. Awards I have more than 120 medals and countless awards such as ribbons and certificates of commendation, but the highlights have been receiving a Gold Medal in Edinburgh in its 150th Celebration Exhibition; and gold medals in all the recognised top exhibitions such as Smethwick, Southampton, Scottish Salon, Trierenberg and the Al-Thani.

Image Red Shawl took first place in the Colour Prints category at the NIPA Interclub competition in 2015.

I am a relative newcomer to international judging, but am extremely proud of the fact that the prestigious Edinburgh 2014 was my first international exhibition to judge. I was lucky to have two very experienced co-judges in Chris Palmer FRPS and Kevin Adlard FRPS. I have only recently finished judging the Tallaght International here in Ireland, and one thing I have learned is that you only get one chance to hit the five button. If an image has impact, whether because of subject matter, contrast, colours or whatever, hit the five button! With three experienced judges, you always like to think that the best images will come out on top, and so long as they hit the four or five button on appropriate images, that should happen. The cream of the crop can be sorted out at the point when you are selecting the images to actually award, but I do like to see a clatter of the best images score in the 13-15 range, rather than just a handful. I am currently booked to judge at the Southampton International competition in 2017, as well as the Scottish Print Championships in February 2016 and the PAGB Inter-Federation Print and PDI Competition in June 2016. My own Federation in Northern Ireland is NIPA, and I was painfully aware that NIPA clubs were not performing well against the opposition in the UK. I made it my personal goal to try to change that. It is often joked that I have more letters after my name, than I have in my name, but as I moved from one distinction to another, the standard of my photography definitely improved. As others in my club followed, getting distinctions like the DPAGB and regularly entering the various British Photographic Exhibitions, the standard of photography in the club improved also. So much so, that I am proud to say that Catchlight Camera Club became the first club from Northern Ireland to win silverware in a UK-wide competition, winning the Plate in the PAGB Print Championships in 2013. We followed that last season by winning the GB Cup for small clubs. In my view, this was only possible by getting that handful of fellow club members interested in open exhibition photography.

For this reason, I am a staunch supporter of the whole distinctions process. There are literally all types of distinctions out there, to suit all types of photography, whether they be panel-based like the RPS and the IPF, or individually scored images such as the PAGB Awards for Photographic Merit. Currently I have the Fellowship of the Irish Photographic Federation, the Master of the PAGB, the EFIAP Bronze and am working towards the Fellowship of the BPE. If people ask me why I bother with so many distinctions the answer is primarily because I thoroughly enjoy the whole process. At the end of the day, I would not be the guest speaker and judging at invitations if clubs throughout the country had not heard of me. Prints are my main interest, I do not do any PDI presentations and I am fortunate enough to have recently been appointed a Fotospeed Photographer, so I have tremendous access to all the fabulous photographic papers on the market. Then, when I do a print presentation, I can explain why I chose one paper type over another for a particular picture. So in terms of judging, I definitely prefer to score the prints rather than the PDIs, and it is a real pleasure to see other people’s work first-hand. I do believe that those who judge at an international level should have a proven track record, and it is fantastic when an image literally makes your jaw drop. When judging the mono prints at Tallaght recently, I must have hit the five button for four or five images in a row; all very different and all very good in their own individual way. I enjoyed that, because you really can have spells where you feel you are hitting the three button constantly and then suddenly an image hits you in the face. There is no doubt that the increasing popularity of national and international exhibitions over the last several years has seen an increase in the standard required to gain an acceptance, never mind an award. A judge never sees the author’s name until they have selected an image for an award and I must admit, I love to see an award-winning print being turned over to reveal the name of a relatively unknown photographer,

Ross McKelvey He’s a photographer first and foremost, and through his genuine passion for, and interest in, exhibition photography he has progressed onto the judging stage where he now sits for both national and international exhibitions.

I do like to see a clatter of the best images score in the 13-15 range, rather than just a handful or someone new to the game. You just know you have made their day. If I was giving advice to anyone starting out in exhibition photography, I would definitely encourage them to stick to what they enjoy and what they are good at, rather than following a trend. Personally I choose not to get involved in the debate about composite images, a good judge should judge the image in front of him and not waste a single nanosecond trying to figure out whether such and such has been ‘put in’. My pet hate is for someone

to say, ‘but is that not a composite?’ Now I just yawn and say, ‘and your point is…?’ Of course, there are the obvious and surreal digital composite images, and more and more often, these creative images are being pushed into a separate category. Whether that is a good thing or not is a moot point, but from a judging perspective, I just judge the picture in front of me, and have learnt to appreciate all genres of photography, particularly those outside my own comfort zone. rossmckelvey.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.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Interview Profile

Brian May

Best known as the legendary guitarist of rock supergroup Queen, Dr Brian May CBE harbours another passion, stereo photography. We take the chance to chat all things 3D

Biography Years in the photo industry? 55 Current location Music studio, Surrey Last picture taken 20 minutes ago. It was taken with a stereoscopic pinhole camera, which a friend of mine sent me from America, it’s fascinating. I’ve never had a stereoscopic pinhole camera before. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? Either an astronomer or a rock star, I was very lucky in managing to achieve both in some measure. I did want to be a surgeon at some point. Dogs or cats? Cats Toast or cereal? Both Email or phone call? Both

First off, what is stereo photography? Stereo photography is as old as photography itself, it goes right back to, as far as the public is concerned, the Victorians in the 1850s. Queen Victoria herself was turned on by it at the 1851 exhibition. It’s been with us ever since and it comes and goes, it can be difficult to bring it to life and make it work, and sometimes people lose patience with it. Time and time again though, people come back to it because it is the most realistic form of photography that you could possibly imagine and it’s given birth to virtual reality, which is becoming a craze now, and, of course, to all the 3D movies. But 3D has been with us pretty much since Charles Wheatstone in the 1840s discovered this principle. The principle is that you have two eyes for a reason. You have two eyes because they’re a few inches apart and they give us two slightly different views of the universe simultaneously. What your brain does is combine those two slightly different images and give you a threedimensional picture of the universe in your head. Stereoscopic photography reproduces that effect, instead of a flat picture you’re getting a 3D solid picture of your subject. It’s magic, it really is. For those of us who discover it when we’re young, it never leaves us as a passion.

Instead of a flat picture you’re getting a 3D solid picture of your subject. It’s magic, it really is What appeals to you about it? It’s magic. You’re presented with two flat pictures which may or not be very interesting or evocative, you put them in your stereoscopic viewer, you look through these lenses and you’re in a different universe. It feels as though you could walk in and touch the objects, talk to the people in the picture. In the case of the Victorian views that I’m so fond of, you’re looking at real people in Victorian times and you can look them in the eyes. You really feel like you’re there, it’s much more intensely real than any other kind of photography. When did you first discover the form? It used to be a lot of fun at breakfast time when you’d get all these toys in your cereal packet. There’d be model planes, cars, and cowboys and Indians, but Weetabix gave you a stereo card in every packet; you could send away three packet tops and they’d send you a viewer. You put these pairs of views in the viewer and suddenly the magic happens, there was this 3D space. The first thing I ever saw were some animals photographed in colour 3D and I was absolutely captivated. I very quickly figured out how it was done, so I got my little Woolworths camera and started taking pairs of pictures, moving the camera to the side between exposures. I made my own stereo pictures at the age of about ten

and I’ve never looked back since. I still have those pictures. I took pictures of my parents and my bike, and of me, too. Unlike other forms, it seems to be a very personal experience? It’s a one-to-one thing. It harks back to people sitting around their fires in Victorian times and sharing stereo cards. It’s interesting that the smartphone has really brought us back to that experience, the smartphone is a very personal, one-to-one thing. It’s absolutely perfectly suited to the medium of 3D. What’s your most prized stereo image? I have a picture of Princess Vicky, who was Queen Victoria’s daughter, on the occasion of her marriage to a German Duke. It’s a stereoscopic Daguerreotype, hand-coloured, and it’s unique, it’s the only one of its kind. Although these things can be copied, there would only be one plate in the camera at that time. It survived in the German family she married into. She became the mother of Kaiser Bill, who declared war on us – the war that became the First World War. The stereo is absolutely beautiful, it looks as fresh as the day it was made, you can look into her eyes. How do readers learn more? We have a website, londonstereo.com. There’s a wide variety of stuff on there; from historical and how to do it yourself, to where do you find the kit and all sorts of modern day things, and we keep it fairly up to date. I’ve become the London Stereoscopic Company, I’ll never make any money out of it but that’s not the reason I’m doing it. I do it because I want to share this experience with the 21st century. What gear do you need to get started? You can take stereo pictures with any kind of smartphone. I would recommend that you download an app, my favourite is called 3D Camera and it helps you to do sequential stereos. This is nothing new, basically what you do is take one picture with your weight on your left foot then transfer your weight to your right foot and that gives you your two pictures which are the stereo pair. The app enables you to put the pictures together side by side, then you can view them by putting the smartphone with my smartphone adapter and instantly you can see the view in 3D. I’ve designed an adapter for my OWL stereoscopic viewer. Once you’ve got this adapter in your OWL you just put your smartphone on the back, it attaches and then you can view all of these virtual reality movies in 3D the way that they were intended. It’s an immersive experience. Everyone who sees it just becomes entranced. Are you interested in the history of stereo photography or creating new stereo images? Both. I’m creating at a furious rate at the moment, I absolutely love it. Together with my co-author, French photo historian Denis Pellerin, I’ve published three books on stereo and they’re all historical. One’s on the Diableries, little French devils from the 1850s; one is A Village Lost and Found, the chronicle of a Victorian farming

village, which is incredibly rare. The other is The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery, comparing Victorian stereo photography with Victorian painters. I have another one coming out very soon on a phenomenon, Crinoline: Fashion’s Most Magnificent Disaster. Crinoline had its glory days from about 1850 to 1860 and that’s exactly the first glory days of the stereoscopic picture, so we have an amazing collection of stereoscopic pictures. That’s going to be out early next year. The next issue will be a book of Queen stereos and the way we are creating that book is to go back through history. I carried a stereo camera with me all through the glory days of Queen so I have lots of pictures of us in our hay day; Freddie on stage and off and all the private moments backstage. That’s going to be an amazing portrait of backstage Queen and it’ll be out hopefully about the end of next year. The one after that will be on the solar system, it’s called Rocks and it’ll be a chronicle of as many bodies in the solar system as we can muster. We’re creating those at the moment out of pictures which are issued by NASA, ISA and various other astrophotographers both amateur and professional. That’s going to be quite something and will be out early next year. londonstereo.com

Victorian Gems New to stereo photography or want to learn more about it? Victorian Gems (£95) is a real all-rounder for those with an interest in 3D photography. It’s a complete kit, coming with Brian May’s patented OWL high-quality stereo viewer and three sets of cards in boxes from the Scenes in Our Village, Diableries and The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery collections. It also includes a booklet with a history on stereo photography and a how-to so you can have a go yourself. You can purchase the OWL smartphone adapter along with Victorian Gems and any of the mentioned published books on the website, all new releases will also be announced and available for purchase there too.

Above Victorian Gems, from The London Stereoscopic Company, £95, available to buy from londonstereo.com.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera Club of the Year

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Round 2: Brr, it’s cold Closes: 11/01/2016

Camera Club of the Year 2015-16

How to enter First, your club’s competition secretary (or whoever is going to enter each month) must sign up at absolutephoto.com. Next, click on Members’ Area in the menu bar, then choose Camera Club of the Year 2015-16 from the drop-down list. Simply register your camera club and follow the upload instructions.

We are looking for the most talented camera club in the country and there are wonderful prizes from Canon to be won in every round It’s time to enter Round 2 of our Camera Club of the Year 2015-16 contest. Round 1 has now closed and you can check out the images from the winning club, Dorchester CC who qualify for the final, opposite. Round 2 closes 11 January. We’ve teamed up with Canon and this year’s Camera Club of the Year promises to be bigger and better than ever, and it is easy to enter too. To start, every club must register on absolute.com. Once registered, go to the Member’s Area tab and

click on Competitions and then Camera Club of Year. Follow the instructions from there to upload images. Each month we’ll set a theme and we want to see five images from five different club members on that theme. Any club or group is eligible to enter so long as there are at least five members. Online groups, internal company clubs and those clubs not affiliated to the PAGB can enter. After the closing date, the images will be judged by the experts at

Photography News and the topscoring club from that month will qualify for the grand final and win a Canon PIXMA PRO-100S A3+ printer worth £499.99. Once a club has qualified for the grand final they needn’t enter again – they can if they want but they will not be eligible for the monthly prize. Clubs can enter the competition at any point, even at the fifth and final round. After the five monthly rounds, we’ll have five grand finalists and

The Camera Club of the Year wins… … a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000. This brand-new professional quality A2 printer is worth £1199.99. It uses a 12-colour Lucia PRO inkset that includes four blacks for excellent monochrome output. On appropriate media, Lucia PRO inks have impressive lightfast qualities. … an exclusive day with renowned professional landscape and travel photographer David Noton, enjoying a workshop and an illustrated talk.

Overall winner prize:

CANON imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Five izes monthly pr

Overall winner prize:

N CANMO A PIX PRO-100S

DAVID NOTON exclusive day

Monthly winners The five monthly winners each get a Canon PIXMA PRO-100S worth £499.99. This is a professional quality A3+ printer, featuring an eight colour inkset with excellent lightfast qualities.

Its built-in Wi-Fi capabilities means wireless connection is possible so prints can be made from tablets and phones as well as the computer. canon.co.uk

these clubs will each be asked to submit a selection of pictures. It is from these images that the overall winning club will be decided. The themes for the final judging will be made known to the finalists at the same time so there will be no advantage for the early qualifiers. The overall winners will earn the accolade of the Photography News Camera Club of the Year 2015-16 and win a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000, a professional 12-ink A2 inkjet printer worth £1199.99.

Canon EOS 5DS R The Canon EOS 5DS and 5DS R are gamechanging DSLRs offering the highest megapixel count currently available in fullframe. But, as both cameras look identical and have virtually identical specifications, perhaps what is less appreciated is the actual difference between the two models – apart from price. The EOS 5DS R costs £200 more than the 5DS. Both cameras capture amazing-quality files capable of big enlargement, but if you want ultimate image quality with brilliantly resolved, tiny details, the EOS 5DS R is the camera to buy. Both cameras have the Canon CMOS 50.6-megapixel sensor but the R has a low-pass cancellation filter. Having an optical low-pass filter (OLPF) affects the sensor quality, so the EOS 5DS R has a filter that cancels the OLPF’s effect to give the best quality so the finest detail is faithfully recorded. Used with lenses recommended by Canon (see Canon’s website) coupled with sound camera technique, the EOS 5DS R will appeal to landscape, nature and portrait photographers where detail rendition really counts.

Specs Street price £3199 Resolution 50.6 megapixels Sensor 24x36mm CMOS with Dual DIGIC processor Autofocus system TTL-CT SIR with dedicated CMOS sensor. 61-point AF system that works down to -2EV

Metering system 150k pixel RGB+IR sensor. Evaluative, partial, centre-weight and spot Exposure modes PASM ISO range 100-6400, with expansion to ISO 50 and 12,800 Shutter range 30secs to 1/8000sec, B

Continuous shooting Up to 5fps Monitor 3.2in LCD, Clear View II TFT, 1040k dots Dimensions (wxhxd) 152x116.4x76.4mm Weight 845g body only

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera Club of the Year

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Round 2: Brr, it’s cold!

Send us five pictures that best interpret our seasonal theme and your club could qualify for the grand final and the chance to win our Club of the Year contest The winter is a wonderful time to take pictures and we are looking for five pictures from your camera club that best sum up our theme. With low sun all day long, freezing temperatures and frequent inclement weather, the opportunities for great pictures are plentiful. But you have to make the effort. Make no mistake, the cold and wet represent physical challenges and when the temptation is to stay in the warm, for winning pictures you have to get out there. Preparation is obviously important and that includes how you are dressed. Layers of clothing, suitable footwear, a warm hat, gloves and waterproofs are de rigueur so do make sure you are comfortable. If you plan to be out late, accessories like a torch and a power pack for the phone in case it needs recharging are important. Prepare your camera kit too. Make sure your camera battery has plenty of charge and have a spare or two available. Also, make sure your lenses are fitted with protection filters if they’re not already. Many modern cameras, like the Canon EOS 5DS/R, are weather sealed to keep out water and dust so they’re capable of withstanding poor weather, but you still need a strategy to protect your kit as much as possible. You may be able to tuck the camera under your jacket in between shots but this can mean you getting cold

When the temptation is to stay in the warm, for winning pictures you have to get out there and wet too. Toing and froing the camera in and out of the bag or rucksack is an option but it’s not always convenient and can mean missing pictures. Custom-made waterproof devices to house the camera are available or you could make do with a shopping bag with a hole cut out for the lens to poke through. A microfibre travel towel with a couple of clothes pegs to hold it in place is a handy thing to have in the bag too. It can be used to protect the camera and handy to dry off the lens when needed. Prepare yourself and have your camera outfit organised for the conditions that will make your life much more comfortable and free your mind to focus on the job at hand, taking great cold-weather pictures.

Round 1: Results It’s ‘scores on the doors’ time as we announce the Camera Club of the Year round 1 winners

Well done to all the camera clubs and photographic societies who entered Round 1 of the Camera Club of the Year 2015-16 competition, sponsored by Canon. After some tense (and intense!) judging the results are very close. By just one point, Dorchester Camera Club qualify for the final, just pipping Ayr Photographic Society to the post. Congratulations to Dorchester CC who can now bask in the glory and now relax on their qualifying laurels for a couple of months. A Canon PIXMA Pro 10S professional A3+ printer will also be on its way to them very soon. If your club didn’t make it this time or didn’t enter Round 1, no problem. Every round is scored as a stand-alone contest with the highest scorer each time qualifying for the final. No scores are carried over. After five rounds we will have five finalists who will fight it out for the glory of being Camera Club of the Year and scoop a fabulous Canon imagePROGRAF PRO1000, a professional 12-ink A2 inkjet printer worth £1199.99, as well as a day with David Noton. Entry for round 2 is now open. It closes on 11 January.

Clockwise from right Late Night Trains by Rosie Mathisen; The Cigarette Card Collector by Bob Davies; Icelandic Moonrise by Stephen Lee; Body Talk by Janet Haines; Hair Metal by Tony Gill.

Above Pictures that sum up the theme can be taken anywhere – even a high street scene 50 metres from our office has potential.

Scores Dorchester Camera Club

Ayr Photographic Society

Wisbech and District CC

Harlow Photographic Society

Newent & District Camera Club

Amersham Photographic Society

New City Photographic Society

Stirling & District Camera Club

City of London & Cripplegate

Harpenden Photographic Society

Macclesfield Camera Club

Peterborough Photographic Society

Smethwick PS

Beckenham Photographic Society

Halstead & District PS

Cymru Monochrome

Bath Photographic Society

Chapel Camera Club

Fraserburgh Photographic Society

Deal and District Camera Club

Tonbridge Camera Club

Skegness Camera Club

Earl Shilton Camera Club

Wakefield Camera Club

Wokingham & East CC

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera Club of the Year David’s kit for cold shoots

Masterclass: Brr, it’s cold

David Noton

Landscape photographer and Canon ambassador David Noton is dishing out advice from his vast pool of experience to help you and your club take home the top prize. This month, we’re wrapping up warm for our second masterclass © David Noton

Spare batteries I’m shooting with the Canon EOS 5DS R and we all know about battery capability in the cold – it always suffers. I would always carry a spare set of batteries, but in the winter I would really need to pay special attention to that and sometime carry two sets of spares.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Canon EF 24-70MM LENS The lens that’s my most used is the 24-70mm lens, it’s a workhorse of a lens, just useful for all situations.

Warm clothes Dress appropriately for the weather, there’s a real art to dressing for the cold. There’s a science behind it and it makes all the difference. Images Whether you’re shooting your cold weather pictures in Bognor Regis or from under a glacier in Iceland, preparation is really imporrtant. This doesn’t just mean dressing right but also having your camera kit sorted. It also pays to allow time for your kit to acclimatise when moving from the warm to the freezing cold.

Photography in the Raw by David Noton A practical and inspirational guide from behind the lens of an internationally recognised landscape and travel photographer, Photography in the Raw examines the fundamentals of how to improve as a photographer; how to read the light, be in the right place at the right time and make the most of a situation to produce the best picture possible.

Warm summer days, breezy autumn afternoons and cold winter nights, landscape photographers have got to be on top of their game to tackle any condition. Sometimes the most rewarding shot takes a little longer and a lot more effort to achieve, and that’s not unusual when shooting out in the cold. David Noton has been in the landscape business for decades and he can quickly reel off a list of locations where he’s braved the cold and been rewarded handsomely with a frame-worthy shot, from the mountains in Italy to the chilly terrains of Iceland to the windswept hill-scapes of Cumbria. Growing up in Canada, David’s no stranger to adverse weather and it seems obvious, but should never be overlooked, that wrapping up warm is one of the most critical elements to a successful cold-weather shoot. “The first thing is that you’ve got to be comfortable,” he advises, speaking from experience. “There’s

no good being out in the landscape shivering your nuts off, you’re not going to get the job done if you aren’t comfortable.” There is a gap in the market for one particular item of clothing. “The one thing that no one has come up with a perfect solution for is fingers.” Small camera buttons and touchscreens can be impossible to operate, and this is where coming prepared can really pay off. Instead of changing lenses in near impossible conditions, it’s a good idea to start your outdoor shoot by fixing a lens that you know you’ll be able to get a few decent pics from. For David, every time it’s the Canon 24-70mm lens that you’ll find fitted to his Canon EOS 5DS R. “It’s that mid-range, it goes from wide-angle to medium telephoto and it’s such a versatile, workhorse of a lens.” There’s something else to watch out for when it comes to lenses, David warns; that’s extreme changes in temperature. Moisture collected

There’s no good being out in the landscape shivering your nuts off, you’re not going to get the job done from a warm environment can settle on elements of the lens, then when it’s taken out into the cold can freeze. The same is true of the reverse too, you’ll have misted lenses. “The thing to do is try and avoid really extreme changes of temperature,” he advises. “Give the camera time to cool down or warm up.” One of his most recently captured, prized images taken in the cold was taken on a trip to an ice cave underneath a glacier in Iceland. “Everything is blue with the translucent light coming through the ice,” he describes. “There are

different shades of blue in the shot, apart from one element which is just a tiny figure of a person, who is my wife, Wendy, stood with a purple jacket on. You’ve got that quite interesting colour clash; one tiny dash of purple amongst the blue.” David says that despite the setbacks, shooting in the cold can be enormously rewarding. “I’m no stranger to working in very cold conditions, and visually, frost and snow can really make an innocuous scene look absolutely beautiful.” davidnoton.com

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Interview

Opportunity knocks Short on time, in an unfamiliar studio and with unknown models, two students were tasked with shooting Professional Photo’s front cover image. Here’s how one of them got on... Imagine you’ve got two hours to shoot the front cover of a magazine. You’ll be taking pictures with a camera you’ve never used before, of models you’ve never met before and will be working in a location you’ve never been to before. All while the magazine’s editor watches your every move. No pressure, then… That’s exactly what faced HND photography students Kalem Duffus-Mckenzie and Weronika Dybkowska who had earned the opportunity to spend a day in the studio. Both had visited the Professional Photo stand at Hasselblad’s ShootLDN event in October. Back then, they had just five minutes to impress, shooting a quick cover image with a Hasselblad H5D and a model in a pop-up studio. Having won the opportunity, this time they were in the driving seat. Of course, they weren’t completely on their own. They had the excellent Hasselblad H5D and a variety of lenses, a bank of broncolor lighting and all the technical assistance they could wish for. There was also a make-up artist on hand, two stunning models – Josie and Georgia – from the MOT Models agency and a fantastic location to explore. Shooting to the front When it comes to shooting a cover image, there’s the added pressure of making it a stand-out piece of work, of course, but other technical pressures, too. Beyond needing it to be inviting, well lit, have good

eye contact and not be too cluttered it’s easy to think that an upright framing is what’s required – that’s the shape of a magazine, after all – but in fact the main image actually needs to be squarer in shape to fit with the masthead. Our photographers needed to consider all that, as well as leaving space to include cover tasters, and while plain backgrounds aren’t essential, they certainly make our designer’s job easier! So, given all those restrictions and the timescale, how do you think they’d fare? Here’s how one of the students, Kalem, got on. Photographer 1: Kalem DuffusMckenzie Now in the second year of his HND photography course, 19-year-old Kalem already has GCSE, A level and HNC photography qualifications under his belt. He hopes to go on to study at degree level. While shooting portraits is his first love – and a genre that he hopes to continue in when he’s working commercially – he also enjoys product photography. He’s been shooting in a studio for a few years now, but had never been let loose with all the lighting equipment in the same way as on our cover shoot. “Before I arrived, I gathered as much information as I could, primarily researching trending fashion,” Kalem told us. “Fur, leather, metallics, platforms, knee-high boots, vintage style and finger jewellery were all

very popular. I also researched the trending colour palettes and found that either pink or red were the key colours for this year.” Kalem started by photographing model Georgia in front of a dark background, accessorising the shot with props from the studio as well as some of those that he’d brought along himself. “Naturally, I wanted the model’s face to be well lit,” he explains, “but I also needed a light directed on the backdrop, so the model and her clothing would not be lost within the deep grey background. For both models, I tried to portray a vintage look. I opted to shoot mostly from the waist up as I felt that this was best for the shape of the cover image required.” Of the two photographers, Kalem was certainly the most prolific. Once he was happy with his lighting setup, he shot more than 600 frames during the course of the day. “Working with the Hasselblad and broncolor kit was a real privilege,” he admitted. “The detail, sharpness and accuracy are all hugely impressive and the H5D was easy to use once I’d had a couple of run-throughs with all the controls. Looking back, I believe I coped successfully with the entire shoot. It was certainly worthwhile bringing some of my own props – even if I did let my opponent use them as well!” You can read more about Kalem and Weronika’s experience in the latest issue of Professional Photo magazine, on sale now.

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

Pro focus

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique Portrait shooting

Light fantastic

Studio-style portrait lighting is easy to get into and the benefit in your pictures will be immediately obvious. Just follow our guide and you’ll be shooting better portraits in a flash… Words by Kingsley Singleton Pictures by Sarah Plater, Paul Wilkinson and Gill McGowan Good portraits rely on good lighting, and most of the time that comes from working with flash. Yes, it’s certainly possible to take great people pictures using available light, but that method always has its restrictions. For better or (frequently) worse, natural light is inconsistent, fleeting and often low in intensity. It’s also hard to modify; you might have to move the subject from where you want them, because you certainly can’t move the sun, or use large, unwieldy diffusers and reflectors. And if the light is low you walk the tightrope of using slower shutter speeds than you’d like, or raising the ISO and losing quality. Whichever issue you’re constantly challenged and forced to adapt or compromise. All that means, although many people would assume the opposite, that it’s actually flash that’s easy and natural light that’s difficult. But pushing yourself into realising that can be difficult. So, to convince you it’s time to give flash a go – or to work on honing the skills you already have – this month we caught up with two studio and flash lighting experts, Sarah Plater and Paul Wilkinson, co-authors of Mastering Portrait Photography. So what, for them, is the big draw of using flash for portraits? For Sarah, it’s the consistency of flash that appeals; “Being able to set up predictable, controllable studio light anywhere I go means that I can shoot all year round and get consistent results. If I was solely reliant on natural light, I’d be limited to slow shutter speeds, and forever trying to push subjects closer to windows!” But isn’t it more effort, in terms of the amount of gear, than using natural light? On this Sarah is unequivocal. “No way – my kit packs down and fits into my Smart car, which makes it easy for me to transport to clients’ homes, where they feel most relaxed.” “Photography is all about light. How it falls on the subject, how it shapes and defines… and studio lighting provides almost infinite possibilities to change this – even with one or two lights,” enthuses Paul. “You can easily get silhouettes to profiles; hard, contrasty light, to soft gradings; high-key to low-key; rim lighting, cheek lighting; dramatic to gentle. There is so much you can do in the studio, it’s always exciting!” But even Paul had to learn how to do it, because his background, like most photographers starting out, was shooting in

Studio lighting provides almost infinite possibilities to change light – even with one or two lights

Above Studio lighting is all about control, and the freedom it supplies means that you can make creative portraits that would be impossible with natural light alone. Here, a single light modified with a beauty dish is all that was required.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique Broad lighting

Left Simple changes in lighting position and the posing of your subject can have a big effect on the look of a portrait. Here, with broad lighting the closest part of the subject’s face is lit, but with narrow lighting the further side is illuminated, which thins the features. Which you choose all depends on how you want the subject to look.

Narrow lighting

Flash triggering and exposure settings; how to get started

available light. What unlocked it for him was that, aside from the benefits of controllability, studio lighting could be used in just the same way as natural light; “I realised that if I set the light up as if it were a window, then I could treat the subject the same as I would using an actual window.” A large studio softbox will give a very similar look to a north-facing window, and many photographers add black tape to simulate the look even further, conjuring up a frame in the catchlights. “It seems trivial” continues Paul, “but that connection between available light and studio lighting helped me gain confidence with my first images. I knew I could use window light, which meant I could just use one flash to do exactly the same thing”. When starting out he explains how using a polystyrene head from an art shops, and fitting it with two glass marbles helped him practice lighting and see where the catchlights ended in the eyes as well as the shadows across the face, too. Applying a style Taking his experience in natural light and building upon it with flash, Paul found that his style naturally fell into that look. “Wherever possible I use a single light source – and certainly I always like to keep things as simple as possible. It’s rare for me to use overly dramatic or theatrical lighting unless I’m trying to create something very specific. When I think of lighting patterns I would find naturally, they’re all possible to recreate: window light, light through a doorway, light reflected from walls, scattered light through leaves and so on – and with flash they can be used absolutely anywhere.” But how to decide on the specific style of light? When you see how easy flash is to control, there’s an element of ‘die Qual der Wahl’ (the agony of choice); you can place the lights anywhere, so where do you pick, and why? The easiest way to answer this is to work from a brief; a central idea about what you want the portrait to ‘say’. That brief could be your own plan or it could be what the subject is seeking, though most often it’s

a compromise. “If it’s a broad brief such as a portrait shoot where the client trusts you to make decisions then I will look at the client’s clothing, body shape, face etc., and will try to imagine images that will work for that person”, says Paul. Most portraits, after all are about flattery and showing the subject looking at their best. Lighting positions and possibilities So, in what ways can the lights be used to flatter and shape the subject? As well as more general advice, Paul and Sarah’s book goes into lots of detailed comparison showing how simple changes in lighting position, modification, and the subject’s pose can influence the look. For example ‘broad lighting’ and ‘narrow lighting’ styles are important to practise. These relate to whether

your key light (the main light that sets the form of the subject) is striking the side of the face that’s closer or further from the camera. Narrow lighting, in which the near side of the face is more shadowed than the further side, has the effect of thinning faces. Broad lighting has the opposite effect. So, picking the right one is important. Distinctive lighting positions produce very different styles, and again some are more suited to particular subjects or moods than others. For instance, a small change in the position of the key light – a matter of moving a few degrees more to the side – turns flattering ‘loop lighting’ where a soft shadow is formed at the side of nose’s base, into Rembrandt lighting. This is more contrasty and dramatic, seeing a longer shadow from the nose extend to the cheek leaving only a

Above You don’t need complex lighting arrangements for a great shot. Here, one light with a large softbox replicates the simplicity of natural light.

The technical aspects of flash can be offputting; the worries about exposure, or the flash not working, or how you control the power. But the best thing is to get your hands on some studio flash equipment and try it out – that’s the only way to see how easy it is. Thanks to affordable radio triggers (something like a Hähnel Captur Remote will only set you back around £60), off-camera flash is easier to trigger than ever before, and many kits come with triggers provided (like Interfit’s £799 S1 kit reviewed in this issue). These connect the camera to flash with or without wires, and fire it as you shoot. So no concerns there. Exposure wise, shooting digitally takes a lot of the worry away because everything can be checked on screen and the flash power or exposure settings tweaked as required. Broadly, it’s best to shoot in manual mode, setting a low ISO (you won’t need the extra sensitivity), then dialling in the aperture you want to use, depending on how you want the depth-of-field to look (low f/numbers if you want to keep just the subject sharp, and a higher f/number if you want increased depthof-field to cover the background). Many photographers shoot flash pics around f/11 which gives lots of sharpness and avoids any slipped focus on the eyes. Next set the shutter speed to between 1/60sec and 1/250sec (the highest most flashes will sync to, though some offer high-speed settings), and take a test shot or use a flash meter to judge the flash power required. A meter will show the power output as an f/number, so you just need to control the power until it matches your exposure settings. If you don’t have a flash meter, bring the exposure histogram up on screen and turn the power up or down as required. Alternatively, open or close the aperture (or raise or lower the ISO) to match the flash power, if the depth-of-field isn’t important, but that’s rare. That really is all there is to the technical side. The rest – the stuff you really have to work at – comes from how you position the lights to illuminate your subject.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique small triangle of light on the closer side. Take the light even further to the side and you’ll end up with split lighting, which illuminates only one side of the face, creating very high contrast on the subject and is therefore likely being less flattering. When to keep it simple Of course this fine control is more suited to some subjects than others. Sarah, who’s work mainly includes babies, toddlers and children, finds she has to be highly adaptable: “As a youngster learns to crawl, walk and run, the last thing they want to do is sit still for a photography session. With that in mind, my lighting and camera settings need to be able to accommodate a bit of movement. If my lighting set-up is too dependent on the subject being in an exact spot, chances are the child Left While it’s often better to shoot energetic children with a simple set-up that allows them to move around, with adult sitters you can experiment more. For example here a rim-lighting effect adds definition.

Taking control When Gill McGowan’s teenage son developed the time-honoured aversion to being photographed, she knew that she’d have to seek other opportunities to develop as a portrait photographer. Here she describes that transition and how moving out of her comfort zone and tackling more creative projects helped improve her skills. “I had done workshops with Welshot Photographic Academy, and had fun learning about lighting with flash and working with models in the company of like minded people. But to produce original work I soon realised I had to strike out on my own. When you do that, all the things provided in a workshop – lighting, model, location, styling – suddenly become things you have to manage on your own. But if you take that challenge and succeed, it’s thrilling to realise you can do it. “The first task is to gain confidence with your lighting equipment. Try different types of light, different modifiers and get to know what you like. You’ll quickly feel more at home. I chose a pair of second-hand Elinchrom Quadra Rangers with Rotalux 100cm square softboxes. Being battery powered, they can be used inside or on location, and so are ideal for most situations. “Then you need an inspiring subject and my breakthrough came somewhat by chance. I’d shared a photo of a skirt made from Christmas tree fronds with Jen Baker, proprietor of Lavender Blue Floral Design in West Kirby, occasional stylist, model and all-round creative individual. “We both loved the concept, and that, I thought, was the end of it – until January, when she surprised me with a photo of a skirt that she’d painstakingly made from her dismembered Christmas tree (despite a fir allergy!). “Next we needed a model and a location, picking pretty redhead, Harriet Jones, and deciding on somewhere slightly whimsical to shoot; woodland. The latter meant checking out the location ahead of

Did I make any mistakes? Of course I did, it was a new experience with lots of elements coming together

time, making sure to find somewhere accessible and also planning for Harriet’s comfort; I packed water, snacks and a rug, which proved essential in keeping her warm between shots. We also planned the hair and make-up so that nothing was overlooked and there were no gaps in coordination. Other planning was making sure camera batteries and lights were fully charged, as well as packing spares – losing power in the middle of a shoot is not an option. “Come the day of the shoot we were lucky – the weather was dry but cold, and we got a little sun. Jen and Harriet got together to do hair and make-up, while I formed an advance party at the location. While waiting I shot test exposures, making sure that I was balancing the ambient light with the flash to achieve the effect I wanted. Using my Canon EOS 5D Mark III and 70-200mm f/2.8L I ended up mainly shooting at 1/80sec, f/8 and ISO 200, which underexposed the ambient light slightly allowing the flash to pick out Harriet and the dress. “I used just the one Quadra Ranger light, setting this at around half power. We we started shooting in earnest, Jen took charge of positioning the light and adjusting the power for me, basing any changes in power on its distance from Harriet. The power was also adjusted on a couple of occasions when I opened up the aperture for a shallower depthof-field. It is important to set a lower output to compensate for the wider f/stop. “To make the most of the set-up and cover different potential uses, I shot some wide, some tight, some landscape and some portrait. Then, having captured the key shots, I tried shooting through trees, and playing with the tinsel for a more creative angle. I wanted Harriet to do a tinsel toss, which I always knew would be difficult to capture, but like a trooper she repeated it again and again, and took direction well over facial expressions, my instruction being “No one tosses tinsel in the air whilst looking miserable!” “Did I make any mistakes? Of course I did, it was a new experience with lots of elements coming together – but those are what you learn from. To prevent any errors in focus and get just the right poses and expressions, I’ve found that repeating shots is very helpful, though it’s not the most efficient use of time and we could perhaps have achieved more in the couple of hours we had before Harriet all but turned blue from the cold. “I learned from it all and that’s really the only way to progress once you’ve mastered the basics; you have to get out there and give it a go on your own. Break out of your comfort zone and you will see what you’re capable of achieving.”

Christmas in firs Creative projects can concentrate the mind and push you into expanding your skills. Here, inspired by her friend Jen’s creation, Gill orchestrated the shoot, using flash lighting at her location. For more of Gill McGowan’s shots visit piczology.com. The stylist/creator of the skirt was Jen Baker at lavender-blueflorist.co.uk.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique

Loop lighting

Above Using a single light, here you can see three very useful styles. Loop lighting, where the light is angled at around 45° to the subject forms a small shadow from the nose on the cheek is flattering for more subjects. Move the light further around so the shadow from the nose connects with the unlit side of the face and you have Rembrandt lighting which is more dramatic. Finally, split lighting illuminates just one side of the face and because it’s contrasty tends to be the least flattering of the three. will lean forward, backwards or sideways. To combat this, she uses “simple but vibrant lighting set-ups” and includes both high- and low-key set-ups to give the maximum variety for her clients. The kind of set-up she’s happiest with might include “only one light on the subject alone, and sometimes a second on the background or as a rim light.” This, she says, is the product of experience, which has taught her that a less is more approach often works better than trying to force too many lights on the subject. “When I started out, I over-complicated things by believing that I needed to use all the gear, all the time – light meters, reflectors, multiple flash heads… now I’d advise people to add lights to their studio set-ups one at a time – you’ll often find that a single light is most effective. And practice. It brings confidence, which makes your subjects trust you and relax. Paul certainly echoes this; “the more lighting you have, the harder it is to control – and that extra work can be a distraction for both you and the subject. Consequently I have practiced lighting patterns to make sure I can switch around easily if I need to. I like the lighting to feel natural rather than forced, so I’ll also often move the softboxes around, finding the soft, feathered edges of the light to light the face and eyes.” Bouncing off the walls It’s important to remember that the characteristics of the studio itself will affect your lighting, too, not just the lights

Rembrandt lighting

Split lighting

I’d advise people to add lights to their studio set-ups one at a time – you’ll often find that a single light is most effective themselves and their positions. So, identical set-ups can look different from one space to another; you might curse the confines of a room you’ve got to work in at home, but closer spaces reflect more light, giving the option to bounce it more easily. The colour of the space makes a big difference, too as Paul says: “every surface affects the amount, colour and quality of light striking the subject. Dark walls absorb light while light walls soften the contrast and fill in the shadows more.” Here again, practise pays off, and getting used to certain spaces will make it easier to get the results you want. Getting it done The main ingredient in success is effort; you’ll only get better, or learn new lighting styles and tricks by trying them out for real. Even though they’re experienced shooters, Paul and Sarah both feel the pressure to keep developing, even if it’s hard work. “If you feel like you’re shooting the same images all the time (just with different subjects), then you’re just coasting. Keep up to date with what’s current in the industry, take inspiration from both inside and outside the art and photography sectors and keep experimenting to stay fresh and excited.” “I’ve gone through many ‘flat’ patches where it feels, frankly, like I’m getting worse!” admits Paul. “Then suddenly I’ll wake up one morning full of ideas – and, weirdly, when I look back at what I’ve been creating prior to that moment it’s usually not as bad as it feels – perseverance almost always pays off!”

Above Adding a second light, which here comes in the form of a hair light illuminating the subject’s curls from behind, is quick and simple way to add a twist to a basic portrait setup.

Mastering Portrait Photography If you want to improve your portrait skills, you can find out lots more in Paul and Sarah’s book, Mastering Portrait Photography. Spanning 176 pages, the book is extremely visual, covering both studio and location portraits and has a strong focus on showing techniques in use, then describing how they were achieved and why. “We want readers to feel inspired and excited to rush out and try out these techniques immediately, not to bore or baffle them. You can get started straight away, with very little kit and only a bit of knowledge” says Sarah. Mastering Portrait Photography (£19.99 published by Ammonite Press, ammonitepress.com) is now out on amazon.co.uk and in bookshops, so check it out.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique Lighting academy

Get a move on

Combine sharp and blurred elements in the same shot using slow-sync flash effects Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton

This month we’re getting to grips with slowsync flash – a technique which combines a burst of flash with a slow shutter speed. This might sound complicated, but you’ve almost certainly used slow-sync flash in the past without knowing it; it’s most often applied when shooting at night and, in fact, the Night Scene modes on compact cameras and entrylevel DSLRs and CSCs use this system by default. But slow-sync flash is useful for lots of other subjects and creative effects, and is by understanding how to set it up manually you can have more control and improve the look. Essentially, slow-sync flash works like this: using a slow shutter speed more of the ambient light is picked up and the flash power is lowered to match, creating a balance between the two. By contrast, a regular flash exposure will default to the flash sync speed, usually 1/60sec, which is too fast to pick up the dim ambient light, making pictures look unbalanced.

A by-product of this slower-than-normal shutter speed is that any movement in the subject, background, or camera position is also recorded. It’s that movement we’re interested in here, as we’re going to use it to add an excellent twist to a daylight shot. This, combined with the flash will create a picture that mixes sharp and blurred elements with a ghostly or ethereal look. You can use it on sports and action shots, or, as here, in a creative portrait. Time and place Time and location is important for this technique; if the conditions are too bright it will be difficult to pick up the movement, and harder to get the long shutter speeds required. Ideally, find a shaded location and a background that’s darker than the subject so it reflects less light. A bright background just won’t work. I shot this image under a railway arch, but you can try it in the shadow of a building, or any interior, too.

You’ll also have more success if the subject is wearing lighter tones, as those are more readily picked up by the camera, and flowing garments, or scarves, long coats or dresses work well from an aesthetic point of view. Exposure settings I set the camera on a tripod so that only movement from Amber would be picked up. This isn’t vital, and you can shoot images like this handheld, deliberately moving the camera during the exposure, but this will look more chaotic, with everything blurred and only the subject’s final position frozen by the flash along with anything else it strikes. Next I set the exposure for the ambient light. This is best done in manual mode (M) and I framed up on the scene then, using the exposure bar as a guide (the +/- indicator in the viewfinder or on screen) set the shutter speed to length required. Here, it’s best to get the

If the conditions are too bright it will be difficult to pick up the movement required…

Above Slow-sync flash doesn’t just provide great shots, it’s also a good way to learn how flash mixes with available light and how the settings used to control one are different to the other.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique

Ambient light alone Shooting with just the fading daylight, Amber’s movement is shown as a blur from start to finish. The 2sec shutter speed isn’t even fast enough to keep her sharp when standing still. That’s why we need to put the flash in.

Not enough movement Shot using just the daylight and the flash, Amber is stopped by the firing of flash at the end of the exposure. While the picture has a ghostly look, there’s not much movement picked up, which is where adding the LED light comes in.

LED light alone Here, the continuous light from the LED panel helps to pick up Amber’s movement much more clearly than exposing using the daylight alone. However, with no flash firing to stop the motion the image is lacking a focal point.

Combined lighting With the long exposure picking up the ambient light and the LED adding to it to help show the movement across the frame, the 2nd-curtain flash fires at the end of the exposure and the finished effect is achieved.

The kit we used

subject to practise the kind of movement you want, timing how long it takes and matching the shutter speed to that. With Amber walking across the shot and spinning slightly a speed of around 2secs was best. With the ISO set to 100 and the aperture at f/8, this gave a good exposure for the background. Next, it was time to add the flash. Flash power Setting up the flash (here, a Profoto B2 250 AirTTL To-Go) on a stand at the edge of the frame where it would catch the end of Amber’s left-to-right movement, I gauged the power using a Gossen Digipro F2 flash meter. You can do this by eye or using the histogram on the camera’s screen, but a flash meter is more accurate and cuts out trial and error. Setting the meter to ISO 100, I reduced the flash’s power in steps ending up at around 1/8 which matched the f/8 exposure setting. The light was fitted with a simple spill kill and directly as much as possible towards Amber’s finishing position. Next, I set the camera’s flash mode to 2nd curtain. This means that the flash will fire at the end of the exposure, rather than the start (1st curtain). You can change the flash mode via a button on the body, or within your camera’s shooting menu, but it’s not vital and using the default 1st curtain mode sometimes means you’ll can fix a pose more easily; the 2nd curtain route is a bit more random, but it’s fun.

Adding some light Triggering the flash wirelessly (with the Profoto Air Remote), a test exposure looked good in terms of brightness, but there wasn’t quite enough of Amber’s movement visible. At this point, changing the exposure settings – for instance slowing the shutter speed won’t necessarily help as you’ll be making not only the subject lighter, but the background, too. The more effective route is to add light to the subject alone, or to have them move even more slowly. I did both, getting Amber to move at around half the previous speed through the frame and also adding some light from the opposite side to the flash using a Rotolight NEO LED panel. The extra light added, with the Rotolight NEO on full power, was enough to pick out movement of Amber’s light jacket, but it was important not to let the light spill too much on the background, which would defeat the object. To achieve this, the light was directed slightly away from the darker backdrop and flagged with a large piece of card to restrict its spread. Experiment and adapt With everything working, it’s time to experiment, making sure you get the kind of poses you want. With that in mind, it worked well on our shoot when Amber got into a pose at the end of a move and held it. To avoid any static-looking parts, apart from the frozen final

Lights, camera, action To achieve a slowsync effect you need to use a long exposure (2secs here), giving time for the ambient light to be recorded along with the flash. A little extra illumination, here provided by a Rotolight NEO LED panel, helps show the subject’s movement, while the flash can be set to fire at the beginning of the exposure, or the end (2nd or rear curtain).

This technique relies mainly on using flash, but for best results it needs to be placed off camera. This allows the flash to be more easily directed, and aimed at the position where the subject’s movement will finish. You can do it with a pop-up flash, or an accessory flash placed on the camera, but it’s not as good. If you’re working on location, you can use a speedlight on a stand, or a dedicated kit like Profoto’s B2 250 AirTTL To-Go kit, as I did. The B2 is a lightweight head and battery pack combo costing £1495. It’s lighter and more compact than many heads, making it easy to transport, has a good, adaptable nine-stop power range at 1/10EV increments, and output can be controlled manually on the pack itself. The kit also supports all existing Profoto Air transceivers allowing you to set it from the camera or use full TTL metering. The second thing you need in your bag is a bright source of continuous light. This could be a powerful LED torch, but for a more adaptable solution we used Rotolight’s NEO LED at £299.99. This uses a rather ingenious bi-colour LED system allowing you to control the colour temperature of the light (I set it to mimic the 5500K temperature of the flash). Output is flicker free and fully controllable, and it can be easily mounted on a stand like a flash. profoto.com/uk

pose, it also helped if Amber was moving as the exposure started. If the ambient light changes during the shoot, you’ll need to address the exposure settings again to make sure that you’re not over or underexposing. This is particularly important as conditions get darker because the flash will become more and more dominant as the ambient light stops being picked up.

rotolight.com

Next month More creative lighting set-ups to enjoy. Thanks to... This month’s model was the wonderful Amber Tutton. To see more of her work, or enquire about a booking, visit amber-tutton.co.uk.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Advertisement feature Profoto B1

The Industry Lifestyle photographer Jack Terry is a busy man, but enjoys setting himself projects to work on. His latest one involved shooting on location with his Profoto B1 portable lighting outfit

What was your motivation for your project? I wanted to do a decent personal project because I shoot loads of commissioned work and generally hardly have time to do that many projects. I wanted to do a project that would take a decent amount of time. Originally, my idea was to do something called ‘The Creatives’, portraits of different creative people like artisans. But the more I looked at it, the more I realised that it was a topic many people have done in the past, and also done pretty well too. From that I tightened my brief a little bit and then realised that I already knew lots of interesting people in my own industry that I could photograph. My thinking was to do a portrait of every person, from the start to the end of the production of an image for an advertisement campaign. It was going to be a location portrait of each person. In the end I photographed 23 people, covering every single role – with the exception of the photographer. So you have got in there everyone from the chief creative officer of the advertising agency to the on-set caterer to the printers, so it was a look at the whole photographic industry.

So you had worked with all the people in your project? There were a couple of people I hadn’t worked with before but I had met them and had been introduced to them by other people in the series. So even if I hadn’t worked directly with them, I knew of them and their work. What was the reaction of the people when you first asked them? Were they okay with it or camera shy? It was very positive and people were up for it. If anyone was hesitant I just asked someone else doing the same role. I wanted people happy to be a part of the project. I think a lot of people were really keen. They might appear in the odd behind the scenes picture but they are rarely in front of the camera and rarely get that moment of glory. My lifestyle work is bright and positive and I tried to bring this across in the project as much as possible, so it looked like my normal work. I didn’t want the project to look too stern. Did you pick the locations for the shoots, or was it a collaborative decision between you? A lot of it just fell into place. So, for

Generally when I am lighting one person I use a three- or five-foot Profoto Octa. I think 90% of the project pictures were shot with the five-foot Octa. example, the digital operator, the assistant and the make-up artist – they were on my shoots so I just shot them while we were shooting the job. The only one I had to set up was the caterer because in the time I was shooting the project we didn’t have a job to get him in on so we shot that in the studio. But everyone else was in their natural work environment. How long did the project take? Three months. The maximum I shot in one day was three people. Obviously when I was shooting in my own set it was easy to do because I had the people there already. Some were harder to track down. The chief creative officer of an ad agency is a lot harder to track down than someone working regularly for me. It all took a bit of thinking about but I really enjoyed it.

Above Chris Finn with Dolly, owner @Civilisedcars production vehicle and car hire. “In a job where you could be based in a forest, on a beach or in the centre of a busy city, having the correct vehicle with all the right facilities on set is essential. Civilised provide vehicles with everything you could need, from make-up rooms to luxury client vehicles they have you covered and all with 240V power and Wi-Fi.”

Were you under time pressure to get the pictures because they were very busy or was it quite relaxed? The longest I had anyone sitting for was an hour. The shortest was probably ten minutes. It was a

bit of a mix and some took more setting up. Some just naturally worked; some took thinking about. My favourite was the last shot in the series. A lady called Cathy Robert who made my portfolio. The way I went about it was to choose a frame, light the frame and then get the person in only once they were happy with the frame they were stepping into. Once I lit the frame, Cathy stepped in and I did the portrait in five frames, the fewest frames I have ever shot a portrait in and it is one of my favourite portraits I have ever captured. It is really nice. She absolutely loved it. She said it was one of the very few photos of her where she could see her own personality in the picture. Did you show the subjects all the pictures you took, or just show them the finished one? When I shoot normally I show a selection because I always shoot tethered so I go through and pick my selection, then from that I get the subject behind the computer and pick an image we both like.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Advertisement feature Jack Terry

To see more of Jack Terry’s work including his The Industry project see his website or social media sites below. jackterry.co.uk @jackterryphoto

Above Dave Bounaguidi is chief creative officer of CP&B London. “A thoroughly good bloke, he is known to go against the flow and has a passion for print and design.” The Profoto B1 lights have TTL and manual modes. How do you use them? I use them manually. If I do use TTL it is to get a basic exposure and I tweak from that. This project was all shot in manual mode It helps that I use the lights so much I can put a light ten foot from the subject, fit an Octa softbox and then set the right output number with a couple of clicks on the AirRemote and I know where I want to be. Generally when I am lighting one person I use a three- or fivefoot Profoto Octa. I think 90% of the project pictures were shot with the three-foot Octa. Did you use Profoto B1 for all the project pictures? This series of portraits is a bit left field compared with the lifestyle imagery I normally shoot and that is pretty much always outside, rarely with access to power and rarely with much time to set lights up. So the availability of a 500 watt flash head anywhere and at any location is just a massive benefit. The B1 is my go-to light for smaller productions. It is my stock light. It is bombproof and I use it for everything until I start needing more light output. If I need more I hire Profoto from Direct Photographic. Having B1s also means that when I do have to hire I have one system and all the modifiers fit. Having that seamless platform for hire kit is really good.

Profoto B1 & B2

Above “Cathy Robert’s work is beautiful, she makes portfolios for the best photographers in London. If you want your work presented in the best way possible talk to Cathy! She also makes a mean cup of coffee, you have to take her biscuits though. I shot this photo in five frames, a personal record.” There were so many factors that made the Profoto B1 perfect for this series. First thing was a lot of these were shot last minute and I was shooting it all without an assistant so I had to be able to carry the kit

around myself. But also all the images were shot around central London so I had to have an outfit I could just jump on the Tube with. The portable B1 is a real benefit for this. I have all my camera kit in a roller case and I can then carry

the lights on my back and with couple of light stands, I am good to go anywhere.

One of the keys to great photos is lighting. A well-lit photo stands head and shoulders above the rest, giving your work a professional edge. Lighting doesn’t need to be complicated though and with the Profoto B1 and B2 off-camera flash systems, achieving slick expert-level shots is easy. The B1 has completely cordless TTL operation and is ten times as powerful as your average speedlight, making it your go-to flash for on-location shoots. On the other hand, the B2 (shown above) is TTL ready too, can be used both on and off camera and is versatile enough to use as a gentle fill light or as your main light source. profoto.com/uk

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Awards Gear of the year

Photography News Awards 2015 Never ever have we had it so good. Whether it’s cameras, lenses or something smaller but equally essential like filters or triggers, we are blessed with great kit and that is what our Awards recognise and it’s you who decides the winners Nominations ADVANCED DSLR Canon EOS 7D Mark ll Canon EOS 5D Mark lll Nikon D750 Nikon D810 Pentax K-3 ll CONSUMER DSLR Canon EOS 760D Nikon D5500 Nikon D7200 Pentax K-S2 Sony A77 II PROFESSIONAL DSLR Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R Canon EOS-1D X Nikon D4s PROFESSIONAL CSC Fujifilm X-T1 Leica SL Panasonic Lumix GH4 Olympus OM-D E-M1 Samsung NX1 Sony A7R II PREMIUM COMPACT Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II Fujifilm X100T Leica Q Ricoh GR II Sigma Quattro dp0 Sony Cyber-shot RX1r II CONSUMER CSC Fujifilm X-T10 Nikon 1 J5 Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II Panasonic Lumix GF7 Samsung NX500 Sony A6000 ADVANCED CSC Canon EOS M3 Leica T Nikon 1 V3 Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Panasonic Lumix GX8 Sony A7S II

Over the next pages are our nominations in key product categories, and from these we want you to vote for what you feel deserves your support. You can vote in as few or as many categories as you want – it’s entirely up to you. But everyone who votes will be entered into a prize draw after voting closes and the

first name picked out at random will win a free 12-bottle case of wine. Voting is open now and will close on Wednesday 24 February 2016, so you have plenty of time to consider what you vote for. Go to absolutephoto.com and follow the Awards 2015 link to vote. We have kept the

voting process as simple as possible and you don’t have to register or log in. If you prefer to vote by post, nominate your products by ticking the appropriate box and sending the pages from the issue to Bright Publishing, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ.

ZOOM COMPACT Canon PowerShot G5 X Fujifilm X30 Nikon COOLPIX P900 Olympus TOUGH TG-4 Panasonic Lumix LX100 Sony Cyber-shot RX100 IV

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Awards TELEPHOTO ZOOM Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Fujifilm XF50-140mm f/2.8 R OIS WR Nikon AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Pentax 70-200mm f/2.8 ED DC AW Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM S Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5.6-6.3 Di VC USD

TRIPOD: ALUMINIUM Benro Mach3 TMA37AL Manfrotto MT055XOPRO3 Mefoto Globetrotter A2350Q2 Nest NT-6294AK Slik Pro 700 DX Velbon SUB-65

PHOTO BACKPACK Lowepro ProTactic 350 AW Lowepro Pro Trekker 450 AW Manfrotto Pro Light MultiPro-120 PL Tamrac Anvil Slim 15 Tenba Shootout Backpack 24L Think Tank StreetWalker Pro

WIDE-ANGLE ZOOM Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM Fujifilm XF10-24mm f/4 R OIS Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 Pro Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM Art Sony Vario-Sonnar T* 16-35mm f/2.8 ZA SSM II Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD

TRIPOD: CARBON-FIBRE 3 Legged Thing Evolution 3 Brian Benro FTA28CC Giotto’s YTL 8353 Induro GIT203 Manfrotto 290 XTRA Carbon Vanguard VEO 265CB

SHOULDER/SLING BAG Billingham Packington Lowepro Slingshot Edge 150 AW Manfrotto Agile II Sling Tamrac Stratus 8 Tenba Shootout Sling Bag LE Medium Vanguard Up-Rise II 43

STANDARD ZOOM Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Fujifilm XF16-55mm f/2.8 R WR Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR Pentax 24-70mm f/2.8 ED SDM WR Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM A Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD

MAINS FLASH: POWER PACK Bowens CREO 2400 Broncolor Scoro S 1600 RFS Elinchrom Digital 2400 RX Profoto Pro-8a 2400

ROLLER/HARD CASE Lowepro Pro Roller X100 AW Manfrotto Professional Roller 50 Nest Odyssey 10 Tenba Roadie Universal Think Tank Airport 4-Sight Vanguard Xcenior 48T

SUPERZOOM Fujifilm XF18-135mm f/3.5-5.6R OIS WR Nikon AF-S 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4-5.6 II Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DC Macro OS HSM C Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD MEDIUM-FORMAT Hasselblad H5D-50c Leica S007 Pentax 645Z Phase One XF with IQ3 PRIME: WIDE-ANGLE Fujifilm XF16mm f/1.4 R WR Nikon AF-S 24mm f/1.8G ED Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm f/1.8 Pro Samyang 21mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC CS Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM A Zeiss Milvus 21mm f/2.8 PRIME: STANDARD Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM A Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 PRIME: TELEPHOTO Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM Fujifilm XF90mm f/2 R LM WR Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED VR Samyang 135mm f/2 ED UMC Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 MACRO Fujifilm XF60mm f/2.4 R Macro Pentax D-FA 100mm f/2.8 Macro WR Samyang 100mm f/2.8 ED UMC Macro Sigma APO 180mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Macro Zeiss Milvus 50mm f/2 VIDEO LENS Samyang 21mm T1.5 ED AS UMC CS Samyang 50mm T1.3 ED AS UMC CS XEEN 50mm T1.5 XEEN 85mm T1.5 Schneider FF-Prime 50mm T2.1 Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 TRIPOD: TRAVEL Benro Travel Flat FTF18CIB0 Gitzo GT1555T MeFOTO Roadtrip C1350Q Nest Traveller NT-6234AK Vanguard VEO 204AB Velbon Ultra 455

ON-CAMERA FLASH Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Metz 64 AF-1 Digital Nikon SB-910 Nissin Di700A + Air 1 Phottix Mitros+ Pixapro Li-ION580 ETTL PORTABLE FLASH Elinchrom ELB 400 Interfit S1 Monolight Lencarta Safari 2 Phottix Indra360 TTL Profoto B2 MONOBLOC FLASH Bowens Gemini 500R Broncolor Siros 400 Elinchrom BRX 500 Lastolite Lumen8 Pixapro Storm 400 Profoto D1 Air 250 CONTINUOUS LIGHT Bowens Mosaic Daylight LED panel Elemental CRYO 600 Manfrotto Spectra900F LED Rosco LitePad HO+ Rotolight NEO LED Westcott Skylux LED STUDIO/LIGHTING ACCESSORY BounceLite modifier Elinchrom EL-Skyport Plus HS Hähnel Captur Lastolite Urban backgrounds Magmod modifiers Phottix Varos Pro BG Umbrella Holder FILTER Cokin Nuances Formatt Hitech Firecrest ND Hoya ProND family Lee Filters Super Stopper Marumi DHG Super Circular Polariser Vu Sion Q ND Graduates MEMORY CARD Delkin Black SD Lexar Professional 2000x SDHC/SDXC UHS-II PNY Elite Performance SDXC UHS-III Samsung SDXC Pro Plus UHS-1 SanDisk Extreme PRO SDHC/SDXC UHS-II Transcend SDXC/SDHC Class 3 UHS-II SD EXTERNAL STORAGE DEVICE Drobo 5D G-Technology 4TB G-Dock ev Lacie d2 3TB Samsung Portable SSD T1 Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive Western Digital My Passport Ultra Metal Edition

INKJET PRINTER Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Canon PIXMA Pro-100S Canon PIXMA MG5700 Epson SureColor SC-P400 Epson SureColor SC-P600 Epson SureColor SC-P800 INKJET MEDIA: PHOTOGRAPHIC FINISH Canson Infinity Photo Lustre Premium Resin Coated 310gsm DaVinci Fibre Gloss Silk 310gsm Epson Traditional Photo Paper Fotospeed Photo Smooth Pearl 290 Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta PermaJet FB Gold Silk 315gsm INKJET MEDIA: FINE ART FINISH Canson Infinity Rag Photographique 310gsm Epson Hot Press Bright 330gsm Fotospeed Smooth Cotton 300gsm Signature Hahnemühle William Turner 310gsm Innova Soft Textured Natural White 315gsm PermaJet Museum 310 MONITOR Apple 27in Thunderbolt BenQ SW2700PT Pro 27in IPS LCD Eizo ColorEdge CX271 27in LCD LG Digital Cinema 4K 31MU97Z 31in NEC SpectraView Reference 272 LED Samsung 28in UHD COLOUR MANAGEMENT DEVICE DataColor Spyder 5 Elite DataColor SpyderCHECKR 24 ExpoDisc 2.0 White-balance filter X-Rite ColorMunki Display X-Rite ColorMunki Photo X-Rite ColorChecker Passport INNOVATION DxO ONE Elinchrom EL-Skyport Transmitter Plus HS Hähnel Captur Leica SL EVF Olympus High Res Shot mode Phottix Indra360 TTL

Leica SL system Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 & SP 45mm f/1.8 Zeiss Milvus lens family BEST RETAILER Whether you shop for your photo kit online or in store, nominate the photo retailer that has you going back time and time again.

BEST HIRE CENTRE Perhaps you’ve hired an expensive exotic telephoto for an air show or lighting kit for a location shoot, whichever, nominate the hire company that has fulfilled your wishes, with a wide product range, punctuality and good customer service.

BEST INSURANCE PROVIDER If you insure your photo outfit with a specialist photographic policy, or you do the odd photography job so need public indemnity insurance, has your provider gone the extra mile?

PROCESSING LAB Which processing lab do you trust with your photos, albums or stationery? If they offer highquality and utterly reliable service at competitive prices, are they worthy of a PN award?

BEST BOOK SERVICE Creating your own high-quality photographic book has never been easier, but there are so many online services. In your experience, which book service offers the best choice of papers and finishes, ease of use and quality product?

PHOTO WEBSITE PROVIDER For gallery websites or full-service sites, with clientproofing and a blog, which provider offers the best range of templates and customisation options together with top-notch customer service?

TRAINING PROVIDER From basic photographic knowledge through particular tips and techniques to camera specific training, in the classroom, studio or out on location, which provider offers the best learning experience, in your opinion? Nominate your preferred provider.

LAUNCH Canon EOS 5DS/5DS R Fujifilm X-T10

The details How to vote Go to absolutephoto.com or fill in and post these pages to Bright Publishing, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ. Closing date is Wednesday 24 February 2016.

The results We’ll announce the results in issue 30 of Photography News and present the awards to their deserving recipients at The Photography Show, at Brimingham’s NEC, 19-22 March 2016.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera test Specs Price £2599.99 Sensor 42.4-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor with anti-dust system, no optical low-pass filter Sensor format 35.9x24mm full-frame, 7952x5304 pixels

Sony A7R Mark II Boasting 42.4 megapixels, built-in stabilisation, a wide ISO range and 4K video, this Sony is a high-resolution camera to watch out for

ISO range 100 to 25,600, expandable to 50 and 102,400 Shutter range 30secs to 1/8000sec, flash sync at 1/250sec, plus Bulb Drive modes Up to 5fps in continuous high, 2.5 in continuous low Metering system 1200-zone evaluative metering with Exmor R CMOS sensor. Centre-weighted and spot available Exposure modes PASM, scene selection, sweep panorama Exposure compensation +/-5EV in 0.3 or 0.5EV steps. Auto bracketing available, with 3, 5 or 9 frames Monitor 3in, 1228k dots, adjustable angle Focusing Fast hybrid AF/phase-detection/ contrast-detection AF with wide, zone, centre, flexible spot, expand flexible spot Focus points Full-frame 399 phase-detection AF points, APS-C 357 phase-detection points/25 contrast-detection points Video XAVC.S/AVCHD format v2.0, 4K 3840x2160 pixels plus many options Connectivity HD output via HDMI (type D) with 4K movie output and 4K still image playback, PC interface, NFC, micro USB Storage media Multimedia slot for SD memory card/Memory Stick Duo Dimensions (wxhxd) 126.9x95.7x60.3mm Weight 625g with battery Contact sony.co.uk

Review by Will Cheung At 42.4 megapixels the Sony A7R II is the highest-resolution mirrorless camera on the market and only second to the Canon EOS 5DS/R duo if you include 35mm DSLRs, too. Resolution is the camera’s headline-grabbing feature but it is not a one-trick pony. This £2,600 camera has a long list of features that includes an ISO range from 50 to 102,400, five–axis image stabilisation and silent shooting. Every camera needs some time dedicated to it during initial set-up and experience then tells us what changes you need to make. However, I find the Sony menu system not very good to use. There are so many options – in the camera menu we have nine tabs and a total of 50 possible choices, and in the cog menu there are eight tabs and 42 options. Nothing wrong with having plenty of choice, but the menu seems random and could be much better organised. So in camera menu four, of the six items there are four focus options and two exposure options, yet in menu three there are two focus options that could be in menu four. Of course, menus and how they work is very much an individual matter, but a more logical approach from Sony and a future firmware update wouldn’t do any harm. I spent some time on setting up with the ‘help’ of the instruction

manual, and more time fine-tuning after my first trip out. With 12 buttons or controls in the Custom Key Settings menu that can be customised to a great many functions, you can appreciate why correct set-up takes time. The camera has 399 phase-contrast AF points – the most found on any full-frame camera – that you can use in various configurations. The system works very well and speedily, too, but it has moments of randomness and uncertainty. With face-detection on, photographing a close-up of a child whose head was close to a food bowl, the camera delivered a lovely sharp picture of the bowl. The Zone focus option was more consistent than the Wide setting and this can be moved around the image area. I usually prefer centre-point AF, and this camera has that but it’s fixed in place so there is also the option of Flexible Spot S or Expand Flexible Spot with which you can navigate around the image. Have the central button of the command dial set to standard and one push takes you into that mode, then use the dial to move the AF point around – it’s not direct access but close enough. One option I’d like is being able to magnify into the image during single-shot AF to make sure that focus has been correctly achieved. It’s available in manual and direct manual focusing (DMF) but not AF. Unlike the AF system, the exposure system was much more dependable

It acquitted itself perfectly capably, it coped with a wide variety of situations with aplomb and it acquitted itself perfectly capably, it coped with a wide variety of situations with aplomb and rarely was the exposure compensation control needed. For the test I shot Raws and ExtraFine JPEGs simultaneously, and the Raws were processed in Lightroom CC or Capture Pro 8.3. I shot with the Sony FE 24-240mm superzoom and the Zeiss FE 55mm f/1.8 lenses, the latter I especially enjoyed for its optical quality and portability. Benro and Gitzo carbon-fibre tripods fitted with Benro and Arca Swiss ball heads were also used for the test, and prints were outputted using an Epson Pro Stylus 3880 printer. One annoying handling point came out with the camera on the tripod. The eye sensor has a range of five or six inches so auto switchover between the EVF and monitor happened too readily. On a tripod, I selected the monitor only and had to remember to reset auto when shooting handheld. Full-size files from the Sony are large, measuring 241MB when open

and measure 67x44.9cm at 300ppi without any interpolation, so that means resizing downwards for A2 prints. I challenge anyone not to be impressed with the image quality you can get out of this camera. Images are detail packed and I made several prints up to A2 size, all with default sharpening and they look fabulous. I did some comparison shots with my usual full-frame DSLR and my CSC (both cameras of lower resolution) and again made A2 prints (with interpolation where needed) and yes, the Sony images looked better. To be fair, the differences were not night and day and were only apparent with careful inspection and direct comparison – viewed in isolation, you wouldn’t complain about any of the results. It is also true that with smaller prints – even A3 – the differences were less noticeable. Nevertheless, there is no denying that if your aim is for the ultimate picture quality and output image at this sort of size the Sony has clear benefits.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera test Noise reduction

Holding it steady

The Sony has noise reduction for long exposures as well as high-ISO use. With a low-light scene I shot JPEGs and Raws at ISO 6400, 12,800 and 25,600 using high-ISO noise reduction at off, low and high. As noise is very low in the first place, the noise reduction feature isn’t really needed but it does have a benefit. For example, at ISO 12,800 there is evidence of colour noise but with the NR feature at the Normal setting this goes, so on JPEGs it is worth using. There seems no benefit in Raw shooting.

The Sony A7R II has a five-axis IBIS (inbody image stabilisation) system, so it’s unlike systems from Canon, Nikon and Tamron that are lens-based, and means that it works for any lens. It is also the first five-axis system for full-frame cameras. This test shot was taken on a breezy day at 1/4sec at f/16 using the Sony 24-240mm zoom lens set to 52mm with SteadyShot set to auto. Out of three shots one was unacceptable, one was very good and the third was excellent. Given the weather conditions I thought that this was a very creditable performance.

Above Sony’s five-axis in-body image stabilisation system proved to be very capable and, of course, has the extra benefit of working for all lenses. Right This JPEG was shot at ISO 12,800 with normal level high ISO noise reduction.

Noise performance

ISO 50

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

As a general rule of thumb, the higher the megapixel count, the greater the issue of digital noise and that’s simply the downside of cramming all those busy little pixels into a small area. The Sony A7R II has a higher megapixel count than any fullframe camera with the exception of the EOS 5DS/R pair from Canon so you are entitled to think that you are going to get comparatively noisy pictures. To be honest, though, the Sony actually delivers a very, very impressive ISO performance. The shots here were taken on the Sony fitted with the Sony FE 24‑240mm f/3.5-6.3 and mounted on a Benro Mach 3 tripod. Exposures were made with the self-timer and the camera’s highISO noise reduction was set to off. The ISO 100 shot needed an exposure of 4secs at f/8 for this twilight scene. The Raw files were then processed through Capture

Pro 8.3.4 with default noise reduction settings. Viewed at 100%, there is no noise to speak of until you get to ISO 3200 and even then it’s minor and readily reduced in software. It is only from 12,800 that noise reaches a significant level and the impact on fine detail is more evident, but if you had to, this speed could still be useable for critical work so it’s ideal for lowlight street work. At ISO 25,600, noise is more significant but I’ve seen worse on lower-megapixel cameras at ISO 3200, and once you reach the two top settings, image quality is not great but nevertheless, it’s impossible not to be impressed with this camera’s overall ability in this department. The rule of thumb mentioned earlier does still apply – but the Sony A7R II shows why this could all change as technology progresses. A remarkable showing.

It’s impossible not to be impressed with this camera Verdict

I have no complaints about image quality. The Sony’s 42.4 megapixels do a great job with fine detail and you definitely see the benefit with large prints. High ISO performance is also very impressive and actually amazing for a high-megapixel camera. I was less impressed with handling, particularly the uncertainty of the AF system, no direct access to the AF point, the overly sensitive EVF/ monitor auto switchover and the menu structure. On the whole, though, I’d put up with the odd handling frustration in return for outstanding picture quality.

How it rates Features Full-frame, high resolution

ISO 3200

25/25

25/25 Performance Excellent image quality and very impressive ISO performance

ISO 6400

21/25 Handling AF sometimes misses, menu is hard work, a few annoying traits 22/25 Value for money A pricey camera but certainly worth the investment ISO 12,800

ISO 51,200

ISO 25,600

ISO 102,400

Images The Sony A7R II’s back illuminated full-frame sensor delivers an awesome ISO performance and even ISO 12,800 can be used for critical results with noise reduction applied in software.

93/100 Overall A camera that packs a mighty punch and if ultimate quality in a small package is your goal, this is the camera for you. Pros Image quality, small for a fullframe, noise performance Cons Some minor handling niggles, AF can be hesitant, the menu system, only one SD slot

Camera test Specs Price £5050 body only, £3150 VarioElmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH Sensor 24-megapixel CMOS sensor, IR filter, no low-pass filter. Through Leica Maestro II processor with cleaning Sensor format 24x36mm, 6000x4000 pixels, in APS-C 10 megapixels 3936x2624 pixels ISO range 50-50,000 Shutter range 60secs to 1/8000sec with flash sync at 1/250sec, time exposures up to 30mins Drive modes Single, continuous up to 10fps Metering system Multi-zone, spot and centreweighted Exposure modes PASM Exposure compensation +/-3EV in 0.3 and 0.5EV steps EVF 4.4-megapixel SXAG, 100% coverage, eye sensor Monitor 2.95in touch screen Focusing Contrast AF with AF-S, AF-C, manual, touch AF, static, facedetection, dynamic tracking Focus points 37 or 49 AF points, point, field and zone (nine fields) Video MP4, MOV formats, 4K (4096x2160) at 24fps, 4K 3840x2160 at 25 and 30fps Connectivity Wi-Fi, GPS, USB 3.0 type B, HDMI type A, 3.5mm audio out Storage media SD, 2GB internal memory enough for 33 DNG files Dimensions (wxhxd) 147x104x39mm Weight 847g body only Contact uk.leica-camera.com

Exposure and white-balance perform with credit, delivering lovely pictures

Right The SL’s body design is very clean, with minimal controls and markings, just on the dioptre control and the on/off switch.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Leica SL

The SL is the biggest, most expensive mirrorless camera out there, but its maker’s photographic heritage is second to none so it deserves serious consideration Review by Will Cheung

Big, chunky, minimalist, sweet and magnificent were five adjectives used when I passed the Leica SL around the Photography News editorial team. It certainly prompted a response, positive and negative, so it is very much a Marmite camera. Me? I like its look even accounting for that plinth on the left-side top-plate. The body houses a 35mm sensor (probably the same as the one in the Leica Q, but Leica won’t confirm that) and it’s a large camera when compared with other mirrorless cameras. It dwarfs the Sony A7R II, also tested in this issue, for example. Overall body design is very clean. It is not festooned with controls and buttons and the only control that has any indication of its purpose is the on/ off switch on the back. And the only control with any index markings is the eyepiece dioptre-correction control. Leica’s attention to fine detail extends to the battery compartment. It has no cover – the cover is the battery end itself – and releasing the battery means operating the silver switch next to the compartment. This frees the battery from the body but it still can’t be removed from the body until you gently push the battery back into the body to release a catch. Going mirrorless from a camera maker’s perspective makes sense. No instant-return mirror probably means lower costs, the chance to save space and potentially, in the longer term, greater reliability. It’s too early to comment on the last named but Leica seems not to have embraced the two former possible benefits. More lenses to fit the SL will be announced in due course and

adapters will also be available to fit other Leica lenses including M-fit rangefinder lenses. Meanwhile the lens that we were supplied with was a Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH standard zoom. The 24-90mm is a hefty zoom, especially if you consider that it has a variable maximum aperture – it weighs 1136g which compares with the 805g of Canon’s constant aperture 24-70mm f/2.8. Fitted on the SL and you have a combination weighing in at over 2kg, so this is a seriously hefty outfit

comparable to a 35mm DSLR with fast zoom. You certainly know it’s around your neck; have the camera up to your eye for too long and your camera-lifting muscles get a workout. The image sensor is a full-frame 24-megapixel CMOS unit providing 8-bit JPEGs and 14-bit DNG Raws. There is no low-pass filter to maximise detail resolution and a sensor cleaning system is built in. Leica makes much of its EVF and its 4.4 million pixel resolution. The view is indeed very good and the image is highly detailed but I’m not convinced it is the brightest I’ve seen, although that is difficult to tell without direct comparison. The image seemed rather cool too. There was some flickering evident in my test sample. Highly detailed or not, it proved good to use and the image is nice and big. The big eyepiece helped too. The right-side handgrip is good and while not exactly ergonomic, ie. it’s not contoured in any way, it does the job well enough. A vertical grip/ spare battery holder will be available soon and no doubt will be joined by a more basic grip in due course. I wouldn’t say the SL’s handling is intuitive, certainly not to start with. That’s mostly because the only control on the back plate marked is the On/ off switch and either side of the large LCD monitor are four anonymous push tabs. The menu system structure could be better; the main menu is just a long list of items – a simple system of pages as used by other brands would improve things markedly. The relative lack of customisation potential is a shame but it makes initial set-up

quick because there is not much you can play with. Of course, familiarity and practice soon speed handling up and in not much time at all, using the SL becomes a pleasure even accounting for its heft. The top-plate command dial is large and very good to use, and the LCD info panel is handy for checking settings quickly. Positioned for the thumb, the joystick is good to use too and, for example, makes moving the AF point around the 37 or 49 zones a speedy, precise process. Autofocusing is swift, responsive and accurate to make the most of the 24-90mm zoom. The exposure and white-balance system perform with credit, delivering lovely pictures with not much fuss at all. I shot mostly in aperture-priority and program modes using multi-segment metering with exposure compensation used to finetune shots. If you want to shoot JPEGs, the SL happily delivers good pictures straight out of the camera. I shot Adobe Raws in concert with fullframe JPEGs – there are five other aspect ratios available including 16:9 and square. The sensor can be set to APS-C format too. All round, I enjoyed my SL experience. True, by price alone it is a relatively exclusive camera but leaving the issue of money aside, the SL is a fine camera, beautifully engineered and very capable, too. It has its handling quirks – in that respect it’s typically Leica – but if you can make this serious investment the SL will pay you back handsomely with great pictures.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera test Full-frame image

ISO 100

ISO 12,500

ISO 3200

ISO 400

ISO 25,000

ISO 6400

ISO 800

Noise performance

ISO 50,000

The base exposure for this twilight shot was 10secs at f/8 at ISO 100 and the Raw files were processed in Lightroom CC with default NR. The Leica SL delivered a very good noise performance and is useable critically even at ISO 1600. Noise was evident here, but looked very filmic and didn’t impact greatly on detail. Some NR in software would remove it easily. Noise levels were acceptable at ISO 3200 and images could be used for critical purposes. The same can’t be said for ISO 6400 unless you want a strong grain effect. From ISO 12,800 onwards noise levels were very high and these settings are best avoided unless the light’s desperate.

The weight of the camera and lens outfit is a benefit in this situation

Left The 24-90mm f/2.8-4 is a weighty lens but balances well on the SL body, which is itself a sizeable camera for a mirrorless model. However, image quality is excellent and scenes ooze crisp, fine detail. ISO performance is more than capable too.

Verdict Lens performance: Vario-Elmarit-SL 2490mm f/2.8-4 ASPH Image quality from the zoom is very high as you can see from the test images here. It is very useable at maximum aperture and the only reason to stop down is to control depth-of-field. It’s only really at the smallest apertures where the performance drops off, with 24mm at f/22 being noticeably poor. Generally, though, a very creditable performer optically and the camera’s image stabilisation is capable, too. Shooting even at 1/8sec gives you pin-sharp pictures if you’re careful. The weight of the camera and lens outfit is a benefit in this situation.

F/2.8

F/8

The Leica SL system is an exciting development although it is true that its appeal is limited simply because you need £5050 for the body and another £3150 for the 24-90mm f/2.8-4 lens. Look beyond the price, however, and the design, build quality and image quality make the SL an interesting proposition, perhaps to the many M users around.

How it rates Features 23/25 Plenty to enjoy but not dripping with features

F/16

F/22

24/25 Performance Very good picture quality, especially at high ISOs. Good AF and exposure 21/25 Handling Weight is a detraction but handles well enough, menu could be better 18/25 Value for money Cheap, the Leica SL system isn’t 86/100 Overall A new system is always welcome and the SL is very good, but it’s also very expensive Pros Build quality, lens quality, high ISO noise performance Cons Size of the camera and lens, price

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests

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 Reviews by Kingsley Singleton and Will Cheung

Specs In the box VEO 265CB, TBH-50 ball head, soft carrying case with strap, short centre column, Allen key Max height 124.5cm, centre column fully extended 148.5cm Min height 46cm, 16cm legs splayed and short column fitted Max load 10kg Mount Arca-Swiss compatible Independent pan lock Yes Friction control No Leg material Carbon fibre Closed length 48.5cm, 39cm with centre-column folded Weight 1.5kg, TBH-50 ball head 204g Contact vanguardworld.co.uk

Vanguard VEO 265CB £249.95 A full-size tripod will always outperform a smaller one whether that is in terms of maximum height or outright stability. Problem is, of course, that a full-size tripod is not always a practical option and on the premise that any tripod is better than none at all, travel tripods like the Vanguard VEO 265CB are worth their weight in gold. The VEO 265CB has carbon-fibre legs and with the supplied TBH‑50 ball head, it comes in at £250. There is a current special offer on this tripod and it comes with a free VEO37 bag worth £69.99. Its legs feature lever locks, which have a positive action and firmly secure the legs in place. For the smoothest retraction leg action, just make sure the leg locks are fully folded back. Good thing is I didn’t manage to nip my palm when locking all four legs at once, which I have done with some other tripods. At the end of each leg is a rubber foot, but screwing the foot in gives a welcome spiked option. The legs have three locking positions, with legs unlocked by a large easy-to-use push button that can be operated even with gloves on. The lowest position allows very low shooting and a short replacement column is provided with the kit. Switching columns is straightforward enough.

The 265CB doesn’t offer the foldback option, but something much better

How it rates Many travel-type tripods feature fold-back legs to minimise size when travelling. This can save a few centimetres but, of course, means set-up takes longer too. Personally the fold-back doesn’t appeal to me simply for the time factor. Vanguard has a different take on the issue and the 265CB doesn’t offer the fold-back option, but something much better. After use, just extend the centre column all the way up, push a spring-loaded release button and the column can then be rotated over to rest between the tripod’s legs. From its folded position to being ready for use is very quick, much faster than the option of the legs folding back. The supplied slim TBH-50 ball head

means the folded tripod has a slim profile, too. It is worth noting that the centre column can’t be locked in position for use as it’s rotated – it’s either in its folded position or in place for normal use. Tripod stability is good and I used it with a full-frame DSLR and various CSCs. Stability is certainly as good as other similar-sized tripods I’ve tried. The only minor negative I thought was that the ball head is just a tad too stiff in use. There is no friction control and perhaps a stiff head is better than a floppy one. It does, however, lock very firmly in position. WC

Verdict

The world’s best tripod is the one with you and that’s why it’s worth considering a quality travel tripod like the Vanguard VEO 265CB. It is compact and light enough to tote around all day without too much of an effort and it offers very good stability for a tripod of this stature. Its centre column fold-over mechanism is very neat too, and makes the tripod quick to use from its minimum size. Pros Good stability, good value, centre-column design, choice of rubber or spiked feet, versatile Cons No friction adjustment on the ball head and a bit too stiff

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests

Samyang AS UMC CS 21mm f/1.4 ED £279 & 50mm f/1.2 £299

Specs Samyang 21mm f/1.4 ED Format APS-C, 31.5mm equiv. in 35mm format. Micro Four Thirds, 42mm equiv. in 35mm format Mount Canon EOS M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Sony E

Korean lens brand Samyang’s two latest introductions are fast aperture, manual focus primes, the 21mm f/1.4 ED and the 50mm f/1.2, both with the AS UMC CS designations, and both aimed at CSC users. Mounts available include Canon M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds and Sony E. Optically identical versions are available for moviemakers too. WC

Samyang 21mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC CS £279 The Samyang 21mm f/1.4 is a compact, well-balanced lens giving the equivalent of around 32mm in the 35mm format, so it’s ideal as a general purpose all-rounder. The fast aperture is a major attraction, of course. The focusing barrel has a smooth, nicely weighted travel and from minimum to maximum focusing distance takes about a one-third rotation of the lens barrel. The aperture ring is click-stopped in 0.5EV steps and this has a smooth action too. I used our Sony mount sample on a full-frame 42.2-megapixel CSC, the A7R II. In its cropped sensor format resolution is 15 megapixels.

Construction 8 elements in 7 groups Special lens elements 3 aspherical, 1 ED F/1.4

F/1.4

F/8

Filter size 58mm

20/25 Features Not much in the way of frills but fast aperture a big plus

F/8

Central sharpness is impressive at open aperture and just gets better and better with stopping down. Quality reaches a peak at f/8 and f/11 where sharpness and contrast are at their best before gradually tapering off. Edge sharpness is less good compared with the centre at the wide apertures, but it picks up quickly with stopping down. From f/4 to f/8 edge detail is critically good, though, before falling away from f/11 where detail resolution and contrast suffer.

Coatings Samyang Ultra Multi Coating

How it rates

23/25 Performance Delivers a creditable optical performance 23/25 Handling Smooth controls, good balance

F/22

24/25 Value for money A very good price for a decent lens

All in all, for the attractive price this Samyang 35mm lens is well worth considering and used at its optimum apertures will certainly deliver critically good results.

F/16

Overall 90/100 A capable standard prime with the benefit of f/1.4 Pros Price, good optically at maximum aperture, good balance, smooth controls Cons Edge performance at f/1.4

This 50mm is equivalent to a 75mm in the 35mm focal length so this is a lovely portrait lens. Throw in the impressive f/1.2 aperture for very shallow depth-of-field and this lens has huge creative potential. As you’d expect for a lens with such a fast aperture, it has a nice heft and its balance is very good. The focusing barrel goes from infinity to the minimum focus of 50cm in half a rotation. At infinity, the front element is recessed into

the body, which acts like a shallow lens hood. At 50cm it’s element is much closer to the lens front. The aperture ring on our sample was more taut than that of the 21mm, but it operated well enough in its 0.5EV steps. Optical performance is generally sound. At the wider apertures detail resolution is good but contrast is slightly flat. Some careful processing with some use of unsharp mask will help if you want

Focusing Internal, manual only, min. 28cm, no limiter Distance scale Yes, feet and metres Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser No Lens hood Bayonet fit hood supplied Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 67.5x54.3mm (Sony E)

Samyang 50mm f/1.2

How it rates

Performance Good from f/4 but less impressive wider

biting sharpness, but the marginal softening in detail rendition at f/2 and wider is no bad thing for flattering portrait work. Contrast and detail improve with stopping down and you certainly get a good showing across the whole frame at f/5.6. The highest levels of optical performance are reached at f/8. A super-fast and compact portrait lens at under £300 is impressive value for money.

Diaphragm 9 blades

Weight 275g (Sony E)

21/25 Features Superfast short telephoto with good close focusing distance

Samyang 50mm f/1.2 AS UMC CS £299

Aperture range f/1.4-22

20/25

22/25 Handling Good, aperture ring a mite taut Value for money Very competitive

23/25

Overall 86/100 Lots of potential as a portrait lens for blurred background effects Pros Price, superfast maximum aperture, good image quality especially from f/4 onwards Cons Contrast and sharpness at the wider apertures

Format APS-C, 75mm equiv. in 35mm format. Micro Four Thirds, 100mm equiv. in 35mm format Mount Canon EOS M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Sony E Construction 9 elements in 7 groups Special lens elements 2 aspherical Coatings Samyang Ultra Multi Coating Filter size 62mm Aperture range f/1.2-22 Diaphragm 9 blades Focusing Internal, manual only, min. 50cm, no limiter Distance scale Yes, feet and metres Depth-of-field scale No

Overall verdict Samyang lenses are known to give a high level for performance for their cost, and this new pair of manual focus primes more than uphold this tradition. Both the 21mm f/1.4 ED and 50mm f/1.2 handle nicely and in the case of our Sony-fit samples, combine really nicely with the cameras we tested them with. Optically, the 21mm f/1.4 ED is the stronger performer of the pair in terms of outright image resolution, but the 50mm f/1.2 has an interesting pictorial quality that could really suit wide aperture portraits, perfect for lovers of blurred backgrounds. At £279 and £299 respectively, we have no quibbles on value for money at all with these two capable Samyang primes and both optics are very nicely priced.

Image stabiliser No Lens hood Bayonet fit hood supplied Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 74.2x67.5mm (Sony E) Weight 385g (Sony E) Contact intro2020.co.uk

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests

Olympus M.ZUIKO ED 8mm f/1.8 PRO £729 The Olympus 8mm f/1.8 is a fisheye lens that has a 180° view and produces a truly frame-filling image – as opposed to circular fisheye lenses that produce a round image on the rectangular format. Its design means straight lines in the centre of the frame stay straight but straight lines away from the centre, thanks to the lack of lens correction, come out strongly curved. The same happens when you tilt the camera up or down. Move in close and you can get some very interesting distortion – especially of faces. Fisheye lenses are not to everyone’s liking and they are bit of a one-trick pony; the novel effect can quickly become tiresome. That said they are fun to use and they can be immensely useful too – for producing 360° panoramas, for example. Also in some softwares any distortion can be corrected in post-production at the click of a mouse so a fisheye can be used just like any extreme rectilinear wide-angle lens. This is a Micro Four Thirds format lens so it’s a petite optic and that is even more impressive if you consider that, not only is it a fisheye but its maximum aperture is a fast f/1.8 – the first lens of this type to boast such a fast aperture. The lens’s only control is the focusing barrel for manual focus. Manual focus is rarely needed because this lens type gives extensive

depth-of-field even at mid-apertures at normal shooting distances. Move in close, though, and depth-of-field is less extensive. Minimum focus is 12cm from the sensor plane which means that the front element is about 2cm from the subject, so take care you don’t bump into the subject with the front element. The curved front element can be a challenge to keep clean and you’ll undoubtedly add the occasional finger smudge without meaning to during use. A degree of protection is provided by the fixed vestigial lens hood but clearly there is no way a protection filter can be employed. The lens does come with a clip-on lens cap. Optically, this lens is very sharp in the centre from f/1.8 onwards. Sharpness is high and so too is contrast, and there’s excellent rendition of fine detail. As you would expect from this lens type, move towards the edges and image quality drops off significantly. The edges get better with stopping down but poor edges is really not an issue with this lens type because you usually put the subject at the centre or very close to it and so long as it’s good there, all is good. This Olympus optic certainly delivers in that regard. With such a wide view, if the sun is shining, you’re very likely to have it in the frame so good flare resistance is important. No problem on that score either. WC

Specs Format Micro Four Thirds Mount Micro Four Thirds Construction 17 elements in 15 groups Special lens elements 3x Super ED, 1 aspherical ED, 2 HR, 1 Super HR Coatings ZERO (ZUIKO Extra-low Reflection Optical) Filter size Not applicable Aperture range f/1.8-22 Diaphragm 7 blades

This lens is very sharp in the centre from f/1.8 onwards

Images Expectations from fisheye lenses are different from normal optics with edge sharpness often less of a consideration so long as the central area is pin-sharp. Fisheyes are great fun to use too, giving a fresh perspective on much-photographed subjects, just use them sparingly.

Internal focus Yes, High-Speed Imager AF Manual focus Yes Minimum focus 12cm, 2.6cm from element Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 0.2x Distance scale No Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser In body Tripod collar No Lens hood Integral Weather-sealed Yes, dust and freeze proof Dimensions (lxd) 62x80mm

Images We used Olympus’s latest OM-D, the E-M10 Mark II, with the 8mm f/1.8 lens. The lens is a fine optic delivering impressive images with lots of sharpness and contrast. Raw files were processed in Lightroom CC with default sharpening. F/4

F/5.6

Weight 315g Contact olympus.co.uk

How it rates Verdict

F/8

F/16

F/11

F/22

Few people will buy a fisheye lens on a whim because they have limited use once you have gotten over the novelty of the extremely wide view. That said, used with discretion and only when the situation demands, a fisheye is an invaluable lens and worth having in your armoury. For interiors, scenics, action shots and fun portraits, a fisheye might just give you the edge and at £729, this lens is very good value, bearing in mind its fast aperture and high level of optical performance. Features Environmental seals and very fast aperture pluses

20/25

Performance Optically very good

24/25

Handling Small, light, great feel

21/25

Value for money Good value considering speed and quality build

23/25

88/100 Overall If you have a Micro Four Thirds system and want a fisheye, this is the one to get. Pros High image quality, size, fun, fast aperture, robust Cons Novelty soon wears off

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests

Fujifilm XF35mm f/2 R WR £299 Fujifilm offers two 35mm focal length lenses, the 35mm f/1.4 R that was launched when the X-system was announced in 2012 and it has now been joined by the 35mm f/2 R WR. The new lens sells at £299 compared with £367 for the older lens. Having the option means a potential dilemma for newcomers to the X-system and those with the 35mm f/1.4 who might think having a weatherproof version of this popular focal length is a benefit. So what are the differences and which one is the best to go for? Leaving the optical innards aside for the time being, the 35mm f/2 is a compact lens, smaller and a little lighter than 35mm f/1.4, but you would expect to see that as there is a full f/stop difference in their maximum apertures. Eight seals are used around the lens barrel to give the lens its weather- and dust-resistant qualities. It can work in temperatures as low as -10°C. As with other X-series R-designated lenses, there is an aperture ring clickstopped in 0.3EV steps. There is an A setting which has no lock to engage

Specs

program mode. The action of the aperture and focusing rings is smooth with the right amount of resistance so no issues here at all. A thin plastic lens hood comes supplied and this screws onto the 43mm filter thread. An optional metal hood is also available. There is an internal focusing system with lightweight elements and a stepper motor to enable fast, silent and accurate autofocus. Speed is impressive with the lens zipping past the point of focus and then, very smartly, back to the subject. Optically, the lens is very sharp from f/2 onwards with the centre being very impressive from maximum aperture onwards. The extreme corners were less good and softness was evident. This softness went with stopping down and the lens shone from f/5.6, with f/8 being the best aperture for overall sharpness and fine detail was nicely rendered. Quality did drop off from the peak of f/8 at f/11 and f/16, but diffraction wasn’t excessive and f/16 is still very useable especially with some judicious use of unsharp mask.

Format APS-C (equivalent to 53mm in 35mm format) Mount Fujifilm X-mount Construction 9 elements in 6 groups Special lens elements 2 aspherical Coatings Fujifilm Nano GI, Super EBC Filter size 43mm Aperture range f/2-16 in 0.3EV steps Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus Yes

Whether the lens’s WR feature has any appeal depends on what you shoot because not everyone wants to shoot in the rain or in a sandstorm. I did use the 35mm f/2 in rain and experienced no problems, but that is also true of the non-WR 35mm f/1.4. Probably the WR benefit will come in seriously bad conditions and keeping nasties out of the innards will help with long-term reliability. WC

Manual focus Yes Minimum focus 35cm

Optically, the lens is very sharp from f/2 onwards with the centre being very impressive

The 35mm f/2 versus 35mm f/1.4 We took out both Fujifilm 35mm lenses and tried them side by side on an X-T1 body with the combinations fixed on a Benro carbon-fibre Travel Angel tripod using the self-timer to fire the shutter. Raws were processed in Lightroom with default sharpening. Sharpness at maximum apertures is impressive with the f/2 lens being marginally superior to the f/1.4 version at the centre as well as the edges. Stop down the f/1.4 lens to f/2, though, and it catches up and both lenses then more or less match each other from that point onwards. Optically, both lenses are impressive and there is little to choose between them – except that small difference at their respective maximum apertures. In terms of focusing the new lens is definitely superior. It is noticeably quicker and smoother than the f/1.4 version so well suited to subjects like street photography where snappy focusing is essential. The new lens is also silent. The old lens isn’t exactly loud but from behind the camera the difference is significant.

F/2

F/2.8

Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 0.135x Distance scale No Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Compact plastic hood. LH-XF35-2 available as optional extra Weather-sealed Yes, and dust resistant with eight seals. Works down to -10°C Dimensions (lxd) 60x45.9mm Weight 170g Contact fujifilm.eu/uk/ fujifilm-x.com

How it rates Verdict

Images Our test pictures were shot on a Fujifilm X-T1 with the electronic shutter selected and the self-timer used to give vibrationless release. The camera and lens were mounted on a Gitzo Traveller tripod with the Raws processed through Lightroom CC.

F/8

F/4

F/5.6

Fujifilm’s latest addition to the X-system is a capable performer with swift AF and the ability to produce very sharp pictures. Use the lens at its mid apertures and you can get critically sharp A2 prints with no problem at all. Given the 35mm f/2’s price, smaller profile, more responsive AF and WR characteristics it is a very tempting proposition. However, if you own the 35m f/1.4, the reasons to buy the f/2 are less compelling. You’ve got to balance the benefit of the extra f/stop in low light or for very shallow depth-of-field against quicker AF, smaller bodyform and its WR characteristics. Optically there is not much in it. Features Weatherproof, compact, silent AF and decent maximum aperture

24/25

24/25 Performance Very sharp at its optimum apertures and still more than acceptable wide open F/11

F/16

24/25 Handling Very fast and silent AF is impressive, and its compact nature is very welcome 24/25 Value for money Deserves serious consideration as it makes a very fine ‘take everywhere’ lens 96/100 Overall There is a great deal to like and enjoy with this lovely little lens. Recommended Pros Optical performance, compact, good price Cons Nothing except the A setting has no lock – as with all X-lenses

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests Specs Format Full-frame and APS-C Mount Nikon Construction 19 elements in 12 groups Special lens elements 3 ED Coatings Super integrated coating Filter size 95mm Aperture range f/5.6-32 Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus Yes Manual focus Yes, with M/A full-time override Minimum focus 2.2m Focus limiter Yes, 6m to infinity Maximum magnification 0.22x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser Yes (Normal and Sport) Tripod collar Yes Lens hood HB-71 bayonet hood included Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 108x267.5mm (closed)

Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR AF-S £1179 Affordable super-telephoto lenses have been with us for a while; Sigma’s 150-600mm f/5-6.3 OS and Tamron’s SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC being two excellent examples. Now, giving up only a little focal range to that pair and offering a constant aperture, Nikon’s 200-500mm f/5.6 VR is offering enthusiasts huge reach and useful focal lengths for everything from sports and action to wildlife shots and even telephoto landscapes; all for under £1200, which is far less than its 80-400mm and 200-400mm lenses. Attaching the lens to a Nikon D800 for this test, the first thing that’s apparent is the weight. At 2.3kg, it’s a significant presence on your arm, and in your bag, so it’s not a lens to take out on the off-chance you might need it. That weight isn’t surprising; the 200-500mm is full of glass with a constant f/5.6 aperture and is very well built. It’s not particularly far off the weight of the Tamron (1951g) and Sigma (1930g or 2860g depending on the Contemporary or Sport version) lenses either. However, if you have a smaller Nikon DX body, like a D7200 or D5300, it will feel unbalanced; with the D800 it felt great, though I mostly supported it with a monopod or whatever I could lean on. The barrel is mostly high-grade plastic, but there’s metal there for added durability. Other good points are the rubber bumper on the end and that a tripod collar is included – features normally found on more expensive models.

Its Silent Wave Motor means the lens focuses accurately and is virtually silent; it’s no slouch, but not especially snappy either, taking a little under 1sec to travel from near to far. In Continuous mode I had no trouble following running subjects, and the 6m to infinity switch came in handy when shooting deer through grass or other foreground distractions. The closest focusing distance is 2.2m, which is decent at these focal lengths. Using the 200-500mm’s VR system delivered a significant benefit; at 500mm I got quite a few sharp shots down at around 1/15sec, while almost all were perfect at 1/60sec; practically I would always increase ISO to get at least 1/100sec, but there’s scope not to. The f/5.6 aperture is a real boon, too; it gives a shallow depth-of-field and allows faster shutter speeds; another benefit is the support of the TC-14E 1.4x teleconverter, giving you an effective 280-700mm with autofocus at the central AF point (if your Nikon offers f/8 support). You can use the TC-17E and TC-20E teleconverters but AF won’t be supported. Focusing with the TC-14E fitted was identical in speed and accuracy. Handling-wise my main criticism was the speed of zooming. The ring is very large, well textured, and has a positive feel, but takes time to turn; a little under 180° to go from 200-500mm. This equated to three turns, which is slow. The focus ring has a similar travel. In both cases

adjustments are accurate and in A/M mode you can easily apply manual focus adjustments after locking on with AF. The barrel extends around 8cm at 500mm, but has a reassuring solidity, and focusing is all internal. Another niggle is that the lens’s buttons are too far from the zoom ring, which again slows operation. In our test, there was excellent sharpness at 200mm wide open, falling off fractionally at the edges. This sharpness was held onto until a little after f/11, falling off as diffraction set in. At the mid-range it’s sharpest between f/8 and f/11, but softens more towards the corners. This trend was repeated at 500mm with a little sharpness at f/5.6 and reaching the highest clarity at f/11. As you’d expect, the lens vignetted most noticeably at f/5.6, but this was minor and easily correctable. Flare and fringing were well controlled, distortions were negligible, and overall image quality was pleasing. KS

Below At 500mm, there’s plenty of reach, so you can fill the frame with your subjects, and the VR system provides sharp results down into the tenths of seconds range.

Weight 2.3kg Contact nikon.co.uk

The f/5.6 aperture is a real boon too; it gives a shallow depth-of-field and allows faster shutter speeds

Verdict

200mm, full-frame

350mm, full-frame

500mm, full-frame

200mm, f/5.6

350mm, f/5.6

500mm, f/5.6

How it rates 25/25 Features Everything you could ask for of a lens at this price point and more 22/25 Performance Not the fastest AF, but image quality is solid throughout

200mm, f/11

Test images Shooting a detailed subject, the 200-500mm f/5.6 performed well, showing a good level of detail across the zoom range. At the long end where it’s likely to be used the most, the greatest sharpness was observed between f/8 and f/11.

For those insisting on the Nikon seal of quality, the 200-500mm provides superb build, mostly good handling and good, occasionally excellent, image quality. Images are well detailed and thanks to the VR’s 4.5-stop advantage, camera shake is kept at bay; you can shoot at surprisingly low shutter speeds and still achieve excellent results. Focusing is more accurate than it is swift, but performed well overall.

200mm, f/22

350mm, f/11

350mm, f/22

500mm, f/11

500mm, f/22

Handling 21/25 Good, but zoom ring is slow to turn and the buttons are too far from it 22/25 Value for money There are cheaper rivals, but you shouldn’t feel short-changed Overall 90/100 A versatile, high-quality and relatively affordable zoom for sports and wildlife Pros Build, price, image quality Cons AF speed, weight, zoom ring speed

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests

Lowepro Whistler 450 AW £286 A decent photo backpack is worth its weight in gold, but how you define ‘decent’ really is a sliding scale; it depends totally on what you need. For that reason, a panoply of designs exist, from daysacks, light on space and protection but fast on access to gear, to colossal, armoured and weather-proofed models. It’s the latter camp that Lowepro’s Whistler 450 AW falls into; a cavernous, all-weather pack, aimed at outdoor photographers with lots of gear. The Whistler is a four-season pack said to be the most durable in Lowepro’s range. I tested it on recent shoots in Iceland and Northumberland. The bag’s outdoor heritage is clear; the build is excellent with thought given to how it works when you’re in gloves. The zip pulls are a mixture of enlarged tabs and loops, making them easy to find and operate and the buckles are equally large and easy to use. The outer material is bristling with webbing and compression straps for attaching gear like walking poles (or a tripod). Unlike some outdoor models it doesn’t have a dedicated hydration bladder but there are pockets on the side, top and face which could be used instead (the latter having a waterproof barrier between it and the main compartment, and a drain hole, useful for stowing wet gear); it also has an expansion zip. The outer is 420 denier ripstop nylon with a water-repellent TUP (thermoplastic polyurethane) coating. I tested this in light showers and more serious downpours, and while the rain beads off the surface initially, if you encounter anything heavy for more than a few minutes,

the included rain cover is required as water will get through the zips eventually. The cover isn’t sewn in, but can be clipped into the mesh pocket of the upper compartment. It goes on quickly, too, stretching over without excessive force and keeping out the water (or sand) perfectly. The bag’s base uses a thick rubbery Hypalon mat (the same material used in inflatable boats and roofing materials), so it’s waterproof, but the main flap’s zipper extends very nearly to the bottom, so avoid putting it in a puddle. Within the padding at the base, top and sides is ridged plastic armour, so it doesn’t lose its shape and can be sat upright. All this protection does make the bag heavy though – it’s 3.3kg unloaded. Access to the main gear compartment isn’t the quickest, but this isn’t necessarily a negative; the trade-off is greater protection. Accessed from the body side of the bag via a chunky, smooth-running double YKK zipper, the main compartment can be protected by a second, half-zippered cover which secures at the top with Velcro. This is the only zip on the bag that I found to snag even slightly and the flap at the top can get in the way of the main zipper if it’s not poked in properly. The (removable) inner is extremely well padded with a brushed feel and kit can be slotted in perfectly using the modular dividers; the latter are of Lowepro’s MaxFit design, with recessed Velcro making it easier to slide up to your kit before fixing. The main compartment’s flap hinges halfway up, so you can fold it over and leave half the opening protected, which is handy. Opening the bag

from body side means it’s the face coming into contact with the ground, so any muck, snow or moisture you pick up won’t come into contact with your back when the bag is donned. Capacity wise, there’s plenty; space for a pro-sized DSLR body with a long telephoto lens attached, three to four other lenses, flashes, filters, and so on. But there’s no laptop compartment. The main compartment is generously deep, easily fitting a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G on its end (13.3cm). This depth is one of the main differences between the 450 and 350 versions. Avoid overfilling the bag with heavy kit; it’ll swallow a tremendous amount. While the bag fits most airline carry-on sizes, it’s easy to top out on the weight. Fortunately, the bag’s ergonomics are first class. The rear surface is thickly padded on contact points, with space for air to move between it and your body, and the straps are broad and well padded, so it’s comfortable, especially when the elasticated sternum strap is used. KS

Specs Material 420D TUP coated/Hypalon (synthetic rubber) base Tripod holder Yes Sternum strap Yes Laptop pocket No Waist belt Yes, with additional webbing and zippered pocked Dimensions (wxhxd) External: 31x30.2x57.2cm Internal: 24.2x16.6x40cm Weight 3.3kg Contact lowepro.com

How it rates Verdict

This is a brilliant bag, but one to be used with caution as it’s tempting to overload the cavernous inner. The build quality is top drawer and it’s a comfortable carry even when the weight climbs. Operation is smooth and easy, and it’s highly weather resistant. If you don’t foresee needing the extra depth consider the 350 AW version at £257, which shaves off the weight but retains the quality. Overall Aimed squarely at adventurous photographers, if you need to take lots of kit, as well as general outdoor gear, into the wild look no further. It’s not cheap but will last a lifetime. Pros Build, capacity, weatherproofing, handling… there’s a lot to like. Cons Heavy unloaded, no padded laptop compartment

Mini tests Limelite Mosaic Solo LED light £69.65

LED lighting panels are commonly used by video shooters but they have a practical purpose in stills work, too. With a light output similar in colour temperature to noon daylight, an LED panel is great to add fill-in perhaps for backlit portraits or nature shots. They can be used as the main light source for close-ups and for creative work like light painting. The Limelite Mosaic Solo LED light has 72 daylight-balanced LEDs and output is fully adjustable from 100% downwards. Maximum output is 745 lux, which probably means nothing to most of us, but as a guide, an incident light reading from one metre with a Gossen meter at ISO 200 gave a reading of 1/60sec at f/2.8 with the unit at full power. It is powered by eight AA cells but it can run from the mains with an optional adapter. A D-Tap power source cable is included in the outfit. Also supplied is a mount to fix it to the camera hotshoe, and there’s the standard 1/4in screw thread to allow vertical or horizontal mounting onto a lighting stand. The unit works well, giving a decent level of output for a unit that can be hotshoe mounted. White-balance was accurate, too – I used a set Kelvin value, AWB and daylight. Its lighting duties aside, the LED panel is also a useful, hands-free assistant when you are working in very poor light conditions to assist focusing and composition. WC

Verdict This Limelite Mosaic Solo LED light is on sale for £69.95 so good value and weighing in at 450g, including batteries, it’s ideal for location use. limelite.uk.com

Samsung SSD T1 £115 We all have hard drives, in our computers, in our backups and in our portable drives. The thing is, conventional hard drives incorporate moving parts and that, of course, is a potential weakness because failure is just around the corner. That’s why there is a move towards SSDs or solid-state drives where there are no moving parts, just like the storage cards we use in our cameras, so reliability is extremely high. Samsung is a leading brand when it comes to SSDs, and units are available for computers as well as external hard drives like the SSD T1 tested here which uses V-NAND technology. The Samsung 250GB unit is tiny. It’s just over 9mm deep and smaller that a credit card. The drive itself has no controls and just a single USB3.0 interface with a blue LED to indicate it is working. A short USB 3.0 lead is supplied. Tested on a Mac, it was plug and play so no need to do anything to ready the unit for use. To assess write speed, I transferred a 100GB folder of images to the SSD T1. That is a great deal of data and on my USB 3.0 capable computer, it took 10 minutes – that is impressively swift. I couldn’t destruction test it to assess reliability but I carried it around for a couple of weeks, including in my trouser pocket along with loose change and keys and it never failed. WC Verdict With their ruggedness and reliability SSDs are the way forward and this Samsung is well worth a look. It’s so much more convenient because it is so small and with the reliability of SSDs it really is a no-brainer. The only downside is initial outlay as SSDs are more expensive than conventional hard drives but then peace of mind is priceless. samsung.com/uk

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests Specs Prices Interfit S1 flash head, 7in reflector, Li-Ion battery and charger, AC power pack and mini USB cable £799.99, S1 TTL Remote for Canon or Nikon £79.99, S1 battery £159.99 Output 500Ws, GN48.7 (ISO 100/m) Flash power range 7 stops in 1/10-stop increments Recycling time 3secs (mains and battery) Flash duration 1/1000sec (max power) to 1/9000sec (min power) Colour temperature 5700K +/- 100K Modelling lamp 10W LED Wireless control Interfit TTL-C/N 2.4GHz remote, sync port, IR/optical Shooting modes Manual, TTL (Canon or Nikon), HSS Maximum sync speed 1/250sec in normal sync mode, 1/8000sec in High-Speed Sync mode Fan cooling Yes Auto dump Yes Battery type 4500mAh Li-ion Battery life 350 full-power flashes Battery charge time 3 hours Dimensions 34x23x13cm Weight 2.85kg Contact interfitphotographic.com

Over 350 fullpower bursts are claimed. I got to that so easily

Interfit S1 £799.99 The huge advances in cameras means there are more ways than ever to express yourself. The same can be said about what’s happening in the world of flash where speedlights and mains flash have merged so much that they’re be inseparable. The Interfit S1 is a great example of the new world of flash. It can be mains or battery powered, has IGBT technology just like speedlights for very short flash durations and little or no colour shift at lower power settings and it has the option of High-Speed Sync. Add an output of 500Ws, the ability to accept a huge range of modifiers and radio wireless remote control, and you have a lighting unit with all the credentials of a superb and versatile lighting unit. The S1 is available as a kit with battery, charger, 7in-spill kill and an AC adapter, and all for a penny shy of £800 – but allow an extra £80 for the S1 TTL Remote. On paper, that looks very good value. It’s a solid unit with the controls on the back and a drop-in compartment on top for the battery. The battery can’t be charged in situ – even when the AC adapter is in use – although the unit can be used with the AC adapter without any battery in position. The controls are easy to navigate and the large, clear LCD helps. The on/off switch has AC or DC positions while the integral modelling lamp switch has off, 50% and 100% settings. If you are working in a group situation, there are eight channels and three group options. Power output is settable in 1/10EV steps within a seven-stop range. The claimed output is 500Ws which is plenty for most photographers. Using a Gossen flash meter 3m from

the head with its spill kill fitted, I was getting a reading of f/16.6 at ISO 100. With a white shoot-through brolly that became f/11.2. The power output control is accurate at settings from level 8 down to 4 and then there was a loss of 0.2EV at 3 and another 0.2EV at 2. Not a problem but worth knowing if you are going from a higher setting into that power range without checking exposures or taking meter readings. The power control itself doesn’t have a quality feel but it works fine which is all that really matters. For the colour-output test I started with a Nikon D800 in its flash whitebalance setting. The test shot was warm, as usual with this camera. A custom white-balance gave neutrality and then I did shots in manual mode of a colour test chart at each designated power setting. Colour output stayed consistent from maximum- to minimum-output settings. The LED modelling gives an output enough for a meter reading of 1/20sec at f/2 at full power and 1/10sec at f/2 (at ISO 100) at half power. Useful enough to aid focusing in dark situations, for video and even for stills shooting with the appropriate camera settings. Output with the camera’s AWB looked accurately neutral. Key selling points of the S1 are wireless control, TTL flash and HighSpeed Sync (HSS) with the S1 TTL Remote that is available for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. This gives great control – from a long distance and around corners too – of the S1. Power adjustment in manual and TTL, channel setting, turning the beep and model lamp on and off are just some of its features. In TTL mode, flash

exposure compensation up to +/-3EV in 0.1EV is possible. The Remote is really easy to use, helped by a clear LCD, and large icons. I’d say the buttons on my sample needed a very definite push to operate, although that is probably a good thing. HSS is a handy feature for outdoor portrait fans especially those keen to shoot at wide lens apertures. The Remote unit automatically sets HSS when the camera’s manually selected shutter speed exceeds the usual top sync speed and this is set on the flash unit too. Output is selectable on the unit from levels 5 to 8 and is adjustable in 0.3EV steps. The specs say that flash sync up to 1/8000sec is possible. I tried the S1 with a Nikon D3s and a D800 and

getting flash sync at 1/8000sec was no problem. The Auto FP option was selected in the camera menus to enable HSS. Battery capacity is very good. Over 350 full-power bursts are claimed. I got to that easily. Recycling time at full power is 3.2sec to start with and by 200 full flashes this had increased to just over 4secs. After 350 flashes recycling time had increased to 4.4secs and the battery level indicator was flashing a single bar. I did the capacity test at one sitting over a period of an hour or so, and while the unit got warm that is to be expected and the overheating circuit did not kick in. Basically, there is plenty of capacity on hand even if you only have one battery. WC

How it rates Verdict

There is much to like, enjoy and use on the Interfit S1. It’s highly featured, powerful and versatile. It is also a very good price for what you get. Spend £880 and you get mains and battery operation, 500Ws output, HSS, TTL and access to popular S-bayonet modifiers. In recent times, Interfit has probably not been considered among the upper echelon of flash brands but the S1 could change that. It’s a seriously capable unit at a seriously attractive price.

Images Colour temperature of the S1’s output is consistent from minimum power, level 2 (above) to maximum power, level 8, (right), as you can see from these shots of an X-rite colour chart. Both were taken on a Nikon D800 after a custom white-balance reading had been taken from the S1. Colour consistency is one of the benefits of IGBT circuitry compared with mains flash that use capacitors.

Features TTL, HSS, IGBT technology, mains and battery powered – it’s got the lot

25/25

Performance Powerful and impressive capacity, so rates highly

24/25

Handling LCD control panel very clear and the same applies to the Interfit remote

24/25

Value for money £800 for the head, and both power options sounds tempting. Budget for the Remote

25/25

Overall 98/100 The S1 has much to offer and delivers at a very competitive price Pros Great value and the kit comes with AC adapter and battery, capacity, HSS Cons Battery can’t be charged on the head, power-control knob seems flimsy

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

First tests

X-Rite i1Display Pro £159 Colour management is not a subject that sets many photographers’ pulses racing. That’s probably why many will happily spend hundreds on the latest camera hardware, but not a sou on colour management and wonder why their images don’t look ‘right’. There are plenty of affordable devices on the market that can help you produce better output without IT skills. One of the more expensive monitor calibration devices is the X-Rite i1Display Pro at £159. It’s also one of the most versatile, with plenty of control so it’s suitable for both enthusiast and professional use. Opening up the installed supplied software, i1 Profiler, I was confronted by an interface that offered the options of Basic or Advanced modes. In the Basic mode you see the options of Display, Projector, Printer and Scanner profiling, which is slightly misleading because printer and scanning profiling are not possible with the i1Display Pro. Then you spot the word ‘Demo’ across the printer and scanner click buttons. Click on Display Settings and you’re at the first stage of a three-stage profiling workflow. The graphic at the bottom of the interface indicates this. This might be the Basic mode, but the drop-down options for the white point, luminance and gamma tabs didn’t mean a great deal to me. Before proceeding I needed clarity so I went back to the home page and clicked on the training video icon. Watching the videos is time well spent. They gave me much needed background in readiness for my later foray into the Advanced mode. Back in Basic mode, and I chose the recommended settings and then clicked on next. Here there’s a colour patch chart offering another couple of options, Automatic Display Control (ADC) or Adjust brightness, contrast and RGB gains manually. Having watched a training video I went for ADC and left the software to do all the work.

Specs System compatibility Windows 7 32 or 64 bit, 8 and 8.1 32 or 64 bit, all with latest service pack installed 512MB RAM Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon XP or better CPU Up to 500MB of available disk space Powered USB port Monitor of 1024x768 pixels Latest video card drivers installed DVD drive or high-speed Internet connection for software install, download and software update

Clicking on Measurement gave me on-screen prompts to position the i1Display Pro calibration device, making sure it was sitting flush against the screen, and then an instruction to adjust screen contrast and contrast with a measurement scale. After doing that the calibration process began. In Basic mode this took about three minutes. The final step lets you name the profile and also compare the monitor before and after profiling with some supplied images. The Advanced mode gives much more control and there are five workflow icons. For greater accuracy there is a much larger colour patch comprising 482 colours, as opposed to 118 in the Basic mode. Measurement in the Advanced mode takes longer at around eight minutes. The Advanced mode does give you the opportunity to get deeper into colour management and it has such options as smart ambient light measurement and flare control. If you want to really get into the nuts and bolts of your set-up, you have total control of white point, contrast ratio and gamma. My own digital set-up is in decent shape in terms of colour management, even though I probably don’t calibrate my monitor frequently enough. I made prints through my Epson 3880 with my existing screen setup and then after profiling with the i1Display using the Advanced mode. Pre-calibration the test images needed to be lightened on-screen in Photoshop to give the correct density. Post-calibration, this wasn’t needed. Colour-wise, the likeness between screen and print was even better postcalibration, but this was only apparent after critical viewing. I would have accepted my pre-calibrated prints, but with direct comparison I could see the results were better. It wasn’t a chalk and cheese difference, but it was there, and obviously much depends on the starting points of individual set-ups. WC

Mac OS 10.7 or later 512 RAM (2GB recommended) Intel Core 2 Duo CPU Up to 500MB of available disk space Powered USB port Monitor of 1024x768 pixels Latest video card drivers installed DVD drive or high-speed Internet connection for software install, download and software update Contact xrite.com

Colour-wise, the likeness between screen and print was even better

How it rates Verdict

The i1Display Pro did everything as promised and did it well. There are plenty of devices around to calibrate monitors and this unit is one of more expensive ones but with the amount of controllability that’s available it is good value for money.

Above The supplied software is straightforward to use. There are two options, basic or advanced – the screengrabs above are from the advanced mode. The workflow icons running along the bottom of the interface do make things simple even though some of the options in the drop-down menus are more involved. However, the training videos on the X-rite website explain them all.

Pros It works, versatile, workflow method Cons On a couple of occasions a re-boot was needed before the software recognised that the unit was plugged in.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera test

Zeiss Milvus Family The Milvus range comprises six prime manual-focus lenses for Canon and Nikon owners wanting leading edge optical quality from their high-resolution cameras Review by Will Cheung Zeiss’s world-renowned reputation for high-quality optics has been earnt over many years. Its collection of lenses for Canon and Nikon users grew significantly with the announcement of the Milvus range comprising six high-spec, manualfocus primes, covering popular focal lengths from 21mm to 100mm. Zeiss now has three manualfocus options for Canikon owners and a range for Sony A users. There are also lenses for Sony E, Micro Four Thirds and Fujifilm-X systems. Sitting above the Milvus range is the Otus family. It comprises three primes that deliver the ultimate in image quality and the lenses have prices to match – the Otus 85mm f/1.4 sells for £3299 compared with £1379 for the Milvus option. There is also the more established Classic range that comprises nine focal lengths from 15mm up to 135mm. There is some duplication with the Milvus range so it is likely some of the older models may be phased out. The Milvus family has been designed with the latest very highpixel count DSLRs on the market in mind while keeping prices at more accessible levels compared with the Otus optics. Zeiss does say that it uses the very best materials for the Otus lenses hence their high prices, so you have to wonder at what compromises have been struck with the Milvus lenses and what impact they have on handling and performance.

Mechanically and physically, it is impossible not to be struck by the impressive build and silky-smooth operation of the Milvus lenses. The focus ring, for example, glides round with a feel that is unmatched by any current Canikon lens. Of course, there is a big point of difference here with Canikon lenses being autofocus, with a manual focusing an option. Zeiss lenses are manual only so it is critical that the focusing action is good – and it is. In fact, it is exceptionally good

also are weather and dust-resistant too and that includes a seal on the mount itself to keep nasties at bay. A depth-of-field is also provided. This review is not an Otus/ Milvus comparison, but from this assessment, it doesn’t appear that Zeiss has skimped much, if at all, from a mechanical perspective and the Milvus lenses look and feel the business. The difference, therefore, must be down to the glass inside, so let’s see how the Milvus lenses perform optically.

The focusing ring glides round with a feel that is unmatched by any current Canikon lens

Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Milvus £1299

Specs Format 35mm and APS-C Mount ZE (Canon EOS) and ZF.2 (Nikon F) Construction 16 elements in 13 groups Special lens elements Five anomalous partial dispersion elements Coatings Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating Filter size 82mm Aperture range f/2.8-22, ZF.2 (Nikon) lenses can be de-clicked Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes, no AF

– ‘hot knife through butter’ like – and the barrel stays put the instant you stop. With most Milvus lenses having a long travel from infinity to minimum focus – a couple travel almost a full rotation – this aids critical focusing. The design of the Milvus family is very impressive too. Take the supplied lens hoods for example. The hood for the 21mm screws on and becomes as one with the lens. It’s perhaps a small thing but it makes the lens look simply gorgeous. They

Minimum focus 22cm Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 1:56 Distance scale Yes, feet and metres Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes, supplied Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) ZF.2 92.5x95.3mm, ZE 95x95.5mm Weight ZF.2 735g, ZE 851g

There is significant vignetting at f/2.8 which lessens at f/4 and is almost gone by f/5.6. The effect can be cured in editing and actually the pictorial effect is interesting and handy with the right scene. It is obviously a pain if you want even illumination though; post-processing or stopping down will sort the issue. Optically, the 21mm delivers its best showing as it is stopped down with sharpness, at f/8 it’s impressive and even more so at f/11 with excellent quality across the whole frame. As wide lenses are often favoured for landscapes for extensive depth-of-field, this is very much a big plus point. Quality is still high by f/16 and tails off at f/22. Of the wider apertures f/4 is usable and is critically sharp at the image centre, but edge sharpness is not so good.

See the verdict on page 52

How it rates 25/25 Features A quality fast-aperture ultra-wide 22/25 Performance Vignetting wide open, very good sharpness when stopped down Handling Smooth in every respect

21/25

F/2.8

22/25 Value for money Fast-aperture wide lenses are rarely cheap 90/100 Overall Worth a look for ultra-wide fans Pros: High image quality at f/11 Cons: Vignetting, wide aperture performance

F/8

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera test

Zeiss 35mm f/2 Milvus £829

Specs Format 35mm and APS-C Mount ZE (Canon EOS) and ZF.2 (Nikon F) Construction 9 elements in 7 groups Special lens elements One anomalous partial dispersion Coatings Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating Filter size 58mm Aperture range F/2-22, ZF-2 (Nikon) lenses can be declicked Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes, no AF

Minimum focus 30cm Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 1:5.3 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) ZF.2 77x81.3mm, ZE 77x83mm Weight ZF.2 649g, ZE 702g

This lens proved itself to be very capable throughout its aperture range. There were peaks and troughs, but they were not too significant and consistency is definitely a word that can be applied to this lens’s optical performance. Centre and edge quality were good at f/2 onwards. There should be no problem using this lens for critical purposes at its wider apertures although you get an improved showing with stopping down. Vignetting is evident wide open, but this goes by f/4. Quality reaches a peak at the optimum aperture of f/8 where the finest details are nicely resolved across the frame. Diffraction had an impact at f/16 and f/22 where the image softened noticeably.

See the verdict on page 52

Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 Milvus £949 Fast-aperture lenses are all very well and good, but they need to deliver a sound performance at those wide apertures. At f/1.4, this lens is good and it only really started to sing from f/4 and hit the high notes at f/5.6 where detail from centre across to the edges was really impressive. F/5.6 and f/8 were the best apertures for critical sharpness. Shoot at these apertures and you will be rewarded with sparkling, detail-packed pictures. F/11 maintained the lens’s high mid-aperture performance. By f/16 diffraction had an impact and resolution fell away.

See the verdict on page 52

20/25 Features A fine alternative as a standard lens 20/25 Performance Very good, but less so at maximum and minimum apertures 24/25 Handling Smooth focus and aperture barrels

F/2

20/25 Value for money Good rather than outstanding Overall A capable lens

84/100

Pros: Handling, hood, consistent optical performance Cons: Vignetting at f/2

F/8

Specs

How it rates Features A fast-aperture standard

20/25

Performance Good once stopped down

21/25

Handling First-rate mechanically

24/25

Value for money A respectable lens

21/25

F/2

86/100 Overall Very good, especially from f/4 Pros: Excellent quality when stopped down Cons: Could be better at f/1.4

Specs Format 35mm and APS-C Mount ZE (Canon EOS) and ZF.2 (Nikon F) Construction 8 elements in 6 groups Special lens elements None Coatings Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating Filter size 67mm Aperture range f/2-22, ZF.2 (Nikon) lenses can be de-clicked Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes, no AF

How it rates

Minimum focus 24cm Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 1:2 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) ZF.2 72.8x80.7mm, ZE 75.3x81mm Weight ZF.2 660g, ZE 730g

F/8

Format 35mm and APS-C Mount ZE (Canon EOS) and ZF.2 (Nikon F) Construction 10 elements in 8 groups Special lens elements 4 anomalous partial dispersion elements, 1 aspheric Coatings Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating Filter size 67mm Aperture range f/1.4-16, ZF-2 (Nikon) lenses can be de-clicked Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes, no AF

Minimum focus 45cm Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 1:6.7 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Supplied Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) ZF.2 77x81.3mm, ZE 77x83mm Weight ZF.2 875g, ZE 922g

Zeiss 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar Milvus £949 Fast maximum aperture or slower aperture and better close focusing, that‘s the choice Zeiss gives with its pair of identically priced 50mm lenses. On this evidence, having a less-ambitious specification has endowed this macro lens with a superior optical performance when open-aperture images are compared. Closing down does improve matters especially at the edges and by f/5.6 and f/8 pictures across the frame are critically sharp. The deeply recessed front element means it is well protected from physical harm and stray light even without the hood. The lens extends by 2.5cm at its minimum focusing distance.

See the verdict on page 52

How it rates Features A fast aperture standard

20/25

23/25 Performance Impressive from f/2 onwards Handling Smooth in every respect

24/25

F/2

Value for money 22/25 A fine standard lens with the ability to focus really close Overall 89/100 A fine lens that delivers excellentquality pictures Pros: Impressive from open aperture downwards, handling Cons: Fringing at wider apertures

F/8

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Camera test

Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 Milvus £1379

Specs Format 35mm and APS-C Mount ZE (Canon EOS) and ZF.2 (Nikon F) Construction 11 elements in 9 groups Special lens elements 4 anomalous partial dispersion elements Coatings Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating Filter size 77mm Aperture range f/1.4-16, ZF.2 (Nikon) lenses can be de-clicked Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes, no AF

Minimum focus 80cm Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 1:8.3 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) ZF.2 110x90mm, ZE 113x90mm Weight ZF.2 1210g, ZE 1280g

This is a weighty lens so needs to be treated with respect when it comes to hand-holding as well as tripod choice. It is front heavy but balances well on camera. The lens’s rotund body does make getting at the aperture ring slightly tricky. Get it right, though, and you are rewarded with quality images from f/1.4 onwards where the centre is nicely sharp although the edges lag behind. Stopping down improves the edges and the central areas even more. It can be used critically from f/4 through to f/11 so it is then just a question of creative needs and the amount of desired depth-of-field. With the focusing barrel needing about three-quarters rotation to cover from minimum focus to infinity, fine-tuning critically sharp focus is fine.

See the verdict below

Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar Milvus £1299 Generally, a fine capable lens that doubles as a general-purpose medium telephoto lens for portraits and so on, but can also focus in close to give half life-size reproduction. The focus barrel rotates nearly a full rotation to cover its focusing range and extends by 5cm at minimum focus. There is some vignetting at f/2 and some fringing too, with both cured by the time we reach f/4. Optically, however, f/2 showed itself to be very competent with a high level of sharpness at this aperture. There is not much improvement at f/2.8, but there is by f/4 and f/5.6 where quality is very high where is stays until the usual drop off at f/16 and f/22.

See the verdict below

20/25 Features Potential as a fast portrait lens 22/25 Performance Impressive at its wider apertures, particularly at the image centre Handling Lovely feel, just heavy

23/25

Value for money Competitively priced

22/25

F/2

Overall 87/100 Heavy but used with care will deliver very good results Pros: Sharp wide open and even sharper when stopped down Cons: Weight, minor vignetting

F/8

Specs

How it rates 20/25 Features A medium telephoto with the ability of 1:2 magnification Performance Very good all told, and high sharpness even at f/2

23/25

Handling Smooth and assured

20/25

F/2

23/25 Value for money Much to like about this lens despite its lofty price tag Overall 86/100 It doesn’t give 1:1 magnification but it is a quality performer Pros: Optical skills, close focusing Cons: Some vignetting at f/2

F/8

Verdict The arrival of the Zeiss Milvus family is a very welcome one. The company’s Otus range is very highly priced and so inaccessible to many, while the Classic collection is arguably behind the times for the very latest high-megapixel count DSLRs. The Milvus family means those photographers wanting a highquality, up-to-date manual-focus prime option now have one. Bearing in mind that the Milvus lenses are manual focus only and that the camera brands as well as independent lens makers are coming out with equally pricey, exotic glass primes but with autofocus, it will be fascinating to see how Milvus lenses sell. It has to be said, though, that these Japanese-made lenses do feel great and the mechanics are beyond

How it rates

reproach. They look superb too if cosmetics are important to you. Optically, they are more than capable too, especially at their optimum apertures which, as usual with most lenses, is two or three stops down from maximum aperture. At the wider apertures, a couple of the lenses were not overly strong. Notably, the 21mm f/2.8 and the 50mm f/1.4 were not so impressive in their paces at their widest apertures and stopping down was needed to see them in a really good light. The 21mm f/2.8’s vignetting at f/2.8 was very noticeable while the 50mm f/1.4 at its widest settings was a little disappointing sharpness-wise given that many will want to use the lens at those values.

The 35mm also wasn’t outstanding at its widest aperture but it wasn’t as soft as the 50mm f/1.4 at f/1.4. The two macro lenses, the 50mm f/2 and 100mm f/2, and the 85mm f/1.4 are the highlights of the collection. The Milvus 85mm f/1.4 is significantly cheaper than its Otus counterpart though it is not as good optically which is no surprise, but it did show itself to be a very fine optic and I can see portrait workers loving it. At the wider aperture settings you do get a nice background blur in head-andshoulder portraits. If you do make the investment in a Milvus lens, just take your time to focus accurately and hone your camera technique (and buy a good tripod) to make the most of your new Zeiss optic.

Format 35mm and APS-C Mount ZE (Canon EOS) and ZF.2 (Nikon F) Construction 9 elements in 8 groups Special lens elements 2 anomalous partial dispersion elements Coatings Zeiss T* anti-reflective coating Filter size 67mm Aperture range f/2-22, ZF.2 (Nikon) lenses can be de-clicked Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes, no AF

Minimum focus 44cm Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 1:2 Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) ZF.2 103x80.5mm, ZE 104x80.5mm Weight ZF.2 807g, ZE 843g

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Technique Photo school

Camera class

Everyone has to start somewhere, even pros, and in Photo School we look at the core skills every beginner needs. This month, which AF Mode and AF Area to choose and how sharpening works in Photoshop Words & pics by Kingsley Singleton

Where you focus is one of the most important decisions in a photo, working with your compositional decisions to create the heart of the image. Get it wrong, even by a little and you can wreck an otherwise excellent shot. And unlike changes to framing or exposure it’s impossible to bring blurred areas back into focus (on a regular camera at least). What is Autofocus? Many modern cameras can focus in a completely automatic way, detecting the type of subject you’re shooting, whether it’s moving or not, and even gauging whether the subject is smiling or not to trigger the shutter. But although these highly automated options are fine for some shots, ideally, the decisions should be yours. So, to open up the full range of options, first make sure you’re not shooting with the main mode dial set to Auto. Switch to aperture- or shutter priority, program or manual and you’re free to explore. Autofocus (AF) as most photographers know it isn’t completely automatic so you can bend it your will. It works by giving you two main choices to make; the AF mode and the AF area. The AF mode should be picked first and depends on what type of subject you’re shooting; for example if it’s moving or static, and how much time you have to work.

Picking an AF mode There are two core AF modes, single (also called one-shot) and continuous (servo). These are located using an AF button on the camera body, or via a menu. Some cameras have a third (AF auto) that switches between the two depending on the subject. Single/one-shot AF mode is used for static or slow-moving subjects where you have time to perfect the focus, like a landscape or a posed portrait. In single AF, when focus is achieved it is locked and you’ll need to refocus if the subject moves. This mode also usually requires focus to be locked before a picture can be taken. In continuous/servo AF mode, focusing doesn’t stay locked, and instead the camera will keep adjusting focus to hold the subject sharp for as long as you want it to. This is better for moving subjects, like action or wildlife. Choosing an AF Area The AF mode governs the options you have when selecting the AF area; that being the part of the frame used to focus. In single/one-shot AF, you can choose to employ a single AF point, and this can be moved around the frame, for instance to sit close to the subject’s eyes. This is the most accurate way of autofocusing, but the number of AF points (and therefore how easily you can align them with what you’re shooting) depends on your camera. You can also use an expanded AF area to make it more

Above The main focus switch sets either manual or autofocus, from there you choose the mode and area.

Single/one-shot AF mode and single-point AF area automatic and use several or all of the AF points to focus at the same time. In continuous AF mode, you can also use a single AF point, or an expanded array and this is great for tracking moving subjects. Many cameras also have a ‘3D’ mode, that tracks the subject around the frame. What about live view AF? Although still using single and continuous settings, AF in live view works differently. For one thing, because it doesn’t rely on individual AF sensors, you can focus on any part of the frame. There are also special modes like face detection that lock on to portrait subjects by recognising the basic shape of a human face which is useful if you’re working fast or composing with the camera held very high or low. Next month: Expert focusing tips.

In single/one-shot AF mode, the camera’s autofocus system will find the focus and lock it, so that if the subject moves, focusing will need to be repeated. For accurate results, this mode is used with single AF area, using either the point in the centre of the frame, or one close to the area where the focus should fall. Therefore it’s best for stationary or slow-moving subjects.

Continuous/servo AF mode and Auto AF area

In this configuration, which is better for moving subjects, the AF mode is set to continuous/servo, and will keep focusing and refocusing on the subject in case it moves. Single-point AF area can still be used but for moving subjects it can be better to use an Auto area, which uses a group of AF points (either a selection of the total or all of them) to focus.

Software skills Sharpening in Photoshop When sharpening in software, it’s important to remember that you’re not actually bringing a blurred picture back into focus, and can’t add detail that’s not already there. All you can do is make what you have recorded appear sharper. That said, a little sharpening can make a huge difference to pictures, whether they’re fractionally out of focus or pin-sharp at the point of capture. Digital sharpening is achieved by increasing contrast in the image, but this increase is restricted to the edges, so it’s not the same as simply turning up the global contrast. What is an edge and how much contrast is applied is governed by the settings you use. In Photoshop and Elements, Unsharp Mask (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask or Enhance>Unsharp Mask) is a good example of how sharpening works. There are three settings; Amount controls how much contrast is added to edges; Radius sets the width of the effect either side of an edge, so lower settings look more natural; and Threshold governs what is a considered an edge, with a setting of 0 seeing that everything is sharpened, and higher settings less, so it allows you to restrict the effect a little. The amount you should apply depends on a lot of things, not least your own taste. Generally, unless you’re after a very rough effect, settings shouldn’t be pushed too high. Next month: Selective sharpening.

1. Unsharpened

2. Sharpened

3. Over-sharpened

This is the original image without sharpening. The subject is in focus, but we can still improve the look of the details by adding sharpening using the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop or Elements (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask or Enhance>Unsharp Mask).

Using settings of 100% for amount 1.0px for Radius and 2 levels for Threshold, a good level of detail is returned and the grass and the horse’s hair looks more textured, without overdoing it.

Here, with a setting of 150% for Amount, the effect is too extreme. The picture looks rough, rather than crisply detailed and unnatural fringing is appearing due to the too-high Radius of 3.0 pixels that’s been used.

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

Competition

Editor’s letter

For the masses

WIN!

A Samsung memory card! 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 50MB/s and read data at an even higher 90MB/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 16GB Samsung PRO SD 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 18 January 2016. samsung.com and search for memorycards

Photography has changed so much in the past decade and it is brilliant that more people are taking pictures than ever before, whether they use phones, action cameras, CSCs or DSLRs. Whether it's driven by the need to populate social media or the sheer simplicity of taking high-quality pictures I think this is very much a great thing. The quality aspect is so important. For those of you familiar with the grainy, blurry, underexposed and generally grotty images we saw from Disc, 110 and 126 snapshot cameras, you know exactly what I mean. If you weren't around when such snapshot cameras existed you only have to look in your family album to appreciate the amazing quality possible from today’s digital cameras. The fact that there is no cost to taking pictures once you have the kit is clearly another huge incentive for so many pictures to be taken, too. For keen photographers, no film or processing costs means the option of spending that money on better lenses is very welcome. There is no downside to all this, except perhaps when you turn up at a popular photographic location and find the place seemingly teeming with people all keen to capture the sights – usually with themselves included. And you get the full gamut too, from selfie shooters and phone users to tripod-toting photographers staggering under the weight of their kit. That happened to me earlier this month when I took a few days away from the Christmas schedules to visit Iceland with the idea of shooting the Northern Lights. I have seen them but not taken any decent pictures.

On the black beach at Vik and Jökulsárlón, the glacial lagoon, a great deal of patience was needed to get people-free pictures and sometimes it wasn’t possible in the time I had. I know the clone tool is going to be busy when it comes round to editing time. I couldn't help but laugh when a rock I was getting ready to shoot – I was all framed up and just waiting for a shaft of light and the right wave to come along – was sat upon by a girl who asked her companion to take a picture of her posing on it. Guess what! The required light and wave appeared while she was still on the rock. Typical! Of course, I don’t have a problem with this sort of situation because that is just the way it is, and it all adds to the rich tapestry that is modern photography. I’ve decided that for 2016, while my passion for digital capture continues undiminished, to make a commitment to shoot some film. I have a film Leica M so that is going to get dusted down and I’m going to buy a pinhole camera, too. The latter is because I have a project idea that would suit a lo-fi approach. Inevitably, it will mean going out with both mediums, but on occasion I’m going to risk going out, for example, only with the pinhole camera. It should be interesting. Meanwhile, seasons greetings to you all, and have a great, peaceful and very photographic start to 2016.

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