Photography News Issue 29 by Bright Publishing

News Tests Clubs

Exhibitions

Techniques

Interviews

Competitions

Reviews

Photography Produced by

Issue 29 15 Feb – 10 Mar

news

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

Vanguard celebrates 30th birthday Starting out as a single manufacturing facility, Vanguard is now a global corporation, designing and producing quality tripods, monopods, bags and cases for photo and video enthusiasts the world over Founded in 1986, Vanguard is proud to be commemorating its 30th birthday, with plans for a year full of reminiscing as well as looking forward to a bright future. There’ll be plenty of opportunities to get involved with the fun, we’re promised in-store events and a social media campaign; watch out for #30YearsLater. When Vanguard started out,

it had a single manufacturing facility, but now the company operates worldwide, producing not only quality photo and video accessories, but sporting optics and accessories. It’s still a family-owned business, headquartered in Guangdong, China, with distribution, sales and administrative branches here in the UK, as well as in Luxembourg,

Spain, Germany, the USA and Japan. The company attributes its continued success to its high standards from the initial concepts and designs right through to engineering and manufacturing in its own factories. Last year’s launch of the VEO Collection is just the first stride into the future, we’re told. Upcoming

launches promise innovative features and products building on the legacy of the company’s highquality and feature-packed kit. Turn to the inside back cover for more on Vanguard products. And to stay up to date with the company’s news, visit its Facebook page. vanguardworld.co.uk

SPECIAL EDITION Advertisement feature

VEO Collection It’s just shy of a year since Vanguard launched the VEO Collection of travel tripods, monopods and bags at The Photography Show, but a lot has happened in that year. Vanguard tells us that the reaction to the collection has been fantastic, with the VEO 265CB carbon-fibre travel tripod, VEO 37 shoulder bag and VEO AM-264TR monopod with tri-foot all winning awards – see page 40 for our review of the AM-264TR. And of course, Vanguard is also in the Photography News Awards; the VEO 204AB, VEO 265CB, Up‑Rise II 43 and Xcenior 48T are all nominated.

Look inside this cover wrap for the latest issue of Photography News

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News Tests Clubs

Exhibitions

Techniques

Interviews

Competitions

Reviews

Photography Produced by

Issue 29 15 Feb – 10 Mar

news

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

Fujifilm X-Pro2

In the spotlight Turn to page 24 for lighting tips

Plus round 4 launches on page 20

Canon’s all action flagship Full-frame, 20.2 megapixels, ISO to 51,200 and the ability to shoot at 14fps with exposure and autofocus tracking – they’re just a few of the highlights of the EOS‑1D X Mark II It is no coincidence that new topend products get launched early in Olympic Games year and we’ve already seen the Nikon D5. Canon has now chimed in with the EOS‑1D X Mark II designed to be the ultimate action camera. It features a brand-new 20.2-megapixel full-frame sensor with a native ISO range of 100 to 51,200 and expandable from ISO 50 to 409,600. The sensor also provides 4K video capability at frame rates up to 60fps. For amazing slow-motion effects you can shoot Full HD at 120fps. The camera can race along at 14fps in Raw and JPEG and with that you get full autoexposure and autofocus tracking. The AF system features a 61-point system,

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Olympus goes retro with PEN-F 41 of which are cross-type sensors, capable of working in light as low as -3EV. AF tracking performance uses Canon’s new AI Servo AF III+ system and has improved sensitivity with subjects that may move suddenly.

The EOS-1D X Mark II will be available from May this year at a body price of £5199.99. Turn the page for more details and to page 9 for a hands-on preview. canon.co.uk

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News ... continued from cover

Olympus go retro with PEN-F

Under its stylish, iconic shell beats a heart bursting with the very latest technology. The PEN-F is the most powerful OM-D camera to date with a 20-megapixel resolution and much, much more The Olympus OM-D system goes from strength to strength and the latest weapon in its armoury is the PEN-F. This beautifully designed Micro Four Thirds CSC boasts the highest resolution yet seen on an Olympus camera and the Live MOS sensor delivers 20-megapixel images. Use Olympus’s High Res shot mode and you get 50-megapixel JPEG images and even bigger Raws. The sensor has no optical low-pass filter so you get the very best possible quality from the sensor and the range of high-spec M.Zuiko lenses. Olympus says that there is a 25% increase in image quality by doing away with the optical low-pass filter. Image quality is also assisted by Olympus’s renowned five-axis image stabilisation system that offers a benefit of up to 5EV. An EVF featuring a 2.36 million dot LED provides a beautifully clear viewing image and is placed to give a rangefinder shooting feel. Focus peaking and image

magnification of 0.62x enhance the overall experience. A vari-angle monitor is also provided so it’s perfect for shooting at unusual angles when you are looking for the best viewpoint. The touchscreen also gives access to point focusing for fast shooting. And speaking of fast shooting, the PEN-F can blitz through frames at 10fps. The PEN-F has a Creative dial to give quick access to Olympus’s integrated Art filters, as well as the new Color Profile and the Monochrome Profile controls. These profiles let you tailor the look of your shots with three presets. Color Profile lets you adjust the saturation of 12 colours to 11 different levels. The PEN-F body retails at £999.99; with the M.Zuiko ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ pancake lens kit it’s £1099.99 or with the 17mm f/1.8 it’s £1199.99. olympus.co.uk

Sony goes all out for speed Sony’s latest mirrorless CSC boasts the world’s fastest AF speed using a system with the highest number of AF points The Sony A6300 is a 24.2-megapixel APS-C format mirrorless CSC with focus achieved using the company’s 4D focus system that can lock onto a subject in just 0.05sec – claimed to be the world’s fastest autofocus acquisition time. The AF system uses 425 AF points that cover the entire image area and Sony’s Fast Hybrid system combines high-speed phase-detection AF and contrast AF to capture and lock onto moving subjects very rapidly. The AF can activate a large number of sensors surrounding the subject and then intelligently adjust them to cope with the subject’s motion to give sharp results even with small subjects within the frame. The capable focusing system helps the camera shoot at 11 framesper-second with continuous AF and exposure tracking. Continuous shooting in live view is possible at eight frames-per-second if you prefer to track with the monitor. The EVF is a high resolution XGA OLED Tru-finder with 2.4 million dots and a fast refresh mode works at 120fps making tracking subjects more SLR-like. The APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor works with the BIONZ X image processing engine and picture quality through the entire ISO range of 100-51,200 is said to be outstanding. This has been assisted

by the new sensor using copper wiring to improve light gathering efficiency and operating speed. There is no confirmed UK price at the time of writing, but the A6300 will retail in Europe from March at a body price of €1250 and €1650 with the 16-50mm zoom. Sony has also introduced a new flagship lens family, the G Master series, with three lenses: 24-70mm f/2.8, 85mm f/1.4 and 70-200mm f/2.8. Very high optical quality, beautiful bokeh and dust/moisture resistance are key qualities of all three. The trio also feature Sony’s Super Sonic Wave motor that offers smooth and quiet AF. Prices and availability aren’t all confirmed, but the 24-70mm is due to sell in Europe for €2400 and the 85mm for €2000.

And then there were five Two lenses have been announced in the Samyang XEEN video lens series, the 14mm T3.1 and 35mm T1.5. This duo joins the 24mm T1.5, 50mm T1.5 and 85mm T1.5, thus making a five-lens set for the keen video maker. XEEN lenses work with full-frame as well as Super 35, APS-C and APS-H formats and are available in PL, EF, F, E and Micro Four Thirds fittings. Depending on how you prefer to work there’s even the option of metric or imperial focusing scales.

The 35mm’s fast T1.5 maximum aperture is ideal for less than perfect lighting conditions and when shallow depth-of-field is needed. Optical quality from both lenses, as you would expect from Samyang, is high, with X-Coating technology helping in this regard. And both lenses suit 4K shooting. The 14mm and 35mm costs £1599 each and will be available from early March. intro2020.co.uk

sony.co.uk

Last chance to vote

Voting for the Photography News 2015 Awards closes 24 February so hurry if you want to register your views on what you consider to be the Best CSC, Best lens and Best Mains flash unit. There are 47 product and service categories in total and you can register your vote in every one or just cherry-

pick categories that interest you. There is a category for everyone and everything including best retailer, insurance provider as well as hardware categories. Everyone who votes is eligible for a prize draw with a case of wine going to one lucky voter picked at random. Vote at absolutephoto.com.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News

Simple scanning

News in brief Manfrotto LED panels Three lighting panels using the latest LED technology are available from Manfrotto. The Croma 2, Micropro2 and Spectra 2 are portable enough to be camera mounted and give colour-correct images. Prices start from £154.95. manfrotto.co.uk

If you have an archive of slides and negatives, it’ll be packed full of invaluable, irreplaceable images. It’s time to digitise them with a film scanner

REALPRO filters Kenko REALPRO filters are available exclusively through Wex Photographic. UV, circular polarising and 10EV neutral density are the three filter types on offer with popular sizes available. The 10EV ND is available from 49mm to 82mm while the UV and circular polariser are available in sizes 37mm to 82mm. intro2020.co.uk

The Plustek OpticFilm 135 scanner is a high-performance film scanner and costs £245. It has a 3600ppi optical resolution and can output images to 17.3MB with file sizes big enough for 12x17in prints. TIF, JPEG and BMP files can be outputted. The motorized film holder holds four 35mm slides or six negatives and batch scanning speeds up operation. It is Mac and Windows compatible and comes with QuickScan Plus software. This software features

a user-friendly interface to make scanning simple and has five creative modes too. The software also offers fast scanning and the quoted time for a full-resolution scan is a little over three minutes. Export to social media sites is also possible via the software. Panoramic film originals – up to 120mm across – can also be handled with an optional film holder. plustek.com

Phottix upgrades Odin Innovative lighting specialist Phottix has introduced a new Odin radio flash trigger and a family of light modifiers. The new trigger is called the Odin II TTL and allows more control than was previously available, with a streamlined LCD interface to make the flash trigger even easier to use. It offers five groups and a total of 32 channels and facilities including High Speed Sync and OverDrive Sync that offer correct flash sync with TTL and manual speedlights up to 1/8000sec. Users can adjust light coverage remotely and with the Indra360/500, the modelling

light and lighting ratios can be set remotely. The Odin II is available for Canon and Nikon flash systems – the receiver costs £125 and the transmitter £160. The Odin II is backwards compatible and if you already own a Mitros+ or Indra360/500, firmware updates will be available soon to let you take advantage of the Odin’s new features. The Phottix Hexa-Para Deep Octa is a new series of modifiers and two extra large sizes are available, the 120cm/47in and 150cm/59in costing £169 and £249 respectively with special speed

ring adapters for S-mount or Elinchrom costing £27 each. These Deep Octas offer soft, even edge-to-edge coverage with no hotspots – there is an edge-toedge light difference of EV0.2 or less. The removable inner baffle has a double-diffused centre spot to give soft light even when the light is used close to the subject. 16 support rods give a near perfect circle shape for lovely rounded eye catchlights. They are made from quality materials for a long working life and come with a heavy-duty carry case. phottix.com

New Hasselblad prices The Hasselblad H5D-50c body is now priced at £12,714 and the Wi-Fi version at £13,194 (prices include 20% VAT). This 50-megapixel CMOS sensor medium-format camera is capable of producing 154MB files, has a top ISO of 6400 and can deal with a 14EV dynamic range. hasselblad.co.uk

Manfrotto get Go-ing One of Manfrotto’s most popular tripod ranges, the 190 Go! has gained two new kits in aluminium and carbon fibre. The 190 Go! Carbon Fibre and Aluminium tripods come with the option of either the 496RC2 ball-head or the 804 Mark II three-way head. The 190 Go! Carbon Fibre four-section costs £309.95, with the kits (both the three-way or ball head) costing £359.95 and the Aluminium kits (both the three-way and ball head) priced at £214.95. manfrotto.co.uk

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News

Don’t miss Canon at Photography Show It’ll be one of the biggest stands at The Photography Show so swing by Canon’s stand, D141/E131, to get your hands on the latest products, enjoy interactive demonstrations and catch some big names talking photography As a leading camera brand, you would expect Canon to have a massive presence at the country’s biggest photographic show and this year’s line-up of products, live demonstrations and expert speakers will not disappoint. For many, the key product highlight will be the hotly anticipated EOS-1D X Mark II. This full-frame 20.2-megapixel DSLR – offering a 14fps frame rate with full AF/AE tracking or 16fps with live view – is perfect for sport, action and wildlife fans. If you’re in the market for a long lens, you can check out the EF500mm and EF800mm, for example, at the lens bar with its vantage point right across the show. Whatever Canon product you are interested in the stand will be fully manned by Canon experts who will be on hand to answer your questions and help improve your photographic experience. On the Canon live stage there

will be an extensive programme of technical workshops and inspirational talks featuring photographers such as Canon Explorers Simeon Quarrie and Andy Rouse. The programme offers more than 500 sessions, scheduled throughout the duration of the show to both fuel your imagination and improve your photography. There will also be a solution and experience area with live demonstrations of Canon’s home and online solutions so you will be able to see for yourself how its products can enhance your life, both at home and in the business environment. You can even get the full green-screen interactive experience… trying it out for yourself and taking home a special show souvenir. The Canon stand certainly promises to be one of the biggest and best experiences at the show so make sure you don’t miss it. canon.co.uk

Left The Canon EOS 5DS R, EOS-1D X Mark II and PowerShot G5 X will be among the products demonstrated on Canon’s stand at The Photography Show, where Canon experts will also be on hand with help and advice.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News In association with

Photo 24

You might still be defrosting your cars in the morning, but we’re already looking forward to summer – and Photo 24 Noon, 17 June. That’s the start of this year’s Photo 24 in London. Put that in your diary. Mark it on the calendar. Put a reminder in your phone. Or do all of those things if you fancy coming along and joining us for one of the biggest and most fun photographic shoots of the year. At this time, there is nothing more to do. We’re saying ‘save the date’. Sign-up details and what is going to happen on the day will follow in Photography News over the coming months. If you’re not familiar with Photo 24, it is a 24-hour long photo shoot in London. It’s a free event and Photography News runs it in association with Nikon and Nikon School. Photographers of all experience levels, regardless of camera brand, are welcome and you can join us for the full 24 hours or just come along for a few hours’ shooting. We’ve had three Photo 24s and in the past many photographers booked a hotel room and took the opportunity for a few hours sleep during the early hours. Essentially, how you use the 24 hours is entirely up to you. We will have use of the Nikon School, five minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus Tube station, for the whole 24 hours. Plans are afoot for activities, and details of these will be announced soon. Numbers for Photo 24 will be limited so we’ll be holding a ballot for places. Again more details will be available in due course. Meanwhile, if you fancy joining Photography News and like-minded photographers for a great photo shoot, put 17 -18 June in your diary now.

About the Nikon School The Nikon School is a bespoke facility in central London dedicated to helping photographers to get the most from their equipment. Supported by a team of expert tutors the School’s aim is to educate and inspire camera users of all levels, from beginners to professionals, with a range of practical workshops. Most of these workshops take place at the School although many are location-based too. Workshops are available for specific subjects, techniques and cameras so all training needs are catered for. The approach on all courses is very much hands-on and group size is limited to 12 people maximum so you are guaranteed the personal attention you need to get the most from the session. All camera brand users are welcome, while for existing Nikon users the School has a vast range of the latest Nikon kit to touch and try.

Upcoming training days Here are some of the training workshops in the coming months. Due to limited numbers, courses can book up quickly so please go to the website for details, more information and to book. 23 February: Getting started with the Nikon D7000/ D7100/D7200, part 1 23 February: Nikon Digital Darkroom – Photoshop 1 March: Getting started with wildlife photography 5 March: Getting started with DSLR photography, part 1 11 April: Join the pros – Landscapes, Skye

nikon.co.uk

Lens classics

Leica has updated three of its classic M lenses and launched a rugged compact. The Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH, Summicron 28mm f/2 ASPH and Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH are priced at £2250, £2975 and £1650 respectively. They are all new optical designs created to give superior optical performance and extra smooth bokeh – the 35mm lens has 11 iris blades to give a circular aperture for excellent bokeh. The three lenses also feature a more robust construction and metal rectangular lens hoods with a thread mount.

The Leica X-U (Typ 113) is designed specifically for outdoor and underwater photography. The camera has a resolution of 16.5 megapixels from its APS-C sensor and the built-in lens is a Summilux 23mm f/1.7 ASPH that can focus down to 20cm. Its rugged design includes a toughened monitor screen cover, a double-locking battery and storage card door and a toughened top-plate. It’s water resistant to a depth of 15m and there is even an underwater snapshot button. Guide price is £2400. uk.leica-camera.com

Giving extra Cheryl Johnson has been recognised by the local panel of the Halifax Giving Extra Awards for co-founding Remember My Baby, a charity that provides free remembrance photography for the parents of babies who have died before, during or after birth. She gave up her own photography business to devote her time to the charity, and she was nominated for the Award by parents, volunteers and midwives. In total, there were 66 local winners across the UK and these will be put forward and seven regional winners will be selected, each receiving £5000 to help further their efforts to benefit their local communities. halifax.co.uk/ givingextraawards

Manage your workflow and save money X-Rite Photo conducted a survey of 500 UK photographers and found that they were losing an average of £9900 a year by not managing their colour workflow. The majority of this loss was due to uncalibrated monitors that were costing them £5200 a year in extra

editing time. It was found that photographers were spending 4.5 hours per week correcting their inaccurate screen colour which cost them £100 a week. So, whether you are a keen enthusiast or a professional photographer, colour management

is worth serious consideration and a crucial part of your workflow. See our profile on Simon Prais from Color Confidence in this issue for more on the important topic of colour management. xritephoto.eu

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News

The Photography Show Put the dates in your diary now: 19-22 March. The Photography Show at the Birmingham NEC is the UK’s biggest imaging event. Book your tickets now for the imaging event of the year

More than 200 exhibitors representing every aspect of imaging will be attending this year’s massive Photography Show at Birmingham’s NEC. You will be able to get your hands on the latest cameras, such as the Canon EOS1D X Mark II, Fujifilm X-Pro2, Nikon D5 and Olympus OM-D PEN-F, but the show is about much more than just hardware. Many stands will have experts on hand to talk about their photography and help with yours. On the Super Stage, David Bailey is the headline name, but other speakers include well-known names like Chris

Packham, Nick Danziger and Lara Jade. Other areas where exciting events are planned are the Live Stage, Adobe Theatre and Video Theatre. New for this year is the Wedding & Portrait Stage where there will be a mocked-up chapel where visitors can sit in pews to hear from renowned photographers including Kevin Mullins, John Denton and Kate Hopewell-Smith. Basically, The Photography Show is unmissable for every keen image-maker and you can order your show tickets in advance and save £3 per ticket – £10.95 instead of

£13.95. Enter the discount code PNTPS16 when booking on the website. You also have the option of adding seminar and workshop tickets, priced at £10 per session, when booking your show ticket. The website will also have the confirmed list of exhibitors and speakers so check it out and get your tickets ordered. Naturally, Photography News will also be there so please come along and say hello. photographyshow.com

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Preview Specs Price TBC (expected around £5199 body only) Sensor 21.5-megapixel CMOS with Dual DIGIC 6+ processor Sensor format 35.9x23.9mm, 5472x3648 pixels ISO range 100-12,800 (expandable down to 50 and up to 409,600) Shutter range 30secs to 1/8000sec, plus B Drive modes 8fps continuous, up to 83 JPEGs, or 33 lossless compressed Raws. At 3fps, endless JPEGs and lossless compressed Raws Metering 360,000-pixel RGB+IR sensor, 216 zones. Evaluative, partial (approx 6.2%), spot (approx 1.5%), centreweighted Autofocus modes AI Focus (AI Servo AF III+), One Shot Autofocus points 61 Exposure modes Program AE, shutter-priority AE, aperture-priority AE, manual, Custom x3 Exposure compensation +/-5EV in 0.3 or 0.5EV stops, AEB +/-3EV in 0.3 or 0.5EV stops Max frame rate 14fps for unlimited JPEGs or 170 Raw files using CFast 2.0 card Monitor Fixed 3.2in touchscreen, 1620k dot resolution Video functionality 4K (4096x2160 pixels) at 60p/30p, Full HD at 120p/60p/30p/25p/24p Other Built-in GPS Interface USB 3.0, HDMI mini out, stereo mini jack, headphone socket, RJ-45 Ethernet Storage Dual card slots CFast 2.0, CompactFlash (UDMA 7 compatible) Dimensions (WxHxD) 158x167.6x82.6mm Weight 1340g (body only) Contact canon.co.uk

First look

Canon EOS1D X Mark II In a year that will see the Olympics in Rio and the Euros in France, Canon has updated its own sporting great Words by Roger Payne There’s nothing like an Olympic year to get DSLR designers focused on producing new flagship models. Nikon has already announced its offering, and now Canon has weighed in with its own new crown jewel. Like the Nikon D5, the EOS-1D X Mark II will be available before the summer (in plenty of time to capture the cream of the sports world in Rio) and this latest slab of uber-tech boasts eye-watering spec and performance. When it comes to headlinegrabbing features, the EOS-1D X Mark II has plenty. Every aspect of its design and functionality represents the cutting edge of what the company can offer and it makes you wonder what the designers can come up with next. Faster, more powerful, higher resolving; the MkII is all those things, but it has been refined, tweaked and polished to the very highest standard. Let’s not beat about the bush, it’s bloody astonishing. My hands-on time with the MkII runs to a grand total of three minutes. There’s only a certain amount that you can do with a thoroughbred DSLR at a press announcement, but I’ve spoken to professionals who have used the camera in its beta form and they have nothing but praise for the changes and refinements Canon has made. Like the 1D X it replaces, it’s a daunting camera when you first pick it up; chunky, heavy and bristling with buttons and switches it’s the sort of camera that urges you to take good pictures. And you will, given the functionality at your disposal. The 20.2-megapixel full-frame resolution in itself may not exactly set the world alight – there are models that offer plenty more pixels – but even this represents a gain of nearly 10% over the original 1D X. The jawdropping facts come when you learn that the camera will dispatch 14 of these full-frame images in a second

and, thanks to the new Dual DIGIC 6+ processors, keep going for up to 170 frames. We’re not talking JPEGs here, we’re talking Raw files. Shoot JPEGs and the camera will just keep on going until you fill the card, drain the battery or need a rest. The 14fps rate is also with full AF and AE tracking. If you switch to Live View mode and don’t need the reassurance of these two auto functions, the speed increases to 16fps. Now those lucky professionals at the Rio Games will be able to shoot the entire 100m final from start to finish, capturing around 140 frames in the process. To utilise these incredible speeds, users will need to slip a CFast 2.0 card into one of the two card slots. The other takes UDMA 7 compatible CF cards which allow you to capture a flurry of images at high speed, but can’t quite deliver the same performance. Naturally, the fun doesn’t stop there. The MkII is also the first professional stills camera from Canon to offer 4K video. Higher resolving movies can be recorded for up to 30 minutes at 60p, which is a notable scalp over the Nikon D5 that can only record for three minutes at 4K, while video can also be shot at 120

frames in Full HD – perfect for highquality slow-motion. Again, a CFast card is needed for the maximum 4K capability, which also allows you to extract individual 8.8-megapixel frames from the footage. Speed is nothing without control and although the 14fps rate is with AF and AE active, both auto systems have been beefed up to cope. The autofocusing has the same 61 points as the 1D X, but now 41 of these points have the more accurate crosstype sensors over an expanded area within the frame. The system is also sensitive down to -3EV and, for the first time, offers AF support at f/8 on all 61 points – handy if you shoot with a teleconverted lens. Tracking sensitivity has also been boosted with the new AI Servo III+ system that responds to sudden changes in subject movement to ensure you stay on top of the action. Metering is taken care of by a new 360k RGB+IR sensor, while the Flicker Detection function, first seen in the EOS 7D Mark II, jumps across into this flagship model. This assesses the (undetectable to the human eye) variances in artificial lighting levels and guarantees more consistent results in such conditions.

Initial verdict So much to say, so little space – I’ve really just scratched the surface here and haven’t even started on the small, subtle changes that combine to make significant handling and functionality improvements. Granted, this model may be beyond the financial reach of most PN readers, but its capabilities are exciting and can’t be ignored. Features and performance introduced here will inevitably filter down into cheaper models as time goes by and while you may not want to shoot at

14fps, everyone will benefit from better AF and more accurate metering. The camera’s headline statistics also underline where, for the time being at least, DSLRs remain vastly superior to mirrorless models. Compact system cameras may be trying to eat DSLRs’ dinner, but the EOS-1D X Mark II shows that they won’t be scoffing the coffee and mints for some time to come. If you’re lucky enough to be in a position to afford an EOS-1D X Mark II, there can be little

doubt of its astonishing capabilities that should make it something of a no-brainer; assuming your bank manager agrees, of course. As previously mentioned, while I’ve had no time to shoot with the camera, I know photographers who have and have heaped praise on the beta version. If you don’t have the money to buy one, join the club! But we can at least look forward to some of the functionality appearing in models more in tune with our finances in the years to come.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

News News in brief

Enter now The 2016 British Wildlife Photography Awards is now open for entries and with a prize fund worth over £20,000 including kit from the main sponsors, even Canon products, it’s well worth having a go. First prize is £5000 cash.

There is a diverse range of categories on offer including a Young Photographer category. The closing date for entries is 30 April 2016. bwpawards.org

Be inspired by colour

Inspired by colour is the theme of a year-long photographic contest launched by Color Confidence. Entry is via the company’s Facebook page, where each month a theme is announced. The winner is the picture attracting the most public votes at the end of each month. Prize value will be at least £100 – February’s prize is the NEC MultiSync EA193Mi monitor and the theme is Loving Life. At the end of the year the 12 winning images will be judged and the photographer of the image selected as best overall will win the title of Color Confidence Photographer of the Year 2016 and £1000 worth of photography equipment. The contest is open to both enthusiast and professional photographers. facebook.com/ colorconfidence

Outdoor Photographer of the Year Portfolio One The stunning images in this new book come from the Outdoor Photographer of the Year competition. Now in its fifth year, this contest is going from strength to strength and last year over 12,000 entries were received. This book features 150 of the best images submitted – you can see the winning entries on the website. Published by the Ammonite Press, the book is out in March, costing £25. opoty.co.uk

Talent search Leading flash brand broncolor is looking for young, talented photographers to become its Gen NEXT ambassadors. Entry is open to photographers worldwide, under the age of 30. Those who get selected as Gen NEXT ambassadors will be kitted out with broncolor equipment to the value of $24,000.

Fancy your chances? Then to enter, simply upload up to three images to the contest website by the closing date of 2 March. Winners will be announced by 21 April. gennext.broncolor.com

Phase One reaches 100 Phase One has released a 100-megapixel medium-format camera system. The A-series IQ3 is based on the ALPA 12TC mirrorless camera body and is compatible with Phase One’s XF system. You can buy it now, if you have $56,000… phaseone.com

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Clubs

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

News in brief

Nantwich Camera Club is hosting a talk by Oliver Smart. Titled Raw Nature – Images Uncovered, Oliver will reveal the techniques and tricks behind this images. Having studied at the University of Birmingham, Oliver has travelled widely capturing wildlife images. His work has graced magazine

covers, nature and wildlife guides and the pages of the national press. The talk is on 22 March at 7.30pm, in the club’s usual meeting room, Regents Park on Nantwich’s London Road. Entrance is £5 and is payable on the door. nantwichcameraclub.org.uk © Oliver Smart

Digital workshop PermaJet lecturer Libby Smith is visiting Wrekin Arts Photographic Club with a one-day digital workshop. It takes place at the Belfrey Arts Centres, Wellington TF1 1JG, on Sunday 13 March. Book your ticket for £25 by emailing tonymthomas5@gmail.com or phoning 01952 617170. wrekinartspc.com

Raw Nature

How to submit

Deadline for the next issue: 3 March 2016

We need words and pictures by 3 March for the next issue of Photography News, which will be available from 14 March. 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.

Successful exhibition at Farnborough The members of Farnborough Camera Club are very pleased with the result of their annual exhibition, which took place at the end of January in the town’s shopping centre. More than 70 images were on display for the weekend and the visiting public were invited to vote for their favourite images. The 338 votes – more than tripling last year’s number – chose Autumnal Gold by Richard Jenkins as the winning print. farnboroughcameraclub.org

Colour Show Hailsham Photographic Society is staging a Colour Show of images set to music and narration. There will be three performances over 4 and 5 March at Hailsham’s Community Centre. The event is raising funds for the Kipling County Carriage Riding Group for the Disabled. Tickets are £6 from Hailsham’s Camera Centre and the Nodding Cobbler. hailshamphotographic society.co.uk Rotating exhibition Ealing and Hampshire Photographic Society IS exhibiting at the Artisan Café in Ealing. Comprising 30 prints, the display is up now, with prints changing monthly. ehhps.org.uk

LED lessons Gateway Camera Club recently enjoyed an evening with Paul Granville, learning how to create light spheres with LEDs. Find out more about the club on their website. gatewaycameraclub.co.uk

All in black & white Enjoy a monochrome exhibition from 12 members of the Suffolk Monochrome Group in Colchester’s Mercury Theatre. The exhibition is in the Digby Gallery from 23 February until 6 March.

Annual exhibition Beeston Camera Club’s 61st annual exhibition is at Beeston Library, Nottingham for the month of March. More than 80 prints will be on display. beestoncameraclub.co.uk

Behind the Photograph Renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite visits Preston Charlie Waite is visiting Preston Photographic Society to give his talk, Behind the Photograph. As well as being a prolific and well-respected landscaper himself, Charlie is also the man behind the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition and founded workshop and tour company, Light and Land. The talk takes place at 7.30pm on Friday 22 April in the Greenbank Lecture Theatre at the University of Central Lancashire. Tickets priced at £12 are available from the society’s website. prestonphotographicsociety.org

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Competition Survival International

Raising awareness The Survival International photography competition is all about tribal peoples. We speak to Ghislain Pascal, the co-founder and director of The Little Black Gallery to find out more Interview by Jemma Dodd

ÂŠ George Magaraia

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Competition What role do you have in the competition? I am responsible for managing the competition; from launching and promoting the competition through the press, via social media and to Survival’s supporters; to handling all the entries; judging the entries alongside other judges; and finally producing and promoting the resulting Survival International calendar. What are the aims of the competition? We aim to celebrate photography as a powerful medium for raising awareness of tribal peoples, their unique ways of life and the threats to their existence. Images play an emotive role in telling important stories, and ultimately they help to change the lives and futures of some of the most vulnerable peoples on earth. The resulting published Survival International calendar is also an important fundraising tool for the charity, helping to raise the much-needed funds to help threatened tribal peoples. What is Survival International all about and what are the charity’s goals? Survival International is the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights. It is the only organisation that champions tribal peoples around the world, helping them defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures. Survival’s work is preventing the annihilation of tribal peoples. It gives them a platform to speak to the world; it investigates atrocities and presents evidence to the United Nations and other international forums; it supports legal representation; it funds medical and self-help projects; and it educates, researchs, campaigns, lobbys and protests. It won’t give up until we all have a world where tribal peoples are respected and their human rights protected. The competition is a collaboration between The Little Black gallery and Survival International, how did this come about? It’s not so much a collaboration, but rather

that The Little Black Gallery supports the competition. I have been involved with Survival International for almost 30 years and so am happy to help as much as I can. This is my small way of helping their vital work. What are you looking for in a winning image? What will make an image stand out? The winning images and overall winner will be selected not only for their originality and the strength of composition, but also for their demonstration of sensitivity to, and understanding of, tribal peoples, their ways of life and the issues that jeopardize their futures. The subject is quite specific relating to people, in terms of experience is the competition aimed more at amateurs or professionals? The competition is open to both amateurs and professionals. We are always impressed by the number of entries we get from both. Because so many people travel now and have cameras it is much easier for people to take pictures of tribal peoples. Some of the best entries have come from amateurs. What are the requirements for the competition and how do people enter? The images have to be of tribal peoples photographed in the past ten years. There are three categories: Guardians – images showing tribal peoples as guardians of the natural world; Community – portraits of relationships between individuals, families or tribes; and Survival – images showing tribal peoples’ extraordinary diverse ways of life. We only accept digital submissions of no more than 1MB and a maximum of three images submitted per entrant. If the entrants photograph is chosen we will contact them to submit the original high res file. How will the judging process work? Who will be judging the competition? The closing date for entries is 30 April 2016. The judges will then choose their favourite 12 images for Survival International’s 2017

Calendar, with the winning entry chosen for the cover. The judges are Francesca Casella (coordinator, Survival International Italy), Stephen Corry (director, Survival International), Max Houghton (senior lecturer in photography, London College of Communication) and myself. How are the winners awarded? The winners will be notified in the autumn, with their images published in Survival International’s 2017 Calendar. Obviously each winner receives a free calendar! We do not offer any other prizes, as we don’t feel we need to, as in previous years we have had such an amazing response with impressive entries. People seem to want to help the charity, while being satisfied with having their images published in such a stunning calendar. Can you tell us more about the calendar, how are they sold? Survival International’s calendar is produced and sold by the charity at the online shop. Thousands of calendars are sold every year helping to raise the much needed funds to help threatened tribal peoples. Is there anything specific you are looking forward to seeing in the competition? It is always nice to see a wide range of images from every corner of the globe. It doesn’t matter whether the image is colour or black & white – we just want amazing images.

We have been amazed at the response and quality of the entries Main Marubo, Brazil, 2014. Marubo children play together in the village, decorating their bodies with paints, beads and colourful clothes. Left Huichol, Mexico, 2004. Huichol children in Mexico gather to paint their feet using chalk and powder paints. The Huichol’s sacred land, a site called the Wirikuta, is currently under threat from a Canadian mining company. Below Hamar, Ethiopia, 2010. The wife of the village chief prepares breakfast, including a gourd of steaming, freshly picked coffee in the background. Bottom Suri, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The vibrant blue of the young Suri men’s robes stands out against a cracked earthen wall in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

Get your entries in

How successful have the previous years’ competitions been? How many entries were received? For the last two years we have been amazed at the response and the quality of the entries. We receive over 1000 entries from all over the world, from both amateur and professional photographers. The final calendars have been stunning and last year’s sold even more than the year before, so we are extremely happy. With this being the third year do you feel that a standard has been set? We don’t want to scare people from entering,

With the chance to have your image featured in the Survival International calendar, as well as helping to contribute to the charity, if you have images of tribal peoples then this competition is well worth entering. There are three categories to submit to and you can enter up to three images, plus, it’s free to enter. The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2016, so be sure to get your entries submitted in time! survivalinternational.org/photography

but yes the bar has been set high! The past two winners Giordano Cipriani and Soh Yew Kiat have been incredible. You can view all the previous winners on the Survival International website.

Looking back at last year’s competition what advice would you give to anyone looking to submit this year? Don’t be afraid to enter! If you have visited tribal peoples anywhere in the world from the Amazon, to the Arctic, to Africa and Australia, then please send in your photographs! You never know you might win?! What are your future ambitions for the competition? We would like to continue to grow the competition, sell even more calendars and raise as much money as possible for Survival International. survivalinternational.org/photography

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Profile Biography

Before the Judge

Paul Mitchell FRPS Each issue, a respected judge or exhibition selector shares their thoughts and experiences. This month, we hear from Paul Mitchell who embraces digital technology alongside his low-fi cameras

Paul Mitchell With a background in graphic design, Paul has been judging for many years and was recently invited to join the RPS Visual Art Exhibition selectors. His attitude to his own photography and advice for other photographers is to be true to yourself. Years in photography My parents bought me my first camera when I was 15, a year later I went to art college which gave me my grounding in everything photographic. Apart from family snapshots, it’s been the last 15 years that has seen my interest in photography rekindled. Home club Amersham PS, a member of Arena Photographers and a founder member of Landscape Collective UK (LCUK) Favourite camera It’s like asking an artist what is their favourite brush! The cameras I use the most are: Zero 2000 pinhole camera, Agfa Super Isolette, Bronica SQ-Ai, Chamonix 045N-1 and Nikon D810. Favourite lens Whatever is on the camera at the time! Favourite photo accessories Spirit level Favourite photographers Christopher Burkett and Shinzo Maeda Favourite subject or technique I am primarily a landscape photographer, with pinhole being my favoured technique

My pet hate is laziness, especially when it comes to set-subject competitions

been made by UK amateurs. This alone illustrates that the standard between amateur and professional photographers has reached parity. All about the light As a judge you’re relied upon to comment on every image no matter how good or bad it is. On the odd occasion that an image has given me pause for thought while judging I have either not understood the message or it has been so abstract that it was incomprehensible. Occasionally an image leaves you thinking ‘I wish I had made this!’ Once I was so taken aback with a breathtaking landscape made of a location that was dear to my heart that I bought the print! I often think if my commentary were ever recorded I’d constantly © Paul Mitchell

Awards FRPS, numerous club and PAGB awards, Sunday Times Magazine Award winner in the Take-a-View LPOTY competition 2013 and Urban View Category Winner in the Take-a-View LPOTY competition 2015

I have been judging on a regular basis for about eight years, initially within the Chilterns Association of Camera Clubs area and spreading out to various federations in the South East of the UK. Last year I was invited to be one of the RPS Visual Art Exhibition selectors. But being a full-time graphic designer means I’ve been associated with photography in one way or another for more than 30 years. After joining my local photographic club and sitting through competitions I became aware that my experience as a designer would be of benefit in the judging arena. Photography can sometimes be an isolated pastime, which is why it gives me great pleasure visiting other clubs and meeting likeminded individuals. I constantly feel privileged to view and comment on other photographers’ work, with the added bonus of being able to pass on some of my experience. Over the years, I have had many rewarding moments, but I still take great pleasure when the results of a competition are announced and the top spot has been awarded to either a newcomer or someone that is enthusiastic but success has eluded them. It also makes those who are used to winning work harder! The standard of club photography has never been higher. The megapixel race is all but over and photographers seem at ease with their equipment, software and printing, I believe they now feel free to concentrate on content and style. As each year passes one only has to look at the successes in the various salons, RPS Print International and high-profile commercial competitions such as LPOTY and WPOTY, to see that a large majority of successful images have

Words by Paul Mitchell

hear myself repeating the phrase: ‘it’s all about the light!’ In my judgment this is one of the most common failings with competition images, together with oversharpening. Compositional rules are there for a good reason; once learnt you are then in an ideal position to break them! In my experience, ‘ordinary snapshots’ are quite often the work of beginners. Dismissing such images can have a detrimental effect. I prefer to spend a moment and suggest techniques that would elevate it from being ordinary; vary your camera angle, creative use of depth-of-field and shutter speeds to name but a few. It’s easy to forget that we were all beginners once. Being a professional Photoshop user for nearly 25 years I have seen it all. I am of the opinion that filters should be used but not abused. So long as it adds something to the image, I am happy with any postprocessing, even HDR! My pet hate is laziness, especially when it comes to set-subject competitions. Most club members will go to a lot of time and effort to fulfil the brief only for the odd person to trawl through their archives for an image that has a vague interpretation.

On-trend advice I do frequent photography related social media sites, forums etc. and quite often come across criticism, jibes and jokes levelled at judges. In the days before the Internet became prevalent, judges would be available to discuss any concerns with individuals face-to-face and generally, when the aggrieved person has had their say, you would part on friendly terms. Sadly the relative anonymity that exists online means that people can vent their anger or frustration without any fear of reprisal. As in life, trends come and go. It wasn’t that long ago that wideangle, gritty black & white portraits of Eastern European farmers were very successful, these days misty long exposures of coastal subjects seem very popular. My advice to anyone who might be thinking of following a trend just to increase your chances of success, is be true to yourself. By all means absorb work of successful photographers, indeed I actively encourage it, but try and develop your own style. I hope I speak for all judges when I say that originality will always triumph! paulmitchellphotography.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 29 absolutephoto.com

Interview Profile

Simon Prais

Colour management is such an important topic but it is one often neglected by keen photographers who then wonder why their pictures don’t look right. We spoke to the technical director at Color Confidence and asked him his view

Biography Years in the photo industry? 30 years Current location Birmingham Last picture taken I can’t remember that far back! I am more concerned with offering colour management solutions to help support photographers. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? A creative professional Dogs or cats? Neither, but if I had to choose – cats Toast or cereal? On a weekday or on the weekend? Email or phone call? Email

Any editing or decision on how accurate a photo is depends on what you see on your monitor

Above A correctly calibrated monitor is one of the most important aspects of colour management in post-processing. Using a monitor calibrator like the X-Rite ColorMunki Display will allow you to achieve consistent colour accuracy throughout your workflow.

Can you briefly sum up what Color Confidence offers? Color Confidence is Europe’s leading colour management specialist in the digital imaging markets. We offer the widest range of products and services from the world’s leading manufacturers including X-Rite, DxO, EIZO, NEC, BenQ and ExpoImaging amongst many others, together with our own-brand range of calibration and colour management essentials for photographers, designers and anyone with an interest in colour. If photographers never print but only post pictures on social media websites do they really need to engage with colour management? If you spend any time visually adjusting the colour or contrast of a digital image, regardless of its final use, that decision needs to be made on a colour calibrated monitor. Although it’s unlikely that even 1% of viewers on a social media site would have a calibrated monitor, there are at least two factors to consider. If your monitor is too warm, and you adjust your images based on the assumption that what you see on the screen is correct, anyone with an uncalibrated ‘cool’ monitor viewing the images will see a massive difference to your intended colour balance. Whereas if your monitor is calibrated, you limit the range of colour difference across the range of uncalibrated monitors. Your original image may have been perfect, but if you view it on an uncalibrated monitor, you could end up wasting your time editing unnecessarily whilst also destroying your image. Where should a reader start if they want to colour manage their workflow? Is it, for example, necessary to start with the camera and work through to the output device? The most practical point to start from is monitor calibration. A calibrated monitor enables you to determine deficiencies in your camera, printer or viewing conditions. There seem to be a great many colour management devices on the market. With a limited budget, what is the first item to buy? To back up my previous answer, it would have to be a monitor calibrator. A properly calibrated monitor is essential for colour critical work such as photography. A profiled screen gives you a trusted source for viewing your images so that you can be confident in the results. If budget allows, I would recommend the X-Rite i1Display Pro at £207, which offers the highest standard of on-screen colour accuracy for displays and projectors. Alternatively, I would recommend the X-Rite ColorMunki Display at £139.20, which has slightly fewer features but is still sufficient for achieving consistent colour accuracy. If you can justify a new monitor, highend monitors are frequently offered with the benefit of a discount off a calibrator, if purchased at the same time. The monitor is clearly important, but many readers stick with what came with their PC bundle. Is that okay or should they consider an upgrade? They should definitely consider an upgrade. There is a considerable difference between a £100

monitor bundled with a PC and a £500-£900 professional monitor, and it’s not just the price point. Any editing or decision on how accurate a photo is depends on what you see on your monitor. That is why it is important to pick the right quality of monitor to suit your needs. Is there such a thing as an ideal monitor? What should a reader look for when looking to buy one and what sort of budget will they need? The NEC SpectraView, EIZO CG and BenQ PG colour critical range of monitors include all the key qualities of an ideal monitor. These are available in a number of sizes and resolutions to suit an individual’s requirements. A quality monitor will have an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel type. IPS panels offer a much larger colour gamut than Twisted Nematic (TN) panels, which are frequently used in laptops. A further benefit of IPS panels over both TN and Vertical Alignment (VA) panels, used on standard-grade monitors, is the colour consistency and viewing angle. Viewing such panels from even a slight angle causes a shift in the display, whereas IPS panel technology provides you with consistency from increased viewing angles. Professional monitors will also be validated for uniformity across the display. Such monitors generally include hardware calibration software. This communicates directly with the monitor for optimised colour accuracy. Budget constraints are often a factor, and although quality to achieve good colour accuracy over size is a good generalisation, there are some instances when some of the quality features need to be trimmed back when a larger panel size is crucial. The Monitor Showroom on our website has a star rating against all monitors that are suitable for colour accurate work. If you can’t justify both quality and the required size, it is worth considering retaining your old monitor for general use and using a second monitor for colour critical work. With many people buying 4K televisions, is it feasible for someone to use one of these as their editing monitor? Although the latest 4K televisions offer a much higher resolution than standard HDTVs, and look a tempting option as a computer screen, they are not suitable as an image-editing monitor. The 4K TVs are designed to give high-contrast, punchy images for primarily displaying TV, films and video, so will display images with increased contrast and saturation even when profiled. We recommend using an accurate colour manageable monitor, and with 4K monitors recently introduced, they should be considered for editing 4K whereas 4K televisions should be avoided. The final link in the chain is output. What advice do you have for readers looking for a high-quality photo printer? Stick to the main photo market manufacturers, Epson and Canon, and check that the model is categorised as a photo printer. I’d avoid all-in-one devices as they generally don’t have the colour quality required for photo printing. When researching a printer, download the manual and look at the key features, especially the print driver colour management options,

as this will indicate if the printer will be easily colour managed, and if you want to use thirdparty paper such as Tecco, use colour profiles or create your own. Printers range from having just four colour cartridges (CMYK) to 12. A minimum of seven or eight colours that include light cyan, light magenta and light black/grey provides higherquality prints without visually apparent dots in the light tones. Whereas the addition of orange and green expands the colour range with increased colour saturation. Many readers complain of the final print not looking anything like the image they saw onscreen. What advice do you have to get colourcorrect prints? I would recommend they purchase an X-Rite ColorMunki Photo at £414, an all-in-one entrylevel calibration process that delivers fast, accurate matching from capture to display and print. However, even with that, such complaints can arise because people overlook the viewing light. If the illumination of your monitor isn’t matched to the illumination of your print, one will look lighter or darker than the other. If you can’t justify allocating a viewing booth for standardised viewing conditions, a GrafiLite at £61.27 will give you a daylight-balanced consistent temperature and brightness level to be matched against your monitor. Most people will have their computer and printer in a domestic environment. Have you got any tips to help them achieve the best possible set-up? Yes, ideally they should use a monitor hood and a viewing light or GrafiLite. Most professional monitors come with an option of a hood included, if not, then the PChOOD Pro at £71.44 is an adaptable hood, which will fit anything from a 15in to a 26in monitor. If you had to give just one piece of colour management advice to our readers, what would that be? Ensure that you regularly calibrate your monitor. Your monitor will be gradually changing with time so without monthly calibration, it’s a constantly moving target. colorconfidence.com

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Camera Club of the Year

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Round 4: Movement Closes: 07/03/2016

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.

With two more chances to qualify for the final, it’s time to get your club members motivated and ‘moving So far, three camera clubs – Dorchester CC, Harpenden PS and Ayr PS – have all qualified for the final shoot-out to win the first prize of the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO‑1000 and the prestige of being our Camera Club of the Year 2015-16. The winning images from Round 3 are opposite and all the entries can be viewed on absolutephoto.com. 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 absolutephoto.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 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 are not eligible for the monthly prize.

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

Clubs can enter at any point, even at the fifth and final round. After the five monthly rounds, we’ll have five finalists and they will be asked to submit more pictures on a theme yet to be revealed. It is from these images that the overall winning club will be decided. The overall winners 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 imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Show off your photographs in the best light with Canon’s imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 photo-quality printer. This is a pro-level printer featuring the capacity to produce exhibition-quality enlargements up to A2 size. The 12-ink system features LUCIA Pro pigment inks that offer a high level of lightfastness. It can use either Photo Black or Matte Black for fine art media without switching between cartridges, saving ink and time. The large capacity inks include Canon’s Chroma Optimizer. This is applied over prints to enhance glossiness and smooth bumps between ink droplets to expand colour gamut and ensure maximum blacks. For shots from Canon EOS cameras, a new Crystal Fidelity feature ensures faithful reproduction.

The first in a new series of printers from Canon, the PRO-1000 uses the L-COA PRO Image Processing system ensures precise placement and mix of the printer’s four-picolitre ink droplets. It also accepts high-resolution files of 1200ppi for the ultimate reproduction of fine detail. Print speed is impressive, with A2 prints produced in around six minutes, and it’s almost silent in operation, and as befits a modern printer it has Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity for maximum convenience. The overall winner of the Camera Club of the Year contest wins one of these highly desirable printers, so get thinking about your entry right now. canon.co.uk

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Camera Club of the Year

This month’s theme is open to all manner of creative interpretation so we want to see pictures that depict the theme in a challenging and exciting way

Images Don’t stand still, get moving to capture eye-catching images full of movement before the closing date of 7 March.

You could go for action subjects, such as cyclists, cars or buses, perhaps using panning to give the sensation of movement. If close enough to the subjects you could even bring in flash for images with the intoxicating mixture of sharpness and blur. The landscape has plenty to offer too. Clouds scuttling across the sky, flowing water and windblown trees are just some of the subjects to consider. Mount the camera on the tripod and get exploring with its shutter speed range and see what you can rustle up. If you’re keen to be more adventurous, step into the fascinating world of deliberate camera movement, maybe taking inspiration from the natural world. Results can be unpredictable, but that’s part of the technique’s joys and with the instant feedback of digital you can play until you get it just right. So, get moving – and win!

Round 3: Results

Getting a sense of movement in a still image is a challenge for your camera skills, but do it right and the effect can be very eye-catching. There are any number of ways to tackle the subject and to be honest, there is no right or wrong. You can move the camera with a static subject during the exposure, you can keep the camera dead still and let the subject do the moving or you can combine the two. Then there are the extra ingredients of adjusting the zoom lens during a long exposure and finally, there are the many options offered with shutter speed choice. Most cameras have shutter speeds as long as 30secs but with extreme long-exposure filters there’s the potential for exposures running into minutes and even hours. Technically, this theme offers all kinds of opportunities. And we haven’t even mentioned actual choice of subject yet. There’s huge potential here too.

Round 4: Movement

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Patterns & textures was the challenging theme for this round and we saw many great images © Ian McClure

Congratulations to Ayr PS, the latest qualifier for the final. Ayr’s set of five pictures were all excellent interpretations of the theme, as you can see here, and while the competition was fierce, it ended up winning this month by two clear points. Well done to Ayr. As well as a place in the final, Ayr PS wins a Canon PIXMA Pro-100S professional A3+ photo printer. Thanks to everyone who entered this month’s round. There are still have two rounds to qualify for the final so good luck to all. © Miriam Downes

Ayr Photographic Society qualifies for the final Ayr PS excelled with great theme interpretation and top technical skills.

Visionaries Ayr Photographic Society delivered a consistently excellent performance this month with all five pictures scoring highly. Some clubs turned in four great images but were let down by the fifth. That’s a point to note.

From top left Tension by Ian McClure; Incense sticks by Forrest Weir; In search of grater inspiration by Eddie Telford; Beach tree by Garry Smith; and Tangled web by Miriam Downes.

Scores Ayr Photographic Society

City of London and Cripplegate PS

Smethwick Photogtraphic Society

Cannock Photographic Society

Parkwood Camera Club

Dorchester Camera Club*

Harpenden Photographic Society*

Halstead & District Photographic Society

Blandford Forum Camera Club

Dunholme Camera Club

Park Street Camera Club

Newent & District Camera Club

Stirling & District Camera Club

Deal and District Camera Club

Beckenham Photographic Society

Consett Photographic Society

Macclesfield Camera Club

Bath Photographic Society

West Wickham Photographic Society

Earl Shilton Camera Club

Skegness Camera Club

Harlow Photographic Society

Buckingham Camera Club

Chapel Camera Club

Dronfield Camera Club

Wokingham & East Berkshire Camera Club

Cymru Monochrome

Brentwood & District Camera Club

Peterborough Photographic Society

Tonbridge Camera Club

Wisbech and District Camera Club

Fraserburgh Photographic Society

*Already qualified for the final

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Camera Club of the Year David’s gear for capturing movement Gitzo GT3542XLS Tripod

Masterclass: Movement

David Noton

The skill for this theme is to capture a sense of movement in your images. Canon ambassador David Noton is always looking to capture movement in his shots so we asked him for some top tips

Canon TC-80N3 timer

Above A eucalyptus tree blowing in the wind expressed with a 30-second exposure in the Murchison River gorge at Ross Graham, Kalbarri National Park, Western Australia.

A remote release allows you to operate the camera’s shutter without having to touch it. I use a Canon TC-80N3 Timer, which enables me to accurately time exposures longer than 30 seconds using the camera’s Bulb mode setting. Filters Neutral density filters are ideal to slow exposures. I use Lee Filters’ Little and Big Stoppers, and a 0.9 Neutral Density Pro Glass. The Little Stopper (approx 6x) and Big Stopper (approx 10x) enables me to achieve exposures long enough to express motion blur, from fractions of a second to many minutes long.

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.

A good tripod is obviously crucial for anchoring the camera during long exposures. The Gitzo GT3542XLS tripod with Pro Geared head is steady and has stable carbon-fibre legs that can be extended higher than my head. A good tripod is a photographer’s best friend and probably the most important equipment we own.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Top left A panning shot using a 1/30sec exposure of an overloaded tricycle, Negros, Philippines. Bottom left Point Lobos, Big Sur Coast, California, USA. A panorama made from three frames. The four-second exposure suggests movement in the water without rendering it a sea of milk.

Virtually any subject can benefit from a suggestion of movement We live in a world that is on the move, constantly. We’re all on the move, rushing all too hastily towards our inevitable fate, and everything around us is too; people, plants, animals, the sea, the sky, even the landscape. Expressing that movement is a crucial skill for we photographers. Virtually any subject can benefit from a suggestion of movement; cityscapes, street scenes, wildlife, landscapes and even portraits. I find that I’m striving to suggest movement virtually every time I peer through the eyepiece. Last month I visited Western Australia, one aspect of the region that I hadn’t previously considered was the wind; it was our constant companion, maddeningly so at times. But by using a long exposure of 30 seconds and letting the swaying trees blur attractively

I transformed what would be a fairly boring static picture, into something far more evocative and characteristic of the region. To suggest movement, we have four options; keeping the camera steady and freezing motion with the use of a fast shutter speed, locking the camera off immobile on a tripod and letting the world bend, sway, lap, waft and drift all around, rotating the camera axis to follow a moving subject (see top left image) so it is rendered reasonably sharp against a streaky motion blur background, or physically tracking a moving subject so that both camera and subject are in motion in the same direction and at the same speed. All techniques have their uses but take considerable practice to master. Deciding what motion to express, how, and to what degree is all part

of the photographer’s creative thought process. Too little motion and the image can look static, too much and it all degenerates into a blurry mess. Recording motion blur is a technique that can be used with virtually any lens from fish-eye to super-telephoto, but in practice I tend to use medium to long lenses for panning. My advice for shooting movement is to experiment, and practise. With landscapes it’s all about deciding just how much motion you want to express. There is a current fad for example, for long exposure seascapes which render breaking waves as an ocean of milk, but I actually prefer to see some energy, texture and detail in the water surface. Panning is a key skill to learn, but just how slow a shutter speed to use will depend on several

factors, the speed of the subject, the direction of travel, the subject distance, the focal length and the amount of motion blur the photographer deems desirable. I believe there should be something in the frame that is sharp to offset the motion blur, but ultimately there are no rules. On a trip to the Philippines (see top left image), I wanted to photograph the overloaded tricycles, which are such a feature of life there. I spent all afternoon by the road side experimenting with panning as they trundled by. Eventually I determined that a shutter speed of 1/30sec with a smooth panning action was ideal. In practice it all comes down to trial and error, although experience always helps. davidnoton.com

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Technique Lighting academy

Spotlighting flash effects

Spotlight accessories

Channel the light and put your subject centre stage with these easy tips © Will Cheung

Light needs to be restricted in some way to form a spot, but the size of that spot varies depending on the type of modifier used, the zoom setting (if you’re using a speedlight with a zoomable head), and the distance between the light and the subject. Most of the time you’ll need some sort of light shaper to force the light into shape; fortunately these exist to fit any shape light you might be using. We used a MagMod Basic Speedlight Modifier Kit (£71.96); the kit includes a MagGrip silicone rubber mount that stretches over the speedlight’s head, and to this the honeycomb MagGrid is attached (the kit comes with a filter holder and gels). Most modifiers have their effect described by an angle, so on the grids (honeycombs), spill-kills or snoots that you’d use to channel light, you’ll see ratings like 15° or 30°. This angle of illumination will depend on the distance from the light to the object it’s hitting, but broadly, the lower the number, the lower the spread and therefore the tighter the spot. So, a grid with a 30° angle will have a tighter spread than a 40° grid. Snoots offer even smaller spreads of light, and the MagSnoot (£39.96), which fits onto the MagGrip, provides four settings thanks to its clever folding design, 12.5°, 15°, 20° and 40°.

essentialphoto.co.uk

Left Using an accessory flashgun on the camera, along with a grid, can provide striking and stylish portraits. Words by Kingsley Singleton Pictures by Kingsley Singleton & Will Cheung Spotlighting is a great style to apply when you’re looking to create a dramatic portrait. Of course, that’s not really surprising considering that most of the time we see spotlighting in dramatic productions, film, theatre or stage lighting, where the effect is used to isolate the subject and give them impact. It could be an actor, a singer or a dancer, but the purpose is the same. To create a spot, the light from your flash needs to be restricted and directed, so that it strikes only the subject, and/or the area immediately around them, leaving the rest of the scene unlit (or certainly darker than the focal point where the spot is directed). In that way high contrast is achieved across the frame and the light can be directed exactly where it’s required. With a very small spot it’s also possible to light only part of the subject, for instance the eyes; or the restricted light can be used from behind the subject to form a hairlight. It can even be used on the background itself while the subject is lit separately (see panel). In this month’s Lighting Academy we’ve created a spotlighting effect by modifying an accessory flashgun mounted on the camera. This

gives a hard, direct look which is quite striking, so it suits fashion subjects and contemporary styles. The methods used can of course be applied to spotlighting from any position; spotlighting from off-camera flash works in the same way. Cut down to size Whatever type of flash you’re using, the first step in creating a spotlight effect is to channel the light, cutting its spread right down and focusing it into a tightened beam. However, given that much of the time photographers are looking to diffuse and soften light to make it more flattering, you might not have the required modifiers to hand straightaway; for instance, many lighting kits come with umbrellas and softbox diffusers, but they lack the gear for more specialised effects. If you’re using studio-style flash heads they will likely come with spill-kill reflectors included, and while those will direct the light, they’re not focused enough on their own to make a spot as they still spread the light widely. Placing a grid (or honeycomb) in the reflector cuts down the light to an angle more suited for spotlighting. Grids can be fitted to speedlights, creating the same effect, which is what we did for the images in this month’s Lighting Academy, adding a MagGrid 40° honeycomb to our flash.

Flash at 24mm zoom setting, with grid

Flash at 105mm zoom setting, with grid

Flash at 24mm zoom setting, no grid

Flash at 105mm zoom setting, no grid

Above To show how a grid and the zooming function of the flash can affect the light, we shot a plain wall with a 50mm lens on a full-frame body at 3ft. Without the grid, the difference in zoom is clear, with the 105mm’s spread clearly vignetted. It also makes a difference with the grid fitted, with the 24mm setting more even and slightly textured.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Technique

Too much power In this first shot, the power of the flash is too high, leading to burn out on the subject. This happens easily when shooting in manual exposure mode, as the flash is highly focused and comparatively strong at low powers.

You can see from the example images how this cuts the spread of light, particularly around the edges of the frame, forming a much stronger vignette than the unmodified light. Distance of the flash Something else which can help focus the light on the subject and which changes the look of the spotlight effect is to alter the distance between the flash and the subject. Positioned close to the subject, there’s less chance for the light to diffuse and spread, so the spot is clearer. To make the spotlight effect more pronounced we framed up with a wall a few feet behind Amber. The proximity of this, or any backdrop, also affects the look; the further off the backdrop is, the more chance you have of lighting the subject alone; the closer the background, the clearer the circle of light will be, and it’s the latter effect that we wanted to achieve here. For that reason, with the flash on the camera, we framed up at about five feet from Amber,

Flash head at 20° up With a grid fitted to the speedlight, here the bounce and swivel head is angled up slightly, at around 20°. In this position the spotlight effect doesn’t sit around Amber as intended, so the angle of the flash needs to change.

Flash head at 0° Moved to its 0° setting, where it fires directly forward, you can see how the pool of light has moved down from the previous setting. In this more direct position, there’s a little burn out on Amber, so the power had to be lowered further.

using a 50mm f/1.4 lens on a Nikon Df body. Just as the field of view changes when using a camera with a smaller sensor, you’ll find that smaller sensors will show less of the spot when used in a similar configuration; its edges are cropped out by the smaller imaging area. So if you’re using an APS-C or Micro Four Thirds body and you want to see the spot around the subject, frame up from further off or widen the view.

the flash to manual, then framing wide and zooming the flash to its longest setting. It’s important to note that the change in the spread of light will only be noticeable when the flash is used bare. When a modifier like a grid is used, the light is already restricted; the only difference you’re likely to see is a change in the smoothness of the light, and then only if you shoot against a blank wall (see examples).

Zoom head settings The zoom setting of the speedlight can also make a difference to the spread of the light. Typically zoom settings might be from 24mm to 105mm (or 120mm), and if you’re shooting with the unit on the camera, or using wireless TTL, these can be set automatically as flash is focused to match the zoom setting of the lens (the idea being that the flash should then fill the frame at the current angle of view giving a good coverage, and none of the circular look we’re after here). You can make use of this by avoiding TTL mode, and setting

Exposure settings and flash power If you have a flashgun or studio heads that allow TTL (through the lens) metering, you can rely on that mode to set the flash power so it works with the exposure settings you’re using; basically, you’ll get a good exposure. If you’re shooting in manual exposure mode, as we were, the power of the flash must be carefully monitored, especially as when using a grid or snoot (or anything else that focuses the light) it will be more intense. For instance, in our examples we shot Amber in manual exposure mode, at 1/30sec at f/2,

Other spotlight effects

Spotlight as kicker light

Spotlight on eyes

Spotlight on backdrop

Of course, the benefits of spotlighting go beyond the stylised effect in the main part of this technique. It’s more common for spots to highlight small areas of the subject within a wider lighting set-up, and that might include the subject’s eyes; depending on the strength of the light this can give a classic Hollywood or film-noir look. Spots are commonly used as accent lights, too, such as illuminating the subject’s hair from behind or as a kicker to add form and give them separation. Backgrounds themselves can also benefit from a spotlight; correctly positioned the light creates a small pool of illumination behind the subject, also adding separation. In all cases, it’s important to control the power so the strength of the spotlight adds to, but doesn’t dominate the composition.

Feathering the spotlight Because of the way that speedlight heads can rotate as well as tilt, the spot can be moved horizontally, allowing you to feather the light and use just its edge. This effect sees contrast on the subject lowered.

ISO 200. Using these settings meant that, at our location and without the flash, the exposure was dark, so shutter speed wasn’t an issue (only the brief burst of flash being picked up). ISO was kept low to increase image quality, but with the wide aperture employed to create a shallow depth-of-field, light floods into the camera from the flash. This, combined with the focused light meant that the flash power needed to be set low and we eventually settled on 1/32nd. Angling the light Bearing in mind that most speedlight heads can be tilted and rotated, the position of the head can affect the spotlighting in a creative way. For instance, with a grid attached, we tried feathering the light by turning it away from Amber slightly, producing a completely different look, with the light shifted to the periphery. Angling the head up, or down (if possible), will also allow you to better direct the light, depending on the height you’re shooting from compared to the subject.

Whatever flash you’re using, the first step in creating a spotlight is to channel the light

Thanks to... This month’s models were the wonderful Amber Tutton and Harriadnie Beau. To see more of their work, visit ambertutton.co.uk and harriadniebeau.com.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Technique Winter landscapes

Cool your shoots There’s no time for chilling out this winter. Instead, make sure you put the Zen into frozen with this blizzard of frosty photo technique advice and inspiration from Charlie Waite and winners of the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition © Robert Fulton

Written by Kingsley Singleton If you were asked to think of winter landscapes in the UK, recent experience is less than likely to throw up mental images of pristine snowencrusted vistas; you’re more likely to imagine acres of flood, forests of collapsed umbrellas and a general sea of miserable mud. But at the right times and in the right places, there is still a wonderland of sparkling frost and unbroken fields of snow out there to be found. That ‘but’ really starts with getting your own butt out of your comfort zone, and putting in some serious miles – and possibly uncomfortable hours – to get to the places where the conditions are right. Yes, there are plenty of spots in the UK where snow and ice exists for the majority of the year, let alone the core

winter months when you’d expect it. Those are going to be high and isolated spots, of course, but then those just happen to be among the most obviously photogenic, too. Win-win. Location wise, generally the higher you get, and the further north, the more likely you are to find frozen conditions, so while at sea level the morning may escape without a frost, the same day can hold thick snows at just a few hundred metres in the same locale. That doesn’t mean that you need to climb, of course; if you’re surrounded by snowy peaks, they can cap a scene perfectly. For a fresh perspective on winter shooting, we caught up with Charlie Waite, renowned landscape photographer and founder of the Take a View: Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, fresh from announcing 2015’s winners – many of which include

superb icy and snowy views. How does he feel about winter shooting in the UK? “Well, the weather that we experience in Britain can, at times, be frustrating. It is certainly challenging and the sheer variety of conditions that can be experienced within very short time periods or within very small geographical areas never ceases to amaze – but the feeling of achievement that results when everything falls into place cannot be underestimated.” Winter shooting, according to Charlie, is also an opportunity to push yourself, both physically and creatively; “Certainly,” he continues, “the weather can encourage us to explore different styles of photography and to choose subjects outside our usual comfort zone that work better with the conditions.” And what if the conditions look just a little too cold outside while your bed’s still too warm and inviting? This is what spurs

The feeling of achievement that results when everything falls into place cannot be underestimated

Above Landscape Photographer of the Year winner 2011: Winter Field, Stirlingshire, by Robert Fulton.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Technique

Winter winners When you do find snow and ice, there’s no doubt that it can transform scenes that you’d perhaps not considered photogenic before; the blanket of white concealing textures or confusing details, and simplifying shapes, so the eye is more easily drawn to a focal point. “There have been two overall winners of Landscape Photographer of the Year, whose work depicts snowy landscapes,” says Charlie “Robert Fulton back in 2011 and our current winner, Andy Farrer.” It’s noticeable that both of the snow-covered winners are more graphic and use the lines of the snow strongly in their compositions. “Both winners chose big, classic landscapes as their subjects and the lines of the snow allow the viewer’s eye to appreciate the view more fully,” says Charlie. When exposing in snowy conditions, it’s important to remember that your camera will tend to underexpose the scene, due to how reflective the snow is. The dynamic range will also naturally be higher across the landscape, with the very bright patches of snow sitting alongside uncovered areas of the scene that are darker. When shooting then, it can be helpful to apply some positive exposure compensation, but shooting in Raw can help too; allowing you to subtly lower the intensity of the highlights and boost the shadow detail after the event. Conversely, a covering of frost can have the opposite effect to simplifying a scene as it will heighten the sense of detail. For example, Antony Spencer’s image of Corfe Castle, which won in 2010, was taken on a frosty morning and the ice crystals add texture to the foreground grasses. “Frost,” says Charlie, “always brings opportunities – there’s the crisp detail loved by macro photographers, and the patterns and the crispness of hoar frost have also been well represented since the competition begun.” To make the most of that foreground detail, make sure you focus on that part of the scene; and while using the very smallest apertures is tempting in order to create the greatest depthof-field in a landscape, shooting closer to f/8 or f/11 can make those details clearer and those

Charlie on: “The possibility always exists of making the best image that I have ever made in my life.” The Landscape Photographer of the Year competition has, of course, seen its fair share of wintry winners over the years, and while Charlie stresses that all seasons are represented in the competition, he admits that winter in has a special effect, even on familiar scenes, and snow is certainly not always required: “Winter unclothes and reveals the landscape. The thickness of summer foliage is gone, allowing the subtle shapes of troughs and rises in the land to express themselves more clearly.”

Shooting closer to f/8 or f/11 can make those details clearer and those middling apertures tend to give the sharpest results on many lenses

Landscape Photographer of the Year images: Right 2010 winner: Winter mist at Corfe Castle, Dorset, by Antony Spencer. Below 2015 winner: Bat’s Head, Dorset, by Andy Farrer. Far right top Adult Classic view, highly commended 2015: An Teallach from Bidein a’Ghlas Thuill, Highlands, by Guy Richardson. Far right Adult Your view Commended 2013: Icy abstract, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, by Robert Birkby. © Andy Farrer

middling apertures tend to give the sharpest results on many lenses. As well as Andy’s winning image, there were 23 further snow and ice images in the latest competition – a very high proportion – and they all feature within the Awards book – Landscape Photographer of the Year; Collection 9. “That includes the cover image, by Guy Richardson,” adds Charlie, “where the warm colour of the rising sun belies the cold temperatures that Guy must have experienced!” Putting in the hours Braving the cold and reaching places where snow and ice are more common, is a big part of winter shooting, but chances can be taken closer to home if your timing is right, too. One favourable aspect of winter shooting is the accessibility of the dawn and dusk hours, but ice or frost is also fleeting and the best conditions, like the crystalline patterns and hoar frost that Charlie mentions, won’t tend to survive long after the sun kisses them. Likewise snowfall, while beautiful in its freshly fallen state, can soon become a trampled mess. Acting fast when the conditions are right is therefore vital, and to prove it, there are a number of very hardy photographers whose success in Landscape Photographer of the Year has been underpinned, says Charlie, by “long nights in a tent, in horrendous gales and blizzards just below a mountain peak awaiting dawn. The

stunning results, of which Guy Richardson’s cover image is one, tell a story of photography as a challenge, sharing moments that many of us will never experience directly.” Cosy compositions Staying warm and safe in the snow is paramount, of course, because, as Charlie points out “it is hard to be creative if you’re frozen.” Therefore, never underestimate the conditions, even in places that seem benign. If anything, wrap up warmer than you’d normally do for a walk, as typically with landscapes you’ll be spending a good amount of time standing around rather than keeping your body temperature up with movement. Charlie uses “a very thick jacket of the highest quality I can afford and three hats all on top of each other! It is hard to travel light if you are to be fully prepared, which you must be, but good clothing and footwear is critical.” A waterproof outer layer, a down jacket and a thermal inner is the best combination and you should also plan what you’re wearing on your hands. Although there are lots of good gloves designed for photographers and marksmen out there, you can also rely on a pair of thin, woollen liner gloves for when you’re actually shooting, and a larger pair to go over those for when you’re not shooting. Alternatively, something like Sealskinz Fairfield Gloves (£25) who’s silicone palm and finger sections give a good grip on your camera, while also being

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Technique © Guy Richardson

Lights in the darkness Although traditionally thought of as a phenomenon of the Arctic Circle, the Northern Lights have been visible from the UK this year, and they make the perfect accompaniment to a winter landscape, as shown in Daryl Pederson and Calvin Hall’s new book, The Northern Lights: Celestial Performances of the Aurora Borealis (Sasquatch, £14.99). This 128-page book showcases a period of unusually high solar activity in the Northern Lights, across 160 images by Hall and Pederson, two dedicated ‘aurora borealis hunters’ who have endured truly frigid nights in remote locations to get the best shots. Find out more at thegmcgroup.com.

Be prepared The Manfrotto MBAG80PN, Hähnel HL-EL15 and Sealskinz Fairfield Gloves are all ideal kit for shooting winter landscapes.

wind and water resistant, and with just enough insulation to avoid losing dexterity. They also have a touchscreen finger section so you can use your phone or camera dials. Although their shortness helps with the light, winter days can also lead to dangers if you’ve sought out winter scenes in the wilderness. “The slightest delay,” points out Charlie, “often caused by an unexpected and fortunate nice bit of light, can end up with a descent of an icy path in the dark. Therefore it really is essential to plan carefully, have basic emergency equipment with you and to let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back.” Cameras in the cold The cold can also take its toll on your gear, and while no special filters or particular lenses are actually needed to shoot winter images, the way you operate that gear does need to change. “Many years ago,” says Charlie, “I remember an advertisement about the Olympus OM‑1, along the lines of its successful ascent and operation on Everest, where it was used by mountaineer, Chris Bonington. That camera operates mechanically, without a battery and so the shutter can still function at very low temperatures. What’s important here is that batteries don’t like the cold and don’t hold their charge as long in winter conditions.” What’s more, any long exposures you shoot will compound this; and of course with landscapes, these can be numerous. So, always make sure you have a spare or two, and keep them wrapped up close to your body heat. If you don’t have a spare, a winter expedition is a good excuse to invest in one, and getting a respected third-party model will save you a few quid, too; for example, a Hähnel HL-EL15 is £20 cheaper than Nikon’s own EN-EL15 at £39.99. When it comes to using your tripod, you’ll certainly feel the benefit of wrapping that up, too. If you have a carbon fibre model, you at least won’t have to suffer the nip of cold aluminium on your hands, but more of a problem can be the ice crystals that get into leg locks and the collar mechanism, causing it to freeze up and slow down operation. If you can, use a dedicated tripod bag like Manfrotto’s MBAG80PN (around £50) which is padded and can fit a set of legs up to 76cm long (including the head). Remember, you may also need to drive the feet into the snow to keep it steady and avoid sinking and a loss of sharpness during long exposures. The transition from cool to warm can also play havoc with your camera, such as fogging the lens and viewfinder, so don’t bring your gear straight into the warm of your house, or car – leave it to warm naturally, in a cool spot, or in the boot (alternatively keep your car windows open when going from location to location, if you can take it!).

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Technique © Ian Taylor

Wintry conditions can provide opportunities to create photographs that help viewers actually ‘feel’ your location

Landscape Photographer of the Year images: Far left Your view Commended 2015: Frozen Pool detail, Higger Tor, Peak District, Derbyshire, by Annabell Ison. Top left Adult Living the view Highly commended 2015: The ref’s an Angel, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, by Ian Taylor. Left Classic view Commended 2015: Cloud glacier, Beinn an Aodainn, Knoydart, by Andy Tibbetts. Below Your view Commended 2015: Winter Metamorphosis, Loch Tulla, by Fortunato Gatto. © Fortunato Gatto

In the thick of it There’s also the question of whether shooting in the snow itself is as successful for landscape photography as waiting for it to settle and form part of the landscape. Charlie’s take is that it can be difficult to represent the weather effectively in a twodimensional medium. “The weather is able to make all our senses tingle; the smell of ozone by the sea, the sound of the wind rustling leaves and so on. Wintry conditions can provide opportunities to create photographs that help viewers actually ‘feel’ your location at the point of creation; a tree bending against a storm or a snow blizzard. Fortunato Gatto’s image of Scotland evokes a feeling of exposure where you can almost hear the roar of the wind. My own photography tends to be calmer in style, though, so I wouldn’t usually photograph in these conditions myself but I very much enjoy looking at the results of those who do.” You’ll need to be careful with your positioning and shutter speed if you want to catch falling snow. The light flakes can be difficult to distinguish if the sky or the scene is also light, but if you have a darker backdrop they will show up, as in Gatto’s image, where a shutter speed of around 1/2sec lets you feel the movement of the blizzard without the flakes blurring out of view. If in doubt try different shutter speeds and check out the effect.

Snow you don’t? Of course, it’s still possible to shoot winterthemed scenics without snow and ice as a feature, and the more ‘UK-centric’ winter landscape conditions of rain, fog, mist and frost can be just as emotive. Indeed, it’s not just about opportunity. “Sometimes,” says Charlie “vast areas of snow are simply too overwhelming and the eye is unable to distinguish between the features of one area and another.” There are plenty of visual cues in the landscape that can be added to your compositions to give them an undeniable winter feel. Winter trees, in particular, are a dead seasonal giveaway, which Charlie references; denuded and lacking the weight of their leaves you can make full use of whatever symmetry their empty branches might offer you: “they tend to lift higher, allowing the eye and the camera to wonder at the design,” says Charlie. The winter staples of rain, mist and fog can be particularly effective in the urban landscape, especially those with a human element. Thick with water vapour, the conditions draw a thin veil over previously cluttered or uninspiring scenes, heightening the sense of separation and depth. There’s no doubt, says Charlie, “that the competition has seen some very evocative images taken in winter mists, and I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at them; they’re both romantic and moving.”

Stars of track and field You can find more great winter landscapes (and of course many other amazing scenic shots) in Landscape Photographer of the Year Collection 9 (AA Publishing, £25). With the format nearing a decade of publications, the new book spans 224 beautiful pages, covering an amazing variety of scenes and styles from up and down the land. All the winning and commended images from the competition’s categories are included, so there’s an inspiring mix of rural and urban landscapes scenes. What’s more, each shot is accompanied by the photographer’s personal account of taking the picture, and there’s a special technical section, detailing the equipment and techniques used by the photographers. Find out more at take-a-view.co.uk where you’ll soon also find information about 2016’s competition.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Back to school

Advertisement feature

Photography students at Nottingham Trent University are benefiting from a studio full of Profoto kit, and they’re putting it to good use © Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) boasts a photographic department that teaches BA, MA and PhD courses in photography to more than 350 students. Recently the University decided it was time to upgrade the main studio and give students the latest professional-quality lighting to use as part of their studies. MA photography course leader, Hugh Hamilton decided Profoto lighting equipment was the best option. “We needed to reflect the industry and looking at the spread of lighting equipment over the years you can see the market is segmenting and Profoto seemed to be the area that was suitable,” he says. “Our studio is constantly in use by our students so we needed equipment that would cope.” The University has three studios, 1, 2 and 3, which are used by its creative courses, which include photography, fashion and graphic design. The largest studio of the three, Studio 3 is used by the photography students and has been completely revamped with Profoto lighting equipment with four Pro-8a 2400 generators, 16 ProHead Plus 250W heads and Air Remote triggers, plus a selection of RFi softboxes. “We’re also looking at upgrading Studio 1 to Profoto lighting as well, and we’re looking at the battery-powered B2 system. The students like to go out on location as well as shooting in the studio and the B2s are light and portable so will do the job for studio and location.”

With so many students on the course and a studio that gets booked up fast the kit needed to be up for the job. “Other systems are fiddly and with this system it’s really easy to change modifiers, it’s very simple and it’s student friendly,” Hugh tells us. “We have a high fashion student presence on our course, so we wanted to make sure that the equipment was suitable for the subject and powerful enough for the size of the studio. We were particularly interested in the Air Remote system, which allows us to minimise the cables on the floor and that’s proven very successful. Our students like that they can move around and be mobile, and control the lights from the computer and Air Remote.” It seems the students are spoilt by choice with the vast amount of kit they have to use. “Some students prefer to use the big softboxes, but it’s all about personal preference. We’ve had everything built in so they’ve got the option. Mostly, it’s two RFi softboxes for side lighting or to light the background and a big HR Softbox Octa 7" for the main light. A Softlight Kit gives a beauty dish option and we have extra heads for effects lighting,” says Hugh. Turn over to see how two of the students are using the Profoto kit in their work. ntu.ac.uk/art

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Advertisement feature

Profoto offers lighting equipment for all levels of photographic need, from portable battery-operated studio quality lights such as the B1 and B2 systems to mains monoblocs and intensely powerful generators and separate head options. For its main studio, Nottingham Trent University opted for the Pro-8a 2400 Air generator, ProHead Plus 250W flash heads controlled by Profoto Air Remote triggers. Light modifiers include a selection of Softbox RFi softboxes in different sizes including the HR Softbox Octa 7", Grid Kits and the Softlight Kit. The Pro-8a 2400 Air generator is the flagship of Profoto’s range with a maximum output of 2400W/s with a 10EV power range adjustable in 0.1EV. It has very rapid flash recharging times, capable of producing 20 images per second with a flash duration range of 1/1600 to 1/12,000sec. Stable light output ensures that there’s no colour temperature shift at different power levels. For maximum flexibility the Remote Air system allows wireless triggering and remote control.

More about Profoto

profoto.com/uk

Jiawen Gao Jiawen Gao is a 23-year old MA photography student at NTU. She has been studying in the UK for five months and has four years’ photography experience. Jiawen aspires to be a photographer and journalist. What do you like about Profoto lighting? Profoto lighting equipment is really easy to control and easy to move, it helps to save me time when shooting. I like that I can control the light and produce soft or strong lighting depending on what I am shooting. Profoto is the best photography flash equipment that I’ve used. Do you have a favourite type of modifier to use? I like the Softbox RFi 3' Octa because it creates a beautiful

and natural light that gives soft results, which is great when photographing models. The OCF Grid Kit is also a favourite as it allows me to control and direct the light. What style of lighting do you prefer to use? I prefer to use Rembrandt style because it shows the profile of the model, but I like to try out different styles of lighting to create different effects and capture the character and emotions of the model appropriately. How easy is it to use the Profoto lighting? For me it’s very easy, I use the Air Remote trigger to judge the light and shoot one photograph. If I am not satisfied with the results then I just press the button once or twice to adjust output without having to move my position – to me that’s incredible!

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Advertisement feature Tong Zhang Tong Zhang is a 25-year-old MA photography student at NTU. She has been studying media and photography for almost six years, and has even modelled part-time in China, where she was first introduced to Profoto lighting by the photographers she worked with. What do you like about Profoto lighting? I feel it’s the indispensable lighting equipment for every advanced, professional studio. It’s great to use whether shooting outside or in the studio. In my opinion, Profoto equipment is especially crucial for fashion photography. It is the perfect tool for creating beautiful photos to a professional degree and helps to show the visual creativeness of photographers. What are your favourite features of the lights? I like the simplicity and durability of Profoto. The lights recharge fast and when continuous capture mode is used, the light is perfectly synchronised with the camera. In addition, it’s really easy to adjust the shape and hardness of light. I believe that once you have tried Profoto, other lighting equipment will not have the capacity to meet your expectations.

Do you have a favourite type of modifier to use? My university project is themed on self-portraits, so the Softlight Reflector beauty dish is perfect. It allows you to capture the details of the skin, while producing a level of softness, reducing the need to correct the photographs in post-processing. What style of lighting do you prefer to use? When taking photos in the studio, I like to use Rembrandt lighting or butterfly lighting. However, different moods can be created by using different lighting, so I sometimes try new set-ups based on the theme and figure being shot. Would you consider buying Profoto kit for yourself? Yes, I hope to set up my own studio in China in the future, and when I do Profoto will be the first equipment that I purchase. Lighting plays such an important role in shooting whether in the studio or outside and Profoto is my first choice. Taking photos with the help of Profoto is an enjoyable process for me. © Jiawen Gao/Tong Zhang

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Competition Pro focus

Well worth the Hassel There were 10,700 entries to this year’s Hasselblad Masters. Read this exclusive extract from Professional Photo magazine to find out what three of the winners have to say about their success

When it comes to photography competitions the Hasselblad Masters Award is considered one of the most prestigious in the world. Having originally started out as a selection process for naming a new Hasselblad photographer as the ‘Master’ each month, it has since turned into a worldwide competition. Open to pro photographers who have been active for more than three years, or photographers under the age of 21, the competition has ten categories, plus the Project//21 category, open to all amateurs or professionals aged 21 or under. “Each Hasselblad Masters competition runs on a two-year cycle, with entries open every other January,” says Perry Oosting, Hasselblad CEO. “Anyone can apply as long as the images they submit meet the criteria. The images don’t have to be captured on a Hasselblad, but they do have to be shot with a resolution of over 16 megapixels. “The current voting for the competition is in three main stages – the internal jury, the public votes and the Masters Jury (a selection of photographers, past winners and industry experts). The public vote acts as a seat on the main Masters jury, so only forms a part of the main result. Whoever gets the most votes from the Masters Jury in each category becomes a Hasselblad Master for that category.” Jake Reeder, who won the Project//21 category, spoke of his delight at winning: “It’s an honour. It’s really the highest accolade I can imagine. It’s been the only photography competition I’ve ever entered, and I’ve worked since 2013 to produce a series that I’d be proud to submit to Hasselblad. Being named a Hasselblad Master is surreal.”

Written by Jemma Dodd

It’s a view shared by John Paul Evans, this year’s wedding category winner, who was extremely pleased to be selected: “It means a great deal to have this recognition as Hasselblad are such an iconic name in photography.” he told Professional Photo magazine. Roy Rossovich, winner of the fashion/beauty category, has been entering the competition every year since 2008. “Ever since the start of my career it’s been one of my goals to win, it’s a mark of excellence and quality, and something to aspire to,” he says.

While it’s still early days since the winners were announced, Jake Reeder has already started to see some commercial benefits. “I’m booking more work that draws on my personal style more, which is great! ” he told us.

Above Natalia Evelyn Bencicova’s Portrait winner. Above left Iranian entrant, Ali Rajabi’s snowy New York scene won the Urban/Street category. Far left Lars Van De Goor captured a striking image of the Speulder Forest in his native Netherlands, winning Landscape/Nature. Left Giorgio Cravero from Italy won the Product category.

hasselblad.com Read the full version of this article and see more of the winning shots in the latest issue of Professional Photo. Use the voucher below to buy your copy at WHSmith and save £1 off the regular issue price.

You’ll find more insight in the latest Professional Photo – the UK’s best magazine for full-time and aspiring pro photographers

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Camera test Specs Price £1349 body only Sensor 24.3 megapixels, 6000x4000 pixels Sensor format 23.6x15.6mm APS-C X-Trans CMOS III ISO range ISO 200-12,800, extended ISO 100, 25,600, 51,200. Raw available at all speeds. 3 Auto ISO settings

Fujifilm X-Pro2 Fujifilm launched its X-series five years ago. With an innovative sensor and high-spec lenses to give image quality comparable to full-frame, the system has since flourished and the X-Pro2 is its latest flagship

Shutter range Mechanical shutter: 30secs to 1/8000sec with flash sync at 1/250sec. B up to 60mins, Electronic shutter 1sec to 1/32,000sec, bulb 1sec Drive modes 8fps continuous, up to 83 JPEGs, or 33 lossless compressed Raws. At 3fps, endless JPEGs and lossless compressed Raws Metering system TTL 256-zone. Multi-zone, centreweighted, average, spot Exposure modes PASM Exposure compensation +/-5EV in 0.3EV steps Monitor 3in, approx. 1.62 million dots Focusing Single, continuous, manual. Intelligent hybrid AF Focus points 273 points in 21x13 grid, single point selectable Zone AF 3x3, 5x5, 7x7 from 77 points in a 11x7 grid Wide-tracking – up to 18 zones Video Full HD, 1920x1080 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p Connectivity Wireless image transfer, geotagging, USB2.0, HDMI Storage media 2xSD slots Dimensions (wxhxd) 140.5x82.8x45.9mm Weight 495g with battery and SD card Contact fujifilm.eu/uk

Review by Will Cheung The Fujifilm X-Pro2 made its muchanticipated appearance last month to coincide with the system’s fifth anniversary. In five years the X-series has grown to feature camera bodies at all price levels and the lens system has grown to 21 options with the launch of the latest 100-400mm zoom. It’s fair to say that the system has established an enthusiastic and growing following. The X-Pro2 is the first X-camera to feature the 24.3-megapixel X-Trans CMOS III APS-C sensor so a significant resolution leap from the current 16-megapixel X-Trans II unit. The new sensor features Fujifilm’s random colour array which means there is no need for an optical lowpass filter (OLPF) because of the minimal risk of moiré and false colour artefacts. No OLPF means the resolving power of the high-spec X-series lenses is maximised for impressive image quality. This sensor is front-illuminated and features copper – aluminium was used in previous sensors – for thinner, narrower wiring and faster all-round performance including AF and continuous shooting. It also helps in high ISO performance and the top native ISO is 12,800 with the options of ISO 25,600 and 51,200. There’s a new imaging processor, the X-Processor Pro to deliver a fast start-up time of 0.4sec, super-fast AF and minimal shutter lag. The sensor is just one of several key features that are new in the X-Pro2. A new shutter gives a top mechanical

speed of 1/8000sec with flash sync at 1/250sec and there’s the option of top speed of 1/32,000sec with the electronic shutter. The AF system is new too. The size of the autofocus phase-detection area is 234% larger than the X-Pro1’s with 273 AF points, 77 of which come into play when Zone or Wide Tracking AF is engaged. With a predictive AF algorithm the X-Pro2 can track subjects and shoot at 8fps. The body design brings yet more new features. The body is weather resistant with 61 seals, there is a lift and drop ISO control, the exposure compensation has a C position where setting compensation is done by the front command dial and allows +/-5EV and one of my favourite new features, a back-mounted focus lever. This eight-way joystick means moving the single AF point or zone focusing area is really quick and much more intuitive not to mention comfortable compared with using the four-way control way on the XT-1/X-Pro1. One feature I haven’t yet mentioned is the hybrid viewfinder, but it is about time I did. On the X-Pro1, the option of an optical or electronic viewfinder was one of its key selling points and it is the same on the X-Pro2 but there have been improvements. The EVF has 2.36 million dots and a faster refresh speed so minimal delay and image blackout with moving subjects. A dioptre correction mechanism is available and while using the optical viewfinder there is the option of an electronic rangefinder. This magnified image sits bottom right of the image view and can be used to check critical focus but also

The ISO control is a lovely piece of design, redolent of film SLRs and comprises 38 components gives a real-time exposure and whitebalance guide even when using the optical viewfinder. Finally, an important feature for many will be the X-Pro2’s dual SD card slot. This, in common with other twinslot cameras, can be set to serve as a backup, to record files sequentially in order to maximise shooting capacity or to have one card writing JPEGs and the other Raws. For existing X-users getting to grips with the X-Pro2 should be straightforward enough, but that should apply to X-series newbies too. X-Pro1 owners will feel perfectly at home with the X-Pro2, with the positioning of key controls in identical or similar places. The positioning of the viewfinder eyepiece – top left in classic Leica fashion – can take getting used to for some weaned on DSLRs. For right-eyed users there is the benefit that the left-eye can retain direct contact with the subject though. The X-Pro2 does have a dioptre correction control which is very welcome but the downside is it’s too easily caught, so on several occasions I found myself staring at a totally blurred image and missed the odd shot because of this. A piece of gaffer tape cured the problem but that doesn’t disguise a design flaw.

The ISO control is a lovely piece of design, redolent of film SLRs and comprises 38 components. However, I didn’t find it very practical. In film days, the ISO dial was rarely adjusted. With digital, personally I like regularly adjusting ISO. My default might be ISO 400, but walk into strong light I’d set ISO 200, move indoors it’s up to ISO 1600 and back on the street it’s down to ISO 400 again. I appreciate auto ISO can be used and the X-Pro2 has three customisable settings, but I like looking at and thinking about the light levels and the lift and drop design of the dial is inconvenient for frequent use. In dim light, without my glasses on, I referred to the monitor as I adjusted the dial to check what ISO was set which seems to defeat the object. I know many will like the retro lift and drop design and that’s fine but an extra override position with the option of ISO selection via the menu or custom function would have been good so the user has the choice. One control on the X-Pro1 that attracted user criticism was the exposure compensation dial. There’s still no lock on the X-Pro2’s but there is a C position which allows up to +/-5EV set by pressing and rotating the front command dial. Move the

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Camera test control off the click-stopped C and there was the risk of poor exposures but it had to be moved some distance before it has an effect. Due to this, I preferred using the C position. The tiny scale on the monitor does make accurate setting a challenge and the option of bigger type would be good. A menu item available on the X-T1 is a selectable lock feature where you can deactivate controls including the drive and compensation dials. Sadly, it is not on the X-Pro2 but then it wasn’t on the X-T1 originally and arrived with a firmware update. It would be very welcome on the X-Pro2. Something else I’d welcome is a higher magnification preview during Raw shooting. As it is, on the X-Pro2 (and other X-cameras), you have to shoot Raw and JPEG if you want to really want to properly check shots. The X-Pro2’s menu has six tabs including a MY option where you can place your favourite features in descending order of priority. Menu items are grouped sensibly which makes the X-Pro2 very easy to navigate and saves too much scrolling as with previous X-cameras. As an example, I.Q. stands for Image Quality so here there is image quality and Raw recording options including lossless compression – typically 24MB against 50MB for uncompressed Raws. Under AF MF are all the focusing options. It’s the best menu yet seen on an X-series. The X-Pro2’s battery is the same as in the X-Pro1 and X-T1 – a benefit

Fujifilm X-Pro2 Gallery Our test camera was subjected to a wide range of conditions to test its mettle including bright sun, dark interiors, night-time, artificial light, moving subjects and heavy rain. The good news is that the camera emerged unscathed and delivered fine results with few failures. The shots here are all straight out of the camera JPEGs with no editing enhancements.

Top right Shinjuku street scene shot at twilight. Shot with the 16mm f/1.4 lens, 1/45sec at f/5.6 and ISO 1250. Top far right A very contrasty scene well handled by the X-Pro2’s multi-zone meter. Shot with the 18-55mm at 19mm, 1/300sec at f/16 and ISO 400. Right The X-Pro2 copes well with grab shooting. This was shot with the 16mm f/1.4 lens, 1/1400sec at f/4 and ISO 800. Far right An extreme contrast scene, dealt with capably by the X-Pro2. Shot with the 10-24mm f/4 lens at 10mm, 1/70sec at f/8 and ISO 250. The highlights and shadows there would benefit from some tweaking in post-processing.

for existing owners but it also means it’s using five-year-old technology. Capacity is decent and in the Power Management menu there are the options of High Performance, Standard and Economy. In standard mode, I was getting 250-320 frames per battery. On productive days, I was on the third battery by day’s end. Although I had a few gripes with some aspects of the body’s design there is no such thing as the perfect camera and there is plenty of great stuff too. The front-placed viewfinder selector is good to use and the push button can be set to give brightline frames showing the field of view for various fixed focal lengths so you can check the view before swapping lenses. It’s a classic Leica M feature. I used both optical and EVF finders equally. I liked the magnified live preview in the optical finder and the EVF was good because it gives a bright, contrasty image with minimal image lag when panning. If anything the EVF image appeared cool when shooting in the shade but that was my only complaint. One of my favourite controls is the eight-way focus zone select joystick. It’s ideally placed for the thumb and makes it very quick to move the relevant focus zone over the part of the scene you want sharp. This can be turned off or set so that a push is needed before it comes into play. On AF zone selection, I’d prefer it if there was an option to stop ‘wraparound’. Move the AF zone too

far to one side of the screen and it reappears on the opposite side. I think the dual SD card slot is excellent and offers the options of sequential use, backup or having JPEGs and Raws on separate cards. So far, I have only covered handling and design features so perhaps it is time to move onto the key area of camera performance. In all honesty, I was impressed. For exposures, I shot almost exclusively in aperture-priority AE, auto whitebalance and multi-zone metering. I did try manual, spot metering and program AE too while lighting conditions varied from night to sunny days and dim to bright interiors. Looking through my Lightroom catalogue of over 3000 images, I don’t see many outright exposure duffs. The vast majority of JPEGs were well within the boundaries of critical acceptance, while it’s true that some shots would benefit from highlight and shadow control during editing. In some indoor market scenes, I had very deep shadows and beams of full sun lighting up parts of the interior. Not surprisingly, the highlight areas were burnt out – even beyond the realms of Raw recovery – but this is not metering inaccuracy just extreme contrast. In this particular situation, the camera did a fine job of the dark interior which was the priority. Overall, I thought the level of competence shown by the exposure system to be very high – in fact I don’t see how it could have done any better

so well done to Fujifilm on this score. A similar high performance level was seen by the focusing department. I shot mostly AF in single AF, regularly varying the zone size – five sizes are available. I also used Zone and Wide/ Tracking AF modes using 77 and 273 zones and tested the camera’s AF tracking functionality too. Lenses used include the 10-24mm, 16mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, 18-55mm f/2.8-4 and the 55-200mm f/4-5.6. In bright light, AF was swift, accurate and silent thanks to the linear motor. The Intelligent Hybrid AF system has on-sensor phasedetection AF with Contrast AF and rarely did the system falter, even in dim lighting. In Wide/Tracking AF the system could pick up on the wrong part of the scene to focus on. Using single zone and the thumboperated AF joystick gave the ultimate control. The joystick is a real joy, perfectly placed for the thumb and very welcome. On the X-T1 there isn’t one and to move the AF zone around means dedicating the four-way control to that purpose. This means losing a couple of custom function buttons and its lower position is less handy for the thumb. The X-Pro2 did pretty well in continuous shooting too. With Zone AF and the zone positioned over the subject, the camera maintained sharp focus at 8fps when using the 18-55mm standard zoom. It’ll be interesting to see how it fares with the new 100400mm zoom.

Overall, I thought the level of competence shown by the exposure system to be very high – in fact I don’t see how it could have done any better

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Camera test Performance: ISO

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 12,800

ISO 25,600

ISO 51,200

Original Image

The X-Pro2 has a native ISO range of 200 to 12,800 with the option of expansion to ISO 25,600 and 51,200, all in JPEG and Raw. Noise reduction is available – see separate panel (bottom) for more on this. Overall, noise performance proved impressive. I’d happily

shoot at ISO 3200 and even 6400 knowing that noise levels would be low and look filmic rather than colourfully blotchy. If you really need to, ISO 12,800 isn’t horrible although there is obtrusive noise and an impact on fine detail, contrast and Dmax.

Original image

X-T1

X-Pro2

X-Pro1

Performance: ISO compared with other X-cameras We shoot the same scene with three X-cameras, the X-Pro1, the X-T1 and X-Pro2, representing the three generations of the X-Trans sensor. Noise reduction was set to zero and the shots shown here are from Raw originals. This scene was exposed at ISO 3200. You can see here that despite the X-Pro2’s higher resolution that could potentially lead to higher noise levels, it actually fares very well indeed with an impressive showing. All three cameras do well but the X-Pro2 does show better noise performance with less grain.

-2

-4

Performance: Noise reduction The X-Pro2 has a noise reduction mode (tested here) and a long exposure NR mode. The default setting is 0 with strength options from -4 to +4. For this test I shot at ISO 3200, 6400 and 12,800 (shown here) using each NR setting. The X-Pro’s NR skills are sound and do a fine job of removing noise without decimating fine detail or resulting in strange mushy-looking pictures. So even +3 and +4 are perfectly acceptable but perhaps +4 is too artificially smooth. If you want coarser grain stick with -2 or -3, but even -4 is acceptable if you want a high-speed film effect.

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Camera test Performance: AF tracking The Fujifilm X-Pro2 doesn’t purport to be an action camera but it still has the potential to shoot at 8fps with continuous focus tracking. In normal shooting the X-Pro2 has the option of 273 focus points (below left) with 169, the central 13x13 grid, being phase-detection – about 40% of the image area is now covered by phase -detection AF points. There’s the option of using 77 AF points (below right) and then the central 49 are phase-detection and in continuous high shooting the focus area is restricted to this central area. In Zone AF, there is a choice of three zone sizes so choose the one that best suits the subject and position it in the area of the frame where you plan to place the subject. This sequence of a train coming into a station was shot at 8fps and in AF-C mode shows what it can do even in the challenge of low lighting. The lens used was an 18-55mm f/2.8-4 at 55mm with an ISO of 6400 enabling a shutter speed of 1/250sec at f/4.

Performance: Film and Advanced modes Given its experience there is no questioning of Fujifilm’s credentials when it comes to film emulation modes and the latest arrival is ACROS black & white mode. I was a big fan of Acros 100 film and, obviously subject to processing and printing, enjoyed its slightly contrasty nature and the ability to give deep blacks and sparkling highlights. The X-Pro2’s ACROS mode does a good job of mimicking that effect and adds a bit of contrast to dull day or interior shooting. The example shown here (top), taken with the 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens, is straight out of camera. The X-Pro2 also has a selection of in-camera advanced picture modes including Toy Camera and Miniature (above) which was used for a shot of Tokyo’s Shinjuku station.

Verdict I like the Fujifilm X-Pro2. I like it a great deal. Fujifilm has also made significant in-roads compared with the X-Pro1 when it comes to handling. The focus joystick is excellent, so too is the hybrid viewfinder and there is plenty of customisable potential. Autofocusing and exposure systems performed very well, especially the latter which was very impressive. Its handling is not perfect by any means and in that I include the easily movable dioptre control and the film speed dial that is retro for retro’s sake but has no practical benefit that I can see. I’ve also grown used to using an adjustable monitor and here it’s fixed. But there’s more in the plus column, notably image quality, at medium and high ISO speeds, is impressive. I have been happily making A2 prints from the existing 16-megapixel X-Trans II sensors and having more resolution can only help. I did print from X-Pro2 JPEGs and Raws (converted in Lightroom) and was delighted with the detail-packed results. Its £1349 body price is competitive given the on-board features and the high level of image quality and I can see many X-Pro1 users upgrading. Moreover, the X-Pro2 also has the credentials to entice those wanting a CSC system that can truly deliver full-frame quality. The X-Pro2 is certainly a great way to celebrate five years of Fujifilm’s X-system. I wonder what it’ll launch for its tenth anniversary.

23/25 Features Capable sensor, lovely viewfinder 24/25 Performance Impressive image quality and capable high ISO showing 22/25 Handling Generally sound, excellent focus lever, some minor irritations 22/25 Value for money You get plenty of value for your cash Overall 91/100 The X-Pro2 is a highly capable camera and lovely to use Pros Image quality, exposure consistency, high ISO performance, AF joystick, two card slots Cons Dioptre control needs a lock, fixed monitor, no selective lock feature

Photography News Issue 29 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 Will Cheung, Lisa Clatworthy & Jemma Dodd

Vanguard VEO AM-264TR £79.95 A monopod is quicker to set up than a tripod and much more manoeuvrable making them ideal for action and nature photographers. The Vanguard VEO AM-264TR monopod features an innovative tri-stand, making it stand out from conventional models and giving it extra versatility. The tri-stand features three foldable feet, providing support to the monopod and meaning it can stand up on its own. If you decide you don’t need the feet when shooting in certain situations you can fold them inwards, allowing you to use the VEO as you would a normal monopod. Of course, using the three feet does not transform the VEO AM264TR into a full-blown tripod. However, in the right conditions it does allow free-standing for longer exposures that you couldn’t achieve with a standard monopod. Free-standing shooting is not advised with heavy gear or in strong winds, however. I mounted a Nikon D7000 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens attached on the monopod on a slightly breezy day and was very nervous about leaving it freestanding. I kept the camera strap in my hand for reassurance and it wobbled slightly in the wind and I soon felt the need to put my weight on one of the feet to stop it from falling. With much smaller lenses and lighter cameras this may not

be the case, but if you leave it freestanding do so with caution. Each foot is fitted with anti-slip rubber to provide extra stability. A handy built-in ball joint at the bottom of the monopod (between the tri-stand and column) allows you to pan and tilt the column while shooting. The movement feels fairly stiff and resulted in the foot on the opposite side lifting up if too much force was used. Putting weight onto one of the feet and panning with the Nikon D7000 and 70-200mm lens felt smoother, allowing shutter speeds of around 1/4sec to be used. With four-section aluminium alloy legs the VEO has a maximum height of 163cm, coming in second against the VEO AM-324, which is the tallest of Vanguard’s monopod range at 170cm. The top of the column has a soft rubber handle providing a good grip. Each leg features a strong flip lock; the locks are a good size and easy to use, and maximise the monopod’s loading capacity. Weighing in at 900g, this monopod is the heaviest in Vanguard’s range, but it is still lighter than similar models available from Manfrotto that go to higher maximum heights and are more expensive. The VEO AM-264TR has a folded height of 56.5cm so it’s fairly compact; it shouldn’t impede you carrying your bag if you attach it. It has a strap and hook attachment

Specs Leg sections Four Max height 163cm Min height 56.5cm Max load 6kg Material Aluminum Closed length 56.5cm Weight 900g Contact vanguardworld.co.uk

Verdict

for securely attaching it to your bag. Alternatively it can be used as a walking aid. For this test, the monopod was used on its own as well as coupled with Vanguard’s BBH-200 ball head (£149), which gave us the option of tilting the camera. Any ball head with a 3/8in thread can also be attached. JD

The only minor negative found was the slight stiffness in the ball joint at the bottom of the monopod, otherwise the Vanguard VEO AM-264TR is a step up from conventional monopods, offering the ability to shoot at slower shutter speeds than is possible with a normal monopod. At £79.95 it is also good value for money. Pros Very good value, a capable, versatile monopod, add a ball head for panning Cons Heavy compared with standard monopods

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First tests

Lowepro Photo Sport BP 300 AW II £147

Specs Materials Super lightweight N100 nylon with UTS coating Dimensions (wxhxd) external: 27x56x24cm Internal camera compartment: 21x22.3x9cm Weight 1.5kg Contact lowepro.com

Accessing kit is simple; I even managed it while wearing fat, winter gloves

Above The Photo Sport BP 300 AW II backpack has adjustable straps that comfortably fit most heights. The little strap for your water reservoir is pretty neat too. This rucksack is light and, in the case of my sample, bright. And I liked it before I’d even got it on. Once I had it on, with the straps adjusted to fit, I liked it even more. It’s not often that I put a backpack on and find it so easy to fit. With its adjustable shoulder straps, chest and waist belts, the Photo Sport BP 300 AW II is a cinch to fit. I’m an average 1.7m tall, but I feel certain that the Photo Sport BP 300 AW II (ok, let’s call it BP for short) would fit shorter and taller photographers easily, although 2m tall might be the upper limit, judging by the look on my colleague’s face when he tried it on. If you’re bothered about coordinating the colour of your rucksack with your outdoor gear, then you’ll be delighted to hear the BP comes in two colourways. The bright blue with yellow straps is what I had, but there’s the more conservative black with orange straps too. Despite its feather weight, the BP is robust too. The super lightweight nylon fabric will take everything in its stride, and it certainly hasn’t come out any the worse for wear after I’ve carted it on a multi-day hike, chucked

it in various luggage compartments (it meets most airlines’ hand luggage restrictions), sat on it and slung it on and off tens of times a day on wet and windy walks. Given that this backpack is so light, it is rather tempting to overfill it. It’s easily done: a 2l water reservoir fits snuggly into the designated back pocket, the padded camera compartment takes a top-end DSLR and up to three lenses, and that still leaves plenty of room for photo accessories, outdoor gear and a three-course packed lunch. I learnt this lesson quite quickly. For my multi-day hike, I learnt that a waterproof jacket and trousers, spare fleece, CSC with lens and a second lens, spare battery and charger, monopod-cum-walking pole, spare cards, a day’s worth of food (including a good supply of chocolate), book, map, 2l of water and a small flask was plenty. For once, I didn’t have to pack everything in dry bags either, as the nylon has a water-resistant coating and then there’s the AW cover. After a day of non-stop rain, I can safely say the BP is waterproof.

Accessing kit is simple; I even managed it while wearing fat, winter gloves. The buckles, releases and zip all work well, and the toggles and buckles are well sized. I did struggle to get my water pouch’s pipe through the routing, but with use and practice, that will get easier, I’m sure. The UltraCinch is a neat idea, if a rather weird name. It’s basically Lowepro’s approach to stopping your gear from rattling around. There are, of course, movable padded inserts too to help with this, but UltraCinch is an extra level of safety. Once your kit is zipped up in the padded photo compartment at the bottom of the sack, you do up the buckle tightly, activating the UltraCinch. The buckle’s connected to a cord threaded around the front of the compartment, and tightening it effectively secures your kit in place, so it won’t be moving around when you’re scrambling up a hill, careering down one on a mountain bike or throwing yourself around to test out this clever bit of kit. Unlike some multipurpose, photo and adventure rucksacks, the BP doesn’t offer a non-photo

configuration. You can’t remove the photo compartment, but that didn’t stop me trying it as a non-photo rucksack. I simply stuffed all my outdoor clothing in there. It worked pretty well, although I’m not sure it really needed all the padding. It’s not just your gear that benefits from padding either. You do too. As well as the adjustable straps and belts, the BP features ActivZone. Essentially this is Lowepro’s own brand of back padding. It was certainly comfortable for me, but I haven’t had any hot days to test it in. I’m unsure as to how it will fare when you’re getting sweaty. One of my other niggles is about the heat too. As the water reservoir is on your back – a sensible position from a weight point of view – will it get warm as you and the weather heat up? My final niggle is the BP’s inability to stand up. Whether empty, half full or packed to the rafters, it won’t stand up. So if you put it down in the mud, it‘ll faceplant and get muddy all over. Oh, and if you put anything heavier than a memory card in the side pouch, it’s lopsided. LC

Verdict A few minor niggles and concerns aside, the Photo Sport BP 300 AW II does the job and does it well. Lowepro says it’s aimed at those who love their activity sport as much as their photography, and the company has got that spot on. I’ve happily carted it (and my photo kit) on hikes long and short; I’d also happily don it for cycling. I’m sure trail running/snowboarding/skiing photographers would get on with it just as well. As I have said many times, the BP is light. It’s also tough, waterproof and well padded. It’s also quite expensive. However, in my book, a rucksack that is this light, comfortable and robust is worth it. The BP is certainly in my top three of active, outdoorsy, photo rucksacks. Pros Light, comfortable, spacious Cons Will it get sweaty?

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Monitor test

PermaJet Photo Art Silk 290gsm, Portrait Rag 285gsm & Museum Heritage 310gsm Specs Price A4 25 sheets £29.95/£1.18 a sheet, A3 25 sheets £57.95/£2.32 a sheet Availability A4, A3, A3+, A2; 17in, 24in and 44in rolls Weight 290gsm Thickness 0.48mm Base fibre 100% Alpha cellulose Whiteness 103 Coating Single-sided, acid-free smooth silk fine art paper

PermaJet is well known for its extensive and excellent range of photographic inkjet materials covering all tastes and needs. It’s recently revamped its FB range and now it is the turn of the Fine Art collection. Some surfaces went, others got a makeover and there are five new papers. We take a close look at three new papers, Photo Art Silk 290gsm and Portrait Rag 285gsm in PermaJet’s Smooth Fine Art range and Museum Heritage 310gsm in the Textured Fine Art collection. Test prints were made using an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 with Epson inks using generic profiles downloaded from PermaJet’s website. PermaJet does offer free custom profiles to customers – all you do is download a file from the website, make a print on the paper you want a profile for and send if off to them. A short while later you will get a custom profile. The Epson printer used has photo black and matt black inks – the three papers tried here are designed for use with matt black ink. My test prints were checked using a daylight-balanced light source. A range of images were used – several images are staples of my paper tests so are well known to me – with subject matter from studio still life and portraits to gritty black & white street pictures and HDR shots. Of course, assessing colour reproduction is very much a subjective exercise and there is no substitute for trying the papers out for yourself in your own workflow. permajet.com

Photo Art Silk 290gsm This is a smooth-finish paper with a clean white base. Look at the surface obliquely and you barely see any texture. Look again once the image is printed and the ink reveals there is a very delicate texture with a slight sheen. Scratch resistance in day-to-day handling rates highly and it is only when you drag a fingernail across the print that the surface marks. Obviously every care should always be taken to keep fingers off the printed surface but if it does happen by accident, this paper is very tolerant and only very greasy fingers would cause any problem.

My test images look great and Photo Art Silk is receptive to subtle and rich colours giving vibrant, nicely saturated results. Highlight details can look very clean and well defined but the brightest highlights can look very marginally flat. Blacks, though, have a good depth and if there is detail in the deep shadows these come out nicely. However, personally I found scenes that are predominately low key looked very slightly too heavy when printed on this paper. Images full of midtones and high key shots, though, looked superb and this is a versatile material.

Specs

Portrait Rag 285gsm

Price A4 25 sheets £28.95/£1.16 a sheet, A3 25 sheets £56.95/£2.28 a sheet

The unprinted surface texture of Portrait Rag 285gsm is not dissimilar to that of Photo Art Silk 290gsm. You can see and feel a very fine texture and the base is marginally warm off-white. One difference, though, is that on this paper, there is no sheen where the ink sits so the finish is dead matt. No problems with handling and the printed surface proved resilient to normal handling. Print quality is very good on a range of images but in my test colour rendition was more understated compared with its two sister papers tested here. It was as if the saturation

Availability A4, A3, A3+, A2; 17in, 24in and 44in rolls Weight 285gsm Thickness 0.51mm Base fibre 100% cotton Whiteness 92 Coating Single-sided, acid-free smooth silk fine art paper

Specs Price A4 25 sheets £26.95/£1.08 a sheet, A3 25 sheets £52.95/£2.12 a sheet Availability A4, A3, A3+, A2; 17in, 24in and 44in rolls Weight 310gsm Thickness 0.50mm Base fibre 25% cotton, 75% Alpha cellulose Whiteness 91 Coating Single-sided, acid-free textured fine art paper

dial had been turned down a notch or two, but please bear in mind I was using the generic profile and a custom one is likely to be better. Of course, there is nothing wrong with less strong colours as we all have different tastes and this material is colour realistic while still delivering a good amount of contrast. Black & white shots looked good too and the slight warm base adds a nice touch to the prints. Blacks are deep so not a problem here if gutsy monochromes is your goal, but it is the case that the paper is very good at dealing with the complete mono tonal range.

Verdict This is a quality paper that excels with midtone-rich photographs and highkey images. Pictures laden with deep blacks and heavy shadows look less impressive and prints can look too heavy. Pros Excellent with high-key and midtone-rich pictures, has a lovely tactile feel Cons Slightly less good with low-key, dark images

Verdict Portrait Rag is a quality paper that will suit photographers keen on a less strident colour performance. It is well named because portraiture is certainly one area where out-and-out colour saturation is not always the priority. Pros Prints have a warm bias that works very well for black & white Cons Colours may appear not saturated enough for some tastes

Museum Heritage 310gsm This paper belongs to PermaJet’s Textured Fine Art family so you’d expect it to have a more obvious surface finish and that is apparent soon as you take a sheet out of the box. The paper does have a lovely luxurious feel – to be fair, that is the case with all the papers here, but the extra weight makes it more evident with this material. The paper lies flat straight out of the box and I had no problems with headstrike. Physically the printed paper is good at dealing with handling too. Its heft is matched with a fine performance. Print quality is

sumptuous. Deep blacks, rich colour saturation and good handling of more delicate hues show that this material is highly capable and it does suit a wide range of subjects. Initially, I thought it would not suit gritty street pictures but actually the texture doesn’t get in the way and I thought it suited lowkey and high-key pictures equally. If anything the texture seems more pronounced with high-key shots. Black & white pictures had tremendous depth with solid blacks, while highlights were well rendered and stayed white. Midtones were handled well too.

Verdict My personal tastes usually veer towards smooth and FB gloss-type finishes, but I have to say I really liked Museum Heritage 310gm. Its textured finish is not too in your face and I thought this material would suit a wide range of subjects. Pros Lovely texture, good price, great ‘feel’ Cons Not much, maybe too textured for some scenes

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

First tests

Sigma 180mm f/2.8 APO Macro EX DG HSM £1099 Most macro lenses are in the 50100mm area (or equivalent to, depending on the format) and those focal lengths are very popular. Of course such lenses not only focus very close but also double up as fine allround lenses, and the extra potential justifies their extra cost. There are fewer longer focal length macro lenses to choose from, but Sigma is one maker of such optics with a 150mm f/2.8 as well as this 180mm f/2.8 in its range. So, why consider such a long macro lens? Well, the issue with shorter macro lenses is, if you are working at life-size magnification (or close to) you need to be so close to the subject that your presence will spook it. Another problem is that you might not be able to physically get close enough to the subject in the first place. Another possible issue is lighting. Get in close with a short macro lens and the lens or your shadow might get in the way, either disturbing the subject or spoiling the image. If you want to add extra lighting, again the close shooting range might be a problem for you. This is where a longer lens like this Sigma 180mm f/2.8 can come in mighty useful. And, of course, it’s a fast prime telephoto in its own right so suits action, portraits and landscape too. Shoot on an APS-C body with its 1.5x or 1.6x crop factor and you get even more pulling power.

Given its complex 19 element construction and fast maximum aperture you won’t be surprised to learn that it is a weighty, slightly front-heavy lens. However, it balances well on a camera like the Nikon D800, which we used for this test. Autofocusing is handled by Sigma’s Hypersonic Motor so it’s swift, responsive and accurate. It’s also silent. AF on macro lenses, with their long focusing range, can be prone to hunting. This lens has three limiting options: 0.47-0.67m, 0.67 to infinity or the full range. You will save frustration and possible missed shots if you use the limiter. Or shoot in manual focus. The broad, smooth-operating focus barrel has full-time manual override, and there is an AF/M switch on the lens body too. Such a long, heavy lens means camera shake is a risk so Sigma has equipped this lens with its Optical Stabilizer system with a benefit of up to 4EV. It is worth noting that the system is less effective as the focusing distance gets shorter – which makes sense as getting closer means the magnification is higher. There are two OS settings, 1 and 2. Mode 1 is for lens movement in any plane so general usage. OS setting 2 corrects in the vertical plane so select this mode when horizontally panning a moving subject and the camera won’t try to correct for your panning action.

Quarter life-size

Specs Format 35mm and APS-C Mount Canon, Nikon, Sigma and Sony Construction 19 elements in 14 groups Special lens elements 3 FLD Coatings Super Multi-layer Coating Filter size 86mm Aperture range f/2.8-22

Testing the OS system in practice, at normal shooting distances, say five metres and further, I was getting sharp pictures as slow as 1/15sec – success rate at this speed was about 60%. My handheld limit would probably be 1/30sec where I was getting four out of five shots pin-sharp. Moving in to one metre from the subject, I wouldn’t be overly confident successfully hand-holding at 1/30sec, or even 1/60sec. I reckon 1/125sec would be my lower limit. The OS still has a benefit when shooting close-ups but probably more like 1 or 2EV as opposed to up to 4EV at normal shooting distances, so it is still worth using – unless you’re using a tripod or monopod, of course. Given its macro skills, we tested the Sigma 180mm at 1:1 and 1:4 magnifications as well as at normal shooting distances. The 180mm showed itself to be very capable throughout its aperture range and perfectly useable at both aperture extremes whether shooting

macro or distant scenes. Macro lenses are often used at their small apertures for as much depth-of-field as possible and while diffraction always takes the edge off performance, I think f/16 and f/22 (as set on the lens) can be used with confidence here, even with extreme close-ups. If ultimate quality is your goal I would stop at f/16 and, if depth-offield is less of an issue, then f/8 and f/11 show the lens at its very best with excellent sharpness across the frame. Wider apertures perform capably too, although it’s true that for closeup shooting stopping to f/5.6 and beyond does deliver noticeably better sharpness, but for normal picturetaking, even f/2.8 can be used for highquality shots. Flare can be an issue with longer lenses and it’s no different here. The lens hood should be always be used to avoid any risk from stray light striking the lens front. The supplied hood comes in two parts to suit shooting 35mm or APS-C format. WC Above Using the lens on a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 and Elinchrom Quadra flash heads, we shot at 1:4 and 1:1 life-size. The aperture values are according to the lens click-stop; there’s light loss as the lens is focused more closely.

F/2.8

Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus Yes Manual focus Yes, full-time override Minimum focus 47cm Focus limiter 3 positions: full, infinity to 0.67m, 0.67-0.47m Maximum magnification 1:1 Distance scale Yes, metres and feet. Magnification ratios at different distances also shown Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser Sigma Optical Stabilizer Tripod collar Supplied. Removable Lens hood Supplied. 2 section for 35mm and APS-C Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 203.9x95mm Weight 1640g Contact sigma-imaging-uk.com

Verdict

F/4

F/11

F/5.6

F/16

F/8

F/22

The Sigma 180mm is a serious lens with a serious price to match and it is not a lens you’d buy or carry on the off-chance of snapping the odd picture. But if your need is for a fast-aperture, high-performing telephoto for lowlight shooting or for macro work at a relatively comfortable camera-tosubject distance, this lens is worth a serious look. Features A well-specified lens with f/2.8, OS, tripod mount, HSM focusing and 1:1 magnification

24/25

Performance Very good, for close-up and distance shooting

23/25

Handling This lens handles well for its size and is nicely balanced

23/25

21/25 Value for money It’s a top-end lens with a price tag to match, but it’s still competitive for the features and performance you get Overall A fine, capable lens that has uses beyond macro so well worth a look Pros Fast aperture, AF speed, OS, image quality Cons Heavy, expensive

91/100

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

First tests

Elinchrom ELB 400 & Quadra HS Upgrade £1548 The Elinchrom Quadra is a wellestablished portable flash system with a big following. The ELB 400 is the latest powerpack that gives faster recycling than the previous unit, the Hybrid, and an increased power range, from seven to 424Ws. Add improved capacity (350 fullpower flashes) and three new shooting modes and you have the basis for a capable portable flash system. The ELB 400 pack and liion battery pack costs £1049. Recently introduced to the Quadra system to enhance its outdoor shooting credentials further were the Quadra HS head and the EL-Skyport Transmitter Plus HS. The kit comprising the two new items in an Upgrade kit costs £499 so starting from scratch, a onehead portable outfit costs £1548. In normal shooting you get a lot of power from the ELB 400. With the basic reflector and full power, I was getting close to f/16.5 at 3m and f/22.5 at 2m at ISO 100. This was with the flash head plugged into the A socket. There is a 2:1 asymmetric power distribution. At full power and 2m I got f/16 from the B socket. Perhaps it is the lower power settings where the B output comes in useful. If you are shooting at a deliberately shallow depth-of-field and at minimum output you get an aperture reading of f/2.8 – this compares with f/5.6 at minimum output through the A output. These readings with the basic reflector are to give you an idea of

optimum output; you will lose output with modifiers. For comparison, using a Portalite softbox through the A socket saw full power readings drop to f/11.5 and f/16 at 3m and 2m respectively. Where the real interest lies is the pack’s ability to use the Quadra HS head and EL-Skyport Transmitter as well as the use of fast shutter speeds for successful mixing of flash and bright sun. There are three different highspeed flash technologies available – High Speed Sync (HSS) Hypersync and Hi-Sync (HS) – to those who want to mix flash and bright daylight. The Elinchrom website has a very good explanation of the three and it is well worth a read. Naturally, Hi-Sync, the technology adopted by Elinchrom here, comes out best, but the case is well made. Essentially, Hi-Sync has the ability to allow shooting at shutter speeds up to 1/8000sec with impressive power and without any visible light gradation or uneven coverage at these speeds. Leaving theory aside, I went for practical tests. Shooting a plain white wall indoors shows the potential of Hi-Sync and Elinchrom’s claims are well founded. As already stated, at full power in normal mode, basic modifier and ISO 100, my meter reading from 2m was f/22.5. With the Plus HS trigger mounted on a Nikon D800 (Canon fit units are also available) set to manual mode I shot at full

Above The ELB 400 power pack is straightforward in use. You get 2:1 asymmetric output with the A and B outputs.

shutter speeds from 1/500sec to 1/8000sec and varied the aperture. It is not possible to use a flash meter to measure the effective output in Hi-Sync mode so the camera’s histogram was used to gauge the output. At 1/500sec, f/18 gave a good exposure and this fell to f/14 at 1/1000sec and f/11 at 1/2000sec. By 1/8000sec the best exposure was shot at f/5.6, which might not seem much but remember, I was using ISO 100. With the latest cameras delivering critical image quality at high ISOs, if more depth-of-field is needed, setting ISO 800 gives an aperture of f/16 – and that’s at 1/8000sec with minimal gradation on my white wall. Looking closely I could see some marginal darkening from the top of the frame downwards, but that is unlikely to be visible in normal situations. That gives tremendous potential for action subjects, but, of course, it is true that I was shooting indoors at a subject to flash distance of 2m with a basic reflector. Real-life shooting is unlikely to be quite so friendly. For a start, most action subjects are very likely to be a great deal more distant. Applying the Inverse Square Law means the f/16 at 2m becomes f/8 at 4m and at 8m, f/4. Consequently, you do need to think more about using something like Elinchrom’s High Performance reflector, via an adapter, to maximise and concentrate light output, and then you’re in business. Further fine-tuning possibilities are offered by Over-Drive Sync (ODS). On the HS trigger it is possible to adjust the precise moment – in microseconds – of when the trigger fires. With every camera

Specs Prices ELB 400 pack, li-ion battery and charger £1049, Quadra HS head £335, Skyport HS £199, Quadra HS Upgrade kit £499 (includes HS head and Skyport Plus HS transmitter) Quadra ELB 400 pack Maximum output 424Ws, f/90 at 1m/ISO 100 Power range 7-424Ws, 6.9EV Recycling times 0.17-1.6secs (fast mode) Flash duration 1/1200-1/5700sec Capacity (from full charge) 350 full-power flashes, 55006000 at minimum power Charging time 90mins

Essentially, Hi‑Sync has the ability to allow shooting at shutter speeds up to 1/8000sec with impressive power being different, ODS helps you get the best performance. In my tests, using a Nikon D800, I was getting full-frame flash coverage with ODS turned off. In other news, the ELB pack’s capacity was impressive with our test figure close to the 350 full-powered bursts claimed by Elinchrom. I managed the capacity test without the flash head overheating, although it did get warm. The integral modelling LED lamp proved useful to assist focusing in the dark and is a reasonable light source in itself. At ISO 400 and 2m, I got an incident light reading of 1/60sec at f/4. It is gives a daylight quality light, though, which is useful. WC

Dimensions 15x8.5x12cm Weight 1.27kg Quadra HS head Flash duration Port A: 100% 1/550sec, Port B: 33%, 1/1100sec Modifier fitting Quadra mount, other Elinchrom modifiers can be used with a Quadra adapter Fan cooling No Modelling lamp 50W equivalent LED Dimensions 8x7.5cm Weight 280g Skyport Plus HS transmitter Channels 40 Groups 4 Range Up to 200m Sync modes Normal, hi-sync Power source 2 AA Connection Hotshoe, mini USB, 2.5mm Contact elinchrom.com

Left Portability is very much one of the ELB 400’s key strengths. Here it is shown with the li-ion battery pack in place.

Verdict The arrival of the HS head and Plus HS trigger to the Quadra system is very welcome and has massive potential for photographers trying to balance bright sun with flash. Not only that but it brings this huge flexibility in a simple plug-and-play form and with very useful levels of output – certainly when compared with top-end speedlights. Price is competitive too for newbies to Elinchrom as well as existing system owners, because the new items mesh in with existing kit, although with varying degrees of compatibility – I was getting 1/8000sec flash sync on my own old Quadra pack with new items. All in all, the Elinchrom ELB 400 and Quadra HS Upgrade is a very exciting advance in the world of portable flash photography. Pros Hi-Sync works with useful amounts of power, good to use, portability, Elinchrom supporting system Cons Plus HS trigger menu could be better, Quadra modifier mount not the best

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Preview First look

Olympus M.ZUIKO 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens One of the first to shoot with the M.ZUIKO 300mm f/4 PRO lens, wedding and landscape shooter Warren Fleming went wild with it in his native South Africa. How did it survive the test?

Price £2199.99 Format Micro Four Thirds Mount Micro Four Thirds Construction 17 elements in 10 groups Special lens elements 3 Super ED, 3 HR, 1 E-HR Coatings Z Coating Nano Filter size 77mm

Words & pictures by Warren Fleming One of the main aspects of the Olympus camera system that appeals to me is the build quality and the weather-sealing capabilities. I’m not shy to test my equipment, and if it’s made for it, I will push it to the extremes. I’ve had an E-M5 body completely submerged in saltwater – twice, covered in ice while shooting star trails and covered in massive amounts of dust to test every part of it. I have massive faith in the weathersealing capabilities of the OM-D and ZUIKO lens range. I did not get to test this lens with rain or moisture as I was in a desert, however there was a serious amount of dust. And by dust I mean the finest powdered red sand of the Kalahari. If there was any possibility of dust getting through any seal on the lens I have given it the best chance of doing so. I shot images in a dust storm where visibility was less than one metre and after a careful inspection post cleaning, the lens seems not have any noticeable sand inside. I have no doubt it is sealed just as adequately for moisture. Cold temperatures I also cannot comment on, however there were a few occasions where the lens and camera reached high temperatures. Some of those times left the camera giving heat warnings. Having the camera and lens on the seat next to you in the car, the kit can reach a temperature of over 50°C quite easily. The lens uses a dual stabilisation method, IBS and lens IS. I managed to test the IS down to 1/5sec handheld in order to get sharp images – which is just incredible. The ability to shoot

Specs

Aperture range f/4-22 Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus Yes Manual focus Yes Minimum focus 1.4m Focus limiter Yes Maximum magnification 0.24x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser 5-axis sync IS, up to 6EV

at lower ISO ratings and still get the exposures that you would at nearly twice the ISO is a certified bonus and is definitely a point that will market and sell the 300mm f/4 lens well. I do not feel that stabilisation is a key factor to getting great images – it is more of a bonus – but for those who suffer from shake, IS is a massive plus point. Picking up the camera, pointing it at the subject and focusing is accurate; nine times out of ten it was spot on for me – that’s pretty much always my experience with my OM-D camera and lens set-ups. Focusing speed was genuinely impressive. The lens was very fast in pulling focus from close-up to faraway subjects. The speeds at which the motors went from infinity to close-up and vice versa were very impressive. I found if the correct focus selection points are used, nine

out of ten images are sharp and accurate on the point at which the focus was set to. I use continuous autofocus (C-AF) mostly for birding photography and moving subjects. Photographing birds is a great test for this lens. I attained a rate of between seven and eight images out of ten that were in focus of birds in flight, provided they were not too large in the field of view. If the subject was more than 40% of the frame I found it problematic to keep sight of the subject, let alone pull focus. Perhaps the dot sight would have helped with this. However, when the subject was smaller in the field of view I found it very easy to keep the subject focused and the camera performed marvellously with the lens to keep the subject sharp through most of the images. Judging from the Raw files I examined in Adobe Camera Raw,

image sharpness is extremely good. Closer subjects are obviously more detailed and using the various focus limiters on the switch does make a huge difference. I struggled a little bit with subjects that were further away, but the immense heat rising from the ground in the desert gives a slightly softer focus anyway. This lens is very sharp and the optics are every bit as capable in terms of clarity as the renowned wildlife lenses from Canon and Nikon. Comparing images with a companion, who was shooting with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II and 300mm f/3.8, with sharpness turned off, the clarity when zoomed in 100% was mostly identical. Aberrations aren’t a concern. My images suffered very little and on closer inspection, there was virtually no purple/magenta aberration in the finer details of an animal’s coat.

Tripod collar Yes Lens hood Built-in Weather-sealed Yes Dimensions (lxd) 227-280x92.5mm Weight 1.17kg without tripod adapter Contact olympus.co.uk

Initial verdict Overall, I was genuinely impressed, particularly with the speed, accuracy and sharpness of this lens. Until now, Micro Four Thirds shooters have been lacking a prime with this reach, the kind of focal length that wildlife and action shooters want in their arsenal. With a couple of records to its name – Olympus is claiming the world’s most powerful six-stabilisation system and the world’s shortest focusing distance for telemacros – and its weathersealing, this 300mm f/4 could be what they’ve been waiting for. Currently its price tag sets it at the top of the Micro Four Thirds lens options, time will tell if that’s a sum shooters are willing to invest.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Lens test

Full tilt

Find out what tilt-shift lenses can bring to your photography and which one of three 24mm models from Canon, Nikon and Samyang comes out on top…

Tilt-shift jargon buster Tilt – angling the lens vertically Depth-of-field is formed either side of the plane of focus and the latter normally sits flat-on to the camera. But when tilt is applied, the plane of focus is pitched forward or backwards, with the depth-of-field still extending either side. So, if you imagine a regular plane of focus looking like a rectangle, a tilted plane looks more like a wedge, and that extends the depth-of-field possible.

Swing – angling the lens horizontally This is the same principal as tilt, but with the plane of focus angled sideways rather than forwards or backwards. Therefore it’s useful if you want to bring a line of trees or the side of a building into complete focus. Using the mount rotation control, the angle of tilt can be further modified, for instance at 30º to the level.

Rise and fall – pushing the lens up or down Using the shift function you can move the lens at right angles to the optical axis, and that means you can avoid tilting the camera back when composing, therefore eliminating converging verticals. This function also allows easier image stitching, as the camera doesn’t need to be moved between exposures.

Shift – pushing the lens to the left or right Above Tilt-shift lenses have become synonymous with miniature style views, and this comes from their ability to angle (tilt) the plane of focus. However, tilting also lets you achieve perfect front-to-back sharpness, which is arguably more useful. The shift function is used to correct converging vertical lines (left), avoid reflections and for panoramic stitching. Review by Kingsley Singleton An Internet search for ‘tilt-shift lens’ will turn up lots of images that look like scale models shot with macro lenses. Of course, these are real scenes made to look tiny thanks to the unique properties of tilt-shift lenses. These pics are often brilliant, but fun as they are, they’re not really what tilt-shift lenses were designed for. In fact, their original purpose was to make scenes look more lifelike, not less. The real benefits are the ability to reduce perspective distortions and/or achieve perfect front-to-back focus. Tilt-shift lenses offer a feature regular lenses do not; moving the lens independently of the film plane, or sensor; essentially the same as an old view camera. What this means in practice is that you can tilt the lens up, down, left or right, as well as shifting it in those same directions, while the camera stays in the same position. All these features are possible because tilt-shift lenses produce a much larger image circle than normal optics. For example, a regular 24mm lens will produce a circle of light just a little larger than the sensor of the camera it’s designed for; but a 24mm tilt-shift lens produces a much larger circle – about 50% greater in volume – so it can be moved around without immediately vignetting. There are drawbacks; mainly that tilt-shift lenses must be focused manually, and that exposure is often manual too (although two of the lenses tested allow autoexposure, tilting or shifting can throw the metering off). However, with live view focusing (as explained in this month’s Camera Class) and using the camera’s exposure bar, these factors don’t need to be problem. Exposing and focusing manually will, of course, slow you down, but that’s not a problem with the kind of subjects you’ll be shooting with a tilt-shift lens; landscapes, architecture, still-life or product

photography; they’re not going anywhere. Tilting and shifting can also cause changes in colour, so shooting in Raw is a good idea, where white-balance is easily editable. The main benefits of a tilt-shift lens are the ability to achieve perfect front-to-back sharpness, and to control errors like converging vertical lines. While you might usually shoot at f/16 or above to get greater depth-of-field, smaller apertures cause diffraction, so while the depth-offield is greater, quality is lower. In contrast, a tilt-shift lens lets you use the apertures that give the sharpest results, usually between f/5.6 and f/11, and still extend the depthof-field to infinity. This works by tilting the lens so that the plane of focus becomes angled; on a traditional lens the plane of focus is flat-on to the camera with the depth-offield extending in front and behind it; but when it’s tilted the plane can follow the landscape and therefore even large apertures can keep a scene in focus. This needs to be carefully directed, as, with the plane of focus ‘pushed over’ you’ll find the bottom of a subject might be in focus, while the top is blurred. That, in part, is where the miniature model look comes from. When it comes to converging verticals, you’ll find them in all sorts of shots, and they’re produced when you angle the camera up or down at the subject. To avoid them the camera has to remain level, which limits your framing options; but to fix the issue, a tilt shift lens’s ‘shift’ function allows you to move the lens upwards. Another benefit of tilt-shift lenses is in using the shift function to shoot images for a panoramic or stitched image. Once again thanks to the larger image circle produced you can simply push the lens left or right of centre (or up or down), and the images will align without the need for complex movements of the camera or a panoramic tripod head. Now read on to see how three 24mm perspective control lenses from Canon, Nikon and Samyang fared...

The ability to move the lens horizontally means you can shoot exposures for a panoramic stitch more easily as you don’t need to move the camera. Shift can also be used to alter the composition without moving the camera, for instance to avoid an obstruction, or when you want to remove the reflection of the camera when shooting glass or mirrored subjects.

Below The same scene shot at f/11 with a regular 24mm lens, and with a tilted 24mm lens, showing the greater sharpness.

Tilted lens

Regular lens

Tilted lens

Regular lens

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Lens test

Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II £1479

Specs Format Full frame/35mm Mount EF/EF-S Construction 16 elements in 11 groups Special lens elements 1x aspherical, 4x ultra lowdispersion Coatings Sub-wavelength structure and super-spectra Filter size 82mm Aperture range F/3.5-22 Diaphragm 8 blades Internal focus Yes Manual focus Yes (only) Minimum focus 21cm Focus limiter No

As you’d expect from an L series lens (and one that’s nearly £1500), the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II has a wonderfully solid feel and gives a resounding impression of highly machined excellence. Its exterior is metal, and therefore you should expect a good level of durability, and its weight isn’t off-putting at all; it’s high for a wide-angle prime lens (for example, the EF 24mm f/2.8 IS is only 280g), but there’s a lot of glass and mechanism in there to bump up the weight. It also balances well with larger Canon bodies like the EOS 5DS we tested it on, though in truth you’ll rarely be using a tilt-shift lens off a tripod. On some smaller Canon bodies, you might find the control knobs sit very close or come into contact with the pop-up flash, but there are controls to rotate the lens and compensate. The lens comes with a hood and a soft case (which it should at this price!) and the filter size is 82mm. Despite being an L series lens, no water resistance is offered, but that’s true of all TS lenses due to their moving design. There’s no aperture ring, as found on the Nikon and Samyang lenses, as the diaphragm is be controlled from the body just like a regular lens (hence the ‘E’ in the name). Therefore you can use autoexposure, but this is only worth it in the lens’s ‘0’ position; as soon Full-frame image

F/3.5

as you shift, the metering becomes inaccurate, so has to be done manually. The quality continues when it comes to handling. The plastic tilt and shift control knobs are large enough to give an assured grip and the fact that they’re different sizes (the tilt control is larger than the shift thanks to a cap) is helpful when you’re making adjustments through the viewfinder. That cap needs to be removed on smaller bodies though, to stop it coming into contact with the camera during mounting and removing. Both knobs have locking screws on the opposite side of the lens barrel, and again there’s a different feel to these. There’s also a tilt lock switch that holds tilt in the ‘0’ position. The action of the tilt and shift mechanisms is smooth in both cases, and each has a central click you can feel as you turn, which help navigate the range of movement. As mentioned above, the lens’s mount and the tilt section can be rotated independently, turning the axis of the tilt and shift controls to make them parallel, at right angles or in between. This is done with two levers, which are small, and weren’t the easiest to find initially, but soon feel to hand with some practice. The mount can rotate through 180º at F/4

30º stops and the tilt section through 90º with a 45º stop. This gives an amazing array of shooting options and, in short, everything moves like a finely crafted machine. The focus ring takes up a good portion of the lens, sitting at the front, just behind the filter ring, so it’s easy to find and falls naturally under your hand. The ring’s grooved, rubberised finish gives an excellent grip and it operates with just the right level of resistance, turning through the range in just over 100º, so you can go from near to far in short order. As a replacement for the Canon’s original 24mm f/3.5L tilt-shift lens, the II version expands the range of movement to +/-8.5° of tilt and +/-12mm shift. At the extremes of the shift, there’s some vignetting to be expected, but the Canon lens controlled this well, and also produced the least barrel distortion of any of the lenses tested. In its centred position there was vignetting up to f/4, and no fringing was visible in our test, even at the extremes of shift and when tilting. Sharpness was excellent and the lens is very useable wide open, reaching its peak at f/5.6 in the centre, and edge to edge sharpness at f/8-11. The eight-bladed diaphragm gives nice smooth out-of-focus areas and bokeh is pleasingly circular when stopped down.

Maximum magnification 0.34x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes (EW-88B) Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 106.9x88.5mm Weight 780g Contact canon.co.uk

Verdict Canon’s TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II is a real joy to use and produces super-sharp, distortion-free pictures. Like all tilt-shift lenses the operation takes some getting used to, but the handling is refined and its autoexposure function makes metering a lot easier, even if some adaptation is required when shifting the lens. The build quality is strikingly good and while that makes it heavy, the weight is more reassuring than hefty.

Quality These images were shot against a flat subject at the lens’s default position. Converted from the Raw, that are unmodified and unsharpened. Optical quality from the Canon 24mm TS-E was excellent throughout.

F/11

F/5.6

F/16

F/8

F/22

Features Trumps the competition in all areas

24/25

Performance Image quality is genuinely first rate

24/25

Handling Assured and refined throughout

24/25

Value for money You can see where every penny has gone

23/25

Overall A genuinely first class optical product; this is a lens that deserves to be on the wish list of all Canon shooters. Pros Handling, features, build, image quality Cons Price and weight

95/100

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Lens test

Samyang T-S 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC £625

Specs Format Full-frame/35mm Mount Canon EF and EF-M, Nikon F, Pentax K, Sony A and E, Fujifilm X, Four Thirds, Micro Four Thirds and Samsung NX Construction 16 elements in 11 groups Special lens elements 2x aspherical, 2x ED Coatings Ultra multi coating (UMC) Filter size 82mm Aperture range F/3.5-22 Diaphragm 6 blades Internal focus No Manual focus Yes Minimum focus 20cm

The Samyang 24mm T-S f/3.5 ED AS UMC offers the same focal length and aperture range as Canon’s 24mm TS lens, but one stop less at the narrow end than the Nikon. Worth mentioning, but this is unlikely to be a problem, given that those very small apertures negate some of the positives of tilt-shift shooting. The lens is available in Canon (tested) and Nikon fits, and is the only TS option for some bodies (see the specs), at present. Price point is obviously a big factor here and the lens is around £850 cheaper than its Canon and Nikon competitors. You’d expect this to tell in the build quality, but while it doesn’t have the tank-like feel of the Nikon or Canon, it certainly doesn’t feel skimpy or lightweight. The body is mostly high-grade plastic, which cuts down the weight, but it still feels tough and durable, and the lens mount is metal. Like other TS lenses there are no claims made for weather sealing, due to the moving parts involved, and here a small, builtin lens hood guards the bulbous front element from direct sun. The aperture ring must be used as there’s no control of aperture from the body, but nor will the aperture setting be read or recorded by the camera; to help out here, the aperture markers are written on both sides of the ring. Full-frame image

F/3.5

When it comes to handling, Samyang’s 24mm f/3.5 also puts in a good performance, too. The plastic tilt and shift control knobs are prominent and easy to turn with a lot of grip from their grooved heads. However, they are on the thin side, and identical in size and feel, so you can find yourself using the wrong one when working through the viewfinder. The locking pins at each one’s opposite side are different in design though, so no confusion there. One other minor issue is how close they are; so when tilt and shift are aligned, space is tight and turning is more awkward than it needs to be. In terms of the tilt and shift action, it doesn’t quite glide like the more expensive lenses, either, but the movement is precise and doesn’t snag. On the plus side, each function has click-stops to let you know where you’re at when working, which is good, and the levers which control the mount rotation and separate rotation of the tilt section are prominent and easy to find. Both turn through 90º, clicking at 30º points, so there’s masses of flexibility. The focusing ring is large and well placed, and while the lens does extend by around 1cm, crucially the filter ring remains static. The focusing ring has a grooved finish, and turns with great smoothness and F/4

a level of resistance that keeps adjustments precise, taking only a quarter turn to focus from near to far. The ring’s finish is a little more slippery than I’d have liked though. Like the Canon lens, the level of tilt is +/-8.5º and the shift covers +/-12mm. As expected there is clear vignetting at the extremes of the shift range, but it’s not a hard edge like the Nikon produces. The Samyang did produce a little more fringing than the other lenses, and this appeared to grow at the full shift where the edge of the image circle is encountered, but it’s not disruptive, and like most things can be fixed in Raw processing. When set to its default position, there was some vignetting at the widest apertures, but this was eliminated by f/5.6. Sharpness was good, and between f/8 and f/11 was very close to the more expensive lenses’ performance, and although wide open there was ghosting, this had gone by f/5.6. Sharpness was well held into the edges of the shift. There was a little flare encountered, and some minor barrelling, too. The six-bladed aperture gives a retro look to hexagonal bokeh when stopped down, and makes out of focus areas a little more choppy looking, but it’s not an unpleasant look by any means.

Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 0.35x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Built in Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 110x86mm Weight 667g Contact intro2020.co.uk

Verdict The Samyang 24mm T-S f/3.5 is a real eye-opener; a lens that democratises tilt-shift photography by making it truly affordable and seriously expanding the number of digital SLRs and CSCs on which you can do it. It can’t quite compete with its more expensive rivals in terms of image quality and build, but still puts in a very respectable performance across the board, and trumps the Nikon in its tilt rotation feature and level of shift.

Quality These images were shot against a flat subject at the lens’s default position. Converted from the Raw, that are unmodified and unsharpened. Optical quality from the Samyang 24mm T-S was good, if not spectacular.

F/11

F/5.6

F/16

F/8

F/22

Features It’s got it all, bar autoexposure

24/25

Performance Some image quality grumbles wide open

21/25

Handling Not always refined but nothing majorly wrong

22/25

Value for money Almost a third of the price of the others!

24/25

91/100 Overall An excellent performance from this affordable lens, and well worth noting it’s the only tilt-shift option for many camera brands. Pros Price, range of mounts, handling and features Cons Image quality lags a little

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Lens test

Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E £1465

Specs Format Full-frame/35mm Mount Nikon F Construction 13 elements in 10 groups Special lens elements 3x ED and 3x aspherical Coatings Nano crystal and Super Integrated Filter size 77mm Aperture range F/3.5-32 Diaphragm 9 blades Internal focus Yes Manual focus Yes Minimum focus 21cm

The 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E is Nikon’s widest tiltshift lens and from the first time you pick it up, its build quality is obvious. For almost £1500, you’d certainly expect to get a beautifully put together lens, and this one feels like it will last a lifetime. The body and the tilt-shift mechanism are primarily metal making the lens quite heavy, but it felt well balanced on my test camera, a D810, and with a tiltshift lens most of the work is done on a tripod. One issue in the build is how close the tilt and shift knobs come to the camera body you’re using. For example, coupled with the D810, the shift control strikes the pop-up flash when it’s rotated into a vertical position (horizontal shift), but on a D3 or D4 it’s fine. To address this you just have to invert the lens through 180º, and no functionality is lost. The lens has a one-stop advantage in aperture over its Samyang rival, reaching f/32 at the top end and the aperture ring can be used manually, or moved to an ‘L’ setting where the aperture is controlled from the body. In either case, autoexposure can be used, although manually metering can be more accurate when the lens is shifted a long way. AE works on all Nikon DSLRs from the D90 onwards – for older cameras there’s an aperture stop-down button. The lens comes with a soft case and a hood. Handling is excellent, and the tilt and shift knobs are prominent, a good size and have plenty of grip. Full-frame image

F/3.5

The tilt control is the larger of the two, so it’s obvious which you’re using when working ‘blind’. The locking controls, which sit on the opposite side of the lens to each knob, work perfectly, making it easy to hold a function in place, and set the required tension in the turn; the only problem is that the shift lock is too small and sits too close to the tilt mechanism, making it feel fiddly and more difficult to access than it should be. The shift and tilt movements are beautifully smooth and accurate with click-stops for navigation. The only real issue with handling is that, unlike the others in this test, there’s only one rotation control. This means that, while the lens mount can be spun through 180º (with 30º steps) so you can alter the axis of the tilt and shift controls to where they’re needed, the two are fixed at right angles; therefore, if you’re tilting up and down you can only shift left or right. And if you’re swinging (horizontal tilt), you can only raise or lower the lens with the shift control. To get the two parallel the lens has to be taken to a Nikon service centre. It’s an annoyance, as it means you need to choose between which functions will be more useful to you. When it comes to manual focusing things return to an excellent level. The focusing ring is superbly weighted, with a light but precise feel. The lens uses a rear-focusing system, so doesn’t extend when F/4

focusing and while the ring takes a little longer to go from near to far than the Samyang, it has a grippier feel to its grooved surface. The 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E offers fractionally less shift than the Samyang and Canon TS lenses tested here; +/-11.5mm rather than 12mm, and while 0.5mm doesn’t sound like much, the difference is noticeable in direct comparison, and could mean reframing or missing something vital. In shifting, some level of vignetting is inevitable, and at its 11.5mm setting this lens shows quite a thick vignette as the edge of the image circle is encountered; this becomes harder edged as the aperture is stopped down. There was also a little barrel distortion at the edges of the shift. Regular vignetting (when the lens is centralised) is minimal at the f/3.5 setting and eliminated by f/5.6. Flare and fringing are both well controlled throughout and there was no apparent loss of quality at any point in the tilt range. Sharpness is excellent, even wide open and reaching its peak in the centre at around f/8 and edge to edge between f/11 and f/16. It was also well held when the lens was shifted. By the time the lens is stopped down beyond f/16, diffraction spoils the results and by f/32 is quite muddy, so the extra stop isn’t really much of an advantage. Defocused areas are beautifully smooth thanks to the nine blades and bokeh is pleasingly flat and circular.

Focus limiter No Maximum magnification 0.37x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale Yes Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Yes (HB-41) Weather-sealed No Dimensions (lxd) 108x82.5mm Weight 730g Contact nikon.co.uk

Verdict The Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E is a first-class piece of engineering and certainly won’t disappoint in the build and image quality stakes, minor distortion aside. It handles really well, too, with the only drawback being the locked arrangement of its tilt and shift controls; this doesn’t affect the performance, but it is an annoyance and means you need to have the lens serviced if it’s not in the configuration you need.

Quality These images were shot against a flat subject at the lens’s default position. Converted from the Raw, that are unmodified and unsharpened. Optical quality from the Nikon 24mm PC-E was very good.

F/11

F/5.6

F/16

F/8

F/22

Features Not much missing, bar tilt rotation

23/25

Performance Superb image quality

24/25

Handling Refined operation, but some frustrations

23/25

Value for money You won’t feel short-changed

22/25

92/100 Overall A premium lens that puts in a brilliant performance and delivers creative effects like no regular lens can. Pros Image quality, build and handling Cons Some restrictions to the controls, price

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

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Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

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Lights Over Lapland

Infocus Insurance

Based in Sweden and operating in the beautiful Abisko National Park, Lights Over Lapland specialises in trips and workshops shooting the amazing but elusive Northern Lights. Well, elusive isn’t quite the right word here, as the park’s micro-climate provides the highest chance of seeing auroral activity, and therefore the best opportunity for shooting. Lights Over Lapland is the brainchild of Chad Blakley, once a wedding photographer who escaped the ‘bridezillas’ of New Orleans to set the company up with his wife and co-founder Linnea. The first of its kind in the Abisko area, it offers a range of trips to suit all skill sets. For instance, beginners and those who just want to experience the lights can enjoy a single evening’s shooting with cameras and other kit provided. All trips are conducted by world-class photographers from the UK, and groups are kept to a maximum of ten, so there’s plenty of opportunity to learn and receive oneto-one guidance on tricky subjects such as focusing and exposing in low light. For more serious enthusiasts, there are weeklong expeditions (full board accommodation). Chad says that “even those with no low-light and astro photography experience will have a complete understanding by the end of the week – and a portfolio of amazing shots to prove it.” Again, camera gear and winter clothing can be provided, and you can also create your own customisable aurora holiday. Chad says the company has never had a week’s tour that lacked auroral activity and feedback for the trips is amazingly positive – they’re ranked highest in the Abisko National Park on Tripadvisor. You can also check out Lights’ Facebook page to see how many people have been blown away by their trip.

Of course, now you’ve picked a photo holiday, you don’t want the fickle finger of fate ruining it. So it’s a good idea to get some insurance for your gear. But insurance comes in many forms, so, just like picking a holiday, or a new piece of kit, it’s important to find the package that best suits your needs. Insurance products can be a bit like raincoats; a cheap version will be okay in light showers, but you can buy better packages with superior protection. Typically, off-the-shelf travel insurance products classify camera equipment as ‘valuables’ and provide very limited cover (for instance £250 per item, which doesn’t go far). Cover can be further limited by leaving gear unattended in your hotel or car. Worse still you may only be able to claim for second-hand values. All that, plus the excess, means travel insurance products are not the place to obtain meaningful protection for your gear. You might also consider business travel insurance, but when it comes to cameras and lenses, it’s still not the best way to insure high-value kit, and while home ‘all risks’ insurance can cover more than travel, compare it to the cost and protection of specialist policies and you may be surprised. Specialist camera insurance is certainly the way to go then, offering much wider cover than travel or home products. For example, Infocus Insurance offers cover for business and leisure purposes, and there’s no requirement to specify individual items under £5,000 in value. Nor are there worldwide territorial limits, and far fewer restrictions like the extension of cover to equipment left in unattended vehicles. Make sure you give them a call for more details on how to stay protected.

GET YOUR KIT COVERED TODAY!

infocusinsurance.co.uk info@infocusinsurance.co.uk 0161 925 5051

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Accessories test From

£53

Buyers’ guide

Perfect presentation Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a pro, presentation is just as important – this is how the world will see your shots! Check out this month’s pick of trusted printing and display ideas…

NPHOTO Three-Piece Photo Album Set

From

£276 COLORWORLD Artisan Matted Albums

From

DAVINCI Fibre Gloss Silk 310gsm

From £ .60

£110

PLASTIC SANDWICH Print Book Portfolio

Colorworld Artisan Matted Albums from £276

Colorworld’s hand-crafted Artisan Matted Albums are made in England and combine a top quality finish with a huge degree of customisation, so you (or your customer) will get a photo collection that you’re happy with on every level. The albums come in sizes from 12x9in to 16x12in in landscape or portrait orientation, and there’s also a square 12x12in option. The pages themselves use a textured matt over the photographic print, which can be chosen in either black linen with white core or a white stucco effect. Prints can be added in a lustre, gloss or metallic paper, and the layout can be designed with flush mount pages, which gives a mix of contemporary and traditional in the same album. The ordering process easy via Colorworld’s free Designer Pro software; for instance there are 16 leather cover styles as well as options like photo montage, a canvas finish or the (most popular) acrylic cover, embossing and presentation boxes. Prices start at £276 (including VAT) for a 12x9in album with 20 sides and a full leather cover, while delivery ranges from five to seven working days. colorworldimaging.co.uk

nPhoto 3 Piece Photo Album Set from £53

nPhoto offers a huge range of professionalquality lay-flat albums, digitally printed coffee table books, calendars, prints and gadgets, so there’s massive scope to pick a presentation product that suits you. The company recently introduced its Three-Piece Photo Album Set, a package of three matching products that can be ordered in a single stroke, saving ordering time on these popular products and money. This set includes a beautiful handmade lay-flat photo album, album box and USB case with 8GB memory stick. The album and box are available in 20x20, 30x30 and 30x45cm sizes, and pages are printed onto Kodak Endura Professional or Fujicolor Digital Archive Pearl papers. These are then bonded with stiff, 800gsm or 1200gsm card; giving either eight to 35 or eight to 16 lay-flat pages respectively. Page options also include rounded corners, which are both decorative and more resistant to damage; metallic paper; and black inserts, rather than the standard white spread spacers. Cover options include laser etching and a padded finish which gives a special soft touch effect. Prices start from £53 plus delivery. nphoto.co.uk

DaVinci Fibre Gloss Silk 310gsm from £45.60

Home inkjet printing can be just as much a part of the creative process as shooting and editing a picture. In fact, the paper is a bit like the soundtrack to a film, working with the visuals to complete the effect. Therefore your choice of paper is really important as it will either work with the style of shot, or, in some cases, detract from it. So, making sure you pick the right type of high-quality paper is vital. Here’s a great example, DaVinci Fibre Gloss Silk 310gsm, which is a heavyweight baryta paper that you’ll want to lavish on your best images. Its lustrous pearlescent surface, gives pictures a timeless fine-art look, and is designed to replicate style and the feel of traditional bromide prints, so it will add a classic look to any pic printed on it. The paper has a natural white base and excellent tonal and colour range, showing impressive fine detail, and, at 310gsm, it has a thick, luxury feel. DaVinci Fibre Gloss Silk 310gsm is available in sizes from A4 to A2 and 15m roll size of 17in, 24in and 44in. An A4 pack of 50 sheets costs £45.60, with the same number of A3 sheets at £92.40, both including VAT. chaudigital.com

Plastic Sandwich Print Book Portfolio from £110

Plastic Sandwich is a London-based company specialising in bespoke portfolio presentation products for photographers, artists and professionals. Its Print Book portfolios should certainly grab your attention with a high-end look and feel. The covers of these leather portfolio cases are made from a single piece of fine, top grain 3mm hide which curves slightly into a softly shaped spine, itself reinforced for stability, and they come in nine standard colours. There’s also an inner cover of black card or frosted polypropylene. Your prints can be bound in either using archival polyester sleeves, which allow a left and right hand image, or as naked as they came out of the printer, if you prefer. In the latter case, a 25mm gutter is required for binding. Another alternative is to have prints mounted on a black matte which includes a cloth hinge for the binding. The binding itself uses a screw and post system, so adding and removing pages is easy, and the capacity can be changed to suit the number of images used. The portfolios can be made to any size and format, and customised to your requirements with a debossed title or logo. You can pick up a basic 10x8in

portfolio for around £110, while for added protection, custom slipcases can be made to fit the portfolio, too. Plastic Sandwich’s portfolios can also be customised to fit your tablet for a 21st century way of displaying your shots. If you’d like to know more, Plastic Sandwich will be displaying The Photography Show (J65), with new products, special offers and a prize draw. plasticsandwich.com

Bob Books Large Square Hardback lay-flat book from £53.99

Bob Books, based in the UK, offers a brilliantly simple but flexible online selfpublishing photo book service. Customers can quickly easily design professional looking books with the free Bob Designer Desktop software. There’s an excellent range of hardback and paperback books on offer with seven different book sizes and five paper types. These papers include genuine, silverhalide printed, photo paper with layflat binding and premium matte paper for a modern finish. We chose a large (30x30cm) square, lay flat hardback book with lustre photographic paper and with the basic 26 pages it came to a reasonable £53.99; each extra eight pages are a further £8, up to a maximum 98.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Accessories test

BOB BOOKS Large Square Hardback lay-flat book

From

£109

From £ .99

PERMAJET Titanium Lustre paper (and SnapShut Folio)

HARTNACK Hidden screw portfolio

From

£19 From £ .95

ITALIA LIBRO 3D Bling Album

HAHNEMÜHLE William Turner paper

There are also presentation boxes to display your books in, and these are constructed from 2mm board covered with black linen and featuring a dual magnet closure and a red ribbon open tab – a stylish combination, and especially handy if you’re gifting the book. You can also choose to publish your book in Bob Books’ online bookshop, so customers can order from there. Alternatively, imagine you’ve created a landscape book – you can sell it to browsing customers, or link to it from your own ‘site or blog, and earn from sales. For the environmentally conscious, Bob Books support forest management and use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified materials to manufacture its products, adhering completely to the FSC standards, from production, processing, service and logistics. bobbooks.co.uk

Hahnemühle William Turner paper from £19

As any home printing enthusiast knows, results can vary enormously depending on your image and print settings, the printer, the inks, and crucially, the paper. Getting the final part of the chain spot on is Hahnemühle’s William Turner fine-art matt watercolour texture paper. Available in

two weights, 190 and 310gsm and from A4 to A2 in size (as well as rolls up to 44in), this genuine mould-made 100% cotton paper is a wonderful stock for your most arty images, limited edition prints, or cards. Compatible with pigmented and dye inkjet systems, the paper’s premium matt inkjet coating guarantees the highest archival standards, and its expressive, textured surface produces images with great density, and perfect colour gamut, graduation and sharpness. Expect to pay around £30 for 25 A4 sheets and £59 for 25 A3 sheets of the 190gsm paper; for the 310gsm paper, it’s £40 for 25 A4 sheets and £19 or £79 or 10 or 25 A3 sheets). Also, expect to be delighted by the results. hahnemuehle.com

Permajet Titanium Lustre paper (and SnapShut Folio) from £25.95

Recently scooping Best Pro Paper at The Societies Trade Awards 2015, PermaJet’s Titanium Lustre 280gsm paper is well worth a look – especially if you want prints with the ‘wow’ factor for competition entries. Boasting a beautifully pronounced textured finish, this heavyweight stock uses a silver resin coated base, giving it the print quality of a metallic surface, which goes far beyond

papers with a pearlescent finish. The paper can reproduce an excellent tonal range and true-to-life colours, and it really comes into its own when printing shots of metallic subjects, like car detailing or reflective, mirrored still-life subjects. It’s also well matched with black & white and HDR shots producing wonderfully fine tones in the highlights and shadows, with finely rendered details. PermaJet’s Titanium Lustre 280gsm is available in 25 sheet packs of A4 at £25.95, A3 (£49.95), A3+ (£69.95) and A2 (£99.95) as well rolls up to 42in (£299.95) and small format 6x4in (£26.95) and 7x5in (£34.96) packs. For storing prints, Permajet’s SnapShut Folio (from £16.95) is also a good idea; available in leather or smooth covers and dizzying array of sizes, as well as two different spine widths to accommodate different numbers of pages, the Folio stores protects and displays prints thanks to its innovative glue-free hinge, so whenever you want more pages, you just open it up with a pull and insert. permajet.com

Hartnack Hidden screw portfolio from £109

Hartnack and Co is a UK company producing beautiful bespoke photo albums, presentation binders, books and

boxes. Just about everything the company makes is personalised, with individual branding, so you’re sure of a look that’s fully tailored to your requirements, whether it’s for a presentation, a gift or a special project. The hidden screwpost portfolio is one of its most popular products, featuring a thoroughly neat, premiere feel and coming in a choice of single sober colours that will never jar with your images. Paper sizes are available in standard A4 and A3 portrait and landscape formats, as well as US sizes like 11x8.5in and 14x11in, then, befitting the bespoke approach, the covers are designed to sit perfectly over them. The outer cover is Buckram or Book Cloth covered 2mm bookboard which is then adhered to fabric covered 1.5mm bookboard adding great strength. The inner the butts up neatly to the folded Chicago screw-post cover. For other sizes, you just need to email. The finishing touch is a logo (which can be your own artwork) or title, foil printed or debossed onto the cover. Plaques and slimline DVD pockets can also be added to the inner cover. A bespoke A3 Portfolio and slipcase starts at £340 (inc VAT), while an off-the-the shelf A3 Landscape portfolio is just £109 (inc VAT). hartnackandco.com

Italia Libro 3D Bling Effect Album Price NA

Providing photo album design, printing and binding services, Italia Libro (Sood Studios) has been providing professional grade services since 1947. There’s an incredible range of albums on offer, including some exciting and very innovative designs that we’ve not seen elsewhere, such as heart-shaped albums, three-dimensional ‘butterfly sheets’ which lift out like a pop-up book, parent albums, which come with a main album and accompanying smaller versions – there are even triangular formats. All the books are able to be highly personalised with a wide range of cover finishes, paper styles, embossing and presentation boxes. Adding to this array of products, is the company’s brand-new 3D Bling album, a product that’s designed to enhance the layout process of your digital pictures, giving them a uniquely tactile feel. The Bling process is a digital embossing effect that’s applied to selected areas, creating a “sparkling, shiny experience that brings the glamour of glitter in digital printing”. You can check out the full range of products including the 3D Bling albums which will be officially launched at The Photography Show. soodstudio.com

Photography News Issue 29 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, how to win at manual focusing and how to sharpen selectively in Lightroom and Camera Raw

Words & pictures by Kingsley Singleton Although autofocus systems have superseded manual focusing in most forms of photography – and with good reason – there are still plenty of occasions where you will want to make use of the latter. For instance while AF is easier to use when working handheld and can be vital for tracking subjects, when you’re shooting from a tripod with more time to perfect the point of focus, using manual is often a superior route. That could include shooting landscapes, architectural shots, still life, macro and many other subjects. Manual focus is also very helpful when shooting in situations that make AF struggle, such as low light or through objects that confuse the focus like glass, fences, long grass and so on. Despite the accuracy and speed of modern phase-detect AF systems in DSLRs, manual focusing is also in

many ways the only way of knowing if something is truly in focus, and the following tips will help you do it. On most DSLRs, manual focus can be activated by a switch on the camera body (above), or the lens itself, while on some CSCs you may need to dip into a focusing menu. Use the focus indicator If your camera has a phase-detect AF system, which all DSLRs do, when

composing through the viewfinder, you’ll be able to make use of a focus indicator. This is a visual cue which appears when the subject comes into focus under the AF point you’re using. It happens because, although you’re in manual focus mode, the AF system is still active and able to detect the level of contrast that tells it when the focus is achieved. To make use of the focus indicator, move the active AF point over the subject, or the part of the scene that you want in focus, and turn the lens’s focusing ring until it appears (the green blob, left). Magnify the live view On cameras with live view mode – this includes all modern DSLRs – the most accurate way of focusing is to use the screen. Live view offers a ‘what you see is what you get’ reproduction of the scene, so you can be sure that if something looks sharp on the preview, so it will be in the final image. Manual focusing with live view should be done in conjunction with a magnified view, so find the zoom control and enlarge the part of the scene that you want to be sharpest, then bring it into focus with the focus ring.

Another benefit of using live view is that you can focus on any part of the view as they are unrestricted by the positioning of phase-detect AF points (above). Use focus peaking While we’re on the subject of live view, many cameras now offer a function called focus peaking. When in Live View, this adds a highlight to any areas that the contrast-detect system deems to be in focus. Turn the zoom ring and you’ll see the highlight area roll through the image as the plane of focus shifts (top right). An advantage of focus peaking is that it can be used to focus in live view mode without zooming in on any part of the scene, making focusing faster. The only downside of live view is that it places more of a drain on battery life than focusing through the viewfinder, but the benefits far outweigh this. Move the subject This one is less about accuracy and more about ease of working when you’re shooting tabletop still-life or macro subjects from a tripod. The problem is that, having stepped up, you often need to reframe or move

Software skills Sharpening in Raw Global sharpening doesn’t really make sense; after all why would you want every element to be sharp? In almost all cases, sharpness should be applied selectively, so you can alter the amount and where it’s added to suit the scene. As in our example, you might just want to sharpen the rocks in the stream and not the stream itself. Thanks to the Adjustment Brush in Photoshop’s Camera Raw interface, and the same tool in Lightroom, sharpness can be added wherever you want in the picture – you just paint it on like any other adjustment. This editing is best left to the end of the development process, and it’s a good idea to add sharpness alone, rather than applying colour or tonal adjustments with the same brush. Here, we’re using the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw, though its functions are similar in Lightroom. For full control, go to the Detail tab, and under Sharpening set the Amount (which works globally) to 0. Next month: How to use High Pass sharpening in Photoshop.

the camera so that the subject falls outside the lens’s minimum focusing distance. That, of course, means moving the camera and the tripod, which is annoying. But if you set up your subject on a movable base, like a tea tray, or have it positioned on a flexible clamp, you can slide it around with ease, making manual focusing (and composition) much easier. The rocking method No, not something from a 70s sex manual, but an alternative to using the manual focusing ring when shooting handheld. The technique comes in particularly useful when shooting close to the subject and using a very wide lens aperture for a shallow depth-of-field. Whether you’re focusing by eye, using the focus indicator or using a preview on the camera’s screen, the rocking method is often easier than using the focusing ring, especially if the subject is moving. Focusing approximately on the subject you simply rock or sway your shooting position back and forward slightly and shoot at the optimum sharpness. Next month: How focusing affects depth-of-field.

Final image

1. Set up the Brush

2. Using the Brush

3. Tidy the sharpening

How accurately you can apply the sharpening effect depends on how well you use the Adjustment Brush, so set it up correctly before you make a start. Hit K in Camera Raw or in Lightroom, and then set the Size to a little smaller than the area you want to sharpen. Next set the Feather to a high level so that you get a soft edge, and set the Flow to around 50, so that the effect is built up gradually. Density can be left at 100, as this caps the maximum amount of an effect that you can apply to an image.

Now set the Brush to New and push the Sharpness slider to 50 (this can be lowered later if it’s too strong, or increased if it’s not enough). Begin running the Adjustment Brush over the parts of the image that you want to add sharpness to, remembering that with the Flow set below its maximum this will take several sweeps to build up the effect. When you’ve covered the parts that you want, click on the Mask to assess the coverage (you can also toggle it with Y in Adobe Camera Raw or O in Lightroom).

Even with care, it’s likely that the sharpening will be too broad and spill into areas where you don’t want it, especially if you’re working on tricky shapes, like the rocks in the example. If so, click on the Erase button and set the brush up as before, matching its size and softness to the editing you want to perform. Again, it’s helpful to set the Flow lower than the maximum so that a gradual effect is created. Switch on the Mask and run it over the areas to remove. If you need to retouch any areas, click Add and paint them back in. Job done.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

Competition

Editor’s letter

Hello Japan 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 have one massive 64GB Samsung PRO SD card to award to one eagle-eyed winner. 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 box by 14 March 2016. samsung.com and search for memorycards

In the vast majority of cases when a new camera is launched it means a pleasant lunch at a posh eatery in London. That’s if I’m lucky. The trend nowadays is that I get an email and a download link to a press release and product images. So even major – and I mean seriously big – products have been introduced with a whimper, although it would not be politic of me to mention any names. Now, before you get all sympathetic and worry about my welfare, we do get the occasional launch that means meeting at an airport at the crack of dawn and being whisked off somewhere exotic. It doesn’t get much more exotic than Tokyo and that’s where 400 guests from the world over, including yours truly, descended in early January for the launch of the Fujifilm X-Pro2. It just happened to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the first X-system camera, the X-Pro1, so the event was a double celebration for the brand. You can read my test on the X-Pro2 in this issue, and to be honest, I really like the camera. Cynics will assume that’d be obvious given I had a few days being wined and dined at Fujifilm’s expense but as it happens it has several niggles. I solved one by the simple expedient of applying some gaffer tape. Ironically, this was gaffer tape I had ‘borrowed’ from my X-T1 – it has a couple of strategically placed pieces to stop certain controls, like the dioptre correction, moving. As a whole, though, I think the X-Pro2 is a very fine camera capable of impressive image quality backed up with a system of lenses that wants for little. I have made several A2 prints from JPEGs and Raws and they look great. Away from the camera launch I took the opportunity to spend a few extra days in Japan’s capital. I’ve been there on several occasions on

business but never have I had the chance to explore this great city. So this time, I waved my hosts and press colleagues goodbye and struck out on my own for a few days. With the help of several phone apps and with much finger gesturing and pointing I managed to survive. To be fair, English is widely used so navigating the underground system was fine and I didn’t get lost once on the metro. Where I did get lost was at street level where road signs – in any language – seemed lacking, or maybe I was looking in the wrong places. I had an offline map app but that was no good because there were no signs to confirm where I was. I just walked in one direction, then checked the map app again to see in which direction I was going. Primitive but it worked and with the occasional English/Japanese street map on street corners I managed to find my way around and when I did struggle to find something I just asked. On occasion, heading to popular tourist spots, I followed tour groups with their guides holding a flag up high. That worked a treat. Photographically, it’s a great city to shoot. Temples, modern buildings, street scenes, crowds, colour, people – you name it, you can photograph it in Tokyo. There is such a diverse range of subjects, as you would expect in a major capital. After four days pounding the streets and many pictures later I can say that if you ever get the chance to visit, grab it with both hands and make sure you have plenty of memory because you will need it.

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Contributing editor Kingsley Singleton kingsleysingleton@bright-publishing.com

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Publishing Team Managing directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck Head of circulation Chris Haslum As well as your local camera club, you can pick up Photography News in-store from: Calumet, Cameraworld, Castle Cameras, Jessops, London Camera Exchange, Park Cameras, Wilkinson Cameras

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

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com

At the Vanguard Among those leading the trend for Vanguard photo products are food shooter Rebecca Warbis and landscape expert Michael Carver Rebecca Warbis An avid photographer and foodie from a young age, Rebecca studied for a BA in commercial photography and shoots editorial and advertising images for many big brands – all using her Alta Pro 253CB 50 tripod of course. She’s also a published author, having written, photographed and art directed Date Night Cookbook, which was published last year, in both English and South Korean. She’s now working on more books. To find out how she does it, head to the Vanguard stand at The Photography Show next month at Birmingham’s NEC.

Michael Carver Michael isn’t afraid to try his hand at all kinds of photography, but the beautiful scenery in the Scottish Highlands certainly inspires him. In summer he’s often to be found camped, with his VEO 37 shoulder bag and 265CB carbon-fibre travel tripod, by the side of a loch waiting for the right light. He’s equally happy to be covering a wedding day and shooting portraiture, ably assisted by his ABEO Pro 283CGH carbon-fibre tripod, though. Through local camera clubs and Facebook forums, Michael shares his enthusiasm and knowledge for photography with others, including mentoring newbie photographers via the Facebook group Tea Break Tog Photography Chat.

Advertisement feature Products in brief Xcenior 41T The Xcenior 41T is the jet-setting pro photographer’s choice. Ultra-secure, customisable and easy to use, this trolley complies with most airline’s hand luggage restrictions, plus it’s well padded, with a mesh inner bag and configurable hook and loop fasteners to keep kit in place. A padded sleeve keeps a laptop safe and there’s an accessory pouch for all those miscellaneous bits and pieces too.

Supreme Series Airtight and waterproof down to five metres, Supreme Series cases are virtually indestructible. They’ll even withstand extreme temperatures, down to a chilly -40° and up to a simmering 95°C. A divider bag or customisable foam – your choice, quick-release latches and steel reinforced lock holders offer top-notch security. With automatic pressure equalisation valves and able to withstand 120kg of weight, Supreme Series cases will ensure camera gear always arrives in pristine condition.

Havana 33 One of the Havana Series of discreet, spacious and comfortable bags, the Havana 33 is a messenger bag that offers photographers a safe way to carry their kit on the city streets, along the promenade and down to the woods – without compromising on access. Even packed with kit it doesn’t shout that it’s a camera bag, and it’s easily converted to an everyday messenger bag for those camera days off. Endeavor range As well as its award-winning photo and video accessories, Vanguard is also a leading manufacturer of sporting optics and accessories. For example, the Endeavor ED II range of binoculars feature Hoya ED glass for super images even in low light, which is just what’s needed for watching wildlife at dawn or dusk. These magnesium alloy, waterproof and fog proof binoculars offer an ergonomic grip, lockable dioptre and rapid focus wheel.

Photography News Issue 29 absolutephoto.com