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Being a strict vegetarian didn’t stop Thomas from exploring Macao’s Red Market and its meaty offerings. Read about his adventures on p56

HAT KIND OF photographer are you? Thanks to a short quiz I found online, I now know I’m a ‘Photo Flower Child’ owing to my tendency to shoot the ‘art you see in your mind. You don’t stress about having a set-in-stone itinerary for a shoot, you’d rather go with the ﬂow’. It’s like they’ve met me. Whether you’re a Flower Child or Photo Ninja (that’s Kirk, apparently), there’s one inarguable fact that unites togs of all kinds – knowing how to get the best from our kit makes us better photographers. Lenses come in all shapes and sizes, and are the most important tools in our kit bags. But how do we get the best from them? How can we use them to turn a brilliant idea into a brilliant image? We’ve got all the answers in this issue’s centrepiece, starting on page 34...

Verity Milligan A solo trip around the world ten years ago changed our intrepid columnist’s life and cemented her determination to be a landscape pro. Join her on p31

34 Get the best from your lenses with our massive 16-page guide

62 Get in close with three creative macro projects

Ben Hawkins, Group Editor 118 Canon’s 32.5MP 90D and M6 MkII go head-to-head

South Cuatriz Stylish portraits infused with a gritty street style are the name of the game for ﬁlm and media student South. Walk in his footsteps on p82

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March

110

On the cover 118 34 62 84 94 124

Canon v Canon head-to-head Get the best from your lenses Creative macro ideas Using off-camera ﬂash Defeat digital noise Nikon Z 50 reviewed

Skills&Ideas 08 Beyond the lens

A gallery of the world’s greatest shots and the stories behind them.

20 10 clicks

From seascapes to studio, here’s your regular dose of shooting inspiration.

34 Get the best from lenses

Understand focal length to harness your optics’ full potential for pro results.

56 The Red Market

Documenting Macao’s ‘fresh food’ emporium challenges Thomas Kast.

62 Shoot creative macro

A trio of fun small-scale projects to improve your close-up technique.

70 Know your stuff

Lens special: all your glass-related questions answered by our experts.

76 Feedback

Examining your best shots and critiquing to make them even better.

82 Student showcase

South Cuatriz’s street photography portraiture is all about authenticity.

84 Flash know-how

Learn how to use off-camera ﬂash for professional-grade lighting effects.

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Andrew Mason

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Editing Skills 90

Create an arty pet portrait

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Fix digital noise

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70 All your lens-related questions answered, from ﬁlters to f-stops

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How to install and use your 30 free actions in Photoshop, Lightroom and Afﬁnity. 84 How to achieve pro lighting effects with off-camera ﬂash

GetIntoGear 110

Sony α7R IV

With 61MP 10fps continuous shooting and class-leading autofocus, has Sony successfully redeﬁned the 35mm?

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Fujiﬁlm X-Pro3

Boldly hiding the LCD, Fujiﬁlm injects its X-Trans 4 tech into the X-Pro range.

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Canon head-to-head test

The ultimate mirrorless v DSLR ﬁght as Canon’s new 32.5MP cameras clash, with the M6 MkII taking on the 90D for the title of best enthusiast APS-C.

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Nikon Z 50

Is Nikon’s ﬁrst APS-C CSC – with its 20.9MP sensor and 209-point AF – the answer to travel photographers’ prayers?

128

Canon EOS M200

This ultra-compact CSC aims to dominate the entry-level market with its 24MP sensor, improved features and 4K video.

8 Sharing some of the world’s greatest shots and how they were made 114 The Fujiﬁlm X-Pro3 on test

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The stories behind the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest shots

8 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Out of the blue by Iza Łyson This image was taken during a photo session for a puppy. The dog turned out to be a very promising subject, so it was quite a challenge for me as a photographer to capture and emphasise his very best features. I wanted to accent his blue eyes, so I had to find some background scenery that would make the colour stand out. A nearby river happened to be just perfect. The river itself didn’t matter, I just wanted to have that blue in the frame. Nikon D850 | 85mm | 1/5000sec | f/1.8 | iso 400

Iza Łyson is a dog lover, proud border collie owner and photographer from Poland. She is also a 500px brand ambassador. 500px.com/izalysonarts

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 9

10 Practical PhotograPhy

BeyondTheLens

Urban flights by Jan Kasl This spectacular bridge in Prague was seemingly designed by a retired skatepark engineer. It turns out it’s also perfect for mountain biking. When I found it, I immediately contacted my friend and pro rider Tomas Zejda, and went out shooting. I used flash to light the subject, while the bright orange colour in the background comes from the city’s air pollution reflecting back the warm glow of the street lamps. I can’t wait to try out this location in winter with snowboarders. Nikon D4 | 66mm | 1/6sec | f/8 | iso 200

Jan Kasl is a Czech photographer specialising in action and adventure sports. He has photographed pro athletes all over the world. jankaslphoto.com

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 11

The swirl by Hans-Peter Deutsch I made this image on the shores of a fjord near Reine in the middle of a cold February night In HamnĂ¸y, Norway. The sweeping aurora in the sky together with the swirling water at my feet made for a surreal experience, counterbalanced by the mountains, standing resolute and immovable. To take it all in, my 14mm wide-angle lens was not enough. I had to stitch several long exposures together to get this panorama to fit in the frame. Nikon D810 | 14mm | 20sec | f/2.8 | iso 800

Hans-Peter Deutsch is a German landscape, travel and urbex photographer. He also has a PhD in theoretical physics. hpd-fotografy.com

12 Practical PhotograPhy

BeyondTheLens

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 13

Tornado in flight by Mark Lynham My scanner lit up, telling me that an RAF Tornado was about to enter the Mach Loop. I hiked into position above the valleys of Wales to photograph jets passing through a military low flying area. After a few minutes I saw it in the distance. I locked focus on the Tornado and panned as smoothly as I could as it passed by. When I checked the back of the camera, I saw that the Weapon Systems Operator in the back was looking in my direction. Canon 1DX MkII | 420mm | 1/320sec | f/4 | Iso160

Mark Lynham is an awardwinning aviation and wildlife photographer based in Buckinghamshire. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been shooting since 2011. marklynham.com

14 Practical PhotograPhy

BeyondTheLens

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 15

BeyondTheLens

Extreme elegance by Dan Hecho I often shoot ballet, as I love the dynamics and beauty of the movements. My aim in this shoot was to combine the movement with the female form. To create a more dynamic feel, I asked my model to throw the fabric and bend her body at the same time. I caught the moment, which was lit only with daylight. Pentax 645Z | 150mm | 1/500sec | f/2.8 | iso 800

16 Practical PhotograPhy

Dan Hecho is an awardwinning Russian fine art photographer, specialising in commercial and creative disciplines. danhecho.com

Kn wledge THE

The latest news from the world of photography

ANDI CAMPBELL

AWA R DS

Wex unveils its 2020 champions Right Wex Photo Video’s Wex Mondays competition encourages weekly entries for an overall annual prize.

DAN PORTCH

Photography and videography retailer Wex Photo Video has announced the winner and runners-up in its Wex Photographer of the Year competition. Over the course of the year, the company has held weekly Wex Mondays competitions, inviting its followers to upload their best image from the previous week, reportedly receiving around 15,000 image submissions over the past 12 months. These images are compiled into a leader board with a points system, where an overall winner is declared at the end of the year, bagging the title of Wex Photographer of the Year and £1500 in vouchers. This year’s top spot went to Andi Campbell from Devon, for his stunning landscape shots. Andi commented: “I entered Wex Mondays after getting the bug and winning in one of the weeks last year. The hardest part was ﬁnding something original to enter each week. Winning means the world to me.” Last year’s overall winner, Dan Portch, grabbed the second spot this time, while Dave Fieldhouse took third place, receiving £500 and £250 in vouchers, respectively. The top three join fellow photographers in an exhibition at the Wex Photo Video Gallery from 16-31 January. To get involved with Wex Mondays, share your favourite shot – taken over the previous seven days – from your Twitter account using the hashtag #WexMondays and tag @wextweets in your post. wexphotovideo.com

DAVE FIELDHOUSE

SOF T WA R E

PortraitPro update The simple yet intuitive PortraitPro range of software has released its latest version, PortraitPro v19. Powered by a new suite of deep-learning algorithms and ClearSkin 5 technology, software creator Anthropics says it features the most advanced skin improvements to date. A series of 19 sliders allows you to hone skin, hair and even facial expressions. Studio Max users can take advantage of the wealth of features as a stand-alone product, or use it as a plug-in for Photoshop. It retains the approach of offerin advanced edits with minimal knowledge, and even includes in-built tutorials. It’s available now from £35. anthropics.com/portraitpro

18 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

News

RumourMill Hotly-anticipated products we can expect in 2020...

Canon EOS Rs

R ETA IL

Photography has new home Fujifilm has opened its first experience centre in the heart of London. Set over three expansive floors, the House of Photography is designed to showcase the very best of what the Japanese imaging giant has to offer in digital imaging, print and photography education. Visitors are able to get hands-on with a wide range of Fujifilm cameras, from the entry-level X-A7, all the way up to the stunning GFX medium-format range. Located in Covent Garden, it includes a large teaching space for workshops with Fujifilm’s X Ambassadors, which will run at regular intervals. The ground floor is a touch-and-try hub, with a range of X Series and instax models. It features touchscreens that help guide your camera choice based on your needs, and creative stations to print your shots, and then customise them for bespoke results. There’s even a sizeable studio space, and a rental desk for you to try before you buy. The House of Photography can be found at 8-9 Long Acre, WC2, London. fujifilm-houseofphotography.com

GE A R

Backgrounds go portable Lastolite has announced the EzyFrame Vintage Background range. These collapsible backdrops come in a range of styles, and measure 2x2.3m, making them ideal for portraits and group shots. An aluminium frame ensures rigidity, while the clip-on feature makes for a quick setup – perfect for shooters who work on location. You can get yours now, starting at £236. manfrotto. com/lastolite

Rumblings have made their way to PP headquarters that appear to suggest that Canon is set to announce not one, but two new full-frame CSCs in early 2020. The ﬁrst is believed to be a 75MP behemoth, which will feature a new design, dual card slots (possibly using CFast), and in-body image stabilisation. It’s aimed at professionals, and if true, will trump Sony’s α7R IV resolution. canon.co.uk

Fujiﬁlm X100V

Above Fujiﬁlm’s House of Photography is a unique experience centre.

GU IDE

Find the best shots in London Fotovue has released the latest in its range of geographical photography guides, this time focusing on London. Packed with almost 600 pages of expert shooting tips, location advice and camera know-how, it highlights over 400 photogenic spots around the country’s capital. Written by native London photographer George Johnson, it’s available to buy now for £28.95. fotovue.com

We have reported on the rumoured fifth prestige compact from Fujifilm before, and we now believe that it has a firm release date, with an announcement set to take place during February. As well as bringing the X-Trans IV 26.1MP sensor, and advancements made thanks to the X-Pro3, it may also feature an updated take on the traditional fixed 23mm lens, possibly offering an ultra-fast f/1.4 aperture. Watch this space. fujifilm-x.com

Canon EOS R II The second rumour for Canon fans suggests the EOS R’s updated replacement could be announced at May’s Photokina. The Mark II is said to be in the hands of select Canon ambassadors for thorough testing before being released to the public. It’s uncertain what the specs will be, though it appears that Canon is looking to challenge Sony and take the market share in full-frame CSCs. We will update you when we know more. canon.co.uk

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 19

20 Practical PhotograPhy

TIP KEEP YOUR HORIZON LEVEL A straight horizon is vital for successful landscapes. If yours is off, straighten it up with the Crop Tool in Photoshop.

10Clicks What to shoot with your camera right now

SEASCAPES

PUTTING A NEW TWIST ON A classic location isn’t always easy. Iconic places draw photographers like moths to a ﬂame, all looking for a new angle to shoot. Beat the competition by focusing on ﬁnding strong lead-in lines and a solid composition, as Bradley Damms (braddammsphotography.co.uk) did at Cromer pier. “This is an iconic structure in Norfolk and is often photographed.

To look for a different perspective, I headed a mile or so up the coast to Overstrand beach. I opted for a long lens to bring the pier closer, while keeping the amazing lead-in lines of the sea defences. I even stuck to the rule-of-thirds, which is something I rarely do. “On the day, there was a lot of haze in the air and very faint clouds moving slowly. I used a 6-stop ND ﬁlter along with a 3-stop soft grad

that allowed a 60-second exposure. I opted for the longer exposure to get movement in the sea yet ﬂatten it enough to keep the image simple to match the sky. If there were big clouds, then I would have opted for a much shorter exposure to retain some texture in the sky. “As with all of my images it was edited in Lightroom with basic adjustments to the highlights, white balance and contrast.”

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 21

Sony α77 II | 90mm | 60sec | f/14 | ISO 100

# 1 Seek out lead-in lines

10Clicks

CitySCapeS

# 2 Shoot for the edit In the days of the dark room, photographers would often shoot specifically for a particular developing treatment, be that underexposing images to push process or overexposing to burn detail in dark shadow areas. It makes sense that we should continue this fine tradition into the digital age, as dorin Bota (botadorinphotography.com) has done here. “this image was taken around surrey docks, one of my favourite areas of London, where the night-time reflections and lights

22 Practical PhotograPhy

are magical. on this occasion I had favourable weather conditions, but the cloudless sky looked flat and lifeless. to create a bit of dynamic movement and visual impact to the sky, I decided to try a panning technique. this would require shooting a few images to blend together, and a final image shot using a vertical pan to overlay on the other shots. “I mounted my camera securely on a sturdy tripod, fired off four long exposures, then for the last shot I panned the tripod head up and down while the shutter was

tip set a firm position When shooting multiple images to merge together, fix your tripod securely for consistent shots in the edit.

open to capture streaks of light. I took the panning shots after I was sure I had all the static bracketed shots in the bag. “Back at home, I edited in Photoshop using a combination of the four images blended with Layer Masks to create an hdr scene. I then overlaid the panned shot to add interest to the sky, generating this science fiction feel. to finish, I applied a little dodging and burning to increase the contrast in the highlights and shadow areas.”

Nikon D810 | 50mm | 1/100sec | f/8 | ISO 125 Nikon D610 | 70mm | 30sec | f/18 | ISO 50

Above The use of a panning technique has added an extra element of interest to an otherwise flat sky. Left Dorin used a heavy tripod with a panand-tilt head to achieve a smooth pan.

Pets

# 3 Capture an expression The essence of portraiture is capturing the character of your subject, giving a glimpse of their personality. These are the portraits that are the most engaging, as dog photographer Darren Cammock (darrencammockphotography.co.uk) explains: “I’ve always tended towards shooting in colour. Then, purely by accident, I fell in love with shooting black & white bird of prey portraits. I’ve brought that love of mono into my mobile canine photography business. I find that black & white adds a new dimension that is lost with colour. I aim for an evocative style to give a sense of an emotional connection.

“This image was an opportunistic shot taken in the client’s garden while the dog was walking around. Just as he turned to face his owner, I couldn’t help but notice how noble he looked. I was completely in the wrong place with regards to the backdrop and the flash lighting setup, but I still managed to capture him successfully, looking proud and majestic. “I processed through Adobe Camera Raw, tweaking the highlights and shadows, before opening up the image in Photoshop. Because the background was not what I had anticipated, I used the Brush Tool to paint it black.”

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 23

Nikon D810 | 16mm | 6sec | f/11 | ISO 64

Landscapes

# 4 Go out, whatever the weather

Above The Old Man of Storr sticks up out of the side of the Isle of Skye as the sun rises over the coast behind. Nikon D810 | 70mm | 1/5sec | f/13| ISO 64

Nikon D810 | 22mm | 13sec | f/9 | ISO 64

A wise photogrApher will use bad weather days to scout locations, ready to capitalise on breaks in the weather as soon as they occur. polish-born landscape photographer pawel Zygmunt (breaking lightpictures.com) now lives in ireland, and it’s his passion for adventure, whatever the weather, that delivers the goods. “Visiting the isle of skye can be challenging due to unstable weather. this year my visit turned into a bit of a disaster as it rained for six days and nights out of the seven i spent there. however, i was still getting out for short hikes and trying my luck for a spell of clear weather. “the old Man of storr (right) rock pinnacle provides some fantastic photo opportunities. i visited this place in terrible weather first, so scouted for a different viewpoint and decided to return. the next day, in slightly better conditions and after a short but strenuous hike, i was enjoying this moody scene. “Next was the Quiraing landslip (below right). even in bad weather it is worth a hike up there. there was no wind and the clouds looked dramatic. i spent around five hours walking the cliff path, stopping now and then to take a few shots. “lastly, the 13th century eilean Donan Castle (below) is quite a famous location in photography circles, so i decided to walk around and look for a different perspective. My main goal was to find good foreground, which wasn’t easy.”

Above View across from the shore of Loch Duich over to the iconic Eilean Donan Castle.

24 Practical PhotograPhy

Above Looking south across the Quiraing landslide formation from high up on the Trotternish Ridge.

10Clicks

Self-PorTraiTS

# 5 Tell a story with a self-portrait series you’re in full control of the scene, the model has endless patience and they follow every instruction to the letter… only in a self-portrait. this fun and creative genre inspired award-winning landscape photographer Andi campbell (andrewcampbell.co.uk) to embark on a selfie series. “this image is from an evolving series i’ve been shooting where people play a game against their alter egos. i am the subject, playing poker against myself. i’m not sure where the idea came from, but it was so much fun to plan and shoot. i had to consider that i would be taking four individual shots and merging them afterwards. certain props needed to stay the same in each shot, and then other props, plus my appearance and position, would change in each frame. i had three

Sony α7R III | 16mm | 1/3sec | f/5.6 | ISO 200

outfits planned with a trio of different drinks, and used other elements such as smoke to add a bit of atmosphere. i set my tip camera to full manual on keep it a tripod so it couldn’t consistent move between shots. i tried a couple of test For an image composite you exposures to get the need to make sure your right settings, having focus and exposure are enlisted my wife to the same between press the shutter button. each shot. She also takes quite a bit of creative credit! each image was shot using only natural light. “i then applied basic edits to the four shots used to make the final image in lightroom, before merging them together using layers in Photoshop. the cinematic Above Blend images together using edit completed the scene.” Layer Masks in Photoshop.

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 25

Canon 80D | 15mm | 1/60sec | f/6.7 | ISO 100

10Clicks

Urban

# 6 Look up for a fresh perspective when you’re out exploring a city with your camera, you’ll find unexpected photo opportunities around every corner if you remember to look up, as rich walker (instagram.com/richwphotos) found: “this was taken while wandering around London

26 Practical PhotograPhy

with a friend. we were heading towards Coq d’Argent which is a restaurant on the top level of no.1 Poultry, in Bank. I wanted to get a few city shots from their rooftop garden and public viewing platform. “As we arrived at the building, but before we ventured up, my

friend pointed out the colourful windows in the atrium. on looking up, I started shooting handheld, trying out different compositions. this is the result of a bracketed shot of three images to balance out the shadows and the highlights in the clouds above.”

Above Image stabilisation is useful when shooting handheld.

Studio

ExpErimEnting is a corE ElEmEnt of any artistic process and can really fire up your creativity. richard mcKinley (facebook.com/ rmacimages) isn’t afraid to try new things. “i have been a fan of high-speed splash photography for some time, but had never tried it, so i decided to have a go in the comfort of my kitchen. i didn’t have access to the high-end equipment that i assumed would be used for this type of photography, so i thought i’d give it a go on a budget setup. “i found a reasonably-priced godox speedlight and coupled it with my fuji x-t10 and macro lens. the paint was cheap acrylic in blue and red, watered down and loaded into pipettes. for my vessel, i used a wine glass as i didn’t have a larger water tank available. for the background i set up a white acrylic board, which i found also helped with bouncing the light from the flash back onto the subject. i used an opaque board in front of the flash to act as a makeshift diffuser. “Having never really worked with flash before, i found it a real challenge to get the right power settings, as well as control the light and how it fell on my scene. it took a lot of trial and error, a number of missed shots and replacing the water many times over until i started to get the kind of results i was hoping for, but that’s all part of the learning process.”

Fujifilm X-T10 | 100mm | 1/125sec | f/8 | ISO 400

# 7 Get creative

low-liGht

Fujifilm X-T20 | 15mm | 1/60sec | f/4 | ISO 1250

# 8 Be patient An atmospheric indoor location coupled with the perfect lighting is never a guaranteed prospect. Lee Higgs (facebook.com/eye shootmedia) practised patience and skill to capture this low-light interior of the John Rylands Library in Manchester. “Like many others, I’m drawn to old buildings and there are few buildings which have the character and the history of this one. Unfortunately, it was business as usual at the library, so the tourist footfall was high. It took a good 30 minutes of

waiting before I had a window long enough to fire off a few bracketed shots without catching people in my shot. “If you’ve been before, you’ll know how unforgiving the light can be inside, and with the use of tripods forbidden, shooting at f/4 with ISO 1600 was my only feasible option. The library had such an enchanting feel to it, which I tried to portray. Low-light isn’t what I would consider to be my usual style – I spend more time outdoors than in – but this shot has become a favourite.”

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 27

10Clicks Nikon D610 | 50mm | 1/125sec | f/2.2 | ISO 200

commercial

# 9 Stick to the brief Setting a brief in advance – even if it changes later – is the best way to ensure you walk away with the result you were after. Shooting with constraints helps with creative thinking, encouraging you to solve problems in new ways.

Professional stock photographer Cristian negroni (500px.com/ kato84) knows the importance of sticking to a brief for commercial gain, while retaining a flexible approach to a shoot “i’d planned a photoshoot for some stock images in Central

macro

Nikon D7100 | 105mm | 1/6sec | f/13 | ISO 400

# 10 Focus on a narrative When inspiration proves elusive, try approaching from a new angle, as Jack Appleton (jpappleton. com) has done with his macro shot that tells a story. “This shot was originally put together for a photo competition with the theme ‘Path’. Thinking out of the box, I wanted to avoid the predictable landscape photo. While making some notes, I noticed my marker pen and thought about creating a scribble with the figure cutting a path through. I masked off a line and began drawing. When the masking was removed, I placed the figure on the ‘path’ to create the illusion.”

28 Practical PhotograPhy

Park, new York. the goal was to get some photos of a model strolling around the park. Unfortunately, it started to rain heavily. rather than call the whole thing off, we used the rain to our favour to make moodier shots instead.”

tip have a go at macro To get miniature figure shots with a narrative like Jack’s, check out the creative macro projects on p62.

Tim Flach & Karl Taylor

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP A Visual Journey | 31 March - 3rd April 2020 Join world-renowned animal and ďŹ ne art photographer Tim Flach and professional product photographer Karl Taylor for an exclusive four-day workshop in one of the best equipped studios in Europe. Through aÂ powerful combination of theory, practical and Photoshop sessions Flach and Taylor explore the science behind our visual system and reveal how, by understanding and applying these concepts, you will take your photography to a new level. To learn more and reserve your place visit: KarlTaylorEducation.com/photography-workshop

contact@karltayloreducation.com +44 (0)1481 233011

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Over 25 years’ experience in creating exceptional wildlife watching and wildlife photography holidays worldwide “I’ve been visiting the Luangwa Valley for the past 35 years – it’s my second home! – and it is fantastic to be able to offer such a great value small group safari to this truly spectacular wildlife location, staying in a really beautiful camp with fabulous guides.” Chris Breen, Founder

UK: Bugs ‘n’ Beasts Indoors Explore the ﬁne details of macro photography on a workshop led by expert wildlife photographer Alex Hyde. Practising your rainforest photography in the UK. 29 Feb 2020

2 days from £550

Zambia: South Luangwa Photo Safari

Ethiopia: A Unique Wonder

Best of Botswana Photography

Join award-winning photographer Bret Charman in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park. Look out for over 60 species of mammal & 400 bird species.

Join environmental photojournalist and conservationist Ben Cherry on a trip through Ethiopia and discover an entirely different take on African wildlife photography.

Experience one of our best selling trips with wildlife photographer Ben Cherry, who will help you maximise your photographic opportunities as you move through wildlife-rich reserves

5 & 12 Nov 2021

18 Nov 2020

1 Aug 2020

10 days from £3,695

15 days from £5,495

13 days from £5,995

All prices include ﬂights from/to UK, accommodation, wildlife activities, transfers and services of a photographic leader.

To view our full collection of wildlife photography holidays visit our website

01962 302 088 sales@wildlifeworldwide.com

www.wildlifeworldwide.com

VERIT Y MILLIGAN

ADVENTURES OF A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER THE ART OF LETTING GO

LITTLE OVER A DECADE AGO I FINALLY managed to save enough money (after years of sacriﬁce) to take a solo trip around the world in the hope of gaining a little life experience and opening my eyes to new possibilities. I was in my late twenties, and the whole journey changed me on a fundamental level. I was new to the world of landscape photography, but I knew that it was something that brought me joy and creative satisfaction, so I packed a Nikon D90 and 12-24mm lens in my oversized rucksack to document the trip. I didn’t take a tripod, nor any accessories, just my basic knowledge and a bunch of enthusiasm. Looking back, there are times when a tripod would’ve come in handy, but the absence of one ensured I had the freedom to roam without worrying about carrying the extra weight. I watched epic sunsets over New Zealand and captured the azure seascapes of Fiji. I experienced autumn on the east coast of the USA and witnessed surfers and storm clouds on the North Shore of Oahu. I got myself into and out of tricky situations (not least getting stuck in mud on the coast in New Zealand as the tide came in), and through it all I learned how to really start to ‘see’ the landscape. It was the biggest and most intense learning curve of my life in so many ways, and the library of images I took, although now rather dated and ﬂawed, serves as a reminder of how far I’ve come and how the images I took and the things I experienced shaped the creative I would become. Through all the experiences of that trip, the most valuable lesson I learnt was the art of letting go.

I’d arrived at Hervey Bay on the east coast of Australia with the intention of going whale watching. There were plenty of big boats to choose from, but I was drawn to a small catamaran that only had room for a few passengers. As we cut through the calm sea, the faster boats, packed to the rafters with tourists, pushed ahead as we meandered behind. All the boats happened across two adolescent humpbacks lounging around the surface, inquisitive and playful. The captain cut our engines and stayed away from the bigger boats, who were edging in on the whales’ space, encouraging their passengers to shout and holler to try to bring the whales closer. Our captain urged us to be patient and asked us not to make noise, but instead bring the whales over with our hearts. Soon, without coercion, the whales meandered over to our boat, rolling in the water, showing their undersides and playfully spurting water. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life thus far. The simplicity of that encounter has stuck with me over the years since. Often, I get caught up in the chase and the feeling that things aren’t quite good enough. It’s not misty enough, not sunny enough, not moody enough, I didn’t climb high enough, these images aren’t good enough. Remembering that encounter reminds me to let it all go, and to feel grateful that I can see beauty in the moments of waiting, as well as the action.

ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE LESSONS I LEARNT WAS THE ART OF LETTING GO

Verity Milligan is an award-winning landscape, architectural and commercial photographer based in Birmingham. She runs workshops and her clients include American Express, Yorkshire Tea & Visit Britain. veritymilliganphotography.com

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 31

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andrew mason Adventures of A wiLdLife photogrApher BusmAn’s hoLidAy

ast year i Passed one of those milestone birthdays that can lead some people to make catastrophically bad decisions, all in the name of a mid-life crisis. at the beginning of this year, although you wouldn’t know it from looking at her, my wife celebrated the same birthday. to mark our collective centenary, she decided that we should go on a safari to africa, a trip we’d both wanted to take for many years. there was just one caveat – it was made clear to me that this was to be a holiday, not a photography trip. the reality is that, despite all my best efforts, my wife is not a photographer. By this i mean she is content with using her iPhone and has no interest in trying a ‘real’ camera and lens. What makes this harder to bear is that the shots taken using her iPhone show that she has a really good eye for an image, and would actually make a great photographer. When it came to packing for our trip, as a non-photographer my wife couldn’t understand why i wanted or needed to take so much camera equipment. my protests that i had cut my equipment down to the absolute minimum – two dslrs and three lenses – and that i’d compromised by leaving behind my beloved 600mm f/4 lens, fell on deaf ears. my wife also failed to understand why airline carry-on weight limits shouldn’t apply to photographers, when we all know this to be the case. as a non-photographer, she doesn’t need to appreciate the finer nuances of natural light and how it affects photography. for her, golden hour in the morning is best appreciated over breakfast and, in the evening, enjoyed while sitting down for dinner.

as a wildlife photographer i’m used to waiting patiently for the precise moment to make the perfect image of the animal i’m working with. for the non-photographer, there’s simply no need to wait until the light is perfect and the animal is in exactly the right spot. these concerns are irrelevant, and are outweighed by the desire to maximise the overall experience and to see as many different sights as possible. When i’m on a photography trip, i’m under pressure to produce pictures. i’m there to make images, not excuses. so, i was initially reticent to concede that the aforementioned birthday trip was a holiday. africa is a wildlife photographer’s playground, and for many years i had dreamed of photographing the animals that can be seen on the continent. i considered rebelling, but decided it was not in my best interests to do so. having accepted that this was to be a much-needed holiday, i was able to relax and to enjoy the time spent with my wife. together we saw and experienced more than we would have been able to on a photography trip. the shots i took were free of the pressure of work, purely for my own enjoyment. as for my wife, there may be hope for her yet. on reviewing some of her iPhone images, she observed that its camera has limitations when it comes to photographing wildlife. it could be excess baggage charges all-round in future!

on a photography trip, i’m under pressure to make images, not excuses

Andrew Mason is a lawyer turned wildlife and landscape photographer based in Staffordshire. He has been published worldwide and his clients include the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts. andrewmasonphoto.com

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 33

REDPIXEL

34 Practical PhotograPhy

m astercl as s

get the

best lenses from your

Understanding focal length is the key to unlocking your full photographic prowess. Tim Berry explains the five main focal length groups so you can harness your opticsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; full potential.

use focal length to improve your shots

lenses explained: get to know your glass p36

super wide-angle for dynamic landscapes p41

wide-angle for street and events p44

standard lenses for all-rounders p47

short telephotos for perfect portraits p50

long telephotos for wildlife p52 PracticalPhotograPhy.com 35

INTRO TO OP TICS

LENSES EXPLAINED

ROM ULTRA-WIDE FISHEYES TO 5KG SUPERtelephoto giants, there are literally thousands of different lenses on the market. But how do you know whether you’re choosing the right tool for the job, and how will things like perspective, crop factor, distortion and depth-of-ﬁeld play a role in your shots? We’ve split the wide world of lenses into ﬁve broad categories based on focal length, and we’ll take a detailed look at what you can shoot with each, how to use it and which models to buy.

Great for landscapes

Great for portraits

Great for wildlife

CULTURA RM

We’ve used subject icons so you can ﬁnd the right lens easily:

Great for action

ULTRA-WIDE LENSES 8-20mm / FROM £300 The kitbag staple for landscape, astro and architectural photographers.

BEST FOR EPIC LANDSCAPES

We’re classing lenses in our ultrawide category as having a focal length of between 8mm and 20mm, or have at least part of their zoom range in this zone. You may notice that ultra-wide lenses designed for crop sensor cameras are as wide as 7mm upwards, but the equivalent focal length is actually the same (see p39 for more on crop factor). This category also includes ﬁsheye lenses, which can have a focal length of 8mm, even on full-frame cameras.

Above Ultra-wide lenses tend to be used for landscapes, cityscapes, architecture and astro.

WIDE LENSES 20-35mm / FROM £135 Ideal for landscapes, street, environmental portraits, travel and wedding photography.

BEST FOR STREET & TRAVEL

36 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Our wide-angle category includes lenses from 20-35mm, or those with at least part of their zoom range in this zone. On APS-C cameras, you’ll need a focal length between 13-23mm for a similar ﬁeld-of-view, and on Micro Four Thirds, 10-18mm. These lenses are more versatile than ultra-wides with more practical applications in day-to-day shooting. At the top end of the category is the ever-popular and adaptable focal length of 35mm.

Above Wide-angles are useful for lots of different types of photography, but are especially popular for street.

Complete Lens Guide

STANDARD LENSES 40-55mm / FROM £100 A true utility lens that can be used for almost any subject including portraits, travel and events.

BEST ALL-ROUND SHOOTING

Technically, standard lenses have a focal length of around 43mm, but 50mm primes are usually thought of as the classic standard glass. Some manufacturers also make 45mm and 55mm, which we would also class in the standard category. To achieve a similar ﬁeld-of-view on an APS-C camera, a focal length of 35mm is needed, and on Micro Four Thirds, 25mm. Standard lenses start from £100 and are versatile tools that can be used to shoot a range of subjects.

Above Lenses with a standard focal range are useful in a wide range of shooting situations.

TELEPHOTO LENSES 60-200mm / FROM £280 Perfect for close-up portraits and some action and wildlife. Can also be used for travel.

BEST FOR CLOSE-UP PORTRAITS

Our short telephoto category starts at around 60mm and goes up to 200mm. The lower end of this range is a classic focal length for portraits, with the wide-aperture 85mm prime essential for portrait shooters. At the upper end you can shoot sports and wildlife, though you’d have to be quite close to the subject. Dedicated macro lenses also fall within this short telephoto category. Most are primes between 60mm and 105mm, and can also be used as a regular lens.

Above Short telephoto lenses are perfect for portraits, as they produce the most ﬂattering results.

SUPER-TELE LENSES 300mm+ / FROM £750 A specialist lens for sports, wildlife and deep-sky astrophotography. Often expensive.

BEST FOR SPORTS & WILDLIFE

The granddaddy of the lens world, a long telephoto allows you to capture detailed close-ups from a considerable distance. For the purpose of our classiﬁcations, we consider focal lengths of 300mm or more to be super-teles. There aren’t as many of these lenses on the market as short teles, and they tend to be expensive, although there are now good quality affordable options out there. They are most commonly used for sports and wildlife.

Above Super-teles allow you to capture close-ups from some distance, so are ideal for sports and wildlife.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 37

JA RGON BUSTER

GET TO KNOW YOUR GLASS Y NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE SOME IDEA OF what type of lens you want to buy. But whatever brand you shoot there will still be a wide range of different models to choose from so you’ll need to work out which has the features, and the price-tag, to suit. Here, we break down in simple terms some of the technical terminology you might come across as you do your research.

ANGLE-OF-VIEW

APERTURE

The angle-of-view describes how much of a scene a lens can capture. Wide-angle lenses have a larger angle-ofview than telephoto lenses because they can record a much greater amount of the scene. Prime lenses, which have a ﬁxed focal length, always have the same angle-of-view, whereas on zoom lenses the angle-ofview changes. The angle is normally measured diagonally across the frame rather than horizontally. A 20mm lens has an angleof-view of 95º, whereas on a 200mm lens it is only 12º. Additionally, the effective angle-of-view changes if the lens is mounted on a crop sensor camera.

This is the opening that allows light to pass through the lens. A wide aperture, represented by a low f/number, such as f/2.8, allows lots of light to pass through, and a narrow aperture, such as f/22, lets through a small amount of light. A wide aperture means a shallow depth-of-ﬁeld.

38 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

ASPHERICAL ELEMENT Most elements are simple convex or concave shapes that make up part of a sphere. But some lenses include one or more aspherical elements, which are a less regular shape, and help control optical issues. Aspherical elements are expensive to produce, so only tend to be found on premium models.

DIAPHRAGM BLADES These are the interlocking metal ﬁns that make up the aperture. Rounded blades are considered best as they create circular, rather than polygonal, bokeh.

CROP V FULL-FRAME

TIP BUY FULLFRAME LENSES It’s best to buy full-frame compatible lenses even if you own an APS-C body, as you might one day upgrade.

Lenses designed for full-frame cameras can be used on APS-C (crop) sensor bodies, provided the mount is the same. However, APS-C lenses aren’t usually considered suitable for full-frame bodies. Letters denoting whether a lens is designed for APS-C or full-frame are usually in the lens name. Nikon, for example, uses Dx for APS-C and Fx for full-frame. Canon uses EF-S for APS-C and EF for full-frame. And Sony uses E for APS-C and FE for full-frame. Left The image circle of an APS-C only lens (the area shown in yellow) does not ﬁll a full-frame sensor.

Complete Lens Guide lens k noW-hoW

How sensor size affects focal length Technically the focal length of a lens remains constant regardless of the camera it is mounted on. However, in practice, the smaller a camera’s sensor, the longer a lens’ focal length appears to be. This is because a smaller sensor is only recording the inner part of the light the lens is collecting (see the image below), and therefore the angle-of-view is smaller. This is often termed the

‘crop factor’. The focal length printed on the side of a lens only actually appears as stated on a full-frame camera. On an APS-C model you’ll need to multiply it by 1.5x to get the effective focal length. In other words, a 24-70mm lens will behave like a 36-105mm (1.5x more zoomed in) when used on an APS-C model. On Micro Four Thirds bodies you need to multiply by two.

full-frame

Left The area of light collected by an APS-C sensor is smaller than a full-frame sensor, so the lens appears more zoomed in.

elements Every lens is made up of a series of glass elements positioned at different points in the lens barrel. Some sit alone, while others are positioned in groups.

Some premium zoom lenses are designed so that the lens barrel doesn’t physically extend as you zoom in. This internal zoom system is considered superior because there is less opportunity for dust or water to enter the barrel. Internal zooms are not generally found on lenses with a large zoom range regardless of the price.

focus motor Almost all lenses on the market have an autofocus (AF) motor built in. They vary quite significantly from model to model in how fast and loud they are. Look out for lenses which claim fast, near-silent focusing, especially if you plan to shoot in quiet places such as during a wedding ceremony, or for wildlife.

tip do the maths

If you shoot APS-C or Micro Four Thirds, be sure to work out the effective focal length of a lens before buying.

aps-c

eXtending Barrel

The crop factor can actually be quite useful for wildlife photographers, who can get 1.5x more reach than a full-frame user with the same lens. Conversely it can be annoying for landscape photographers who can’t get as wide an angle-ofview with the same lens as a fullframe user.

image staBilisation

lens coating

Tiny motors shift a group of lens elements to compensate for camera shake, keeping the image free of unwanted blur. Most stabilisation offers a ‘4-stop advantage’ over regular lenses. In other words, if you can handhold a camera with a non-stabilised lens still enough at 1/125sec to avoid camera shake, then you can do the same with a stabilised lens at 1/8sec.

Applied to the surface of the lens elements, special coatings help reduce flare and keep contrast high.

lens mount This is the part of the lens that attaches to the camera body. The mount type must match that of the camera or it cannot be attached (without the use of an adapter). You’ll notice that most mounts are metal, but on budget lenses they are often plastic.

filter thread size

minimum focusing distance Most consumer lenses focus from infinity down to about 30cm. Try focusing on an object closer than this and the lens will hunt without being able to lock focus. The longer the lens, the longer the minimum focusing distance tends to be. For very close focusing, a dedicated macro lens is required.

thread size Every lens has a thread at the front of the barrel to hold filters. The thread size is printed around the front

element next to an ‘ø’ symbol and is often between 52mm and 82mm.

Weather sealing Ideal for outdoor shoots, weather-sealed lenses protect against rain, moisture, dust and sand. Usually only premium lenses offer weather sealing.

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 39

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Complete Lens Guide

SUPER WIDE-ANGLE FOR DYNAMIC LANDSCAPES

extremely close to the camera and vast mountain ranges in the distant background, ultra-wide lenses help to emphasise the scale of a scene, and more than any other type of lens, they really make the viewer feel that they can step into the image. Although thought of as a classic landscape lens, ultrawide glass has plenty of other applications, including for interior, architectural and astro photography. Ultrawide ﬁsheye lenses, with their extreme ‘back-of-spoon’ distortion, are also popular for stylised photo and video work. Shooting with a very wide focal length means an extended perspective (although strictly it’s your position rather than the focal length itself), so foreground objects will appear bigger

ERFECT FOR capturing sweeping coastal vistas, epic street-level architecture and dramatic, mountainous landscapes, an ultra-wide lens will give you hard-hitting images with scale, depth and impact. Allowing you to capture in a single frame delicate ﬂowers

SUPER-WIDE IN ACTION EPIC ANGLEOF-VIEW! If you want to capture as much of your scene as possible while giving it a sense of scale and depth, then ultra-wide is undoubtedly the way to go. You’ll be able to capture very small foreground objects and distant background detail in a single frame, and an ‘extended perspective’ will give the impression that objects are a long way apart, exaggerating the size of anything in the foreground. Look out for particularly dramatic or textured skies, which can look incredible shot on a super wide-angle lens.

than they really are, and background objects much smaller, with the distance between them greatly exaggerated. You can use this to your advantage to create a false sense of scale, but keep in mind that it can make your scene look much

TIM BERRY

Above A ﬁxed lens hood makes it harder to attach ﬁlters.

Left & above Super wide-angle lenses capture close-up details and sweeping backdrops for maximum depth to a scene.

more expansive than how you see it with your eyes.

What to buy You must keep in mind the crop factor when choosing an ultra-wide lens. In other words, if you own an APS-C camera, then you have to

BACKGROUND OBJECTS APPEAR FURTHER THAN THEY REALLY ARE

EXTREME FOREGROUND AND DISTANT BACKGROUND BOTH IN FRAME

LEAD-IN LINES HELP DRAW THE EYE INTO THE FRAME

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 41

Complete Lens Guide

Fieldcraft Top tips for better ultra wide-angle landscapes Sean Pavone

watch distortion

The corners of the frame will be heavily distorted. This doesn’t matter in landscapes, but faces will be very noticeable, so keep people towards the centre.

multiply the focal length stated on the lens barrel by 1.5x to get the effective focal length. this is important because if you buy a 16mm lens thinking you’re getting an ultra-wide model, it would

Use lead-in lines

Look for lines such as fences, paths and cloud formations that run from the corners of the image towards the centre, directing the eye into the frame.

actually be more like 24mm on a crop sensor body, which is just wide-ish. on a full-frame camera though, the focal length stated is always the one you see. For Micro Four thirds cameras, the crop factor is 2x.

e xpert advice

frame yoUr shot

Shooting very wide opens up the opportunity to ‘frame’ your image with tree branches or archways, anchoring the eye in the centre of the frame.

the other important thing to look out for when buying an ultra-wide lens is whether it has a built-in non-removable lens hood, which is designed to protect the lens’ bulbous front element. if it does, this means no filter thread, so attaching filters is more difficult, and the filter holder will be much more expensive. you might also consider weather sealing to be important if you shoot a lot of landscapes, as you and your camera are bound to get rained on at some point.

How to use With very wide focal lengths, it’s important to pay attention to your foreground and not just the objects in the rest of the scene. choosing a position with some foreground interest

or a lead-in line to occupy the bottom part of the frame can make all the difference. Be careful though – your camera may be looking almost straight down at the objects in the bottom part of the frame, so avoid getting your feet or tripod legs in shot, especially in portrait orientation.

Pros & cons captures the full scene with a blend of foreground, midground and background. creates a sense of scale by exaggerating the distance between objects. Difficult to be selective about which parts of a scene you show in your frame. Not good for close-up portraits – you’ll get a back-of-spoon effect.

also good for night sky images An ultra wide lens is a kit bag essential for astrophotographers who want to capture big sky images such as the Milky Way and star trails. The favoured options are those with a very wide maximum aperture (ideally f/1.4) that will allow as much light as possible to enter the lens. This is especially important if you want the stars to remain as points of light, as after around 25-35secs (depending on focal length and sensor size) the Earth’s rotation will cause the stars to appear as streaks of light. Don’t forget, you’ll need a shutter release cable (above) and a tripod.

42 Practical PhotograPhy

Above Ultra-wide lenses are ideal for capturing dramatic urban landscapes from street level, with strong converging verticals.

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WIDE-ANGLE FOR EVENTS AND STREET

NLIKE ULTRAwide lenses, regular wide-angle glass will give you a less distorted, more true-tolife view of the world. The distance between foreground and background objects will appear less exaggerated, and you should ﬁnd working in this focal range more useful for day-to-day shooting. In fact, Apple uses an effective focal length of 28mm for its current iPhone models, so obviously feels this is the most versatile angle-of-view to suit as many different shooting situations as possible.

What is it for? Here, we’re classing the wide-angle category as being from around 20-35mm. Remember, because of the crop factor, to get the same angle-of-view on an APS-C camera you’ll need to use a lens in the 13-22mm range. Focal lengths in the low 20s

are still in classic landscape territory, although it is more difficult to compose a single frame that captures both ultra close-up foreground detail and distant background objects. This focal range is also ideal for capturing architecture and interiors, and if you’re a serious wedding or events photographer you’ll deﬁnitely want some wide-angle glass in your kit bag, especially for getting shots with several people in them, and church or venue interiors. When you get up to around 35mm, you start entering the domain of classic portrait lenses, though it’s more useful for full-body environmental portraits than a tighter headand-shoulders composition. Of course, you can shoot portraits wider than this, but if the subject is close to the camera the face will appear distorted. A 35mm is also perfect for street photography, where you often want to combine

Left & above Wide-angle lenses, from around 20-35mm, will give you a true-to-life view of a scene, which is useful at a wedding.

ap of background detail. And 35mm primes are a classic travel lens because they’re small, lightweight and incredibly versatile. In fact, a bridge between wide-angle and standard lenses, many photographers consider a wide-aperture 35mm prime the single most useful lens you can own, as it allows you to dabble in so many different types of photography.

hat to buy If your camera came with an 18-55mm kit lens (27-83mm equivalent on APS-C), you already have some wide-angle glass in your bag, although even fully zoomed out it won’t offer a classic wide-angle look. If you ﬁnd yourself wanting a slightly wider focal length, a 10-22mm, 12-24mm or 14-24mm are good bets. If your kit lens is wide enough, but you could use a shallower

Fieldcraft Three top tips for better street photography

GET IN THE ACTION

Don’t be afraid to get up close and personal with your subject, capturing them at very close range – this is where the real keepers will come from.

44 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

KNOW THE LAW

Be fully clear on what you can and can’t shoot on public land – search YouTube for PP’s video: ‘Photography tips – UK laws and your rights’.

SHOOT FROM LOW

Hold the camera at hip level, so people don’t know you’re taking pictures. This will give more natural images. Your hit-rate will be lower, but who cares.

Complete Lens Guide

WIDE-ANGLE IN ACTION IDEAL FOR STREET

SOME BACKGROUND BLUR VISIBLE, HELPING SUBJECT STAND OUT

VERY LITTLE DISTORTION VISIBLE

depth-of-ﬁeld, a 35mm prime with an aperture or f/1.4 or f/2.8 is ideal. If you’re on APS-C, a 24mm prime is better as it will behave like a 35mm on your camera.

your image, helping to anchor the viewer’s eye and create a feeling of depth. Avoid people in the corners of your frame, as they could appear distorted.

How to use

Versatile, but particularly useful for portraits, street and travel photography. Usually relatively small and light, so easy to transport. Can be difficult to get a clean background due to the wide angle-of-view. Some lens distortion is a possibility.

When working with wideangles, where so much of the scene appears in shot, images can look cluttered, so work on adjusting your composition to crop out unnecessary elements. Simplifying your shots in this way will give bolder results. Also try to include a dominant subject in the foreground of

E XPERT ADVICE

Pros & cons

ALSO GOOD FOR QUIRKY ALTERNATIVE PORTRAITS

Above Wide-angles are ideal for environmental portraits, where you want the subject and their surroundings in shot.

While portraits are usually taken at arou 85mm for the best perspective on the face, you might choose to break the mould and try shooting some fun, wide-angle, head-and-shoulders portraits. These images won’t be remotely ﬂattering, as the face will have a very exaggerated ‘back-ofspoon’ look, so it’s best for children and pets as this is less of an issue. For the m effective results, zoom out fully and focus on the subject’s eye at the lens’ minimum focusing distance.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 45

WIEBRIG KRAKAU

GOOD MIX OF PORTRAIT AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENT

An enduring favourite with some of the street photography greats from the past 100 years, the 35mm prime is a superb tool for documentary photography. Its wide aperture allows fast shutter speeds and a shallow depth-of-ﬁeld, and it’s small and light so you can use it without drawing too much attention to yourself. Slightly wider than the other favoured street lens, the 50mm, it forces you to get closer up to your subjects and allows you to include a little more of the background to help add context to your shot.

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Complete Lens Guide

STANDARD LENSES THE ULTIMATE UTILITY GLASS

THER THAN KIT lenses, which often come bundled with a new camera, one of the most commonly bought DSLR lenses is undoubtedly the 50mm f/1.8 prime, often nicknamed the nifty ﬁfty. It is known as a ‘standard’ lens because its focal length is roughly the same as the diagonal length of the camera’s sensor. Actually, this ﬁgure is more like 43mm, so technically

TOM MERTON

Above Pentax’s 43mm is the perfect standard focal length.

a perfect standard lens would reﬂect this. Pentax does manufacture one, and Tamron makes a 45mm, but 50mm is close enough. It is often said that standard primes are favoured for having a similar perspective and ﬁeld-of-view to the human eye. This is more complicated than we have room for here, but in simple terms, your 50mm will reproduce the world roughly as your eyes see it. Many photographers feel this helps make their camera a natural extension to their eye, and so they can capture scenes more faithfully than when using wide-angles or telephotos. Many of the great documentary and street photographers of the past century, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, shot almost exclusively with 50mm lenses for this reason.

VERY SHARP RESULTS

SHALLOW DEPTHOF-FIELD

ENOUGH REACH TO SHOOT FROM A DISTANCE

Left & above Standard lenses are the photographer’s bread and butter – suited to a range of situations.

primes is that you have to physically move to adjust your composition, which forces you to think through your shots more carefully. A zoom might be more convenient but it can make you lazy. If you shoot buildings, 50mm primes produce very little lens distortion, so you

ve to worry about straight lines in your frame appearing bent. This is different to perspective distortion, which can only be eliminated on a tilt & shift lens.

What is it for? A 50mm lens is an extremely versatile tool that can be used for most types of photography,

STANDARD PRIME SHOOT IT AS YOU SEE IT It is often said that a focal length of 50mm gives roughly the same ﬁeld-of-view as the human eye, and because of your position from the subject, a ‘normal’ perspective. This helps you capture a person or scene as faithfully as possible. Standard primes are ideal tools for weddings and events, where you can shoot from mid-distance, and their wide aperture helps isolate the subject from the background. Even cheaper nifty ﬁfties are very sharp, and their size and weight make them perfect for carrying around all day.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 47

Complete Lens Guide

Fieldcraft Three tips for better wedding and event shots

GO CANDID

The 50mm is a great lens for candid, documentarystyle photos as you can easily shoot unnoticed from a few metres away. This isn’t so easy with a wide-angle.

but it’s perhaps best known as the classic focal length for street photography and documentary photography, and a favourite with portrait shooters. It’s better suited to wider full or half-body portraits rather than closeups. Many wedding and event photographers use a 50mm as their workhorse lens, and most standard primes are so small, light and versatile that they are ideal for travel shots. If you use an APS-C camera, don’t forget that a 50mm lens will behave like a 75mm because of the crop factor. To get a full-frame equivalent of 50mm, shoot at 35mm.

What to buy Every kit lens covers the 50mm focal range, so the chances are

SHOOT WIDE OPEN

For single portraits, use a wide aperture to isolate the subject from the background. Avoid this for group shots as some faces could fall out of sharp focus.

you’ll already have a standard focal length in your bag. But it’s still worth investing in a dedicated 50mm prime, which will offer you a much wider aperture (f/1.4 or f/1.8) for faster shutter speeds and a shallow depth-of-ﬁeld. Nifty ﬁfties are available from around £100, so are incredible value for money, and they tend to be very sharp. They’re also highly portable, so great if you don’t want to be weighed down with kit.

SHOOT PLENTY

At key moments ensure you get lots of options to choose from, and check your LCD regularly to check exposure and focus are correct.

habit of focusing and shooting in one continuous press of the shutter button. Even a short pause can allow the subject to drift out of the zone of focus.

Pros & cons Small, light, sharp and versatile, so ideal as a

workhorse for wider portrait, wedding, travel, street and documentary photography. Cheap, starting at around £100, so accessible to all. No zoom, which can be limiting in situations where you can’t physically move nearer.

E XPERT ADVICE

How to use Standard primes are easy to use, though on wideaperture lenses, you need to be conscious of shooting with a shallow depth-ofﬁeld. Try to get into the

ALSO GOOD FOR REVERSE RING MACRO

Above A 50mm prime is ideal for wider portraits, as it puts you at the perfect distance to achieve a ﬂattering perspective.

48 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

If you own 50mm lens it’s well worth buying a reverse ring adapter (above right), which allows you to mount the lens on the camera back-to-front. This gives you a crude macro lens that will enable you to shoot extreme close-ups of insects and plants, albeit without autofocus or aperture control. The depth-of-ﬁeld will be very shallow, and image quality is less impressive than a dedicated macro lens, but it’s a fun experiment that might get you some interesting results. Reverse ring adapters are less than a ﬁver, so make a great low-cost project for a rainy day.

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SHORT TELEPHOTOS FOR PORTRAITS

NY FOCAL length above 50mm is technically classed as telephoto, although when describing a classic telephoto lens you would usually be referring to slightly longer focal lengths of at least 60mm or 70mm. Short telephoto lenses provide a narrower angle-of-view than wide-angle and standard lenses, so only a small amount of the scene in front of you will be recorded by the sensor. This means you can be much more selective with what you reveal to the viewer and what you choose to crop out, and this allows you to better manipulate the meaning you want to portray in your shot. The ability to shoot tighter crops in camera also makes it easier to shoot abstracts. You’ll notice the background behind your subject will appear closer and larger than it does with the human eye,

Left & below For ﬂattering close-up portraits, the best results will be seen from short telephotos.

in what is often termed ‘compressed perspective’. An enlarged background means any blur is also enlarged, giving the impression of an even shallower depth-of-ﬁeld.

What is it for? Short telephoto lenses are the perfect focal length for close-up portraits because the perspective on the face is so natural (not too convex and not too concave). Actually, focal length doesn’t technically have an impact on perspective, but what it does is force you to physically change your distance from the subject in order to achieve the desired composition. And filling the frame with your subject’s head and shoulders at 85mm puts you at the perfect distance for flattering results. Remember, if you use an APS-C camera you’ll need to shoot at 55mm to get the same field-of-view as 85mm on a full-frame body.

Beyond around 150mm, telephoto lenses are less suited to portraits, but start to become useful for sports and wildlife. Photographers at football matches, for example, use long telephoto lenses for middle-of-the-park shots, and a 70-200mm for closer-up penalty area action. What a short telephoto lens won’t do is allow you to ﬁll your frame with a chaffinch from 50 yards. Even at 200mm, you’d need to be within 6ft to get that kind of composition. But while limited, they are certainly

useful tools for certain wildlife shots. Short telephotos are also kit bag staples for street photographers who want to capture candid shots from further away, travel photographers and wedding and event shooters.

What to buy The classic all-round short telephoto lens is classed as the 70-200mm, which you

Fieldcraft Three top tips for short telephoto portraits COFFEEANDMILK

ISOLATE YOUR SUBJECT

To help your subject to stand out, set a wide aperture and leave plenty of space between the subject and the background.

50 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

FOCUS ON THE EYE

Be sure to focus on the leading eye (the one closest to the camera) whenever you shoot a portrait, especially when working with wide apertures.

LOOK FOR THE RIGHT LIGHT

Direct sunlight on the face will create hard shadows and exposure issues. Work in shade or keep the sun behind the subject.

Complete Lens Guide

NATURAL PERSPECTIVE ON FACE

ENLARGED BACKGROUND BLUR COMPARED WITH WIDE-ANGLES HELPS SUBJECT STAND OUT

can buy – or the equivalent of – for every brand. It’s usually available in f/2.8 and f/4 versions, and with and without stabilisation. For portrait shooters, an 85mm prime is an essential tool, which can have a maximum aperture as wide as f/1.2. Most manufacturers also make a 135mm prime, which is a very useful lens.

How to use

E XPERT ADVICE

Pros & cons Easier to isolate part of the frame and eliminate areas you don’t want in shot. Enlarged background blur helps subject stand out, and gives impression of shallower depth-of-ﬁeld. Minimum focusing distance off at least 1m, so not good for close-ups. Heavy and expensive, as they use lots of glass.

CRISTINI GOTTARDI

Short telephoto lenses are not difficult to use, though watch out for any unwanted blur. Camera shake is more likely

to be a problem, so if possible use a shutter speed of 1/200sec or faster and use stabilisation if you have it.

A focal length of around 85mm gives the most flattering results for close-up portraits because its field-of-view makes you stand at the optimum distance from the subject for the most natural perspective. Shooting the same portrait with a wide-angle lens would mean standing closer, which would create a convex face with an enlarged nose and small ears. Using a telephoto lens would mean standing further away, creating a concave face with flatter features and larger ears.

Above Short telephotos can be used for documentary-style shots without the subject knowing they’re being photographed.

ALSO GOOD FOR MACRO SHOTS Almost all dedicated macro lenses (those with a magniﬁcation ratio of at least 1:1) fall within the short telephoto category, with most between 60-105mm. As well as being fantastic tools for capturing extreme close-ups of the world around us, they are perfectly suitable for use as regular lenses, focusing all the way to inﬁnity just like any other lens. At around 60-105mm, they are particularly useful for portraits. Most macro lenses are primes, and tend to produce very sharp results.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 51

TIM BERRY

LIMITED AMOUNT OF BACKGROUND IN SHOT

SHORT TELEPHOTO IN ACTION PERFECT FOR PORTRAITS

LONG TELEPHOTOS FOR ACTION AND WILDLIFE

OR ANYONE serious about photographing wildlife, sports or deep-sky astro images, a long telephoto lens of at least 300mm – but ideally 500-600mm – is an absolute must-own bit of glass. It is possible to get by with a 2x teleconverter attached to a shorter telephoto lens, but this brings with it a number

Above A 2x converter doubles the focal length of a lens.

Left These specialist lenses are ideal for capturing astro shots or action from a distance.

of disadvantages, including an inferior image quality and reduced maximum aperture. Long telephotos have a very narrow angle-of-view so can only capture a tiny section of the scene. This is useful where it isn’t possible to get any closer to a subject, such as when photographing a football match, an animal in the wild or a distant galaxy.

What is it for? Long telephotos are specialist lenses that tend to be used only for a few very speciﬁc types of photography, rather than for general day-to-day shooting. They are kit bag essentials for nature and fast-action photographers and are sometimes used instead of telescopes for deepsky imagery. Occasionally, they are used for landscape photography, but this is a fairly unusual choice.

What to buy Until relatively recently, long telephoto DSLR lenses were hugely expensive pieces of pro-grade kit that were simply out of the reach of most amateurs and enthusiasts. But in 2013-14, Tamron and Sigma each released a top quality 150-600mm telephoto zoom at around £1000. They can now be purchased for around £750, and are still undoubtedly the best value long telephotos on the market. They both fall down a little in build quality,

and the maximum aperture isn’t very wide, but in terms of reach there’s simply nothing else with this kind of reach for the money. Other relatively affordable long telephoto options include Nikon’s 200-500mm, Canon’s 400mm, Fujiﬁlm’s 50-230mm (75-345mm equivalent), Sigma’s 100-400mm and Panasonic’s 100-400mm (200-800mm equivalent). For wider-aperture lenses,

Fieldcraft Three top tips for better telephoto wildlife shots

GET EYE CONTACT

If possible try to capture the animal looking directly at the camera, as this will help negate the physical distance between you and the subject.

52 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

LET CAMERA PIVOT

If using a tripod, loosen the ball head so that the camera can freely pivot. This will leave you free to recompose your shot quickly if you need to.

CHOOSE AF MODE

Single Shot AF is ﬁne for stationary subjects, but if an animal is running towards you, Continuous AF will keep it in focus as the subject distance changes.

Complete Lens Guide

enlarged blur helping subject stand out

close-up on subject that may be difficult to shoot otherwise

How to use long telephotos can be tricky to use, partly because they are large and heavy, which can make them unwieldy. camera shake is a real problem when working at such long focal lengths, so it’s best to shoot from a sturdy tripod or monopod wherever possible. also choose a fast shutter

speed of at least 1/500sec and turn on image stabilisation if the lens or camera has it. Some long telephotos come with features that shorter lenses don’t have, including advanced stabilisation modes, manual focus override and focus preset.

e xpert advice

Pros & cons allows you to get a close-up of a subject you can’t get close to. although expensive, they are much cheaper than they used to be. large, heavy and unwieldy, so hard to transport and use.

also good for deep-sky astro Serious astrophotographers tend to use DSLRs or webcams attached to telescopes, but it’s also possible to photograph deep-sky objects with a long DSLR lens. Ideally, an equatorial mount is used to very slowly move the camera to compensate for the rotation of the Earth. This allows for much longer shutter speeds without motion blur, and therefore lots of light can enter the lens. Classic deep-sky objects that can be easily located and shot with a 500mm DSLR lens and regular DSLR are the Andromeda Galaxy (above) and the Orion nebula.

le a rn more

find a new perspective Above Long lenses are ideal for fast-action photography where you can’t get close to the subject, such as a football match.

Want to dive even deeper into the magical world of lenses? Check out enthusiast Mark Higham’s beginners’ guide to fisheye photography at bit.ly/fisheyelenses

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 53

nyiragongo

Many animals in the wild, or even in captivity, are extremely difficult to capture because it’s not possible to get close to them. A long telephoto lens allows you to work from a considerable distance but still get an intimate, frame-filling portrait. An incredibly narrow angle-of-view also means very little of the background is captured in shot, helping to keep the image clean and simple with the viewer’s attention fully focused on the subject.

only small section of background in shot so little distraction

prices are much higher – as much as £15,000. a long telephoto is a niche lens and they’re not cheap, so think carefully about how much you’d use one before you buy. you could try renting one for a period to see how you get on.

long telephoto in action capturing wildlife

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MY PHOTO PROJECT

PERSONAL WORK FROM TALENTED ARTISTS

DARE YOU ENTER

THE RED MARKET When curiosity got the better of strict vegetarian Thomas Kast, Macao’s ‘fresh food’ emporium proved a challenge on every level.

56 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 57

hen did you first hear about the Red Market and what was it that appealed to you? It looks like something from an Indiana Jones movie…

Thomas Kast is an award-winning photographer and artist based in Zurich. His interests include travel, photojournalism and street photography, and he holds a PhD in fine arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland. Thomas spent many years teaching graphic design, photography and illustration at Israel’s Shenkar College of Engineering & Design. thomaskast.com

58 PRAcTIcAl PHOTOgRAPHy

I honestly think that even Indiana Jones himself might have had second thoughts about continuing his explorations around the Red Market! I came across it while on a photo assignment for Wanderlust magazine. The guide provided by the Macao tourist board introduced the market as ‘a place to get fresh food’, rather than a photographically interesting subject. We left as quickly as we came, rushing off towards the next and ‘more proper’ location. With the red brick building looming behind me, I’d already started to compose the market shots in my head though. Following my request, the Macao tourist board obtained special permission from the Red Market management for me to do a prolonged shoot, and so, the next day, I set out on an adventure. What were your first impressions on arrival? We’re guessing you’re not a vegetarian…

But I am! And a strict one at that. Have been all my life. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, in the end, it was my vegetarianism that made me stay. Despite the increasingly harrowing experience, I wanted to wrestle with the subject of human v animal coexistence.

For the most part, the place was scarcely lit. The hanging red lamps flooded the stalls with torrents of warm and intense radiance, contrasting with the cool ambiance coming through the dirty windows. People, animal parts and objects would suddenly drift out of shadows, only to melt back again. The lighting situation resembled a Hollywood film set. And then there was the hubbub, ebbing and flowing to the incessant rhythm of cleavers slamming against wooden chopping blocks. I remember feeling giddy owing to the pervasive smell of blood and carved up meat. Sounds delightful! How did the project grow?

What started as an off-chance opportunity quickly evolved into a carefully planned project. I spent the next day pouring over the test shots I’d taken with an iPhone, pondering the lighting conditions and sketching out rudimentary compositions. Of course, with a situation as complex as this, nothing works the way you’ve planned. Faced with rapidly changing and often inadequate light, lots of action, things you’ve thought of as interesting turning out not as captivating and vice versa… I had to improvise quite a lot, if not most of the time. What were the main challenges you had to find solutions to on this project?

The language didn’t turn out to be as much of an issue as I’d previously assumed, even though

My Photo Project Thomas Kast

I knew only one word of Chinese – ‘eight’. As you can imagine, no one speaks a word of English, and that extends to the whole – rather large – area surrounding the Red Market. Most of the time I managed to communicate my intentions by pointing at the camera, then at the person I wanted to shoot. And smiling. Other than that, it was a physically challenging experience. It felt hot as a furnace – well over 30°C, incredibly humid – and I carried roughly 40lbs of equipment on my back at all times.

After nearly an hour of walking around and filling my head with imaginary snapshots, I started to pay attention to customers picking items and the money changing hands. With so much gesticulation going on, I decided to make it a central object of at least some of my shots. After some trial and error, I managed to capture a photo of an elongated hand pointing at a fish head, a scene reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam.

Did you start taking pictures immediately, or did you spend a good while walking around first?

How accustomed are the stall holders to people with cameras? And how did they and their customers react when you started taking pictures?

I never whip out a camera and start spraying. It’s all too easy to become enchanted by the first impression and miss something going on right behind you. And that proved to be the case with the Red Market.

Unlike other Macao sites – overrun with smartphonewielding tourists – the Red Market remains one of the very few ‘genuine’ settings. My subjects’ reactions varied, but were mostly positive. A fishmonger would

Facing page Heads or tails? An elongated hand points to lunch in a scene reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. Above While money changes hands, butchers use meat hooks for pigs’ heads and trainers.

PRACtICAlPhOtOgRAPhy.COM 59

Above When not interacting with customers, the fishmongers would quickly withdraw into a pensive state.

make a few rapid gestures signalling for me to go away. his neighbour wouldn’t mind me at all, repeatedly hitting a particularly obstinate fish on the head with a wooden club. Up on the second floor, a butcher, dressed entirely in white, would freeze upon seeing me, as if unsure how to proceed. a friendly wave would make him go back to sharpening his cleaver.

Facing page The pigs not only provide a source of food, but also entertainment. The fish not so much – many are processed while still alive.

What were you looking for photographically and how did you go about finding it?

i’m always on the lookout for the superficially mundane things concealing a broader context with universal appeal. a photo of a butcher at work may be only that. a photo of a butcher surveying a dismembered animal, with a huge cleaver resting on his shoulder, and his face sporting a defiant expression is another story. the red Market seemed like a perfect metaphor incubator. let’s not forget it’s not a slaughterhouse. it’s a marketplace filled with food – some of it still alive, some of it dead. there are metal bars with hooks that are used to hang anything a butcher needs – be it a plastic bag, a pig’s heart or a pair of sneakers. and all of it awash with surreal light, punctured by sudden flares of colour. My picture-taking process consists of asking myself the same question over and over: ‘Why would anyone

For most oF the shoot I kept tellIng myselF: ‘thIs Isn’t real, It’s just a FIlm set’ 60 Practical PhotograPhy

look at that?’ if the only answer i can come up with is ‘Why not?’, i move on until i can come up with something more. And what about the technicalities? Talk us through your Red Market camera and lens settings…

Nothing is ‘typical’ when faced with a situation like this, with its constantly changing light, fast-moving subjects, not to mention the gore galore and chips of meat flying in all directions. i prefer shooting in manual mode whenever possible, but i sometimes switch to aperture-priority, especially when things go wild. For the red Market, i kept the shutter speed at about 1/400sec or 1/500sec, otherwise i was getting motion blur on my subjects’ faces. i kept iSo around 1000 or below, resulting in nice, clean images. aperture was wide open. i used a 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 for some of the shots, though found primes to be most useful, in particular my 58mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4. i didn’t use flash – the ambient light was too beautiful. To what extent did you have to remove yourself from the very visceral reality and focus on the art?

For most of the shoot i kept telling myself: ‘this isn’t real. it’s just a film set, and you’re shooting a scene.’ Did it work? Sometimes, but not always. it’s tough, seeing all these animals being mercilessly hacked to pieces. after a while, i simply let the camera do the work – it told me where to move, when to change the setting and take the shot, and then when to move along.

My Photo Project Thomas Kast

Was there a wider narrative to your Red Market project? Animal welfare, maybe?

one might simply shrug the red market photo essay off, citing our ‘civilised’ meat consumption in the West. But are we really that ‘civilised’? Sure, we prefer frequenting the sterile and ‘familyfriendly’ fast-food restaurants serving neat hamburger discs, or chicken nuggets

which all look like they’ve grown on a tree. they haven’t. they came from animals whose suffering we find too offensive to even consider. there’s no pretending at the red market. meat is what it is, not a shapeless lump of minced flesh that no longer resembles the animal we sink our teeth into with a side of fries and a milkshake.

find out more you can buy Red Market – A Photo Essay, a digital art book featuring over 60 of Thomas’ high-quality images, on apple Books for £4.49. visit bit.ly/ppredmarket to download.

Thomas’ 4-step guide to better personal projects Take your Time Time is another tool at a photographer’s disposal, and it’s no less important than your gear. Don’t start shooting as soon as you come across something interesting. instead, wait until you’ve found ten interesting things, pick the top three, then reach for the camera.

Look for ‘why’ noT ‘whaT’ a photo without context is a mere snapshot. even the most interesting

subject will fail to raise interest, unless the photographer adds value to it. This could be done with an unusual angle, light, using slow or very fast shutter speeds. keep an open minD The first impression is always the strongest. most often, it’s also the wrong one, and if you let it linger for too long, it’ll ‘contaminate’ the rest of your shoot. To me, photography is a thinking

process, not a hunt. Taking a shot is not the beginning of this process, it’s what concludes it. improvise There will be times when nothing goes as planned. you’ve prepared for a sunny day, but it’s raining? keep shooting, you’ll discover something unexpected. you want to shoot a portrait, but only have a wide-angle on you? stick a 20mm lens in your subject’s face and go wild.

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 61

PROJECT GUIDE S

GET IN CLOSE FOR

CREATI MACRO SHOTS From the intricate beauty of the natural world to the kaleidoscopic effects of common household liquids, this trio of fun small-scale projects will help you see the world in a whole new way.

62 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

TIP CHECK OUT THE VIDEO Watch the Practical Photography Live video to see how to get started with macro photography, and more.

ACRO IS A subject of inﬁnite possibilities. When viewed in extreme close-up, even the most mundane subjects become an intriguing mix of shape, colour and texture. And you don’t even need a true macro lens to achieve amazing results – extension tubes or your camera’s macro mode, if it has one, will do just ﬁne. Over the next few pages we’ll show you how to identify a subject, set the scene and select the best settings. Read on to learn how to capture cool winter frost, tell fun miniature stories and create colourful oil bubbles...

3 FUN MACRO SHOTS TO TRY

FROSTY LEAVES P64 Take inspiration from nature to capture the beauty of winter

MINIATURE PERSPECTIVE P66 Build a narrative for quirky miniature fun

Raid your kitchen cupboards to create colourful abstract art

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 63

SUNSLAYER

OIL BUBBLES P68

Creative Macro

projecT # 1

capTure The hearT of winTer wiTh frosTy deTail

Above If you don’t have a dedicated macro lens, an extension tube can be an affordable alternative.

64 PracticaL PhOtOgraPhY

Above Shooting this scruffy arrangement of leaves gives a messy composition.

Compose your shot Finding your subject can be tricky. Look for colour poking out from the ice and interesting textures created by the frost. Leaves that stand out a distance from their background work well for this project. Being able to shoot using a shallow depth-of-field to throw the background out of focus is key to getting a lovely clean image here. try to avoid scrubby or tired-looking branches and leaves. all too often, they just look messy in the picture. have a think about lighting too – shooting in the shade will impart a cool feeling to your images, whereas if you shoot against the sun you can get the light behind the frost, making it sparkle.

It’s very tricky to use the dials and buttons on your camera with gloves on, so try fingerless gloves.

Pavel_klimenko

to get frosty winter pictures you’ll need frosty winter weather. there’s no easy DiY substitute. thankfully, we get our fair share of frosty mornings here in the uK. temperatures drop overnight when the sun is no longer casting its warming glow, so the frostiest time tends to be in the morning. as a bonus, early mornings also have the best light, so check the weather forecast and look for sub-zero night-time temperatures. Pick your day and get up for sunrise. You don’t need to go far – your back garden or a local park are ideal hunting grounds. Woodlands and national parks are also great locations, if you fancy working a bit of a walk into the shoot or scouting for landscapes or wildlife at the same time. as you go, keep your eye out for frost-covered leaves and branches.

Tip invesT in useful gloves

Set up your camera using a macro lens or macro mode will allow you to get very close to your subject. this proximity creates a narrow depth-of-field, so aperture choice will be critical here. a value of f/2.8 will give a very shallow depth-of-field, but stopping down to an aperture of f/8 should give you an appropriate depth-offield to get this shot. set your camera to aperture-priority and the isO to 400. Focus on your subject and take a test shot. You want the background to be very blurred, but your subject to be sharp. if your background appears too sharp, widen your aperture to f/7.1 for a shallower depth-of-field and try again.

SunSlayer

Finding the right conditions

composition too messy

Henrik1970

here’s miniature detail aplenty to be found in nature, and particularly on a crisp, frosty morning. Pop outside armed with a macro lens and you’ll come away with some beautifully atmospheric shots of icy berries, frozen puddles and coated leaves. there are potential subjects to be found all around. shooting macro allows you to zoom in on capturing a wintry vibe, cropping out any distracting elements and cutting right to the heart of the season.

Ideas to try Frozen soap bubbles When the winter mornings get really cold, you can create these mesmerising ice baubles. All you need is a frosty morning, some soapy water and a bubble wand. Or you can opt for some pre-made bubble

mixture. Any temperature below freezing should work, but the colder the air temperature the better. You want the bubble to freeze as quickly as possible or it may pop while it freezes, meaning youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to make more attempts to get a bubble to stay whole. Gently blow the bubble and let it drift down and land. Being a very thin membrane, it should begin to freeze quickly. Grab your camera and set up on aperture-priority. Select an aperture of f/8 and ISO of 400. Focus on the front of the bubble and take your shot. If possible, try to position the bubble between you and the sun so that it is lit from behind to highlight its delicate details.

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projeCt # 2

Create a quirky Miniature sCene

acro is a truly fascinating genre to shoot. it allows you to see things from a new and more creative perspective. Juxtaposing toys or miniature models with real-life, full-size objects, and making them interact to build a narrative, is a fun way to master macro shooting techniques. turning scale on its head will immediately draw in the viewer, and the tools for the job are so easily accessible that you’ll be able to build a portfolio in no time.

Choose your figures have a look online – websites such as amazon and eBay are ideal. Browse the toy or miniature models categories for inspiration. there are two approaches to

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take – either find a subject you like and then craft a scene around it, or think of a concept and then find the elements to suit. you’ll find a wide range of options either way, so get browsing.

it needs to make sense otherwise it loses the narrative impact. a window cleaner on a beach doesn’t work, but swap them for an explorer with a map or camera and suddenly there’s an engaging story.

Craft a scene

Take the shot

once you have your miniatures, it’s time to create your scene. search out props that work well with your chosen figures. you’re looking to create a narrative here, something that plays on the size of your subject in a fun way. anything that needs to be assembled or built works well with construction worker figures. colourful items such as cakes or fruit can make a scene with painters or artists. you could pair up objects featuring glass with a window cleaner, for example. the key is to find a contextual link between what the miniatures are doing and your props –

With your props and miniature figures gathered, set them up somewhere with plenty of light. the rules of composition still apply here, so fill the frame and place important elements on intersecting rule-of-thirds grid lines, linked by lead-in lines. as in the previous project, you’ll need your macro lens, macro converter or a macro mode enabled. the shot doesn’t have to be pin-sharp from front to back, but it does need to be mostly in focus so that the narrative elements are clear. set an aperture of f/11 or greater to achieve this.

Creative Macro

Get the shot Fun-filled miniatures 1

Find your camera settings

Set your camera to aperture-priority mode then dial in an aperture of f/11 and an ISO of 200. Your camera will automatically select a shutter speed to give a correct exposure. Check this isn’t below 1/60sec. If it is, you’re in danger of introducing blur from camera shake. Increase the ISO to 400 to compensate, and take another shot.

Set the focus

As with photographing people, you’ll want to focus on the face of your main subject. Select single-point AF and place the focus point on your subject. Half-press the shutter to engage the focus. Either use Live View or the depth-of-field preview button to check that sharpness extends far enough through the image. If not, decrease the aperture to f/13 and check again.

tip try more arrangements Take a few shots, changing the position of your figures each time to tell a story through a series of images. kirill_makarov

concept is not working

TaTchaphol

Above Some combinations of figures and props don’t paint a clear story together.

Take the image

Once you’re happy with your setup you can take the picture. When you press the shutter button, try not to move backwards or forwards as this will change your focus distance and leave your focus point either in front or behind where you want it to be. Review your shot on the back of the camera and check that the focus is in the correct place. If it’s looking soft, re-focus and try again.

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Creative Macro

projecT # 3

shooT colourful absTracT oil drops

here’s a surPrising amount of fun to be had with just a splash of oil and a cup of water. together, these common household items can make for some fantastically colourful images. it gives the effect of eye-catching abstract paintings of the sixties, and the technique is easy to master. all you need is some oil, water, a glass, colourful paper and a desk lamp. so, dust off your macro lens, pick up your tripod and dive in.

Make the bubbles oil and water don’t mix, which is the foundation of what we are doing here. Pour a small amount of cooking oil into a tumbler filled three-quarters full with water, and the oil will float on top. give the mixture a gentle stir with a wooden skewer and the oil will separate into bubbles. the more vigorously you stir, the smaller the bubbles will become, so start off gently to form large bubbles that’ll look great on camera. these denser bubbles will refract light rays differently to the surrounding water, giving you distinct circles suspended in the water. Place anything you want underneath the glass and it’ll appear different through the oil than it does through the water. you can add a touch

of washing-up liquid to the water before you add the oil to get a more defined edge to your bubbles and give them a more three-dimensional feel.

Above Print out a colourful pattern to use as a background.

Add a splash of colour grab your colourful backdrop print and place your glass of water and oil on top of it. looking down into the bubbles, move the glass around until you get the colours where you want them. Point your desk lamp down so the light shines off the paper beneath the glass and up through the oil. this will give you the brightest colours in your shot.

Set up your camera Fix your camera on a tripod with a macro lens pointing directly down through the tumbler. you’ll need to make sure the bubbles are pin-sharp, but the background and base of the glass are blurred. shooting with a macro lens means you’re going to need an aperture of f/8 for this. usually there would be a concern about camera shake in a shot, but mounting the camera on a tripod means there’s a reduced risk of capturing any movement blur, so set an iso of 200 and let the shutter speed fall wherever it chooses. take your shot, check the results and then adjust the composition of your backdrop and the bubbles to suit.

Above The more oil you use, the closer together the bubbles will be.

Above Stirring vigorously will give you smaller bubbles.

Get the shot Abstract bubbles 1

Set up the scene

Fill a glass with water, about three-quarters full. Dry the glass off and place it on a printed backdrop. Add a splash of cooking oil to the water and give it a stir. Let the bubbles settle to the surface. Now gently position the glass so that it looks good with the bubbles. Grab a desk lamp and shine it down onto the paper for definition.

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Dial in your settings

Switch to aperture-priority and dial in an aperture of f/8. Set the ISO to 200, and don’t worry about the shutter speed. Switch to self-timer mode and set the timer delay to 2sec to prevent blur from vibrations as you press the shutter.

tip use live view to focus Accurate focus is critical for successful results. Switch to Live View and zoom in a couple of times to check.

Set your focus

Position your focus on the edge of one of the bubbles. It’s the easiest spot for your camera to find and lock on to and it should ensure the whole bubble is rendered sharp within your depth-of-field while leaving the background to blur. Make sure you’re on autofocus and half-press the shutter to set your focus. Then switch over to manual focus to lock it in its current position.

Fire the shutter

Take the shot and review the image on the back of the camera. Check the focus is spot on, and ensure the depth-of-field is large enough for the whole bubble. Finally, check the composition. If you don’t like it, give it a stir and try again.

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L E N S S P ECI A L

All your technique and gear questions answered by our team of experts knowyourstuff@bauermedia.co.uk

Former deputy editor Tim is a pro photographer and journalist with an encyclopedic photo knowledge.

Kirk Schwarz As PP’s technique and gear editor Kirk knows the best kit, and how to get the most out of it.

Adam Atkins PP’s features writer is an accomplished professional sport and travel photographer.

I shoot a lot of portraits and want to learn how to get golden lens ﬂare in my images, preferably in camera. Please could you talk me through how it’s done? Nick Benton, Exeter

Tim says: Whenever you take a photo, the light from your scene travels down the lens and onto the sensor. But in some conditions, extra light that isn’t in your frame, and therefore not being used to form the image, can also enter the lens barrel and reach the sensor, producing lens flare. In the most severe cases, flare dramatically reduces an image’s contrast by softening the blacks, and often creates a dreamy, golden haze across the frame (veiling flare). You may also see circular or polygonal shapes, often in rainbow colours (ghosting flare). Lens manufacturers consider lens flare to be an optical imperfection, and they go to great lengths to ensure punchy, high-contrast images in all conditions. Specially developed lens coatings on the elements and a non-reflective finish on the interior of the barrel help to stop non image-forming light from reaching the sensor. Some lenses come with a lens hood to block light sources from outside the frame area from striking the front element.

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Despite this, photographers consider lens ﬂare to be a good thing, especially in portraits and fashion where it’s deliberately introduced for creative effect.

CONNER CHING

Tim Berry

How do I get hazy lens ﬂare in my shots?

Enhance the flare To encourage lens flare, shoot around sunrise or sunset when the sun is low in the sky. The idea is for direct sunlight to strike your lens’ front element, but ideally so the sun is not in the frame. If you can’t see flare through the viewfinder, adjust your position until it appears. You can try having the sun in-frame, but this can cause exposure issues. It’s important to shoot without a lens hood attached so the sun can strike the front element. Shooting at different apertures will alter the flare. Experiment with other light sources, such as torches.

Try a vintage lens For stronger lens flare, invest in a vintage film lens and use an adapter to attach it to your camera. Older lenses don’t have such sophisticated coatings so flare is easier to achieve.

Lensbaby Composer Pro II with Sweet 35 Optic £319 This 35mm f/2.5 creative prime lens comes with tilt functionality, allowing you to place the plane of sharp focus anywhere in your frame. It is also known for its intense and unusual lens ﬂare, so if you’re a ﬂare fanatic, this is the perfect optic to own. It is compatible with both full-frame and APS-C cameras and is available for almost all DSLR and mirrorless mounts. lensbaby.com

TIP SET CLOUDY WHITE BALANCE You can warm up your shots by selecting a Cloudy white balance, creating a hazy, summer evening feel.

Add lens ﬂare later using LightLush editing software

Above LightLush (lightlush.photo) is an effective, oven-ready Photoshop plug-in for adding faux ﬂare to your shots. It’s an affordable option at $19.

The quickest and easiest method for adding flare in post-processing is with a Photoshop plug-in such as LightLush. It adds hazy veiling flare as well as circles, polygons and starburst effects. Photoshop does have its own built-in lens flare filter (Filter>Render>Lens Flare), but it’s less sophisticated than a plug-in, and limited in its functionality. If you do want to try adding a flare effect yourself in Photoshop, open your image with File>Open and create a new blank layer by pressing Shift+Ctrl+N. Choose the Brush Tool and set Hardness to 0, Size to 5000px and Opacity to 10%. Select a pale yellow for the foreground colour. Then, with the cursor positioned roughly over the sun, which may be out of frame, click one or more times to add a soft, golden haze to suit your scene. Reduce the Opacity of the layer to lessen the effect.

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SL! LSPEEN A I C

Is the background more blurry on a telephoto? Does a telephoto lens mean a blurrier background than a wide-angle lens? Bella Smith, Cardiff

greater. This has the effect of increasing the depth-of-field to almost an equal amount to the decrease in depth-of-field that you had from zooming in. So the depth-of-field ends up virtually identical.

Kirk says: In theory, yes; in practice, no. Here’s why. There are several factors that Background blur compared affect depth-of-field, aperture being the Let’s look at the example to the right. most obvious. Set a wide aperture and The top two images were both taken at the background is blurrier, set a narrow f/8 but one was at 24mm and one was aperture and everything appears sharp. at 200mm. In order to achieve the same It is often thought that focal length has composition – that is, keeping the subject the same effect – use a longer lens and the the same size in both shots – the 200mm depth-of-field decreases, zoom out image had to be taken from further and it increases. This seems away. The depth-of-field to make sense – wide-angle appears shallower in the TIP lenses do appear to leave 200mm shot because INCREASE all parts of the shot the background looks looking sharper. It is blurrier. But when SEPARATION true that the longer you compare the Increasing the distance the focal length, the background blur in the between the subject and the shallower the depthtwo images, you can see background will create of-field becomes, so that it’s virtually the more background technically the answer to same. The background blur. your question is yes. But in is simply enlarged in the practice, it’s not that simple. 200mm shot, and so too is the Let’s imagine you’re shooting blur, giving the false impression a portrait. You frame up and take a shot that the depth-of-field is different. at 35mm. It’s a decent shot but you decide In summary, any decrease in depthto zoom in to 200mm to get a blurrier of-field gained by zooming in is cancelled background. The problem is that now the out when you physically move backwards. whole frame is filled with your subject’s We would not consider focal length to nose, so you’ll need to physically move have much effect on depth-of-field in backwards to get the same composition practice. A more effective way to achieve as you had with the 35mm focal length. a blurry background is to invest in a Your subject is now much further away, wide-aperture lens. We’ve picked out and therefore your focusing distance is three great value options below.

Three of the best wide aperture primes Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM £99 Cheap build quality, but small, light and sharp, this great value ‘nifty ﬁfty’ prime is a superb portrait lens on APS-C models. It’s also full-frame compatible. Nikon and Sony produce comparable options at a similar price. canon.co.uk

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SHOT AT 24mm f/8

Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD £480 Ideal for street photography and full-body portraits, this wide-aperture prime boasts image stabilisation and ultra quiet focusing. It’s available on Canon, Nikon and Sony, and compatible with APS-C and full-frame models. tamron.eu

SHOT AT 200mm f/8

BACKGROUND BLUR COMPARISON

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM £587 Designed for APS-C cameras, this unusual wide-aperture, wide-angle zoom is pin-sharp and has a Hyper Sonic AF motor for quiet, fast focusing. The equivalent full-frame focal range is 29-56mm. sigma-imaging-uk.com

ALEX RHEE

Know Your Stuff

Do full-frame lenses work on an APS-C camera? FULL-FRAME LENS WITH APS-C BODY

Can you explain a lens’ f-stop?

When a full-fram lens is used on an APS-C body the image circle marked in yellow is easily big enough to cove the entire senso so there’s no issue with

C OR D AGE APS-C LENS WITH FULLFRAME BODY

FRAME SOR OOR ERAGE

I have an entry-level DSLR. Can I attach a full-frame lens or are they incompatible? Mike Swain, Frinton-on-Sea

Adam says: Provided the mount is the same, any full-frame lens can be used on any APS-C body. A Canon 50mm f/1.8, for example, is a full-frame lens and can be used on the APS-C Canon 4000D without any issue. The reason some lenses are described as full-frame is that they collect an area of light, known as the ‘image circle’, big enough to cover a full-frame sensor. This means they’re also easily big enough to cover a smaller sensor size. A problem arises if you mount an APS-C only lens on a full-frame camera, because the image circle is too small for the light to ﬁll the entirety of the larger sensor and your shots will have black corners. Some full-frame cameras, such as Nikon’s D850, have a crop mode that automatically turns on when an APS-C

When an APS-C lens is used on a full-frame body, the lens’ image circle is too small to cover the whole sensor. This means either images with black corners, or the camera having to shoot in crop mode.

lens is attached. This means the image is recorded from only the central part of the sensor, so the camera effectively becomes an APS-C model. There are two clear advantages to using full-frame glass on an APS-C body. The ﬁrst is that you’re only using light from the central part of the image circle and discarding the outer edges. This is where optical quality is highest so you’re less likely to see chromatic aberration, vignetting and soft corners. The second is that by buying into full-frame glass, you won’t have to replace your lenses if you move to a full-frame body. The downside to full-frame lenses is that they tend to be larger, heavier and more expensive, as they usually contain more glass. Most lens manufacturers denote whether a lens is designed for full-frame or APS-C as part of the name. Nikon labels full-frame lenses FX and APS-C lenses DX, Sony denotes FE and E respectively and Canon EF and EF-S.

Why is an f-stop so called, and is it the same as aperture? Emily Stone, Crewe Kirk says: For beginners, it’s confusing enough that a wide aperture is represented by a small number – it feels like it should be the other way round. So the existence of a random ‘f’ rather than an ‘a’ when describing an aperture setting makes things even less intuitive. The number actually describes the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture’s diaphragm, which is why aperture values are in seemingly arbitrary ﬁgures such as 1.4, 2.8 and 6.3. The origin of the term ‘f-number’ or ‘f-stop’ is a matter of debate, but it probably ﬁrst came into use in the 1890s and may be short for ‘fractional’. So what about the word ‘stop’? It describes the amount of light entering the camera. Adjusting exposure by 1 stop means you’re letting in either half or double the light. The most commonly used aperture stops are: f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, and f/22. In practical terms, if you’re at f/4 and you switch to f/5.6, you’re halving the amount of light entering your camera. If you’re at f/8 and switch to f/5.6 you’re doubling it. With this knowledge, it’s easy to work out that if you halve your shutter speed, then making your aperture bigger by 1 stop will rebalance your exposure, because the same amount of light is then entering the camera. Understanding stops will help you master exposure, especially when working in manual mode.

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SL! LSPEEN A I C

Can lens imperfections be corrected after capture?

VIGNETTING AT EDGE OF FRAME

Is it possible to improve the image quality of my basic kit lens at the post-processing stage? Tom Groves, Hove

Tim says: Over the past 20 years lens technology has come on in leaps and bounds, with the vast majority of lenses available today offering superb image quality, even at the budget end of the market. That said, no lens is free from some degree of optical imperfection, so knowing what you can do to lessen or even remove any issues in post-processing is a handy weapon in your arsenal. Let’s take a look at four of the most common optical failings and what you can do to combat them on your computer.

#2 VIGNETTING What causes it? When shooting at wide apertures, you may notice that the corners of your images are visibly darker than the centre. This is chiefly caused by the lens barrel physically blocking some of the light around the edge of the frame. It is most noticeable on images with a large, plain block of colour such as a blue sky. How do I fix it? The easiest way to eliminate vignetting is to avoid it in the first place – don’t shoot at your widest aperture in high-contrast conditions. Fortunately it’s also easy to deal with in Photoshop. As with chromatic aberration, use Filter>Lens Correction and tick the Vignette box. If you like the vignetting effect, you may even want to add more in. If so, go to the Custom tab and adjust the settings.

#3 DISTORTION CHROMATIC ABERRATION

What causes it? This is where straight lines, such as the sides of buildings, appear bent. On wide-angle lenses, lines bend outwards away from the centre (barrel distortion). On telephoto lenses, lines bend inwards toward the centre (pincushion distortion).

#1 CHROMATIC ABERRATION

How do I ﬁx it? Distortion is easy to deal with in Photoshop using the Lens Correction ﬁlter (see left), again either using the automatic correction or choosing the manual slider. Correcting distortion is less crucial in scenes without any clear straight lines, as it may not even be noticeable.

What causes it? Chromatic aberration is a result of a lens’ inability to focus all wavelengths of light at the same point on the sensor. It is often visible in the corners of the frame as green or purple fringing around high-contrast objects.

#4 LACK OF SHARPNESS

How do I ﬁx it? Fringing can be easily removed in almost all photo editing software. In Photoshop, go to Filter>Lens Correction and then choose the Auto Correction tab, which uses a lens proﬁle for improved accuracy. Tick the Chromatic Aberration box and any fringing will be removed. You can also tweak the settings yourself, if you prefer, using the three sliders in the Custom tab.

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What causes it? Cheaper lenses with a less sophisticated optical design and lower quality glass tend to be less sharp than top-end models, especia in the corners of the frame and at wider apertures. How do I ﬁx it? A lack of sharpness can’t strictly be ﬁxed in post-processing but you can improve the problem by sharpening. Duplicate your Background layer with Ctrl+J, then go to Filter> Other>High Pass. Set Radius to 5, click OK, then in the Layers palette change the Blending Mode of the top layer from Normal to Overlay and reduce the Opacity to 30%.

Know Your Stuff Below Lens adapters can be added to attach older lenses to newer cameras.

Should I use a UV ﬁlter on my lens? Should I invest in a UV ﬁlter for my DSLR? Bryan Williams, Carlisle

Can I use old ﬁlm lenses on a modern digital body? I have a few old ﬁlm cameras gathering dust and wondered whether it’s possible to use the lenses on my DSLR? Brady Stevens, Nottingham

Kirk says: Absolutely. Using vintage lenses on a DSLR is a great way to save spending a fortune on expensive glass, and often produce quirky results with plenty of character. In some cases, you can attach older lenses to your DSLR without the need for an adapter. Canon, for example, hasn’t changed its current EF mount since 1987, so any SLR lens made in the past 32 years will ﬁt straight on. Using lenses made prior to this date requires an adapter. Canon lenses manufactured in 1971-1987 need an FD to EF mount adapter. Those made in 1964-1971 need an FL to EF mount adaptor, and in 1959-1964 an R to EF mount adapter. Nikon has used the same F mount since 1959, but it tweaked it in 1977 to facilitate a function called auto-indexing (AI). Do not attempt to mount a pre-AI

lens on a modern Nikon DSLR (except the DF) as it could cause damage. Any AI lens will mount safely on any Nikon DSLR, though only some DSLR models will support a working light meter. If your camera doesn’t have a coupling tab, you’ll need a separate light meter, or simply guess at the exposure. For Pentax users it’s more straightforward. The company has been using the same K-mount since 1975, so all of its SLR glass can be mounted on a Pentax DSLR. Some can only be used in the camera’s manual mode, whereas others will work in Av and Tv. All should meter correctly, and autofocus should work if the lens has it. Sony DSLT users can mount most Minolta A-mount lenses without issue. Whatever vintage lens you own, the chances are there’s an inexpensive adapter out there that will allow you to use it on a modern camera, though some research will be needed online to check compatibility. Obviously using vintage lenses often means no AF, and sometimes a non-functioning light meter, but this is all part of the fun.

Tim says: Back in the days of film, UV filters were a kitbag essential. Film is sensitive to UV light, and on sunny days or at high altitudes, it could cause an unwanted bluish haze across the image. Digital sensors are not affected by UV light because DSLRs have a UV filter built in, so adding another isn’t necessary. A filter also means an extra layer of glass between the scene and the sensor, so there will be some impact on image quality, as well as some reduction in the amount of light reaching the sensor, and the possibility of added lens flare. Where UV filters can be beneficial is in protecting the front element of your lens from getting scratched, so if you own expensive glass you might opt to leave one on. If you do, invest in a good quality filter from a reputable brand such as Hoya or Lee. Try to find a UV filter that still allows you to secure your lens cap as this isn’t always th Alternatives to UV filt for protective purposes are protection filters or skylight filters, neither of which will affect the look of your image to any great degree.

Which aperture for best qua I’ve heard that some apertures are sharper than others, but which is the sharpest? Paula Grant, Bath Adam says: Most lenses perform best optically at mid-range apertures, usually around f/8. To be more exact, the sweet spot of a lens tends to be 2-3 full stops down from the widest aperture. So if your lens goes to f/2.8

wide open, it’s likely to be sharpest at f/5.6–f/8. You probably won’t notice much difference in sharpness when using the surrounding apertures, but at a lens’ widest aperture setting, images tend to be softer, especially in the corners of the frame. At the other end of the spectrum, the very narrowest aperture also tends to be soft, due to an optical issue called diffraction, so this should be avoided where possible.

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Feedback Our experts analyse & critique your best images. Send them to ppsubmissions@bauermedia.co.uk

Ben Hawkins With over 17 years as a photographic journalist, Ben is an experienced competition judge, picture editor and writer.

The backlit glow transforms the scene, adding context to an already fascinating subject Sun-kissed safari by Keith Pritchard

Adam Atkins PP’s features writer is an accomplished professional sport, travel and commercial photographer.

Kirk Schwarz With over ten years spent as a wedding, fashion and product photographer, Kirk has an eye for ﬁner details.

After waiting a lifetime to go on safari, I wanted to capture not just images of animals, but images that would remind me of what it was like to be on the Maasai Mara. One evening we came across this group of cheetahs walking across the grassland and, after patiently following them and manoeuvring into position, I ﬁnally got to frame the image I wanted. The aim was to capture one animal in sharp focus with the others fading into the background. Shooting with a long focal length in low light was my biggest challenge, made possible by the excellent optics and image stabilisation of the lens. 500px.com/kpritchard2929

Ben says: Keith, let me start by saying that it was worth the wait. This is an incredibly evocative image that captures both the Maasai Mara’s vast expanse of savannah and the cheetah’s magisterial poise and elegance. And that gorgeous evening light is worthy of a page in National Geographic. In fact, it reminds me of the kind of light that top travel pro (and former PP columnist) Philip Lee Harvey specialises in – a sumptuous backlit glow that can transform a scene in a heartbeat and add context to an already fascinating subject. More than just a record shot of a beautiful creature in the wild,

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I’m sure this image perfectly encapsulates what Keith set out to achieve. You can almost feel the dry breeze on your face. On a technical level, it’s impressive. Although Keith claims to be ‘at the bottom of a very steep learning curve’, his use of evaluative metering dealt with the tricky lighting very well. Image quality is clean as a whistle, with only the slightest hint that a little sharpening was applied at the editing stage. And this is the only fault, because the lead cheetah isn’t quite pin-sharp. Image stabilisation provides a massive helping hand, but it’s no substitute for solid camera technique, and shooting handheld at 1/160sec with a focal length of 360mm is always going to be challenging. If in doubt, increase ISO to ensure that shutter speed is equal to, or greater than, focal length. Saying that, this is still a superb reminder of a once-in-a-lifetime safari.

TIP TRY HIRING BEFORE YOU BUY Need a fast telephoto for a special trip? Hire one! Specialists such as lensesforhire.co.uk offer a huge range.

Canon 5D MkIV | 360mm | 1/160sec | f/6.3 | ISO 160

Using image stabilisation IS, VR, OIS... while every manufacturer has its own fancy acronyms, all image stabilisation tech falls into two basic categories – lens based and in camera. Though fundamentally different, both types allow for sharper shots to be taken at slower shutter speeds, sometimes by up to as much as 7.5 stops slower (take a bow the Olympus E-M1X). This means that if

you’re using a 50mm lens, you could (in theory) use shutter speeds as slow as 2 seconds and still get sharp shots. The downside is that it’s harder to achieve sharper results when photographing moving subjects at slower shutter speeds, so use image stabilisation alongside the exposure triangle and try increasing ISO or aperture for a faster shutter speed.

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Feedback

Nikon D3300 | 200mm | f/8 | 1/125sec | ISO 100

Sepia treatment is often overcooked, but not here Sepia thistles by Michael Brown Having retired last year and not taken many photographs in the previous 20 years, I started again with renewed interest. My subject matter is eclectic. I walk around the local area, and recently I’ve been on a few coach trips to various towns and villages in the east. This photo was taken on one of these trips. The thistles were close to the edge of a pond and I framed up using the rule-of-thirds so I wouldn’t have to crop in the edit. Then I added the split-toning effect in Adobe Camera Raw – I just hope I haven’t overdone it!

Adam says: This is a lovely image, Michael. Sepia is a treatment that is often

78 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

overcooked, but not here. It adds a pleasing warmth and softness to the image that’s all the better for it. Were it simply converted to black & white, it wouldn’t be nearly as engaging. The starkness would give an entirely different feel. Compositionally this shot is excellent. Positioning the thistle using the rule-ofthirds draws the viewer in. The shadowy area of bokeh (the out-of-focus area) in the background acts as a frame that keeps your attention on the thistle, while the highlight area of bokeh gives texture to the image, and it’s perfectly exposed to contrast nicely with the darker tones. There’s not much in the way of criticism that we can offer here. If we’re pushed,

Get a sharper thistle To enhance the contrast between the spiky thistles and smooth background bokeh, sharpening can be applied in Photoshop. Head up to Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen. In the options panel, set the Radius to 2px and Remove to Lens Blur. Then move the Amount slider until you see the sharpening start to take hold. Don’t push the effect too far, or you’ll see an unsightly halo appear around the edges of subjects in the image.

the thistle could beneﬁt from a tighter crop to cement its position on the third line, and a little gardening would help to clean up the ﬂowering head and leaves, which would make for a more pleasing

arrangement of thistles in the scene. But we’re splitting hairs now and stepping into subjective territory. All in all, it’s a pleasant natural world capture and well-executed edit.

Canon 6D | 30mm | f/13 | 37sec | ISO 100

The high tide and sunset have made a minimalist scene Bridge to nowhere by Melih Cavli This bridge crosses the Biel Water, a large stream that runs through the village of Biel, just south of Dunbar. I arrived well before sunset, but it rained non-stop and I was about to leave when the rain stopped and the clouds changed colour. I knew a long exposure would suit this location, so used a 6-stop ND ﬁlter. I enhanced highlights and shadows, then applied lens correction and noise reduction in Lightroom, before applying some high pass sharpening in Photoshop. instagram.com/melihcavli

Ben says: What a curiously surreal photo! I had never heard of this bridge before seeing Melih’s shot, but it

seems this odd sight is a daily occurrence – at low tide, it provides access to the beach beyond, while at high tide the surrounding land is swallowed up and so the bridge appears stranded. In this instance, the combination of high tide and

richly-coloured sunset has created a strangely beguiling, minimalist scene. Any detail on the water’s surface has been smoothed out owing to the super-long shutter speed, and the bank of orange clouds, top-right, point to the bridge, as if to say ‘Look here!’.

The positioning of the bridge itself could’ve been improved to create a more harmonious visual balance. It’s neither perfectly central nor far enough off-centre to appear deliberate – easily remedied by applying a simple square crop, with the bridge perfectly central in the frame. Other than that, it’s hard to ﬁnd fault here, as Melih’s technique is rock solid, and seeing this may have just added yet another location to my landscape bucket list!

Straighten horizons When working with images that feature clearly deﬁned horizontal and vertical lines, it’s always a good idea to apply a grid to check for accuracy. Go to View>Show>Grid and then Photoshop> Preferences>Guides, Grids & Slices to customise your grid. In this analysis, Melih’s horizon is very slightly wonky, though we’re talking a matter of millimetres. Having applied a square crop using the Crop Tool and a 1:1 aspect ratio, then use the corner handles to carefully straighten the horizon until it’s level.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 79

The smoke and red gel combo does a great job of recreating the ﬁres of Hades Summoned by Marc Pachon The patterns I developed in painting Bella Donna reminded me of rituals from fantasy ﬁction, so I tried to create a suitable backdrop. I used a fog machine, backlit with a Speedlite 430EX II and a red gel. I lit the model from the side with a large softbox to give her a softer light. In post-processing, I set about emphasising the textures in the fog for a more ‘diabolic’ feel to her surroundings. Working with smoke is always a challenge as it very quickly overwhelms the studio! byondhelp.com

Kirk says: This is very clearly the result of a solid plan – the cornerstone to all good studio portraits. Marc clearly has the chops to face off-camera ﬂash and to use a multiple light setup, and we applaud him for this. The smoke and red gel combo does a brilliant job of recreating the ﬁres of a fantasy Hades, and the body art lends

TIP PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Working to a plan allows you

itself well to the to pre-visualise your shot scene, creating and gives a clear focus a sense of narrative. towards creating your There are a couple final image. of areas that catch our eye, and could definitely help to elevate this shot to something even more special. While the backlighting gives a solid separation, the key light feels a touch under-powered. We would also suggest using a reflector or smaller on-camera fill light to bring out the detail in the hair, which is pure black. Positioning the main light a bit more to the side would result in more dramatic shadows, and a larger softbox would give a more feathered shadow, instead of the harsher one you can currently see on the left of her body. Finally, the pose is spot on, and there’s separation in the arm and body, plus a curve to add an interesting shape. We can’t help but feel that the hand in shadow would be stronger if it were either removed from shot, or caught a touch more light.

When you’re using lighting modifiers, such as softboxes, it’s important to recognise the significance of size. The larger the light source, the softer the shadows that fall on your subject, whereas smaller lights create much harsher shadows. The sun will cast defined lines, while a diffused light through an overcast, cloud-filled sky will give a feathered edge that’s flattering in portrait shots.

80 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Canon 5D MkIV | 50mm | 1/200sec | f/6.3 | ISO 100

Mix large and small lights

Feedback

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 81

stu dent showca se

Under the skin Combining his love of street photography and portraiture, South Cuatriz is all about authenticity. My interest in photography began in secondary school, when i was gifted a digital camera by my family. i would walk home after school and use this time to experiment with my camera and explore my hometown of belfast. as i only lived ten minutes from the city centre, i would frequently take the opportunity to explore on foot, capturing urban life through the perspective of my lens. What began as a hobby quickly grew into a passion, as i began to take my camera to every place i’d go. i’ve always been inspired by street photography, as it allows me to observe and capture candid moments between certain subjects that would otherwise just pass us by. the spontaneous nature of the city compelled me to learn how to quickly set up and compose my shots, because every opportunity was fleeting. Conversely, i also learnt to be patient and wait for the perfect moment to capture a photograph, such as waiting for the right subject to walk into frame or for the appropriate lighting to illuminate a scene. i found that i had more success in documenting life in the city rather than restricting myself to a certain composition. over the last few years, i’ve focused on portraiture, refining my technique so i can convey an emotion or mood through a subject. While portraits require a considerable amount of planning to set up, i prefer to portray my subjects as accurately and genuinely as possible, so the final image reflects their true self, in their appearance, the location, the lighting and the colour palette used. i also enjoy the collaborative aspect of portraiture, as it encourages creative communication between myself and the subject so that we can achieve an authentic portrayal of their individuality. i’ve been so satisfied with the reception my work has received so far. through networking and promoting it, i’ve been presented with numerous opportunities to work alongside local businesses and artists to provide photography for their social media, online stores and events. My work allows me to bring value to others and also to gain value from them in exchange.

South Cuatriz is currently studying BA (Hons) Film and Moving Image Production at Norwich University of the Arts. instagram.com/sctrz

82 praCtiCal photography

Above South’s street-smart sensibilities feed into his thoroughly modern portrait style, which uses urban settings to complement his subjects’ poses and clothing.

Student Showcase

Waiting for his next passenger This photo was taken during a recent family holiday, while visiting relatives in Aklan in the Philippines. I had asked my cousins to guide me around town as I looked for subjects to photograph, and I noticed a long queue of tricycle drivers awaiting passengers, many of whom were resting under the shade of their vehicles due to the heat of the afternoon sun. I came across one driver who was sat in the passenger seat of his tricycle, clearly exhausted from working all day. I took the opportunity to get the shot, manoeuvring as close as I could to my desired composition without disturbing him. I was pretty satisfied with the result, as it reflected the mood of the setting and the fatigue of the tricycle drivers following a hard dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. The mono edit added to the fly-on-the-wall feel and removed any distracting colour from the scene.

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 83

TIP INVEST IN A LIGHT STAND You’ll need somewhere to place your ﬂash when you’re shooting, and a light stand is ideal. It’s a telescopic pole with tripod feet and can be picked up for as little as £15 online.

KNOWHOW PART 03 // OFF-CAMERA FLASH In our Flash Know-how series, we cast an expert eye over external ﬂashguns and how you can create more striking images by adding light to a scene. Here, Ben Davis shows you how to achieve pro lighting effects with off-camera ﬂash.

NEW ESSENTIAL

FLASH SKILLS SERIES

O CREATE FLATTERING results with a flashgun you need to be able to control the direction of the light. It’s also a great way to add depth or drama to an image. You can achieve it by bouncing the flash from a wall or ceiling, but there isn’t always a suitable surface to bounce from. It’s no use outside, or in spaces with high or dark ceilings, or with vibrantly-coloured walls. And using direct flash just doesn’t yield pleasing results. The solution is to use off-camera flash and take complete control of the direction of the light.

What is off-camera flash? Off-camera flash is the process of firing your flashgun when you take a picture without it being mounted to your camera’s

84 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Flash Know-how

learn the lingo off-camera flash Don’t be baffled by technical jargon! We cut through some of the most common terms used for flash... n Off-camera flash Off-camera flash is also known as Ocf, wireless flash and remote flash – all referring to the same thing. It’s the process of using your flashgun without it being attached to your camera, thus giving control of the direction of the light. n slave mODe The slave mode allows you to fire your flash when it senses the flash from another flashgun. This is great if you’re working with multiple flashguns and the brands aren’t compatible. You don’t need to use the slave mode when firing your flash with a radio trigger. n channels most radio transmitters and receivers offer 16 channels to operate on, and both devices need to be on the same channel to communicate. The channels are there in case you are working alongside other photographers with the same triggers. n TrIgger & receIver The trigger locks onto your hotshoe and sends a signal to the receiver – which is attached to the flash – telling it to fire. n grOups groups are needed when working with multiple flashguns and allow you to control different flashes individually so you can change their power settings.

hotshoe. there are a variety of ways a flashgun can be told to fire. one of the easiest ways is with a set of radio triggers. the transmitter sits on your hotshoe and sends a radio signal to the receiver – which is attached to the flash – telling it to fire. Some flashguns even have built-in radio receivers which makes shooting that bit simpler. you can also use a flashgun remotely with a flash sync cable, or by setting the flash to slave mode and triggering it with another flash, though we wouldn’t recommend either of these methods over using radio triggers.

Why should I learn it? mastering off-camera flash will revolutionise anyone’s photography. it’s a powerful tool that allows you to take

much greater control of the light and lets you render more depth in your images, so subjects appear more 3D. you can use it to remedy challenging natural light, and to get creative by adding light to a scene. it’s addictive, too. that’s because there’s a real reward in creating more amazing images!

What do I need? let’s assume you already own a flashgun. it’s worth checking if your flash has builtin wireless capability and can be triggered either by your camera or by a transmitter that you can attach to the hotshoe. if it doesn’t, then a set of radio triggers can be purchased online for under £20. a number of third-party manufacturers, such as Neewer and yongnuo, offer affordable and perfectly capable flash triggers.

above attaching a radio trigger unit to your camera’s hotshoe allows you to control your flashgun remotely.

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 85

settings how to shoot with offcamera flash

on’t be Put off when you find out you need to set up both your camera and flash manually. it’s easy and intuitive, and gives you complete control over your image. begin by setting your camera’s exposure to capture the ambient light. usually, when using flash, it’s best to slightly underexpose the background so your illuminated subject ‘pops’ in the frame. Start by dialling in the shutter speed, and unless you have a high Speed Sync flash (hSS) you’ll have to stick to the camera’s flash sync speed, so set it to 1/250sec. Select an iSo appropriate to the overall brightness of the scene – the darker the ambient light, the higher you’ll need your iSo. finally, dial in your aperture setting so that when you take a test frame the scene is marginally underexposed. you’re now ready to set up the flash. with it on manual mode set the power to 1/16 and – with your trigger and receiver attached – set it in place and take a test shot. to alter the brightness of the flash, either adjust the power up or down or reposition the flash closer to or further away from your subject. if you want to let more ambient light into your exposure, shoot with a slower shutter speed or higher iSo.

tip watch the speed limit Most cameras have a flash sync speed of 1/250sec, which means you can’t set your shutter speed faster than this when using a normal flash.

three easy steps to shoot with off-camera flash

Attach the radio trigger

Set up the flash receiver

Shoot and check

In order to tell your flash to fire, you need to attach the radio trigger to your camera’s hotshoe. Simple versions of triggers and receivers are set to transmit or receive. If you’re using this kind, set the trigger to Tx so it transmits the radio signal. If you’re using a flashgun that has built-in wireless capability, attach the trigger to your hotshoe, set the Channel to 1 and adjust the flash power of Group A to your desired setting.

If you’re using a flashgun with built-in wireless shooting then select the Rx mode so that it knows to be waiting for a radio signal. Ensure the flash is on Channel 1 and Group A, or the same settings as your flash trigger. If, instead, you’re using a basic set of triggers, then attach the receiver unit to your flash’s feet, set the switch to the Rx option and make sure your flashgun is on and in manual mode, not TTL.

To check it’s working, you can either press the test button on the trigger unit or take a test shot. If it isn’t, check the triggers are set to Tx and Rx respectively, or that they are on the same Channel and the flash is in manual mode. With everything working you’re now ready to choose the position of your light. Set the lightstand in place and take a shot. Check if you need to alter the flash power to change the subject exposure.

86 Practical PhotograPhy

PracticalPhotograPhy.com 86

Flash Know-how

THREE CREATIVE PORTRAITS WITH OFF-CAMERA FLAS

ECIDING WHERE TO POSITION YOUR light will have a huge impact on your image It’s great to experiment and discover the different effects you can achieve, but for starters here are three techniques to try.

SIDE LIGHT YOUR SUBJECT TO CREATE MORE DEPTH

Lighting your subject from a different direction to your ca angle will help create contours in your image. As the ligh across the subject, it gradates from highlight to shadow making a much more interesting image than having the flash on your camera, which gives a flat light. The key with off-camera flash shooting is to experiment. Not only is it fun, but it’s also the best way to learn. Subtle adjustments to the positioning of your flash can have a big impact upon the look of your image. As a starting point, place the flash at a 45º angle to your subject, position it a couple of metres away and ask your subject to turn their body towards the light. This helps with both the lighting and the composition. For this image, the camera was in manual mode with the shutter speed set to 1/60sec, aperture at f/4 and ISO 800. Set the flash to 1/16 power and, with your triggers attached and set up, take a test shot. If you want to make the flash brighter, increase the power to 1/8 or position the flash closer to your subject. To make the flash darker, reduce the power to 1/32 or place the flash further from your subject.

Although using off-camera flash creates much more interesting lighting for your images, the light itself is still hard as the source is relatively small. This means the light will have harsh shadows and isn’t the most flattering for portraiture. A great way to create soft flattering light is to combine off-camera flash with bounce flash techniques. You’ll need a light-coloured surface such as a ceiling to bounce the flash from, so position your flash to fire towards the ceiling betwee the flashgun and your subject, coming from a 45º angle. This w create soft, directional lighting perfect for portraits. By using off-camera flash you have much more control over the direction of the light for creative results.

This portrait was created with just one flashgun, by a mix of backlighting and bounce spill lighting. To do it, place your flashgun behind your subject and point it slightly upwards so it is lighting their back. This will add a rim light effect to the outline of your subject. If you’re shooting indoors or in an enclosed space, some of the light from the flash will reflect off the nearby surfaces and light the front of your subject to bring out the detail on their face. Increase the flash power if you want to boost the spill lighting on the face.

OFFCAMERA BOUNCE

CREATE RIM LIGHTING

NEXT ISSUE MODIFY THE LIGHT FOR CREATIVE RESULTS PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 87

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theedit

Create an artistic composite pet portrait Combining a classic portrait with a sympathetic overlay adds a creative twist to an age-old technique. Kingsley Singleton explains how.

hotoshoP has all the tools you need to turn your photographic visions into reality. Broken down into small steps with simple tools that you’ve probably used many times before, creating a complicated-looking image such as this can be a breeze. What it really takes to make an image like this is the desire to experiment, a dollop of patience, and some flexibility. go with the flow, and as you explore what makes the technique work, you may very well end up creating something far better than you visualised at the start.

Find a vision this composite technique gives portrait images a slightly surreal and painterly look, with a style that’s partly regular stylised photo and partly multiple exposure. therefore you need to find a balance between a strong subject and all the other

photographic elements that work with it. that’s where experimentation comes in, because once you’ve decided on a portrait you may go through many textures and scenes before you find one that matches your vision.

Pick a subject here, we’ve used a portrait of a very handsome Dobermann as the starting point, but you can use a human subject, or even a shot of something like a building. What’s important is that it has a clearly defined and recognisable shape. For the overlaid parts, we’ve opted for two natural woodland shots that seem to represent where the dog would like to be. in themselves, these overlay shots are nothing special. the three elements are then brought together using Photoshop’s layers and selections, and we’ll also show you how to use layer Masks and Blending Modes to make it work.

original Above Any simple portrait should work – a clean background makes using it easier.

overlay 2

overlay 1

tip! Images like this work really well in a series, so if you get the taste, try creating several along the same theme.

Above A textured woodland scene like this suits the subject, though we’ll need to use only parts of it in the final portrait composite.

90 Practical PhotograPhy

Above We’ll use these treetops, inverted to form the bottom of the composite.

after

CAMERA & PHOTOSHOP SKILLS

WHAT YOU NEED n Photoshop n A portrait with a clearly deﬁned proﬁle n A simple background image for the overlay

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 91

THEEDIT

TIP! Make things more simple by shooting your subject’s portrait against a clean or contrasting background.

Get the shots The shooting element of this technique is pretty limited, but it pays to start the right way, as this will make the editing easier. When shooting the portrait, make sure you take a few frames with different angles on the subject to give you some choice. The ‘scenic’ elements can be shot to order, but check your archive for something to practise on.

Shoot your portrait image

First seat your subject against a blank background This could be a plain wall, a bespoke po backdrop like the Lastolite one used here, or even a large reﬂector, if the subject is small. Anything low-contrast is good. Next, decide how much of the scene you want to be in focus. A very shallow depth-of-ﬁeld can make cutting out more tricky, which is why it’s often best to use smaller apertures like f/11 or above for the portrait shot. Focus on the eyes and then shoot.

Find an image for the overlay

This is mostly an aesthetic choice, but it can help to match images in terms of de ﬁeld and resolution. So if you’re shooting to order, and your portrait is sharp front to back, make sure the same is true of the scene. Equally, don’t expect a low-res scene to work well with a high-res portrait – you’ll notice a drop in quality if you need to enlarge the former too much.

Combine the shots in Layers There’s a lot of variation that will go into your ﬁnal image, but over the following steps we’ll set out the basics. Like many composites, it all starts with making a good selection...

Above Photoshop uses contrast and colour to help make selections, so shoot with this in mind and you’ll have an easier time cutting the subject out when it comes to editing.

TIP! Make sure you’re happy with the selection before continuing, because you’ll use it several times over.

Begin with the Quick Selection Tool

Open up your portrait image, and pick the Quick Selection Tool (W). Before using the tool manually, in the Options bar, try clicking on Select Subject. If you have a clean, or contrasting, background this should hopefully pick the subject out. If any parts are missed, click on them with the tool.

92 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Reﬁne the selection with Select & Mask

The Quick Selection Tool ust gives you the basic selection, so in the Options bar, click on Select & Mask, to launch options for reﬁning it. Zoom in on the edge for a clear view, and then near the top of the palette, click the Smart Radius box, and then move the Radius slider to the right. As you do, you’ll see ﬁne details like hair, or areas of blur get a better look to them. Move the Feather slider to 0.5px to give any hard edges a better look and then set Output to Selection. Click OK.

CAMERA & PHOTOSHOP SKILLS

Copy the subject, crop and ﬁll

Press Ctrl+J. In the Layers palette (Window>Layers), hit Ctrl+Alt+C to open Canvas Size, and set the short edge to the same as the long. Press OK, then in the Layers palette, click the Background layer. Press Ctrl+Shift+N, click OK, then go to Edit>Fill. Set Opacity to 100% and Content to White. Click OK.

Recompose the new layer

Click on the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers palette and then click the link icon between the layer thumbnail and the mask. Click on Layer 3’s thumbnail and press Ctrl+T. Making sure Maintain Aspect Ratio is active in the Options bar, drag the corner handles so it ﬁts the subject, then click the tick.

Finish masking and add colour

Click Layer 1’s thumbnail, then Ctrl+click it to load the selection. Click Add Layer Mask, and paint 100% black across the bottom, so white shows through. Now click on Layer 2 and press Ctrl+U. Click Colorize, then drag Lightness to -10. Set the Hue and Saturation to get a colour you like and click OK.

Add the second image and start blending

Open the pic to use with the subject and press Ctrl+A to select it all, then Ctrl+C to copy it. Close it and back on the subject press Ctrl+V to paste it in. Now click on the new layer’s thumbnail and drag it to the top of the stack. Hold Ctrl and click on Layer 1 to load it as a selection.

Mask the layers together

Pick the Brush Tool (B), click on the Brush presets picker in the Options bar, and choose a soft edge. Set Opacity to 100% and press D then X to set black. Paint over the subject’s eyes to reveal them and along the bottom of the frame, too. Then lower the Opacity and paint across the subject to make a soft join.

Add more layers to your composite

The simple skills of selecting and masking help add other elements. Here we copied in the treetop image and set its Blending Mode to Multiply. It was then a simple case of reloading the original selection and using that as the basis for Layer 5’s mask, before Transforming it into place as before, and painting black in where we didn’t want to see the trees. When ﬁnished, go to Layer>Flatten Image.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 93

THEEDIT

ways to ﬁx digital noise in your pics

Increase your camera’s ISO setting, and the amount of grain in an image builds, too. Kingsley Singleton shows how to deal with it.

Defeat digital noise with the right RAW skills

HEN YOU SHOOT IN RAW, NO adjustments are made to images by the camera, and that includes High ISO Noise Reduction, whether it’s active or not. That means noise reduction must be applied in editing, and in many ways that’s good as it gives you plenty of control. You’ll also ﬁnd that digital noise becomes clearer when you boost shadows and exposure, so it’s a good idea to take a look at it only after other settings are applied. Photoshop’s Adobe Camera Raw interface lets you control both luminance noise, which is the grain, and colour noise, which is saturated speckling, and we’ll look at doing both here, and in the accompanying video lesson.

BEFORE NOISE VISIBLE

WHAT YOU NEED n Photoshop or Elements n JPEG or RAW ﬁles shot using high ISO settings

AFTER NOISE REDUCTION

Above This RAW ﬁle was shot at ISO 1600, and lightened in Camera Raw, so it’s no surprise that digital noise is visible, especially when viewed close up. This noise can be quickly suppressed using the Noise Reduction settings in the Detail tab.

Attack the Luminance noise

Open your RAW file into Photoshop and it will launch the Camera Raw interface. Now, either using the Zoom Tool, or with the Select Zoom Level box, set the zoom to at least 100% – or more if working on hi-res files. Next, under the Histogram, click on the Detail tab to locate the Noise Reduction options. First move the Luminance slider to the right to reduce the grain. You can see the effect more clearly if you hold the Alt key as you do it. Take it to a point where the grain is suppressed, but don’t go too far or the image will look very flat.

94 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Apply the Luminance Detail and Contrast

Reducing the Luminance noise will ﬂatten out some of the detail in the image, so to compensate move the Luminance Detail slider to the right. You’ll see some of the grain return, so stop when it gets too high. Reducing Luminance noise can also affect contrast, so if that’s the case in your image, move the Luminance Contrast slider to the right, but stop if it starts to look blotchy. Like the main Luminance slider, both the Detail and Contrast sliders work with the Alt key to give a greyscale preview to help make the effect more visible.

PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS

AFTER

Control the colour noise if required

Luminance noise is more obvious than Color noise, and you may not see the latter at all except in images shot at extended ISOs. The Color slider is set to 25 by default and that is usually enough, but you can increase it if colour blotches are obvious. Take it to 0 and you’ll see a lot of red, green and blue speckles in the image. The Color Detail and Color Smoothness sliders control the overall Color noise reduction effect – the former particularly around edges, while the latter reduces the roughness of colour speckles. Click Open Image to ﬁnish.

EXPERT ADVICE ADDING SHARPNESS AFTER NR When adding sharpness, it’s important not to undo all the work you’ve done in controlling noise. Add too much and the remaining noise will be exaggerated. One of the most useful sliders in preventing this is Masking. Hold Alt as you move the Masking slider and you’ll see areas of black and white appear. Black affects low contrast areas like skies, where noise can be more noticeable, so increase it to cover those before sharpening.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 95

THEEDIT

Use the Reduce Noise filter in Photoshop F YOU’VE SHOT IN RAW, YOUR best bet is to remove noise in your RAW conversion, but if you’re working on a JPEG file you can use the Reduce Noise filter in Photoshop’s main editing area. This is also useful if you want to apply different levels of noise reduction to separate parts of an image, for instance, using more reduction in flat areas like a sky or blurred water than in areas of detail and texture where noise is inherently less visible. If you want to go down that route, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer before you start adding the filter.

NO NOISE REDUCTION

NOISE REDUCTION ON

Right Shot at ISO 1600, and with the shadows lightened in processing, there is a grainy look to this image, but we can smooth out the noise using a ﬁlter.

Control the ‘any colour’ noise

Open your shot into Photoshop and go to Filter>Noise> Reduce Noise. Make sure Basic is selected, and then zoom in using the Preview window, so you’re at 100% or over, and can see the level of noise in the image clearly. Zero all of the sliders, then examining the shadow areas of the image, where noise will be most prevalent, ﬁrst move the Reduce Color Noise slider to the right so that any red, green or blue pixels are hidden. There shouldn’t be much colour noise in the image, in contrast to the grainy look of luminance.

96 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Reduce luminance noise and ﬁx details

Come up to the Strength slider which controls the overall level of noise reduction. Move this right until you’re happy with the level of grain in the image, but remember that it doesn’t need to be totally grain-free. Clicking in the Preview window will toggle a before-and-after comparison. If a lot of Strength has been applied, the image may start to look flat and lacking in texture or detail. You can fix this by moving the Preserve Details slider to the right, but the more you do, the more noise will be returned. Click OK when you’re done, and save under a new filename.

PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS

Remove noise with Smart Object blending

VERAGING IS A NOISE reduction method used by astrophotographers, and it simply involves making multiple exposures of the same subject, then blending them. Because noise from high ISOs is randomly generated, if you blend multiple frames in the right way, the difference will disappear with only the consistent elements remaining. In Photoshop we can use Smart Objects to do this. Here’s how...

Open your shots into Photoshop, and then go to File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack. In the Load Layers panel click Add Open Images, and then make sure that Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images and Create Smart Object after Loading Layers are ticked. Click OK.

ORIGINAL

BLENDED

Above Averaging out the random noise in the separate frames means it’s reduced.

Load the exposures into a stack

Change the Stack Mode

In the Layers palette (Window>Layers) you’ll have a single Layer with a Smart Object icon. Go to Layer>Smart Objects>Stack Mode and pick Median or Mean to blend. Both will reduce noise, but Median is better if there are big exposure differences between frames. You can press Ctrl+Z and try both. Finally, go to Layer> Flatten Image.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 97

theedit

98 Practical PhotograPhy

PHOTOSHOP CC

WHAT YOU NEED n Photoshop CC n A dreamy portrait with a darkened background n A window overlay shot

Fake a winter window effect Kirk Schwarz shows you how to create convincing wintry portraits by combining two shots.

INTER IS ONE OF the most inspiring seasons in the photo calendar. Its pastel hues, frosty reﬂections and brisk, cool tones are all major draws for landscape photographers. However, for those of us into shooting models and portraits, the temperature drop can prove a big obstacle to getting the best from your subject. Here we’ll walk you through a simple technique to show you how to cheat the weather, while guaranteeing a happy model and stellar wintry results, all without leaving the cosy warmth of your central heating. Although it’s

technically a composite, the ﬁnal effect makes it appear as though it’s an evocative window capture, straight out of a movie. All you need is a shot of a model, preferably with a dark background to help the illusion of shooting through a window. If you want to know how we shot ours, check out this issue’s video.

Free gifts to help you For the snow and window effects, we have a raindrop overlay and a snow brush for you to download. You can ﬁnd these in your free gifts folder on the disc, or via the bit.ly/ppdisc2003 link.

BEFORE

WINDOW

Above The emotive image we’re using was shot for this issue’s video. Watch it to ﬁnd out how we captured it. Left This rainy window texture is easy to add to your scene for realistic results.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 99

THEEDIT

Open your shot

To start, open the shot you want to turn into a wintry window scene by going to File>Open. If you’re working on a RAW ﬁle, you can replicate step 2 in the conversion by moving the White Balance slider left to create a cooler colour with blue tones. If you’re using a JPEG, follow step 2 as usual.

Create cool tones for a wintry vibe

If you haven’t added a cool tone in a RAW conversion, you can remedy that now. Click on the Create new ﬁll or adjustment layer, and choose Photo Filter. Select Cooling Filter (82) and drag the Intensity slider right until you get the desired effect (35% for us). Be careful not to overdo it.

Create a misty window

To give the effect of a misty winter window, go back to the Create new ﬁll or adjustment layer icon and select Exposure. Set the Offset to around +200 and Gamma Correction to 0.95. You should have a hazy look over your model. Next, pick a soft-edged Brush Tool (B) and set the foreground colour to black. Set the Opacity to 10%, which you can do by pressing 1 on the keyboard, or inputting 10% in the upper toolbar. Now, make sure you have the Layer Mask active, the small white box to the right of the Exposure Adjustment Layer. Paint once over your model to remove the haze slightly, as well as over any areas you want to bring back more clarity to. If you ﬁnd your model is still too hazy, you can build up the effect by brushing over the area again, each time removing the effect by 10%.

Add your free rainy overlay

Open your free rainy window texture. On the new document, press Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+W. Click back on the model document and press Ctrl+V to paste. Now set the Blending Mode to Screen and press Ctrl+T for Free Transform. Click and drag the corners of the bounding box to ﬁt.

100 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Add realism with condensation

Select a Color Fill Adjustment Layer, set white as the colour and click OK. Set Opacity to 30% and invert by pressing Ctrl+I. Press ‘B’ for the Brush Tool, set the Opacity to 10% and choose white as your foreground colour. Paint around the edges for a vignette, and the face to replicate steamy breath.

PHOTOSHOP CC

Add a snowy touch

Click on the rainy window layer, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set Amount to 8px and click OK. Now press Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new layer. Pick the Brush Tool (B) and right-click. Scroll down to ﬁnd your free Snow Scatter brush (see installation instructions below) and click it. Set your foreground colour to white and set the size to around 200px, or as required. Choose a small brush relative to your image, since you’ll be building up the effect. Now, at 100% Opacity and 100% Flow, brush along the corners at the bottom, as well as the bottom edge and the sides. Keep brushing to build up this effect. You want a good covering, but ensure you retain texture. Once you’re happy, repeat the beginning of this step to blur the snow, at around 10px. Lower your global Opacity to suit.

Adjust colour, contrast and saturation

Create a Colour Balance Adjustment Layer and slide the Cyan/Red left to -10 and Yellow Blue to +3. Now add a Curves Adjustment Layer and create an S curve for a touch of contrast. Finally, create a Vibrance Adjustment Layer and reduce the saturation to around -10.

Flatten and save your image

By now you should have a seasonal-looking scene to be proud of. All that’s left to do is preserve your hard work. Right-click on any layer and select Flatten Image. Now go to File> Save As and rename your shot. Change Format to JPEG and click Save to ﬁnish.

EXPERT ADVICE LOAD YOUR BRUSH After downloading your free Snow Scatter Brush from the disc or download link, you’ll be able to install it and load it. To do this, open the Brush palette by going to Window>Brushes. Click the menu in the upper right corner and select Import Brushes. Select the downloaded .abr ﬁle and click Open. Still in the Brushes palette, scroll down through the list of brushes until you ﬁnd Snow Scatter Brush, and click on it. You’ll now have your free brush selected to use. You may notice it doesn’t act like a normal brush. This is because we have tweaked it in the Brush Settings palette to give it a snow-like nature.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 101

THEEDIT

Make a punchy mono from a RAW file Kirk Schwarz walks you through four simple steps to get the most out of your black & white street conversions using Adobe Camera Raw. UCCESSFUL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY RELIES on the photographer’s skill in capturing the opportunistic scene in front of them, documenting the hustle and bustle of everyday life. In this shoot-from-the-hip genre, shooting in RAW gives maximum flexibility and control in the edit, helping to tease the best out of every image. Street scenes can be full of contrasting colours that fight for attention with a subject, so one of the class edits is a black & white conversion, and that’s possible to achieve directly from a RAW file. Photoshop’s built-in Adobe Camera Raw software has a range of exposure tools to be found in the Basic tab that can be used to get the most out of a full-colour file as a mono conversion. It also has the functionality to add grain and vignette effects for a gritty finish. ACR’s various sliders give full control of the tones in the image for a bespoke black & white effect. Here’s how…

BEFORE

Open your RAW ﬁle into Photoshop

Go to File>Open, choose the RAW ﬁle you’d like to work on and click Open to bring it into Camera Raw. In the Basic tab, correct the exposure by dragging the Exposure slider to the right to brighten, or the left to darken. Add some contrast by moving the Contrast slider right to a value of around +20 for a subtle effect, then move the Highlights slider left to bring back any highlights that have lost detail. You can also use the Shadows slider, pulling it right, to bring back any detail that’s been lost in shadows. Take care not to push these controls too far, otherwise they may affect the image quality. You should now have a well-exposed image with a solid tint of contrast. Take a second to make sure you don’t have any areas that are pure white or black. If you do, use the Highlights and Shadows sliders to remedy this following the steps above.

102 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Reﬁne the contrast

Go to the HSL Adjustments tab and click on Luminance. Each slider will control the brightness of its respective colour. Orange is mo often found in skin tones, so grab the and drag it right to +25 to make your subject pop. Repeat this to affect their clothing to make sure they stand out in the scene. Go to the Tone Curve tab to ﬁne-tune the contrast. You will want to create an S-shaped curve on the graph. To do this, make sure it is set to Point. Click where the ﬁrst two lines intersect and drag down, then click on the top-right intersection and drag up, as shown (right).

WHAT YOU NEED n Photoshop n A RAW ﬁle in the street photography genre that needs some added punch

PHOTOSHOP

AFTER

Desaturate your shot

Click back onto the Basic tab and ﬁnd the Vibrance and Saturation sliders. Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left to desaturate your shot and convert it into black & white. You can now tweak your settings from step 1 if required. Now you’re working in mono, it’s time to add some Clarity to boost the local contrast to bring out the details from your shot. To do this, ﬁnd the Clarity slider and move it to the right. This is a very powerful slider, so be careful not to push it too far – no further than +30 to avoid creating halos in high-contrast areas. If you’re using Photoshop CC 2020, you can also take advantage of the Texture slider, which enhances details. This isn’t as destructive as the Clarity slider. Using both of these sliders together will give the best effect. Then click on the Effects tab and move down to the Vignette slider. Shift it left to -25 to darken the borders of the frame, drawing attention to your subject in the centre.

Draw attention with selective edits

The ﬁnal stage brings attention to areas you want viewers to see. On the top bar, click on the Graduated Filter, or press G. Click and drag on the left-hand side of the image, and you’ll notice green and red lines. Green signiﬁes where your adjustments end, and red is where they’re feathered out to. You can click and drag both to make either a harder or more feathered adjustment. Any edits you make while in this mode will only apply to this area, so take the Exposure slider and move it left to darken the area, drawing attention to your subject. Click on the New button at the top of the Basic tab and repeat this step from the right-hand side. Select the Radial Filter, or press J. This works in a similar way to the Graduated Filter, though creates a circular effect. Click and drag until the area is big enough to encompass your subject. Make sure the Effect is set to Inside, and increase Exposure to make this area stand out. Once you’re happy with your edit, click Open Image to take it into Photoshop, then go to File>Save As to save it.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 103

THEEDIT

Enhance street shots with free presets Kirk Schwarz takes you through how to install and start using your 30 free one-click presets for Photoshop, Lightroom and Afﬁnity.

TREET IS ONE OF the oldest and most challenging genres in photography. Not only do you need the patience of a saint, but in many cases, a modicum of luck can also be advantageous. That said, managing to capture the perfect shot can be one of the most rewarding moments in modern photography, and the only step between you and glory is doing it justice in the edit… and that’s where these free presets

Q Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC or Afﬁnity Q A street photo that needs a timeless edit applied

come in. Our range of Actions, Presets and Macros have been specially designed to give you a range of options for the perfect street photography edit. There are ultra-contrasty monos, washed-out retro tones and bags of vintage grain to choose from. All you need to do is follow the steps to install them. Right These street photography presets are designed for a wide range of styles and lighting.

Load your free Presets for Lightroom

Open Lightroom and head to File>Import Develop Profiles and Presets. Find the Presets file on your disc or download, and click Open to import them all. In the Presets module, navigate to the PP Collection folder, enlarge it by clicking the left-hand arrow and then select your chosen Preset. You can now make tweaks to that Preset by using the various Develop modules found along the right-hand side until you’re satisfied with your finished result.

104 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

WHAT YOU NEED

Load your Actions for Photoshop CC

In Photoshop, open the Actions panel by going to Window>Actions. Click the menu in the top right and choose Load Actions to find the downloaded folder. When loaded, click the arrow to the left to enlarge and pick the Action of your choice. It will load up as a group in the Layers palette (Window>Layers), which you can expand by clicking and adjusting the effects to taste. Begin by lowering the overall Opacity of a group to lessen the effect. If this isn’t enough, click on the left-hand arrow of a group to unpack it, and then click to select the individual layers to lower the Opacity or change the values of each edit.

FREE ACTIONS & PRESETS

SUMMER SWIM AFFINITY

WEATHERED LIFE PHOTOSHOP

YESTERYEAR LIGHTROOM

EXPERT ADVICE ALTER OUR PRESETS FOR YOUR SHOTS Once you’ve applied the Actions, Presets or Macros, you may notice the effect is too strong or weak for your shot. Thankfully, each is fully customisable. If you’re in Lightroom, you can alter the effects by using the sliders on the right of the Develop Module. In Photoshop, you can open the group of layers that combine to make the effect by clicking on the arrow to the left. Once you have the layers displayed, you can then toggle their visibility on and off by clicking the eye icon, change the Opacity of the layer group, and even click the layers to alter their properties. Similarly, in Affinity, you can click on the individual layers and toggle them on or off by clicking the tick box, or change the Opacity and strength to really make them your own.

Load your free Macros for Affinity Photo

To open your Macros in Affinity, head to View> Studio>Library. With the open Library tab, click on the hamburger menu icon in the top right and choose Import Macros. Select the Macros you would like to import from the PP Collection folder and click Open. When loaded you’ll notice them appear in the Library tab. Expand the collection by clicking the left-hand arrow and pick your chosen Macro to activate it. The individual edits will appear in the Layers tab. You can now group them by clicking each Adjustment while pressing Ctrl, and then pressing Ctrl+G. You can alter the overall Opacity of the Layers in a group, or expand the group to alter the individual Opacity of each Adjustment Layer to suit your taste. You can also make Layers invisible by clicking the tick to the right of the layer thumbnail to toggle them off or on.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 105

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PITTING CANON’S 90D AGAINST THE M6 MK II PAGE 118

GetIntoGear The most in-depth and unbiased reviews of the latest products 110

Sony α7R IV

With 61MP bursts and class-leading focus, has Sony redeﬁned the 35mm?

Fujiﬁlm X-Pro3 114

124

Nikon Z 50

Is Nikon’s ﬁrst APS-C CSC the answer to our prayers?

128

Canon EOS M200

Boldly hiding the LCD, Fujiﬁlm takes the next steps in its X Series excellence.

118

Canon battle

The ultimate mirrorless v DSLR ﬁght as Canon’s M6 MkII takes on the 90D for the title of best enthusiast APS-C.

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NO STRAIN, NO GAIN

Busting from the 35mm full-frame BSI sensor, 61MP puts the α7R IV streets ahead in the resolution stakes, and allows for a stunning amount of ﬁne detail capture.

1 2

POINT IT OUT

The AF system not only incorporates the latest focusing algorithms, but also offers 567 phase detection, and 425 contrast detection points that cover most of the frame.

HIPPY SHAKES

With more megapixels, the pixel pitch is much smaller than the α7R III. To combat this, the sensor housing has been designed to dampen motion and negate camera shake.

3 HIGHLY RATED PRICE

£3499 VIDEO

IMAGE RESOLUTION

61MP

SON Y

α7 R I V

The swinging sixties return With 61MP, 10fps continuous shooting, huge dynamic range and a class-leading focus system, Kirk Schwarz asks if Sony has redeﬁned what’s possible in 35mm.

ONY’S latest ﬂagship camera has smashed through the megapixel mark set by the 47MP Panasonic S1R, boasting a full-frame 61MP BSI sensor and some astounding feats.

Main features The headline-grabbing announcement is that of a medium-format rivalling 61MP BSI sensor. However, this camera is so much more

110 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

than simply a fancy high-res chip. The Bionz X image processor allows for earthshattering performance. It can rattle out 10fps with continuous AF, capture 15 stops of dynamic range and beneﬁts from 5.5 stops of image stabilisation. An improved 5760k-dot EVF gives you the best viewﬁnder experience in a Sony to date, while the 1440k-dot LCD is great for reviewing shots. It also doubles as a screen when you’re belting out 4K video

at 30fps, or composi the insanely high-re Pixel Shift Multi Sh mode, which is prog to take 16 separate i and stitch them tog The autofocus sy packs in the latest R Tracking, human an eye detection and 567 phase detection focus points, and a further 425 points of contrast detection, just for good measure. Additionally, Sony has worked to improve the body, bringing a handful of useful

GRIP IT & RIP IT

Listening to customer feedback has made Sony increase the depth of its handgrip, which makes it far more ergonomically friendly than ever before.

CAMERA TEST

A whole range of dynamism

IMAGE QUALITY

As we expect from Sony’s sensors, the dynamic range is very impressive, said to offer nearly 15 stops. Even though this shot was captured at dusk, with the ISO set to 3200, it does a great job of capturing the tonal ranges on offer. Both the highlights of the shop front and neon lights, as well as the unlit faces of the people in the foreground, are captured without blown highlights or clipped shadows. The blue sky retains subtle detail, as you can see to the bottom right of the image. Even the colours, which we haven’t edited at all, offer enough of a punch to faithfully convey the scene – colour rendition improves with every Sony release. Overall, we really can’t fault the α7R IV in this regard.

THE α7R IV RETAINS THE ABILITY TO SHOOT 10FPS CONTINUOUS RAW AT 61MP – A MIRACLE IN AND OF ITSELF tweaks and reﬁnements over the previous models.

Handling & build Most notably, the α7R IV has a slightly larger grip than its predecessor – one of the more common complaints of past systems. While the buttons remain in situ from the α7R III, key controls are bigger and better-deﬁned, such as the C3 and menu buttons. The rear joystick – key for navigating the 500-plus focus points – has a new texture that makes it easier to ﬁnd and manoeuvre. A magnesium alloy chassis makes the α7R IV feel solid in-hand, and the placement of the controls will appeal to current Sony users.

Performance Putting 61MP on a sensor is no easy task. The ﬁles are huge and unwieldy, and the sheer processing power needed to perform at an acceptable rate is like the camera equivalent of a supercomputer. Amazingly, the Bionz X chip inside the α7R IV does a grand job.

Lugging around such massive ﬁles, nearing the size of many medium-format cameras, is no mean feat. The α7R IV offers 10fps continuous shooting – a miracle in itself – with continuous focus. The AF system works as well as we’ve ever seen from Sony, packing in 567 points of phase detection and another 425 points of contrast detection. The features that have been implemented in recent times, such as the class-leading Eye-AF and

Real-time Tracking, are all here, and we simply can’t fault them. Eyes are picked up, even when you aren’t expecting them to be, and the tracking is very sticky. Acquisition is rapid, even in dim lighting, though you’ll notice it becoming a little less sure of itself as light levels go down. The images are intensely sharp, packed with ﬁne details that are aided further when using the company’s superb range of G Master lenses. Zooming in lets you see, with no shadow of a doubt, some of the sharpest and most detailed images we’ve ever captured. This is very reassuring, since one major downside of packing more pixels onto a sensor is the increased risk of motion

Above Around the camera body there are four customisable ‘C’ buttons, which allow you to set up the α7R IV to suit you.

Tech Focus What is pixel pitch? Pixel pitch refers to the density, and thus size, of the individual pixels on your sensor. It deﬁnes the distance from the centre of one pixel to the centre of the adjacent one. While the distance between pixels may not sound important, it has several rather crucial knock-on effects. A higher density, measured in microns, means less space between pixels, and generally that means each pixel receives a smaller share of light photons than a less dense array. This is why many 24MP cameras can boast an ISO range up to 51,200, while higher MPs come in with traditionally lower sensitivities. The processor is then left to interpret and reﬁne the resulting digital signals. Higher-density sensors are also more prone to camera shake than lower MP offerings.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 111

GetIntoGear

VIEWTIFUL

Joining the heavy-hitters in this class, Sony has beefed up the EVF to offer a high-resolution 0.5in 5760k-dot OLED panel with a decent 0.78x magniﬁcation. It also features a 120fps refresh rate that offers a top shooting experience.

CONTEXTURE

While the design remains largely unchanged, especially the rear control layout, key buttons have been beefed up, and the joystick is even more textured. This aims to simplify changing your settings while using the viewﬁnder.

blur. Sony has counteracted this with the 5-axis in-body image stabilisation system than can compensate for up to 5.5 stops, allowing for the capture of images devoid of shake, even when shooting at slower shutter speeds. This is further aided by a new shutter

ALSO CONSIDER THESE

unit design that dampens motions and vibrations. In fact, with the bulky but beautiful 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master, we were using 1/50sec handheld, and it produced usable results on static subjects. Although it’s not a sports camera, the 10fps burst speed

stands up to its promise, and allows you to shoot even with continuous autofocusing. One downside of the massive ﬁles comes in the shape of the buffer. Able to capture 68 RAWs in a single burst is no doubt impressive, though the time to clear the buffer is very

High-megapixel mirrorless marvels

Nikon Z 7 £2499 Boasting a 45.7MP BSI sensor, the Z 7 is Nikon’s ﬁrst stab at full-frame mirrorless. It comes with an ISO range of 64-25,600, 493-point phase detection AF system and 5-axis in-body image stabilisation. You can even capture 4K capture at 30fps, or Full HD at 120fps. nikon.co.uk

112 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Fujiﬁlm GFX 50R £3449 Offering a true digital medium-format experience, the GFX 50R gives you access to a 51.4MP sensor that’s 1.7x larger than full-frame, excellent dynamic range and a 425-point contrast detection AF system. Then there’s the ultra high-quality images that are hard to beat. fujiﬁlm.com

noticeable. You can review and shoot as it clears, though we found the experience to be slightly hampered. Of course, it’s not designed for highspeed action, and that buffer is still pretty deep, so this is very unlikely to be a deal-breaker. As with previous versions, there is a Pixel Shift Multi Shooting mode on offer. This moves the sensor slightly and then captures either four or 16 images. The latter results in a mammoth ﬁle that’s comes in at a whopping 240MP! This isn’t processed in-camera, though you can download the free software from Sony if this is something you want to try. It’s also worth noting that you’ll need to avoid moving subjects in this mode, and it doesn’t work as well handheld as other cameras we’ve tested in recent times. Delving into the shooting experience, the new highresolution 5760k-dot EVF is a dream. First introduced on the Panasonic S1 system, this is the pinnacle of viewﬁnder design, and the 120fps refresh

CAMERA TEST

Not just sharp, 61MP sharp

IMAGE QUALITY

With an excess of pixel-matter, the α7R IV can capture a breathtaking amount of detail – especially when paired with the high-resolving G Master lenses. Zooming into the ﬁle, you can holds up well, even % and 200%, with ﬁne clarity and tail evident at this hot taken at ISO 200 in the dimly-lit London dusk. At SO 100, the images re comparable to edium-format, and el-peepers will be emely happy.

IF YOU DON’T NEED THE FULL 61MP, YOU CAN SWITCH TO THE 1.5X CROP MODE, WHERE YOU’LL GET 26.2MP IMAGES rate means it’s as close to natural as you’ll ﬁnd. If you don’t need the full 61MP, you can switch to the crop mode where you’ll get a 1.5x crop of the sensor with a 26.2MP resolution. This is great for wildlife, for example, where you can increase the effective focal length of your glass, while retaining a still impressive 325-point focus system that we found kicked out a solid performance. One area that didn’t wow us is the touchscreen. Although the 3in 1440k-dot display looks great, and tilts as expected, it still fails to capture the full potential of touch controls that are being picked up by other cameras, such as Canon, where you can navigate the entire menu by touch. This isn’t a huge issue in practice, as the rest of the physical controls pick up the slack, but it is still something that would be nice to have, especially in winter where gloves or frozen hands make physical controls harder. Talking of physical, the new handgrip and button design is

very pleasing. It feels secure, and finding the right button, or whipping those focus points around with the joystick, is a breeze. This is definitely an area where the system has matured in recent times. The ISO handles well at the base settings, and the dynamic range at ISO 100 is among the best on offer. Despite smaller photosites, the images are pleasingly clean, even when pixel-peeping. In real-world terms, we were pleased with shots up to ISO 3200. Reaching ISO 6400 starts to show more noticeable signs of noise, but files were still usable. On the plus side, the in-body image stabilisation allows you to slow your shutter speed down to compensate. If you’re using

a tripod or ﬁnd yourself in bright sun, this isn’t an issue, though it shows just how hard Sony pushes the abilities of a full-frame sensor.

TECH SPEC

Camera: Sony α7R IV Price: £3499 body only Effective resolution: 61MP Sensor: 35.7x23.8mm LCD: 3in 1440-dot tilting touchscreen Shutter: Bulb, 30secs – 1/8000sec mechanical, or 1/32,000sec electronic shutter Autofocus: 567-point phase detection AF ISO: 100-32,000 Shooting speed: 10fps for

Verdict Sony is constantly pushing the boundaries, not just of what’s possible, but what’s probable, too. Packing 61MP on fullframe sensors is a huge leap forward, and it’s very easy to make it a statement piece without concentrating on features. Thankfully, this model doesn’t miss a beat, and everything you love about Sony is here – the AF, image stabilisation, and even 4K video. The design and EVF are greatly improved and the image quality is superb. Granted, the slow buffer clearance is an annoyance, though this isn’t the camera for fast action shots, and the low-light performance also falls a bit short of the α7R III, though it’s still impressive.

THE VERDICT SONY α7R IV PROS Belts out 61MP at 10fps World-class image quality Pixel Shift mode New design is a big step up EVF is stunning Handy crop mode CONS Slow buffer clearing Expensive Huge 120MB+ RAW ﬁle size will plough through storage

68 RAWs Video: 4K at 30fps Other features: Real-time Tracking, Animal Eye AF, Face and Eye AF, 240MP Pixel Shift Multi Shooting mode, Peaking MF, Image stabilisation, Zebra stripes, 26.1MP 1.5x crop mode, Mic and headphone terminals, Wi-Fi Battery life: 530 shots Card type: Dual SD, SDXC, SDHC UHS-II Size (WxHxD): 129x96x78mm Weight: 665g Web: sony.co.uk

HANDLING FEATURES IMAGE QUALITY VALUE FOR MONEY OVERALL SCORE

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 113

GetIntoGear

D IS FOR DESIGN

Keeping true to the original X-Pro rangeﬁnder design, the X-Pro3 looks every inch the classic, with the only major changes taking place on the rear of the camera.

GLASSWARE

While many will pair this with either the 23mm or 35mm f/2 Fujinon optics, which offer 35mm and 50mm equivalents, Fujiﬁlm has a wide range of excellent lenses to choose from.

HIGHLY RATED

PRICE

£1699 VIDEO

IMAGE RESOLUTION

26.1MP

TWO-FACED

The Hybrid viewfinder can be used as an EVF, or as an optical rangefinder with digital overlay. This popular feature also now offers an even wider 27° field-of-view.

F UJ I F I L M X-PRO3

Contemporary or controversial?

Boldly hiding the LCD at the behest of pros, can the X-Trans 4 26.1MP sensor, new Film Simulation mode and improved AF tempt you? Kirk Schwarz ﬁnds out.

UJIFILM IS known for its uniquely stylish products, Kaizen ﬁrmware ethos and innovative boundary pushing. This approach has never been more apparent than with the X-Pro3, a camera that has courted controversy thanks to its hidden 3in LCD touchscreen, included due to professional feedback that’s been translated as an anti-chimping mechanism. So, can the latest X Series

114 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

model breathe new life into a more traditional way of shooting?

Main features Fujiﬁlm has included the latest version of its X-Trans sensor, as well as the new X-Processor 4, that puts it on a par with the X-T3. There are perks such as the solid 425-point phase detect AF system and nippy 11fps continuous shooting with the mechanical shutter, or 30fps with the electronic Sports Finder mode with

a 1.25x crop. The ISO ranges from 160-12,800 – lower than the previous ISO base of 200 – and the EVF has been redesigned to offer a higher resolution of 3690k dots on a slightly larger 0.5in OLED panel. It also has a faster 100fps refresh rate, and increased brightness and colour space. Of course, being a hybrid viewﬁnder, the optical part has also received some love. It allows a wider 27° angleof-view and higher eye point than previous models.

ISO SPEEDY

The speed dial – a mainstay of Fujiﬁlm cameras – allows you to set shutter speed. It also doubles as the ISO control.

CAMERA TEST

Tale of tried and trusted tones

IMAGE QUALITY

When we hear someone talk about Fujifilm, the first thing that springs to mind is the renowned colour science. The mainstay of this fame is the series of Film Simulation modes – 17 JPEG presets that apply historic film looks from Fujifilm’s back catalogue. When shooting in RAW, this data is stripped out, so you’re presented with the back-end processing and sensor design for a truer image. This is where the latest X-Trans 4 chip shines. The RAW files offer a lot of flexibility in the editing process, and give an honest colour reproduction. The transition of shadows and tones is visibly soft, capturing all the detail in-between, which makes it a stunning camera for capturing dynamic lighting.

THE TONES CONFORM TO FUJIFILM’S BELOVED COLOUR SCIENCE, CAPTURING A GREAT AMOUNT OF DETAIL Handling & build The build quality is as solid as ever, with a full metal construction backed up by titanium top and bottom plates. The usual array of controls can be found on the top, with the shutter speed dial doubling up as ISO selection, while the front houses the focus mode selection switch and a lever to toggle between the electronic and optical viewﬁnder. The rear is where it gets a bit more interesting… Instead of a prominent back screen, there’s a 1.28in colour sub-monitor that shows either settings or the current Film Simulation. Tug at the back panel though, and it reveals the 3in 1620k-dot touchscreen, which can be pulled down for waist-level shooting, or further to 180°.

Performance The image quality is excellent. The APS-C chip made its debut in the X-T3, and later featured in the X-T30 – both of which are fan favourites. The tones

conform to Fujiﬁlm’s colour science, and capture stunning details. Low-light performance is as strong as it has ever been, and the increase at the base end to ISO 160 gives it more ﬂexibility over the X-Pro2, which started at ISO 200. The hybrid AF system features 425 points of phase detection – another loan from the X-T3 – and offers improved facial and eye recognition that hits the high notes set by the industry leaders. The X-Pro3

manages to perform even better than its predecessors in darker situations, rated to focus down to -6EV. In test, the AF remained impressively unphased in low light. In terms of new features, the most obvious is the Classic Neg Film Simulation. This latest addition is modelled on the Superia ﬁlm stock, and gives a harder tonal range with less saturation. It brings the Film Simulation tally up to 17 and results in an appealing retro snapshot look. You’ll also ﬁnd Monochromatic Colour, which adds colour tints to black & white shots, and an improved HDR mode to capture a series of shots before stitching them together for higher dynamic range in

Above The sub-monitor replaces the traditional top-plate LCD and gives a handy read-out of settings or Film Simulations.

Tech Focus Film Simulations What are Fujifilm’s Film Simulation modes? Simply put, they’re Fujifilm’s answer to picture styles such as vivid, landscape or standard, which can be applied to JPEGs for a range of colour styles straight out of camera. However, unlike the versions found in the settings of other cameras, these are based on real-world film effects from Fujifilm’s archives. Many are obviously identifiable, and named to match the film they purport to mimic, such as the black & white Acros and everyday 35mm Provia. Others are more general, like Classic Chrome, which seeks to cover the style of early films rather than any specific one. They’re creative features that can be used to bring classic film styles to digital images.

Above Fujiﬁlm’s Film Simulations mimic the look of classic ﬁlm stock.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 115

GetIntoGear

TWO VIEWS

The Hybrid viewfinder can be used as an EVF or as a traditional optical rangefinder, albeit with a digital overlay. This is one of the most popular aspects of the X-Pro series, and now offers an even wider 17° field-of-view.

PEEKABOO

The 3in 1620k-dot LCD is hidden, while a new 1.28in sub-monitor takes its place, and can display settings or the current Film Simulation mode. It has proved to be a talking point.

GO MINIMAL

The X-Pro3’s design follows in the footsteps of the X-T3 by removing the D-pad and shortcuts. There are now menu, quick menu and drive setting buttons for simple on-the-ﬂy shooting, and a handy joystick.

a natural way. Although we can’t see ourselves using this often, it’s still a nice feature to have, as are the bracketing modes, which have been improved. There are options to bracket exposure, Film Simulations and even focus. The latter will automatically

ALSO CONSIDER THESE

ﬁgure out the number of shots needed for your setup and rattle them off. We found it did a good job, snapping 70 shots for our scene. Of course, this isn’t processed in-camera, so you’ll have to jump into Photoshop or similar software to ﬁnish the job.

One area that will appeal to professional users is the weather sealing. When paired with a weather-resistant lens – usually marked as WR – you’ll be able to keep shooting in all conditions. Its sturdy credentials are further bolstered by the titanium

Street-friendly mirrorless cameras

Fujifilm X-T3 £1349 Backed by the same X-Trans 4 26.1MP sensor as the X-Pro3, the X-T3 is the more traditional cousin. It offers blistering burst speeds up to 30fps, the same 425-point AF system and a tilting 3in 1040k-dot touch LCD. There is access to the full range of Fujifilm lenses, 16 Film Simulation modes and an outstanding array of video options. fujifilm-x.com

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Leica M10-D £6500 This 24MP full-frame Leica embodies street photography heritage. It completely omits an LCD, replacing it with a large exposure compensation dial. The optical viewﬁnder gives a traditional rangeﬁnder experience, and Wi-Fi allows you to hook up your phone if you simply must review your shots. And it’s not cheap! uk.leica-camera.com

top and bottom plates and, for a premium, there are two alternative versions, one black and one silver, which feature a Duratect coating. This is a tough-wearing paint, which is scratch-resistant and aims to appeal to heavy users who want to keep their camera looking fresh for the years to come. We haven’t been able to put this to the test yet, though the demonstration looked very convincing. It does add another £180 to the cost though, so it could be considered a luxury for those who feel they would benefit from having it. The hybrid viewfinder – a staple of the X-Pro series – is a unique gem. Users can switch between a full EVF, or the rangefinder offset OVF, which has a graphical overlay. This is a novel way of shooting, and comes with its own benefits. There’s a small LCD panel in the bottom right corner, which can be used for either exposure or focus confirmation. An overlay shows the framing of the lens,

CAMERA TEST

Classic, crisp, and capable

IMAGE QUALITY

In contrast to the retro charm of Fujifilm, the company strives for innovation in every release, as well as with its regular free firmware updates. This means that the finder-style X-Pro3 is state-of-the-art. ring images in low light at higher s will yield impressive results, even n a par with many full-frame cameras. The X-Pro3 also allows you to focus in as little as -6EV with certain lenses, such as the 56mm f/1.2 used for this shot. The focus acquired itself rapidly, and the result is a sharp shot, ven though it was lit entirely by street hting. It was captured with the Acros Simulation, and tweaked a touch toshop using Curves for this noirish high contrast result.

THE X-PRO3 PROVIDES AN ENJOYABLE SHOOTING EXPERIENCE WITH BAGS OF VISUAL APPEAL but since it’s not through-thelens, it doesn’t reflect focal length. The overlay changes to show the frame’s width, which you’ll find useful if you’re looking to capture action. It may not appeal to ardent mirrorless users, though it’s something we recommend everyone try at least once. By now, you may well have read about the controversial LCD in the pages of this magazine. Hidden away as standard, Fujifilm claims it has been listening to feedback from current X-Pro2 users, and a majority say they prefer to use the viewfinder over the rear screen. This has lead to the new design, which sees the rear screen facing inwards by default, and the placement of a 1.28in sub-monitor on the rear of the camera. This can toggle between the current settings, as per the X-H1 or GFX, or display a chosen Film Simulation. It may not be the most necessary addition, but it is handy to have a visual representation, and the Film Simulation is charmingly

displayed as if it has been ripped from an old film box, in the style of traditional film cameras. When you do flip out the LCD screen, you’re met with a 3in 1620k-dot touchscreen that can be angled anywhere down to 180°, but strangely, we found that we weren’t tempted to reposition it. The EVF/OVF hybrid viewfinder does a great job. You can frame, shoot and navigate the menu, and even review your shots if you need to. As a challenge, we stuck to using the viewfinder and soon found ourselves enjoying the more traditional way of life, barely missing the screen at all. Of course, this isn’t as risky a move as you might

imagine. The X-Pro is very much a niche range, and Fujiﬁlm has a series of highly capable cameras with the traditional screens, should that be more suited to your taste or shooting style. For us, it all came down to enjoying the experience, and slowing down our shooting style – something Fujiﬁlm promotes rather well.

TECH SPEC Camera: Fujiﬁlm X-Pro3 Price: £1699 body only Effective resolution: 26.1MP Sensor: 23.5x15.6mm LCD: 3in 1620k-dot hidden tilting touchscreen Shutter: Bulb, 15min – 1/8000sec mechanical, or 1/32,000sec electronic shutter Autofocus: 425-point phase detection AF ISO: 160-12,800 Shooting speed: 11fps with

Verdict The X-Pro3 provides an enjoyable shooting experience. It has bags of visual appeal, and the AF, ISO and image quality are all spot on. So the question is, do you buy into its ideology? You can still review your shots via the electronic viewﬁnder, and you still have a screen, albeit hidden just a quick tug away. This means it’s still a viable option, if not all that convenient. Its bold approach meant this camera won’t immediately appeal to everyone, but in those cases, both the X-Pro2 and X-T3 are hugely capable cameras.

THE VERDICT FUJIFILM X-PRO3 PROS Exceptional image quality Great colour reproduction Film Simulation modes Trusty autofocus system Good low-light performance CONS Hidden screen will prove controversial Pricier than the current Fujiﬁlm X-T3

mechanical for 42 RAWs, up to 30fps electronic Sports Finder mode for 35 RAWs Video: DCI 4K at 30fps Other features: Fujifilm Film Simulation modes, Color Chrome Effect Blue, Sports Finder, Grain Effect, Focus Bracketing, Exposure bracketing, Eye AF Battery life: 370 shots Card type: Dual SD, SDXC, SDHC UHS-I/UHS-II Size (WxHxD): 141x83x46mm Weight: 497g Web: fujifilm-x.com

HANDLING FEATURES IMAGE QUALITY VALUE FOR MONEY OVERALL SCORE

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HOLD ON TIGHT

Even with its compact build, the M6 MkII comes with a solid handgrip that makes for comfortable shooting.

GLASSY-EYED

You can get the M6 body only for £869, or as part of a kit with the EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM zoom lens for £1299.

GETTING HIGHER

The 32.5MP APS-C sensor is found in both cameras, and represents the highest pixel count on the APS-C market.

2 3 KIT PRICE

£1299

IMAGE RESOLUTION

32.5MP

IT’S À LA MODE

The simple mode dial offers options for shooting modes, video and the creative ﬁlters.

VIDEO

H E A D -TO -H E A D

Canon EOS M6 MkII V Canon EOS 90D

We pit Canon’s brace of 32.5MP APS-C enthusiast bodies against each other to ﬁnd out if stablemates means stalemate in a head-to-head battle.

NOWN FOR its DSLR prowess, Canon has also been in the mirrorless game since 2012, with the release of the EOS M. It should be of little surprise, then, that the company has simultaneously

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launched both the 90D and M6 MkII. While the designs are wildly different, they both take advantage of the same APS-C 32.5MP sensor, as well as the latest DIGIC 8 processor. Two cameras released simultaneously by one company are bound to face comparison…

What’s the same? Each camera offers an identical resolution, as well as the same 100-25,600 ISO range, which means image quality is essentially like-forlike. The same 3in 1040k-dot touchscreen is to be found on each body, though the 90D is an articulated vari-angle

design, while the M6 features a 180° tilting ﬂip-up variety. Both cameras offer 4K video, and use the full sensor readout – a ﬁrst for any Canon consumer camera. This beats previous entries that apply a hefty crop in 4K, with many unable to use phase detection. You’ll also

HEAD-TO-HEAD

GO DIGICAL

The DIGIC 8 chip found in both cameras allows for faster burst speeds and 4K video.

KITTED UP

As with the M6, you can get the 90D as a kit with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM kit lens.

DÉJÀ VIEW

Comparing the 80D and 90D will show you that Canon has kept with a mostly familiar design.

KIT PRICE

£1199

IMAGE RESOLUTION

32.5MP

3 4

VIDEO

be able to ﬁlm in Full HD at 120fps – with caveats – and a ﬁrmware update is slated to allow for 24fps, a much-loved cinematic standard.

What’s different? Chip aside, the differences mainly play to the strengths of each format. The DSLR 90D offers a longer battery life, 1300 shots v the 305 of the M6. It comes with a chunkier body that boasts weather sealing, whereas the M6 has a svelte body that’s not protected against the elements. There’s a viewfinder on the 90D, unlike the EOS M6, where you’ll have to purchase an additional unit if you require a viewfinder. The screen offers Canon’s fully articulated vari-angle system – a firm fan favourite. The M6 opts for a flip-up screen, which is solid in principle but negates the hotshoe – a huge

LIQUID CRYSTALS

Featuring a top-plate LCD gives the 90D a premium air, and makes checking settings a breeze.

negative for vloggers who need to mount a mic or light. The M6 comes with its own set of strengths though. You’ll ﬁnd a noticeably faster continuous shooting speed of 14fps against the 10fps found in the 90D. The focus system gives you a maximum of 143 points with a compatible lens, or 99 points of phase detect at a minimum. This is greater than the 45 points of the 90D when using the viewﬁnder, which covers much less of the frame. Finally, the EOS M6 MkII uses the EF-M mount lenses, which are less plentiful than EF and EF-S lenses.

In the ﬁeld Differences explained, it’s time to look at the handling. Our models in test had kit lenses, with the M6 offering a 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM optic, while the 90D came with an 18-55mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM.

TECH FOCUS

A shared sensor brings high-resolution shooting The highest megapixel count in APS-C history, Canon has out-paced its closest rival, Fujiﬁlm’s 26.1MP chip found in the X-T3 and X-T30. Despite the inherent risks from higher resolutions on smaller sensors, Canon does a respectable job, and we couldn’t ﬁnd any undue camera shake when shooting handheld. There is noise present, even at lower ISOs, though you’ll have to look hard for this until you pass the ISO 800 mark.

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Canon EOS 90D A new flagship APS-C for 2020? Replacing the 80D, and bearing a striking similarity to the 7D MkII’s rapid shooting specs, you have to ask if Canon is using this release to merge the two line-ups. Indeed, it equals the 10fps of the 7D, and features a dedicated iTR (Intelligent Tracking Recognition) engine. This looks out for colour and contrast in the scene, and is also capable of facial detection, even when shooting through the viewfinder. We didn’t over-strain this feature, though found tracking to be far more reliable in Live View, with the viewfinder being more hit-and-miss in testing. While Live View returned better results, it’s far from class-leading in the focus stakes. The design is very familiar to those who have used the 80D. In fact, the only major addition is a joystick for AF selection, which we applaud.

In reality, we wouldn’t choose either of these optics for such a high-res sensor – investing in full-frame L lenses is the best, albeit most expensive, bet. This will require an adapter for the EOS M6. It’s no surprise that both sensors produce identical image quality. The test shots were as sharp as the optics would allow, and colours were vibrant. This is to be expected from Canon, with its rich history of ﬁne colour reproduction. Despite putting such a large amount of pixels on an APS-C sensor – resulting in a much smaller pixel pitch – shots didn’t suffer from visible camera

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shake when shooting at the reciprocal shutter speed for the focal length. However, we did notice that noise crept into the shadows, even at the lower ISO settings, though we did have to look hard to see it.

pattern was small and tight, and images shot at ISO 6400 could be usable in a pinch. The focusing systems were impressive, taking advantage of phase detection AF, though the 90D offers 45 points, and

THE 90D COMES WITH ITR, WHICH AIMS TO PROVIDE SUPERIOR FOCUS TRACKING Low-light testing proved both are capable, though not ground-breaking. We found that shots up to ISO 800 were relatively clean, though noise became more apparent at ISO 1600, and very evident at ISO 3200. Despite this, the grain

they’re grouped around the centre of the frame, which does feel more spacious than the full-frame 6D MkII. However, you can use the touchscreen with Live View to take advantage of Dual Pixel AF and a larger part of

the sensor. The M6 offers this larger focus ﬁeld as standard and, of course, the rear screen is the only way to compose and set focal points. Both were quick on the uptake, with the M6 impressive. The 90D comes with Canon’s iTR focus tracking feature, which aims to offer improved tracking through the viewﬁnder. Sadly, not much has changed since the 80D, and we found this to be too hit-and-miss for serious action shooting. The Live View, however, appeared to offer a far stronger focusing experience, though at slightly reduced 7fps. Even stranger, the Dual Pixel AF of the M6

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Canon EOS M6 MkII The best of Canon’s EOS M range? Bolstering the mirrorless M line-up, the EOS M6 MkII packs the same 32.5MP sensor as the 90D, as well as the DIGIC 8 processor. This gives it similar base features, such as resolution and ISO range. However, thanks to mirrorless advancements, it beneﬁts from a faster 14fps continuous shooting speed and maximum shutter speed of 1/16,000sec when using the electronic shutter. Both cameras offer 4K video, which takes advantage of the full sensor width – a ﬁrst for Canon’s consumer range. You also get more focus points, with either 99 or 143 Dual Pixel points, depending on your lens choice. Though the M6 doesn’t feature the iTR tracking engine, we found it out-performed the 90D in testing. The Eye AF is also worthy of praise, returning brilliant results.

tracked our subject with a more dogged determination, and proved more reliable at tracking than the 90D, with a higher burst rate to boot. With apparently no 7D MkIII on the horizon, you may be looking elsewhere for an action camera, and both offer high-speed shooting. While the M6 takes the lead with 14fps, the 10fps of the 90D is more than sufficient, though using the superior focusing of the rear screen Live View will drop this to 7fps with continuous AF. Sadly, the buffers are a bit lacklustre, with the 90D offering 25 RAWs, and the M6 a lesser 23 RAWs. You can

boost this by setting the M6 to CRAW, which are smaller than normal RAW ﬁles, to manage 36 from a single burst. Neither specs are going to set the sporting world ablaze, and fall short of the similarly priced Nikon D500, which boasts 10fps for 200 RAW ﬁles, though only features a 20.9MP sensor. That said, if you want a higher resolution DSLR to capture moving subjects, the 90D is the only current choice that’s not full-frame. Comparing the build throws up big differences. Clearly the M6 MkII has the size advantage, weighing 408g against the 90D’s 701g,

with the DSLR benefiting from weather sealing, and a more powerful pop-up flash – not to mention a viewfinder. The M6 is more portable; pocketable in a jacket with the small kit lens. The 90D has a top-plate LCD, while the M6 has dual scroll wheels for settings. Both feature the back D-pad and wheel combo, though poor design on the DSLR gives it less clearance, and we kept hitting the raised body with our thumb, disappointingly. We did appreciate the focus joystick, against the M6’s touch and drag AF, though weren’t keen on having to initiate the AF points before

selecting them, which did seem counter-productive.

On video These cameras represent the first time such offerings from Canon have featured uncropped 4K. This means that video benefits from the full sensor width, and lenses will give you the same focal length as 1080p. The quality of the 4K was acceptable, though it was a touch on the softer side and not up to the sharpness of Fujifilm or Sony’s offerings. You can, however, use phase detect AF, which is a big step up from Canon’s previous 4K cameras. While there’s no

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 121

GetIntoGear in-body image stabilisation – a common omission at this price point – there is a 5-axis digital image stabilisation feature. As with all digital stabilisation, this does apply a crop, and it doesn’t perform to the same level as any optical stabilisation. Full HD 1080p can be captured in 120fps for slow-motion footage, though you are unable to record audio, use digital image stabilisation or Servo AF in this mode. It also applies

a sensor crop, all of which puts it behind the likes of Sony in this regard. You can record in-camera time-lapses and HDR, and you’ll also ﬁnd a handy 3.5mm microphone input jack to allow the use of external mics, though remember that the ﬂip-up screen on the M6 MkII will render the hotshoe next to useless – potentially a big problem for vloggers. So, with the particulars examined, which camera comes out on top?

Above We put Canon’s latest brace of APS-C cameras to the test, and examined the image quality side by side.

Real-world test A tale of two sensors, and one result As you’d expect from identical sensors, image quality remains unchanged when switching between the two. That said, it means all pros and cons refer to both bodies equally. The ﬁrst praise is for the colour capture. You can see the tones in each image are true to life, with the

warmth of the winter sun and seasonal pastel tones being recorded perfectly. There is a slight touch of noise to be found, even at lower ISO ranges, such as ISO 400, though the grain pattern is small and tight, and not displeasing. Dynamic range performs well, though

is not quite class-leading. We found these challenging high-contrast scenes struggled a bit in-camera, though the RAW ﬁles are ﬂexible enough to bring out hidden detail in the shadows – just remember that you will be introducing more noise into your scene.

DETAIL AT 100%

Canon EOS 90D The colours at play are very pleasing, though you can see the highlights are running a bit warm, and the shadows had to be raised in post-processing to bring this tough scene to life.

DETAIL AT 100%

Canon EOS M6 MkII As with the 90D, this scene had to be boosted in the edit. However, both cameras deliver a good level of ﬁne detail in these test shots, thanks to the high-res 32.5MP sensor.

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IMAGE QUALITY

HEAD-TO-HEAD

The verdict Which is best? Both cameras are sure to please, though they are wildly different beasts when compared side-by-side. The M6 MkII, though lacking the viewfinder and weather sealing, is a high-res APS-C that’s compact and designed to capture stills and video, and offers surprisingly strong tracking. The 90D takes cues from both the 80D and the 7D MkII, which should make it more appealing to semi-serious action shooters, though we don’t think the autofocus system quite lives up to the Dual Pixel AF of the M6 MkII. However, the real test of what’s best comes down to their versatility, and despite the iTR system, which even offers facial recognition through the viewfinder, as well as the weather-sealed body and nearly identical baseline specs, we have to give it to the M6. That said, for the price, it’s up against some stiff competition. The excellent Nikon D500 retails for £1499, and beats the 90D in most areas, while Fujifilm and Sony both have mirrorless options at the same price, which boast more features than the M6 MkII, as well as a far superior dedicated lens range.

CANON EOS 90D

CANON EOS M6 MKII

Kit price: £1299

Kit price: £1199

Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

Lens: Canon EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM

Effective resolution: 32.5MP

Sensor: 22.3x14.9mm

LCD: 3in 1040k-dot 180° vari-angle

LCD: 3in 1040k-dot 180° ﬂip-up

Shutter: Bulb, 30sec-1/8000sec

Shutter: Bulb, 30sec-1/16,000sec

Autofocus: 45-point phase detect

Autofocus: 143/99-point phase detect

ISO: 100-25,600

Shooting speed: 10fps for 25 RAWs

Shooting speed: 14fps for 23 RAWs

Video: 4K 30fps, 1080p 120fps

Other features: Time-lapse and HDR movies,

cropped 4K, iTR focus system, Wi-Fi and

RAW burst shooting, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Bluetooth connectivity, Creative Assist

connectivity, Creative Assist

Battery life: 1300 shots

Battery life: 305 shots

Card type: SD, SDXC, SDHC

Weight: 701g

Weight: 408g

Size (WxHxD): 141x105x77mm

Size (WxHxD): 120x70x49mm

Web: canon.co.uk

PROS

Weather-sealed construction 10fps speed is good for DSLR

CONS

THE REAL TEST OF WHAT’S BEST COMES DOWN TO VERSATILITY, SO WE HAVE TO GIVE IT TO THE M6 LENS UPGRADE OPTION

BEST IN TEST

Button placement not intuitive iTR isn’t a big step up

High-resolution sensor Lightweight and compact

CONS Build feels on the plasticky side Not competitive at this price point

HANDLING

FEATURES

IMAGE QUALITY

VALUE FOR MONEY

OVERALL SCORE

Lenses to reap high-resolution rewards Neither kit lens is well-suited to a 32.5MP sensor, so we recommend buying body only and selecting your own optics. The M6 MkII only has one native lens that’s up to the job, the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM (£499), though Sigma is slated to release its excellent range of f/1.4 primes for the system, starting with

16mm, 30mm and 56mm. For the 90D, we would suggest looking to Canon’s own full-frame L lenses for their superb quality and varied line-up. If this proves to be too costly an option, look at third-party lenses, such as the 5-star Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 – a truly stand-out telephoto for action.

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NEW GLASS

Nikon has released a 16-55mm and 50-250mm kit lens combo designed exclusively for the APSdesign, while the Z mou allows you to use exist S line lenses seamles

OLD FAMILIA

Nikon include newly designed 20.9 sensor to mirror the resolution found in th D500 and D7500 cam from its DSLR range APS-C offerings.

LOOK AT ME

A ﬂip-down LC Eye AF and beefed-u video capabilities co with a microphone in and portrait mode to increase appeal to th growing vlogger mar

KIT PRICE

£989 VIDEO

IMAGE RESOLUTION

20.9MP

N I KON Z 50

A mountain in a molehill

IKON ONLY entered the mirrorless party in late 2018, but its full-frame Z mounts gained instant critical acclaim, and have set the template for this latest entry into the APS-C sector. The only question is, can it stand out in such a saturated mirrorless market?

Main features Sitting perfectly alongside the D500 and D7500, the

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Z 50 has a 20.9MP resolution, which Nikon says is a new design. Focusing is by way of 209 points of phase detection, and you’ll ﬁnd similar algorithms to the full-frame offerings, such as Eye-AF. The ISO boasts a huge range of 100-51,200, and slimmed-down controls retain the excellent Nikon ergonomic charm, albeit with a few alterations. Sadly, there’s no image stabilisation at play, though two new lenses – designed speciﬁcally for the system –

aim to alleviate shake. This is essential to the prowess of the Z 50 as a vlogging cam, evidenced by a microphone input, front-facing ﬂip-down touchscreen and both 4K and slow motion 120fps Full HD 1080p video.

Handling & build Little, small, wee and teeny would be a great place to start when describing the feel of the Z 50. It’s built around the body-dominating Z mount, and keeps the deep grip of previous Nikon CSCs.

FLICK OF A SWITCH

The Z 50 allows you to switch easily between stills and video by ﬂicking the mode dial-mounted switch.

CAMERA TEST

Tonal tops and tails

IMAGE QUALITY

Nikon’s higher level models are known for their impressive dynamic range ability, and the Z 50 offers a solid result. As you can see, when shooting into the sun the shadows retain bags tion. We increased cks to test the range found plenty of om for manoeuvre. While it’s not quite p to the standards of its more mature stablemates, we ound it to be a solid ontender in its class strong draw for scape enthusiasts.

IT’S A LIGHTWEIGHT OPTION, THOUGH IN-HAND IT STILL FEELS BOTH DENSE AND REASSURINGLY STURDY Despite this, a pair of function buttons sit by the lens mount, and the top-plate has space for an ISO button and a switch to quickly move between stills and video modes. The body offers a chassis crafted from magnesium alloy, as well as weather sealing, and it feels reassuringly solid. The rear is given over to the 3.2in 1040k-dot LCD, which carries three virtual touch buttons on the right-hand side, allowing the rest of the controls to slot into the remaining free space. Unfortunately, this doesn’t include a joystick, though you’re able to easily navigate the focus points with the four-way D-pad. It feels good to hold, though this may not be the view of those with larger hands.

Performance Despite the feeling that Nikon is looking to appeal to the vlogging market with the Z 50, it’s a solid stills camera in the same vein as previous enthusiast models. At 450g it’s a lightweight option, though

in-hand it feels both dense and sturdy. The controls are well-placed, and one-handed operation is the order of the day. A switch by the mode dial lets you change from stills to video, with both remembering their settings. Shooting with the Z 50 feels good. The images are sharp with solid dynamic range. In high-contrast situations, we were impressed by the amount of detail captured. Likewise, when shooting in low light, the ISO performance was more

than capable. Thanks to the large photosites, we found images looked very clean, even up to ISO 1600. At ISO 3200, noise was visible, but the shots themselves were more than usable, and this was even the case at ISO 6400. At 12,800 and beyond, noise was far more prevalent, though still one of the best controlled we’ve seen in this class. Packing in less resolution than the majority of 24MP chips in its competitors might lead you to believe it is somehow weaker, but this couldn’t be further from the truth, and ﬁles are crammed with detail that’s almost impossible to fault compared to its rivals. Zooming in to 100% will quickly put your

Above The rear control scheme is laid out for one-handed shooting – ideal for shooting on the go.

Lens Focus Do the kit lenses cut it? The jump to APS-C mirrorless also brings two new lenses. The Z DX 16-55mm f/2.5-6.3 VR offers a walkabout focal range in a near pancake-like body, while the Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR is a lightweight telephoto. Both boast optical stabilisation to combat the lack of it in the Z 50, with the 50-250mm giving 5 stops, and the 16-55mm offering up 4.5 stops. However, in an attempt to keep weight and price down to a minimum, neither offers a particularly wide aperture, and the optical clarity isn’t as ﬁne as the S-line lenses, which generally don’t offer stabilisation. The Z mount means you can switch between any lenses in the range seamlessly, while the FTZ adapter allows you to use existing DSLR glass with the Z 50.

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GetIntoGear

THE ‘I’ HAS IT

NEW BAT CITY

The controls are simple, and easy to use with one hand. The ‘i’ function is fully customisable, and acts as a quick menu, letting you access your most used features and settings, and change them to suit your needs as you shoot.

Departing from tradition, Nikon is now using a new battery design. The EN-EL25 is a lightweight take on the conventional battery packs. It offers up to 320 shots.

FLASH OF INSPIRATION

While many cameras drop the pop-up ﬂash in favour of decreased weight, the Z 50 manages to include one – perfect for adding a layer of ﬁll into night-time shots.

mind at ease, as the ﬁne detail is picked up with great clarity. Although you may not want to make many sweeping crops to your images, a little leeway is deﬁnitely available. We look to Nikon to deliver when it comes to its colour science and, happily, you can

ALSO CONSIDER THESE

see the tones at play here. We did notice it favouring towards cyan tints in shots when using Auto WB, though this can be corrected in an instant if it’s not to your liking. In most situations, auto white balance will give a good result, and if you’re uncertain of

colour or settings, you can ﬂip the mode dial to SCN. This lets you scroll through a choice of different scenes, such as Landscape, Portrait, Food and even Indoor Party. Once you select your shot, the Z 50 will apply what it thinks is the best setting to get the shot. It’s a

Hybrid-friendly travel cameras

Fujifilm X-T30 £839 Packing a higher resolution 26.1MP APS-C X-Trans 4 sensor, the X-T30 is our pick for the ultimate travel camera. It can belt out up to 30fps, comes with a 425-point phase detection focusing system and includes stunning 4K 30fps, as well as Fujifilm’s Film Simulation modes. fujifilm-x.com

126 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Olympus OM-D EM-5 MkIII £1099 This 20.4MP Micro Four Thirds gives you a 121-point phase detection system, a fully articulated vari-angle 1040k-dot LCD and an outstanding 6.5-stop image stabilisation system. It pairs a light weight with 4K video capability, and should appeal to vloggers. olympus.co.uk

helpful feature, and allows you to learn from its choices – especially handy when you’re starting out. If, on the other hand, you’re more experienced, you can take advantage of the two user settings, U1 and U2. These are custom profiles, which means you can program different settings, and call upon them on the fly. On paper, 209 AF points doesn’t sound overwhelming compared to the competition. However, it covers up to 90% of the frame, and feels snappy. Even in low light, the system works well, and impressed us every time. If you’re shooting portraits, the Eye-AF will be your best friend. Although it’s the same as the capability in full-frame offerings, it feels even stickier – in test, it was picking up eyes in profiles. Switching from the face to the eye recognition was also a seamless transition. The control system is well laid out, though you’ll notice it does feel a touch compact. We felt our thumbs had to double-back on occasion to

CAMERA TEST

As sharp as the ﬁrst frost

IMAGE QUALITY

Despite having a modest sensor resolution, the Z 50 delivers ﬁles packed with detail that easily rival the onslaught of 24MP offerings. You can see, even at 100%, that the detail well. In real-world you would have ok very hard to tice the difference etween these and many other 24MP shots. The colours and contrast all chip n to create deﬁned mages that can sily do your creative ustice.

THE Z 50 IS A SOLID ENTRY TO THE RANGE, SOWING THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE NIKON APS-C MIRRORLESS BODIES reach the D-pad or menu buttons. It wasn’t too much of a problem for us, but we’re aware that users with larger hands may find it more cumbersome. The virtual screen buttons were nicely placed, though, with zoom in and out, and a display option. The 2360k-dot EVF may not win any prizes in the high-resolution stakes, but the 1.02x magnification makes it a joy to use. Similarly, the 3.2in LCD gives a standard 1040k dots of resolving power, and does a grand job. The touch controls work perfectly, and you can even navigate the menu by touch alone – a welcome inclusion. The screen tilts down to 180° for selfies or vlogging. This locks the dual control dials and menu buttons in place, meaning you have to rely on the touch controls to change settings. Thankfully these are spot on, and it’s reassuring to know you won’t accidentally change your aperture on the fly. In video, this also stops you from setting a slower

shutter speed than your frame rate. It’s a great idea, though would have been even better if it locked the minimum shutter at 180°, following the rule-of-thumb for video. Although a tilting screen is long overdue, and a key consideration for many, it’s not without its ﬂaws. While it doesn’t block the hotshoe, and does allow for a more pronounced EVF, it will be hindered by tripod or gimbal setups. It’s a common trade-off at this price point, so you’ll have to decide what that means for you and your style. We found the video output to be impressive. The 4K looks crisp, and 120fps in 1080p offers solid footage, free from artefacts. Both perform well in

low light, and the focus system does a good job of tracking subjects, though we’ve also seen better. A log picture proﬁle and higher bit rate would’ve been welcome additions, but at the price, we can understand why they were omitted.

TECH SPEC Camera: Nikon Z 50 Kit price: £989 Effective resolution: 20.9MP Sensor: 23.5x15.7mm LCD: 3.2in 1040k-dot tilting flip-down touchscreen Shutter: Bulb, 30sec – 1/4000sec Autofocus: 209-point phase detection AF ISO: 100-51,200 Shooting speed: 11fps for 20 RAWs

Verdict The Z 50 is a solid entry to the range, and sows the seeds for future expansion. The tilting screen, dynamic range and image quality are all pluspoints. So, too, are the mic input and video features. With such interest in video users, we would have liked to see stabilisation, since S-line lenses don’t have it, and users will want to step up from kit glass for wider apertures. While this is perfect for any enthusiast, it’s also pitted against Fujiﬁlm’s X-T30, with its wider lens range, higher resolution and more advanced video specs.

THE VERDICT NIKON Z 50 PROS Nippy 11fps Compact design Weather sealing Video specs Low-light performance Great Eye-AF focusing system Flip-down LCD CONS No image stabilisation Flip-down screen obstructed by tripods Larger hands may struggle

Video: 4K at 30fps, Full HD at 120fps Other features: In-camera 4K time-lapse, Peaking focus assist, Zebra stripes, Microphone input, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 1:1 and 16:9 aspect ratios, Intelligent SCN mode, Picture effects, Picture Control System, Portrait mode, Battery life: 320 shots Card type: SD, SDXC, SDHC UHS-I Size (WxHxD): 127x94x60mm Weight: 450g Web: nikon.co.uk

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PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 127

GetIntoGear

KIT PRICE

POWER PIXELS

£499

The M200 bolsters the company’s mirrorless range, and includes the tried-andtested 24.1MP APS-C sensor. First seen in the EOS M50, it’s known for solid image quality.

VIDEO

IMAGE RESOLUTION

24.1MP

FULLY KITTED OUT

First-time camera users will be more than happy with the included EF-M 15-45mm f/3.6-6.3 IS STM kit lens, which offers a 24-72mm equivalent length and image stabilisation.

POLYCARBONATED

The polycarbonate body allows the M200 to stick to a sub-300g weight limit, and while it doesn’t feel especially robust, it should withstand the usage of casual shooters.

C A NON EOS M 2 0 0

Point, shoot, repeat…

Canon has updated its entry-level CSC with a new sensor, improved autofocus and 4K video. Kirk Schwarz ﬁnds where the appeal of this budget model lies.

ANON’S M100 was a low-priced point-andshoot for the masses, with a large APS-C sensor, pretty competent autofocus and compact build fuelled by the reliance on touch controls. However, with the rest of the industry moving on in terms of innovation, it’s time for the M200 to enter the arena and show us what it can do to stand out in this highlycompetitive market.

128 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Main features It is fair to say that the M200 has much in common with the M100. The bodies are near-identical, with the same 3in 180° ﬂip-up 1040k-dot touchscreen, single control dial – set for aperture control as standard – and mode dial, that switches between stills, video and Scene Intelligent Auto modes. The sensor achieves a 24.1MP resolution, and adds an increased number of on-sensor phase detect Dual Pixel AF points, offering a

maximum 143 points over the previous 49. The focusing system is also rated to work in -4EV with an f/1.4 lens, which beats the M100’s -1EV with an f/2 lens. Created with point-andshooters in mind, there’s a big emphasis on Creative Assist mode and the Scene Intelligent Auto, which determines the scene, and offers the best settings for a successful shot. However, if you want to take more control, the Guided User Interface walks you through

GOING AUTO

Forgoing a traditional mode dial, the M200 keeps it simple and lets you choose from stills or video. The third option is a beginner-friendly fully-automated mode.

CAMERA TEST

Discretion is the better part...

IMAGE QUALITY

One thing you can’t fault the M200 for is its slimline approach to shooting. While the lack of an EVF, solid handgrip and sturdy construction aren’t exactly plus points, the small size deﬁnitely is. We managed to walk around taking shots using the rear t h een without anyone batting an Pair this with a rather capable AF tem and the large APS-C sensor, nd the M200 pays dividends when used to capture candid moments and honest reactions. Although it sits at the more budget end of the market, the image quality can’t be aulted, and the familiar 24.1MP hip performs as well as it does en being used in Canon’s more ced cameras – reassuring if you re tempted by the M200.

THE AF SYSTEM FEATURES 99 POINTS OF PHASE DETECTION AS STANDARD, OR A POSSIBLE 143 WITH COMPATIBLE LENS the different settings, and what they’re best suited to. With the M200, you can shoot in 4K video, compared to the 1080p Full HD limit of the M100. However, unlike the new M6 MkII and 90D, this places a heavy crop factor on your lenses, which works out to approximately 1.75x.

Handling & build For this kind of beginnerfriendly option, weight and control are paramount. With this in mind, Canon opted for a plastic body to maintain a feather-like 299g weight. It does mean it’s not the most rugged camera on the market, but it is highly portable. With the same ethos in mind, and much like the M100, the majority of the settings are controlled by the touchscreen. It works well, with a responsive LCD and intuitive layout. It still has a single control dial, moulded around the shutter button, and a D-pad with the usual shortcuts and menu. Our one complaint is the lack of purchase. While the

size is a plus, the textured plastic body doesn’t offer the kind of grip that inspires conﬁdence, and the small thumb-grip isn’t enough to offset this. It probably won’t be an issue for the intended audience, but it is a niggle.

Performance Having so much in common with the M100, it’s time to see what the new sensor and DIGIC 8 combo brings to the table. Happily, the AF system is identical to the one found in

a lot of Canon’s recent APS-C releases, with 99 points of phase detect as standard, or a possible 143 with compatible lens. Dual Pixel AF remains a strong selling point, but other manufacturers’ abilities have come on leaps and bounds, so it doesn’t offer as much of an advantage as it once did. Face and Eye detection are both present, as they were in the previous model, and they do a respectable job. They can be accessed by choosing the Tracking AF option, and both were quick to acquire the subject in stills and Full HD video. They require a bit of a menu hunt to ﬁnd and enable them, so they may be easily bypassed by beginners, and

Above Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity allows you to quickly transfer shots between your camera and smartphone.

Tech Focus Assisted modes Planting its feet ﬁrmly in the beginner’s camp, the M200 gears itself towards automated shooting modes. It backs up the usual aperture and shutter-priority modes with Scene Intelligent Auto and Creative Assist modes. Scene Intelligent Auto is a fully automated mode, where the camera analyses your intended frame and applies the settings it thinks best. It’s great for capturing travel snapshots or holiday selﬁes. Creative Assist, however, bridges the gap and offers you a modicum of control. Using sliders, akin to smartphone editing apps, you can control the settings indirectly. This offers the ability to boost the exposure, blur the background and even alter the colour of the image without having to understand the exposure triangle.

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 129

GetIntoGear

WHAT A VIEW

ALL UNDER CONTROL

As with the M100, Canon omitted a viewﬁnder, instead relying on the 3in touchscreen to offer the majority of controls and for framing shots. It works well for both, with smartphone-like responsiveness

Given the reliance on the rear screen, there are very few physical controls. This is great if you’re intimidated by the number of buttons and features on more expensive cameras, such as pro DSLRs or CSCs.

while there are better versions available, you won’t ﬁnd many at this price point. Switching to the regular AF system reveals competent focusing. Dual Pixel AF does a good job of ﬁnding subjects in the automated Zone AF and Tracking modes, with the

ALSO CONSIDER THESE

latter proving to be pleasingly sticky for following steadilymoving subjects. For more control, you can set Spot and 1-point AF that allow you to select a preferred focus point. Since there’s no joystick, this is accomplished by tapping on the rear screen.

It can also be set so that a tap initiates the shutter, or turn on Continuous AF (touch/drag) in the menu to move the point around by dragging a ﬁnger over the screen and hitting the shutter button to shoot. This is well-implemented, though only works in Servo-AF.

Entry-level APS-C marvels

Fujifilm X-T100 £547 This entry-level X Series is a touch more expensive than the Canon, yet it’s a great stepping stone to Fujifilm’s range. You get a 24.2MP APS-C sensor, 3in tilting touchscreen and ISO range of 200-12,800. It has Film Simulations, which give great colours in your JPEGs, and films 4K, though this is limited to a less-than-useful 15fps. fujifilm-x.com

130 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Nikon D3500 £299 If you’re looking for a starting point to enter photography, the D3500 is brilliantly priced and delivers on spec. It boasts a 24.2MP APS-C sensor, simple but well-placed control scheme and 3in 921k-dot LCD. You can shoot fully manual, capture 5fps and work in low light with an ISO range of 100-25,600 and built-in ﬂash. nikon.co.uk

Quirks aside, the M200 does a great job of focusing, and is rapid in good light conditions There’s no mode dial, but instead you can switch between stills, movies and Scene Intelligent Auto, which is aimed at novice shooters. Enabling this mode leads you straight to Creative Assist. Creative Assist turns the settings to full auto, and ﬂashes up the Drive mode, image quality and Creative Assist buttons on screen. The idea is that you can choose the creative effect you want, such as Background Blur, Brightness and Contrast, and use a slider to increase or decrease the look – much like a smartphone app. This is a great way to get the results you want, without knowing the inner workings of cameras, and the M200 adjusts settings to help achieve this. It’s a useful way in for beginners, but will do little to help them learn the basics of photography and the technicalities of cameras. Of course, once they do grasp the

CAMERA TEST

Canon’s crowdpleasing colours

IMAGE QUALITY

As we’ve come to expect from Canon over the years, the M200 does a great job at colour reproduction. The JPEGs are vivid and true-to-life, and while the dynamic range won’t win any prizes, it’s consistent with the price point. The level of detail is pleasing, and as a point-and-shoot, it comes into its own. Although the target audience for this camera will be happy with the kit lens, it’s worth pointing out that the M mount line-up isn’t the most diverse, and you’ll need an adapter to beneﬁt from the main EF range. However, thanks to third-party support from Samyang and Sigma, there are an increasing number of wide-aperture primes coming to the system.

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO TAKE SELFIES, THIS IS A VIABLE OPTION – ESPECIALLY WITH THE CREATIVE ASSIST MODE techniques, Creative Assist mode will become redundant, but it’ll remain useful for those who don’t want to spend time adjusting settings. In an effort to keep up with the pack, the M200 includes 4K video – though not without restrictions. You can only shoot in 25fps, and Dual Pixel AF is shelved in favour of the less reliable contrast detection system, which doesn’t work to the same standard as Dual Pixel AF. This is reminiscent of the EOS M50, which also applied the same 1.75x crop to 4K video, which means your lens’ effective focal length will be almost doubled. While the quality is passable, it is perhaps the Full HD 1080p that is more appealing. It offers full Dual Pixel AF, a choice of frame rates from 25fps to 50fps and doesn’t apply such a crop. You can use digital image stabilisation on both Full HD and 4K, though this does apply an extra crop. Although the 180° screen could appeal to vloggers, the

lack of a microphone input is a killer blow to serious users. However, for those who want to take selﬁes, this is a very viable option, especially with the simplistic Creative Assist modes. It also includes a pop-up ﬂash which helps illuminate the scene, though we found it snagged while the screen was up, so you’ll have to make some minor adjustments if you want to get it fully extended. The battery life has been expanded to offer a pretty modest upgrade to 315 shots – that’s 20 more than the M100. Sadly, Canon hasn’t introduced USB charging in this model, so you won’t be refuelling on the go, which is a bit of a shame.

Verdict

TECH SPEC

This camera isn’t a full update of the M100, as such, but more of a refinement. It brings 4K video capability – albeit with serious limitations – and improved focusing thanks to the DIGIC 8 chip. The image quality is highly competitive thanks to the APS-C sensor. However, beyond this, it’s a case of more of the same. The spec sheets for the M100 and M200 could be identical twins, while the body has all but remained the same. The M100 is a capable point-and-shoot with an airy sensor that felt a lot fresher in 2017 than it does today, while the M200 could be a solid – and cheap – first camera for anyone who wants to take selfies or snapshots without any photography knowledge. Sadly, the lack of EVF, the fiddly body and some stiff competition leaves the M200 feeling more like a 2017 camera in a 2020 world.

THE VERDICT CANON EOS M200 PROS Creative Assist is great for beginners Nippy focusing Touchscreen works well CONS No viewﬁnder 4K video is severely hampered Near identical specs to M100 Design feels plasticky and ﬁddly

Camera: Canon EOS M200 Kit price: £499 Effective resolution: 24.1MP Sensor: 22.3x14.9mm LCD: 3in 1040K-dot 180° flip-up touchscreen Shutter: Bulb, 30sec – 1/4000sec Autofocus: 143-point Dual Pixel AF with compatible lens, 99-point Dual Pixel AF as standard ISO: 100-25,600 Shooting speed: 4fps for 20 RAWs Video: 4K at 25fps with 1.75x crop, Full HD 1080p at 60fps, HD 720p at 120fps Other features: Intelligent Scene Auto, Creative Assist mode, Guided User Interface, 4K Time-lapse Movies, Face and Eye Detection AF, Pop-up flash, Vertical videos Battery life: 315 shots Card type: SD, SDXC, SDHC Size (WxHxD): 108x67x35mm Weight: 299g Web: canon.co.uk

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X100F £1049

Memory Cards & Readers SanDisk Extreme 150MB/s UHS-I 64GB .......... £32.95 128GB .......... £59.95 256GB ......... £119.95

SanDisk Extreme PRO 170MB/s UHS-I 64GB .......... £36.95 128GB ......... £64.95 256GB ........ £149

SanDisk Extreme PRO 300MB/s UHS-II 64GB .............. £69 128GB ............. £129 256GB ............ £249

For more Memory Cards visit wex.co.uk/memory-cards

G Series: 299MB/s SDHC 32GB .................... £69 64GB ................... £129 128GB .................. £249

G Series XQD: 440MB/s 32GB .................... £99 64GB ................... £179 128GB .................. £299

M Series: 260MB/s SDHC 32GB .................... £39 64GB ................... £59 128GB .................. £104

TOUGH: 299MB/s UHS-II 32GB .................... £79.95 64GB ................... £154 128GB .................. £299.95

Pixma Pro 100S

PIXMA Pro 100S.............................£359 PIXMA Pro 10S ................................£479

Photo Bags & Rucksacks

Flipside 300 AW II

Pro Tactic 450 AW II Backpack

Flipside: 300 AW II ..............£89 400 AW II ..............£109

Pro Tactic II : BP 350 AW II............£149 BP 450 AW II ...........£189

Think Tank Airport International

Airport: International V3.0 £329 Take off V2.0...........£359 Security V3.0..........£379

Pro Light RedBee 310

Pro Light RedBee RedBee-110 .................£89 RedBee-310................£119

Tripods & Heads Gitzo Fluid Head Gimbal

MT055XPRO Manfrotto Befree GT Carbon

Manfrotto Befree GT Travel Tripods: Aluminium ................ £149 Carbon Fibre ........... £249

Aluminium: MT055XPRO3......... £149 Carbon Fibre: MT055CXPRO3...... £249 MT055CXPRO4 ..... £259

Reloader Switch-55

Small Pro.............................£199 Small .....................................£159 Roller Bags Large ....................................£175 Reloader Switch-55 .....£249 Pro Original .......................£199 Reloader Spin-55 ..........£179 Hadley One ........................£265 Gorillapod: Gorillapod 500....... ...........................£27.95 Gorillapod Kit 1K ................................£29 Gorillapod Kit 3K ...............................£62.95 Gorillapod Kit 5K ...............................£129

Gitzo Systematic Tripod Series 5 6S G

Systematic Tripods: Series 3 3S L............£629 Series 5 3S L............£729 Series 5 6S G...........£999

Gitzo Fluid Head Gimbal: .........................................£319

Lighting & Accessories

470EX-AI £399 SB-5000 £569

Khaki/Tan, Black/Tan, Black/Black, Sage/Tan.

Urban Bowens Compact Lumimuse Ezybox Background D-Lite RX 4/4 Collapsible LED Lights Speed-Lite 2 L-308X Plus III Set Light Stand Support Kit Softbox Set Background £49 £199 £255 £725 £54 From £38 £174 £149

T&Cs: All prices incl. VAT at 20% Prices correct at time of going to press. Free Delivery** available on orders over £50 (based on a 4 day delivery service). For orders under £50 the charge is £2.99** (based on a 4 day delivery service). For Next Working Day Delivery our charges are £4.99**. 9 Saturday deliveries are charged at a rate of £7.95**. 9 Sunday deliveries are charged at a rate £8.95**.(**Deliveries of very heavy items, N.I., remote areas of Scotland & Ch. Isles may be subject to extra charges.) E. & O.E. Prices subject to change. Goods subject to availability. Live Chat operates between 9:30am-6pm Mon-Fri and may not be available during peak periods. † Subject to goods being returned as new and in the original packaging. Where returns are accepted in other instances, they may be subject to a restocking charge. ††Applies to products sold in full working condition. Not applicable to items speciﬁcally described as “IN” or incomplete (ie. being sold for spares only). §To qualify you must have purchased a camera from us within the last 30 days. Wex Photo Video is a trading name of Calumet Photographic Limited (Company Registration no. 00425579) and Warehouse Express Limited (Company Registration no. 03366976). ©Warehouse Express Limited 2019. *CASHBACKS Are redeemed via product registration with the manufacturer. Please refer to our website for details.

Mifsuds Photographic Ltd. Est. 1954. Family Run Pro Dealership With Friendly, Knowledgeable Staff.

www.mifsuds.com 01803 852400 info@mifsuds.com 27-29, Bolton Street, Brixham. Devon. TQ5 9BZ. For current opening hours: - Please see website.

PART EXCHANGE WELCOME Simply email your equipment details to us at info@mifsuds.com - we will do the rest! CANON AUTOFOCUS CAMERAS, LENSES, FLASH, ACCESSORIES ETC USED

Used Canon 1DX body Used Canon

Used Canon

1DX MKII body box

500mm F4 IS USM LII

£3499 CANON DIGITAL AF USED 1DX MKII body box ..............£3499 1DX body box........................£2499 1D MKII body box................... £249 7D MKII body Mint box ......£1097 7D MKII body box................... £997 7D body ..................................... £499 6D body ..................................... £699 5D Sr body box......................£1499 5D MKIV body box ...£1997/2197 5D MKIII body box...... £899/1399 5D MKII body ........................... £699 5D MKI body............................. £299 80D body box .......................... £699 70D body box .......................... £449 60D body box .......................... £399 50D body................................... £249 20D body box .............................£79 600D body ................................ £249

box

£2499 550D body box........................ £199 400D body box...........................£99 1300D body.............................. £249 BG-E18 (750/760D) ...................£79 BG-E11 (5D MKIII) ................... £149 BG-E4 (5D)....................................£49 BG-E2 (30/40/50D etc) .............£39 BG-E2N (30/40/50D etc)..........£49 Powershot G1X MKIII M- box ........................................ £699 Powershot G1X MKII .............. £349 Powershot G1X........................ £249 CANON EOS R USED EOS R + 24-105 + adapter M- box ......................................£2499 CANON EOS M USED EF-M 15-45 F3.5/6.3 IS .............£99 CANON AF FILM BODIES USED EOS 1N HS body box............. £299

400mm F4 DO MKII

300mm F2.8 IS USM LII

£3799 EOS 1 HS body......................... £199 EOS 3 body M- box ................ £399 EOS 3 body ............................... £299 EOS 3000/300 body each .......£49 EOS 50E body .............................£49 EOS 500N/1000f body each...£39 EOS 1000/1000fn body each £39 PB-E2 drive fits EOS1/3 ............£99 CANON AF LENSES USED 10-18 F4.5/5.6 AFS box......... £179 10-22 F3.5/4.5 USM EFS ....... £299 14 F2.8 L USM MKII ..............£1149 15 F2.8 fisheye box ................ £399 16-35 F4 IS USM L................... £749 17-40 F4 L USM box............... £479 17-85 F4/5.6 IS USM .............. £149 18-55 F3.5/5.6 IS EFS ................£99 18-135 F3.5/5.6 EFS ............... £299 24-70 F2.8 USM LII M- box £1199

£4497 24-70 F2.8 USM L box ........... £699 24-70 F4 L IS USM box.......... £499 24-105 F4 L IS MKII................. £799 24-105 F4 L IS........................... £499 28-135 F3.5/5.6 IS USM ........ £199 28-200 F3.5/5.6........................ £179 40 F2.8 STM .............................. £139 50 F1.4 USM box ..................... £249 50 F1.8 STM .................................£99 70-200 F2.8 IS USM LII ........£1099 70-200 F2.8 IS USM box ....... £799 70-200 F4 L IS USM ................ £699 70-200 F4 L USM ..................... £449 70-300 F4.5/5.6 IS USM ........ £299 75-300 F4/5.6 MKII ....................£99 80-200 F4.5/5.6...........................£49 100 F2 USM............................... £299 100 F2.8 IS USM L M-............. £599 100 F2.8 USM macro ............. £319

£5799 100-400 F4.5/5.6 LII IS USM box ......................£1299/1499 100-400 F4.5/5.6 L IS U......... £799 180 F3.5 USM L macro.......... £699 200 F2.8 L USM MKII.............. £349 300 F2.8 IS USM LII...............£3799 300 F4 IS USM L....................... £699 400 F2.8 IS USM LII ...............£5799 400 F4 DO MKII......................£4497 500 F4 L IS USM MKII...........£5799 600 F4 IS USM LII ..................£5997 25mm ext tube box ..................£99 1.4x extender MKIII ................ £329 2x MKIII extender M- box .... £329 SIGMA CAF USED 10-20 F3.5 EX DC HSM.......... £269 12-24 F4.5/5.6 EX DG HSM.. £399 18-300 F3.5/6.3 box............... £279 70-200 F2.8 EX DG OS........... £599

600mm F4 IS USM LII

£5997 70-200 F2.8 EX DG.................. £399 150 F2.8 EX DG OS macro ... £399 150-500 F5/6.3 OS DG .............. £499 TC1401 1.4x converter.......... £199 1.4x EX DG conv...................... £149 OTHER CAF USED TAM 55-200 F4.5/5.6 DiII .........£49 TAM 70-300 F4/5.6 VC........... £219 FLASH/ACCESSORIES USED 430EX MKII ................................ £129 430EX .............................................£99 550EX .............................................£99 580EX MKII ................................ £199 580EX .......................................... £149 Angle finder C.......................... £139 RS-80N remote ...........................£30 TC-80N3 remote.........................£59 MORE ON WEBSITE WWW.MIFSUDS.COM

NIKON AUTOFOCUS CAMERAS, LENSES, FLASH, ACCESSORIES ETC USED

Used Nikon

F5 body (film)

D850 body box

35mm F1.4 AFS G M- box

£1997/2197

£897

£599 NIKON DIGITAL AF USED D850 body box......... £1997/2197 D800 body box.............. £699/799 D750 body box....................... £799 D600 body ............................... £599 D500 body Mint- box.........£1199 D300 body box....................... £199 D200 body ............................... £149 D7200 body............................. £599 D7100 body............................. £449 D7000 body............................. £299 D5500 body............................. £399 D5100 body box .................... £249 D3000 body............................. £139 D3X body box..............£797/1197 MBD-15 grip box (7000 ser)£129 MBD-14 grip box (600 ser)....£99

MBD-10 grip (D300/700) .......£79 MBD-100 (D100) box...............£49 NIKON FILM AF USED F5 body ............................ £499/599 F4 body ..................................... £299 F100 body ................................ £299 F601 body ...................................£49 F70 body......................................£49 F75 body......................................£49 F80 body......................................£49 F801 body ...................................£49 F90 body......................................£99 F90X body...................................£99 NIKON AF LENSES USED 10.5 F2.8 DX box.................... £399 10-24 F3.5/4.5 AFS DX box. £449 16-35 F4 AFS VR box ............ £799

16-80 F2.8/4 AFS VR.............. £599 16-85 F3.5/5.6 AFS DX VR ... £249 18-35 F3.5/4.5 AFD ............... £349 18-70 F3.5/4.5 AFS ...................£99 18-105 F3.5/5.6 VR DX AFS. £199 18-135 F3.5/5.6 AFS G DX... £199 18-140 F3.5/5.6 VR DX AFS. £249 24-70 F2.8 E AFS VR latest ..................................£1399 24-70 F2.8 AFS box ............... £897 24-85 F3.5/4.5 AFS VR .......... £299 24-120 F4 AFS......................... £699 28-105 F3.5/4.5 AFD............. £149 35 F1.4 AFS G M- box........... £897 35 F1.8 DX AFS ....................... £149 50 F1.4 AFS G .......................... £299 50 F1.4 AFD Mint- box......... £199

50 F1.8 AFD box........................£99 55-200 F4/5.6 AFS DX .............£99 60 F2.8 AFS macro box........ £379 70-200 F2.8 AFS VRII...........£1199 70-200 F4 AFS VR box.......... £899 70-210 F4/5.6 AF.......................£99 70-300 F4.5/5.6 AFS VR........ £299 70-300 F4/5.6 G non VR .........£79 80-400 F4.5/5.6 AFD............. £499 85 F1.4 AFS .............................. £897 105 F2.8 AFS VR macro........ £499 200-500 F5.6 E VR AFS box £997 TC17EII M- box........................ £199 TC20EIII box............................. £299 TC20E ......................................... £149 SIGMA NAF USED 8-16 F4.5/5.6 DC HSM..............£379

12-24 F4.5/5.6 EX DG HSM II £499 12-24 F4.5/5.6 EX DG HSM. £399 18-35 F1.8 DC box................. £499 24-70 F2.8 EX DG HSM ........ £449 70-200 F2.8 DG OS box ....... £599 70-200 F2.8 EX DG................. £399 105 F2.8 EX DG OS macro .. £279 150-600 F5/6.3 cont M- box ..£649 300 F2.8 EX HSM box ........... £799 1.4x EX DG converter ........... £149 2x converter EX .........................£99 KENKO/TOKINA NAF USED TOK 11-16 F2.8 ATX Pro II ..... £349 TOK 12-24 F4 ATX Pro .......... £299 Kenko ext tube set DG ...........£99 TAMRON NAF USED 11-18 F4.5/5.6 DiII ................. £149

28-300 F3.5/6.3....................... £149 70-300 F4/5.6 VC.................... £219 70-300 F4/5.6 Di........................£79 FLASH / ACCESSORIES USED SB-600...........................................£99 SB-700 box............................... £169 SB-800........................................ £149 SB-910........................................ £299 SB-5000 ..................................... £399 SU-800 commander ............. £179 DR-6 angle finder box.......... £169 DR-5 angle finder box.......... £169 MC-36A ........................................£69 MC-30 ...........................................£30

dr yj sdyr

Articles inside

Nikon Z 50

Canon EOS M200

Fujifilm X-Pro3