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The definitive guide to SLR photography
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Master your Camera now! Everything you need to know in your ultimate photography starter pack Exposure basics Composition advice Raw skills & more…
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GIFT 3
PHOTOshop CRASH COURSE
8 Tips cards to print out
164-page buyer’s guide
Editor’s Welcome A fresh start!
Every issue features the world’s best pros… Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir
Welcome to your new issue of Britain’s best-selling photography magazine
Art photographer
Get inspired by the work of this Icelandic photographer, heralded as the web’s top photographer by The Wall Street Journal. Turn to page 92.
W Ben Hall Wildlife photographer
As if capturing a barn owl in flight wasn’t hard enough in the first place, turn to page 62 and find out how to do it in a blizzard.
hether you’re new to photography or simply want to start the year with a bit of a refresher, we’ve created a photography crash course just for you. You’ll be up and running in no time as we take you on a journey from pixel to print and everything in between. Turn to page 40 to find out how. You may have noticed that Chris Rutter has left us this month. The lucky chap has gone to live in the mountains and do what he loves best – take pictures. Don’t panic! He’ll still be contributing to the magazine, and we look forward to seeing what stunning scenes he captures and, of course, learning more skills from his wise words. As a result, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Claire Gillo as our new technique editor. She’s a talented photographer, a creative tour de force, and a real asset to the team. Read her Photo Fixer this month on page 72.
Ben Brain, Editor ben.brain@futurenet.com
Sarah Lee Underwater photographer
When this long-distance swimmer and surfer isn’t studying for her film production degree, she’s underwater with her SLR: see page 34.
Teach yourself photography
The perfect New Year treat Don’t miss the latest in our popular Photo Masterclass series. This 228-page guide is a comprehensive beginner’s course to getting the most from your SLR, and comes complete with a free disc featuring 10 expert video lessons. ON SALE NOW!
February 2015 Digital Camera
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Contents issue 160 / FEBRUARY 2015
18 10 Things to Try
Get inspired! This issue: explosions, split-tones and creative selfies
40 34 Sarah Lee
on the cover
photography crash course
Kick-start your camera skills with our ultimate guide
Underwater photography with Canon cameras: it’s Hawaii 5D
92 Interview: Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir Meet the queen of mystery
120 Wide-angle primes Eight lenses to help you get the best results in your wide shots
10 Hotshots
The best new photos from our brilliant Digital Camera community
more contents
Contents issue 160 / FEBRUARY 2015
Expert photo advice
55 Shoot!
Essentials
32 Your Mission
Help with camera skills, including seascapes and a DIY ring light
Winners of our ‘food and drink’ challenge, plus the crowd vote
72 The Photo Fixer
38 Viewfinder
Gear Hacks
MAKE AN LED LIGHT RING Page 67
Cameras and gear
103 Angle of View
The latest new camera gear
106 Samsung NX1
The highest megapixel count yet in an APS-C format camera
Our new technique editor lends a hand with some baby photos
Your views on shooting at gigs, video cameras and fogging up
79 Photoshop School
52 Subscriptions
86 Photo Advisor
99 International subs
118 Mini Test: Sensor cleaners
146 Quizzical
137 Next month
133 Micro Test: Cloud services
Make better prints at home and master the Smart Brush
Andrew James solves your camera quandries. This issue: city details, monopods and starbursts
Test your brain with our multiplechoice photography quiz
Save money on digital-only or print-plus-digital bundles
Get the print edition of Digital Camera delivered to your door, wherever you live
112 Panasonic GM5
A tiny compact system camera with a big Four Thirds sensor
Trusted ways to keep a vital part of your camera feeling pristine
52 ways to keep your photography Go online to share and back up fresh in 2015, and much more your photos with this half-dozen
Download via bit.ly/ shopper8 Use your PC or Mac
GIFT 1 PHOTOshop CRASH COURSE
An ebook to help you get started with image-editing – look for it after this magazine
GIFT 2 TIPS CARDS
Eight cards to print out – look for them after this magazine
GIFT 3 Buyer’s Guide
Camera Shopper 8 gives you 164 pages of expert reviews and group tests in a handy PDF. Find your next camera here!
video contents
Video Contents issue 160 / FEBRUARY 2015
Watch these videos via www.bit.ly/dc160video What you’ll learn this month… Today’s digital cameras take stunning photos, so don’t let your home printer spoil them when you commit them to paper. 1 Explore the Print module and Discover Lightroom’s Print module and create a contact sheet Video exclusive get your print-outs looking spot-on…
NEW! Part 9: Perfect printing
2 Find and correct unprintable colours using soft-proofing techniques
3 Create a custom print layout using templates or your own designs
4 Add watermarks to identify your photos before you share them
5 Get print-out colours looking their best by managing printer profiles
Read the tutorial on page 80
Read the tutorial on page 82
Read the tutorial on page 81
Read the tutorial on page 83
more video contents
Video Contents issue 160 / FEBRUARY 2015
Cover story
Photography Crash Course Watch these videos via www.bit.ly/dc160video
What you’ll learn this month… Discover the basics every photographer should know to get the best results out of their digital camera…
6 Understand camera exposure: how to take control of shutter speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity settings
7 Switch to Manual mode and find out how to achieve balanced exposures when you take complete control
8 Get a new lens: find the lens type that’s best-suited to the type of photos you love to take
Great additional content at the tap of a finger!
9 Create a moody seascape image Guide on page 56
10 Make a multiple- 11 Discover the exposure portrait Smart Brush Guide on page 60
Tutorial on page 84
12 Samsung NX1 CSC on test Review on page 106
hotshots
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Hotshots
Get inspired by seven pages of the very best reader photography from around the world Digital Camera Month 2014
www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Nature’s Tracery Wayne Sherriff http://chromaticvista.blogspot.com.au Unley, South Australia
1
“The well-defined veined texture of the leaves of this ground-cover plant in a glasshouse drew my attention. I shot them from directly above, with a 50mm prime lens in Aperture Priority mode. Editing of the resulting image involved some contrast adjustment, inverting it and tweaking the colour in Photoshop to create the stark, see-through appearance I sought.” Nikon D7000 with AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens at 50mm; 1/125 sec at f/4, ISO 200
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Month 2014 Digital Camera
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2
Night Contrast Nimit Nigam www.facebook.com/nimit.nigam New Delhi, India
2
“I took this shot at the Lotus Temple, Asia’s only Baha’i temple. I’d wanted a black-and-white night shot of this temple and its reflection for quite a long time. The main problem I faced was the overexposed light from the right. So to cut the light, I underexposed by one and a half stops .” Nikon D800 with AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens at 10mm; 15 sec at f/16, ISO 160
3
Breaking It Up Sean Phillips www.500px.com/seanphillips Edinburgh, UK
3
“A sea defence at Torness, East Lothian. I had seen a shot from this location years ago, and had always had it in the back of my mind. The dolos’ ‘jack dice’ design makes for interesting shapes, but the sheer quantity of choice and random positioning meant it was a little frustrating to find satisfying compositions.”
Canon EOS 6D with Canon EF 100m macro lens and mono filter at 100mm; 36 sec at f/16, ISO 50
Digital Camera February 2015
www.digitalcameraworld.com