Photograph no 6 by John Kelogg

monthly magazine

Photograph The magazine - Halloween edition

PHOTOGRAPHY IS ABOUT CAPTURING SOULS, NOT SMILES! -

Dragan Trapshanov -

Contents

0 9

06 Editor's Note 09 Top 10 of the month 13 Instagram Top 10 18 Tip 25 How to...?

P H O T O G R A P H I S S U E

06 30 Travel 40 Interview 49 Review 65 Editor's picks 85 News & Events

3 0

Editor's Note

â&#x20AC;˘ I S S U E â&#x20AC;˘

HELLO

OCTOBER

October is here and this month's issue is a little spookier than the other months! October, in all over the world, is known about the most atmospheric and frightening but also funny celebration of the month! Get ready for treats and tricks with galleries, tips, how to, traveling ideas, interviews, reviews, editor's picks and many more! So, what are you waiting for? Get ready and turn the page

Cheers,

John

E D I T O R ' S

N O T E

Top 10

@natgeotravel

@impossible_hq

@arts_help

@visualmemories_

@eastcoastexplore

@anddicted

@greatnorthco

@thehautepursuit

@qeewo

@denn_ice

Tip

12 HALLOWEEN PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS Get to know twelve of the most '' scary '' tips and impress them all !

Halloween presents a lot of problems for photographers, because by the time all the action starts to happen that magic hour we love so much has already come and gone. But if you're like every other cameralugging mom, dad or hobbyist in search of a great shot, you don't want to pass up a great night like Halloween just because the light isn't right.

alloween is the most scary celebration of the year but also the most amusing. A lot of people decorate their homes with scary things, wear scary costumes and dress up like witches or ghosts and children try to have fun going to people's houses to ask for candy. But with so much preparation, for just three days, it would be a same not to capture all these little feelings of the people around you! So, we just do some research and we find some of the best tricks to make your Halloween photos look as pretty as it looks the first time!

1. Start shooting a few days early

2. Flash

Chances are, your children (or friends) will be getting ready for the festivities before darkness sets in, so use this time to get some shots of them trying on their hats, checking out their reflections in the mirror, or just hamming around with friends and siblings. This may be your best opportunity to get Halloween photos in good light, so don't pass it up. Have your costumed subjects act the part for the cameraask your little Harry Potter to cast a spell with his batterypowered wand, and see if you can get your werewolf to growl and lunge at you. And while you're shooting a few posed shots, don't forget to zoom in. Madeup faces look particularly cool at close range, and if you fill your frame you won't neglect little details like the whiskers on a lion's face or the sharp teeth of a vampire. You can also focus on other details, like sparkly shoes or witchy fingers. Now zoom out and get a shot of the entire costume, from head to toe.

Avoid using flash, except for the portraits for grandparents. They don't see the glare; they want to see the faces. On the other hand, use your flash with a colored filter. You can buy a filter, or can look around for a substitute, such as a red plastic cup. Using flash all by itself will give you dark backgrounds. If you want to include the background, use the night portrait or night landscape icons on your camera. The flash exposure is set for the person near your camera, and then the shutter stays open longer to capture the light in the background. If your subject is moving, such as a vampire lunging toward the camera, he or she will appear sharp (from the flash) and blurry (from the slow shutter speed), all in the same picture.

3. Red eye Red eyes for your Halloween photos are a great effect to make them look more spooky and realistic! To get more ghoulish red eye: a) Photograph in the dark—when the person's pupils are wide open. b) Use the flash on your camera. Note: The best way to get red eye is to use a ring flash.

4. Use film to make ghosts If you're a filmcamera user, use the multiple exposure feature to make ghosts. a) Use a tripod or set you camera on something. b) Set your camera to take two photographs on the same negative. c) Take the first exposure with the person in the frame. d) Take the second exposure with the person not in the frame. You'll be able to see through the person. You can also mix the person with something else. For example, photograph a blowup skeleton sitting in a chair. Then, remove the skeleton and photograph the person sitting in the same position as the skeleton.In the photograph, you appear to see the person's skeleton.

5. Make your photos darker

6. S or TV exposure mode

Use exposure compensation to bracket your exposures. For example, let's say your photographing a JackoLantern. If you use your camera on the program, that single exposure setting may or may not be the best. Using exposure compensation, take several exposures at 0 (no compensation), .5 and 1 (darker), as well as +.5 and +1.

Use the S or Tv exposure mode to use slow shutter speeds. For example, photograph a twirling ballerina at 1/8th of a second. That shutter speed appears as 8 on your camera LCD screen, with no quote marks like this 8". Don't use 8". That's 8 seconds.

7. Paint with light Use very long shutter speeds to paint with light. a) Find a location that's dark. b) Use a tripod or place the camera on a surface. c) Set the exposure mode to S or Tv. d) Select a shutter speed of, say, 2 seconds (2" on your LCD screen). e) Have someone press the shutter for you. f) When the shutter is open, move a flashlight back and forth on the subject. g) Experiment, as there are many variables, such as the ambient light, brightness of the flashlight, how close it is to the subject, and how fact you move the flashlight.

9. Use film to make ghosts Mind the white balance, if you're using a digital camera. You can use automatic white balance (AWB) if you're going to be in changing lighting situations. If the color of the light is more constant, switch the white balance to the appropriate icon, such the light bulb icon or the florescent tube icon.

8. Use film to make ghosts Don't forget to use fundamental photography tools. a) Get closer. Because the background is often dark, you may ignore how much is in the frame. If the background isn't adding anything to the photograph, crop it out. b) Use vantage point. A twoyearold monster will look more menacing if you photograph his or her from a low vantage point. c) The direction of the light is important. For example, cuts, scars, warts, and other Halloween textures, will be more evident if lighted from the side. Also, lighting from below will make your subjects more Halloweenish, because we rarely see light coming from that direction. d) WYSINWYG What you see is not what you get in a photograph. When you look at a JackoLantern, your eyes can see a wide range of contrast. You can look inside at the bright candle, and then can see the much dimmer face of the pumpkin. So, when you're photography a scene with contrast, you've got to add light to the darker areas.

10. Shoot strangers

11. Photograph twice

If you're shy about photographing strangers, Halloween is a good time to become more comfortable doing so. But bee sure to ask permission before taking a photograph. And have a reason in mind before you ask, such as, "I like your fake blood," or, "It's for my photography class."

Be sure to photograph friends and family who are wearing masks twice—with and without their masks.Cause the point is not only have some scary photos but have something to remember!

12. Paint with light You can photograph a sequence, such as telling a story. For example, beginning with the purchase of an overpriced pumpkin in the Hamptons and ending with the pumpkin in the trash.

How to ...

Scary Snaps HOW TO SHOOT FRIGHTENINGLY GOOD PHOTOS THIS HALLOWEEN

By Teri Pengilley Special to CNN

If you want to capture some truly eerie images this Halloween then you must master the dark arts of light and shadow. If you want to capture some truly eerie images this Halloween then you must master the dark arts of light and shadow.

Taking photographs means drawing with light, even at times like Halloween when it's all about the dark. Spooky shadows and glowing pumpkins can be a challenge, but most smartphones and compact cameras will let you capture Halloween night a treat, if you develop a few simple tricks.

Master the dark arts! There's nothing like bright flash for lighting the eerie out of an atmosphere, so switch it off. Or try holding a small piece of cellophane over the flash red is great for adding ghoulish ambience. One of the photographer's favorite Halloween friends is the humble torch don't leave home without one. It will offer you all kinds of creative and practical solutions, including simply lighting up your subject so you can focus in the dark. The ISO setting is also crucial for low light increasing the ISO will increase your camera's sensitivity to light. However, the higher the ISO, the greater the "noise" flecks in solidcolored areas of the image. Some cameras and smartphones can handle high ISOs better than others, so test your first.

Steady your claws Low light also means longer exposures, which brings in camera shake. Wherever possible put your camera on a tripod, or rest it on a steady surface like a wall. Try to use a shutter release cable, or if not make sure you squeeze the shutter button as gently as possible whilst supporting the camera from underneath, keeping as still as possible.

Dance with the devil A tripod, selftimer and long exposure will give you a whole gallery of tricks and treats. Play with walking through a longexposure frame to capture a ghostly outline, or get your friends to stand as still as possible under a light whilst you run around them drawing ghastly creations with a bright torch. The long exposure will capture your torch drawings and your frozen friends, but, as long as you keep moving, you won't be visible (it helps to wear dark clothes).

Focus on your prey Fast lenses are another must set your aperture as wide as it will open to let in as much light as possible on each exposure. Wide apertures give shallow depth of field meaning that only the part of the image you focus on will be sharp. Bring your camera in as close as it will focus on a diabolic Halloween detail, such as a painted eyeball, and fill the frame for a dramatic shot.

Summon a ghoulish glow Anyone familiar with "The Blair Witch Project" knows about the deeply unsettling power of holding a light under the face. It's time for that trusty torch again. Our eyes are accustomed to overhead light, like the sun, and any light source from underneath is an instant spineshiverer.

Concoct creepy compositions Once you've got to grips with spooky lighting, it's time to think about composition. Halloween is filled with demonic delights to frame your image, or add that extra creepy texture. Try putting your camera inside your pumpkin, using the jagged eyes and teeth to peer through (set it on selftimer first) or place the black net of a costume spider's web in front of the lens, with a wellpositioned spider to one corner of the frame. Make sure you throw some light onto your framing devices as well as your subjects.

Practice makes (paranormal) perfection Finally don't forget that preparation is key. Practice nighttime shots with your smartphone or camera and have it all set up before the big night you really don't want to be fumbling with the dials through the confines of your Freddy Krueger gloves.

Travel

Transylvania, Romania

By Guy Trebay Transylvania is a historical region located in what is today the central part of Romania. Bound on the east and south by its natural borders, the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended westward to the Apuseni Mountains. The term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Crișana, Maramureș and the Romanian part of Banat. The region of Transylvania is known for the scenic beauty of its Carpathian landscape and its rich history. It also contains major cities such as ClujNapoca, Brașov and Sibiu. In the Englishspeaking world it has been commonly associated with vampires, chiefly due to the influence of Bram Stoker's famous novel Dracula as well as the many later film adaptations.

Generally Getting There and Around

Most airlines offer one-stop flights to Bucharest from major U.S. cities. Rent a car for the drive to Sibiu. From there, head to Sighişoara for easy access to villages such as Biertan, Viscri, and Mălâncrav.

Stay

Casa Cu Cerb An atmospheric hotel set in a restored 17th-century house, just steps from the Sighişoara clock tower. Hotel Împaratul Romanilor Sibiu A classically designed property in the historic center of Sibiu.

Apafi Manor Mălâncrav. Black Church Braşov. Fortified Church at Biertan Biertan. Museum of History 2 Mitropoliei St., Sibiu. Museum of Pharmacy 26 Piata Mica, Sibiu.

Tour Operator

The author arranged local transportation through Quasar Tours & Travel.

Story time We were haring across the countryside, to swipe a phrase from Renata Adler’s novel Pitch Dark, traveling cross-country along back roads threaded through rows of sentinel beech trees, past dromedary hillsides and fields whose freshly furrowed soil was so deliciously black and loamy you were tempted to leap out of the car and scoop up a bowl. Some friends and I were headed into Transylvania, a little-visited swath of continental Europe in the shadow of the Carpathian Mountains, terra incognita except, of course, as a fantasy place familiar to the legions of readers and moviegoers who make the obvious instant association with the invincible Prince of Darkness and box-office ka-ching!: Dracula.

We were haring across the countryside, to swipe a phrase from Renata Adler’s novel Pitch Dark, traveling cross-country along back roads threaded through rows of sentinel beech trees, past dromedary hillsides and fields whose freshly furrowed soil was so deliciously black and loamy you were tempted to leap out of the car and scoop up a bowl. Some friends and I were headed into Transylvania, a little-visited swath of continental Europe in the shadow of the Carpathian Mountains, terra incognita except, of course, as a fantasy place familiar to the legions of readers and moviegoers who make the obvious instant association with the invincible Prince of Darkness and box-office ka-ching!: Dracula.

Talk about the undead! Not garlic or holy water or well-aimed stake can stop this revenant’s franchises—Twilight, True Blood, the eroto-gothic Vampire Lestat. But forget Dracula. The residents of Transylvania certainly have. Except at his alleged birthplace and an unimpressive castle where the Muntenian prince who provided a historical armature for Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel occasionally sojourned, hardly anyone there spares much thought for the midnight creeper. It’s no cinch even finding the kitsch souvenir mugs depicting him with blood dripping from his ceramic fangs. I tried.

There is another Transylvania. Back and back I have returned to it, as though ineluctably, and lucky in every case. For my first time I arrived in the dead of a bone-chilling winter to report on a violent revolution. Sneaking a rented car illegally across the border from Hungary in 1989, a photographer colleague and I drove hundreds of miles through snowy monochrome landscapes so little altered by the incursions of industrial modernity we might as well have been figures in a faded kinescope.

Each, like an Escher drawing, has its own citadel church and perimeter palisade, each its characteristic concentric interior whorls of tidy dwellings. With rare exception, each still contains some little-known marvel—the Lutheran cathedral at Biertan, designated a World Heritage site as much for its squared-off toy-Gothic architecture as for its multi-panel altarpiece; the massive Black Church at Braşov, raided, torched, and sacked by everyone from the Mongols to the Ottomans and still towering reassuringly over the broad town square; the tiled Baroque clock tower at Sighişoara; the rows of symmetrical 18th-century houses at Viscri—that would easily qualify it as a necessary destination in any country that attracted more than Romania’s 39 foreign tourists a year. That number is probably unfairly lowball. Maybe it’s up to 40 by now.

Europe, but no more. There the surviving populations of bear and wolf and lynx and roebuck and boar are said to be the greatest in what remains of the European wild.

Setting out from either of Prince Charles’s two modest houses in the villages of Viscri and Zalánpatak, with its dirt lanes and communal cattle trough carved from a single log, a traveler can hike almost limitlessly across lands unfenced to the far horizon. Uniquely in a world of tightly gridded personal patches, the pasturelands in Transylvania are communally held. It was not altogether disappointing on my wanderings to encounter nothing particularly fanged or furry. Because the timing of my trips happened to coincide with the seasonal movement of flocks first up to and later down from their montane grazing lands, everywhere I went I was greeted by Whatever the real figures, the poetic desuetude of orchestral bleating as over some hill came a Transylvania’s churches and villages is a fragile fleece tsunami. state of affairs. Inspired by recent alterations in land-ownership laws, speculators and developers Darting and nipping about were the neurotically from Western Europe have already begun staking busybody sheepdogs, by their snarls discouraging claims on the country with the expectation that a hiker from mistaking them for Lassie. Following one day it will be to Germany as Tuscany is to inevitably behind would come some laconic Great Britain—Draculashire. Some of the canniest shepherd—sun-grooved face, crook in his arm, early adopters have taken a lead from Prince funny felt topper perched on his head and looking Charles, not only a regular visitor but also a just like a character from Grimm’s might if people Transylvanian householder. In a variety of in fairy tales smoked. YouTube videos with the soft-focus atmospherics of 1970’s porn, the conservationist heir to the Ethnic segregation was the signifying feature of a British throne can be seen waxing rhapsodic about nearly 1,000-year Saxon occupation. From inside the region’s rare abundance of flora and fauna. their hivelike citadels, the fair-haired occupiers Despite the gargled-marbles delivery, the point monopolized and refined the lucrative guild holds. trades, the important crafts, and all the learning. Densely built and largely vertical, the Saxon cities Owing largely to traditional farming practices, read like a series of unusually harmonious essays Transylvania preserves an ancient and man-made on theme and variation. biosphere that sustains cultivation and managed wildness in rare harmony. Once, bucolic views like those you routinely encounter in Transylvania must have been commonplace across great expanses of preindustrial

I wandered from the Black Church at Braşov, where hung in the nave is the most extensive collection of Turkish prayer rugs in the world, to the citadel church in the hamlet of Mˇalâncrav, with its 14th-century biblical fresco cycle, and from there to the Saxon powerhouse city of Sibiu, where, arrayed around the Piata Mare, or main square, a series of handsome buildings marks the timing of each successive wave of wealth creation like epochal tidemarks.

“The exodus was heartbreaking, really,” said Jessica Douglas-Home, British-born chair of the preservationist Mihai Eminescu Trust, referring to the disappearance of an 800-year-old community once spread across 266 cities and small towns. "Everything collapsed. Everyone fled."

The nonprofit Eminescu Trust operates Apafi Manor, a finely restored Neoclassical villa that once served as the country seat of a family of minor Hungarian nobles. Set amid acres of an The Museum of History there is set in a medieval organic apple orchard, furnished with impressive building that once was a private house and also a restraint and using mainly local materials by the town hall first erected in 1549. The squat, sturdy English decorator David Mlinaric—friend and tower called the Turnul Scarilor dates back to the advisor to Prince Charles—the 17th-century manor 13th century. A pastel Baroque confection now accommodates small groups of paying containing the Brukenthal Museum is a newcomer, guests. Following the advice of Douglas-Home I having been built in the late 1700’s; its nearby trekked from village to village, Mˇalâncrav to sister institution, the Museum of Pharmacy, is Viscri, on old cart roads and sheep paths through located in a 1569 building where one of the oldest what she, with justification, termed “an pharmacies in present-day Romania was once extraordinary folding hillscape of forests, little located. In the basement of that house the settlements with terra-cotta roofs, and communal physician Samuel Hahnemann is said to have grazing grounds.” invented homeopathy. His theory of coffee as the root cause of most common diseases did not hold Across a golden autumn landscape I made my up. Yet we have him to thank that no one treats way, coming occasionally into a hamlet where on headaches anymore by letting blood. a roadside stand a farmer like Ionel Mihala had laid out for sale trays of mushrooms or forest The time-travel effect of crossing the Piata Mare berries or wild mint honey. The pale blue skies in Sibiu; of strolling the lanes of 19th-century were combed with shreds of cirrus; a chill villages where traffic stops at noon for the daily presaging winter crept into the air. goose-crossing; of driving back roads or hiking the Transylvanian hillsides is both amplified and rendered particularly poignant when you learn of the massive exodus that occurred soon after Ceauşescu fell. The expulsions and ethnic erasure that a variety of brutal regimes never quite managed to accomplish happened almost overnight in the 1980’s and 90’s when a German prime minister invited Transylvania’s Saxons home to the Fatherland.

To say I did nothing much is not to suggest the days were eventless. Like all culture-hungry travelers I ate with my eyes and duly recorded and uploaded my observations in notebooks and on the iCloud. Yet when I review those notes and images now it is not the data that impresses so much as a palpable current of recollected feeling. Roaming the fields and across hilltops I experienced a movement, too, away from neurotic modernity and into a genuinely old time, one where a delicate balance between man and nature seemed to hold. It was no challenge to comprehend why the elderly Saxons left behind by the exodus were sometimes to be found weeping on doorsteps, grieving no doubt for something fine that, once lost, can never be retrieved.

- The End -

Interview

Making Art Out Of Bodies: Sally Mann Reflects On Life And Photography

Sally Mann (born in Lexington, Virginia, 1951) is one of America’s most renowned photographers. She has received numerous awards, including NEA, NEH, and Guggenheim Foundation grants, and her work is held by major institutions internationally. Her many books was named “America’s Best Photographer” by Time magazine. A 1994 documentary about her work, Blood Ties, was nominated for an Academy Award and the 2006 feature film What Remains was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2008. Her bestselling memoir, Hold Still (Little, Brown, 2015), received universal critical acclaim, and was named a finalist for the National Book Award. In 2016 Hold Still won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Mann is represented by Gagosian Gallery, New York. She lives in Virginia.

Work Photographer Sally Mann is fascinated by bodies. In the early 1990s, she became famous — or notorious — for her book Immediate Family, which featured photographs of her young children naked. Critics claimed Mann's work eroticized the children, but Mann says the photos were misinterpreted. "I was surprised by the vehemence, I guess, of the letters and the dead certainty that so many people had that they understood ... my motivations and feelings and who my children were," Mann tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "People feel like they understand the children just by virtue of looking at the pictures but ... those aren't my children. Those are photographs of my children. They're just a tiny, tiny moment slivered out of time, a 30th of a second." After those photos, Mann moved on to what she describes in her new book, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs, as "deeply personal explorations of the landscape of the American South, the nature of mortality (and the mortality of nature), intimate depictions of my husband and the indelible marks that slavery left on the world surrounding me." Mann's work has included a series of photos of decomposing bodies in a University of Tennessee forensic anthropology research facility and photos of her husband, whose muscles are withering from muscular dystrophy.

Let's start ...

Firstly, let me ask you about your work in which you photograph your children naked. What are you thinking? It's not that I wanted to do a series of pictures of my children nude, it's just that they were always nude in the summers when I did most of my shooting. We had a cabin on the river on our farm and there's not another breathing soul for probably 5 miles in all directions and they just never seemed to wear clothes. Why should they? They were in the river almost all day and deep into the night, so the fact that in many cases the children were nude ... that's just how the children were. ... I didn't take pictures of them once they reached the age of puberty, certainly. But considerably before then, I think, I quit taking pictures of them.

What you think your photos of your children capture? One of the interesting things is to go back and look at the contact sheets and you look at picture after picture after picture of the same scene. And you'll see in one picture, [the children] look mean; and in another one, they're giggling; and in another, one of them is punching the other and they're laughing. They're just doing regular kid things. You just always have to remember that picture ... that's a 30th of a second and to either side of that picture are half a dozen other images that are completely different and warm and friendly and sweet.

And tell us about photographing the University of Tennessee's "Body Farm" The "Body Farm," as it's colloquially known, is designed to help graduate students measure decomposition in human bodies. They use it primarily forensically, I think, so that if law enforcement runs across a body that's, say, been locked up in a trunk for two weeks, they can gauge the size of the maggots or the development of the blowflies and know exactly or close to exactly when that body was put in that trunk given temperature conditions and all that kind of stuff. ...

There was something matter-of-fact about the way those bodies were laid out and how they were treated. I mean, they were a scientific experiment and very quickly I grew to see them that way, in the same way that the graduate students were working with them. So that was one of the shocking things. ... The smell is just unbelievable but I had to sort of pull myself together and figure out a way to handle things I had never seen before and never anticipated ever seeing — these bodies in various stages of decomposition.

We can see in many of your photos dead bodies in the ground and staff like these. Do you attracted in death or it was just another photography project? I have had a fascination with death that I think might be considered genetic. ... My father had the same affliction, I guess. The origin of his was the sudden death of his father — this is just a theory, we never talked about it. ... I think it changed the course of his life. He became fascinated with death. He then became a medical doctor and obviously fought death tooth and nail for his patients. But I was surrounded in the household with the iconography of death. He was a very cultured man and he was fascinated with the way death has been portrayed through the ages in all forms, from cave paintings to literature to everything. ... I picked it up by osmosis.

Photos are concerned by many as a memorial instrument. What about you? Are you positive or negative with that idea? Using photographs as an instrument of memory is probably a mistake because I think that photographs actually sort of impoverish your memory in certain ways, sort of take away all the other senses — the sense of smell and taste and texture, that kind of stuff.

What surprised you most about photographing your husband's body after his muscular dystrophy diagnosis I don't think that he in any way in those pictures loses his dignity ... and I don't think anyone would think of him as being weak. ... It was wonderful. It was some of the happiest times I can remember being behind a camera. It's usually so fraught when you're taking a picture. I work with an 8-by-10 camera and there's a hood that I put over my head and it's tricky and complicated, but this was just such a lovely moment in our marriage. We're headed into our 45th year of marriage next month. ... It was just such a quiet, peaceful moment for us and it's not that we didn't know he had muscular dystrophy, but it was really one of the first times we actually sat down and looked at what it had done to his body and making art out of it somehow felt like the right thing to do.

That was a part of the interview of Sally Mann in the radio show of Fresh Air. If you want to listen the hall interview just go to npr.com

Review

Olympus PEN E-PL8 First Impressions Review

The E-PL8 valiantly takes place at the bottom of Olympus' Micro Four Thirds lineup, though don't assume that it's low-end. It replaces the E-PL7 as Olympus' 'gateway' camera into its ILC system for people who have discovered their love of photography through their camera phone and want to take the next step up. With this customer in mind, the E-PL8 has tried to bring together the best of both worlds, offering features that are useful no matter which way the camera is pointed and that should appeal to the young hip crowd that is ready to improve the quality of their images.

Key Specifications 16MP Four Thirds CMOS sensor 8 fps continuous shooting 3-axis image stabilization Tilting 1.04M-dot touchscreen LCD 8.5Wh battery Built-in Wi-Fi Enhanced controls for shooting self-portraits

Generally First and foremost, this customer most likely already owns a cleanly designed, trendy personal electronic device that works just as much as a fashion accessory as a piece of technology. Knowing that, the E-PL8 has gone through a bit of a design clean-up when compared to the E-PL7. A new set of optional color-coordinated cases and straps indicate as much thought was put into aesthetics as performance for this update. Second, with the E-PL7, Olympus wagered that their customer would be as interested in pointing the camera at themselves as often as away, since that is one of the primary ways phone cameras are used. The E-PL7 was therefore equipped with a rear screen that could angle 90-degrees upward or 180-degrees downward to face the front of the camera, allowing a photographer to effortlessly frame a self-portrait. For the E-PL8, the touchscreen configuration remains the same but receives some updates to make taking self-portraits or video easier. The E-PL8 also inherits the ability process both JPEG and Raw files in-camera. With JPEGs, adjustments are limited to things like cropping, shadow adjustment, red-eye correction, and color saturation. Raw processing, however, is much more in depth and offers the ability to change any image parameter that can be adjusted while shooting, like highlights and shadows or the application of the extended bank of art filters that first appeared in the E-M10 II.

The good news is the hardware found in the E-PL8 is known to be a decent piece of kit, as it has been lifted from the Silver award winning E-M10 II. All the E-PL8 doesn't include is the E-M10 II's electronic viewfinder, although one that attaches to the hot shoe is available as an accessory. Included are color coordinated strap lug covers and camera strap. The E-PL8 comes in either black, white or brown leatherette over a silver matte chassis finish. Prices will start at $549.99 for the body only, and $649 for the kit that includes the 14-42 IIR zoom lens. Those prices are $50 lower than what the E-PL7 cost when it was introduced.

Body & Design While almost all of the technical parts of the E-PL7 carry over to the E-PL8, the body has gone through an extensive refresh to make it a more premium and fashionable camera. The grip and its contrasting color have shrunk, although there is still plenty for one's finger to latch on to. The overall look is much cleaner, without any major ergonomic compromises. The 'Olympus PEN' logo is now embossed into the color-coordinated leatherette finish instead of the body and, at least in this color scheme, is a flashy and rather unnecessary gold color. The chassis itself has gone through a redesign as well. Out at the front the design is a bit more balanced and square than the older camera, and does look a bit nicer in this reviewer's opinion. The finish has changed and has the cool touch of a matte metal finish, instead of the slippy plastic feeling painted metal finish of its predecessor. Another change in shape happens to the top plate of the camera. The E-PL7's top felt like it was designed to make the camera seem smaller, with the raised portion on top resembling a smaller outline of the whole body. The E-PL8 has a cleaner top plate that largely lays flush with the top of the camera, and five machined holes as a speaker cover instead of a grate.

The rear screen mechanism remains entirely unchanged. That means it still protrudes off the dainty little camera body like prosthetic buttocks and still needs the fiddly downwards push from the top to help it clear the accessory port under the hot shoe. It spoils the elegance of the body and the overall fit and finish of the camera with its clunky operation and cheap feel. One wonders if the folding screen from the PEN-F might have fit better here. All the buttons remain in the same configuration as the E-PL7, which, unlike the rear screen, isn't a bad thing. It is relatively unintimidating and every button except the 'Menu', 'Playback', 'Delete', and 'Info' buttons are customizable. The dials have a new grippy knurling around their rims, making turning the dial for that satisfying signature Olympus 'click' all the more tempting when the camera is off.

First Impressions By Sam Spencer On the face of it, the Olympus E-PL8 is an E-PL7 after some plastic surgery and a few added art filters. It's a shame too, because our first impression of the E-PL7 wasn't overwhelmingly positive and we are left with a camera that feels like a routine refresh. This isn't the camera to bring the 20.2MP sensor to the entry-level segment, which many had been hoping it would. The E-PL8 uses the 'AP2' accessory port, and as a result, you're limited to the included FL-LM1 fixed angle flash rather than a version of the wonderful articulating flash that comes with the E-M5 II and PEN-F. The articulating model is one of my favorite accessories, and as I think is perfect for beginners who are just entering the mirrorless ILC market, it's a pity it's not included. Beyond these negatives remains a good camera. Entry-level photographers will be impressed with the in-body stabilization and will likely appreciate the build quality (except for that screen).

Like us, they'll endlessly fiddle with the dials just to feel them satisfyingly 'click', even when the camera is off. It makes an excellent point-and-shoot, or a frugal way of getting the guts of the E-M10 II without a couple bells and whistles. If Olympus is hoping to appeal to customers who are looking to step up from their phone to an ILC system, the updated E-PL8 might not be the way to go. Ponying up the little bit of extra money for an E-M10 II seems like the better choice for those wanting to get more involved in photography. The problem is, I just don't see anyone putting down their phone and picking this up any time soon. Consumers that use their phones as their main camera are probably looking for a do-it-all solution that requires just one purchase. That means a handful of target customers may get an E-PL8 and never go further than its 14-42mm kit lens, even though the major appeal of getting a Micro Four Thirds camera is stepping foot into its vast landscape of lenses. Not many people are ready to spend more than $100 on phone accessories, so why would access to a range of lenses suddenly change their minds? One thing the E-PL8 can do that the E-M10 II cannot is self-portraits, or what everyone's mother now calls a 'selfie' (I do not, so I will not). Olympus believes this is a feature that will appeal to this target phone-loving crowd. I figured my self-esteem can take one for the team, and wanted to see what taking self-portraits with the E-PL8 is really like. I certainly don't want such a highly-detailed self-portrait... really ever. I mean, if anything, I'm just reminded of my traumatic battle with acne. On the plus side, this self-portrait was much easier to do than with many ILC cameras out there, and it's got that shallow depth of field which is a look that several phones make an attempt to fake. I decided to try and take a better one, this time out in my least favorite place: the world.

That one's better. There's nice light and a bit of the world around me to give a sense of where I was. Also, I'm not reproduced in such detail that my self-esteem suffers. There's just one problem, however. The lens I used, the Olympus 12mm F2, costs more than the camera and isn't a field-of-view offered by the kit lens. Not only that, holding a bright white (our test camera was white; black would have been more subtle) camera commanded much more attention than using a phone does, which is already a surefire way to label yourself as a tourist, hence my not so comfortable expression. Just as a sanity check, does the in-camera 'e-Portrait' retouching help my dermatological shortcomings? Maybe, but it sure wasn't subtle about it. If one is struck by the looks of the E-PL8, then there's plenty to be happy with as a point and shoot or entry level model. The JPEGs are nice and have great color, the in-body stabilization is incredibly handy, and the kit zoom offers a bit more reach than a phone would. For frugal enthusiasts looking for an entry-level body, that bit of money saved by not getting the EVF and extra controls of the E-M10 II should go toward a new lens to get the most from their new camera.