Preview: Photo Review Dec-Feb 201011 Issue 46

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3D PHOTOGRAPHY

A GUIDE TO SHOOTING AND EDITING 3D IMAGES

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contents We encourage submissions to: The Editor edmail@photoreview.com.au T: (02) 9948 8600 Office 4 Clontarf Marina, Sandy Bay Road Clontarf NSW 2093

INSIDE

Cover image by Wayne Quilliam. See page 12.

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01

WHY DO YOU TAKE PICTURES? Our editor meditates on what motivates photographers and manages to work in a reference to Shakespeare.

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Products & Trends Silver-based prints no longer rule the High Street. There are now a range of printing technologies pushing out those 6x4s - with varying success.

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Photo Challenge This issue’s challenge is definitely inside the frame!

INSPIRATION 12

AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE: WAYNE QUILLIAM Wayne Quilliam attributes his success as a photographer to his willingness to first spend time understanding his subjects.

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BOOK REVIEW: CIRCUS Shot in 2006 and 2008, Circus is about ‘the relationship between the body, costume, performance and Identity’.

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ME AND THE MICROBES: RENATA BUZIAK Brisbane artist Renata Buziak works in a field of visual wonder created by encouraging photographic material to decay!

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Photo Review AUSTRALIA ISSUE 46

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contents

PhotoæReview

A U S T R A L I A

BUYERS GUIDE DSLR 53

CANON EOS 60D

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SUBSCRIBE TO PHOTO REVIEW AND WIN Have Photo Review Australia delivered to your door at a reduced price - or extend your current subscription - and you could win the featurepacked Canon EOS 550D Single IS Kit - DSLR body plus EF-S 18- 55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens valued at $1,499.

The first Canon DSLR camera with an adjustable monitor screen.

Technical Editor Margaret Brown mbrown@photoreview.com.au

SONY ALPHA 55

Trade News Editor Keith Shipton keiths@photoreview.com.au

Back to the future with a pellicle mirror EVF and some new shooting modes.

SUBSCRIPTIONS 55

NIKON D3100 A DSLR for novice users who want a camera that helps improve their photography.

Publication Manager Pauline Shuttleworth pshuttleworth@photoreview.com.au

We compare two of the latest ‘raw-sumer’ digicams.

Accounts Manager Heather Hampson mpaccounts@photoreview.com.au Media Releases edmail@photoreview.com.au

UNDERSTANDING AND USING MTF GRAPHS

Advertising Phone (02) 9948 8600 pshuttleworth@photoreview.com.au Subscriptions One year (4 issues) $29.00 including GST and delivery in Australia. See page 37 this issue or phone: (02) 9948 8600 or online: www.photoreview.com.au

TECHNIQUE 32

SHOOTING CLOSE-UPS Tips for taking big pictures of little things.

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REMOVING UNWANTED PEOPLE FROM HOLIDAY PHOTOS

Photo Review Australia is printed on Monza Satin Recycled Paper with ISO 14001 Environmental Accreditation Printed by Pegasus Print Group

Some useful ways to eliminate tourists from scenic shots.

Design by itechne [www.itechne.com] phone (03) 9421 8833

LENS

BUYERS GUIDE

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58 59 59

3D PHOTOGRAPHY A guide to shooting and editing 3D images

Creative Director Darren Waldren

CANON POWERSHOT S95 IS AND PANASONIC DMC-LX5

INSIDER 38

Contributor Steve Packer

Publisher David O’Sullivan dosullivan@photoreview.com.au

ADVANCED 56

Editor Don Norris dnorris@photoreview.com.au

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TAMRON SP AF 90mm F/2.8 DI MACRO 1:1 LENS SIGMA 50mm F/2.8 EX DG MACRO LENS SIGMA 105mm F/2.8 EX DG MACRO LENS SIGMA 180mm F/3.5 APO EX DG HSM MACRO LENS TAMRON SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 DI VC USD SONY SAL75300 75-300mm F/4.5-5.6 ZOOM LENS

NET EFFECT 64

LINKS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS, #46 The things you find on the internet . . . Our editor uncovers, among other things, a better iPhone app, photo manipulation websites and a homage to close-up photography...

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Distributed by NDD Photo Review website by itechne All content in Photo Review Australia is protected under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any form without written consent from the publisher. Photo Review Australia is published by

Media Publishing Pty Limited ABN 86 099 172 577 Office 4 Clontarf Marina Sandy Bay Road, Clontarf NSW 2093 Australia Ph: (02) 9948 8600 Fx: (02) 9948 0144 Em: edmail@mediapublishing.com.au Photo Review website: www.photoreview.com.au

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Inspiration

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Inspiration

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A YOUNG SAILOR, AN EXOTIC PORT AND A FEW DRINKS. IT’S A FAMILIAR STORY. BUT THIS ONE DIDN’T END WITH A SORE HEAD AND NEW TATTOO.

By Don Norris ‘THIS ONE NIGHT IN HONG KONG started it all, believe it or not. I went out with the boys to have a couple quiet ales and that led to me coming back to the ship at a very early hour in the morning with a few sherberts under my belt’, Wayne Quilliam explained. It was the era of duty free and Hong Kong was full of huge shops specialising in everything from jewelery to hi-ďŹ and photographic gear. The young sailor making his way back to his berth happened to wander past one such glittering emporium and was momentarily stopped in his tracks. ‘I passed this camera store and went, “wow! I’ve always wanted to do this...â€?, so I went in, bought this you-beaut camera. Later that day I woke up and there was this wonderful silver piece of technology sitting beside my bed and I thought, “I wonder where that came from?â€?’ By the time his ship put to sea again, Quilliam had a bucketload of colour ďŹ lm in his locker and all the time in the world to get to know his new Yashica FX-D Quartz. ‘I knew nothing about f-stops or shutter speeds, all I knew is it was a device to try and capture what I saw. That was the beauty of it. Here we are on board a ship, so life at sea for a young man was taking photographs of shipboard life and beautiful countries. ‘Once, we were doing exercises off Subic Bay in the Philippines, watching jet ďŹ ghters of a night touching down and doing live ďŹ ring at sea; it was just a young Photo Review AUSTRALIA ISSUE 46

man’s dream really. I just kept shooting and playing around until we got into port and I could put my ďŹ lm in.’ Without so much as a camera course or even a mentor, Quilliam gradually taught himself the fundamentals of photography during the remainder of his time in the Navy. In 1984 he returned to civilian life in his native Tasmania and for a time the camera was put away as he worked at a variety of occupations before starting up his own little chimney-sweeping business in Hobart. ‘One day I was sweeping an old house for an old lady and there were these amazing black and white images in the place. I told her how wonderful they looked and she told me her father was a photographer. She showed me his old darkroom setup (he’d passed away many years ago) and I was absolutely fascinated with it.’ Quilliam came to an arrangement with the customer. He’d clean the chimneys a few times and in exchange, she’d give him all the darkroom equipment. ‘I took it home, blacked out all the windows in the bathroom, set it all up and thought, “what the hell am I doing now?â€? I just went ballistic, fell in love with it, I just couldn’t stop doing it, it was an amazing experience.’ A member of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, Quilliam was soon sending stories and pictures to Aboriginal publications even as he came to grips with the art of darkroom work. He freely admits that his early efforts were sometimes not all they might have been. But he was a keen experimenter who employed such techniques as colour tinting; push-, pull- and cross-processing, and even printing on to photo emulsion coated rocks. ‘The beauty of it is that some of it came up quite nice; again it was a whole learning process. It was a unique and beautiful time to learn.’ Mutitjulu, 2009 While Quilliam is still a ďŹ rm believer in the value of introducingLouie, beginning

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tips:guide shooting buyers

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e’ll start by clarifying the deďŹ nition of ‘macro’. True macro refers only to ‘lifesize’ reproduction – which means a 1:1 reproduction (magniďŹ cation) ratio. In other words, an object that is 20mm high (or wide) will be reproduced at the same size (20mm) on the image sensor. It doesn’t matter how large or small that sensor is – although it probably won’t ďŹ t onto a 4/3-inch type sensor; the magniďŹ cation ratio is totally independent of sensor dimensions. Half life-size reproduction – or a 1:2 reproduction ratio – is often included in the ‘macro’ category, although it’s not true macro.

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Equipment The most straightforward way to get into true macro photography is to buy a macro lens. Specialised macro lenses are offered to suit all DSLR cameras – and a few interchangeable-lens compacts. Three popular focal lengths are readily available, each suited to a different type of macro photography. Options include: 5550-65mm – typically used for product photography (eg, jewellery) and small, non-mobile objects; 55 90-110mm – the standard macro focal length range; ideal for photographing owers, insects and other small objects;

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55150-200mm – a better option for mobile insects and other small animals because it provides more working distance (see right). Many zoom lenses also claim to have ‘macro’ capabilities, although this is more of a marketing term than a true description of their capacities, because few of them can achieve reproduction ratios greater than 1:4 (one quarter life size). Tamron and Sigma each have a 70-300mm lens that claims 1:2 reproduction – but this is quite unusual. Lenses that provide a 2:1 reproduction ratio – or greater – also qualify as macro lenses because they reproduce subjects at twice life size (a 20mm

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tips: shooting

long object is magniďŹ ed to 40mm on the sensor). These lenses are usually highly specialised and put in a special high-magniďŹ cation category. Alternatively, you can increase the distance between the lens and the sensor by attaching either extension tubes or extendable bellows to the back of the lens. This enables the lens to focus closer and provides greater magniďŹ cation of the image. However, it also reduces the amount of light transmitted to the sensor and may make accurate focusing difďŹ cult. Higher ISO settings will probably be required. Fitting a close-up lens to the front of the camera’s lens is another, relatively inexpensive, option. However, most such lenses suffer from chromatic aberration and sharpness is also reduced. Reversing rings, which allow lenses to be ďŹ tted wrong way round, can also produce up to 4x magniďŹ cation. However, they may be difďŹ cult to ďŹ nd for most modern cameras that rely on electronic contacts for focusing and metering. Finally, if you simply want good close-up capabilities, use a compact camera and set the focus to the macro position. Compact digicams have an advantage over interchangeable-lens cameras for close-up photography because their smaller sensors provide a greater depth-of-ďŹ eld and allow a greater working distance for their reproduction ratios. Many models come close to a 1:1 reproduction ratio at shooting distances of just a centimetre or two.

Working Distance It’s essential to have a good working distance between the front of the lens and the subject when shooting close-ups, particularly if your subjects are animals (including insects and arachnids). As a rough guide, the longer the focal length of the lens, the greater the working distance it provides. The closer you get to the subject, the more likely you are to encounter the following problems: 1. The subject gets ‘spooked’ and disappears. (Scientists often chill their subjects before a shoot to prevent this from happening – but it requires care to apply just enough cold to slow the creature down without making it torpid or killing it). 2. The lens shadow interferes with the subject and there’s not enough room to introduce artiďŹ cial lighting. Flash units can be too harsh, while studio lights add unwanted heat. Ring lights tend to â€˜ďŹ‚atten’ the subject, even when there’s enough working distance to use them.

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3. Focusing is difďŹ cult because depth-of-ďŹ eld is very restricted. The autofocusing system will probably hunt for focus and, if you’re hand-holding the camera, it’s difďŹ cult to keep it steady enough for focus to lock onto the subject.

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The EOS 60D gives you even more creative control of your photography. With its new Vari-Angle LCD screen, you can experiment and take high quality images from creative angles you never thought possible.

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