6 digital photo
Inspiration
Big shots Your monthly showcase of inspirational images from all around the world
Celebrating sunset Little did Karthick Ramachandran know when he took this picture of Manarola, Cinque Terre, that this place would be washed away by a cruel landslide in a month. The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera and the ‘Five Lands’ is composed of five villages that are part of the Cinque Terre National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over centuries, people have built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the clifs that overlook the sea. The Cinque Terre villages were severely afected by torrential rains which caused floods and mud slides in October 2011. “To me, the five lands of Cinque Terre represent the beauty man is capable of creating and the resilience of the people who live there,” Karthick told us. His HDR image is a blend of three exposures, tonemapped in Photomatix and processed in Photoshop using Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks. Camera Canon EOS 500D & 17-40mm lens Software Adobe Photoshop, Photomatix
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Camera skills
10
top tips for better portrait pictures
great portrait pictures are within the grasp of every photographer and with our expert advice, we’ll show you just how achieve them! techniques & pictures tom calton
Portraits are a staple subject for most photographers and probably the one that’s the most accessible. Family, friends, colleagues – even complete strangers – are ideal candidates for portraits and every pic tells a diferent and very personal story about the subject, making it one of the most intriguing photographic disciplines. But whether you’re snapping friends and family, or even local models, you’ll want to achieve professional-looking results and this is entirely possible when you know how. Our top 10 tips are designed to help you learn the core essentials of taking your best-ever people pictures, and we concentrate on essential areas like focusing, framing, lighting, and getting the composition right. What’s more, you don’t need to own an arsenal of expensive equipment to get the best results, either – all the portraits you’ll see over the following pages are achievable with either an entry-level D-SLR or a compact so everyone can join in the fun – all you need is a willing model. So, what are you waiting for? Read on and get inspired!
at a glance
you’ll learn how to set up and shoot professional-looking portraits. what you need a d-SlR or compact time needed You can get some great shots in just 10 minutes. difficulty level Easy
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1
Get the focus right
For most types of portrait photography, the eyes will tell the story, so making sure they’re pin sharp is vital in getting a good pic (even if they’re shut up tight like our infant subject here). Compose your shot then move the active aF point so that it’s over the subject’s eye, half-depressing the shutter to lock on the focus. if your subject is positioned at an angle, make sure the focus is set over the eye that’s closest to the camera. Even if the model is looking of camera or has their eyes closed, they’ll still need to be sharp and in focus. there are exceptions to this rule, however, and if you’re feeling adventurous, focus can be used creatively to pick out a specific detail within the photo to tell a completely diferent story about the subject.
Creative camera
Panoramic shot this image has been created from five separate images shot in a sequence.
shot 1
method involves taking a sequence of pictures of the same location at the same time and then merging them later using software like Photoshop. This second route gives you much greater image quality and allows you to
shot 2
shot 3
capture scenes that are too big for one shot, even when using the widest of lenses. However, although panoramas are fundamentally about recording very wide views, it’s important to remain selective in what you
shot 4
shoot – just as you would with a regular landscape. This means the first step is always to find a great subject – after all, a wide view of nothing isn’t going to impress anyone! Now turn the page and find out all you need to know...
shot 5
the five separate pics above were shot in manual mode to ensure the exposure was the same in each. Do it this way to make sure they match up later.
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Portfolio Andrey Narchuk Every month, we showcase a selection of work by a great photographer, so discover how Andrey Narchuk creates his fascinating split-level ocean shots – and manages to do it all while holding down a full-time job. interview by kate hardy
Go Diving was taken at Balicasag in the Philippines. this huge school of Bigeye trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus) was photographed right under andrey’s diving boat. 74 digital photo
Portfolio
above: Sunset was shot around apo Island in the Philippines at sunset. the turtles swim very near to the coastline so it’s relatively easy to take photographs of them. Left: Dive to Fiji shows one of the small islands near the Pacific harbour. In between scuba dives the team had enough time to swim and enjoy the crystal clear water, and andrey was able to grab this shot.
A
ndrey Narchuk’s first Red Sea dive in 2004 left him with a lasting impression. “That first look beyond the surface of the water was unforgettable; to hold my breath and dive and shoot at the same time wasn’t easy, but nothing could stop me.” Since then he has never missed an opportunity to get in the water with his camera, and just a few days after returning from his first dive, he bought an underwater case for his camera and began spending as much time as he could in the sea. “I was rewarded for my perseverance by some manta rays appearing from the depths, swimming right up to me. It was wonderful! We swam together for about half an hour, and since then, my heart has belonged to the sea.” Living and working in Moscow, 33 year-old Andrey has a full-time job as a programmer working in railway transport,
but fits in photography in his spare time. “I try to organise photography trips to shoot new subjects, but if I can’t get away, then I shoot at home.” Andrey’s main focus is on underwater photography – natural and artistic – and he loves to experiment with diferent places, objects and genres, trying varying technical elements such as non-standard lenses, system flashes and filters. But how does he achieve his ‘split level’ images? “The diference in light under the water and on the surface is solved by using strobes. Using a very wide-angle lens like a fisheye, closing the aperture and shooting at the hyperfocal distance helps me overcome the diferent depths of field above and below the surface. Waves constantly leave water drops on the lens port of the underwater case, so I use a glass digital photo 75
wide-angle zoom lens test
what to shoot with a wide-angle lens Because of their characteristically large angle of view and the way in which this leads to a greater depth-of-field in your pictures, wide-angle lenses are generally used for capturing expansive vistas and getting great landscape pictures, but their usefulness doesn’t end there. Their construction inevitably leads to some barrel distortions as the light is bent to fit the wide angle of view onto your sensor, which can change the look of a subject making wide-angles a fun choice for quirky portraits or action shots, too. landscape at 12mm
nikon aF-s dX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5g ed £659
portrait at 10mm
tamron sP aF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 di ii £374
that the shorter the focal length of the lens you shoot with, the greater the angle of view and the more of the scene you’ll be able to enjoy. Of course, there are even wider lenses available, achieving anything up to 180º, but these ‘fisheye’ versions are diferent creatures entirely and give much more distorted images – even if their focal length appears the same. Wide-angle zooms do give a certain amount of barrel distortion, but are designed to correct and render the scene you’re shooting as close to reality as possible. Convinced? Good! Now let’s see which one is best for you...
testing conditions We subjected all six lenses to a rigorous examination, and to ensure a comprehensive and fair test, each was graded on a number of diferent factors, to gauge not only how they performed optically but also how they fared on build quality, handling and value for money, too. For afordability, we set a price ceiling of £700 and only picked those with focal lengths that started at 10mm or 11mm to ensure all the lenses were comparable at their widest focal length. Finally for conclusive results, we tested all lenses on similar bodies and at a variety of apertures and focal lengths in both real world and lab environments.
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