Digital Photo - May 2016

DIGITAL PHOTO MAY 2016 ISSUE 207

Improve every shot you take

5 4 PROJECTS TIPS & IDEAS TO DO NOW!

GET CREATIVE WITH LAYERS

EXPOSURE SECRETS

Get creative with

LAYERS

How to choose the right shooting mode on your DSLR

Transform your images using Photoshop’s most powerful feature

EXPOSURE SECRETS SIMPLE PHOTO FIXES

Simple photo fixes

TRY OUR LENS REVOLUTION Break lens tradition

Use ND filters Find new angles Remove Noise Shoot Manual

Straighten city scenes

and get fresh results

Banish sloping skylines in 60 seconds

Publish your photos Show off your shots with the best photo book services

INSPIRING TECHNIQUES FOR STUNNING IMAGES!

WWW.PHOTOANSWERS.CO.UK

MAY 2016 ISSUE 207 £4.99

Best UK locations

Most creative ideas

Top shots showcased

Create dramatic images in Photoshop

PLANET PHOTO Your fresh fix of inspiration from the world’s best photographers

THE BIG PICTURE

Reflections of the heart When it comes to romantic portraits, Durdali Dalgin stops at nothing!

The Turkish-based wedding and portraiture photographer captured this golden scene, which was 500px’s most viewed image on February 14 – Valentine’s Day. “The idea behind the image was to recreate the first day the couple met, with a more romantic twist,” he explains. After sourcing an area of marshland, Durdali’s team dug up reeds to leave a clear space of water before adding in the props and then positioning his models as the sun came down.

The water produced a reflection of the couple and added to the romantic ambience of the frame.

Camera Canon EOS 5D MkII & 200mm f/2 lens Exposure 1/1250 @ f/2, ISO 100 Software Photoshop Visit www.durdalidalgin.com

GET THIS SHOT Telephoto lenses, like Durdali’s 200mm optic, are great for compressing the perspective of a scene. When used with a large aperture setting (a low f/number) they also help subjects stand out by blurring the background.

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Durdali used the natural glow of the low sun at the end of the day to backlight his subjects.

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BREAKWITH THE RULES YOUR

LENSES Want to get fresh pictures? Try using the ‘wrong’ lens for the job. You’ll be surprised how right the results can look!

Lenses we experimented with

50mm

A ‘Nifty Fifty’ is the cheapest prime you can buy.

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Macro

A specialist optic with more uses than you’d think.

hotography is about making choices that help you capture a great image. When greeted with a landscape scene, for example, you may experiment with shutter speed to introduce movement or aperture to vary the depth of field. But there’s one element that’s often overlooked – lens choice. When developing your photo skills, you automatically pick the ‘correct’ lens for the subject.

Shooting a landscape? Use a wideangle. Taking a portrait? Reach for the 50mm prime. While this brings good results, it limits your creative 24 DIGITAL PHOTO

Telephoto

Built to get you close, but capable of much more.

Wide

The landscaper’s favourite, but it has other options.

options, so it pays to rip up the rule book every once in a while.

The projects that follow will help you to do this by experimenting with your lens choices. We’ve deliberately used the ‘wrong’ optics for nature, landscape, action and portrait shots, because a seemingly inappropriate lens forces you to think differently. And that results in creative pictures you’d never normally take.

This all-new approach to traditional shooting will recharge your photography, and reward you with the most creative shots!

“ IT PAYS TO RIP UP THE RULE BOOK EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE”

Go wide

HENRI JUVONEN

Portraits are commonly taken with standard or short telephoto lenses, but the ultra-wide view from a wide-angle landscape lens gives stunning results.

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SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

PEELING BACK LAYERS It takes just four Layers to create this intriguing invisible illusion!

WORDS & PICS BY ANDY HEATHER

S

elling a visual illusion often relies on tiny details that pass the viewer by at first glance. In this project, for example, a model is becoming invisible as she prepares for a dip. At first glance the image would appear to have been created by simply masking out the model’s midriff to reveal the Layer beneath it. That would make it a Photoshop document consisting of two Layers: the beach and the model. However, closer inspection reveals that the inside of the model’s jeans are visible, which wouldn’t be possible if she was wearing them. Suddenly, it becomes clear that a third, quite subtle Layer has been inserted between the model and the background Layers. It is this Layer, as small as it is, that gives shape and volume to the clothes and makes it appear that she’s still wearing them while doing her disappearing act!

The second subtle touch that helps make the effect convincing is the introduction of Lens Flare on the Layer above the model in the stack. Real lens flare happens in the lens itself, so it must always sit above the other Layers in order to be realistic. If the Layers are in the wrong order, the viewer will immediately sense that something’s wrong.

Something For The Weekend is all about the complete project, from shoot to edit, so in this tutorial we’ll reveal how to shoot your model, then the jeans separately. We’ll then take those two pics, throw in a third shot from a summer holiday, and blend them in Photoshop to create a magical result that’ll make your friends wonder how you did it.

Required kit DSLR or CSC

Costume Jeans are a good option for this shot because denim keeps its shape well when you hold it up.

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ANDY HEATHER / BAUER

A camera with creative controls such as a DSLR or compact system camera.

This simple yet thought-provoking composite is a great way to polish your shooting and postprocessing skills.

TECHNIQUE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE OVER THE PAGE DIGITAL PHOTO 35

PHOTOSHOP GENIUS

TRANSFORM FLAT RAW FILES INTO POWERFUL PICS Discover how to use local adjustments in Lightroom to create high-impact images TECHNIQUE & PICS BY BEN DAVIS

At a glance You’ll learn How to use local adjustments to alter the lighting in a scene and inject extra interest to your RAW files You’ll need Lightroom 5/CC or Photoshop CS6/CC Time required 15 minutes Difficulty level Medium

On the disc Video lessons Watch as Ben runs through this essential Lightroom technique on your computer screen.

Start images Try out the project using the Trinidad.dng RAW file.

The picture can be found in the Start Images folder.

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hooting a scene that is illuminated by a bright sun makes it very difficult to control the lighting.

The harsh contrast between the highlights and the shadows means it’s difficult for cameras to cope with the range of tones, and often the results are rather flat. But when you shoot in RAW and process your pics in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, you can take complete control of the lighting and inject extra interest into your shot.

The best way to do this is by making local adjustments to your image. This means you can target specific areas to change the exposure, colour balance, contrast and lots more settings. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to make the most of the tools in Lightroom, so you can make your sun-lit shots shine!

Before

This image of the Plaza Mayor, in Trinidad, Cuba, was illuminated by bright, direct sunlight. This has resulted in a strong contrast, with detail hidden in the shadows, and the colours are somewhat muted. It’s a RAW file though, so all that can be rescued!

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LEARNING LIGHTROOM

VIDEO LESSON ON THE CD

After Using the tools in Lightroom it’s easy to give this pic a vibrant transformation and add artistic effects.

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PRO-QUALITY PHOTO BOOKS Show off your best images in a self-published book. We test six easy-to-create options that are available online for less than £30 TEST BY MATT HIGGS

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any of us invest our time in taking photos, only to leave them on a hard drive never to be printed or displayed.

It’s part of the blessing of digital imaging that we’re free to shoot so much without any obligations to making physical copies, and part of its curse as well. Whether as a means to showcase your best work to prospective clients, or to share your favourite memories with friends and family, photo books are a professional-looking solution.

Removing the faff of putting together a homemade photo album from individual prints, several online companies offer services that will turn your files into seamless,

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high-quality, coffee-table-style photo books.

You don’t need to be a design wizard to get the best out of them, as they all allow you to drag and drop your images into custom templates, or automate the whole process if desired. We chose products from six popular online services, all of which are competitively priced, and super easy to create.

How we did the test All six photo books selected for review were landscape in format, roughly A4 in size, and cost below £30 excluding P&P. Other than selecting a Hardcover on the products where

one wasn’t offered as standard, we choose no additional feature options that may have been available such as premium paper types or logo removal. The books were all designed using the manufacturers’ provided software and the same set of high-resolution image files.

Where we were given the choice, we ensured that no photo optimisation settings were turned on in the software, and we matched each book’s layout as closely as possible to the others.

Once all the books were received from the manufacturers, their print, paper and build quality were assessed by the Digital Photo team.

PHOTO BOOK GROUP TEST

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Page count

While additional pages can be added at cost, all of the books featured have a set number they offer at the advertised price.

Paper type

The paper type used for printing varies between makers – some use gloss while others have a matte finish.

ALAMY

Photo books make excellent portfolios to share, presents to give, or self-published products to sell to fans of your work.

Design process

All the books are ordered online, but some require free software to design, while others can be created via a web browser.

Print quality

Manufactured using different methods and equipment, the final print quality of the photo books can vary greatly, despite using the same set of images.

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