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THE WORLD’S BEST-SEL L ING DIGITAL PHOTO MAGA ZINE ISSUE 458 1-7 JULY

INSPIRATION IDEAS IN-DEPTH REVIEWS

LANDSCAPE DITING MASTERCLAS 70-200MM ZOOMS

WE TEST 4 MIRRORLESS MODELS OF THE LENS YOU CAN’T BE WITHOUT

DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF ESSENTIAL TECHNIQUES INCLUDING HDR, FOCUS STACKING AND PANORAMAS

W E L C O M E

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essential shooting and editing techniques, and in-depth reviews of the latest camera kit.

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C O N T E N T S FIND OUT WHAT’S INSIDE THIS ISSUE NEWS

FEATURE

GOPRO HERO 9 BLACK GETS WELCOME UPDATE Download improves screen

issues and adds developer tools FEATURE

MULTI-SHOT SCENICS

Master key techniques including HDR, focus stacking and panos PHOTOS

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I N S P I R AT I O N

Our pick of the best reader photos from around the world I N S P I R AT I O N

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70-200MM F/2.8 LENSES

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It’s an essential tool in many photographers’ kit bags – we test fast tele-zooms for mirrorless from Tamron, Canon, Nikon and Sigma

SEE THE SUBSCRIPTION PAGE FOR MORE INFO

N E W S

W H AT ’ S H O T THE WEEK’S TOP HEADLINES IN PHOTOGRAPHY GOPRO HERO 9 BLACK UPDATE ADDRESSES SCREEN ISSUES Download improves touchscreen performance and adds developer tools

orPoG ©

G

oPro Hero 9 Black firmware update has finally improved the action cam’s frustratingly sluggish touchscreen – and also delivers new open source tools that should see the camera play nice with other tech.

The Hero 9 Black’s v1.6 update, which is available to download via the Quik app, brings several tweaks, but the main one is that it “improves touchscreen performance in menus and settings”.

So does it actually fix the action camera’s annoyingly unresponsive screen? Not completely, by the sounds of it, with users reporting that while it’s

easier to pull down the settings menu, and scrolling through preferences feels snappier, there’s still some slight lag in places compared to the screen on the Hero 8 Black. It isn’t a deal-breaker, and the Hero 9 Black is still a superb action camera, but it’s a little frustrating that the Hero 8 Black still offers a slightly smoother experience.

Arguably the bigger feature of the Hero 9 Black’s firmware update, though, is its compatibility with the new ‘Open GoPro’ platform, which is a new API (Application Programming Interface) for developers to get their teeth into.

This allows anyone with some coding knowledge to write software that interacts with or controls certain aspects of the GoPro Hero 9 Black. Not everything is available to developers – for example, there’s no access to the action cam’s video feed – but tinkerers will be able to access the camera’s wireless connectivity, video preview, status and SD card transfer.

It’s early days for the API, but it does mean that you can expect to see much better integration with other hardware, like smartwatches and bike computers, and with other software.

F E A T U R E JAMES ABBOTT

James Abbott is a professional photographer and photography journalist specialising in shooting and editing techniques. His first book was recently released, and covers professional image editing skills in both Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo.

To see more of James’ work, visit: @jamesaphoto www.jamesaphoto.co.uk

LANDSCAPE EDITING MASTERCLASS

J

Discover the shooting and editing secrets behind the most popular multi-image landscape photography techniques

ust like soccer, photography is a game of two halves. The first half is the shoot – the process of capturing our images, during which we aim to get everything as close to perfect as possible in-camera, from composition to the focus point and exposure settings. The second half is the editing process, during which we correct flaws, apply enhancements and fine-tune the compositon in order to make our images look their very best.

There are some landscape

photography techniques where the shooting and editing processes go hand in hand – the two are inextricably linked – and these techniques are heavily dependent on editing because they involve shooting multiple frames, whether that’s to capture a wider scene that would be possible with a single frame, or to capture the full tonal range of a high-contrast scene or get every element of a landscape in focus.

Focus stacking, HDR photography, panoramas and HDR panoramas are four

such landscape techniques, and in this feature we’re going to explain how to shoot for and create each type of image, with detailed tutorials showing you how to process your in order to achieve the most natural-looking results. Once you’ve followed these, you’ll be able to use these techniques individually, or combine them, to take both your shooting and editing skills to the next level, and produce landscape images packed with interest and detail for maximum impact.

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BALANCING ACT As photographers, we’re often inclined to put more effort into the shooting side of the imagemaking process, but editing is just as important

F E A T U R E

MASTER FOCUS STACKING

Capture sharpness from the front to the back of a scene for an expanded depth of field with maximum detail

C

apturing landscapes that are pin-sharp from just centimetres in front of the camera all the way to the distant horizon may sound like the stuff of dreams, but it’s a technique you can use right now to capture landscapes with maximum detail throughout.

Focus stacking is a technique that’s more commonly associated with macro photography, because it overcomes the problem of an extremely shallow depth of field, even when shooting with a macro lens stopped down to f/11, for instance.

With landscape photography, the foreground interest may be less than a metre away from the lens, while the horizon may be several miles away.

And the problem with stopping down the aperture to f/22 to achieve a large depth of field is that diffraction – basically a loss of overall image sharpness – becomes a problem.

When focus-stacking landscapes, you shoot at your lens’s sweet spot of f/8 or f/11, and take three or four shots focused at different points through the scene, but close enough together that the depth of field, or the sharpest parts of each image, overlap one another from one shot to the next. The result is the sharpest image your lens is capable of producing, because the exposures were shot at the sharpest aperture of your lens, alongside a depth of field that’s much greater than you could ever achieve in a single shot, even at f/22.

4X START IMAGES

FOCUS STACKING Each individual exposure exhibits a large depth of field, but the entire scene isn’t in sharp focus

SHARP FOCUS This scene is pin-sharp from the rocks in the foreground to the fells in the background

F E A T U R E

MASTER FOCUS STACKING CONTINUED 1

PROCESS THE FIRST IMAGE

2

SYNCHRONISE SETTINGS

3

OPEN AS LAYERS

4

AUTO-BLEND LAYERS

5

CROP THE IMAGE

6

SAVE THE IMAGE

Rate your three or four shots with five stars in Lightroom so you can easily identify them, then click on the first image to make it active and apply all adjustments required to process the image. Get the image to the point where you would normally export the image to share, print or continue editing in Photoshop.

Go to Edit > Auto-Blend Layers, and when the dialog opens Photoshop will have automatically identified that the Blend Method required is Stack Images. Make sure Seamless Tones and Colors is checked and that Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas is unchecked, and press OK. Photoshop will now blend the images.

With the first image still active, hold down Shift and left-click on the last image of the set. Click on the Sync button on the right, and when the dialog opens click Check All then Synchronize. Finally, check the Exposure in each image, and adjust any as required so that exposure is identical in each image.

There will be transparent areas at the edges of the image where the layers have been aligned and merged. Press C on the keyboard to activate the Crop Tool and set the crop ratio to Original Ratio. Left-click and drag the guide over the image before zooming in to fine-tune the positioning. Hit Enter to crop.

POINTS OF FOCUS When focusing your three or four shots you can use autofocus and simply focus at the front of the scene, and then gradually further into the scene with each subsequent shot. Three frames is often enough, but shooting four will provide more depth of field overlap and increase the chance that the images will blend successfully during editing.

Any missed planes of focus in the scene results in ‘blobs’ of blur in the merged image which can sometimes be cloned out, but not always.

In the image on the right, the points of focus have been highlighted in red, and you’ll notice how each point is a little further back in the scene from the previous one – this approach works well with landscape scenes. When focus stacking use Live View to compose the shot and to set AF points; if your camera has a touchscreen LCD you can set focus points by tapping the desired point of focus in the scene.

Keep all the images active, right-click on them and go to Edit In > Open as Layers in Photoshop.

When the images load, hold down Shift and left-click on the bottom layer to select all the layers. Now go to Edit > Auto-Align Layers, and make sure Auto is selected and that the Lens Correction options are unchecked.

Click on the menu icon at the top-right of the Layers panel and select Flatten Image.

You can now apply any final image editing or adjustments using layers to finish your image, after which you can either save the image as a TIFF and reduce the bit depth to 8 bits/channel or simply save as a JPEG.

F E A T U R E

ACHIEVE NATURAL HDR

Create HDR images that look realistic rather than processed

H

DR photography needs little or no introduction these days, but for those unfamiliar with the technique it’s a method of capturing tonal detail in a scene from the deepest shadows through to the brightest highlights by shooting three, five or more bracketed exposures.

The exposures are shot at two-stop increments if you’re shooting three or five shots, or one-stop increments if you’re shooting more exposures.

These frames are then merged into a single image in which detail is revealed throughout the scene.

The advantage of HDR photography is that it can eliminate the need to use ND grad filters, but it can also be used in conjunction with filters to tackle extremely high-contrast scenes in which the sky is considerably brighter than the foreground.

The main issue with HDR photography comes down to editing.

The technique has gained a bad reputation, because poor processing technique can result in muddy midtones and the introduction of artefacts such as halos along high-contrast subject edges. The trick is to process HDR images in such a way that the application of the technique looks natural, and is essentially invisible to the viewer – this easily achieved, and it’s what we’re going to focus on in our next tutorial

F E A T U R E

ACHIEVE NATURAL HDR CONTINUED 1

MERGE TO HDR

2

REMOVE GHOSTING

3

SHOW CLIPPING

4

RECOVER DETAIL

5

ENHANCE DETAIL

6

APPLY LOCALISED ADJUSTMENTS

Left-click on the first exposure of the set in the Develop Module in Lightroom, hold down Shift and left-click on the last image. Right-click on the selected images and go to Photo Merge > HDR. Make sure Auto Align, Create Stack and Show Deghost Overlay are checked, and leave Auto Settings unchecked.

Adjust the Exposure so that the midtones are correctly exposed, then adjust Highlights and Shadows, but don’t push them to the maximum; here, Highlights were set to -60 and Shadows to +75. Boost the Whites and reduce Blacks to maintain contrast; here, Whites were set to +40 and Blacks -12.

By default, the Deghost Amount is set to none, so click on High. If there is ghosting, a red mask appears over the image. If it does, select Medium and see if the same amount is highlighted; if it is try Low. The idea is to use the lowest setting possible to remove the most ghosting if present.

If there’s no ghosting, select None.

At this stage you can apply Texture to accentuate fine details in the scene, and Clarity to increase midtone contrast which has the effect of enhancing detail as a whole; keeping these sliders below +30 will help to maintain a natural look. Now, you can go back to step four to fine-tune those adjustments if necessary.

Click OK once you’re happy with the merge, and Lightroom will create a new DNG file at the top of the image stack that contains data from all the exposures in the series. Click on the squares in the top corners of the histogram to show shadow and highlight clipping, then apply Lens Corrections.

You may have blown highlights and/or clipped shadows, represented by red and blue overlays respectively. Alternatively, you may simply want to lighten or darken specific areas of a scene, and this is where we can use the Graduated and Radial Filters along with the Adjustment Brush for localised edits.

REDUCE THE VARIABLES The key to success when shooting HDR images is to reduce the number of camera variables that can change to just one: shutter speed. Your aperture, ISO, focus and all other settings must remain fixed, with the camera securely attached to a tripod to avoid any movement between exposures. Bracketing the exposures is then achieved by changing the shutter speed, and the best way to do this is to set the camera to automatic exposure bracketing (AEB) in Aperture Priority mode. With AEB, you can set the number of exposures, and how many stops apart these are – most cameras allow for up to five exposures to be captured. Alternatively, shoot in Manual mode and change the shutter speed manually, or shoot in Aperture Priority mode and use exposure compensation to set the bracketed exposures.

F E A T U R E

MERGE PANORAMAS

Capture a wider view that’s closer to that of human vision by stitching a series of portrait-orientation images into a pano

W

e’ve all become accustomed to 16:9 picture ratios and wider thanks to cinema and modern widescreen televisions, so, while panoramic landscape photos have been around since the days of film, these days they perhaps look more natural than ever to us. Panoramas are easy to shoot, but they require careful editing in order to look natural.

Panoramic images are often best shot at focal lengths between 35mm

7X STARTER IMAGES

and 200mm to avoid perspective distortion from shooting with a wideangle lens. A longer lens requires you to shoot further away from your subject, so even though the field of view is narrower than a wide-angle, once the individual exposures are stitched together you still achieve a wide view of the scene. An L-bracket is great for shorter lenses, while telephotos will have a collar for tripod mounting.

The best way to shoot panoramas is

with the camera in portrait orientation.

Not only does this hugely increase the resolution of the final image, it also simply provides a better result than shooting in landscape orientation, where each image becomes too short and wide. By overlapping each image with the previous one by a third of the frame, the constituent images will stitch together seamlessly.

Let’s take a look at how to stitch a series of images together.

BEFORE STITCHING Individually, the images that make up the pano are unremarkable, but when they’re stitched together the results are dramatic FLAWLESS FINISH While any image can be cropped to a panoramic format, it won’t contain as much detail as a true pano

“The best way to shoot panoramas is with the camera in portrait orientation. This hugely increases the resolution of the final image.”

F E A T U R E

MERGE PANORAMAS CONTINUED 1

APPLY LENS CORRECTIONS

2

MERGE TO PANORAMA

3

CHOOSE A PROJECTION

4

SET BASIC ADJUSTMENTS

5

FINAL ADJUSTMENTS

6

CROP THE IMAGE

Before you combine your images into a pano, apply Lens Corrections. Check Remove Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Corrections, select all the exposures and press Sync. When the dialog opens click on Check None, then select Lens Corrections. Select Noise Reduction and Transform if you change these.

Don’t change any settings other than those mentioned in the previous step – it won’t cause any problems if you do, but I prefer to edit panoramas as a whole rather than as individual images. All the shots should still be highlighted and active – right-click on one and go to Photo Merge > Panorama.

If you checked Create Stack in the last step, Apply all adjustments as required to get the the merged pano DNG will sit at the top of the image looking how you want it – this includes image stack; otherwise it will sit on its own and using the local adjustment tools such as the will usually appear next to the original images.

Graduated Filter. As this image was taken on Apply basic adjustments to the image as a whole, a misty morning we’ve reduced Dehaze to -10 starting with White Balance, Exposure, Shadows, to soften the tones and accentuate the mist Highlights, Whites and Blacks. that’s present in the scene.

When the dialog opens the Projection will be set to Spherical by default, but try the other two options to see which you prefer. Boundary Warp fills empty space around the image but can distort images, so take care with it. Auto Crop can be used alone, or with light use of Boundary Warp. Uncheck Auto Settings and click OK.

We had Auto Crop checked during the merging process, but this doesn’t always produce the best crop, so it’s worth checking the result – it also focuses on cropping out empty space and not on the overall composition. Click on the Crop Overlay icon, then on the lock for a custom crop. Adjust and hit Enter to apply.

LEVEL YOUR TRIPOD For the best results you should always shoot panorama images using a monopod or tripod, but you also need to make sure that the camera is perfectly level for each exposure.

By doing this, you’ll reduce the amount of cropping that’s required during editing, which ultimately gives you more room for cropping without losing edge detail.

Shooting with your camera mounted on a tripod is only half the battle – to ensure that your frames are level you must make sure that the top of the tripod, where the centre column is inserted, is level. Most tripods have a spirit level in this area that you can use to level off the legs, which may need to be adjusted individually. Once the tripod is level, even if the camera is pointing up or down slightly, your shots will be level as long as the horizon is straight in the frame.

F E A T U R E

BLEND HDR PANORAMAS

Combine two multiple exposure techniques to create an image full of detail

Y

ou can take your imagemerging skills to the next level by combining HDR and panoramas in a single image.

It’s less complicated than it sounds, and the process of shooting and editing all the individual exposures provides the perfect foundation for more complicated techniques such as focus-stacked HDR images.

Learning how both the shooting and editing processes involve linear steps is essential for success.

7X STARTER IMAGES

Any technique that requires multiple exposures to be shot can seem like an unnecessary faff, but all the techniques are incredibly easy to apply, and always produce the desired result of increasing detail in some way. Capturing HDR panoramas adds a level of complexity to the shooting stage, but by using automatic exposure bracketing you can shoot an HDR pano almost identically to a regular pano – you just have to wait for the three or more exposures to fire

off before rotating the tripod head.

When it comes to editing, Lightroom provides the ability to produce HDR panos in a single dialog but this isn’t recommended. When using the HDR Panorama Photo Merge option, deghosting isn’t applied to the HDR images, which can often result in the ghosting of moving subjects, so it’s always best to process the HDR images first and then merge the resulting images into the pano, which is exactly what we’ll do here.

MULTIPLE EXPOSURES This panorama required a total of 21 frames – seven sections of the pano, each bracketed with three exposures NATURAL-LOOKING DETAIL This pano was shot with the lens at 35mm, which has resulted in a natural-looking perspective, while HDR has maintained detail throughout the scene

F E A T U R E

BLEND HDR PANORAMAS CONTINUED 1

HIGHLIGHT IMAGES

2

MERGE TO HDR

3

SELECT SECTIONS

4

MERGE TO PANORAMA

5

PROCESS THE IMAGE

6

CROP THE IMAGE

In Lightroom’s Library Module, find your HDR pano images, and use the colour labels to mark each set of three bracketed exposures, alternating between two colours to make each set easily identifiable. Click on Survey View, select the first set of exposures and check they’re the correct three images before the next step.

The Projection will be set to Spherical by default, but try the other two to see which looks best – note, however, that Boundary Warp fills empty space around the image but can distort images so take care with it. For more about processing panoramic images see the Merge Panoramas tutorial.

Right-click on the selected images and go to Photo Merge > HDR. For more information about HDR processing in Lightroom see the ‘Achieve natural HDR’ tutorial. For each HDR merge, leave Create Stack unchecked. Repeat the process for each section of the pano until all HDR sections have been merged into single DNGs.

Once the new pano DNG is created, select it and switch to the Develop Module to process the image. Apply all processing as necessary, both globally and using the localised adjustment tools; just remember that you won’t need to apply Lens Corrections, as these were applied to the individual HDR section images.

MINIMISE BRACKETED EXPOSURES HDR panos can require you to shoot many frames to cover the bracketed shots for each section of the scene, so it makes sense to limit the HDR shots to three bracketed exposures: one shot exposed for the midtones in the scene, one two stops underexposed and one two stops overexposed. In most situations, this will be more than adequate to capture detail from the shadows to the highlights.

Shooting more bracketed exposures is, of course, possible, but doing this results in many more images to deal with, taking up storage space and computer processing power for little gain in this particular situation. But, if the level of contrast in the scene between the shadows and highlights is greater than four stops, shoot five bracketed exposures at two-stop increments.

This will drastically increase the number of images you’ll need, but will allow you to capture the full dynamic range of the entire scene.

Before combining the images into a pano, apply Lens Corrections to each by checking Remove Chromatic Aberration, and Enable Profile Corrections individually or by syncing settings between them. Next, right-click one of the selected images and go to Photo Merge > Panorama to render the pano.

Click the Crop Overlay icon to activate the Crop Tool, and then click the lock icon for a custom crop so you’re not confined to a ratio.

Adjust the guide to obtain the strongest possible composition, and hit Enter to commit. At this stage you can export the pano for further editing in Photoshop, or save the final image.

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G A L L E R Y

X P O S U R E THE WEEK’S MOST INSPIRING READER PHOTOS

SNACK BAR

MICK HUSCROFT “I found this spider on my front door one day when I came home, and managed to get this photo of it.” https://bit.ly/3tYhorE

G A L L E R Y THE WEEK’S MOST INSPIRING READER PHOTOS

SPEED

LEE HESSION “I shot this image at Garforth railway station near Leeds in northern England, slowing the exposure to 0.5 seconds to blur the movement of the train.” https://bit.ly/3cXOamm

G A L L E R Y THE WEEK’S MOST INSPIRING READER PHOTOS

CAPUCHIN MONKEY JIM CUMMING

“While touring around Costa Rica we stopped at a ranch that had macaws, parrots and capuchin monkeys. I came upon this little guy, who followed me around hoping I had food; all I had was my camera, and he turned out to be quite the poser.” https://bit.ly/2S0j71H

G A L L E R Y THE WEEK’S MOST INSPIRING READER PHOTOS

MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL AT WARRINGTON STEPHEN CONWAY

“This photo was taken from the Wilderspool Causeway Road bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal in north-west England. The bridges in the distance are the Ackers Road Cantilever Bridge, Knutsford Road Swing Bridge, and the railway viaduct, beyond which are Latchford Locks.” https://bit.ly/3gx7aL7

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I N S P I R A T I O N

ITHET BEST ’ S THING C OWE’VE O LSEEN , TTHISH WEEK AT

The Grand Bridge by Night by Bharat Patel - 3rd place

PHOTO CONTEST CELEBRATES THE BEAUTY OF BLENHEIM

Rendezvous in the Secret Garden, Cereta Drewett, Highly commended

Soldier Silhouettes by Jeremy Flint – Finalist

Stunning images capture magnificent 2,000-acre country house gardens

I

n addition to its main competition, International Garden Photographer of the Year runs several standalone photo competitions throughout the year, encouraging photographers to focus on specific themes and subjects, the latest of which is Beautiful Blenheim.

The contest celebrates the spectacular gardens of Blenheim Palace, a country house in Oxfordshire, UK. The 2,000-acre landscape was designed by the 18th century

landscape architect Capability Brown.

First prize went to Brian Lee for his image Sculpting the Sky, a black-and-white infrared photo showing the Column of Victory, a centrepiece of the gardens erected between 1727 and 1730 to celebrate the military victories of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, against a dramatic sky.

Click the link to see all the winning and commended images from the competition at the IGPOTY website.

SEE MORE IMAGES https://bit.ly/2UAzXpj

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Sculpting the Sky by Brian Lee – 1st place

S K I L L S

CESSENTIAL R A SPHOTO H CSKILLS O UMADER SEASYE

IT’S HIP TO BE SQUARE Adam Waring shows how you can use a set of square slot-in filters to transform your landscape images

2

If you’re serious about landscape photography then HOURS a set of filters should be at the very top of your shopping list. These sheets of glass (or resin) sit in front of your lens, manipulating the light that strikes the sensor for creative effect. While there are all manner of trick filters, the main ones to consider are a polariser, neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters – or better still, a kit that contains the lot.

Filters come in two main types: circular filters that screw onto the front

of your lens, or the square variety that require a filter holder. Square filters are the more versatile, as you’re not restricted by the size of your lenses’ filter threads – you use the correctsized ‘adaptor ring’ to attach the holder to the lens. Square filters are also less susceptible to vignetting, as they’re typically much wider than your lenses, and can be ‘stacked’ together in the holder’s slots, and moved up and down within the holder for precise positioning.

Anything that goes in front of the lens will have an effect on the light that

passes through it, and so it’s crucial that you invest in a quality system.

Most square filter systems are available in a kit that includes the holder and a variety of attachment rings, as well as a selection of filters. Here we’re using the NiSi V6 Starter Kit Plus, which includes two strengths of ND filter, a 3-stop ND grad, a 3-stop ‘reverse’ ND grad and a polariser, along with some nice extras such as a storage pouch, filter cleaners and an oversized lens cap.

We headed to the coast to put our filter kit through its paces…

S K I L L S THE SET-UP FILTER BASICS Improving your landscapes can be as easy as slotting in the right filter

1 FILTER HOLDER

The filter holder is attached to the camera via an adaptor. Ours screws into lenses with an 82mm thread, but is supplied with extra ‘stepping’ rings to fit 67mm, 72mm and 77mm lenses – which will cover most high-quality lenses that are typically used for landscape photography.

2 CAP IT OFF

With the filter holder adaptor screwed into the front of your lens, your lens cap can no longer be clipped on.

Unscrewing the adaptor every time you want to pop your camera into your bag can be a pain, so some kits include an oversized cap that fits over the whole assembly.

3 FILTER BAG

Filters are delicate, and tossing them into your bag can scratch them, which will show in your shots – or worse, crack them. A filter case is, therefore, essential. Having a case that attaches to your tripod legs keeps all your filters accessible – and you no longer need a third hand to swap them!

4 1

5 2 4 KEEP IT CLEAN

It’s vital that your filters are clean and free from dust or water spots, as these will show up in shots. Inspect your filters before you pop them into the filter holder, and use a blower or lint-free cloth to remove debris. If shooting near water, regularly check the frontmost filter for signs of spray.

3 5 TRIPOD

When using filters you’ll probably need to use a tripod too, as shutter speeds are likely to be too slow to shoot handheld. Even a circular polariser cuts down light by up to two stops, and the whole point of ND filters is to slow your exposure times to several seconds – or even minutes.

6 6 REMOTE RELEASE

When shooting long exposures, pressing the shutter button could ‘jog’ the camera, causing image softness.

While you can use the 2-sec self-timer delay to allow it to settle, if timing is crucial – such as when shooting waves – a remote release will allow you to fire at precisely the right moment.

S K I L L S HOW TO USE SQUARE SLOT-IN FILTERS ND FILTERS Take it slow

An ND filter is essentially a dark sheet of glass that cuts down light transmission, lengthening the exposure time and causing moving elements in your scene to blur. It’s perfect for giving lapping waves, raging rivers or thundering waterfalls a wonderful misty quality, or for turning fluffy clouds into exaggerated streaks on a windy day. Our kit came with six-stop and 10-stop varieties, which will turn a 1/30 sec exposure into 2 secs and 30 secs respectively. Though you can use tables to work out exposure times, NiSi produces a handy companion app to calculate the exposures for you.

ND GRADS

Fade to grey A graduated ND filter is dark at the top, graduating to clear at the bottom, and they’re used to ‘balance’ scenes that have a dark foreground and bright sky. They come in ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ varieties, which refers to how abrupt or gradual the transition from clear to dark is. Hard grads are great for level horizons, while soft grads are better for landscapes with trees or mountains on the horizon. To calculate the filter strength you need, expose for the foreground in Manual mode, then take a reading of the sky towards the top of the frame; if it’s showing three stops overexposed, for example, you’ll need a three-stop filter.

BEFORE

AFTER

S K I L L S HOW TO USE SQUARE SLOT-IN FILTERS REVERSE ND GRADS Look directly into the sun

A specialist form of ND grad, a ‘reverse’ ND is dark in the central portion, and graduates to clear at the top and bottom. These are designed for shooting directly into the sun when it’s close to the horizon at dawn or dusk, when this is by far the brightest area of the image. Like a regular ND grad, these filters are actually rectangular in shape rather than square – this is so that you can slide them up and down within the filter holder, to precisely position the dark portion of the filter so that it sits directly over the horizon line, where the scene is at its brightest. This give you a great deal of leeway in positioning the filter, and offers plenty of flexibility when you’re composing shots.

POLARISERS

Get punchy This circular filter fits into the square system, and is so shaped because it needs to rotate, as it’s designed to block polarised light. This removes glare from shiny surfaces, and can ‘cut through’ reflections on the surface of water, or give wet foliage a brilliant vibrancy. It can also add definition to wispy clouds, giving them punch while darkening the sky to a deep blue. Ours fits into a recess at the back of the holder, and a clever system of gear wheels rotates the filter. Polarisers are at their strongest at 90 degrees to the BEFORE sun: make an ‘L’ shape with your thumb and forefinger and point the thumb at the sun; your finger then indicates the optimal shooting direction.

AFTER

E D I T I N G

PHOTOSHOP

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We’ll then use the Curves command to boost tones and colours. Not only can we use Curves to add overall punch, we can also target the red, green or blue colour channels to subtly shift the colours in the scene. joy, as we have complete control over This is where adjustment layers the changes we make – at any time we come in. When we add an adjustment can alter the parts of the image that are layer, the active selection is converted affected by an adjustment by painting to a layer mask, which enables us to apply localise adjustments, and it’s this on the layer mask, or adjust the strength mixture of adjustment layers and masks of the adjustment by tweaking the that makes editing in Photoshop such a adjustment layer settings.

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GROUP TEST

70-200MM ZOOMS

Can the latest 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto zooms for mirrorless cameras beat popular predecessors for performance and value? Let’s find out…

I

n the continuing conundrum over whether to go for a DSLR or mirrorless camera, a crucial factor is the quality and availability of lenses. Canon and Nikon have certainly got the ‘trinity’ of fast wide-angle, standard and telephoto zooms covered, as well as serving up a feast of prime lenses, although there are still a few gaps in their respective lineups.

When it comes to 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses, seen as a ‘must-have’ zoom by many photographers, the new Canon RF and Nikon Z lenses beat their EF and F-mount predecessors for image quality and all-round performance,

but that’s not the whole story. They’re also expensive to buy and, while the Canon RF lens is unusually compact and lightweight for this type of zoom, it’s incompatible with Canon’s ‘extenders’ or teleconverters, which some will feel is a big minus point.

In the past, we’ve been particularly impressed by the latest Sigma Sports and Tamron G2 (Generation 2) 70-200mm f/2.8 zooms for DSLRs. Like own-brand Canon and Nikon contenders, they’re very well made with a weather-sealed construction, boast exotic pro-grade features and handling, have super-fast autofocus and highly

effective image stabilisation, and deliver excellent image quality. They’re also very much less expensive, at around half the price of the Canon and Nikon lenses.

While the Sigma and Tamron lenses are naturally designed for DSLRs, they’re both compatible with Canon EOS R-series and Nikon Z mirrorless cameras via mount adapters, and this makes them a good buy if you’re continuing to use a DSLR while dipping your toe in the mirrorless pond, before potentially changing your whole collection of lenses at some point in the future.

Let’s see how the lenses from Canon, Nikon, Sigman and Tamron compare…

GROUP TEST 70-200MM ZOOMS

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM | S

Sigma’s Sports lens scores highly in any group test of 70-200mm zooms, and it holds up very well against newer mirrorless competition

Price: £1,179/$1,379

S

igma’s long-running 70-200mm f/2.8 OS lens was a popular, budget-friendly option, delivering good overall performance, with an effective optical stabiliser. This replacement ‘Sports’ lens is larger and heavier at 1,805g, despite having a magnesium alloy barrel. The more robust build brings with it a full set of weather seals, whereas the preceding lens had none.

More than just an update, the new lens is completely redesigned from the ground up. The new optical path features 24 elements in 22 groups, incorporating nine top-grade FLD (‘Fluorite’ Low Dispersion) elements and one SLD (Special Low Dispersion) element. There’s also a well-rounded aperture, based on 11 diaphragm blades. The autofocus system can be switched to auto-priority or manual-priority modes, the latter enabling manual override even in continuous autofocus mode. The design also features three customisable AF-hold buttons.

The new optical stabiliser has switchable static and panning modes, the latter working in landscape, portrait and even diagonal orientation. Dual ‘Custom’ modes can be switched in, and you can set these up via the optional USB Dock, for example to increase or decrease the effect of stabilisation in the viewfinder image, or to alter the autofocus range limiter distance.

Sharpness and contrast are superb throughout the entire zoom range, even when shooting wideopen at f/2.8. Autofocus is rapid and consistently accurate, and while stabilisation isn’t quite as effective as in the Tamron G2 lens for static shots, it proved better for panning during our tests.

ROBUST BUILD Excellent build quality includes a magnesium alloy barrel and weather seals.

TRIPOD MOUNT RING The tripod mount ring can’t be removed, but the foot can be detached.

3,500 3,000 2,500

PROTECTIVE COATINGS To repel moisture and grease, fluorine coatings are applied to the front and rear elements.

2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 f/2.4 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 70mm 100mm 135mm 200mm

SHARPNESS Sharpness throughout the aperture and zoom ranges is very similar to that of the Canon RF lens.

GROUP TEST 70-200MM ZOOMS

Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S

As with Nikon’s other ‘trinity’ zooms, the 70-200mm packs in some seriously up-market features and handling exotica

Price: £2,299/$2,697

T

here’s an impressive and consistent look and feel to Nikon’s top-end trinity zooms.

As with the wide-angle and standard zooms, the 70-200mm includes an OLED display for viewing various shooting parameters, including the exact focal length, aperture, ISO and focus distance with depth of field indication; you can cycle through the options simply by pressing the adjacent ‘DISP’ button. There are also dual customisable L-Fn (Lens function) buttons, as well as a third customisable, stepless control ring, in addition to the usual zoom and focus rings.

The optical design includes two aspherical elements, six ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, a fluorite element and an SR (Short-wavelength Refractive) element. Dual coatings include both ARNEO and Nano Crystal Coat, to keep ghosting and flare to a minimum.

Autofocus is incredibly rapid yet virtually silent, based on two synchronised stepping motors. There’s highly effective 5-stop optical VR, based on voice coil motors, which works a treat on the DX-format Z 50 and is even better when used with the in-body stabilisers of Nikon’s full-frame Z-series cameras.

It’s the sharpest lens in the group by quite a margin, not only in the centre of the frame but right into the extreme edges and corners. That holds true throughout the entire zoom range, even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8. Vignetting and chromatic aberrations are minimal, while distortions are negligible at all zoom settings, and there’s excellent resistance to ghosting and flare. It’s physically longer than the other lenses on test, but handling and all-round performance are fabulous.

3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 f/2.4 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 70mm 100mm 135mm 200mm

SHARPNESS Levels of sharpness are scintillating, throughout the whole zoom range and across the entire image frame.

IMAGE STABILISATION Optical image stabilisation on/off and mode are selected via camera menus instead of a physical switch.

FUNCTION BUTTONS There are dual customisable function buttons, one towards the rear and a bank of four further forward.

OLED DISPLAY The OLED display comes with a DISP button for selecting alternative parameters.

GROUP TEST 70-200MM ZOOMS

Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2

This Tamron lens ticks all the right boxes for a classic 70-200mm zoom, and is noticeably less heavy than the competing Sigma

Price: £1,249/$1,199

T

here are plenty of pro-grade features packed into the metal barrel of this Tamron G2 (Generation 2) zoom. Its optical design has been refined to increase sharpness and contrast, while reducing colour fringing, ghosting and flare. The autofocus system is uprated for faster, more accurate performance, and the VC (Vibration Compensation) system has three switchable modes and up to 5-stop effectiveness. As with the Canon RF 70-200mm on test, the third mode gives an unadulterated viewfinder image, as stabilisation is only applied during actual exposures.

Along with a full set of weather seals, the lens has a fluorine coating on the front element. As with the Sigma 70-200mm Sports lens, the Tamron G2 has a tripod mount ring with an Arca-Swiss compatible foot. However, the Tamron’s mounting ring can be completely removed, without leaving a protruding stub. The lens is also noticeably smaller and about 300g lighter than the Sigma, and has a more typical 77mm filter thread.

Another similarity with the Sigma lens is connectivity, with an optional USB docking station.

This time it’s Tamron’s ‘TAP-in Console’, which you can use for customisation, fine-tuning and applying firmware updates. A key upgrade over the previous edition of the lens is that the G2 is compatible with Tamron’s 1.4x and 2.0x tele-converters.

Image quality is highly impressive, although it isn’t as sharp as the other lenses on test at wide apertures from f/2.8 to f/4. Distortions and chromatic aberrations are minimal, and there’s good resistance to ghosting and flare.

ANTI-REFLECTION COATING To further reduce ghosting and flare, the G2 has revised nanostructure coatings.

WEATHERPROOF The metal barrel includes weather seals, and the front element has a fluorine coating.

3,500 3,000 2,500

XLD AND LD ELEMENTS Optical highlights include XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) and LD (Low Dispersion) elements.

2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 f/2.4 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 70mm 100mm 135mm 200mm

SHARPNESS It’s not quite as sharp as the other contenders on test, especially when shooting wide-open.

GROUP TEST 70-200MM ZOOMS

Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

Many Canon RF lenses are weighty propositions, but this 70-200mm is unusually compact and lightweight, with a somewhat unique design

Price: £2,729/$2,699

O

ne thing you could always count on with 70-200mm f/2.8 zooms was that the physical length remained fixed throughout the zoom range, but Canon threw out the rule book when designing its RF lens and, as such, it has a similar telescoping design to relatively low-budget 70300mm telephoto zooms. The inner barrel therefore extends forwards at longer zoom settings. Some might feel that the design compromises quality, not least because the barrel sucks air (and potentially dust and moisture) into the lens every time you extend the zoom setting, although a perforated seal guards against this.

While many Canon RF lenses are quite bulky, this one is remarkably short at the 70mm zoom setting, making it easy to stow away. It’s also relatively lightweight at just over a kilogram, making it very travel-friendly for a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. For the sake of comparison, it’s about three-quarters the length and two-thirds the weight of Canon’s most recent EF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for DSLRs, and only a little more than half the weight of the Sigma on test. A drawback, however, is that the lens can’t be used with Canon’s RF teleconverters, due to the rear element being too close to the mounting plate.

The floating autofocus system based on dual Nano USM motors is amazingly fast and virtually silent in operation. The 5-stop image stabiliser works brilliantly well in all three operating modes, and its effectiveness is boosted further when mounted on more recent EOS R-series cameras that feature in-body stabilisation.

Sharpness is excellent, but no better than from the Sigma lens, lagging behind the Nikon in this respect.

Chromatic aberrations are minimal, but there’s slightly more distortion than from other lenses on test.

EXTENDING INNER BARREL Unlike other 70-200mm f/2.8 zooms, this one has an extending inner barrel.

CONTROL RING There’s a customisable control ring at the rear, which you can assign to various functions.

3,500 3,000 2,500

FOCUS DISTANCE Typical of Nano USM lenses, there’s no focus distance scale.

2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 f/2.4 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 70mm 100mm 135mm 200mm

SHARPNESS It’s significantly sharper than Canon’s latest EF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, but loses out to the Nikon Z competitor.

GROUP TEST 70-200MM ZOOMS

Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S

NIKON

70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM | S

SIGMA

TAMRON

CANON

PRICE £2,299/£2,697 WEB WWW.NIKON.CO.UK ELEMENTS/GROUPS 21/18 DIAPHRAGM 9 BLADES OPTICAL STABILISER 2 MODES, 5.5 STOPS AUTOFOCUS TYPE DUAL STEPPING MOTOR MIN FOCUS DISTANCE 0.5-1.0M MAX MAGNIFICATION 0.2X MOUNT NIKON Z FILTER SIZE 77MM DIMENSIONS 89X220MM WEIGHT 1,440G

PRICE £1,179/$1,379 WEB WWW.SIGMA-IMAGING-UK.COM ELEMENTS/GROUPS 24/22 DIAPHRAGM 11 BLADES OPTICAL STABILISER 2 MODES, 4 STOPS AUTOFOCUS TYPE ULTRASONIC (RING) MIN FOCUS DISTANCE 1.2M MAX MAGNIFICATION 0.21X MOUNT CANON EF, NIKON FX, SIGMA FILTER SIZE 82MM DIMENSIONS 94X203MM WEIGHT 1,805G

PRICE £1,249/$1,199 WEB WWW.TAMRON.CO.UK ELEMENTS/GROUPS 23/17 DIAPHRAGM 9 BLADES OPTICAL STABILISER 3 MODES, 5 STOPS AUTOFOCUS TYPE ULTRASONIC (RING) MIN FOCUS DISTANCE 0.95M MAX MAGNIFICATION 0.16X MOUNT CANON EF, NIKON FX FILTER SIZE 77MM DIMENSIONS 88X194MM WEIGHT 1,500G (C) 1,485G (N)

PRICE £2,729/$2,699 WEB WWW.CANON.CO.UK ELEMENTS/GROUPS 17/13 DIAPHRAGM 9 BLADES OPTICAL STABILISER 3 MODES, 5 STOPS AUTOFOCUS TYPE DUAL NANO USM MIN FOCUS DISTANCE 0.7M MAX MAGNIFICATION 0.23X MOUNT CANON RF FILTER SIZE 77MM DIMENSIONS 90X146MM WEIGHT 1,070G

FEATURES

FEATURES

There’s a host of high-end features, including This Sigma has a full set of bells and whistles, customisable function buttons and an OLED display including the option to set up two custom modes

BUILD QUALITY

BUILD QUALITY

It’s a big lens that dwarfs Z-series mirrorless bodies but is built to pro-grade standards

Build quality is of a pro-grade standard, equal to that of much more expensive lenses

HANDLING

HANDLING

The customisable control ring and lens function buttons add to the lens’s handling prowess

QUALITY OF RESULTS

BUILD QUALITY

Build quality doesn’t feel as top-drawer as in the competing Sigma, but there’s not much in it

Despite the extending inner barrel, build quality is robust and it has weather seals

HANDLING

HANDLING

QUALITY OF RESULTS

QUALITY OF RESULTS

QUALITY OF RESULTS

VALUE FOR MONEY

VALUE FOR MONEY

VALUE FOR MONEY

VALUE FOR MONEY

It’s an absolutely outstanding lens, but the Sigma lens is almost as good, and is much more affordable.

BUILD QUALITY

FEATURES

The AF system and optical stabiliser are impressive, but teleconverter compatibility is lacking

The Tamron lacks the Sigma’s switchable custom modes, but it is about 300g lighter

It’s not quite as sharp as the Nikon Z lens, but image quality is extremely impressive nonetheless

OVERALL

FEATURES

There’s a lot to love in this G2 lens, from its fast autofocus system to its triple-mode stabiliser

RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

It’s relatively heavy for a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom, but handling is refined in every respect

It’s easily the sharpest lens in the group, even when shooting wide-open, with epic all-round quality

There’s no denying it’s very expensive but it’s somewhat cheaper than the Canon in the UK

SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2

Considering the build quality, features and performance, it is great value

Taking price as well as performance into consideration, this lens is the overall best buy in the group.

Handling is enhanced by the compact and lightweight build, with a removable tripod ring

It’s not quite as sharp as the other lenses wide-open, Autofocus is speedy, image stabilisation is very but overall image quality is still very good effective and image quality is excellent

At only about half the price of the two mirrorless lenses on test, it’s very good value for money

It comes very close to the competing Sigma lens on test in all respects, but the Sigma has the edge.

It’s considerably more expensive than the Nikon lens in the UK, and relatively poor value

It’s a great lens for EOS R-series cameras, but the f/4 edition is much less expensive, and even smaller.

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