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Issue 246 September 2021 • www.digitalcameraworld.com
WILDLIFE PHOTOS TAKE YOUR BEST EVER Expert advice for shooting likea pro! Technique Fieldcraft Kit tips INTERVIEW
GROUP TEST
8 great models to flash your cash on
Albert Watson on ‘Creating Photographs’
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10 fun projects to shoot right now
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Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA Editorial+44 (0)1225 442244• www.digitalcameraworld.com Subscriptions and Customer Services +44 (0)330 333 1113 Editorial EditorNiall Hamptonniall.hampton@futurenet.com Contributingeditors Marcus Hawkins & Claire Gillo Technique editor Alistair Campbell alistair.campbell@futurenet.com Art editor Roddy Llewellyn richard.llewellyn@futurenet.com Operations editorRichard Hillrichard.hill@futurenet.com Group reviews editor Rod Lawton rod.lawton@futurenet.com Imaging labs manager Ben Andrews ben.andrews@futurenet.com Senior art editor Warren Brown warren.brown@futurenet.com Contributors James Abbott,JonAdams,JamesArtaius, Benedict Brain, Niamh Cottle, Jon Devo, Steve Fairclough, Steve Gemmell, Graeme Green, Andrew James, Sean McCormack, James Paterson, Dave Kai Piper, Matthew Richards, Rebecca Shaw Cover image Getty Photography Bath Photo Studio All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising Commercial director Clare Dove clare.dove@futurenet.com Advertising sales manager Michael Pyatt michael.pyatt@futurenet.com Account director Matt Baileymatt.bailey@futurenet.com Account director George Lucasgeorge.lucas@futurenet.com Media packs are available on request Licensing & Syndication Digital Camera is available for licensing and syndication. To find out more, contact us at licensing@futurenet.com or view our available content at www.futurecontenthub.com Head of print licensing Rachel Shawlicensing@futurenet.com Subscriptions New orders: www.magazinesdirect.com Phone: 0330 333 1113. Email: help@magazinesdirect.com Renewals/queries: www.mymagazine.co.uk Phone: 0330 333 4333. Email: help@mymagazine.co.uk Overseas new orders: help@magazinesdirect.com Overseas renewals/queries: help@mymagazine.co.uk Magazines marketing director Sharon Todd Circulation Head of newstrade Tim Mathers Production Head of production US & UK Mark Constance Productionproject manager Clare Scott Senior advertising productionmanager Jo Crosby Digital editions controller Jason Hudson Productionmanager Vivienne Calvert Management Brand director Matt Pierce ContentdirectorChris George chris.george@futurenet.com Head of art & design Rodney Dive Chief revenue officer Zack Sullivan Printed by William Gibbons on behalf of Future Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 020 3787 9001
Welcome
pportunities for exotic wildlife photography may be out of reach for a little while longer, but there’s still plenty of skills to master close to home. This month’s cover feature (page 60) will show you how, with a host of hints, tips and insights from wildlife pro Graeme Green. You’ll also find plenty of other genres to immerse yourself in, courtesy of Photo Active (p16), Stay at Home (p43) and Camera College (p72), while inspiration awaits in Hotshots (p82), with the category winners of the Cewe Photo Award, the world’s biggest. We look forward to welcoming Digital Camera readers to The Photography Show & The Video Show next month – in the meantime, catch up with two of the stars of the Super Stage, Olivia Arthur (p10) and Mark Power (p111). This issue’s camera reviews lead on Sony’s ZV-E10 (p114) and a pair of native macro lenses, while flashguns make a burst in our group test (p122). Finally, hear from one of the true legends of photography – Albert Watson is our interviewee (p132). Enjoy the issue.
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Contents
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ISSUE 246 SEPTEMBER 2021
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WILDLIFE PHOTOS
60
Photo skills 10 Pro in Focus 16 Photo Active 43 Stay at Home 60 Shoot wildlife like a pro 72 Camera College 91 Practical Photoshop 102 Photo Answers Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur on exploring private worlds Photo inspiration, including sharks, the Hebrides and wondrous wildlife
Make the best use of your spare time with our projects and workflow tips How to capture amazing animal photos, whether you’re near or far
Dive into our coastal photography masterclass and enter our challenge Hands-on tuition for Photoshop, plus details of your Luminar AI gift
Reader questions answered, including nailing exposure in flower shots
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Regulars 39 The Art of Seeing 82 Hotshots 90 Shot of the Month 108 In Focus 111 Behind the Lens 112 Jon Devo column 132 Interview 146 What the f-stop!
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When is a landscape not a landscape? Stunning photo entries into the 2021 CEWE Photo Award Jasper Goodall’s woodland fantasia Photography Show details, plus new kit, new books and new software Mark Power guides us around his ambitious documentary narratives Do you believe a cameraphone can fly? The brilliant Albert Watson shares some of his photographic knowledge Take on our best photo brain
122
Flashgun group test _ Eight of the best accessories for anyone looking to control light creatively
91
Practical Photoshop _ More top tutorials for getting the most out of Lightroom and Photoshop
Gear & tests 114 Sony ZV-E10
Sony’s latest vlogger-friendly camera ups the video ante with 4K video, a 180-degree screen and a mic muffler for under £700
118 Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8 RF 100mm 120 Canon f/2.8L Macro IS USM This compact macro lens for Z-series cameras is also a handy standard prime
Designed for Canon R-series cameras, this might be the best macro lens we’ve used
M.Zuiko Digital 121 Olympus ED 8-25mm f/4 Pro It’s like having an ultra wide-angle and a standard zoom in one barrel
122 Group Test: Flashguns
We shine a light on eight fabulous options for on- and off-camera flash – a must for many creative photographers
130 DxO PureRaw
Get your raw files looking their best in just a few clicks with this great new tool
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HURRY WHILE STOCKS LAST!
This month’s contributors Albert Watson
Photographer and film-maker One of the biggest names in photography for decades, Watson is full of creativity and experience. Meet him and enjoy some of his best work on page 132
Olivia Arthur
Documentary photographer
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This Magnum photographer explores ideas of humanity and intimacy in a range of varied and thought-provoking projects. Explore her worlds on page 10
Interview _ Albert Watson’s long career has seen him create some of the world’s most memorable editorial and fashion images. Enjoy an interview packed with hard-won insights and stunning photographs
PLUS
Mike Coots
Win a copy of Affinity Photo in our monthly challenge!
Underwater photographer Attacked by a shark as a teenager, Mike now fights to preserve them, taking astounding photos into the bargain. Discover his story and underwater tips on page 16
Sarah Medway
Big-cat photographer
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Camera College _ Explore the basics of photography and understand them from every angle. This issue: how to get started in coastal photography. Then enter our reader challenge, and you could win a copy of Affinity Photo!
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Photo Active _ 10 inspiring new angles you could approach your own photography from. This issue, go swimming with sharks, create a travel photography blog, and get advice on taking wildlife photos with character
Sarah’s roles as workshop leader and photographer at a big-cat sanctuary give her special access to leopards and jaguars. See her captivating work on page 20
Jon Devo
Photographer and writer Jon’s technology beat involves trawling patent registries to see the future of photography before it happens. And you won’t believe what he’s found – see page 112
Mark Power
Documentary photographer This Magnum member and professor of photography will be speaking at The Photography Show this September. Find out more about his talk on page 111
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Your gifts
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9 all-new tips cards
Our collectable shooting tips cards give you on-demand settings and advice – keep ’em in your kit bag! This issue: help with summer insects, portraitstyle wildlife shots, and livening up architecture with cheeky composites.
Preview this September’s big event! See the Gifts folder in your download for a PDF guide; copies in some regions also include a printed booklet.
Skylum Skies Bundle
Make your skies look incredible with Luminar AI and this gift from Skylum! Get Templates and a replacement skies pack. See page 92 for download instructions, plus tips for using them.
Buyer’s Guide ebook
12 presentation Actions for Photoshop CC
When you’re gearing up to print a photo, this gift helps you add the ideal finishing touch! With just a few clicks in Photoshop CC, add a fetching photo frame and label, in a choice of styles. Look for your Actions in the Gifts folder, and see page 94 for Jon Adams’ guide.
12 Photoshop Actions
262 pages of the latest camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.
MIN5U4TE OF VIDE S O
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SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS
PORTRAIT RETOUCHING SKILLS
MONO CONVERSION TECHNIQUES
GET THE HAZY SUNSET LOOK
Download 54 minutes of video training for Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo.
ENHANCE YOUR SKIES
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Pro in focus Olivia Arthur Photographer
Olivia Arthur is a British photographer whose work often focuses on human relationships, intimate moments and private spaces. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured in The New Yorker, Vogue and Time. She’s also the co-founder of Fishbar, a publisher and exhibition space in London. Arthur has been a full member of Magnum Photos since 2013, and edited the recent Magnum 2020 photographic collection. www.oliviaarthur.com
Olivia Arthur
Ahead of her appearance at The Photography Show, this documentary photographer tells Graeme Green about capturing unseen worlds rom Hull to Saudi Arabia, Olivia Arthur has shown her viewers moments from private or ‘unseen’ worlds. “Anelement of peeking behind closed doors is important for me,” she says. “In many ways, photography is all about taking people on a journey you’re going on, showing them something they might not have the opportunity to see.” Arthur’s work often captures people at home, in bedrooms or living spaces, including quiet moments and couples naked in bed.
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“Intimacy, closeness and the relationships between people are all subjects that interest me,” she explains. “I’m fascinated by human relations and how we interact with each other. It’s about looking at those little moments and trying to talk about something bigger.” Born in London, Arthur’s first experience with a camera was picking up her mother’s Pentax ME Super. She developed a love for photography at Oxford University, working on the student newspaper, going on to study photojournalism at the London College of Printing. After graduating, she moved to Delhi in 2003 to start work as a photographer,
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and has been on the move since, including an early residency with the Fabrica ‘idea factory’ in Italy and projects in France, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran. She still lives for much of the year in London, whereshe co-founded Fishbar, a publisher, bookshop and exhibition space. “I grew up with a lot of travel because of my dad’s job (as a diplomat),” she says. “But I think an interest in other cultures is inherent to human nature. We’re all curious about each other, even our next-door neighbours.” Taking photos of people in their private lives requires trust and communication. www.digitalcameraworld.com
“The more comfortable people feel with me and the more comfortable they feel in themselves, the more interesting the images become,” Arthur suggests. “I’m looking for a moment where people feel comfortable in their own skin. When we talk about where we’ll make these pictures, it’s where they feel most comfortable, whether that’s at home, in a bedroom – a place that makes you feel like you’re yourself. “We often have tea or a meal together, and I often go back and photograph someone a second time. You get this extra dimension where you’re familiar with each other.” www.digitalcameraworld.com
Varied works Arthur often works with different equipment, from Hasselblads to smaller digital cameras, and moves between colour and black-andwhite. “I tend to mix it up a bit,” she says. “I’m not someone who feels it has to be done a certain way.” Working in Saudi Arabia for her first book, Jeddah Diary, Arthur found using less ostentatious digital cameras helped local women to let her into their lives. “I originally turned up with my Hasselblad, shooting on film, and that became difficult. It became quite cumbersome, and
Above: Carnival party in Stommeln, near Cologne, Germany, 2013.
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Pro in focus Hints & tips from Olivia Arthur How to take more intimate portraits to know 1 Get each other
“Spend time without your camera in your hand. Get to know the person or people you are photographing.”
rush 2 Don’t “Whoever you are with has let
you come into their personal space. Accept that generosity, and treat them well by not rushing through a shoot.”
a tripod 3 Use “Using a tripod can help you to be
careful and thoughtful about the images you are making. Sometimes it helps to use one, even if it’s not necessary.”
different things 4 Try “Often the first scene you try
won’t be the best. I often find myself getting the camera back out again after I’ve finished shooting, when something else catches my eye.”
your work 5 Show “Bring examples of your work –
it always helps people to understand the kind of images you are making or want to make.”
a photo 6 Send afterwards
“Remember to send the people you photographed a print of your work.”
Above right: A Saudi woman lazes at home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2009. Opposite top: Mumbai, India, 2018. Opposite bottom: Young dancer Freya shows some of her moves in her bedroom. Hull, UK, 2017. 12
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It’s important that I’m ready to share myself and my own world I found myself in intimate situations with people, hanging out, and it wasn’t the right thing to have that camera. “When I went back on my second trip, I took my digital camera. I found I was making really different pictures. With the big camera, I was ‘the professional photographer’, but with the smaller digital camera, I was their friend hanging out with them.” For her second book, Stranger, Arthur imagined a ghost, from a shipwreck off the coast of Dubai in 1961, returning to land and trying to make sense of the modern metropolis. This idea of being a stranger or an outsider fits neatly with the position street photography, travel photography and documentaryphotography often find themselves in, coming into a unknown place and documenting what they see. “I think we’re always the ‘outsider’,” she says. “Stranger was about the experience of coming to a place, trying to piece it together. Dubai is a place that dazzles
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and confuses. It’san isolating, disorienting place, and not a very welcoming place; a place full of people that belong somewhere else. The idea was to put the sights and sounds into almost a big muddle that leaves you disorientated.”
Human technology
For 2017’s WaitingFor Lorelei, Arthur turned the camera on herself during her second pregnancy. “I’d wanted to do that for some time, but never felt I had something to tell,” she says. “It felt good to turn the camera around, particularly in an intimate way. If I’m going to go into people’s worlds and photograph them, it’s important that I’m also ready to share myself and my own world and family in that way.” The project accelerated her interest in bodies and our relationship to our bodies. One of her current projects, which she’ll be talking about at this year’s The Photography Show (and also discussed in her Ted Talk), saw her working with Boston Consulting Group and looking at the blurring line between humans and technology, from bionic and motorised replacement limbs and ‘blades’ and realistic robots. “I’ve become fascinated bybodies,” she explains. “I decided to look at how we use technology to repair, but also to enhance, the body. This work isn’t about photographing www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Pro in focus
Above: Olivia Arthur, photographed in 2008. Portrait by Philipp Ebeling. Right: Ibukiro Robot, BCG Project, Japan, 2020. Opposite: Motion study, 2020.
The big question How can ambiguity make photos more powerful? Olivia Arthur says: “You want a bit of curiosity in your photos. You want to leave a bit of space for the imagination. Your picture lives if people come back to it and see something else, or they think of something else and see it in a different way. “It’s this idea that we capture moments. Maybe there’s a little glance, a gesture, a small detail… I’m very interested in gestures, what a gesture says. You capture that gesture in a moment, and you think about body language. For me, it’s the little things that make you curious and make you wonder. I’m not against moving images, but it’s a very different way of working. With photography, you take everything else away and leave only the thing you’ve chosen. It’s that simplicity which makes photography powerful.”
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people with disabilities, but looking at people using technology in amazing ways. The mechanics of walking around on two feet and doing that the way we do is so incredible. It ended up making me more amazed by the body than by the technology. Yet technology does amazing things. I think we’re going to see some incredible developments in the future.” One of Arthur’s photographic subjects is Rob Spence, who installed a video camera as a replacement for his eye (which he lost in a gun accident) to record what he ‘sees’, and has received hate mail from people who feel threatened by his ability. His case highlights the tension between people’s right to film or photograph and people’s right to privacy. “It’s ridiculous really,” argues Arthur. “Rob has a not-very-sophisticated camera in his eye and, as he walks around, he can look at and record some things through his eye. But the rest of us can also walk around with phones and record. Professional photographers have had a hard time in the last few years – there’s been a lot of questioning of the role of photographers,
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or a street photographer going out and taking pictures of people they haven’t asked permission from. But almost everyone in the world is going out and doing exactly the same, just in a non-professional capacity. “The fact the camera is in his eye sets people off, because they don’t understand it – but it’s not really any different to walking around with a camera in your hand.”
See Olivia at TPS The Super Stage, 3.30pm, 19 Sept
Olivia will be speaking on the Super Stage at The Photography Show & The Video Show 2021, which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham from 18-21 September, 2021. Her talk ‘Culture, People and Machines: Documenting Humans’ will take place at 3.30pm on Sept 19. For more information, see page 108. www.digitalcameraworld.com
www.digitalcameraworld.com
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10 things to inspire your next shoot, from macro bubbles and big cats to the beautiful Outer Hebrides
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1 | UNDERWATER
The beauty of sharks Mike Cootsuses his powerfulimages to promote conservation of the species
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Mike explains. “I love sharing images of sharks that show their beauty, and hope my images help balance the narrative that Hollywood has sold us. There is more to sharks than a set of jaws, and they are much needed for a healthy ocean.” For Mike, a great underwater image reveals the beauty and awe of the sea. That can be mystery, seduction, gorgeousness, serenity,and tranquilly – whether that image is eye candy and makes you want to head to the beach, or is relating a sombre story of an issue affecting the health of the seas. “It’s all important – and that’s the power of underwater imagery.” www.mikecoots.com
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stooC ekiM
ike Coots is an avid surfer from Hawaii. He lost a leg in a shark attack as a teenager, but has since dedicated his life to protecting the species. Between lobbying law-makers in Hawaii and the US Congress on shark protection legislation, sharing compelling imagery on social media, and being a Padi Ambassadiver (see next page), Mike hopes to shift the stigma people have about sharks. You can also find him diving, or riding the waves on his custom surfing prosthetic leg. “While lobbying for stronger shark protections, I got invited to go shark diving, and I haven’t stopped since,”
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Mike’s tips for underwater photography
Be comfortable under the waterline 1 You need specialised gear for this type of photography – but while it is technically challenging, the rewards can be amazing. Look for water that has some clarity, and learn to become comfortable under the waterline before you take a camera out with you.
Use ambient light the surface 2 Inear tend to work right below the
Mike and Padi Dive In his role as a Padi Ambassadiver, Mike has provided imagery for the Padi X Mike Coots Signature Collection. This includes a range of eco-friendly gear designed for ocean enthusiasts – a collection of organic tees, recycled plastic trucker hats and a reusable Tyvek zip pouch that features shark images captured by Mike himself. “I chose these images for the collection because they were from very special dives, including the first day I ever saw a great white,” says Mike. 15 per cent of the proceeds go to Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, to fund the localised protection of white sharks. www.padigear.com/collections/padi-x-mike-coots About Padi The Professional Association of Diving Instructors is the world’s leading scuba diver training organisation, and runs courses all over the world. Find out more at www.padi.com
surface, where there is plenty of ambient light. I don’t use strobes and often use less-traditional lenses, like a 50mm. If you are diving deeper than 20 feet, though, you will need lighting or a red filter to balance the colour.
WIN!
Mike Coots Signature Collection bundle Enter today to win items worth £67/$90! See page 110
A good location matters more than 3 camera gear Spend more energy and money
seeking out amazing locations than you do buying camera gear. Learn about water safety, and go with divers who have spent a lot of time diving in that area or with that species.
2 | WILDLIFE
Cool cats Sarah Medway
creates a fine-art feel with black-and-white shots of big cats ats are my passion – both big and small! I am part of the in-house photography team, and workshop leader, at the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent. While sunny, blue skies are good for the soul, they aren’t always ideal for animal photography. A slightly cloudy sky diffuses the light, giving you an even exposure, while bright sunlight causes shadows to go black, and whites to overexpose. If you are shooting through wire, cloud cover will eliminate mesh shadows being cast on the animal. For most animal parks, a 70-200mm or 100-400mm lens offers a good shooting range. sarahmedwayphotography.com Instagram: sarahmedwayphotography
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Xizi (Amur leopard)
(Right) I wanted to interpret this shot of Xizi looking directly at me by adding a white layer in Photoshop. With the Eraser Tool set to about 5%, I erased the white away to reveal the image layer below. This creates a more fine-art look.
Atara (North Chinese leopard) Keira (jaguar) yawdeM haraS
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Crouching down to shoot meant any visual distractions behind Keira were eliminated, simplifying the image. Using this viewpoint can mean the camera tries to expose for the sky: override this by using exposure compensation in Aperture Priority mode. DIGITA L CAMERA
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I used an aperture of f/4 for a shallow depth of field, which gives separation between Atara and the dark background. Waiting for her to look up created a catchlight in the eyes. This is important, as it breathes life into the image. www.digitalcameraworld.com
3 | LANDSCAPES
Exposing for the elements Long exposure in the Outer Hebrides by Peter Kwasniewski
y day, I’m the business manager of an established distillery on the Isle of Harris. I balance my working life with a Sony Alpha 7 III in a place most photographers can only dream of, but I get to call home. Seascape photography, particularly long-exposure, is my passion, thanks to the wild Atlantic Ocean surrounding Harris. Modern life is fast-paced, but rather than ‘snap and go’, I spend time on scene selection and camera settings before hitting the shutter button. There is something wonderfully mindful in long-exposure. The kinetic movement of water becomes a butter-smooth, soul-healing creation. Don’t get me wrong: by shooting ‘low and slow’, you can still retain detail in stationaryobjects.A good tripod is crucial, and if you’re looking to use long-exposure in daylight, a variable ND filter is a must. Sometimes I even remove my camera strap to avoid unnecessary movementand set the shutter on a timer to avoid touching the camera at all as it shoots the image. www.theharrislens.com
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Peter’s settings tips
Set the aperture to a minimum of f/8 and ISO to Low or 100. The shutter speed depends on how much detail we want in the moving object, but usually it needs to be two seconds or longer to achieve the sweeping clouds and still water. Don’t fear manual mode: with the aperture locked to f/8 and ISO already set, all you have to do is experiment with the shutter duration. I’ve taken many images that weren’t usable, but it’s the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t. The important thing is to have fun. 22
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Manfrotto 190 series tripod
Carl Zeiss Sonnar 55mm F/1.8 www.digitalcameraworld.com
After 4 | PHOTOSHOP
Magical mono Roddy Llewellyn
shows how a careful but simple conversion can turn your photo into a fine-art print
n y l l e w e l L yddoR
Before ith the sun at its strongest in the summer months, the light at this time of year can create great contrast in your shots. After a summer downpour at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, there were puddles lying on the beach, which contrasted well
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against the dark sand. The shapes of the puddles zig-zagging across the beach reminded me of the renowned war artist Paul Nash, and the simplicity of the shot, with the unusual structures on the horizon, adds to an interesting composition. Looking at the image and the strong contrast within it, I thought it was perfect for a black-and-white conversion. Here I will
show you how you can create an artistic abstract very quickly – in minutes – that will be suitable for printing and framing. Sometimes we forget to save our photos as raw files, but this is not always cause for alarm. You can always just do a simple mono conversion in Photoshop with some basic edits, and still produce a captivating image in a few simple steps.
Create a mono masterpiece in three easy steps
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Saturate
Get your original shot, which is in RGB. You have to put your thinking cap on when looking at colour images: the stronger the colours are in RGB, the stronger they will be in black and white; so saturate your image, like I did here to +59, which create much more contrast later on. 24
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Convert to greyscale 2 Once you’re happy with the level
of saturation, which has created more difference between the lighter and darker areas both in the foreground and in the clouds, convert the image to greyscale, before you add your final adjustments.
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3
Increase the contrast
The image still feels a little grey, so we want to make even more difference between the light and dark areas. Adjust Brightness (-5) and Contrast (+47) until you are happy. This makes a stronger definition between the light and dark areas, creating a more graphic image.
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BO TICKOETKS NOW
18-21 SEPTEMBER 2021, THE NEC, BIRMINGHAM
WE’RE BACK AT THE NEC THIS AUTUMN 20% off tickets with code DCAMTPS21* Professional photographers, videographers and image-making industry representatives can apply for FREE entry to the show. All applications will be verified against specific criteria VISIT PHOTOGRAPHYSHOW.COM/DC TO BOOK *Discount applies to standard adult entry (new bookings) only and cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, including concession rates. The code expires at midnight on 15 September 2021.
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5 | TRAVEL
Outer limits A long-awaited trip to the
Outer Hebrides inspires Beverley Mackenzie to create her first photo blog
xploring the Outer Hebrides has been on my travel and photography bucket list for years. With its Caribbean-esque waters, white sandy beaches and majesticmountains, plus an impressive range of wildlife and plants, these beautiful Scottish islands provide endless opportunities for amateur and professional photographers alike. With so much to see, do and photograph, I decided that the best way to get a flavour of the islands was to visit all of them. Following the official Hebridean Way route (www. visitouterhebrides.co.uk/hebrideanway), I started on Vatersay, walking and camping my way across 10 islands to my final stop at the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse. I’ve had my Sony Alpha 6000 for around three years, but I haven’t experimented across a range of different lights, landscapes or seascapes – all of which the Outer Hebrides offer. I tend to use my iPhone SE more often, so this was the ideal opportunity to give my A6000 an outing, and see what it could do. I set up an Instagram travel diary to document my three-week trip with photos to capture the beauty of the islands and the spirit of the trip. As a novice hiker and camper, I also included information that might be useful for anyone else looking to walk all or part of the Hebridean Way. From turquoise blue seas to fiery sunsets, and from shaggy ginger highland cows to wildflower ‘machair’ carpets, even on its moodiest weather days, the Outer Hebrides deliveredincredible opportunities for me to experiment, to be creative – and, on multiple occasions, to be completely in awe. See more of Bev’s adventure at her Instagram blog: walktheouterhebrides
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10pm sunset, Horgabost Beach, Isle of Harris
This spectacular view from Bev’s tent on the Isle of Harris is an example of the dramatic landscapes the Outer Hebrides have to offer. The weather is the most stable and mild during May to October, with dolphins and seals a regular sight. Between July to September you can spot basking sharks, orcas and different types of whales. In late September and October with such clear skies, you might even be lucky enough to capture a shot of the incredible Northern Lights.
Nine ways to record your trip Beverley gives her advice for capturing the best bitsof your next big adventure
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Shoot from the start
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Direct contact
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Capture the spirit
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The wild side
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Get low, go wide
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Shoot from above
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Leading lines
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Use the foreground
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Capture history
Don’t always wait until you reach your destination before you start taking shots. Create a story by capturing some during your journey, as I did on the ferry to Castlebay. I liked the regal pose of the sheep at Arnol on the Isle of Lewis, and had to capture it looking directly at me. Placing it centrally in the image gave it even more impact.
Paradise islands The Outer Hebrides are off the western coast of Scotland. Made up of 70 islands, just 15 are inhabited. Their crystal-clear turquoise waters, white sandy beaches and rugged mountainous landscapes make them a dream destination for any photographer, especially if you’re into landscapes or wildlife. “The mixture of walking, camping and wild camping across the 156-mile Hebridean Way route certainly provided all the ingredients for a memorable adventure,” says Beverley. “While there is public transport on all of the islands, it’s worth checking the bus timetables before you need to travel, and booking your connecting local ferry tickets ahead of departure. The only traffic jams are in the form of sheep or cows relaxing in the middle of the road! “Summer in Scotland brings more daylight hours than in the rest of the UK. With sunsets as late as 10.30pm and sunrises from 4.25am, it never really gets ‘fully’ dark. The summer provides lots of opportunities for early risers and those staying up later, to capture the changing light and moods of the islands whatever the time of day or night. The shot above was taken at Loch Cravadale on Harris, a lovely scenic hike over the hills from Huisinis Beach.”
Be prepared Beverley says: “While the summer months can be warm, the almostconstant winds make it feel a lot cooler, and pose some interesting issues when it comes to taking photos. When I was there in June it was fairly breezy, and the gusts of wind easily went up to 40mph at times. I constantly braced myself, my camera and my phone while taking photographs because of the wind. You definitely need to factor in the wind speed, gustsand winddirection. “During windy weather, position yourself with your back against the wind rather than facing into it. If you’re using a tripod, brace it firmly so that the wind doesn’t knock it over. Similarly, if you’re taking shots near cliff edges, be aware 28
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of the local forecast so that you keep yourself and your equipment safe from unexpected strong gusts.” “Be prepared for your subject’s hair, leaves, waves or wildlife to move. A Highland cow’s shaggy hair, for example, will sway in the breeze and cause motion blur in your shot, so consider your shutter speeds. If you have long hair yourself, keep it tied back or under a hat to stop any strands making a surprise appearance in your shot. “Rain also poses a challenge in the Hebridean wind: it whips up droplets, sand and more onto your camera lens, so take a cleaning kit with you.”
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Harris gin and its stunning bottle are both award-winners, and the bottle design perfectly reflects the island and its maritime connections. By capturing this locally made gin, I was able to showcase one of the many distinctive aspects of the island. These Highland cattle, with their long shaggy coats and sturdy frames, are well used to the changeable weather of the islands. I noticed them sitting in a line, which created a nice composition. The cow in the foreground helped to frame the whole image. Create a dreamy landscape with a wide aperture such as f/3.5, which gives a shallow depth of field. I turned my camera phone upside-down to get the lens low. Experiment with capturing shots from above, to create interesting compositions. Watch out for your shadow, though, so it doesn’t obscure your subject. Look around your environment for any natural leading lines, as they will help to draw your viewer into the shot. Consider using the foreground as the main focal point, to create alternative landscapes.
The blackhouses at Arnol offer a glimpse into Scottish history. Giving the reader some background information on your subject can help to generate more interest. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Create a photo blog to generate interest people interested in what you Research your subject Choose a subject you’re interested have to say or show. in, and research other blogs to see Tell a story how to make yours stand out. Stick to your subject; don’t confuse your audience with Choose the right name Your blog’s name should tell your other topics. Use the biog space audience what your blog is about of your blog like an elevator pitch, and be relevant to your subject. to showcase what it’s about. If the name is too clever or too Be as consistent as you can obscure, you won’t attract the with your posting schedule. www.digitalcameraworld.com
Preview, spell-check and post The style and tone of your writing is key. Take your followers on a journey and make them feel like they’re part of the conversation. Hashtags and calls to action can help generate feedback. Be authentic Your image choices matter, but your blog will attract an audience
and a following more strongly if people feel a connection with what you’re saying and showing. Your images matter The right images encourage likes, shares and follows, so be selective. Make sure that they reflect the subject and tone of your blog. If you’re sharing images by other people, get their permission first.
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6 | STILL-LIFE
Light it up Alistair Campbell gets
creative with a simple dining table and a match ometimes it can be difficult to feel creative and find new things to shoot around the house. I have a wooden floor in my lounge, and it is here where I originally noticed a wooden knot resembling a flame. I often use the same floor to shoot product photography, but thought: “Hey, there could be a bit of fun to be had here.” In the end I realised I also had a wooden-topped dining table, and set up the shot here to save breaking my back. It was actually more difficult, however, especially getting in the best position to see what I was shooting. Thankfully, due to articulating screens on modern cameras, it wasn’t too much trouble to orientate the screen to a half-decent view (although it was upside-down). Creatively speaking, there isn’t much hope of this being hung up in the Tate Modern, but not every image you create has to be a masterpiece. This is just about having a little fun at home and seeing things with a slightly different creative vision. So head to your shed or kitchen drawer to grab a box of matches, then set up your tripod and choose a lens that will allow you to grab a photo of a small object. Ideally this would be shot on a macro lens, but I don’t own one, so I opted for my Fujifilm 56mm for a bit of reach and cropped the image during editing.
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How Alistair got creative in three simple steps
1: L-bracket
2: Use Live View
3: Take the shot
First off I attached my L-bracket (1). I find it handy when I shoot with a tripod directly overhead: it gives your setup a sturdier feel. Shooting with a little more depth of field is a good plan; I went with f/4 here, which still allowed for a low ISO, and a workable shutter speed of 1/125 sec on a tripod. I tried to use a natural knot in the wood where the ‘flames’ were rising in the right direction; obviously no two are identical. Shooting in Live View (2) with the screen facing me gave me more idea of the framing than looking through the viewfinder. Once I was happy, I took the shot (3). 30
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WATCH THE VIDEO Follow the steps in this tutorial he brilliant glow of a sun-soaked sky can be the perfect cherry on top of your landscape photography sundae – but getting the right exposure for both land and sky can be tricky. Some photographers like to capture multiple exposures and blend them together – but a single raw image contains so much information that there’s actually a far simpler solution. Lightroom is equipped with the Adjustment Brush, found in the Develop Module. This tool enables you to selectively brush adjustments onto the image. So if you find yourself with a beautiful sunset that you just couldn’t expose for correctly in-camera, the Adjustment Brush can come in very handy.
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Before 7 | LIGHTROOM
Let your skies shine Louise Carey demonstrates
how to selectively enhance overexposed skies with the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 32
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with the video and start image in this issue’s download. www.digitalcamera world.com/dc246
After
Whether you’re shooting a flat horizon (such as the beach scene above) or a complicated vista that includes trees, mountains and architecture, the Adjustment Brush enables you to paint over specific aspects of your image and edit them without affecting anything else within the frame. It’s a great tool for other photographic genres as well – fantastic for adding an extra glint to a subject’s eyes in a portrait, or even reducing the saturation of a particularly garish piece of clothing. The possibilities are truly endless. You can download the same Beach_Sunset.jpg start file I’m using via digitalcameraworld.com/dc246, or simply open up one of your own photographs into Lightroom Classic CC to follow along. www.digitalcameraworld.com
Photo Active Use the Adjustment Brush Selectively edit specific parts of your photos for total control in Lightroom
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Make your basic adjustments
After importing your photo, navigate to the Basic Panel in the Develop Module. Use the sliders to create the right exposure and white balance for the foreground. Don’t worry if your sky is overexposed now, as we’ll fix this with the Adjustment Brush later.
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Set up the Adjustment Brush
Make a rough selection
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Bring down the highlights
Adjust the tones
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Tidy up the selection
If you have a simple horizon (such as ours), set the Feather slider to around 25%. and paint over the sky or any other part of the image you want to adjust separately from your global adjustments; press the letter O to see the area you’ve selected as an overlay.
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The sky can often be the most exciting aspect of a landscape photo – and the most colourful. Move the Temp and Tint sliders to the right to introduce sunset hues of yellow and purple. Give the colours an extra boost by moving the Saturation slider to the right, too.
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Once you’ve selected the area you want to adjust with the Adjustment Brush, move the Highlights slider to the left to darken the brightest areas. For an even more powerful effect, you can also adjust the Whites slider, although a lighter touch works best here.
It’s common for Adjustment Brush selections to be a little messy at first. On the Brush Panel, navigate to the Erase option and use the Size slider to create a small brush. Then go along the horizon and tidy up any imperfections to neaten it up.
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Press K or choose the Adjustment Brush. Go to the Brush Panel and use the sliders to control the tool. The Size and Feather sliders will affect how large the brush is and how soft the edges are. The Flow and Density sliders control the opacity of the brush.
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hile I enjoy various photographic genres, my passion is wildlife. There is nothing quite as exciting and so exhilarating as having a beautiful creature firmly in your viewfinder. I have invested in top-quality kit – my 500mm prime lens remains a joy – but there is so much more to getting a quality nature image than your gear. Stealthy fieldcraft and good reconnaissance play a huge part, as getting close to your subject is the most important aspect of getting detail into an image. Understanding and working with light is also critical.
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8 | WILDLIFE
The wonder of wildlife Kevin Pigney explains why
you don’t have toventure too far for great animal images 34
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Wildlife is often more active at either end of the day, which can correspond with the beautiful soft light of these times. Many return visits to a location can be necessary to obtain that special image I am looking for. Working locally can be a big help, enabling me to get to the specific traits and habits of a particular species. It has often been said how lucky I am to get my images; while we all need a bit of luck, the longer I spend in the field, the luckier I get. Where possible, I love to get eye contact with my subject: getting on eye level can give a more intimate portrait. Other aspects I like to www.digitalcameraworld.com
Kevin’s favourite wildlife images to shoot in the UK
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The best way of photographing owls is learning where their regular perch points are: they use these to scan the ground for prey. This is the little owl breed: these guys live up to their name, and are not only small but very fast. Good light was essential for this shot, as I needed a fast 1/2,000 sec shutter speed to freeze the action.
Play a waiting game
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Hares are by far my favourite creature, and were originally responsible for getting me interested in photographing wildlife. I found the most productive method was to find an area they frequent, then wait for them to appear. Trying to stalk them tends to be a pretty thankless task, especially if you’re lugging a tripod.
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Here is an example of a low shooting position, which helps to diffuse the foreground. I needed a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/1,250 sec and continuous focus, as red squirrels are seldom still. Shooting in small shutter bursts helps to catch the subject in the best pose when you look back through the shots.
yengiP niveK
incorporate in my canvas are diffused, uncluttered backgrounds, and a composition with negative space, allowing my subject the potential room to fly or run into. I also prefer a fairly limited colour palette. Out in the field I mainly use a Canon EOS 1D-X Mk II and a Canon 500mm prime with a 1.4x teleconverter, giving me an effective 700mm focal length. I like to use a tripod with a gimbal head, but often you can use your body as a solid base to shoot from when animals are moving quicker than you can set up your tripod; practice and experience go hand in hand. kjpphotography.myportfolio.com
Find regular haunts
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Capture the moment
I like the story behind this image. Amongst the commotion of the rutting season, this image captures a rare tender moment shared between a stag and his hind. Early-morning sunlight adds warmth. As there were two deer and I wanted to show some environment, I used an aperture of f/8, giving me a good depth of field. SEPTEMBER 2021
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9 | LANDSCAPES
Peak of perfection Lee Howdlefalls inlovewith the tranquillityof the Peak District here’s nothing better in photography than when you plan a shot and everything comes together – the composition and the conditions that ultimately make the final image. I’ve always been keen on photography, starting by taking photos on my phone when I used to run in the countryside – but once I got a DSLR camera, my passion intensified!
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Being local to the Peak District gives me an opportunity to shoot a lot of different views in different seasons. I believe preparation is vital in landscape photography: knowing the location, an idea of the composition, the detail of weather, and understanding your camera are all vital factors. Landscape photography can be rewarding, and offers self-satisfaction. I try to take a phone video
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of the scene I’m photographing: it all helps create a story and memories. This particular photo, captured at Owler Tor in the Peak District, was special. My main aim was tophotograph the vibrant heather which wraps itself around these rock formations. The forecast predicted the sky would be on fire – it certainly was! www.leehowdlephotography.co.uk www.digitalcameraworld.com
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f/11
ISO 250
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Prepare to shoot
I knew that the heather was in its prime. I needed an explosive sunset looking down the valley. There are some great apps out there that give you an insight into what sunrises and sunsets will be like on a given day. I use Clear Outside, as this tells you the levels and coverage of clouds. On the day, the high cloud coverage was 65% – enough for the sun to set below and light up the clouds.
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Choose your gear
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Good composition
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I shoot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. It’s a brilliant camera body that has served me well in different seasons and conditions. My go-to lenses for landscapes are Canon’s 17-40mm and 24-105mm. This photo was shot at 17mm, as I wanted to capture as much heather with the rocks as possible. Composition is very important. My aim was to draw people’s attention to the rocks, the heather and the sky. I had a dilemma, as the valley in the distance is not straight – but because of the composition, I felt this wasn’t as important, so I started getting my manual settings ready.
Camera settings
Using Live View on the back of the camera can help capture that perfect image. It allows you to tweak all the important settings and see what the shot will look like before pressing the shutter button. I used a Cokin reversegrad filter, as the light was so intense. This gave me a good balance of light on the foreground as well as the sky.
Post-production
I use Camera Raw for the output of the final image. My main advice is to keep editing to a minimum. If you are uncomfortable with editing, clicking Auto can deliver great results. Always check your pictures for blemishes, which can come from dirt on your lens or on the image sensor.
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t i d e r c egamI Deborah Pugh
10 | MACRO
Bubble planet Deborah Pugh gets creative at home with a simple bowl of bubbles ere is a simple but effective technique to produce and photograph otherworldly images resembling the swirling surface of Jupiter, or unusual 3D shapes with flat, angular, surfaces. To prepare the bubble mixture, you need a ratio of around 1:3 of washing-up liquid to water. You may need to experiment to get the right consistency. I did not use glycerine, but it is supposed to hold the bubble shape for longer and improve colour and swirls. Add between a teaspoon to a tablespoon. I used a straw to generate the bubbles, but you can use a bubble wand. Initially I used a large, grey bowl full of bubbles, but then discovered that a small black saucer also worked perfectly well. Bubbles stand out on a dark
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background, and there are fewer reflection problems. Put the camera on a tripod (I use a Nikon D750), set the camera to ISO 100 to reduce the amount of noise, then experiment with manual settings. My aperture was set between f/5.6 and f/11, and my shutter speed ranged from 1/40 to 1/1,000 sec. I used a Sigma 105mm macro lens (see p44) to fill the frame. Look for patterns and colours to emerge and focus on these (before the bubbles pop!). Youcould experiment with stacking images during postproduction: you would need to take a series of shots zooming in, focusingand zooming out. But you will have to work quickly. Be patient and do a little experimentation to get the desired effects, but the results can be quite rewarding. SEPTEMBER 2021
Deborah’s four simple steps 1
Prep your kit You’ll need washing-up liquid, warm water, a dark bowl or plate, scrunched-up tin foil and a straw. Optional items include a bubble wand, glycerine (in the baking aisle), and a black backdrop.
light source 2 The Diffused light from above, such as a conservatory, is ideal. Scrunched-up tin foil can reflect light if it’s dull. In calm weather, you could shoot outdoors – the golden hour would be a good time. your bubbles 3 Create Tilt the bowl or dish at a shallow angle. Using a straw, blow bubbles. Once you have a bubble, keep the straw inside it, and continue to blow gently until you have many bubbles in one formation. the shot 4 Focus With the camera on a tripod, you can either focus through the viewfinder, which is quicker with bubbles, or use Live View. A cable release or wireless trigger can also be used to minimise shake. www.digitalcameraworld.com
The art of seeing
ABOVE: The natural contours of a horse’s back assume the topological qualities of a landscape in this playful image.
This month, Benedict Brain shoots a fine‑art landscape... or does he? uch of what I talk about in this column is about ‘looking’ and ‘seeing’ – which is why we call it The Art of Seeing. This month, I’m sharing an image of a horse in a field. It was taken while I was on a walk, not far from where I live. It’s not an image that fits into a bigger, more meaningful project: it was just taken for the sheer delight of seeing an opportunity and seizing the moment. I was drawn to the idea that the horse, photographed from this angle and framed in this way, wasn’t obviously a horse at first glance. By eliminating the horse’s head, tail and underbelly and getting low enough so that the horse obscured any background
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Benedict Brain
www.benedictbrain.com Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50R Lens: 45mm f/2.8 Exposure: 1/350 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100 www.digitalcameraworld.com
elements such as trees and buildings, I was able to create the illusion that the horse’s body, with its gentle curves, gradations of tone and rippling ribs, were part of a sweeping topography. The few people I have shared the photo with seemed to enjoy the illusion and then the reveal; there is typically a second or two before the viewer ‘processes’ the information in the image, and realises that it’s a horse, not a landscape. This playful use of composition, perspective and foreshortening is typically used by street photographers, who often enjoy juxtaposing humans against billboards and other clever visual antics. I haven’t seen the technique used so much in landscape photography, so it was lovely to stumble on an occasion where it worked. The trick is in the ‘seeing’; learning to look through the eye of your camera, use your ‘camera vision’ to see the world around you, and capture it in new and interesting ways. Although the colour palette was nearly monochromatic in the original raw file, I decided to take it one step further and convert it to black and white. Using Curves and Graduated Filters in Camera Raw, I processed it in much the same way I might approach a traditional landscape.
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STAY AT HOME PHOTOGRAPHY
Keep calm and camera on with our guide to projects you can complete indoors very issue, Stay at Home helps you make the most of your spare time, with projects you can tackle indoors or without having to wander off too far. This issue, get a fresh take on familiar subjects when you explore your home and garden with your macro lens, and emulate the Old Masters with an everyday torch as we cover the art of light-painting. Meanwhile, Dave Kai Piper casts his professional eye on achieving accurate colour and tone in photo prints, showing how to configure each stage to keep your photos consistent.
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PROJECT 2 for printing 48 Workflows Print out photos that look as
close as possible to how you visualised them while editing them on a screen
PROJECT 1
Fun projects to try at home or in our local ayre a!
the most from 44 Get a macro lens
Once you invest in one of these, you’ll find loads of amazing subjects to shoot in your home and garden…
PROJECT 3 light-painting 50 Creative Use a simple torch and Steve
Gemmell’s tips to bring a painterly look to your still-life photos
PROJECT 4 gallery 54 Reader Epic landscapes, an intimate
portrait and a stunning use of lightbeam brushes in this selection
PLUS! Visit our website for more home-focused inspiration www.digitalcameraworld.com/tag/homephotography www.digitalcameraworld.com/tag/homeworking www.digitalcameraworld.com
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STAY AT HOME PHOTOGRAPHY
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Get a fresh perspective by using a macro lens
After investing in a 105mm optic, Niamh Cottle explores new ways of presenting everyday householdobjectsandsubjectsinhergarden
s it was a branch of photography I hadn’t really explored before, I decided to buy a macro lens – Sigma’s 105mm f/2.8 Macro EX DG OS HSM. I used it exclusively for the first two weeks I owned it, so I could discover how best to use it and which settings
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were the most effective. Having experimented as much as possible, I thought I’d share the results. In this project, I’ll show you a range of subjects you could photograph with a macro lens – flowers, food, insects, raindrops, water movement, subjects from a distance, and indoor objects – plus some technique pointers.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Digital camera Macro lens (typically a prime lens with a focal length of 90mm, 100mm or 105mm) Tripod (I’m using one with a centre column that can be folded out) Torch or flashgun if required Time: One hour (minimum)
KIT TIPS GET READY TO SHOOT
Whattolookforinanewmacrolens,andwhatelseyoumightneed
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About my macro lens
A macro lens is designed to reproduce a subject at its actual size on your camera’s sensor, so if you photograph an insect that’s 10mm long at the shortest available focus distance, the image will be 10mm long on your sensor. The 105mm focal length of my lens lets me shoot close-ups from slightly further away. It also has a four-stop stabiliser.
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Manual or autofocus?
I switched between manual focus and autofocus depending on what I was shooting – sometimes I used AF as a guide before switching to MF, adjusting the focus and fine-tuning it to suit my needs. While shopping for a macro lens, I opted for one with a wide aperture, so I could get more detailed shots and also experiment with the depth of field.
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Shoot handheld or with a tripod?
You can do either, depending on the subject. I liked using the lens handheld, as it allowed me to move more quickly around subjects that were moving. Small movements can affect your focusing area, however, so putting the camera on a tripod makes it easier to slow yourself down and refine your focusing.
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Water droplets
Taken inside my car while it was parked, the idea for this image was spontaneous. With rain hammering down on the windscreen, I shot it as it fell across the clear and blue-tinted sections. Although I really like the effect of the two tones in the image, this scene could be captured on any window.
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STAY AT HOME PHOTOGRAPHY
TOP TIPS 10 SUBJECTS TO SHOOT WITH A MACRO LENS
Find subjects in your home and garden, and show them in a completely different light
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Insects
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From a distance
A macro lens offers a deep insight into insect aesthetics – you can get so close to them that they look large and full of detail. For example, on a photo of a fly you can see the hairs on the leg and the body. Whether you’re shooting with a tripod – useful when the insects are slow-moving, like this ladybird – or handheld, you need to be quiet and slow-moving so you don’t scare your subject.
While macro lenses are designed to reveal close detail, you can work at a distance to create delicate images like this that also reveal detail. Using a wide aperture of f/2.8 will create a shallow depth of field, defocusing the background and showing the subject emerging into focus. You can still capture the tiny detail of your subject – like this image of flowers that are still in bud or about to burst into life.
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Flying insects
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Texture
Here, you’ll need a fast shutter speed and the widest possible aperture. To shoot bees, find a spot with plenty of flowers where a lot of bees are gathering. Setting my tripod on one flower, I pre-focused and waited – my pictures took several days to capture. If there’s plenty of natural light and your lens has stabilisation, you could also try using manual focus and shooting in burst mode.
A macro lens can show off intricate details of materials or substances. For a shot of chocolate cake (not shown), I used flash to tease out the thick texture of the cake’s moisture. Using an aperture of f/5.6 revealed the crumbs of the sponge, making it unrecognisable as a cake. The image above captures the repetitive fabric pattern of denim. Texture can be found anywhere, and is a subject that rewards investigation.
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Raindrops
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Indoor objects
A great time to use a macro lens is right after a rain shower. You can get close to water drops on leaves and capture them at a very large scale. I used a tripod and adjusted it to get the lens on the same level as the raindrop. I used a narrow aperture of f/20 for frontto-back focus to reveal the different green hues coming through the water; to show off more of the droplets, just expand the focus area.
Having found a coaster in my house that had lots of thread coming off it, I thought it would make a great texture to photograph. I took two images: one showing most of the felt ‘balls’, the other getting super-close to show the thread intertwined together. Another interesting object I photographed at home was a candle (not shown) – I wanted to portray its delicate wick, with the flame rising up from it.
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Close-up details
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Water movement
Macro lenses produce in-depth detail, making them ideal for capturing features of a subject’s face or body. This image is a self portrait of my eye; with the camera on a tripod, I tapped the unfolded rear screen to lock the autofocus on my pupil. Choosing a medium aperture of f/9 enabled me to show the veins showing through the whites of my eyes. I love the sense of intensity in this shot.
For this image of a garden water feature, a low aperture created a shallow depth of field, which was helpful for capturing the small droplets in motion and creating a direct focus within the image. Setting a high shutter speed, as you would to capture action, created a motion spray of droplets. (On page 45, you can see a photo I took of rain falling on the windscreen of my car, which produced a distinctive look.)
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Food
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Flowers
It’s easy to create abstract images of food using a macro lens. Looking for texture and colour, I decided to capture some fruit in my kitchen. Shooting with narrower apertures to get more in focus, I homed in on the shapes of different fruits (above left). I also placed a strawberry in a glass of water (above right), which reacted to the skin of the strawberry and created bubbles.
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Shooting from a tripod, with the centre column folded out to form a horizontal boom (this makes adjusting the tripod quicker), I started off quite close and gently pulled back slowly, to catch the point where the subject came into focus. I used a medium aperture of f/9 to get a deeper focus plane than a wider aperture would have given me.
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STAY AT HOME PHOTOGRAPHY
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Build a workflow for printing your images
Dave Kai Piper presents his step-by-step process for making sure that you get photo printsthatlookhowyou’dexpectaftereditingthemonascreen
n issue 244, I explained how I made a set of prints for a local display – it was a new body of work ‘upcycled’ from images I had previously taken. As I mentioned in that article, printing images is a key component of my photographic process. Creating a really decent print is extremely satisfying – the feeling you get when you hang a well-printed image on the wall is a very pleasing one. Having said that, getting repeatable consistent images is the hardest part of printing photos, so in this project I’m going to share my insights on how to design and build your own dedicated workflow for printing images. Start by keeping your workflow within the same colour space – for printing, Adobe RGB is preferable to sRGB. (Adobe RGB boasts a wider range of colours, while sRGB is the standard colour space used online.) To future-proof your workflow, set your camera’s colour space to RGB, if it isn’t already – and before you start to print anything, check that your editing software isn’t set to change the colour space of the images. Next, check that your printer profile – also known as an ICC profile – matches your combination of printer and paper. (A printer profile maps colours from one device, such as a screen, to another, such as a printer.)
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As every computer monitor has a different colour bias, you should also consider colour calibration. A colour calibration device can be purchased for as little as £50/$50, and will help to remove any subtle colour shifts. Before printing anything out, check that the white balance across your images is aligned – if it isn’t, any differences in white balance can get exaggerated during the printing process. In my own workflow, I find Lightroom ideal for aligning white balance settings; I do this before moving on to any advanced editing in Photoshop. Regarding a suitable printer, I use a Canon Prograf Pro-300. It can print at A3+ sizes, giving you lots of framing options, while its pigment-based inks offer vivid colours and deep blacks. Do be warned, though: once you get started, printing photographs will become seriously addictive…
WHATYOU’LL NEED
Computer Image-editing software (I use Lightroom and Photoshop) Photo printer Photo printing paper Printer profile that matches your printer and paper Time: One hour (minimum)
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PRO ADVICE FIVE STEPS TO PRINT PERFECTION
Follow these handy pointers for displaying your images in the glory they deserve
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Make a test print
Understanding the differences between ink and light is important, and is something you should plan for. Use a properly calibrated monitor to get a feel for what you are intending to print. Make a test print or ‘hard proof’, and compare it to your computer screen – make sure that any automatic adjustments or screen dimming are disabled.
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Check your printer profile
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Use your hard proofs to re-edit and adjust
Paper choice is important, so make sure your printing software has the correct printer profile or ICC profile installed. Together with a calibrated screen, the correct printer profile will give you the best chance of producing great prints. Paper manufacturers such as Fotospeed can provide a custom profile for your printer – this is definitely worth using.
Compare your hard and soft proofs
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Making a physical print is the only real way to check your results. ‘Soft proofing’ on a monitor can be great for those with very high-end screens and calibration software, but nothing beats a physical test print. Make a contact sheet of all the images you want to print, and run some samples. This will show you how the printer will output those images, and will let you know if the printer is creating any problems.
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Work in a controlled lighting environment
Together with calibrating your computer monitor, I would definitely invest in some daylight-balanced light bulbs. I use Philips Hue Light bulbs in my printing area, each set to 5,500 Kelvin. For any sort of print testing or proofing, though, I reach for my Westcott Ice Light (right) for making close up-inspections of my work.
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Once you have found a few post-processing tweaks that work for you, save them. I have built up a few go-to presets in Lightroom and Photoshop that I know will work with different papers. Once you have established these settings, trust them as a baseline – with time and experience, you will develop a natural feel for how an image is going to print. It is the same for different papers; order some sample packs and test them out.
PRO TIP
Use Adobe RGB instead of sRGB RGB is a wider colour space than sRGB, so it’s preferable when printing images.
STAY AT HOME PHOTOGRAPHY
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Use light-painting to make creative images
Steve Gemmell shares his first attempts at still-life light painting, using a simple torch tobringapainterlyapproachtohisphotos
ainting with light can produce beautiful still-life imagery. Light-painting requires you to work in a completely dark room, opening the camera shutter for an extended period of time, and ‘painting’ the light onto the subject. It requires patience and practice to produce the results you want to achieve, but it is a fascinating and creative way to work. There are two approaches: single-exposure, where you open the shutter for a period of time while you paint the subject with light from a torch; and multiple-exposure, where you paint different parts of the subject during each exposure and bring them together in Photoshop layers to make a composite image. For the pictures in this project, I used the multiple-exposure
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technique. The light source and how you use it has a big effect on the images captured: the closer to the subject and the bigger the light source, the softer the light will be. Further away and smaller, the light becomes more concentrated and harsh. To get softer lighting, add as much diffusion as possible. Keep the light moving during each exposure (it’s a bigger light source), and get the torch as close as you can to the subject.
WHATYOU’LL NEED
Camera with full manual controls Tripod Torch Editing software that can create layers and masks Time: Two hours
STEP BY STEP GET READY FOR LIGHT-PAINTING
Onceyou’vegotafullydarkenedroomtoshootin,it’seasytosetup your camera andstart‘painting’overyoursubjecttoilluminateit
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Set up the scene to light-paint
First, prepare your room and work area – I put blackout film on the windows and draped a black cloth behind my subject, an old film camera on a stand. To do the light painting, I used a Mini Maglite LED torch, having adapted it slightly (I unscrewed the front element and added a few small translucent discs) to produce a more diffused light source. Set your camera on a tripod and shoot in raw. Focus on your subject, then make sure the autofocus is switched off. Set the camera to a low ISO – I used ISO 50.
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Dial in exposure settings to suit the lighting
To avoid any camera movement you’re best off using a cable release or an electronic trigger of some kind – many modern cameras can be controlled via a smartphone or tablet app over Bluetooth, for example. If this isn’t an option, just use the shutter delay timer to fire the shutter. You can either set the time for each exposure if your camera allows, or put the camera into the Bulb exposure mode. The longer the shutter remains open, the more time you have to concentrate on your light painting.
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Light-paint over your product
Keep the light source close to the subject and at the same angle for each part of the subject you light. Avoid lighting directly from the front of your subject, as the lighting effect will be flat. If you keep the light moving gently over the area you want to illuminate, you will get a more realistic effect that mimics the ‘fall-off’ of a large light source, creating a pleasing gradient and a sculpted effect in the process. This will take time and practice, so you may need several attempts to achieve the desired result.
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Try, try – and try again...
Shoot, evaluate and adjust, and shoot again. To get the best results, adjust your camera settings as necessary. Look at your captures and consider what you might do differently. While you might get lucky and nail the shot at the first attempt, it’s more likely that you will create lots of images, trying out different things and choosing the best ones later on during the editing stage. Light-painting is a creative technique, so don’t be afraid to experiment to see what you can come up with.
STEP BY STEP NOW EDIT YOUR CAPTURES
Bring your multiple exposures into one layered image for total control
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Create your composite
To composite the images taken into a final picture, you will need an editing application capable of creating layers and masks. For this project, I used Photoshop. Lightroom is a good tool for preparing, sorting and perhaps doing some minor editing to your images before selecting the best ones that will work well together. But from then on, it is more convenient to open the desired captures in Photoshop as one document, with individual layers for each image. To do this, select your shots in Lightroom, then right-click and select Edit In > Open As Layers In Photoshop.
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Adjust the opacity of each layer
Set the Blending Mode for all the layers above the base image to Lighten. Now you can work on each layer individually, switching the other layers on and off as required to see the overall effect of the editing as you work. Adjustments can be made to the opacity of each layer, and masks can be added as necessary to clean up the images. Working in this way offers a great deal of control over the overall composite image, which can be exported and saved as a separate final piece of work. Again, trial and error will produce the best results.
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Send us your shots and star in our photo gallery
Digital Camera readers show us how they’ve been getting creative at home
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‘Before Dusk’ by Ben Wootton
“After a long day at the Seven Sisters in East Sussex, everybody heads off on their separate ways.”
Digital Camera says: Having the ability
to find a narrative in a scene that you might not initially have set out to capture is a strong skill to possess as a photographer.
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‘Watching the World Go By’ by Louise Harmston
“My daughter looking into the street, using the soft light from the window and the blinds as leading lines.”
Digital Camera says: Natural light, pleasing tones and a shallow depth of field – a perfect combination.
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www.digitalcameraworld.com
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‘Christchurch Priory’ by Gwilym Jones
“This was taken in Christchurch Priory. There were no light beams, just the shadows on the floor, so your gift of lightbeam brushes in issue 243 has come in very handy.”
Digital Camera says: It’s great
to see our brushes being used, and executed with a natural finish. The light beams lead us right through a strong vertical composition.
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‘Ram’s Head’ by Chris Howell
“This was taken at a zoo in Kent. I found this ram resting in the shade of its barn, which produced just the right amount of soft light. I did some slight editing in Luminar AI, and added a new background using Affinity Photo.”
Digital Camera says: A beautiful piece of fineart photography, Chris. The new background allows the ram to be front and centre.
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‘Garage Without a Road’ by Steve Reardon
“Taken near Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand; my wife and I were there for a holiday. Driving down a side road, we spotted this garage in the middle of a field. There was no driveway into it, and no off-road parking.”
Digital Camera says: A stunningly
tranquil scene, Steve. It’s a timeless capture, with beautiful teal and orange colour grading and a dramatic wide crop to finish. Surely one to hang on the wall.
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‘Wrong Way’ by John Colmer
“This was taken from a car park in Nottingham’s Trinity Square, where it was pouring with rain. As soon as I had taken the image, I thought it would look great in black and white.”
Digital Camera says:
Black-and-white is undeniably the perfect choice: strong narrative, composition and contrast.
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‘Gandy Street’ by James Cranch
“This was taken on Gandy Street in Exeter at 5am just after sunrise. Unable to sleep, I headed into the city centre to explore and take photos while no-one was around.”
Digital Camera says: We like
the quirky composition, ignoring the need for the building to be straight; allowing the lightshades to dominate the image was a bold choice. Editing out the for-sale sign in the bottom-right could be wise.
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‘Truck on the M62 at sunrise’ by David Henderson
“My early start was rewarded with a glorious sunrise where the M62 rises to cross East Yorkshire’s River Ouse. Goole Docks is in the background, continuing the industrial theme.”
Digital Camera says: Surely the M62 has never looked
so good! Shooting early in the day has led to a perfect silhouette and a warm colour palette. The strong leading lines from the pillars draw you up and down the image satisfyingly, and also allow the sky to come into the scene.
SEND US YOUR IMAGES Want to feature in this gallery? Please email a high-res image (at least 2.5MB) marked ‘Reader Images’, and including a brief description, to:
digitalcamera@ futurenet.com
‘Buddha in the Stream’ by Lori James
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“We found this statue in a local creek, perhaps a victim of vandalism. I took a few photos, wanting to get the reflection of the branches just right in the submerged image.”
Digital Camera says:
This has the aesthetic feel of a double-exposure image. A good find, Lori – but sad for the poor statue.
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SHOOT WILDLIFE LIKE A PRO
ALL CREATURES GREAT & SMALL After working in locations across the world, pro wildlife photographer Graeme Green shares his hints and tips for taking amazing animal photos close to home – and beyond! he natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest,” says naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. As inspirational as an Attenborough documentary can be, though, there’s nothing like venturing into the real world to see wild animals at large in their local environments. I have been privileged to work in locations as diverse as Antarctica, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Venezuela – places that provide an endless array of weird and wonderful creatures to photograph in creative ways, from charismatic giants like lions and gorillas to little-known species of frogs, lizards and birds. As these are not the best of times for encountering exotic wildlife in their natural habitats, focusing on wildlife local to you may be more viable. Hopefully, the world will have opened up more by the time you read this – but whether you’re photographing animals in a domestic wildlife park or an African nature reserve, the basic principles for shooting successful wildlife pictures are the same.
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Over the next 12 pages, I’m going to share some of the expertise I’ve gleaned from many years of photographing wildlife around the world, as well as offering the kind of insights that can only come from the experience of much time spent in the field. I’ll show you how techniques that can be learned and mastered close to home can be put to good use when the moment comes for photographing wildlife in its natural environment – helping you to create images of animal behaviour that you will treasure forever.
CONTENTS
Explore the wildlife local to you Celebrate our natural world Never miss a shot Delve deep into animal behaviour Unleash your creativity
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FIVE KIT ESSENTIALS FOR WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY
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A TOUGH CAMERA
For wildlife photography, you need a reliable and weather-proofed DSLR or mirrorless camera that can take a few knocks along the way. This applies whether you’re taking your camera up to the Arctic or deep into humid rainforests. 60
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A SECOND CAMERA
As situations change so quickly, don’t get stuck swapping lenses. Have one camera with a lens for wide and mid-range shots, such as a 24-105mm; and another mounted to your longest optic, like a 100-400mm zoom or a 600mm prime, for getting closer. SEPTEMBER 2021
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A BEANBAG OR CUSHION
Heavy lenses can be draining – even painful – to use. To be free to move quickly, especially if animals are changing position, I use a small beanbag or cushion to rest my camera on. I find this a much better option than clamping my camera to a vehicle door.
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BATTERIES AND CARDS
When exciting situations present themselves, wildlife photographers tend to get very clickhappy. Make sure you’re carrying spare batteries and enough memory cards, so you can keep taking pictures while the magic is happening in front of you.
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SUITABLE CLOTHING
Wear durable green and brown clothes to help you blend in with your surroundings. A waterproof jacket and a waterproof cover are also essential for wildlife photography – don’t risk any chance of your expensive kit getting written off if it gets wet. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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1/1,600 sec
ISO 1,000
Left: These striking burnet moths were photographed on a thistle flower, high up on the cliffs along the south coast of Wales. Red and black in wildlife are often a warning sign to other species; in this case, the moths contain cyanide – not an ideal meal.
PRO ADVICE
Use pinpoint focus
USE YOUR FREE TIPS CARDS!
Avoid positioning yourself in a way that will block the sunlight – it will cast shadow on your subject, but could also alert insects and other species to your presence. Use pinpoint focus points and focus somewhere on the creature, rather than allowing wider focal points to land on the plant or background – otherwise, your main subject could appear out of focus.
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EXPLORE THE WILDLIFE CLOSE TO YOUR HOME
Wildlife adventures don’t always require you to fly off to exotic locations around the world. Here’s how to shoot the photogenic wild creatures to be found near where you live
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fleeting moments appear in front of you in wild settings. One golden rule for photographing wildlife in any location is to be careful not to disturb any animals or birds. Be quiet and respectful, and don’t get too close or trample into places you shouldn’t go. Be particularly cautious around dens and nests, or any situations where you feel infant wildlife is around. Be careful what information you share on social media with your images, especially location details, so that dens or nests don’t get bombarded with hordes of photographers.
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ildlife parks and zoos aren’t places I spend much time in: I prefer to work in natural habitats. But visiting wildlife centres or forest locations with feeding stations offers an all-butguaranteed chance of seeing wildlife, and is therefore a great way to get your hand in. You can spend time in these places watching and photographing animals, and thinking about your camera settings and creative angles to shoot from; then you’ll be better prepared when those
PRO ADVICE FIELDCRAFT
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Some animals have preferred routes or spots where they can be found regularly, so get to know the behaviour and daily patterns of the wildlife that’s near you.
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Make repeat visits Keep an eye out If you’ve seen wildlife at a specific location, make return visits. Over time, this will help you gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the animals.
Sometimes it’s the smaller creatures that merit our attention. Scan the landscape for insects, mice, frogs and fish: they make fascinating photographic subjects.
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In the world’s great wildlife reserves and national parks, you can’t drive for more than a few minutes without seeing remarkable animals. Away from these areas, though, wildlife photography often requires more patience. It’s about getting out and enjoying the great outdoors, being open and aware of what’s around you, and seeking out interesting subjects. It may take more effort, but there are worse ways to spend time than wandering around the countryside near where you live. While the regularity of safari vehicles in African parks means that many animals, especially larger ones, aren’t too concerned about human presence, it’s not the same elsewhere. Many species of mammals and birds will move on if they feel threatened, so move quietly and slowly so you don’t scare away the creatures you’re trying to photograph.
Gather intelligence Be ready to shoot Pre-dial settings A lot of wildlife is quite elusive, so ask other photographers where to look for it. You may also be able to gather some invaluable pointers for working in a specific location.
SEPTEMBER 2021
Keep your camera in your hand, not packed away in a bag. Make sure it’s in standby mode, so you don’t lose any valuable seconds while it powers up.
Before arriving at a location to capture wildlife behaviour, think about your likely shutter speed, depth of field and ISO setting – again, this will save precious time. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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1/800 sec
ISO 500
PRO ADVICE
Blend in, and move quietly and slowly
Animals are very easily threatened; being ‘food’ for many other species, including humans, has that effect. Try to blend into your surroundings. Move quietly and slowly. Avoid loud, startling noises or rapid movements that might be seen as a threat. If you don’t take enough care, animals might disappear long before you’ve taken a photo. Right: Scotland’s Hebridean islands have some of the UK’s most exciting wildlife. Famous for its whisky and wild landscapes, Islay is also home to several free-roaming groups of wild goats, often seen in the coastal areas.
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CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF OUR NATURAL WORLD
Keep these simple concepts in mind on your next wildlife shoot and see how they can make the difference between exceptional photos and frames that need to be deleted reat wildlife photography is about far more than getting an animal in the frame. It’s about creativity, about colour and texture, about composition and creativity, and about capturing behaviour, interactions and incredible moments. There are common mistakes photographers make when photographing animals, which can be easily rectified. As when photographing people, pay attention to body position,
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eye contact and facial expressions. It pays to think in advance about the kind of photos you want to take. On a safari, for example, you could drive around photographing everything, or you could seek out a species, behaviour or phenomenon you’re particularly interested in. Also, study the work of other photographers; consider what they do that you like and don’t like. Critique your own work, too, figuring out what works, what doesn’t work, and what you might want to try next time.
PRO ADVICE ETHICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Ethical photography is a term that’s being talked about more and more. Essentially, it comes down to not causing harm to the wildlife. As a photographer, aim to minimise the disturbance your presence causes. • Never harass animals, by pursuing them, making loud noises or forcing them to run or fly • Don’t disturb denning or nesting areas, which can impact on a species’ future survival • Baiting animals is generally a bad idea, as it can alter animals’ behaviour and bring them into closer, sometimes dangerous, contact with humans. • Avoid supporting any zoos, sanctuaries or photo safari parks where animals are kept in poor conditions or animals suffer harmful practices.
PRO TIPS TAKE YOUR PICTURES UP A LEVEL
TRY USING A LOW PERSPECTIVE
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The top of an animal’s head is rarely their best look. Get down as low to the ground as possible. In locations where it’s safe, get down on the ground. In safari vehicles, lie flat or lean out of the vehicle. Getting to eye-level with the animal will work much better in your shots than looking down diagonally on their head.
EYES AND EXPRESSIONS
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Make sure animals aren’t facing away. Wait for them to turn to face you, rather than taking pictures of tails and hind quarters. As with people, eye contact and a glint in the eye makes a big difference, bringing photos to life. Also try to capture facial expressions: the hint of a smile, thoughtfulness or concentration…
THINK COLOUR AND TEXTURE
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Creatures come in all shapes and sizes and many have remarkable features, including patterned fur or luminous mosaic-like skin. Get close, if it’s safe for you and the animal, and try to capture what it is that makes a creature so visually remarkable, such as the round dots on this angle-headed lizard.
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PRO ADVICE Keep photos stress-free
ISO 250
Most animals are aware of your presence before you’re aware of them, so they might be watching you watching them – which is fine, unless you want candid behaviour photographs. If they’re hissing, snarling or looking stressed or anxious, it’s bad for photos and, more importantly, bad for the animal.
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Above: This portrait of a lion was taken in Mara Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya, a protected area that’s seeing a rare increase in big cat numbers. I chose to frame close-in around the face of the lion, to focus on the eyes and his noble, regal expression.
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HOW TO AVOID MISSING A SHOT
Whether it’s a moment of humour, action or high drama, make sure you have the skills to capture once-in-a-lifetime events ife moves fast, especially in the animal kingdom. Monkeys leap through trees. Cheetahs chase down wildebeest. Pelicans dive-bomb into waves. It all happens at speed, and wild animals are the worst performers in the world for taking any direction. Try as you might, it’s very difficult to persuade any creature to go back and do that incredible thing they just did again, so that you can immortalise it on your camera.
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You only have one chance to get it right in most wildlife situations, which means nailing your composition and settings first time. Read the technique tips below and note them well – nothing can be more haunting to a wildlife photographer than being present at a once-ina-lifetime moment of animal behaviour, then having to come away without the shot.
PRO KIT A POWERFUL LENS
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PRO SHOT
Resting leopard
Good results in wildlife photography can be achieved without needing to splash large amounts of cash. But for the best results – sharp and colourful images – use the most powerful and highest-quality lens you can afford. Or you can rent a top-end optic like this Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III from Hire A Camera (www.hireacamera.com).
Taken in Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park, this is a leopard I’d spent some time with over the course of a day, watching it chase off a cheetah and later take a rest in a baobab tree. Here, it has been alerted to the presence of potential prey, watching carefully from a tree as an unsuspecting impala comes to graze nearby.
PRO TECHNIQUE HOW TO GET A HIGH SUCCESS RATE
SELECT FEWER FOCUS POINTS
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If you’re tracking animals running or birds soaring across the sky, use a single point of focus or a small concentrated focus area. Letting your camera decide often means it will select focal points in the background, leaving the subject blurry, or focuses on a wingtip rather than an eye or face.
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CONSIDER SHOOTING IN BURST MODE
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Although I don’t use it very often, burst mode can be handy for photographing birds in flight – use it in tandem with focus tracking to increase the chance of capturing the movement of fast-moving animals. Burst mode is referred to as continuous mode by some camera brands. www.digitalcameraworld.com
PRO TIP PREDICT THE FUTURE
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USE FAST SHUTTER SPEEDS
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Whether it’s a sprinting lion, a bolting antelope or a grey heron in flight, capturing sharp images of animals in motion means using fast shutter speeds, usually 1/1,250 sec and upwards. Boost the ISO if necessary – you can get acceptable image quality at ISO 1,600. www.digitalcameraworld.com
Getting great wildlife photos often means preparing for what is about to happen before it actually happens. With practice, you will develop a sense of an animal’s likely movement, or that it is about to hunt, jump, fly or roar. Here, in Antarctica, I spotted penguins using a chunk of ice, so I got in position and waited until one of them assumed a pose like a surfer. SEPTEMBER 2021
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DELVE DEEP INTO DAILY LIFE
From hunting and feeding, to cleaning and family life, here’s how to find those fascinating aspects of animal behaviour ne of the real pleasures of wildlife photography is getting to spend time in nature, observing how animals survive and spend time together. You learn something new every time you set out with your camera. Animals are intelligent, often highly emotional creatures, like elephants, who care for their
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young, mourn their dead and work together in groups. Some animals are shy and elusive; others are bold and sneaky. Learn as much as you can – especially talking to guides, scientists and local people – so you can find and photograph the compelling parts of animal behaviour and daily life, such as hunting, feeding, cleaning, breeding, play and shows of affection.
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Right: This photo was taken in Kenya’s Naboisho Mara Conservancy. A cheetah mother and her cub are grooming and cleaning each other after a meal, with their kill close by in the background, still being gnawed on by a sibling.
PRO ADVICE
It’s a family affair
PRO ADVICE LOOK CLOSELY
Interactions say something about a family dynamic or the behaviour of a species. It sometimes takes patience to wait for animals to be active, but seeing how a family or group spend time together makes for more interesting pictures than an animal lying in the grass. Showing animals caring for infants or partners also gives photos an emotional feel and can help people care more about the subject.
Take time to find surprising details in a landscape or a situation, and think how best to photograph them. This will mean coming away with pictures that go beyond the obvious and reveal something new. Remember that smaller creatures are just as interesting as big, iconic animals.
PRO TIPS HOW TO SHOOT ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR BETTER
BE PATIENT AND USE POSITIONAL SENSE
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There’s more to wildlife reserves than hunting and killing, but the dramatic life-and-death struggle between predator and prey is part of the circle of life and can be fascinating to witness. To place yourself near interesting behaviour, think about what’s likely to happen, and where you need to be.
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CAPTURE CROSS-SPECIES INTERACTIONS
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It’s always intriguing to see how different species interact with each other. In Africa, it’s common to see oxpeckers eating ticks from buffalos and giraffes. It’s less common to see a heron hitching a ride on the back of a hippo, but these interactions add a little wonder to the natural world.
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PRO ADVICE USE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS FOR A GOOD CAUSE
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Photography is a great communicator. With the world’s wildlife in crisis, photos can help make a difference. Post photos on social media and share what you’ve learned about an animal or habitat, the threats facing a species and perhaps a local charity working to protect them. African lions are one of my favourite species to photograph, but have declined by around 50 per cent in the last 25 years and currently occupy just eight per cent of their historic range. Photos can remind people what we stand to lose, and can motivate people to get involved. The more information that’s shared about threatened and endangered species, the better.
LOOK FOR BEHAVIOURAL ‘MOMENTS’
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In situations with large groups of animals and lots of activity, such as the Great Migration or gambolling monkeys, it’s hard to capture a whole scene well. Instead, find interesting ‘moments’ to focus on, such as a confrontation, animals at play or tender moments between an animal and its mother.
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SHOOT WILDLIFE LIKE A PRO
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FREE YOUR CREATIVITY
Use angles, lighting, proximity, placement and environmental features to transform your shots here are many ways you can photograph wildlife so that your pictures are unique to you, representing what you find interesting and showing your artistic side. There’s no need to stick with producing simple portraits or to be satisfied with just enclosing a standing animal within the frame. This is art, not scientific documentation, so you’re free to do what you want, whether it’s setting an animal as a tiny speck in a grand landscape, focusing right in on the eyes, or abstracting skin patterns.
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Right: A torrent of thousands of bats leaves Deer Cave in Gunung Mulu National Park in Malaysian Borneo every evening to feed on insects. It’s a spectacle to witness, but thousands of tiny bats against the sky aren’t immediately easy to photograph.
PRO ADVICE
Use landscape features
Features of the landscape can help give shape to a photo, as well as context. Elements, such as trees or rocks, can work as the background or setting for the animals you’re photographing, or as a foreground object to bring visual interest or a sense of scale and perspective.
MORE WAYS TO USE THE ENVIRONMENT
GO WIDER TO TELL A STORY
1 PRO TIP STUDY THE DETAILS
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MAKE VISUAL CONNECTIONS
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It’s also possible to make visual connections between different species, which say something about how animals interact or live alongside each other. This old photo was taken years ago on a pretty cheap camera, but I like how it conveys a sense of the Masai Mara’s open grasslands.
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One of Sebastião Salgado’s well-known wildlife photos is of a marine iguana’s foot in the Galápagos, which looks like an alien’s hand. Take a close look at details. Isolate features, such as an eye, a claw, a tooth or a tail; or hone in on the stripes of a tiger, the patches on a giraffe or the wrinkles in an elephant’s skin. It takes a bit of creative, sometimes abstract thinking, but I often like the results.
Opening out wide on a scene brings the landscape and environment into the photo and helps tell a story. Here, King penguins in the Falklands watch an approaching storm. The effect created by the penguins being small against the massive clouds gives a different impact than just honing in on the penguins.
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SHOOT WILDLIFE LIKE A PRO
f/6.3
1/2,500 sec
PRO TIPS EXPERIMENT WITH PLACEMENT AND SPACE
ISO 1,250
I don’t agree with the idea that photos shouldn’t have the subject at the centre – some of my favourite pictures feature animals, from frogs to crocodiles, centred and looking directly at the viewer. But there are many more options available to creative photographers, rather than just assuming that the default position of an animal should always be in the centre of the frame.
SET TO ONE SIDE Think about where to place an animal in the frame and be creative with the use of ‘space’, whether open sky, sea or snow. Try setting an animal or bird to one side, opening up space and giving a more minimalist feel.
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WORK WITH LIGHT
LOW LIGHT CAN BE YOUR FRIEND
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Ever-improving camera tech means you don’t have to stop taking photos in low light. Sunrise and sunset often have beautiful soft, warm light, but check where it is coming from and position yourself, so it’s falling where you want it, whether from the side or directly onto a face.
USE THE CORNERS There’s no hard and fast rule about how much of a frame needs to be occupied with the animal you’re photographing. Shift your focal points into the sides, tops, bottoms or corners of the frame.
TRY SHOOTING SILHOUETTES
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Some of my favourite wildlife photographs are silhouettes, such as elephants or giraffes parading along a horizon against dusky skies. Objects in the landscape can be used to produce creative shapes against the sky, such as this finch perched on a cactus-top just before dawn. www.digitalcameraworld.com
SUBJECTS DON’T HAVE TO DOMINATE THE FRAME Use a single animal or a group of creatures as a focal point to bring a picture together instead. The sunrise and a hint of mountains are vital here, but the flamingos provide a point of interest and bind it all together. SEPTEMBER 2021
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Camera College
Marcus Hawkins Photographer and writer Marcus is a former editor of Digital Camera
Photo e! leng The complete guide to modern photography chalcou ld win You y of a cop Affinity Photo See page 79
Use your camera’s continuous drive setting so that you give yourself more options in the edit.
Make a splash with coastal photography
Discover the equipment and techniques to shoot seascapes, slow exposures, abstracts and more, with our guide to making the most of a day at the beach… Coastal photography can take many forms. From landscapes and nature to documentary and abstract, there’s a whole world of photo opportunities in that strip of earth separating the land and the sea. Although it might sound counter-intuitive, summer isn’t 72
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necessarily the best season to photograph the coast. For a start, it’s going to be busy. Even if you arrive early and leave late, beaches are going to bustling in high season. While that may be perfect if you’re looking at shooting the seaside street photography style, it’s much less of a bonus if landscape SEPTEMBER 2021
photography is more your thing. Besides, if you want to shoot during the golden hour, you’re going to have a long wait for a midsummer sunset. For wildlife photographers, spring and autumn hold the promise of photographing young animals and migrating birds, and they are equally good
seasons for scenics. Winter, however, has arguably even more potential for landscape photography. With conditions in your favour, you can expect wild seas, glorious (and early!) sunsets and moody skies – and the likelihood of sharing the beach with just a handful of hopeful gulls. Coastal scenics require a similar level of preparation to inland landscape photography. You’ll need to dress for the elements, for a start, and a backpack with a waterproof cover is going to come in handy, too. A tripod is www.digitalcameraworld.com
CAMERA COLLEGE
Coastline composition
How to work out where to place the horizon to suit the scene and your narrative When you’re taking your first steps in landscape photography, the rule of thirds is a reliable way of creating well balanced compositions. It’s a tried-and-tested technique, where you imagine a noughtsand-crosses grid over the scene in front of you, then line up the horizon with either the bottom line or the top line in the grid. In fact, you don’t even need to imagine it, as today’s cameras can display a grid over the Live View image, either on the rear screen of a DSLR or in the electronic viewfinder of a mirrorless camera.
There are essentially three elements to balance when you’re shooting a seaside scenic: the sea, the sky, and the shoreline. Which of these you give most prominence to depends on where the interest lies. If the sky has some interesting clouds, consider giving that two thirds of the space. Do the opposite if the shoreline or the sea is where the action is. It also depends on what you want your picture to say. If you want to exaggerate the wide open feel of a location, allowing a bit more space for the sky can do this effectively.
Are you shore? Use the rule of thirds (left) as a rough guide to
where to place the horizon. Don’t feel that you have to follow this ‘rule’ religiously, though – any off-centre position can work equally well.
Pack a polariser A circular polariser is a brilliant filter for beach photography, as it can cut through reflections on the surface of the sea. This gives colour saturation a boost, which can be beneficial when you’re shooting in a part of the world that has an aqua-coloured ocean. To achieve the maximum benefit, you need to be shooting at 90 degrees to the sun; hold your thumb and index finger in a gun shape, aim your thumb at the sun, and shoot in the direction your index finger is pointing.
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A circular polariser is a two-part filter: rotate the front part while you look through the viewfinder to see the effect get stronger and weaker. Make sure you rotate it in the direction that you use to tighten the filter, so that you’re not inadvertently unscrewing it. Polarisers can give an uneven effect with ultra-wide lenses, although this is often more noticeable in blue skies.
Shallow depths: Polarisers aren’t cheap, but their effects can be hard to replicate in software.
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Which lenses should you choose?
Go for wide, standard and telephoto zooms so you can cover all the coastal photography bases Coastal photography encapsulates a diverse range of subjects, and the best lens for your needs will be dictated by the subject you want to focus on. If you’re shooting scenics, a wide-angle or ultra wide-angle lens enables you to squeeze vast stretches of coastline into a single image. One of the problems with this type of lens is that the further away a feature is, the smaller it will appear in the picture, and you can end up with a large empty space in the foreground as a result. To offset this, it usually pays to find a detail that you can get relatively close to.
The ‘wet foreground rock’ might have become a trope in landscape photography, but sometimes there’s nothing else for it! And there are usually plenty of wet rocks to choose from. A standard zoom gives you a more natural look than you get from a ultrawide or ultra-long lens, so it won’t distract viewers from the subject of the photo. Telephoto lenses are great for tighter compositions, and they’re excellent for isolating details for more abstract shots. If you’re photographing birds and wildlife, you may need something longer than the typical 70-200mm.
Telephoto Get more reach and make the elements of the picture look more closely packed together with a 70-200mm zoom.
going to be essential for low-light, long-exposure shots, and a set of plastic bags into which you can dunk the bottom sections of your tripod legs before using them on a sandy beach won’t go amiss. In terms of lenses, the standard ‘trinity’ of zooms – wide-angle, standard and a 70-200mm-ish short telephoto – will provide coverage for the majority of situations. If you’re using a full-frame camera, you can probably do everything with a 24-105mm or equivalent kit lens. It’s usually a better idea to stick with zooms rather than prime lenses, as then you won’t keep swapping lenses and expose 74
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Fisheye The distortion created by this specialist lens can convey an edge-ofthe-world feeling. But its epic angle of view means that it can be hard to keep your (wet) feet out of the frame.
the camera’s sensitive innards to whatever the sea and breeze want to throw its way. There are other specialist lenses you can add to your creative coastal toolbox further down the line. A macro lens can come in handy for close-ups of rockpool critters, shells and rocks, although you can always carry a close-up diopter that you can attach to your existing lenses instead. If you’re into wildlife or surfing photography (or both!) you’ll probably be looking at investing in a super-telephoto lens for extra reach. Of course, there is a number of differences between landscape and coastal work. There’s the tide to
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There are other specialist lenses that you can add to your creative coastal toolbox further down the line www.digitalcameraworld.com
CAMERA COLLEGE
Fill the frame with colour
Uninspired by the wider scene? Weather not playing ball? Take the opportunity to shoot splashy close-ups Seaside spots are often a great source of colourful subjects that can make for interesting detail studies and abstract shots. Harbours are particularly good hangouts: brightly
coloured boats, peeling paintwork and rusting metal can all brighten up your shots even on a dull day. Experiment with uncluttered compositions where the colour becomes the main focus of the
shot. Use a longer focal length to isolate parts of the scene from a distance – a 70-200mm lens often works well here, although you may need to increase the ISO to avoid the effects of camera shake.
Avoid zooming the lens wider when shooting close to the subject like this boat hauled up on a beach, as it will look distorted.
Beach huts are often painted in vibrant colours. Set your camera’s white balance to one of the presets, as the Auto setting may be fooled by particularly strong tones.
Another boat shot, this time showing the worn paint on the hull. A close-focusing 70-200mm lens allowed the camera to be moved near enough to fill the frame.
Camera skills Keep your kit clean and firing on all cylinders
Many camera enemies are waiting for you on a beach – from spray on a lens to sand in your tripod
Let us spray
Salt water and electronics don’t mix well. On windy days, your camera is going to get caked in salt spray, so consider attaching a clear protective or UV filter to the front of the lens to protect the front element from the worst of it. www.digitalcameraworld.com
Zooms vs primes
Zoom lenses give you more freedom than a bagful of prime lenses. More importantly, using a zoom means you won’t have to change lenses as often (if at all), then risk water and beach bits getting into the camera…
Rub down
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True grit
The sounds of sand grinding in tripod twist-locks is the photography equivalent of nails down a blackboard. Be prepared to unscrew the legs and give them a thorough cleaning/regreasing once you’re back home. DIGITA L CAMERA
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Shooting seaside textures
Get some relief by finding interesting combinations of rough and smooth Just as you can make colour the focus of a seaside shoot (see page 75), you can do the same with texture. The coast is rich with contrasting textures, from smooth pebbles and gritty sand to the ripples and peaks formed by the wind on the sea. They can make wonderful ‘small landscapes’, which can capture a sense of place just as effectively as a squeeze-itall-in view captured with an ultra-wide lens. To enhance texture, relief and form, it’s usually best to shoot when the sun is relatively low in the sky at the start or end of the day. Sidelighting will provide the shadows and contrast that’s needed to bring a threedimensional quality to an image. If there are lots of dark areas in the scene, the camera might overexpose the image: activate your camera’s highlight warning so you can remedy ‘clipped’ highlights. It pays to fill the frame, right into the corner, as anything that interrupts the rhythm of the shot – such as patches of bright sky or a sudden change in the pattern – can be jarring.
Water beauty Use a relatively fast shutter speed (1/500 sec here) to freeze patterns on the sea.
take into account, for a start. Do you want to chase the tide out, or capture it coming back in? What features will be exposed when it’s out? Where will the sun be in relation to the position of the tide? There’s also constant motion to figure out what to do with. Should you use a very fast shutter speed, in the region of 1/1,000 sec, to freeze the motion of waves into glass-like shapes; or opt for a slow shutter speed – anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute or more – to turn the sea into a milky soup? If you opt for the latter, you’re likely to need a neutral-density filter and a way of remotely triggering the camera. Obviously, you can go for an exposure that falls somewhere in between these 76
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Craggy island Shoot in strong sidelight to bring out the sculptural quality of cliff faces.
two extremes. An exposure of 1/2 sec to a couple of seconds, say, can capture some of the energy of ocean waves while avoiding making them look too soft and wispy. If you’re photographing waves hitting a beach, try to time your shots so you capture the white fingers receding towards the sea. This tends to look better than a white tongue of water lapping up the shore. Ideally, the sky should be complementary, too. A blank blue space can suit some scenes, but it can be boring topping off others. Clouds can add interest, though, and also prevent the image from feeling too bottom-heavy. You can also use clouds to conceal the sun during a sunset or sunrise, when the contrast would otherwise be too
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much for the camera to be able to cope with in a single picture. The dynamic range – the difference between the brightest and darkest areas – might still be too extreme, though, which means that the highlights may be blown out. To prevent this,
Try to time your shots so that you capture the white fingers receding towards the sea www.digitalcameraworld.com
CAMERA COLLEGE
Camera skills White balance
Increase the warm glow of a sunset seascape Auto white balance can suck most of the warmth out of a sunset shot, as the camera will try to ‘correct’ the orange colour cast that it sees. To avoid this, some cameras have an ‘ambient’ auto white balance setting that tries to preserve some of the character of the warm
Auto
light rather than neutralising it completely. You can also cheat the system by selecting a white balance preset that is intended to warm up cool scenes – such as Daylight, Cloudy and Shade. These add progressively more amber to the image.
Shade
Raw power If you shoot raw files, you’re free to change the white balance later, in software such as Affinity Photo.
Camera skills Time-lapse movies
Capture the daily changes along the coastline
The rise and fall of the tide makes a great subject for a time-lapse movie. Most cameras offer this function, either as a dedicated movie
mode, or as a photo mode (which allows you to edit the stills into a movie later). Work out your exposure and image processing settings before you start, so that you get a consistent sequence.
Slow it down
Smooth out the surface of the sea using a strong ND filter. Just make sure you have plenty of batteries… Long-exposure photography is a fantastic technique to use at the coast. The visual contrast created between the glassy, slow-exposed sea and any rocks and man-made structures can lift even the most routine coastal scene. To shoot these types of images in daylight, you’ll need a few accessories: a tripod to keep the camera still; a strong ND (neutral-density) filter rated at six or 10 stops; a way to keep the shutter held open (a simple lockable remote release will do); and a smartphone app to calculate the duration the shutter has to be open, based on the aperture and ND filter details you enter. You might also want to pack a spare battery: this technique is quite a power-hungry one. If you’re using a DSLR, block the viewfinder so no light can leak through the eyepiece and leave ‘ghosts’ on the image.
Time’s up Set the Setup Choose the total number of shots and the interval between them. www.digitalcameraworld.com
camera to Bulb mode and lock the shutter open for the time indicated. Some cameras have a Bulb timer that can do this for you.
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Coastal photography tips You won’t go wrong if you…
Arrive early: If you’re visiting a coastal hotspot that’s popular with photographers, arrive early to claim a plum spot. We photographers are a friendly bunch, certainly, but if someone has travelled for hours to be at the right spot at the right time, they’ll want to keep their tripod spot…
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Knowing the tide times will come in handy when planning pier shots
Cloth up! You’ll need a stack of dry microfibre cloths to keep your camera and lens clean on breezy and stormy days, particularly if you’re shooting seascapes in exposed spots. Fit a lens hood to offer some protection to the front element – although this is more effective with telephoto lenses.
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Check the tide times: Safety first. The last thing you want to do is be so wrapped up in taking pictures that you end up getting stranded. It’s useful to know the tide times from a photography perspective, too, as you’ll be able to plan the best time to arrive.
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Don’t dismiss overcast days: Although you might miss out on blue-sky shots and golden sunsets, there’s a lot you can do on a grey day. Try experimenting with minimalist slowexposure seascapes, or use the soft, diffuse light to shoot colourful abstracts.
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Use a polariser: This filter can be used to remove reflections and glare from non-metallic objects, so it can be useful for adding punch to the colour of the sea and sky. Avoid using it on a very wide lens, as the effect can be uneven.
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you could quickly take two photos in succession – one with the foreground exposed correctly, the other with the brighter sky exposed correctly – then blend the two shots in Affinity Photo or similar software. Alternatively, fit a graduated ND filter on the lens, positioning the dark part of the filter over the sky and the clear part over the foreground. Keep the camera in its continuous drive setting and shoot short bursts of shots, as this will improve your chances of catching the perfect moment when you’re photographing waves. 78
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When it comes to setting the exposure, bear in mind that if you use a semiautomatic shooting mode such as Aperture Priority, the camera adjusts the brightness according to what’s in the shot. This means a sequence of shots showing white waves crashing into the shoreline could appear progressively darker; the camera sees the waves as a subject that’s being overexposed and will try to reduce their brightness as result. So it may be worth taking some test shots beforehand, then transferring the settings for your preferred image to Manual mode for more consistent results.
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Shoot in short bursts, as this will improve your chances of catching the perfect wave www.digitalcameraworld.com
CAMERA COLLEGE
Reader challenge Coastal photography
Enter your best shot to win a copy of Affinity Photo for Windows or macOS worth £49/$50 This month, we want to see your best coastal shots. With such a wide source of subjects and techniques to try – from slow-motion seascapes to tightly framed textural abstracts – this challenge is wide-open. Coastal locations are awash with picture opportunities, and it’s easy to drift from one place to the next without really thinking about what you’re doing. Choosing a subject can help to bring a bit more focus to a day at the coast. It might simply be a colour, or a theme, such as silhouettes. If you’re struggling, have a theme in mind.
To enter your best coastal image (one per reader, please), email your entry to digitalcamera@futurenet.com, putting ‘Coastal Challenge’ in the subject line. Or go to our Facebook page at www. facebook.com/digitalcameraworld, look for the ‘Coastal Challenge’ post, and upload your entry into the feed. By entering your image into this competition, you confirm that you own the copyright to the image, and agree that Digital Camera can publish your image in relation to this competition. You retain full copyright of your image, and
will be credited if it is published in the magazine. The closing date is 16 September 2021. The winner will receive a copy of Affinity Photo for Windows or macOS. Good luck, and have fun at the seaside! Find out more about Affinity Photo at affinity.serif.com/photo
PHOTO CHALLENGE Closing date: 16 Septembe r 2021
And the winner of the Still-Life challenge is…
Tom Plucinski
In issue 244 of Digital Camera, we challenged our readers to create their best still-life image. Well done to Tom, for ‘Harmony in White’. This is such a well-crafted image – the smooth finishes and soft shapes of the objects combine so well, and the careful placement of the flowers is very pleasing. Great work, Tom… you have won a copy of Affinity Photo worth £49/$50.
2nd place: Lynn Clark
“A still-life of some madeleines and edible flowers,” says Lynn. An edible image, we say. Beautifully lit and superbly composed – are you hungry, too?
3rd place: Toni Reddy
Two podium finishes for flowers in a vase this month. We love the colour palette, and the stalk’s elongated ‘S’ shape rounds off the composition.
Join us on Facebook!
We’ll reveal the winner of issue 245’s Flower Power Challenge in a live stream on 16 September at 5.30pm
BST. www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld www.digitalcameraworld.com
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FILE & VIDEO www.digital cameraworld .com/dc246
After
Before
Get the hazy sunset look Make a setting sun, boost skies and tint photos with gradients in Affinity Photo
reate a blend between two or more colours, and you have a gradient. As something that makes gradients, the Gradient Tool might sound like a feature better suited to graphic designers and digital artists than photographers, but it can be put to use for a surprising variety of image-enhancing edits. In this project we’ll explore a few of the ways in which gradients can give your photos a boost, from enhancing skies to adding depth-of-field effects. The aim here is to create a hazy sunset atmosphere in our coastal scene, but you can use these same techniques for all kinds of powerful effects. One of the best things about gradients is how you can add different colour stops along the transition. This means we can create the look of a setting sun by making a circular gradient that goes from bright yellow to deep orange. What’s more, we can use gradients in combination with other effects like Blending Modes, and even map them on to the tonal range to tint highlights and shadows with different colours. Learn these techniques and you can use gradients for all sorts of powerful effects in your own Affinity Photo projects. Find out more at affinity.serif.com/photo
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James Paterson With over a decade’s experience as a writer and photographer, James is also an accomplished image editor – and an expert in Affinity Photo.
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Enhance sunset tones with Curves
Curves controls brightness and contrast, but also excels at tinting colours. When the red, green or blue channels are targeted, the top part tints the highlights, while the bottom part tints the shadows. For a sunset tint, select the Red channel and make a shallow S-shape; then select the Green channel and make an inverted S; do the same for the Blue channel, but drag the top-right point down, too. Go back to the Master channel and drag up slightly on the bottomleft point to fade out the shadows. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Set gradient colours
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Tint with Gradient Maps
With the gradient active, click the colour box at the top. Click the left point. Open its Colour box, select RGB Hex Sliders, and type ‘#FDF8DA’. Double-click on the line to add a box at position 25%, colour #ECE8CD, opacity 85%. Set a third at 50%, #FFBA80, 75%. Add a fourth at 75%, #FB9473, 40%. Set the right-side point to #838383, opacity 20%.
Gradient Maps let you map colours onto the tonal range of the image, so you can colourise the shadows with one colour and the highlights with another. We can enhance our sunset mood here. Click the Adjustment Layer icon and choose Gradient Map, then set the stops to red and yellow in the options. Set the Blending Mode of the layer to Soft Light, and lower the opacity to about 20%.
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Create a setting sun
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Make graduated sky adjustments
Once the gradient colours look right, change the gradient layer’s Blending Mode to Hard Light. Fine-tune the position and spread to make it look like low sunlight. You can drag the colour stops on the gradient to control the transitions. You can adjust the strength of the effect: if it’s too strong, lower the layer opacity. If it’s too weak, duplicate the layer.
You can also use gradients in masks to control where an effect occurs. A good example of this is when darkening skies. Add a Curves layer and drag down to darken the image, then drag up on the Red channel and down on the Blue channel to add a tint. Now we can grab the Gradient Tool, set the stops to white and black, then drag from sky towards land to constrain the darkening effect.
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Use a Fill Layer
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Control blur with a gradient
You can add a gradient to a pixel layer, but if you make one on a Fill Layer, the gradient remains editable. (To edit, grab the Gradient Tool while the layer is active.) Go to Layer > New Fill Layer to add the layer above your image, then set Type to Radial and drag within the image to add a circular gradient. The centre point controls the position; the outer handle sets the size.
We can use gradients in combination with Live Filter Layers to affect parts of our image. To soften the foreground details slightly, highlight the background image layer, then go to Layer > New Live Filter Layer and add a Gaussian Blur filter. Increase the blur strength, then set Type: Linear in the options and set up a white-to-black gradient. Drag up from the bottom to add a subtle blur effect.
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Hotshots
Category winners from the 2021 CEWE Photo Award
Winner, Travel & Culture ‘Turtle Watch’ Siegfried Claeys, Belgium Siegfried likes minimalist photography, and is always on the lookout for such motifs. He had been walking along this beach on Boa Vista, one of the Cape Verde islands, for several days in a row; suddenly he saw this view, which he liked because of the way the people were grouped and distributed.
Winner, Aerial Photos ‘Soy Sauce Making’ Azim Khan Ronnie, Bangladesh The dedication with which the cooks make the sauce, according to a recipe that is over 400 years old, fascinated Azim.
Winner, People ‘Rainy Season’ Hartmut Schwarzbach, Germany Tacloban in the Philippines was destroyed by a typhoon in 2013. The children belong to families who are still waiting for new houses in a safe, child-friendly environment. 84
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Winner, Sport ‘Straßenfußball (Street Football)’ Andreas Bauer, Germany Andreas spent his parental leave in Cuba and lived in Havana for several months. He often wandered the streets with his little daughter in a baby carrier on his chest and camera in hand, photographing what fascinated him.
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Winner, Animals ‘Der Clan Kuschelt (The Cuddling Clan)’ Josef Schwarz, Germany Josef has been to South Africa’s Addo Elephant Park many times. There are always a few groups at the watering hole in the centre. When a group leaves the watering hole, they stop some distance away, move together and stay in ‘cuddle mode’ for a few minutes.
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Winner, Landscapes ‘Frozen Lighthouse’ Manfred Voss, Germany “For two weeks,” says Manfred, “we had a cold winter in the north of Germany, with -10 to -20 degree temperatures and stormy north winds. It formed this beautiful ice sculpture of the lighthouse.”
Winner, Nature ‘PusteblumenSchirmchen (Dandelion Umbrella)’ Petra Jung, Switzerland Petra sprayed the umbrella of a dandelion with water. A PC screen is the background. 88
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Winner, Hobby & Leisure ‘Rotes Bild (Red Image)’ Hans Lahodny, Austria While visiting exhibitions and museums, Hans likes to put the visitors in context with the exhibits.
Winner, Architecture & Technology ‘ICE Zug (ICE Train)’ Cor Boers, Netherlands Cor liked the combination of stillness and movement.
CEWE Photo Award 2021 The CEWE Photo Award is free to enter, and open to anyone over 18, whether they’re a keen amateur photographer entering their first contest or an already established professional. This year’s winner will be announced at a gala evening on 16 September. www.cewe-photoworld.com/cewephotoaward www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Jasper Goodall focuses on the UK’s woodland at night in this dark series
wilight’s Path is a body of work by Jasper Goodall, documenting the landscape after dark. Over the past three years, Goodall has visited woodlands and moors across the UK, to make a series he describes as being closer to fairytale than documentary. “I like the ideas in classical fairytales that use dark threatening woods as metaphors for the unconscious ‘shadow’ aspects of the mind,” he says. “I’m interested in ideas around being lost, and of loneliness and the symbolic aspects of darkness — it is synonymous with fear of the unknown. In the darkness, familiar places are psychologically changed.” Knowing the atmosphere he hoped to create, Goodall became frustrated shooting in daylight and never quite achieving the deep, dark and
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Jasper Goodall Photographer Title:‘Moonrise’ Location: United Kingdom Date: 2021
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Shot of the month
Jasper Goodall says: “I have a memory of long car journeys with my mother. We’d often arrive at some remote destination quite late, and I remember the shiver of fearful delight I felt driving down a dark wooded lane, with the car headlights illuminating the tree trunks.”
mysterious images he saw in his mind’s eye. His response was to experiment with shooting in the dark using artificial lighting: this enabled him to minimise background elements and to explore tenebrism – which you might associate with painters such as Caravaggio – where illuminated forms emerge from deep shadow. “Artificial light presents a familiar scene in an unfamiliar way. I enjoy the way the light picks out the forms so cleanly – it can turn an average subject into an extraordinary one.”
Jasper Goodall is represented by MMX Gallery in south London, where Twilight’s Path was recently presented in his first solo photography show. www.mmxgallery.com www.digitalcameraworld.com
FILE & VIDEO www.digital cameraworld .com/dc246
12Photoshop Actions CC Actions for prints
This month
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Luminar: Perfect skies Use this issue’s gift from Skylum to enhance or replace your skies
94 Step by step: Show off your shots Use this issue’s Photoshop CC Actions to frameyour photo prints
Fundamentals: Retouching skin Combine two tools inLightroomto polish a model’sskin to perfection
100 Get the Look: Black-and-white Enhance photos with four discerning mono conversion techniques
www.digitalcameraworld.com
96 Tool School: Shadows and Highlights Explore a powerful tonal tool that can help you transform your landscapes
Also in this issue… Simple mono conversions Enhance skies in Lightroom Hazy sunsets in Affinity Photo SEPTEMBER 2021
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SKYLUM BUNDLE
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How to get a copy of Skylum Luminar AI You can download a trial for
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Discover your £W45O/R$T5H8 bonus Sky Pack &Use itTemplates bundle with Luminar AI to see how creative FOR PC & MAC
you can get with skies – there are no limits! magine the scene… you’ve meticulously planned an outdoor shoot at a favourite location but when you’re in position on the day, one vital element doesn’t turn up – the weather. Flat, dull light means that you’re just not getting the best out of that pleasing perspective and careful composition, so it’s looking like you’ll have to come back on another day and try shooting it all over again. But it doesn’t have to be this way – not when adding a different and better sky to a photograph is easier than it has ever been. Skylum Luminar AI software features pioneering sky replacement technology
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that makes the process so simple it can take a matter of minutes, instead of much longer. Together with the other powerful features of the software, you can look forward to cutting down the time you used to spend on editing – and free yourself up to take more photos. We’ve partnered with Skylum to offer Digital Camera readers a bonus Sky Pack and Templates bundle for use with Luminar AI: • Sky Pack: 25 high-quality skies in JPEG and TIFF format adorned with perfectly fluffy clouds. Worth £30/$39. • Dynamic Skylines Templates: A selection of varied one-click styles and effects to help transform landscape images. Worth £15/$19.
either Windows or macOS from www.skylum.com. If you decide to purchase Luminar AI, you can use the exclusive discount code DCW21* to save £10/$10/€10 on the price of the software, which is available with single or dual computer licences. *Valid until 31 December 2021. This discount code cannot be used in conjunction with other sale offers.
3 STEPS TO SUPER SKIES How to get your bundle
Download available until 31 December 2021
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To use this bonus content, you need a copy of Skylum Luminar AI. If you don’t have it already, then you will need to download and install it. For a 7-day trial of the software, see the box at the top of this page.
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Once installed, enter http://skylum.com/ future into the Location or Address field of your web browser (not into the Search area of Google or another search website).
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Follow the on-screen instructions to download your Sky and Template packs.
www.digitalcameraworld.com
How to install your packs
SKY PACK
25 high-quality skies in JPEG and TIFF format adorned with fluffy clouds
SKYLUM BUNDLE
DYNAMIC SKYLINES TEMPLATES One-click Templates to easily create amazing landscape images
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How to install your Sky Pack
Download the pack and unzip it. (On Windows, right-click the .zip file to select Extract All, and then follow the instructions. On macOS, simply double-click the zipped file.) To upload custom skies: • Load a picture with the sky that you want to replace in Luminar. • In the top-bar menu, select the Edit tab. • In the right Tools panel, scroll down to the Creative section. Choose Sky AI > Sky Selection. • In the window that opens select the upper menu with skies > find Custom in the drop-down list. • In the Custom section, click the + button. • A dialog window will open, where you’ll need to navigate to the folder with your skies, and choose the one you need. • Confirm the selection and www.digitalcameraworld.com
enjoy using the tool! • Sky AI will work with your own photos if they are in one of the following formats: JPEG, PNG, and TIFF. If you’d like to add these skies to the default drop-down menu, click Sky AI > Sky Selection > select upper menu with skies > Show Custom Skies > copy the skies to the folder that opens. For better performance, don’t have more than 50 skies loaded at a time. Find out more about browsing and organising skies in Sky AI in this video: www.bit.ly/ dc246browse
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How to install your Templates
Template Collections for Luminar AI have an .ltc extension. Download the Dynamic Skylines pack and follow these steps to add them to your Luminar AI asset collection. For Windows: • Launch Luminar AI. • In the top bar menu, click Luminar AI > File > Add Luminar AI Template Collection. • In the window that opens, navigate to the folder where the downloaded Template Collection file (.ltc) is located and select it. • Done – the new templates will appear in the Templates tab > Purchased.
For macOS: • Launch Luminar AI. • In the top bar menu, click File > Add Luminar AI Template Collection. • In the window that opens, navigate to the folder where the downloaded Template Collection file (.ltc) is located and select it. • Done – the new templates will appear in the Templates tab > Purchased. Discover how to use the full power of skies and templates by reading these guides: • Sky AI: www.bit.ly/ dc246skies • Templates: www.bit.ly/ dc246templates DIGITA L CAMERA
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12 Actions
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Show off your shots like a pro Present your photos as gallery-ready A4 or A3 prints with our one-click Actions
ar too often, our best photos live on storage drives these days, and only seem to get out for an airing on a Facebook or Instagram post. This virtual existence seems at odds with the real-world nature of photography. Turning your photos into real, physical prints is an absolute joy – especially if you haven’t done it for a while. Just letting an inkjet printer squirt your shot into the physical realm isn’t the way to do it, though. Sure, you’ll get a print-out – but you really want a considered print, carefully arranged and meticulously presented. For this reason, we’ve produced a set of Photoshop Actions. Not only do they resize your photo to the most convenient paper sizes at exhibition-quality resolution, they also add a neat white margin and an optional black keyline border, and even give you the chance to add a title and a photo credit. Even better, once you’ve loaded the Actions, everything is done in a single click of the mouse!
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Jon Adams Jon is a professional photographer and writer. He also provides one-to-one and smallgroup tuition in both digital SLR and Photoshop image-editing skills.
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About your Print Actions
To use your free Actions, you’ll need Photoshop CC, and your photos will need to be in a 3:2 format – either horizontal or vertical. This is the native aspect ratio on many cameras, but if your picture has a different ratio, like 4:3, you’ll need to crop it to 3:2 first. To do this, grab the Crop Tool and select the 2:3 (4:6) ratio in the Options bar. Now drag the marquee over the image, and press Return. www.digitalcameraworld.com
STEP BY STEP
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Load up your free Actions
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Title your photo
Locate the DCM 246 Print Templates.atn file from the download, and copy it to your computer. Open Photoshop CC and go to Window > Actions to bring up the Actions Panel. Click on the icon with four lines in the top-right of the panel, and you’ll reveal a flyout menu. Select Load Actions from the list; in the dialog box that pops up, navigate to your DCM 246 Print Templates.atn file on your computer and double-click on it. The set of Actions will appear in the Actions Panel in Photoshop. Click the arrow alongside the name to expand the folder and show the set of 12 different Actions within it.
Some of the Actions have ‘Text’ in their names: running any of these with a photo will produce a layered Photoshop document with a title and a photographer’s credit. To see it, make sure your Layers Panel is on screen (Window > Layers). These Text Actions apply a black keyline automatically, but if you don’t want it, just switch off the Keyline layer by clicking on its ‘eye’ icon. To use the Text Actions, open another picture, then select the Action and click Play Selection as before. In the Layers Panel you’ll see five layers in the stack; to add your title, double-click on the T icon on the top layer. The title text will be highlighted, so type in your words. Once you’ve done this, double-click on the T icon of the second text layer and type in your photo credit.
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Turn your pic into a print
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Apply a black border
Open the image you want to turn into a neat A4 or A3 print; when it’s on screen, click on an appropriate Action for the size, format, and style. Choose A4 or A3, depending on what print size you want to make. Use one of the Horizontal options if your shot has the long edge at the bottom, or one of the Vertical choices if the short edge is at the bottom. If you want a black line around the image, choose the Keyline option. Once you’ve picked the Action you want, click the Play Selection button (the black triangle); in an instant your image will be framed with a neat white border at the print size selected. To save the new, bordered look, go to File > Save As and save it as a maximum-quality JPEG under a new file name.
Some pictures look great when ‘reversed out’ of black, so if you want to swap the border colours and have a white keyline with a black margin, this is quick to do. Click on the Keyline Layer to make it active, then press Ctrl/Cmd+I to invert the colour and turn it white. Now click on the bottom layer to make it active and press Ctrl/Cmd+I again. This will turn the white border to black. All that’s left is the text; to change its colour, double-click on the T icon (the Text layer’s thumbnail), then click in the colour box in the Options bar. Drag the cursor to the colour of your choice in the Color Picker and click OK to confirm the change. Do the same for the other text layer, and you’re finished! Now all you have to do is save your image using a new file name. SEPTEMBER 2021
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TOOL SCHOOL
FILE & VIDEO www.digital cameraworld .com/dc246
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Master shadows and highlights
This powerful tonal tool has more to it than meets the eye, and it’s ideal for landscapes
he Shadows/Highlights command has long been one of the most useful tonal tools on offer in Photoshop – but to get the most out of it, you need to master a few simple settings. Initially the tool offers two simple sliders: one lets you lift the shadows, while the other darkens the highlights. However, hidden away are a wealth of other options that give you a fine degree of control over shadows and highlights in your scene. The command can be used on all kinds of photos, but it really comes into its own with landscapes. Like our Icelandic seascape here, landscapes will often be dominated by very bright and very dark tones, as skies tend to be lighter than the land below. This makes it tricky to achieve a balanced exposure, as the contrast between the two is too great. Thankfully, there’s often far more detail hidden in the highlights and shadows than meets the eye. The trick is in knowing how to tease it out, and the Shadows/Highlights command is one of the best tools for this job…
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James Paterson With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most.
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Camera Raw sliders
Photoshop is not alone in offering a Shadows/Highlights tool: you can find Shadows and Highlights sliders in Camera Raw or Lightroom. You can use the sliders either universally over the whole image, or with one of the local adjustment tools in those programs, like the Adjustment Brush. In our landscape, we’ve used the Camera Raw Filter alongside the Shadows/Highlights command to alter the colours with a new Profile, then boosted Clarity and painted local adjustments over the rocks. www.digitalcameraworld.com
TOOL SCHOOL
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Shadows/ Highlights
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Radius
Shadows/Highlights gives you fine control over either end of the tonal range. Before you use it, right-click the layer and select Convert To Smart Object. This makes the command non-destructive. Now go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/ Highlights. Initially the command just offers two Amount sliders: tick Show More Options to reveal more controls.
Found under both Shadows and Highlights, Radius lets you feather the edges of the tonal adjustment affecting either the shadows or the highlights. This lets you create more of a gentle transition between altered and untouched areas of the image. This can be hugely useful for toning down haloes and making the effect less hyper-real. Use Radius to fine-tune the effect once Amount and Tone are chosen.
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Tone
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Adjustments
The Shadows and Highlights fields each offer a Tone slider, which lets you expand or contract the range of tones affected; put another way, it determines what is considered to be a shadow or a highlight. Set a low Shadow Tone value, for example, and only the darkest pixels will be affected, while a high value widens the range to include shadows and midtones (but not highlights).
After adjusting the tones, the image may look slightly desaturated, or you might see unnatural colour shifts (especially in the shadows). The Color slider lets you correct for these shifts. Midtone Contrast below is handy if the image looks slightly flat, which often happens when pulling detail out of shadows or highlights. The Clip settings let you fine-tune the point at which pixels clip to pure black or white.
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Smart Mask
When you want to pull detail out of tonal extremes, it helps if the image is 16-bit rather than 8-bit. The difference translates to over 4 trillion colours – extra data that helps to prevent banding and image break-up. Shoot in raw then open the image in Camera Raw; click the link below the image, go to the workflow options and set Depth to 16-Bits/Channel, then click Open.
After applying the command, it’ll appear as a Smart Filter below the layer in the Layers Panel. You can double-click the command name at any time to alter the settings. You can also selectively hide the effect if it’s too strong in certain areas, as we’ve done here over the sea. Simply highlight the Smart Filter Mask thumbnail, grab the Brush Tool and paint black over the image to hide the effect, or white to reveal it again.
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FUNDAMENTALS
FILE & VIDEO
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Portrait retouching: the final detail
Discover a Lightroom tag team that adds the perfect finishing touch to your portraits here are two tools in Lightroom (as well as Camera Raw) that combine to make any retouching process easier. They apply to both male and female portraits, although you’d use a lighter touch on a man. What are they? Texture – or rather, negative Texture – and Range Mask. Texture, as the name implies, increases texture, but the original design of the tool was for local use as a skin correction tool. You heard that right: it was designed to allow for better skin retouching in Lightroom. It gives an effect not unlike Frequency Separation or Inverted High Pass, two common Photoshop retouching techniques. Range Mask allows you to tighten up where your local corrections are applied, limiting the effect to a particular brightness, colour or depth. As depth is really only in HEIC files at the present time, for most camera shots you only have brightness and colour to work with. For retouching, you’re using colour to limit the effect to the skin only.
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Sean McCormack Sean McCormack is a photographer and writer, based in Galway. He’s the author of The Indispensable Guide to Lightroom CC.
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Batch the settings From the Settings menu, choose Copy Settings. Make sure only the Brush is selected. Now, on the other image in Grid, again from the Settings Menu, use Paste Settings. Soften Skin with the correct Range Mask will be applied to all the images in your set. To finish, go over each photo to correct any minor remaining skin areas. www.digitalcameraworld.com
FUNDAMENTALS
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Access the Adjustment Brush
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Soften the skin
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Select the face
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Tweak the mask
In Develop, open the Adjustment Brush. It’s the far-right tool under the Histogram, or you can just press K. As you’re working on skin, click on the Effects dropdown and choose Soften Skin (Lite). This is the newer Preset for skin, and looks better than the alternative.
At the bottom of the Brush Panel is the Range Mask. Change this from Off to Color. Now, take the Eyedropper and drag a rectangle on the face that covers most of the skin tones. The mask should tighten around the skin edges and remove non-skin features from the mask.
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Paint over the skin. You can be a little generous as you paint, to catch areas that may be in your other photos. The next step will help refine these areas. Watch out for areas that are close to the skin tone. Press the letter O to see where you’re painting. Here Shift+O has been pressed once to change the overlay to green.
Use Amount to reduce the area the mask affects. You can also try the Erase Brush, removing any areas that the Range Mask has missed. You can opt to do this after you’ve applied the settings to all the photos you want to retouch in Lightroom. (See ‘Batch the settings’, left.) SEPTEMBER 2021
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GET THE LOOK
FILE & VIDEO www.digital cameraworld .com/dc246
WATCH THE VIDEO!
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Brilliant blackand-white
Enhance your photographs with four discerning mono conversion techniques lack-and-white photography never fails to capture the imagination of the viewer. The absence of colour creates a more abstract view of the world that focuses more on light, texture and tones. With analogue photography, you can select films and papers specifically for their unique properties to create the desired effects – but for digital black-and-white photography, you have to take a different approach, because your starting point is most often a colour image. One way of creating different black-and-white looks comes down to the way in which colour images are converted to mono. There are many ways to convert images to black and white in Photoshop; while some are best avoided because they create dull images with muddylooking tones, some conversion techniques can produce distinctive and eye-catching effects…
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James Abbott James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials.
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Grimy black-and-white
With the Background Layer active, hold down Ctrl/Cmd+J to make a duplicate layer, then go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter. When the dialog box opens, expand the Basic Panel and set Contrast to +35, Texture to +25 and Clarity to +50, to boost contrast and accentuate detail. Next, expand the Effects Panel and set Grain to 55, Size to 40 and Roughness to 60, to create a high-ISO film look. Once you’ve finished, click OK to close the dialog box. www.digitalcameraworld.com
GET THE LOOK
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Infrared-inspired
Click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon – the half-black half-white circle at the bottom of the Layers Panel – and select Black & White from the resulting pop-up menu. When the dialog box opens, set the Preset dropdown menu to Darker, then increase Yellows to 95 and Greens to 235. This lightens all grass and foliage in the scene to mimic the effect of infrared photography on greens in a scene without adding grain or turning blues to deep black. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Channel Mixer conversions
Create a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer; when the dialogue box opens, tick the Monochrome checkbox. With the Channel Mixer, the total RGB value should add up to 100% for the best result, so for this image Red was set to 61%, Green to 39%, and Blue to 0%. The result of this combination is a faithful crossover from colour to mono where the tones haven’t shifted. Experiment with different values to see what looks best.
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High-contrast Gradient Map
Press D to set the colours to the default black and white. Make sure black is in the foreground – pressing X will toggle between the two tones. Next, create a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer, and immediately close the dialog box when it opens. For adding contrast, create a Curves Adjustment Layer and create an S-curve by placing points one third and two thirds of the way up the curve, and dragging them to create a subtle S-shape.
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Photo Answers Baffled by bokeh? Discombobulated by depth of field? Send your technique and camera questions to digitalcamera@futurenet.com
Andrew James
Andrew is a highly experienced writer and photographer – if you have a problem, he is here to help. This shot of a white flower needed 2/3 negative exposure compensation to keep the subtle details in the light petals.
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Floral exposure
I struggle with in my Q exposure flower shots. Why will a single session will give me images that are both too dark and too light? Sarah Franks
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When it comes to floral photography, getting the exposure right consistently can be quite a battle. I’m not sure
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how you’re shooting but, if you are using an auto exposure mode, you are going to run into the problem you’ve described. Even on a perfect bright but overcast day, the colour range of flowers you are shooting, their position relative to the available light and how reflective they are, will all make a difference and cause some exposure issues. Work in either full manual or Aperture Priority; if you’re using a DSLR, use Live View on the rear screen for a better idea of how exposure is working. If you’re shooting in Aperture Priority, the exposure given after you’ve chosen the aperture may still need adjustment. Use exposure compensation to either lighten
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or darken the image as appropriate. Using Live View, or an electronic viewfinder on a mirrorless camera, you can judge the amount of compensation needed by eye. At this point, as long as you’re not brightening to the point of detail blow-out, it’s a creative choice on the look that you want. Red, yellow and white flowers are prone to overexposure, so turn on your highlight warning as an extra visual aid. I don’t believe it makes much difference which metering mode you choose, as long as you are watching the results and altering the exposure to suit your creative vision but, as a rule, I use either Matrix/Evaluative or Spot Metering for floral photography. www.digitalcameraworld.com
Tech Check Raw files
The best way of recording images that your camera offers Are there any downsides? A raw file also potentially requires extra sharpening, as none has been applied in-camera – but it’s a simple process. Raw files are also larger Why bother with raw over JPEG? than JPEGs, as they are not compressed, so you don’t get to A raw file contains as much data as is possible, so you have greater save as many images on a card, and you’ll need more digital manipulation control and leeway when it comes to how you want your storage space to keep them. finished image to look. Within a raw file there is a greater dynamic range; Should I shoot raw? A JPEG is fast to shoot and simple white balance can be altered or to share – but for creative imagecorrected easily; and exposure Raw sounds complicated. Is it? editing, a raw is absolutely the To process the file and turn it into an errors can often be rectified, with right file type to capture and keep. image that can be printed or shared, minimal impact on image quality. What is a raw file? A raw is the native file captured by a camera; it’s often referred to as a digital negative, harking back to how print film started as a negative before being developed as a print. Essentially, the raw holds all the data captured on the sensor, but the camera doesn’t do anything to it. If you capture a JPEG, the most common alternative, the camera processes the information for you.
you will need to use raw processing software. However, mastering the basics of raw processing is relatively easy.
Choose your camera’s Raw setting (below) and enjoy the flexibility the format offers in software like Camera Raw and Lightroom.
ND filter advice
I have been given a variable ND filter, but I’m not really sure what I’d need it for. When is it useful?
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Lesley Hooper
An ND (neutral-density) filter, whether it’s of the variable or fixed variety, is used to control the amount of light that reaches the sensor, without having any effect on colours, tone or contrast within the scene. Your variable ND will simply allow you to alter its strength. The question is: why do you want to hold back light when often lots of light is a good thing? Well, there are a several creative reasons for doing this. You may want to achieve a longer exposure to capture creative movement, such as blurry water, clouds, swaying vegetation, or even crowds walking. You might also need to hold back light so you can use a wide aperture for a shallow depth of field in a portrait image. I use variable ND filters occasionally in my photography, but much more often when I am shooting video on my DSLR. This is because with video I need to control my shutter speed for a natural look to movement, and a variable ND filter allows
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A variable ND filter is your best friend when it comes to controlling your exposure times.
me to do this easily, even when the light goes up and down. Variable ND filters are useful – hopefully the one you’ve been given fits the filter thread on at least one of your lenses, and you’ll be able to try some of the effects I’ve mentioned.
You increase or decrease the filter strength simply by rotating the filter over the lens; you should have markings around the edge of the filter that indicate whether you’re adding to or taking away from the amount of ND being applied.
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Photo Answers It’s also light when compared next to the 80-400mm: the 80-400mm is 1,570 grammes, but the 70-300 is just 680g, which is an important consideration when you’re using it all day around your local nature and wildlife reserves. The VR – Vibration Reduction – also proves useful on typically dull British days, when you end up shooting shutter speeds that are lower than ideal, but still need to handhold the camera. You might also consider a second-hand, Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G IF ED VR, but the newer AF-P lens has much faster focusing – and you really need that when it comes to wildlife, because generally animals don’t sit still for long.
Blurry results
I’ve been shooting on a travel tripod, but getting slightly blurred images. Where am I going wrong?
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A little research will help you find the lens with the ideal balance of feature set, performance and value for money.
Nikon zoom choice
I have an old thirdparty 70-300mm zoom lens I want to replace with a Nikon lens – but nothing too expensive. What can you suggest for my local wildlife efforts?
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Jan Mann
Had you not mentioned cost in your question, Jan, I’d have suggested the 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens – because it would give you extra focal length and flexibility. But, of course, budget is always an issue. so my other suggestion is to take a look at the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR AF-P lens. It’s a like-for-like replacement in terms of focal range – and because your Nikon D500 is not full-frame, you effectively get a 105-450mm lens, so it’s perfect for wildlife or sports photography. This lens is not compatible with all Nikon DSLRs, but it is compatible with your D500, although it may need a firmware update. From a budget point of view, purchased new it’s roughly a quarter of the price of the 80-400mm, and you still get accurate, fast AF capabilities and a good build quality.
David Hartley
If you’re not having the same issue while handholding, I’ll rule out a problem with the lens itself; therefore it’s something to do with technique. When you put a camera on a tripod, it’s perhaps because you are using a much slower shutter speed – and that alone means there is a much higher chance of something going wrong. Even on a tripod, the camera can move slightly if it isn’t correctly fixed in place on a solid base.
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Shooting on unstable surfaces requires a meticulous setup.
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Lightweight tripods aren’t perfect in breezy conditions, and it’s even possible for there to be slight vibration coming up through whatever you’re standing on. This can be a real issue on bridges, on wet sand, in water, and even on a pavement where there are trains beneath. I’ve had to deal with all those scenarios while trying to shoot long-exposure photographs. Switch off your camera’s image stabilisation system whenever it’s on a tripod: you don’t need it, and there is always the possibility that it might actually be the cause of the issue. Finally, make sure you fire the shutter either by using the built-in self-timer function or via a cable or remote release: half of the issues like yours are caused when you manually press the shutter button for a long exposure, causing the camera or tripod to wobble very slightly.
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Image Rescue
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A session in Camera Raw teases out the artistic potential in these tree roots is a Profile drop-down. Select this and, clicking on Browse, we’ll find lots of options. For this image, we are going to use Modern 01, because it adds extra contrast across the image. Back in the Basic Panel, we can boost both the Texture and Clarity sliders. Adding +20 on both helps to get the style we want 3 . Lastly, we want to go into the Effects Tab and give our image a pronounced vignette 4 . About -30 on the Vignette slider will
3 4 Just a few minutes’ work in Camera Raw turns tree roots into a fine-art piece.
really darken the corners, and it’s also worth at this stage playing with the Roundness slider to see if that helps.
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There’s something interesting about this tangle of branches that could make a cool fine-art print. Let’s start in Camera Raw with a crop to tighten the composition 1 . To maintain full resolution for printing we’re going to use the Geometry Panel. Here we need about 120 on Scale and +9 on Offset X to reposition it correctly. Now we’re going to use a Profile to give us a more interesting look for the fine-art finish we want 2 . Just above the Basic Panel
Go large
Q
How can I increase the size of an image in Lightroom?
Karl Peters
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Lens confusion
I find all the abbreviations on lenses very confusing. What are the most important things to understand?
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Sue Lomas
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www.digitalcameraworld.com
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I’m with you here, Sue: there are so many variations used by different brands. What you really want to know is the focal length or range, the aperture range, whether it has some kind of image stabilisation, and the filter fit. All these things should be marked on the lens itself. Other phrases – such as USM, Canon’s Ultrasonic Motor; SWD, Olympus’ Supersonic Wave Drive Motor; or USD, Tamron’s Ultrasonic Silence Drive motor – are all just variations of the names given to the type of AF drive in the lens. If the lens doesn’t have a motor, then it can only be focused manually.
Cropped
Uncropped
Super Resolution in Lightroom enables you to crop in without losing image resolution.
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If you have the very latest version of Lightroom, you can double the size of a raw file using Super Resolution – and it does a very good job of it, too. If your computer isn’t the most powerful, you might have to wait a while for it to do its magic but the results are genuinely impressive. Once completed, you have a DNG file that can still be edited. I wouldn’t suggest you use it all the time but if you want to print an image very large, or if you’ve had to crop a photo by half and want to get back to its original resolution, then it’s definitely worth trying. You’ll find Super Resolution via Photo > Enhance.
A tasteful border can get around the issue of photo and paper proportions not matching.
Print ratios
If I buy a photo printer, will the native ratio of my images fit the paper?
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Andrew James
In a word, no! If you’re printing small photos, such as 6 x 4in, then you’re OK – but when you go bigger, say A4 or A3, then you run into trouble, because neither of these standard sizes matches the ratio of a typical uncropped image. The only way around this is to crop your image so that it prints edge to edge at one of the set sizes. If you want to keep the picture ratio, you’ll have to sit the photo within the print so it has a white border surrounding it on each side. Borders can look great with fine-art photos, though.
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Members of the Digital Camera team share what’s in their kit bag – and what they wish was in it! Dan has shot many subjects in his career, but wildlife is his favourite genre.
TEAM MEMBER…
Dan Mold Technique editor, Digital Camera World s a technique editor for the Digital Camera World website, I’ve dabbled in all sorts of photographic genres over the years – from high-end fashion
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to pet portraits, and from intricate still-life setups to shooting vast landscapes all around the globe. In recent times, I’ve realised that wildlife photography is both what I consider myself to be best SEPTEMBER 2021
at, and what I enjoy the most – so it’s no surprise that my kit bag has evolved as my style has changed, to help me take the best possible animal and wildlife photos. As camera technology moves forward, I’m at an awkward crossroads in the evolution of my gear selection, with my Canon DSLR kit slowly being phased out by newer, feature-rich mirrorless models. I’m sure this is something that many DSLR photographers can relate to. I currently have one foot in each of the mirrorless and DSLR camps, with my trusty Canon EOS 6D Mark II DSLR body, which has been my reliable workhorse body for many years, and a newer Canon EOS R body sitting in my camera bag. I use Canon’s EOS EF/RF adapter to make my DSLR EF lenses compatible
with Canon’s mirrorless RF mount, although I imagine that at some point I will phase these out with newer RF lenses for mirrorless. My current photographic setup, while far from ideal, is perfectly serviceable for the types of pictures I want to take. If I start feeling held back or restricted too often, for example not having a fast enough burst rate or a powerful enough zoom lens, then I might find it time to call it a day and fully commit to mirrorless technology. It’s reassuring that MPB. com, the world’s largest digital photography gear resale platform, offers both a valuepacked path into mirrorless cameras and lenses, and a convenient way to sell my gear on, ensuring that other people have an affordable way to enhance their own kit bag. www.digitalcameraworld.com
ADVERTISING FEATURE
Brought to you by
MPB
TIME TO TRADE IT IN?
Canon EOS 6D Mark II MPB trade-in price: £840 (Excellent condition) Canon’s 6D Mark II has been the workhorse camera in my kit bag for years, but this DSLR is a little long in the tooth and lacking some important new features that I could enjoy with a well-chosen upgrade…
1Canon EOS R5
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3Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Canon EOS R6
With a 45MP full-frame sensor capable of capturing 8K video in a portable mirrorless body, modern cameras don’t get much better than this! New: £4,299 MPB price*: £3,799 (Excellent condition)
This is a slight step down from the R5, but makes a much less noticeable dent in your wallet – and it’s even more affordable when purchased second-hand. New: £2,599 MPB price*: £2,519 (Like New condition)
The 7D Mark II is ideal for wildlife, as it has an APS-C sensor thatmakes lenses appear morezoomed in. It would be an ideal backup camera body. New: £999 MPB price*: £649 (Good condition)
ESSENTIAL KIT 2
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
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This is my favourite optic for wildlife photography. The 70-200mm focal range is versatile for close-up portraits and for zooming in on further away animals, and has the super-sharp image quality you’d normally expect from a prime lens. To cap it off, it has image stabilisation for sharper handheld shots.
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New: £1,509 MPB price*: £754 (Good condition)
DIVE INTO DAN’S KIT BAG 1 Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R
New price: £119 MPB price*: £109 (Excellent condition)
New price: £1,849 MPB price*: £1,279 (Excellent condition) The future of cameras seems to be gravitating towards mirrorless cameras, so I’ve finally bitten the bullet and got my hands on Canon’s first full-frame mirrorless camera: the EOS R. This currently means that I own both DSLR and mirrorless cameras, so I also have the Canon EOS EF/RF mount adapter to allow my collection of EF lenses to be used on this body.
3 Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
4 Canon EOS 6D Mark II
A wide-angle lens may not be your first choice for wildlife shots, but if you can get close enough safely, they can be brilliant for animal portraits. The wide focal length is great for showing animals in their environment, which will give your shots more context, and its maximum aperture of f/2.8 is perfectfor blurring backgrounds, too.
This has been my workhorse camera body for the past few years, and I’ve always been able to rely on it on my professional photoshoots. Itdelivers fantastic image quality and plenty of detail, all in an ergonomic build: the buttons are all well-placed,making it easy to dial in settings rapidly,which makes a big difference while shooting on the hoof.
New price: £1,599 MPB price*: £739 (Good condition)
New price: £1,429 MPB price*:£1,099 (Good condition)
5 Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP Di USD VC Macro
6 Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
A focal length of around 90mm is perfect for portraits, including headshots of animals. This Tamron lens has proven to be super-sharp and has a wide aperture of f/2.8, making it easy to blur the backgrounds with a shallow depth-offield effect, too. As a macro lens, it lets you focus much closer to your subjects, so you can get frame-filling shots of tiny critters.
This is my go-to telephotolens for far-away animals and birds flying through the air. The focal length ranges from short telephoto at 70mm to more zoomed in at 200mm, giving you scope to perfect your compositions. The maximum f/2.8 aperture is key in my photos: it floods the sensor with light, makingfaster shutter speeds possible.
New price: £649 New price: £1,509 MPB price*: £229 MPB price*: £754 (Well Used condition) (Good condition)
Trade in and upgrade at: www.mpb.com/sell
www.digitalcameraworld.com
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This adapter from Canon is currently a vital bit of kit for me: it allows me to use all of my EF DSLR lenses with my mirrorless EOS R body, making them fully compatible with autofocusand aperture control. To cash in my DSLR lenses and buy their mirrorless counterparts would set me back a small fortune, so this small adapter has been a life-saver.
2 Canon EOS R
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In Focus
The latest photography news from around the globe
18-21 September 2021, The NEC Birmingham
SHOW PREVIEW GUIDE FREE WITH THIS ISSUE! Digital version: www.bit.ly/ tps21guide
It’s show time again!
DON’T MISS IT! BOOK YOUR TICKETS TODAY
The year’s must-visit photography event runs from 18-21 September at the NEC
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rganisers of The Photography Show & The Video Show, the UK’s largest photography and moving image co-located event, have confirmed its eagerly anticipated Super Stage line-up. Returning to Birmingham’s NEC for the first time since March 2019, The Photography Show welcomes both upcoming and established stars to the Super Stage from 18 to 21 September. These include the leading portrait photographer Rankin, documentary photographer Olivia Arthur, photographer and documenter Charlie “Smokey” Phillips, Magnum photographer Mark Power and conceptual fine-art photographer Brooke Shaden. Away from the Super Stage, there will be plenty of interesting talks and demos on the Behind the 108
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Lens, Photo Live and Video Live stages. And with heavyweight brands Canon, Nikon, Sony and more as confirmed exhibitors, the event will be a mustvisit for all photographers or videographers. The Photography Show & The Video Show will follow all government and industry safety advice, with the goal of ensuring its visitors’ and exhibitors’ peace of mind while running the live show in a format as close to normal as possible. As such, this year doors will be open from 9am until 5pm, to aid a relaxed flow of visitor arrivals and entry. To buy a ticket to this year’s show or for more information about the speakers, exhibitors, demonstrations and more, visit the official website. www.photographyshow.com
Focal point Rounding up what’s new and exciting
Sekonic L-398A III Studio Deluxe Measure incident light in style with this 70thanniversary special edition of the Studio Deluxe meter from 1956. In fetching burgundy and rose, it will come with a Japanese lacquer box plus cushion for storage. www.sekonic.com; £TBC/$TBC
Get a weekly photo fix from Chris Gatcum Try one year’s worth of fun, informative and practical shooting ideas that will make you a better photographer. #PHOTO52 presents 52 creative projects that offer something new to shoot every week. www.ilexinstant.com; £20/$25 Manfotto Element MII video monopod Compact and lightweight, this four-section aluminium monopod can support loads up to 16kg. It also sports a new leg lock design, and the manufacturer says a fluid cartridge in the base will offer panning that’s “brilliantly smooth”. www.manfrotto. com £80/$89
Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews & techniques
New CFexpress card from Lexar
Veo BH-160S ball head
This clever dual-axis model, introduced with Vanguard Veo 3T+ tripods, is now available for the premium Veo 3+ series
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his clever Arca-compatible ball head has a pan axis in its base and a further pan axis just below the camera plate. It means you can get the camera plate level with just the ball head – no need for time-consuming adjustments to the tripod’s leg lengths. It’s a feature that will make the Vanguard Veo BH-160S ideal for shooting perfectly horizontal panning shots or panoramas.
First unveiled with the Veo 3T+ range of travel tripods, the Veo BH-160S is now available for the premium Veo 3+ series models, where it will still deliver a maximum load capacity of 15kg – well beyond the weight of any everyday camera and lens combination. www.vanguardworld.co.uk; £249/$339.99 (BH-160S and Veo 3+ 263AB); £319/$429.99 (BH-160S and Veo 3+ 263CB)
First-ever Fujifilm X lens from Tamron
And the 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD will also be available for Sony E-mount
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he first all-in-one zoom lens for the X-mount, boasting an impressive 27-450mm equivalent focal range in full-frame (35mm) terms, Tamron’s new optic will be available “sometime at the end of 2021”, and its pricing is still to be confirmed. Promising superb image quality, the new optic’s in-lens image stabilisation, denoted by the ‘VC’ in the model name, will be handy when shooting at the long end of the focal range. Other features include weather-sealing, autofocus delivered by linear motor, and a 67mm filter thread. www.tamron.eu; £TBC/$TBC www.digitalcameraworld.com
Lexar Professional CFexpress Type B Silver card available in 128GB & 256GB
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hotographers and videographers looking to accelerate their workflows will find these latest additions to the Lexar family of interest. High-speed performance with transfer speeds of up to 1,000MB/s (read), and up to 600MB/s (write) will enable owners to shoot more high-quality images and 4K video. For added versatility, the CFexpress Silver is also backwards-compatible with selected cameras that use XQD cards. lexar.com; from £159/$TBC
DxO PureRaw update
Five new cameras and 26 new lenses supported
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ersion 1.2 of this ‘super-raw’ software (review, page 130) can now process raw files from the Sony A1, Fujifilm GFX 100S and more. DxO has also added correction profiles for a whole series of new lenses, including telephoto lens and teleconverter combinations, which will get their own profiles. PureRaw allows you to ‘pre-process’ raw files to get much better results from your preferred image editor. It uses the little-known but widely compatible Linear DNG format to apply its own demosaicing, noise reduction and lens correction processes to produce Linear DNG files. See what PureRaw can do for you, by taking the free 30-day trial. www.dxo.com; free (upgrade from v1.1). £115/$129 (new) SEPTEMBER 2021
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Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews & techniques
Focal point Rounding up what’s new and exciting
Capture One update Bryan Peterson Photography School This new book from the internationally known photography instructor uses before-and-after examples from real-life students to help readers improve their craft. Whatever your goals, Peterson will help you accelerate your skills. crownpublishing.com £23/$25
Photo London returns to Somerset House The international fine-art photography fair returns to Somerset House from 9-12 September, for the first time since 2019. And a digital version of the fair will supplement the physical event, running from 9-28 September. photolondon.org
Pink Lady Food PotY 2022 open for entries Comprising over 25 categories, the overall winner of this leading competition will receive £5,000 ($6,950). The closing date is Sunday 6 February 2022. For more information, and entry costs, see the website. www.bit.ly/dc246food
Version 14.3 gets editing and browsing improvements
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he headline feature in this new update is the new Magic Brush tool, which lets you simply paint over areas you want to mask for quick and simple adjustments. Capture One says it will create a precise and refined mask as you brush. The masking tools in this software are already very powerful, and are used alongside Photoshop-style adjustment layers so that images can be edited and re-edited non-destructively. The new update also brings some important and long-awaited updates to the image browsing and
organising experience. You can now opt to show images not just in the currently selected folder but in subfolders, too – this was one of the most-asked-for tweaks, says Capture One. Elsewhere, the Exporter window has been revamped to show all the export options in one place, and there’s also a new Proofing Viewer that will let you visualise images with all the export settings applied. www.captureone.com; free (upgrade from v14.2). £299/$299 (full version)
New Pentax APS-C standard zoom
Pentax HD DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 out now
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ooking like the perfect match for the new Pentax K-3 Mark III DSLR (issue 242, page 110), this new fast standard zoom is the APS-C equivalent of the 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses loved by pros on full-frame cameras. Construction features 16 elements in 10 groups and the lens uses one ED element, one anomalous dispersion element and two ED aspherical glass elements to deliver resolving power and contrast right to the edges of the frame and to control chromatic aberration. www. ricoh-imaging.eu; £1,499/$1,397
Win a bundle of Mike Coots goodies
Enter today to win items worth £67/$90!
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htimS P hpesoJ
e’ve teamed up with Padi to offer Digital Camera readers the chance to win a bundle of items from the Padi X Mike Coots Signature Collection (see p 16). Padi Ambassadiver Mike has provided imagery for the collection, which will help fund the localised protection of white sharks in Mike’s native Hawaii. Up for grabs is a bundle comprising one men’s T-shirt, one women’s T-shirt and one reusable Tyvek zip pouch featuring shark images captured by Mike himself. Three bundles are available; for a chance of winning one, enter at the competition page before 20 November 2021. www.bit.ly/dc246padi www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Behind the lens MARK POWER Photographer www.markpower.co.uk
ark Power will be speaking on the Super Stage at The Photography Show & The Video Show in September. He will offer an insight into two projects separated by 16 years: The Shipping Forecast and Good Morning, America (Volume Three).
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What have you been working on over the last 18 months? Although I found it very difficult to produce new work during the pandemic, I made some pictures during long walks through Brighton, where I live, and more recently I’ve started to photograph a wood we frequently visit, but I think I needed time away from a camera. That said, the last 18 months haven’t been wasted: I moved studios (an enormous task), edited, sequenced and published Good Morning, America (Volume Three), edited and sequenced my next book, Terre à l’Amende, and I’m progressing well with a planned, much expanded reprint of my first book, The Shipping Forecast. Looking back, it feels like I’ve achieved a lot, and I have to say I’ve enjoyed spending much more time at home. Was The Shipping Forecast the first of your works to explore the landscape of the imagination? Yes, I believe so. I really had nothing else to work with, since the idea of making a project inspired by a radio broadcast gave me very little to work with that was concrete. www.digitalcameraworld.com
© Mark Power/Magnum Photos
The other project to feature is Good Morning, America (Volume Three). When will you be returning to the US to carry on with it? I had two trips planned for the latter part of 2020, and another booked for early 2021, all of which had to be postponed. I’m hoping I can get back there before Christmas, but of course that’s pure speculation. I’m not concerned about the schedule however; the project will be finished when it’s finished.
Clockwise from top right: ‘The ShippingForecast. Malin. Monday, 6 September 1993. Southeast backing easterly 4 or 5, increasing 6 in south. Mainly fair. Moderate or good.’ ‘Good Morning, America. The USA. Arizona. Page. Horseshoe Bend. 11 March 2017.’
How many states are there still to do? You said you’d passed 40 in February 2020, but then the pandemic hit… I think there are 10 states I’ve yet to go to, as well as a similar number I need to revisit. I’m not trying to be a completist just for the sake of it, but along with the realisation that I was getting closer to making work in all 50 states came the decision to at least try to visit them all.
When I bought my first 5 x 4 camera, early in 1997, I knew without question that I’d found the perfect tool. These days I work almost exclusively with a standard lens, striving to make pictures which are as close as possible to the way we see. Unless (for instance) you’re standing right underneath the Empire State Building, looking up at the summit, our brains always sort out perspective; buildings and horizons are straight, there are no converging verticals, there’s no distortion. In other words, a technical camera is able to replicate, albeit only in two dimensions, the way we see.
Is your previous use of large-format cameras for your work, and now a medium-format technical camera, purely an aesthetic choice? In my earlier years as a photographer, I made that classic mistake (at least, I think it’s a mistake!) of virtually superglueing a 24mm wide-angle lens onto my 35mm camera. Looking back at those pictures, the lens seems to dominate everything, almost to the point where it becomes more important than the subject matter.
‘The ShippingForecast. Tyne. Sunday 25 July 1993. West or southwest 3 or 4, increasing 5 or 6. Showers. Good.’
Mark Power’s talk, which is titled Landscapes of the Imagination, takes place at 1.15pm on 18 September. www.photographyshow.com Mark will be leading an online workshop, starting in October. Find out more at: www.bit.ly/dc246power
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Jon Devo
instagram.com/gadgetsjon Jon is a professional photographer, videographer and technology journalist. LEFT: Could you one day launch your phone into the air to take this shot, instead of a drone? One company is working on a solution.
Scanning ahead..
Do you believe a camera phone can fly? As Jon Devo discovers, it could soon be reality… ack of competition can stifle innovation. Big brands tend to rest on their success, while smaller companies need to shake things up to get noticed. As a result, it’s often the challenger brands that will push limitations and deviate from the status quo, leading to paradigm shifts in technology. As cameras transitioned from film to digital, Canon and Nikon embraced the change and cornered the market. Leaving film giant Kodak in the dust, the two brands defined what a DSLR could and should be. Their dominance was unchallenged until the next major development, which saw the introduction of mirrorless cameras in the mid-noughties.
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Did you know that Epson, better known for its printers, was the first company to launch a mirrorless camera? 2004’s R-D1 was a niche interchangeable-lens camera, with a 6.1MP APS-C sensor and a 2.5in fixed LCD. It didn’t have autofocus, and cost $3,000. Four years later, Panasonic and Olympus brought the first consumer mirrorless cameras to market; the Lumix G1 in 2008, followed by the PEN EP-1 in 2009. Canon and Nikon only took mirrorless cameras seriously in 2018. Smartphones have been the biggest disruptive force to the camera industry since digital – and they’re often where I’m looking to for the next big thing. For example, at the end of 2020, Vivo – a Chinese technology brand that sits under parent company BBK Electronics – filed a patent application
with the World Intellectual Property Office for a smartphone with a “flying camera” housed inside it. The patent, published in July 2021, reveals that Vivo sees it as a potential solution to the problem of “poor shooting flexibility of the current elevating [sic] of the electronic device.” If this product ever sees the light of day, it would look like a regular smartphone, albeit with slightly larger bezels than we’re accustomed to. However, it would have a hidden trick up its chassis… Sketches in the patent’s 20-page document depict a miniature square drone that slides out of what I assume is the top of the device. It has rounded edges, quad propellers, a dual camera system, three infrared sensors for collision avoidance, and a battery. A flying camera of this size would have some technological barriers to overcome, though. Battery power and signal are obvious limitations at that size. But even if it was possible to make a flying camera that small with a half-decent battery and antenna, it would struggle for stability in a breeze. Achieving stills or video with minimal shake in a drone that small would be a massive challenge, even for the most sophisticated gimbal systems and stabilisation software we have today. Vivo’s flying camera solution doesn’t really solve an existing problem, and could be even more annoying than selfie sticks. But despite the potential for irritation from bystanders, if flying cameras that are housed inside our phones become a reality, they would be undeniably cool.
“Vivo’s flying camera could be more annoying than selfie sticks” www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Sony ZV-E10 _ A small mirrorless with plenty of video prowess
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Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L _ Possibly the best macro lens we’ve ever used
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Olympus 8-25mm f/4 Pro _ An ultra-wide and standard all in one
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Group Test: Flashguns _ Eight on- and off-camera lighting options
here was a time when you had cameras that took still images and cameras that recorded video, and never the twain should meet. Those days are far behind us, with DSLRs and particularly mirrorless cameras bridging the gap between the in-your-pocket convenience of smartphones and the pro-grade results of high-end models. With a proud track record in video technology, Sony is one of the brands leading the way. The ZV-E10 is its latest release for the burgeoning ‘vlogger’ market:
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the legion of influencers, entrepreneurs and creatives using video to reach large audiences on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The ZV-E10 combines videofriendly touches like a microphone muffler and a 180-degree tilting screen with a surprisingly low price tag. Find out if this is the 4K video camera for you on page 114. This issue, we also catch up with the current crop of premium flashguns, hitting a sweet spot of price and performance for your lighting needs. And we check out Plus new macro lenses from Canon and Nikon 118 Nikkor Z MC 50mm – neither of which is a slouch. Rod Lawton 130 DxO PureRaw
The awards bestowed by the Digital Camera lab… Given to the top product in a group test
www.digitalcameraworld.com
For products that receive five stars overall
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Given to products that offer superb value for money
Ratings explained Best in class Excellent Good So-so Poor
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All products reviewed in KitZone are tested independently by photographers with years of experience, using lab and real-world testing
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Mirrorless Sony ZV-E10
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The ZV-E10 features a zoom lever – which is perfect for the Sony 16-50mm power zoom kit lens.
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The camera lacks in-body image stabilisation, so you’ll really need a gimbal or a tripod.
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The E-mount opens doors to a wide range of dedicated APS-C lenses, along with full-frame optics.
Sony ZV-E10 £679/$699
Sony’s best APS-C camera for vloggers is also its cheapest! w w w . sony.co.uk
Specifications Sensor: 24.2MP APS-CCMOS AF points: 425 phase detect + 425 contrast detect ISO range: 100-32,000 Stabilisation: EIS, video only Max image size: 6,000 x 4,000px Video: 4K UHD up to 30p Viewfinder: No Memory card:SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-I) LCD: Vari-angle touchscreen Max burst: 11fps for 116 JPEGs Size: 113 x 64 x 45mm Weight: 346g body only
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ony has called its latest camera the ZV-E10, presumably to distinguish it from its long running series of Alpha 6000 cameras. It did the same with its pocket-sized Sony ZV-1, which is essentially a cheaper vlogging version of the rather pricey RX100 series cameras. This differentiation is a smart move on Sony’s part. We’ve (almost) lost count of all the A6000-series cameras the company has launched, each somewhat more expensive than the last, and culminating in the £1,399/$1,399 Sony Alpha 6600. This new model is more affordable than all of them – even the entry-level Alpha 6100 – and yet does everything a vlogger could ask for – which is a market Sony has been targeting all along. So let’s take a look at what the ZV-E10 has to offer…
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Key features
As far as we can tell, the 24.2MP CMOS sensor is from the same family used all along in the A6xxx series. This camera is a few millimetres smaller in width than the existing models, but about the same in weight. As an E-mount camera, it takes both Sony APS-C E-mount lenses and full-frame Sony FE lenses, too. There are important differences, though. One is that the ZV-E10 has a fully-adjustable vari-angle screen, for the first time on a Sony APS-C mirrorless camera – so far, all the rest have had tilting screens only. This is a big advantage for video, because it means the screen won’t foul on microphones or tripods when it’s flipped to face forwards. Another difference is the inclusion of a three-capsule directional mic in the top of the camera, which accepts a clip-on wind-muffler (included with www.digitalcameraworld.com
Sony ZV-E10 Mirrorless 4
The smart hot shoe enables you to use Sony’s wire-free microphones…
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The inclusion of a big record button and the lack of any mode dial scream “this camera is for video”.
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… but the huge built-in 8 microphone is a cut The rear LCD screen is above standard a video-friendly fully camera mics. articulating affair… 6
Smaller lenses, like this Sony 16-50mm kit lens, pair perfectly with the ZV-E10.
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… but it doesn’t support touch control, which is video-unfriendly.
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The ZV-E10’s vlogger-friendly credentials include a screen that opens to 180 degrees and a clip-on microphone muffler to suppress wind noise while you’re recording outdoors.
the camera). It also has a regular mic socket, and the accessory shoe also works as a digital audio interface. The third difference might be less welcome – there’s no viewfinder on the ZV-E10. Videographers and vloggers probably wouldn’t use one anyway, but this will certainly be a drawback for stills photographers.
Build and handling
The existing A6xxx cameras are pretty small already, so the ZV-E10 feels especially compact. Even so, the good-sized grip on the front makes it feel pretty secure in your hand. There’s no mode dial on this camera: you have to change modes using the menus, which is another negative point for stills photography. While the button on the top for toggling between Stills, Video and Slow/Quick modes is straightforward enough, it would be much better to have a physical lever so that you can see at a glance which mode you’re in. Sony’s rear screens have always been on the small side, and this one seems no better. It’s adequate, but nothing www.digitalcameraworld.com
more than that. It’s not very bright, either, so if you intend to use this camera outdoors, you’ll probably want to enable the Sunny display mode – and leave it there. Otherwise, this little camera handles just fine. Sony recommends the 10-18mm f/4 wide-angle lens for self-vlogging at arm’s length, just to include some of the background, too, but the familiar Sony 16-50mm power zoom kit lens is especially useful here, because it works with the zoom lever around the ZV-E10’s shutter release.
There’s a good amount of play in the dynamic range, enabling you to work with deep shadows and brilliant highlights even when shooting in challenging illumination.
Performance
Sony’s autofocus system is the best there is amongst APS-C mirrorless cameras. It’s fast and positive for stills photography, but excels in video mode. The Face/Eye Detect AF is
“It does everything a vlogger could ask for”
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Mirrorless Sony ZV-E10
As with all Sony bodies, the autofocus system in the ZV-E10 is virtually impossible to fault.
This is pretty impressive noise control at ISO 6,400, although with no in-body image stabilisation you have to rely on lens stabilisation, where available; at a shutter speed of 1/20 sec, the detail has lost its edge.
The ZV-E10 is compatible with both Sony’s APS-C E-mount lenses and the company’s range of full-frame FE lenses.
16-50mm lens, though. The lens that came with the ZV-E10 had better edge sharpness than our pretty awful office lens, but it’s still not great, even by kit lens standards. Another example of the ZV-E10’s appealing colour rendition, though we had to dial down the EV compensation. Video is a bit of a mixed bag. Inside it has all the frame rates you could very fast, and tracks even rapid The video quality looks just as good, at need for basic video recording, including slow-mo 120fps (HD only not in 4K). movements. The Presentation Mode first glance, as we’ve come to expect is equally impressive, rapidly refocusing from Sony’s APS-C mirrorless cameras. The 4K quality is very good, and on objects you hold up in front of the We couldn’t test the wind muffler, alas, we’ve already mentioned the stellar AF system, but this is a camera that camera – although you can’t have Face/ because our sample camera didn’t doesn’t like sudden movements. It has Eye AF and Presentation Mode at the come with one in the box – although no in-body image stabilisation, so it we did find this accessory really same time. Finally, the Tracking mode relies on lens stabilisation or in-camera effective on the Sony ZV-1. is activated simply by tapping your digital stabilisation, neither of which The still image quality looks very subject on the screen, and ‘sticks’ much as we’d expect from Sony’s APS-C seems as effective as IBIS. to them really well, only losing contact Worse, like other Sony A6000-series mirrorless cameras. It’s probably best if they are momentarily obscured cameras, this one shows a prominent not to expect too much from the Sony or leave and re-enter the frame. 116
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Sony ZV-E10 Mirrorless
Resolution (line widths/picture height)
50 40 30 20 10 0 100
The auto white balance is mostly very good, but here the ZV-E10 has given this mixture of sunlight and shade a distinctly red/magenta tinge.
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400 800 1600 3200 6400 12800 25600 Sony ZV-E10 Canon M50 Mk II Fujifilm X-S10 Nikon Z 50
Somewhat surprisingly, the ZV-E10 is outresolved by both the Canon EOS M50 Mk II and the Fujifilm X-S10, and even the 20.9MP Nikon Z 50 threatens it in the sharpness stakes.
Signal to noise ratio (decibels)
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 100
200
400 800 1600 3200 6400 12800 25600 Sony ZV-E10 Canon M50 Mk II Fujifilm X-S10 Nikon Z 50
Again the ZV-E10 delivers surprisingly disappointing results here, with all three of its rivals delivering much cleaner results when it comes to image clarity and low noise at higher ISO values. The Sony 16-50mm kit lens can deliver good edge sharpness. This frame was shot on a tripod at f/11. Handheld, and at wider apertures, the quality isn’t always as good.
rolling shutter or ‘jello’ effect if you move it too quickly. This can give handheld video an even more jerky appearance – although it does have Steady Shot menu options to help counter this a little. The flaw is less noticeable in 1080p, though. The lack of in-body stabilisation and
the rolling shutter effect are not so much of an issue if you use a gimbal or a tripod to steady your camera while filming, of course, but they are not really what you want in a camera aimed at novices, whose technique is not likely to be so polished. Rod Lawton & Alistair Campbell
Rival cameras
Canon EOS M50 Mk II £589/$599 The M50 II’s 4K mode features an ungodly crop and loses phase-detect AF – so it’s only really good for 1080p. Reviewed: issue 242
Fujifilm X-S10 £949/$999 The X-S10 offers image stabilisation plus an articulating touchscreen, though its AF isn’t as effective as the ZV-E10’s. Reviewed: issue 238
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Dynamic range (EV)
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 100
200
400 800 1600 3200 6400 12800 25600 Sony ZV-E10 Canon M50 Mk II Fujifilm X-S10 Nikon Z 50
The ZV-E10 performs about on par with the Canon M50 Mk II (and beats it at higher ISOs), but is again trumped by both the Fujifilm X-S10 and the Nikon Z 50 at all sensitivity levels.
Digital Camera verdict
4.0 Nikon Z 50 £829/$859 The Z 50 is brilliant but lacks stabilisation. There aren’t many APS-C Z-mount lenses for it, either. Reviewed: issue 225
Excellent
4.0
4.0
4.0
5.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
The ZV-E10 doesn’t really break any new ground technically – and even ditches a few features that stills photographers would like to have – but it’s a good camera for novice vloggers. It has 4K video, Sony’s excellent autofocus system, a vari-angle screen and a clip-on muffler to cut wind noise. Plus, it’s rather good value, too. SEPTEMBER 2021
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Prime lens Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Specifications Mount: Nikon Z Full-frame: Yes Lens construction: 10 elements in seven groups Angle of view: 47 degrees Autofocus: Yes Image stabilisation: No Diaphragm blades: Nine Minimum aperture: f/22-32 Min focus distance: 0.16m Maximum magnification ratio: 1.0x Filter size: 46mm Dimensions (L x D): 75 x 66mm Weight: 260g
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Nikkor Z MC 50mm f/2.8 £649/$649
This compact macro lens also makes a great standard prime w w w . nikon.co.uk
t’s been a long wait for an own-brand Nikon Z-mount macro lens – and then, like buses, two come along at once. This one is less than half the physical length and weight of the more pro-grade Nikon Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S (reviewed last issue), and a shade under two thirds of the price. With a 50mm focal length and f/2.8 aperture rating, it makes a convenient standard prime for general shooting. But, unlike many 50mm macro lenses down the years, this lens delivers full 1.0x macro magnification rather than just a 0.5x magnification factor, therefore reproducing small objects at life size on the image sensor. Pop the lens on a DX-format Nikon Z-series camera like the Z 50 or the new Z fc, and the 1.5x crop factor gives you an even larger ‘effective’ magnification factor. Many modern macro lenses have a fully internal focus mechanism, but this one has a more traditional extending inner barrel. This keeps the physical length to a minimum in general shooting, and enables the lens to feature a rudimentary focus distance scale and magnification factor markings on the inner barrel. But with a short minimum focus distance of 0.16m, the extending inner barrel results in the front of the lens coming to just 5cm from what you’re shooting. This can be a bit awkward when you’re trying to shoot bugs and other small creatures, as well as potentially casting a shadow over what you’re shooting.
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Performance
The autofocus system is fast and consistently accurate, even for extreme close-ups, where focus accuracy is critical due to the typically tiny depth of field. Centre-sharpness is outstanding, even wide-open at f/2.8, and gets even better between f/4 and f/8. Compared with the Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, however, levels of sharpness drop off a little more towards the extreme edges and corners of the frame. Matthew Richards 118
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1
The lens features 10 elements in seven groups, including one ED element and one aspherical element. The front element features a fluorine coating to repel grease and moisture. 2
The electronically coupled manual focus ring works with smooth precision, enabling fine adjustments. 3
The lens has a metal mounting plate, but lacks comprehensive weather-seals.
Sharpness
Centre-sharpness is epic from wide-open, through pretty much the entire aperture range. It remains excellent at the very narrowest aperture.
Fringing
0.02
Distortion
0.7
Lateral chromatic aberration is entirely negligible, even in the extreme edges and corners of the frame, while axial chromatic aberration is equally well-controlled. There’s just the merest hint of pincushion distortion, but this will generally go completely unnoticed, even when shooting straight-sided objects.
Verdict
4.5
Outstanding
4.0
5.0
4.0
5.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
This 50mm f/2.8 standard prime is great for general shooting. It’s conveniently compact, and a full f-stop faster than Nikon’s Z 24-70mm f/4 S zoom, which is supplied as a kit lens with full-frame Z-series bodies. Its main claim to fame, however, is that it delivers full 1.0x macro magnification at its shortest focus distance, although that distance might be closer than you like. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Prime lens Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Specifications Mount: Canon RF Full-frame: Yes Lens construction: 17 elements in 13 groups Angle of view: 20°, 14°, 24° Autofocus: Yes Image stabilisation: 5 stops (2 stops at 1.0x); 8 stops on Canon EOS R5/R6 Diaphragm blades: 9 Minimum aperture: f/32 Min focus distance: 0.26m Maximum magnification ratio: 1.4x Filter size: 67mm Dimensions (L x D): 82 x 148mm Weight: 730g
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GOLD AWARD
Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM £1,479/$1,399
Possibly the finest macro lens we’ve ever used w w w .canon.co.uk
his is the one we’ve been waiting for! Canon’s RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM has been a hotly anticipated lens ever since the EOS R system was first announced in 2018. It’s the successor to the beloved EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro, one of the best macro lenses ever made, and a staple in the bags of professionals and amateurs alike. That lens was so good that the new version has a tough row to hoe to convince existing owners to upgrade – or even to sway newcomers to the system to buy the pricey new RF version, rather than the slightly cheaper EF option, which can be seamlessly used on EOS R cameras with Canon’s mount adapter. Canon is keen to point out that this lens is “the world’s first” autofocusing macro lens with a 1.4:1 reproduction ratio. Indeed, this is one of the two main differentiators between this and the existing Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM – and for serious macro shooters, this alone will be reason enough to upgrade. The other big difference is the SA Control – a purely creative control dial that imposes varying degrees of spherical aberration, in order to create a soft focus effect and change the nature of the foreground and background bokeh. The RF 100mm packs a maximum of five stops of lens-based image stabilisation, though this is limited to two stops at 1.0x magnification. On the EOS R5 or R6, the compensation is increased to eight stops thanks to those cameras’ in-body image stabilisation.
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Performance
The results delivered by the Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM are incredibly hard to fault. Sharpness is through the roof, across the frame, which is obviously critical for macro photography. For macro work, SA Control can create beautiful painterly looks in your images thanks to its effect on the bokeh. James Artaius 120
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The nose of the optic features a control ring, which can be customised for exposure values such as aperture, ISO and white balance. 2
The large and welldamped focus ring has a pleasingly long throw – perfect for precision when finding focus. 3
The SA Control is a brillant innovation for macro shooters, giving you lovely soft-focus effects to enhance the bokeh.
Sharpness
Sharpness is excellent, even wide open at f/2.8. But what’s most impressive is the consistency of sharpness across the entire image frame – vital for a macro lens.
Fringing
0.19
Distortion
0.48
Chromatic aberration is fairly well-controlled, although this isn’t the best performance we’ve seen within this category of lenses. There’s mild pincushion distortion evident when in-camera correction is disabled, but it’s negligible and very unlikely to be visible in typical shooting.
Verdict
5.0
A best-in-class product
5.0
5.0
5.0
4.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
The RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM takes everything that was great about the EF version and makes it even better. As well as its sumptuous macro stills, enhanced with the SA Contol, it’s a superb standalone portrait lens, with pin-sharp rendering and a flattering focal length. If you want to shoot close-ups of small things and large things alike, you’ve just found your next purchase. www.digitalcameraworld.com
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8‑25mm f/4 Pro Zoom lens Specifications Mount: Micro Four Thirds Lens construction: 16 elements in 10 groups Angle of view: 107-47° Autofocus: Yes Image stabilisation: No Diaphragm blades: Seven Minimum aperture: f/22 Min focus distance: 0.23m Maximum magnification ratio: 0.21x (Micro Four Thirds) / 0.42x (35mm format) Filter size: 72mm Dimensions (L x D): 77 x 89mm Weight: 411g
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Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8-25mm f/4 Pro £899/$1,099
This lens could replace both an ultra‑wide and a standard zoom w w w .olympus-europa.com
lympus’ 8‑25mm f/4 Pro (16‑50mm equivalent) is one of a rare breed of ultra‑wide standard zooms. The only equivalents we can think of are the Panasonic Leica DG Vario‑Summilux Asph 10‑25mm f/1.7 (20‑50mm equivalent) and the full‑frame Panasonic Lumix S 20‑60mm f/3.5‑5.6. Neither covers the same angles of view as this lens. So who is it for? Well, if you’ve ever felt your standard zoom doesn’t go wide enough and goes a little longer than you usually need, this is the lens for you! Most standard zooms offer a 24mm equivalent angle of view, which is wide, but not that wide. The 8‑25mm f/4.0 Pro zooms all the way out to 16mm equivalent, well into ultra‑wide territory. It’s one of Olympus’s Pro lenses, which means it has a constant maximum aperture (f/4 in this case) and it’s built for optical quality and performance. There’s no image stabiliser, but Olympus bodies already incorporate one of the best stabilisation systems on the market, so that’s not an issue. The short zoom throw makes this lens quick to use when you’re experimenting with angles of view and perspective. The manual focus clutch is quite easy to pull back accidentally when you’re putting the camera in your bag or taking it out again, though, leaving you wondering why the darned thing won’t focus the next time you use it. Admittedly, you soon get used to that little quirk.
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Performance
This lens is excellent, even by Olympus Pro standards. It shows consistent edge‑to‑edge sharpness right across the frame and right through the zoom range. The lab tests show a loss in edge definition at wider focal lengths – but in real‑world shooting, with more normal subject distances, edge drop‑off is scarcely noticeable. Rod Lawton www.digitalcameraworld.com
Sharpness
The 8-25mm f/4 Pro shows remarkably consistent centre sharpness across the focal range, though it does drop off noticeably at 25mm.
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Olympus has used a retracting lens mechanism to keep this lens as compact as possible, but this is still a pretty big lens for an f/4.
Short 0.13 Long 0.53
Distortion
Short ‑1.5 Long 0.12
Colour fringing is at its greatest at the shortest focal length of 8mm, but even here it’s rarely noticed – thanks no doubt to the image correction profiles. There is measurable distortion at 8mm, but these are close-up lab charts: it’s essentially invisible to the naked eye in real-world shots.
2
The manual focus ring is revealed by sliding back the focus ring clutch at the front of the lens. 3
Fringing
Press the L‑Fn button with your thumb and you’ll have instant access to your preset functions.
Verdict
4.0
Excellent
4.0
3.0
5.0
4.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
The performance of the Olympus 8‑25mm f/4 Pro is excellent, and its focal range is just brilliant for photographers who like wide‑angle perspectives. It means you can carry around just one lens instead of two. However, this is not a small lens. As a result, it might handle okay on an OM‑D E‑M1 body, but it feels clumsy and front‑heavy on a smaller camera like the OM‑D E‑M5 III or the new PEN E‑P7.
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Fab flashguns We shine a light on the latest and greatest options for on- and off-camera flash
W
ith flashguns, a little light can go a long way. The adjustable, directional light from a flashgun can do anything from filling in the shadows for sunny-day portraiture to delivering a complete lighting solution for indoor or late-night photography. All of the flashguns we’ve chosen for this group test are powerful models that are rich in features. As such, they have impressive ‘guide numbers’ (a measure of their maximum light output); bounce, swivel and zoom heads, to enable greater versatility and control over
The contenders 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 122
Canon Speedlite 430EX III-RT Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT Hähnel Modus 600RT Mk II WK Nikon Speedlight SB-700 Nikon Speedlight SB-5000 Nissin Di700A + Air 1 Nissin i60A Phottix Juno TTL
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lighting; and full dedication for various camera systems. The latter enables automatic TTL (through the lens) flash metering, and the ability to control flash parameters directly from your camera. Other fancy features include wireless slave and possibly ‘master’ modes, for linking two or more flashguns when you want a more complex lighting setup, and advanced flash modes. These can typically comprise high-speed sync, rear curtain, red-eye reduction and maybe even a programmable strobe mode, for firing a series of flashes within one long exposure. Let’s go into the light. Matthew Richards
£299/$300 £619/$500 £299/$284 £269/$327 £569/$597 £200/$250 £227/$279 £169/$189
Flashguns Group Test
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Group Test Flashguns
Canon Speedlite 430EX III-RT £299/$300
Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT £619/$500
Smart yet simple
A powerful pro-grade flashgun
he Mk III edition of Canon’s 430EX inherits a respectable maximum power rating of Gn (guide number) 43, and a motorised 24-105mm zoom head with 150/180 degrees of swivel to the left and right, respectively. On-board controls are redesigned to be more intuitive, and are quick and easy to navigate. Along with simplified controls and a cleaner layout, the Mk III adds RF (Radio Frequency) connectivity, which was lacking in the Mk II flashgun, and can work as an RF master or slave.
Power output
TTL flash metering accuracy is spoton, recycling speeds are fast, and maximum output is pretty good. Conventional infrared wireless mode is retained to maximise compatibility, but the RF mode boosts off-camera range from 10 to 30 metres, and is more reliable in bright, outdoor conditions.
TTL accuracy 0.00
T
The Canon outgunned some flashguns on the market that have a higher Gn rating.
Performance
TTL exposures give accurate and consistent results on wide-ranging Canon outfits.
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 2.4 Alkaline 3.4 Speeds match or beat those of the pricer 600EX II-RT.
Digital Camera verdict The slick interface and onboard control layout make this a simple flashgun to use, but it is power-packed and has useful RF connectivity built-in, able to act as both master and slave. 124
4.5
B
It looks a bit average up to 105mm, but really stretches its legs at the long end.
TTL accuracy 0.00
Performance
As you’d expect from a camera manufacturer’s own-brand flashgun, accuracy is excellent.
Performance is excellent in all respects. The interface is very old-school, based on context-sensitive function buttons, but it enables you to set up complex flash parameters quickly and easily.
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 3.2 Alkaline 3.4 It’s a little slower than the 430EX III-RT on NiMH cells.
Digital Camera verdict Outstanding
4.5
4.5
4.5
4.5
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
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Power output
arring the expensive EL-1 (£1,299/£1,099), this is Canon’s most upmarket flashgun for professional photographers. It has a robust, weather-sealed construction and some serious power under the bonnet, with a Gn rating of 60, plus an extended 20-200mm motorised zoom range. Like the 430EX III-RT, it features master and slave wireless modes with RF transmission, adding an infrared master mode instead of just a slave mode. Compared with the previous edition, the Mark II has a coolerrunning design that boosts continuous shooting by up to 50 per cent.
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It’s a powerful pro-grade flashgun, with good RF master/ slave connectivity and great build quality, but the 430EX III-RT does everything nearly as well at much less cost.
4.5
Outstanding
5.0
4.5
5.0
4.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Flashguns Group Test BEST FOR CANON
BEST FOR FUJIFILM
BEST FOR NIKON
BEST FOR MFT
BEST FOR SONY
Hähnel Modus 600 RT Mk II WK £299/$284
Nikon Speedlight SB-700 £269/$327
Power for the people
Limited power but good control
acked with high-end features and a built-in RF transceiver, the Modus 600RT boasts both RF and infrared commander and slave connectivity, along with a powerful Gn 60 maximum power rating and 20-200mm motorised zoom. It’s available in Canon, Fujifilm, MFT, Nikon and Sony dedicated options. Instead of AA batteries, the Hähnel is powered by a rechargeable lithiumion pack. This enables great stamina, with up to 1,000 half-power flashes, along with a 0.7 sec recycling speed. The comprehensive range of flash modes features a stroboscopic option.
Power output
Performance is impressive in all areas. RF triggering never misses a beat and you can link other makes of flashgun to the 600T within an RF group with optional Viper receivers, costing around £69/$79 each.
and consistent for TTL metering throughout our tests.
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There’s plenty of power on tap, and enough juice for 600 full-power flashes.
Performance
5.0
The Gn 38 maximum power rating is the lowest in the group. Even so, it comes pretty close to the Canon 430EX III-RT, at equivalent zoom settings. Recycle speeds are quick on NiMH batteries, and TTL accuracy is spot-on.
TTL metering works well in Nikon’s Balanced Light mode, giving natural-looking results.
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It’s a little down on some here, but the maximum 120mm setting is longer than most.
TTL accuracy 0.00
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 1.5 Alkaline N/A
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 2.7 Alkaline 5.4
The recycling speed is twice as fast as in many flashguns.
It’s quite speedy on NiMH, but a bit sluggish on alkaline cells.
Digital Camera verdict A best-in-class product
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Power output
TTL accuracy 0.00 Performance The Hähnel proved accurate
Digital Camera verdict This phenomenal flashgun has great power, speed and stamina. The Wireless Kit option adds in a wireless RF trigger, at a refreshingly affordable price.
he SB-700 comes complete with colour correction filters for use with both fluorescent and tungsten ambient lighting. Smart features include a range of illumination patterns, a powerful 24-120mm zoom range and wireless commander and slave modes, albeit only with optical connectivity. One niggle is that you can only switch from Nikon’s TTL-BL (Balanced Light) mode to standard TTL on the host camera body. There’s also no programmable repeat mode, but the control panel is simple and intuitive throughout.
It’s not the most powerful flashgun, and switching between regular and ‘balanced light’ TTL metering is a chore, but operation is seamless with Nikon cameras.
4.5
Outstanding
4.0
4.5
4.5
4.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
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Group Test Flashguns
Nikon Speedlight SB-5000 £569/$597
Nissin Di700A + Air 1 £200/$250
It’s powerful, but misses an RF trick Simple yet highly effective igger and more powerful than the SB-700, this is Nikon’s latest top-end flashgun, aimed at the professional market. As such, it has a more powerful Gn 55 rating, a wider 24-200mm zoom range, and a programmable repeat mode. There’s the option of using an external battery pack, and TTL-BL or regular TTL modes can be selected directly. Like the Canon 600EX II-RT, the Nikon has a cool-running system, enabling more than 100 full-power flashes in quick succession. RF connectivity is included, although only in RF slave mode.
Power output
For maximum output at the 105mm zoom setting, the Nikon equals the 600EX II-RT, as well as the two Nissin models on test. TTL metering accuracy is excellent in wide-ranging conditions, and recycling speeds are excellent.
works very well in both regular and TTL-BL modes.
B
The SB-5000 matches or beats all the top-ranking competitors on test.
Performance
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4.0
Recycling speed is very fast, despite a strong maximum power output. The real performance boost comes in the form of the bundled Air 1 Commander, which slots into a hotshoe and enables advanced RF control and triggering of compatible Nissin flashguns.
We had consistent underexposure, so dial in a little positive compensation.
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Maximum power impresses at longer zooms, but drops off more at the short end.
TTL accuracy -0.5
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 2.3 Alkaline 2.9
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 2.2 Alkaline 3.4
It’s the fastest AA-based flashgun on test.
On NiMH, the recycle speed is highly impressive.
Digital Camera verdict Excellent
4.5
4.5
4.5
3.5
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
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Power output
TTL accuracy 0.00 Performance Automatic flash metering
Digital Camera verdict This is unquestionably the most powerful flashgun in Nikon’s stable, but the RF communication system has its limitations, and it’s not particularly great value for money.
he disarmingly simple on-board interface of the Nissin Di700A is based on a solitary Set button and a surrounding control wheel, which sit below a colour screen. Anything beyond rudimentary settings like TTL exposure bias requires the use of on-camera menus. Wireless slave mode via infrared link is available, with three independent groups. There’s also a digital optical slave mode, which ignores the pre-flash pulses of master flashguns, plus a film slave mode, which triggers on the first pulse of light.
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It’s a smart budget choice for advanced wireless options in a simple package. For some recent Nikon Z cameras, you might need to upgrade the Air 10S trigger.
4.5
Outstanding
4.5
4.0
4.5
4.5
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Flashguns Group Test
Nissin i60A £227/$279
Phottix Juno TTL £169/$189
Small with a heavyweight punch
Not just for Canon cameras
Power output
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e’ve all seen compact little flashguns that lack decent power and are bereft of advanced features. The Nissin i60A bucks the trend, shoehorning an awful lot into its diminutive build. There’s a mighty Gn 60 power rating, an oversized 24-200mm motorised zoom range and a full 180 degrees of swivel in both left and right directions. Comprehensive on-board controls are easy to use, thanks to a decent colour display. Wireless infrared and optical slave functions are built in, but optional Air 1 or Air 10S RF triggers are available.
The maximum intensity is pretty astonishing for such a small, lightweight flashgun.
TTL accuracy -0.33
Performance
We often found that TTL flash metering resulted in slight underexposure.
We have no criticisms of the maximum power output throughout the generous zoom range. However, recycle speeds are a little slower than in the fastest flashguns here, and TTL flash metering generally goes a little to the dark side.
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 3.5 Alkaline 3.9 Recycle speeds are perfectly respectable.
Digital Camera verdict Proving that bigger isn’t necessarily better, the i60 is amazingly powerful for such a compact flashgun, and comes complete with an LED constant light and RF receiver.
4.5
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The high maximum power output is remarkable for such an inexpensive flashgun.
TTL accuracy 0.00 It’s consistently accurate with Canon cameras, and for off-camera Nikon flash.
Performance
There’s powerful output over its large zoom range with fast recycling speeds, even after a full-power flash. TTL accuracy in off-camera firing proved consistently reliable in our tests.
Recycle speed (sec) NiMH 2.6 Alkaline 4.1 Recycling is nearly a second quicker than in some models.
Digital Camera verdict Outstanding
4.5
4.5
4.5
5.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Power output
his flashgun has pro-grade power output and features, rock-solid build quality, including a weather-sealed mounting foot, and a generous 20-200mm motorised zoom range, all at a rock-bottom price. It’s only available in a Canon-dedicated option, but can be used as a manual flashgun in the hotshoe of Nikon cameras, barring the Z 6II and the Z 7II. The Juno TTL features a built-in RF transceiver, so can act as a slave with Phottix Odin II, Ares II or Elinchrom Skyport triggers. For example, add a Nikon-dedicated Odin II trigger and the flashgun delivers a full range of Nikon-dedicated modes.
Inexpensive for such a feature-rich and powerful flashgun, the Canon-dedicated Juno TTL is equally viable for off-camera flash with a Nikon camera, via a suitable RF trigger.
4.5
Outstanding
4.5
4.5
4.5
5.0
Features
Build & handling
Performance
Value
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Group Test Flashguns
Hähnel strikes a light
The Hähnel Modus 600RT Mk II WK comes out on top
D
espite its distinctly ‘mid-range’ price tag, the Hähnel Modus 600RT Mk II is a really top-end flashgun with pro-grade handling and features to match. Available in Canon, Fujifilm, MFT, Nikon and Sony options, its lithium-ion power pack enables great stamina and super-fast recycling speeds. The similarly high-end, Canon-dedicated Phottix Juno TTL is a great buy for off-camera
BEST FOR SONY BEST FOR CANON
BEST FOR FUJIFILM
BEST FOR NIKON
BEST FOR MFT
flash, when coupled with an optional Phottix Odin II radio frequency trigger. However, it only enables manual flash modes with Nikon cameras and, in this configuration, it’s incompatible with Z 6II and Z 7II bodies. For an own-brand Canon flashgun, the Canon 600EX II-RT is a pro-spec option, but the clever little 430EX III-RT is the better buy. Similarly, Nikon’s SB-700 is better value than the range-topping SB-5000, even though the
latter has a better feature set. The SB-5000 also boasts an RF receiver, but a transceiver would have been better, as it would have enabled an RF wireless master mode. The two Nissin flashguns on test are both impressive. The i60A is powerful for such a small flashgun, and is available in Canon, Fujifilm, Nikonand Sony-dedicated options. The Di700A is bigger but with a more spartan interface, and adds an MFT option.
How the lenses compare Name Contact Street price Dedication Max claimed Gn (ISO 100, metres) Bounce (degrees) Swivel (left/right) Zoom range Wide-angle diffuser Reflector card Flash exposure compensation Manual power settings Wireless master/slave Additional flash modes Flash info LCD Supplied accessories Dimensions (W x H x D) Weight (excl batts) Features Build & handling Performance Value Overall
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Canon Speedlite Canon Speedlite 430EX III-RT 600EX II-RT www.canon.co.uk
Hähnel Modus 600RT Mk II WK www.hähnel.ie
Nikon Speedlight Nikon Speedlight Nissin Di700A Nissin i60A SB-700 SB-5000 + Air 1 www.nikon.co.uk www.nissindigital.com
£299/$300 C Gn 43
£299/$284 C F MFT N S Gn 60
£269/$327 N Gn 38
0 to 90 degrees -7 to 90 degrees 150 / 180 180 / 180 24-105mm (auto) 20-200mm (auto) 14mm 14mm Yes Yes +/-3EV +/-3EV
-7 to 90 degrees 180 / 180 20-200mm (auto) 14mm Yes +/-3EV
1/1 to 1/128 Slave IR, Master/ Slave RF HSS, RC Yes Pouch, stand, dome, filter 71 x 114 x 98mm
1/1 to 1/128 Master/Slave IR/RF HSS, RC, Strobe Yes Pouch, stand, charger 64 x 190 x 76mm
295g
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£619/$500 C Gn 60
1/1 to 1/128 Master/Slave IR/RF HSS, RC, Strobe Yes Pouch, stand, dome, filters 79 x 143 x 123mm 435g
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430g
£569/$597 N Gn 55
£200/$250 C F MFT N S Gn 54
£227/$279 CFNS Gn 60
-7 to 90 degrees -7 to 90 degrees 180 / 180 180 / 180 24-120mm (auto) 24-200mm (auto) 12mm 14mm Yes Yes +/-3EV +/-3EV
-7 to 90 degrees 180 / 180 24-200mm (auto) 16mm Yes +/-2EV
0 to 90 degrees 180 / 180 24-200mm (auto) 16mm Yes +/-2EV
1/1 to 1/128 Master/Slave IR
1/1 to 1/128 Slave IR/RF
1/1 to 1/256 Master/Slave IR/RF HSS, RC HSS, RC, Strobe Yes Yes Pouch, stand, Pouch, stand, dome, filters dome, filters 71 x 126 x 105mm 73 x 137 x 104mm 360g 420g
Phottix Juno TTL www.theflash centre.com £169/$189 C Gn 60 -7 to 90 degrees 180 / 180 20-200mm 14mm Yes +/-3EV
1/1 to 1/256 Slave IR (optional RF) HSS HSS, RC Yes Yes (colour) Stand, RF Pouch, stand, commander dome 75 x 140 x 115mm 73 x 112 x 98mm
50 x 190 x 80mm
380g
460g
300g
1/1 to 1/128 Slave IR, Master/ Slave RF HSS, Repeat Yes Pouch, stand
www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Software DxO PureRaw
Give your raw processing a head start by running files through PureRaw first.
DxO PureRaw £115/$129
Optimise your raw files before you process them w w w .dxo.com
Windows Requires: Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 or newer processor; 4GB RAM; Windows 10 version 1809 (64-bit) or later macOS Requires: Intel Core i5 or new processor, or Apple silicon; 4GB RAM; macOS 10.14 (Mojave) or later
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ureRaw takes DxO’s existing image processing and lens correction technologies and employs them in an entirely new way. Usually, if you want to get the bestpossible raw processing software, you then have to adopt it as your photo processing workflow. So until now, if you wanted to make the most of DxO’s raw processing expertise, you would have to adopt DxO PhotoLab as your photo editor. Not any more. DxO PureRaw will process your raw files as what DxO calls Linear DNGs, where the key stages of DxO’s processing tech – raw demosaicing, noise reduction and lens correction – are baked into a Linear DNG file, which your regular
P
software will treat as a regular raw file. This means that Lightroom and Photoshop users, for example, still get to leverage all the advantages of raw files – extended dynamic range, full color data and white balance control – but with DxO’s superior raw processing and noise control already applied.
Key features
The technicalities of raw files, demosaicing and lens correction can get very deep, very quickly, but PureRaw keeps all this in the background and presents a simple set of options. You choose your images, then choose the output format you want (usually Linear DNG) and where you want the images saved. www.digitalcameraworld.com
DxO PureRaw Software
The results are absolutely first-rate. DxO’s DeepPrime noise reduction is in a class of its own.
PureRaw will automatically scan your images and find matching camera-and-lens profiles you’ve used before. If they are not already installed, it will find matching profiles online and download them.
There are no adjustment parameters: image enhancements can be left to your regular software. PureRaw simply delivers the best possible raw file for your software to work from. The tech inside PureRaw includes DeepPrime, DxO’s remarkable AI-driven noise reduction and detail reconstruction process. It can take a couple of minutes for each image, but gives exceptional results. It also applies DxO’s lens corrections, chosen automatically from tens of thousands of camera and lens combinations tested by DxO over the years. Many programs now offer automated lens corrections, but DxO’s also incorporate corrections for lens sharpness and edge softness.
Interface and usability
moments, and you only have to do it once. There aren’t many combinations DxO hasn’t tested, and it is constantly adding more. Now you click the Process button to see the processing options, of which there are just three. First you choose between DxO’s High (fast), Prime (good) and DeepPrime processing (the best). Prime processing takes longer, but if you’re running this in the background as a batch process while you get on with something else, you may not mind that. Next, you choose the output format. PureRaw can output regular JPEGs, but to get the full benefit you need the DNG option. Finally, you choose where the new DNG files should be saved.
“The differences quickly become apparent – even transformative”
With low-ISO raws shot with good cameras and lenses, you might not see much difference between PureRaw’s raw files and your software’s own raw rendering. With less-than-good lenses, older cameras and high-ISO shots, the differences quickly become apparent – even transformative. DxO’s processing can bring such images to life with a clarity, detail and noiselessness your camera has never revealed before. The only thing to watch is whether your regular software applies lens corrections and sharpening automatically by default. If so, you will need to disable this, or end up with an image that’s double-corrected or double-sharpened. Rod Lawton
DxO has done an exceptional job in keeping PureRaw simple, even if the technologies within it are quite complex. Everything takes place in a single window where you drag and drop single images you want to process, or a whole folder of images. When you’ve added your images, PureRaw will check to see if it already has a matching camera-and-lens profile. If it hasn’t, it will offer to download it. This takes just a few
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Quality of results
Lightroom, Photoshop, Photo Raw and Capture One all open PureRaw’s Linear DNGs without hassle.
Think big Linear DNG files are larger than the raw files they are derived from. That’s because they have been de-mosaiced by PureRaw to contain full colour information for each pixel – regular raw files just have red, green or blue data for each pixel. Typically, a PureRaw linear DNG will be up to three times larger than the corresponding raw file. Hard drive storage is pretty cheap these days, so that might not be a problem for many photographers. If it is, or if you are using expensive cloud storage, you can just process those raw files where PureRaw will make most difference, notably high-ISO shots where image noise is spoiling the picture. In addition, DxO’s raw process and demosaicing system only works with regular Bayer sensors and colour filter arrays. It won’t work with Fujifilm X-Trans raw files (although it will work with Fujifilm cameras with regular sensors, like the X-T100 and the GFX 100).
5.0
A best-in-class product
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
Features
Interface and usability
Quality of results
Value
If you love DxO’s raw processing but don’t want to swap your existing editing software and workflow, PureRaw is the answer. It gives the best of both worlds – raw files with all the dynamic range and colour control you need in a raw file – but with noise control, detail rendition and lens corrections that your regular software can’t match. SEPTEMBER 2021
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Right: Waris Dirie, Quarzazate, Morocco, 1993.
INTERVIEW
Albert Watson Photographer and film-maker
Born in Edinburgh in 1942, Albert Watson OBE is a celebrated photographer and film-maker. He studied graphic design and film and television before moving to the US in 1970, where he quickly started to build his career. His ‘big break’ came in 1973, with his iconic images of film director Alfred Hitchcock holding a plucked goose for Harper’s Bazaar. Watson’s images have featured on over 100 covers of Vogue and over 40 covers of Rolling Stone. The US publication Photo District News named him as one of the 20 most influential photographers of all time, alongside the likes of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
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This legendary photographer’s latest book sees him passing on his experience and knowledge. He tells Steve Fairclough about the project and his approach to photography or nigh on 50 years, the raw visual power of Albert Watson’s photography has provoked, delighted, entertained and occasionally upset people around the world. His incredibly impressive body of work stretches across many photographic genres – landscape, fashion, beauty, portrait and still-life to name a few – and he is hugely respected amongst fellow photographers. Although he’s been blind in one eye since birth – his first book was cheekily titled Cyclops – Watson has firmly established himself as one of the world’s most influential photographers, so much so that he was awarded an OBE in 2015. Watson is now passing on his invaluable nuggets of advice and experience in a new book, Creating Photographs. The 128-page paperback book is a combination of stunning photography, anecdotes about his career, and advice across many genres and technical aspects of photography. The 20-chapter book came about as a written extension of Watson’s participation in the recent Masters of Photography series of films, which also featured fellow photographers Joel Meyerowitz, Steve McCurry and David Yarrow. Now aged 79, the Scotland-born Watson shows little signs of slowing down but Digital Camera managed to catch up with him via Zoom in his New York studio to talk about his career, his new book, his approach to photography, and what he’s up to next.
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Watson is experienced, opinionated, sometimes controversial, intriguing – but never boring. How are you? Good. Absolutely fine. I’m very lucky with my health. I guess you can’t go too far at the moment? No. I’m fine. I’ve been vaccinated, and things are beginning to open here [in the US] a little bit, so it’s not bad. I actually leave the day after tomorrow [mid-March 2021]. I’m going to Morocco, kind of on business, so I’ll be travelling on Friday evening. I fly to Casablanca, then I go down to Marrakesh after that. In other words, I’m fine. How did the book Creating Photographs come about? Did it come about as a result of the Masters of Photography filming? Yes – it was just a direct lead to that, to the group that came to me to do the [filming]. I was impressed by the group… they had a real vision and they followed me around the world. When I had an opening in Paris, they came to that; when I had an opening in Italy, they came to that; they filmed me at my house in Marrakesh, then they came and watched me working in the studio in New York – so they were pretty diligent in how they were doing this. It was very professionally organised. It followed on with the book. We’d done so many monster books for people like Taschen, where the book weighs 40lbs and it’s a mega, jumbo www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Watson’s work is held in major collections around the world, including in the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2010, he was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of his contribution to the art of photography. In 2015, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an OBE for his services to photography.
Albert Watson
Albert Watson Left: Andy Warhol, New York, 1985. Below: ‘Malcolm X’ fashion story, Harlem, New York, 1992.
book, but the only thing that we said was it was quite good that it was going to be small in format, and it made it more intimate and easy. If you’re looking for inspiration from me, you’re not going to slip my book Kaos in your backpack and go for a jog with it, but you might slip this little one in your backpack, read it as you go to sleep and see if you get something out of it. Even if you read my book and say, “Well, I’m not going to do that,” that’s OK: do your own thing.
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You mention taking risks in the book – can you tell us more about that? I think it was in the context of it being a teaching book. It’s kind of difficult because it’s not teaching in the sense of 2 + 2 = 4. It’s more like my modus operandi. It’s how am I proceeding through? How can I help you out? I’m happy to help you with your photography and this is how I’m working; this is how I would do it, and these are the things that I came up against. I think the risk is to challenge yourself, and to try to step out of where you’re normally doing your thing – is there another way that you can see an image? Is there another way that you can proceed? Is there another way of doing your homework? How can you make you work more exceptional? And – which is really more or less one of the most important things in art – how do you make it memorable? The risktaking is to make sure you are taking a chance sometimes – follow your plan A, and then you can have one or two things up your sleeve. I was lucky enough once, after I’d photographed him, to talk to [Alfred] Hitchcock. He was a storyboard fanatic. He said to me, “Once the storyboard is complete, then the movie’s finished. All I have to do is shoot it.” I asked him, “OK, what happens if you see something that’s not in the storyboard?” He said to me, “If it looks good to me, I’ll shoot it, but I will not leave until I get the storyboard shot.” So just because you have preparation, preparation, preparation, it doesn’t mean to say that if something else happens, you can’t lock on to it and take that chance, take a risk.
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www.digitalcameraworld.com
Albert Watson Can you explain the balance between creativity and technical execution of your shoots? The technical aspect was a pain in the neck for me. The trouble is that some photographers go into photography because they love the technical aspects. I know people that are obsessed by technical things: the latest camera, the latest software, everything – they’re obsessed by that, and a lot of them take terrible pictures. I’ve seen somebody who’s got the best Leica that was ever made, and they take terrible pictures – terrible, I think, because they were so ordinary and flat. All that equipment doesn’t help. I would say the technical aspect, like learning to drive a car, should be a given. You learn to be a photographer, to use your camera and to know the difference between shutter speeds and how they relate to aperture, et cetera – it’s a long list. For me, it was painful to learn, but I did see that it was important in the long run because, once you conquer that, it opens doors for you creatively. The whole thing is about the creativity, not the machinery. What the machinery gives you is a guide, but the analogy with a car is perfect because what’s important is where you’re going, not the car. Where you go creatively is the most important element.
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In terms of lighting, do you have any favourite set-ups, or do you prefer natural light? When I was starting out, I met and had a dinner with Hiro. He was a fabulous photographer who was essentially Avedon’s assistant, and he went on to do amazing things for Harper’s Bazaar in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He said to me, “Learn how to light in the studio, and you’ll always be busy.” Looking back, I would say that’s essential. What do I prefer? I don’t prefer anything. I prefer to be able to light in a studio, and I prefer to be able to light with natural light. I prefer to be able to use tungstens or HMIs or strobes, and mix everything together in a blender if necessary. I prefer that I don’t have a preference. Sometimes natural light is magic and is perfect.
Above: Alfred Hitchcock, Los Angeles, 1973. Below: Mick Jagger in Car with Leopard, Los Angeles, 1992.
How does your instinct help your work? When I first got a camera in my hand. that device massively influenced me. It became an obsession. The camera itself became an object of desire. It was great just to see something that you find interesting, fascinating, and record it. In those days, you’d process your film, put it in a negative carrier and print it on a piece of white paper… the image comes up. All of that, when I first came in touch with that, was magic. I became obsessed by photography, and still am to a great degree. I expanded on it a lot from where I was, but if you don’t have that deep passion [it’s not worth it]. As far as instinct is concerned, you better make damn sure that you love this to pieces. Then you love it a little bit more, you’re passionate about it, you’re obsessed with it and you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. You must have a drive in photography to be in any way successful
“You must have a drive in photography to be successful, even if you’re an amateur” www.digitalcameraworld.com
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Albert Watson
“Working hard and intensely can bring you luck because of your determination”
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on Steve Jobs to have a four-hour conversation with Steve Jobs about his life. It’s not that I would use all that information but, when I approached him, it was in my head to use. That’s part of preparation, preparation, preparation. When I went to the Isle of Skye; I went in October and November because I wanted bad weather. The only book I had with me was a book of landscape paintings by Degas. The thing that fascinated me was that there would be the most average hill in one of his paintings – the kind of thing no landscape photographer would touch. But Degas stops, sets up his easel and begins painting this rather boring hill and transforms it into a work of art. He manages to transform that landscape into a multi-million-dollar painting. But it was the banality of the subject and how he was able to transform it into a piece of art… that was the main driving force in that project. How do I take something like just a rock and turn it into something that’s powerful? If I saw something quite dramatic, I’d take a picture of it, but I was more open to sometimes a grove of Rowan trees that were just so simple, and to see how I could manipulate them. I knew I would be working quite extensively with Photoshop in a lot of the images, because I knew that Photoshop was going to help me achieve what I wanted to achieve. Of course, there’s a great danger with Photoshop that it can take you down a road that you think is OK, but it’s full of pitfalls. I’ve had 45 years of analogue, so I’m pretty careful with [Photoshop editing].
Above: Breaunna in Cat Mask, Las Vegas Hilton, 2001.
with it, even if you’re an amateur. Over the years I’ve come across the work of some amateurs that I was really impressed with, and they were very obsessed by photography, but they ended up being a civil servant. One person I met in Japan, whose pictures I thought were stunning… anything outside of his nine-to-five job, he was obsessed by photography. You shoot across a lot of different genres. Does your approach change due to subject matter? Yeah. Some things are remarkably similar, and there are certain things that you can apply. For example, when I went to photograph Steve Jobs… guess what? I did a lot of homework on Steve Jobs. I had newspaper articles on him, magazine articles… I read the history of Steve Jobs. I had enough information
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In the book, you mention about luck playing a part – how has it affected your work and career? Sometimes luck comes to those who are working obsessively. In other words, sometimes because of your endeavour, because of your determination; because you set your alarm for four o’clock in the morning, and you get up and have breakfast at 10 past four, and you’re on a road at 4.30 and it’s pitch black… you don’t really feel like getting up at four in the morning, it’s painful; and then you get the most magnificent rain shower as the sun comes up – www.digitalcameraworld.com
Albert Watson Right: Leslie Winer in Yohji Yamamoto, London, 1989. Far right: Gigi Hadid in Iris van Herpen, New York, 2019. Below right: Fun City Motel, Las Vegas, 2000.
it’s torrential rain and something magical happens. You could say, ‘Wow, you got lucky with the light and the rain.’ That’s true, because there is luck there, but if I hadn’t got up at four o’clock in the morning and gotten out there, I wouldn’t have seen it. If I’d gotten up at seven o’clock or eight o’clock and trundled out at 9.15, all of that was gone, disappeared. That’s just one example, but I think working hard and intensely can bring you luck because of your determination. Listen: there were plenty of occasions when I was not lucky. It wasn’t as if I was walking through my life, and I was lucky, lucky, lucky. Things went against me [too]. Would you like readers to get anything in particular out of the Creating Photographs book? Yeah, absolutely… otherwise I wouldn’t do it. It’s not a monetary thing. I don’t know what money’s involved in this book; but I can make more from an 8 x 10 Polaroid than this project, so why do it? You do it because you’re hoping to help photographers who are just starting out a little bit. Or they can read it and say, “I’m gonna do something completely different.” That’s fine: take me out of the equation and do something completely different. It might force them in a different direction, but, hopefully, they will get some inspiration from it.
www.digitalcameraworld.com
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I remember talking to you about shooting the 2019 Pirelli calendar with Phase One cameras – are you still shooting with Phase One? Yeah. I like it. I find it pretty reliable, and the back-up systems for it are pretty good. We had a problem with a Phase One recently and I had a replacement in my hand in 45 minutes. When I did the Skye project, they flew somebody over with additional equipment, in case I needed it, who was with me for SEPTEMBER 2021 DIGITA L CAMERA
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Left: Tree in Mist, Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye, 2013.
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Creating Photographs by Albert Watson is published by Laurence King Books (ISBN: 978-1-7862-7883-8), £14.99/$19.99. www.laurenceking.com
the first two or three days. So they’re very good. For a professional [photographer], they have very good back up. It seems to work pretty well, but I would have changed cameras if it didn’t work very well. What’s coming up next for you? One of the things I’m working on right now is a book that’s a real mix of my work, and is probably not so commercially viable. I found Instagram quite amusing… sometimes you put a shot on that has a glimpse of a breast, and you get 9,000 likes on it. Then you put the most beautiful photograph 138
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on there, that is a far superior photograph, and you might be lucky to get 800 likes. People on Instagram… sometimes they’re not photographers – they’re just people who look at a nude of Kate Moss, and then 9,000 people love it. Sometimes a finer, more powerful photograph doesn’t quite do the same thing. The book that I’m working on is to really challenge a little bit of that. Probably a lot of the images will not be so appealing to the masses, but hopefully will appeal more to, let’s say, ‘serious’ photographers. It’s more like an art book. www.digitalcameraworld.com
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May 2021 Take your best-ever travel photos with our guide / Best portrait lenses on test / Make the most of motion blur / Harry Gruyaert and Olga Michi interviews / Sony Alpha 1 on test / 101 Dream Travel Locations ebook to download
Jan 2021 Take your best-ever photos in 2021: 29 techniques and tips / Food photography basics / Quintin Lake interview / Studio lighting masterclass / Sony Alpha 7C and Nikon Z 6II reviews / 60 minutes of video training / B&W FX kit for Photoshop
shoot like a pr Enhance your photography skills with professional secrets
196
pages of practical tips, tricks and techniques
Take your landscapes To The nexT level Discover how to earn money from your captures add video To your reperToire wiTh Top-class advice 99.41£
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Improve your photos the easy way! This beginner’s guide explains your camera’s features and reveals how to use them to shoot stunning images of landscapes, children, animals and more… 196 pages
www.digitalcameraworld.com
20 custom lightbeam brushes
PLUS! STAY AT HOME CAMERA COLLEGE HOTSHOTS
148
PAGES OF TOP PHOTO ADVICE
Top techniques for the new season Flowers Wildlife And more!
Fun photography to enjoy locally
FUJIFILM X-E4
Brent Stirton on saving the planet
Issue 245
14 CREATIVE WAYS TO
STAY AT HOME
GROUP TEST
8 best optics for street shooting
PHOTO ACTIVE
258-page Buyer’s Guide
Issue 241 Spring 2021 • www.digitalcameraworld.com
SHOOT SPRING
Top tips for shooting at home and abroad Landscapes Cityscapes Portraits
10 fun projects to shoot right now!
Photoshop & Affinity video training
148
TAKE YOUR BEST EVER
PAGES OF TOP PHOTO
The world’s favorite photography magazine
PAGES OF PHOTO ADVICE!
TRAVEL PHOTOS Issue 242 May 2021 • www.digitalcameraworld.com
148
9 all-new tips cards
ON TEST PHOTO PRINTERS • CANON RF 70-200mm F/4L IS FUJIFILM GFX 100S FREE INSIDE 9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS
FREE INSIDE! 9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS • LOCATIONS EBOOK ON TEST THE 8 BEST LENSES FOR PORTRAITS • SONY A1
9 PHOTO TIPS CARDS • 20 PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES • 60 MINS OF VIDEO • & MORE!
SEPTEMBER 2021
Spring 2021 14 creative ways to shoot Spring: top techniques for the new season / Best A4 and A3+ photo printers on test / Shoot your best-ever landscapes / Fujifilm GFX 100S hands-on preview / Tom Stoddart and Jeremy Walker interviews
Dec 2020 Improve your landscapes by busting 10 myths of scenic photography / Steve McCurry and Doug Allan interviews / ND filter kits on test / Macro photography basics / 84 minutes of video training / 26 organic borders / 10 grunge effects
Shoot Like A Pro Enhance your camera skills with professional secrets! Discover unused potential in your digital camera; approach photo projects in a new way for high-end captures; and find out how to handle your images post-capture. 196 pages
DIGITA L CAMERA
147
What the f-stop? with Chris George
How much do you really know about photography? Test yourself to the max every issue with our tricky trivia quiz!
A B C D
sort of camera (shown here 7 What in an ‘X-ray’ graphic) is this? Mirrorless camera DSLR Bridge camera Zoom compact
how many stops does an 8 By ND1000 filter cut down the light?
A B C D
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celebrity photographer is a 1 This celebrity in his own right. But in A B C D
A B C D
A B C D
146
which field did he first find fame? As an actor As a singer As a soccer star As a model
of these abbreviations 2 isWhich the odd one out? ASA DIN ISO APO
which photographic area is Back 3 InSide Illumination technology used? Studio lighting Electronic viewfinder design Sensor design Computer monitors DIGITA L CAMERA
Which of these is not a 4 slider in Camera Raw? Whites Blacks Greys Highlights
A B C D
is the colour 5 What temperature of candlelight on the Kelvin scale? 6,500K 5,000K 3,000K 1,850K
A B C D
A B C D
is the aspect ratio of images 6 What shot on an APS-C DSLR?
SEPTEMBER 2021
4:3 3:2 3:4 16:9
A B C D
1 10 100 1,000
is the complementary colour 9 What of cyan on an RGB colour wheel? Blue Yellow Red Green
company now owns 10 Which the Pentax brand?
A B C D
Canon Yashica Noritsu Ricoh
How did you do?
10 points You’re a photo mastermind! 8-9 points Fantastic, you’re a brainiac 6-7 points Really good score 4-5 points Respectable, but no cigar 2-3 points We’ll keep your score secret 0-1 points Epic fail
D 01 ,C 9 ,B 8 ,A 7 ,B 6 ,D 5 ,C 4 ,C 3 ,D 2 ,B 1 SREWSNA
www.digitalcameraworld.com
ISSUE 246 COLLECT YOUR EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL CAMERA TIP CARDS EVERY MONTH LANDSCAPES
LAYERS OF LIGHT
ACTION
JUMPING DOLPHINS
MACRO
GET CREATIVE
BLOWING BUBBLES
BLACK AND WHITE
DRAMATIC CONTRAST
WILDLIFE
WILDLIFE
ARCHITECTURE
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
PORTRAIT-STYLE
COMPOSITES
SUMMER INSECTS
PERCHING PUFFINS
NIGHT SKY BASICS
Head to www.digitalcameraworld.com for more photography tips
COLLECT YOUR EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL CAMERA TIP CARDS EVERY MONTH HOW TO SHOOT… MACRO
HOW TO SHOOT… ACTION
SUMMER INSECTS
ISO 200
LAYERS OF LIGHT
JUMPING DOLPHINS
KIT CHECKLIST… Tripod, macro lens FOR YOUR FIRST SHOT, TRY... f/2.8
HOW TO SHOOT… LANDSCAPES
KIT CHECKLIST… Telephoto lens FOR YOUR FIRST SHOT, TRY... 1/600 sec
HOW TO SHOOT… WILDLIFE
TIPS FOR GETTING A GREAT SHOT… Setting the camera to burst mode will help you get shots of the dolphins as they move alongside the boat. A 100-400mm is the perfect lens, with the flexibility to zoom in and out as the fast-moving action happens. Dolphins are social animals and travel in pods. If you’re lucky, you’ll capture adult females with calves
Shoot during golden hour to capture the beautiful, diffused light being created by the low sun
HOW TO SHOOT… BLACK AND WHITE
PERCHING PUFFINS
HOW TO SHOOT… CREATIVE
DRAMATIC CONTRAST
BLOWING BUBBLES
KIT CHECKLIST… Kit lens FOR YOUR FIRST SHOT, TRY... ISO 100
f/16
1/15 sec
Also known as the sea parrot, the puffin’s charismatic beak makes for beautiful imagery
Use Matrix/Evaluative metering mode to give yourself the best chance of a good exposure
Like all creative endeavours, the trick is to be patient. Experiment and most importantly have fun!
HOW TO SHOOT… ARCHITECTURE
HOW TO SHOOT… ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
Anything you can shoot easily at home will be a great way of practising your photography. Prepare the mixture To prepare the bubble mixture, you need a ratio of approximately 1:3 of washing-up liquid towater. Use a darker background Bubbles stand out on a dark background and there are fewer reflection problems. A small dark saucerworks perfectly well. Use a tripod You can try shooting handheld, but a tripod will give you a far better chance of capturing the bubbles before they pop!
HOW TO SHOOT… WILDLIFE
COMPOSITES
NIGHT SKY BASICS
PORTRAIT-STYLE WILDLIFE KIT CHECKLIST… Prime lens FOR YOUR SHOTS, TRY... f/1.4
When you start compositing images, the greatest challenge is to make them look realistic APERTURE
ISO
SHUTTER SPEED
ISO 100
1/800 sec
TIPS FOR GETTING A GREAT SHOT… Shoot portraits as shallow as possible: this will lead to your subject standing out against a blurry backdrop. Leave some ‘looking room’ on whichever side your subject is looking into, to help create a pleasing composition. Shoot with a prime lens: it will produce sharper images – and the use of faster shutter speeds
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Composite images can be a fun way to depict a scene you can’t shoot in camera. Match elementstogether First chooseelements where the perspective matches. Second, make sure that the light source is relatively similar in each shot. Spend time on selections It will take time to make accurate choices of shots to edit together, but this process will make a huge difference to your final image. Use colour When your imageis nearly completed, use a colour gradient or a gradient map to pull the composite image together.
Initially increase your ISO to help your focusing, then turn it back to the setting you wish to shoot at
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TIPS FOR GETTING A GREAT SHOT… Using a lower shutter speed will allow more ambient light into your shot, which will result in brighter highlights. Black-and-white images are all about contrast; shoot to capture dark blacks and bright whites to edit afterwards.
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The window of opportunity is short, as puffins only return to land over the summer. Study their behaviour If you observe a small group for a long time, you’ll start to see quirky moves or angles that will make for interesting photos. Shoot in bursts True to their name, puffins often puff up, stretch and shake their feathers. If you witness this, then hold that shutter down! Experiment with settings With time likely to be limited, it can be tempting to stick to basic settings – but try to push the limits of your equipment.
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The UK is home to around 60 types of butterfly; summer is the best time to use your macro lens
1/2,000 sec
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TIPS FOR GETTING A GREAT SHOT… Shooting raw files will allow you to shoot backlit images and recover the highlight details later during editing. Having your tripod head slightly loose will allow you to easily reframe your shot as the flowers move in the wind.
Astro has a reputation for being expensive, but all you need is a camera and a lens. Use manual focus Switch to live view and zoom in on the brightest star you can find, then focus. Autofocus will struggle to find anything. Reduce camera shake Use your camera’s built-in shutter delay to avoid touching the body as it shoots. You can typically set it for two or 10 seconds. Apply the 500 Rule 500 divided by the focal length of your lens equals the longest exposure (in seconds) before stars start to trail.
ISO 800
f/5.6
Summer light can offer incredible illumination for landscape photography. Use a mid-range aperture To get the sharpest, clearest image possible, it’s best to shoot with a midrange aperture of about f/8. Conventionalcomposition Using the rule of thirds, it will be helpful to include visual elements in the foreground, midground and background. Level up For optimum image quality, set the ISO as low as you can while still being able to select the aperture that meets your needs
2021 PREVIEW PHOTOGRAPHYSHOW.COM
18-21 sept 2021 The NEC, Birmingham
MASTER CLASSES
BEGINNERS’ PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS
Saturday 18 September or Sunday 19 September (repeated), Toute Suite (outside Hall 1); £10 Start your photography journey by learning some essential lessons from the experts. There’s a charge of £10 for this four-part programme, in addition to the show entry fee – choose either Saturday or Sunday morning.
10:30-11:05
Understanding the exposure triangle Exploring the fundamentals of camera settings and theory.
Laurence Norah
11:05-11:40
Equipment to get you started A jargon-busting session covering the essential kit for beginners, and showing the advantages in choosing the right gear.
Angela Nicholson
11:50-12:25
Zero to flash An introduction to flash, plus budget-friendly kit ideas and techniques to start using straight away.
Chris Ord
12:25-13:00
Fundamentals of editing Editing techniques for beginners to help you get the most out of your photos, and how to get started in Photoshop.
EJ Lazenby
12 • www.photographyshow.com | 18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham
TURNING PRO MASTERCLASS
Saturday 18 September or Sunday 19 September (repeated), Masterclass Theatre; £10 Looking to make the jump from enthusiast to professional photographer? This half-day masterclass will help you to understand the benefits of going pro and what to watch out for. There’s a small charge of £10 for this halfday programme. Choose either Saturday or Sunday morning.
10:00-10:30
PHOTOGRAPHY PRO MASTERCLASS
Monday 20 September, Masterclass Theatre; £10 for one morning, £15 for two A two-day conference offering in-depth commercial advice and creative ideas. Come for one or two mornings.
10:00-10:30
Maximising your presence Learn how to maximise your presence online and diversify in this ever-changing industry. Ben Moore
What I wish I’d known when starting out The most important things to be aware of, for turning your creative passion into a fulfilling and profitable business.
10:30-11:00
10:30-11:00
Kaye Ford
Saraya Cortaville
Using social media as part of your marketing Key tips for success on socials, and how personality and the message you put across are what clients really want to see.
Making photography your full-time career Success stories, frank experiences and advice for creating your own successful business.
11:10-11:40
11:10-11:40
Emma Richards
Denise Maxwell on Saturday; Tori ‘Lens’ Taiwo on Sunday
How to protect your creative work with copyright Learn how copyright can be used to protect your creative work.
Shoot what makes your heart sing Learn to shoot what you love, putting that passion into creating a business that really works for you.
11:40-12:10
11:40-12:10
Paul Wilkinson
Fabrizia Costa
Bridging the void A pro photographer goes through techniques and tactics to survive and thrive for financial longevity. Tom Martin
Mastering the art of in-person sales The key elements to in-person sales techniques that are easy to implement.
PHOTOGRAPHY PRO MASTERCLASS
Tuesday, 21 September, Masterclass Theatre; £10 for one morning, £15 for two
10:00-10:30
A photographic career is not just about photography Why being different and offering a unique vision can lead to more work. Paul Hill
10:30-11:00
Turn your website into a marketing machine Learn how to use your website to generate new leads on autopilot. Melissa Love
11:10-11:40
From personal projects to paid work Find out how to pitch, what to say, and what not to say! Tommy Reynolds
18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham | www.photographyshow.com • 13
11:40-12:10
Mindset in business Tips to overcome limiting habits and grow to boost your business.
Michelle Szpak
BEGINNERS’ VIDEO MASTERCLASS
Saturday 18 September or Sunday 19 September (repeated), Toute Suite (outside Hall 1); £10 Start your video-making journey by learning some essential lessons from the experts. There’s a charge of £10 for this four-part programme, in addition to the show entry fee – choose either Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
14:00-14:35
15:55 - 16:30
Rick Bronks
Jimmy Cheng
Getting started in video The basics of getting started in video, from initial planning to simple techniques of filming.
Filling your first video kit bag Find out the kit you will need to get you started, from camera bases to lens choices for all budgets.
VIDEO PRO MASTERCLASS
14:35-15:10
Telling stories through moving image How to gather material and use it to compose a story that makes sense, whatever kind of video you’re making.
Monday 20 March, Toute Suite (outside Hall 1); £10 for one morning, £15 for two mornings A conference offering in-depth commercial advice and ideas for filmmakers. Come for either one or two mornings.
Caroline Scott
15:20-15:55
10:30-11:05
Video editing for beginners Everything you need to know to start editing video footage and get great results.
How I didn’t sink in the pandemic Find out how to use your existing skills and teach yourself new ones to bring in income.
Emily Malden
Rick Bronks
TOUTE SUITE
Some of our Masterclasses are held in the Toute Suite, which is found in the Piazza entrance area. The rest of the masterclasses are held on the Masterclass Theatre in Hall 2. Hall 3
Piazza
Hall 3a
Hall 2
Hall 4
Hall 1
Hall 5
Toute Suite Suite entrance
Main Entrance
14 • www.photographyshow.com | 18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham
Main Entrance
11:05-11:40
11:05-11:40
Ben Maclean
Ashleigh Jadee
Working to a brief and making it outstanding Learn everything you need to know to exceed a brief, from location scouting to nailing the edit.
11:50-12:25
How to leverage your skills as a videographer and work with brands How to leverage your skill set and monetise your work through brand partnerships. Eulanda Shead Osagiede
12:25-13:00
Video content creation for photographers becoming a multidisciplinary artist Create quality video content with the DSLR you already have to add value to your business. Calvin Chinthaka
Personal branding and social media Advice for creating a personal brand and effectively marketing yourself.
11:50-12:25
The price is right: What to charge for your work The best ways to price your work and get it in front of the right people. Emma Wilson
12:25-13:00
Getting ahead in commercial and branded film Learn the key aspects of securing clients, working with agencies, choosing equipment, and working with big brands. Jonathan Edwards
VIDEO PRO MASTERCLASS
Tuesday, 21 September, Toute Suite (outside Hall 1); £10 for one morning, £15 for two mornings
10:30-11:05
Get your film seen and heard: Practical tools for success Learn about the different ways to fund your film, and implement a social media strategy that works. Rehmat Rayatt
18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham | www.photographyshow.com • 15
STAND-BY-STAND GUIDE TO 150+ EXHIBITORS
1901 FOTOGRAFI
F
603
99 PERCENT LIFESTYLE
K
705
Fine leather neck straps, wrist straps and camera bags. A magazine that focuses on the world’s best creators and entrepreneurs.
ACEBIL
Professional camera support equipment including tripods, dollies and jibs.
ADAPTALUX LTD
Innovative miniature lighting studio that’s ideal for macro.
J
J
302 103
AFFINITY PHOTO PHOTO LIVE STAGE Affinity Photo is a powerful, low-cost
professional image-editing program for macOS, Windows and iPadOS. M 303 AJ’S Providers of professional lighting and other studio equipment. H 600 ALAMY LIMITED The world’s most diverse stock library, with over 155 million images. AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER N 600 A magazine providing articles on equipment reviews, photographic technique, and profiles of pro photographers. ANALOGUE WONDERLAND G 603 A supplier of 200+ analogue films from around the world.
ARTIBO
K
202
ARTPOINT
H
101
Fine-art photographic books. Greek photo album printing and binding company.
BELLINI FOTO ANALOGUE SPOTLIGHT Analogue products created specially for the passionate analogue photographer.
BLACK VELVET STYLING
H 401 The UK’s largest selection of awardwinning printed backdrops for food and product photography. CAMERA RESCUE G 701, G 803 A specialist in buying, testing and restoring old analogue cameras.
16 • www.photographyshow.com | 18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham
CAMERAWORLD
CHROMA CAMERA
ANALOGUE SPOTLIGHT
Colourful, low-cost, large-format analogue film cameras.
CLICK PROPS
C 608, C 700 Creative backgrounds and newborn art props for more interesting images and bigger sales. D 801 THE CIVIL AVIATION
AUTHORITY
Authoritative tuition on the latest rules and regulations for drone users to ensure safety and security for all. C 801 COLEG GWENT Training courses for professional photographers in Pontypool. M 202 COLORWORLD IMAGING Professional photo printing services firm in the north-east of England. L 91 CONTOUR DESIGN UK LTD Ergonomic mice and other computer peripherals designed to take the strain out of editing. B 399 COVERDRONE Insurance cover for commercial and recreational drone users.
CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE
F
Expert tuition in landscape and outdoor photography, from beginner to pro levels.. CREATIVITY BACKGROUNDS N Suppliers of high-quality photography studio backdrops, backgrounds and flooring. K DARLING LITTLE YOU UK-based luxury newborn photography prop maker. E DEITY MICROPHONES Manufacturer of unique microphones and products that get any audio job done. DIGITAL CAMERA MAGAZINE F The definitive monthly guide to DSLR and CSC photography, Digital Camera is the UK’s bestselling photography magazine. Check out our show-exclusive subscription offer at the stand!
800 201 103 400 406
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C 500 Photo retailer offering fantastic show deals on cameras, lenses, accessories and second-hand gear. E 603 CANCER RESEARCH A cancer research and awareness charity whose aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. N 400, N 500 CANON Award-winning EOS DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, pro video, Pixma and large-format printers. Canon also has its own theatres, running talks from top-name photographers during all four days of show. L 101 CANVASBAY One of the largest manufacturers of photo canvases in the UK. E 401 CAPIX Capix Ltd is a long-established supplier of professional film and paper processing equipment within the UK. K 103 CAKE SMASH PROPS Supplier of a wide range of cake smash outfits and props, as well as sitter outfits, newborn props and posing aids. N 100 CBL DISTRIBUTION LTD Books to suit all photography enthusiasts, whether you are a beginner or a professional. E 406 CEWE CEWE Photoworld produces Europe’s number-one photo book, with more than 35 million copies sold to date. N 102 CHILLBLAST High-spec computers designed for photo and video editors who demand the highest PC performance.
18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham | www.photographyshow.com • 17
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER
F 406 The monthly magazine for the serious enthusiast and the semipro. Visit our stand for a brilliant subscription offer! DISABLED PHOTOGRAPHERS’ B 700
SOCIETY
Charity promoting photography for people with disabilities. Second-hand gear is on sale – so grab a bargain! DRONE PILOT ACADEMY N 601 Drone training and qualifications for enthusiasts and commercial pilots. K 601 DUNNS IMAGING Albums and framing for pros, and web/print solutions for school photographers. EOS MAGAZINE & ACADEMY N 301 Expert Canon tuition and training. D 500 EPSON Makers of a wide range of quality products for photographers, from A4 and A3 photo printers to largeformat output, and from scanners to projectors. H 601 EVERYBOOTH Deluxe photobooths for weddings, parties and corporate events. B 601 FJ WESTCOTT High-end lighting equipment for professional filmmakers and photographers. J 304 FOLIO ALBUMS Leaders in the handcrafting of fine-art photographic products and wedding albums. L 200 FOTOPRO Professional camera, video and phone tripods, monopods, cages and accessories. D 600 FOTOSPEED Market leader in darkroom supplies, digital inkjet paper and more.
FRAMES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
J
605 GRAPHISTUDIO
Framing products and services; from chromaluxe panels to bespoke framing. J 500 FUJIFILM One of the best-regarded imaging brands worldwide, with an award-winning range of cameras, photographic papers and instant print solutions to suit every photographic experience from beginner to professional. M 207 GILLIS LONDON Fine-quality leather camera bags, featuring timeless design and ethical sourcing. M 500 GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION Leading technology provider of brands including Atomos, Red, MLogic and Hedbox.
MASTERCLASS THEATRE
Hand-made albums, books and prints for the professional photographer. E 601 GREENPEACE A charity promoting a green and peaceful world. M 102 GUIDE DOGS Sponsor a guide puppy and follow every step of their amazing journey. GUILD OF PHOTOGRAPHERS N 202 Training courses, networking, support, insurance and discounts. G 406 HAHNEMUEHLE Germany’s oldest paper-makers, supporting your photo prints. M 100 HELLOFRESH The UK’s leading recipe box, delivered direct to your door.
18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham | www.photographyshow.com • 19
KASE FILTERS
HPRC/BARBER SHOP
G 401 Distributors of Ona, Barber Shop and HPRC bags and cases. F 604 ILFORD PHOTO The UK’s only film manufacturer, bringing photographers a selection of leading black-and-white films, papers, chemicals and accessories. J 200 IMO STRAP Fashionable and functional camera straps and bags. N 203 INFOCUS INSURANCE Insurance cover for camera equipment and business liabilities.
INTREPID CAMERA COMPANY
ANALOGUE SPOTLIGHT
Large-format 5x4 and 10x8 film cameras, made in Brighton using a mix of traditional carpentry and modern manufacturing. D 400 INNOVA ART UK-based maker of inkjet media and image display products.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE
H
105
UK government body responsible for trademarks and copyright.
INTERFIT SHUTTER STREET STAGE Innovative, high-quality, professional lighting products and accessories that enable photo and video artists to expand their creativity. J 401 IRIX / GENESIS Wide-angle prime lenses from a new name in fine-quality SLR optics. G 800 IT’S ALL SAVVY LTD Business management software that helps photographers spend less time on admin tasks. J 600 JUST LIMITED Just supplies a wide range of cleaning products and provides sensor-cleaning tutorials. D 700 K&F CONCEPT Suppliers of flashguns, filters, bags, tripods, microphones and more.
N 300 Filters for photographers, including light pollution and precision focusing filters for astrophotography. N 701 KOWA OPTIMED Offers digiscopes and adaptors as an alternative to long lenses for wildlife photography. H 404 LEE FILTERS Full range of camera filter systems, including the LEE Bug (for GoPro), the Eagle Eye (for drones), the Seven5 System for CSCs, and more. E 502 LENS FLIPPER Clever device that allows you to attach a spare lens to a strap or belt. G 605 LENSES FOR HIRE Wide range of cameras and lenses for Canon EF and RF, Nikon F and Z, Fujifilm X, Sony FE, and Micro Four Thirds system to hire. K 101 LENSPIMP Lens hire company specialising in Canon and Nikon DSLRs. K 102 LEXAR Memory cards, flash drives and card readers. C 803 LIGHT BLUE SOFTWARE Photo business software that tracks enquiries, manages quotes, sends invoices and more. J 400 LONDON CAMERA
EXCHANGE
One of Britain’s best-known camera stores – visit The Photography Show stand for fantastic deals. N 208 LONGRIDGE MOUNT
CUTTERS
Bevel-mount cutting systems for mounting boards, mats and more. M 205 MS HOBBIES Everything for the Minox enthusiast, from vintage spy cameras to film.
22 • www.photographyshow.com | 18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham
MASTER PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION
C
602 NATASHA J BELLA
International not-for-profit organisation, committed to raising the standards of photography. L 501 MATTERPORT All-in-one reality capture system that gives you realistic and interactive 3D and VR experiences. MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERS L 600 The world’s leading emergency humanitarian aid organisation. E 803 MOBIUS High-quality affordable camera bags and jackets. H 200 MORLOVE An all-in-one solution for your photographic, aerial, video and multimedia media requirements. H 602 MUSIC VINE The go-to source of music tracks for production companies. H 201 MYCASEBUILDER Custom-made inserts for hard cases – design your own online.
E 402 Training photographer and course leader in model photography. J 204 NEWELL PRO Reliable and affordable power products for photographers and videomakers. B 600 NIKON A world leader in digital imaging, precision optics and photo and video capture technologies; globally recognised for setting new standards in product design and performance for an award-winning array of equipment that enables visual storytelling and content creation. C 603 NOMAD OF MARKET
HARBOROUGH NPHOTO
F 500 A printing lab that produces highquality, hand-crafted photo products for professional photographers. F 406 N-PHOTO The award-winning independent monthly magazine for Nikon photographers.
OLYMPUS UK
The latest OM-D line up and incredible M.Zuiko lenses from the world-renowned camera manufacturer Olympus.
L
500
OMNICHARGE
G 801 Portable power packs for laptops, cameras and more. J 604 ONLINEPAPER.CO.UK The go to shop for all the leading brands of inkjet paper. H 604 ORANGEMONKIE Makers of the Foldio all-in-one portable product studio and 360° VR turntable. PATERSON PHOTOGRAPHIC F 700 Best-known for its darkroom equipment and its Benbo tripods. G 500 PERMAJET A pioneer in continuous ink systems and ICC colour, with the world’s biggest range of inkjet papers. M 103 THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S
GUIDES
The UK’s finest landscape
18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham | www.photographyshow.com • 23
PIXAPRO
Specialist in studio-lighting equipment and accessories.
K
404 REMEMBER MY BABY
Charity offering photography services for bereaved parents.
H
150
PIXL-LATR ANALOGUE SPOTLIGHT ROCKY NOOK
photography locations within a series of guidebooks.
PHOTOGRAPHIC ALLIANCE OF GREAT BRITAIN
J
201
Coordinates activities across photographic clubs in the UK.
PHOTOGRAPHY ONLINE
H 205 Show intended to inspire, educate and entertain anyone with a passion for photography. They also run workshops and photographic holidays around the globe. M 504 PHOTOGUARD Insurance cover for everyone, from full-time pros to enthusiasts. E 801 PHOTOJOURNEY Specialist photographic workshops in Nepal, with ex-Gurkha officers turned pro photographers. K 300 PHOTOMART Equipment and consumables used for photo printing in commercial and professional applications. F 406 PHOTOPLUS The biggest and best magazine for every Canon EOS photographer, with show-exclusive subscription deals. G 704 PHOTOXPORT High-quality photographic products, including printing, since 1989. PICTURE BLAST EVENTS L 105 The original Selfie Post Box.
Low-cost solution for digitising film in 35mm, 120 and 5x4 formats. F 600 PLASTIC SANDWICH Complete portfolio presentation packages, including leather casings. N 206 PLOT-IT UK home for the HP DesignJet and Canon imagePROGRAF wide-format printers, ink and media. N 703 PRO PRINT SOLUTIONS Suppliers of Canon large-format printers and 3D printers. H 103 THE RIGHT KIT Interchangeable lenses for your smartphone, plus mobile photography accessories. H 400 RØDE MICROPHONES Premium mics and audio accessories, including the best-selling VideoMic.
N 200 American publisher of educational books on photography. J 202 SECRET ATLAS TRAVEL Arctic photo tours and cruises. L 103 SELFIE WIZARD The Selfie Wizard allows guests at an event to upload photos from their own phones to a TV slideshow and produce instant prints. N 602 SHECLICKS A community for female photographers with a friendly, informative vibe. G 801 SHIFTCAM Designs photography and videography gear for mobile phones. Perfect your mobile creation journey with lens and grip solutions. H 301 SIGMA IMAGING Check out the full range of Art,
18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham | www.photographyshow.com • 25
SOLARCAN
Sports and Contemporary lenses, and try out the new Sigma fp L mirrorless camera.
SILVERPAN ANALOGUE SPOTLIGHT FILM LAB Bespoke film developing, scanning and prints for enthusiasts. M 201 SIM IMAGING Supplier of quality photo books and photo albums. L 607 SKY Explore the future of TV as Sky brings you all the best content, all in one place. E 605 SKYLUM Developer of the AI photo-editing app Luminar AI. B 400 SMOVE Innovative photo booths and photo booth accessories. H 100 THE SOCIETIES A group of organisations incorporating the interests of all aspects of pro photography.
G 603 A ready-to-use solargraphy camera. J 101 SOLE MATES Insoles to bring relief to tired feet! E 600 SONY Sony is an innovative leader in digital imaging. The Sony Alpha range, coupled with its advanced One Mount system (64 native lenses for full-frame and APS-C), offers lightweight mirrorless cameras and a fast-expanding lens range that boasts award-winning performance technology. B 401 SOOD STUDIOS Innovative photo printing services and high-quality photo albums. J 203 STANFORD MARSH Wide-format printing systems, including the very latest technology from Hewlett Packard. J 601 STREET SNAPPERS Small-group workshops on the art of street photography, at home and abroad.
TAILS
L 107 Tasty, nutritious and satisfying food, made just for your dog. L 400 TAMRON Superzooms, macro lenses, fast primes, wide-angle zooms, telezooms and more. K 600 TEAMWORK DIGITAL Sales, rentals and technical support of Phase One camera systems and Capture One software. H 203 TETENAL
THAT PHOTOGRAPHY SPOT
J
603
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THEIMAGEFILE
M 301 Beautiful photography websites. D 800 THINGYFY Pinhole lenses for digital cameras. D 803 THE TIMELAPSE STORE The one-stop shop for timelapsers. TOWERGATE CAMERASURE H 207 Leading providers of insurance to the photographic, video and multimedia industries. M 105 UK MODEL EVENTS Group shoots for photographers all over the UK, ranging from studio to location shoots. H 203 UK SHOOTERS A passionate collective bringing the UK’s creative community together. H 598, J 102 UKOTINI Cleaning products for camera equipment.
UNTAMED PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS
J
105
Unique wildlife photography workshops, tours, and safaris in some of the most spectacular destinations on Earth. VANGUARD WORLD UK LTD E 700 High-quality accessories, including tripods, monopods, heads, cases and bags, plus binoculars and scopes for wildlife specialists. F 701 WACOM The world’s number-one manufacturer of graphics tablets. E 603 WENZHOU BOLANG
PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CO LTD
Supplier of camera equipment matching lighting products. WEX PHOTO VIDEO L 300, M 400 Major UK photo retailer that stocks over 19,000 products... Look out for
special prices on cameras and photo kit from Wex at the show. WHITE HAWK PRODUCTS LTD E 800 Provider of quality massage machines for health and well-being. K 280 WILDFOOT TRAVEL Photo workshops to Antarctica. K 200 THE WILDLIFE TRUSTS Charity on a mission to restore a third of the UK’s land and seas for nature by 2030. M 600 WOODLAND TRUST A charity with a vision for a UK rich in native woods and trees. J 100 WWF The world’s leading conservation organisation. L 100 ZOOM CORP Quality sound capture devices for all audio production.
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2021 PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO SHOW FLOORPL AN
COLOUR KEY A B C D E F G H J K L M N 30 • www.photographyshow.com | 18-21 September 2021, the nec birmingham
SAVE THE DATES
17-20 SEPTEMBER 2022 THE NEC, BIRMINGHAM PHOTOGRAPHYSHOW.COM