Table of contents for May 2017 in Digital Camera Magazine

Push your photography in new directions, with seven fresh projects to try out C LAIRE Droppert says she has always been interested in the natural elements. “Gravity is an interesting subject and, together with light and the wind, it can alter the way elements behave.” After her project Gravity: Sand Creatures, where she captured sand flying through the air, Claire decided to explore the concept further, and Gravity: Flower Power was born. This image was shot in the west Netherlands. “I tried to capture the flowers during their short period of blooming,” says Claire, “capturing the moment and simulating them being chopped. My intention was to create the image in one shot, but I eventually composed multiple shots.” www.claireonline.nl Handle flowers with care • Claire says: “Photographing the flowers made me…

NEW MONTHLY PHOTO PROJECT! Look into my eye! THIS is a quick and easy photo project that only takes minutes to shoot, but produces amazing results. If you’ve ever taken macro shots of eyes before, you’ll know how much fun it is – but you can take things a step further by including a reflection of a local landmark. Not only will this result in a more visually striking image, but if you choose a landmark that’s got some personal significance to your subject, you’ll end up with something that is also much more personal and intimate, not to mention more interesting. The trick is to choose a landmark with a very distinctive shape, and ideally to set it against a brighter sky, as this will make for clearer, more…

NEW MONTHLY PHOTO PROJECT! K EVIN SAYS: One of the best ways I’ve found to improve my photography has been to participate in a personal photo project, where I’m forced to think outside the box and photograph things new to me. A personal project is a way for a photographer to showcase their passion for something. It can be a great way to challenge the limits of one’s skills and learn a lot of new things. Personal projects can take you to new places and make an impact. Most of all, they can be a lot of fun – in fact, a personal photography project will be great only if you have fun! Whenever you start a personal project, there are a few things to put thought into. Choosing the subject…

LENS quality matters when it comes to bokeh. Better glass, larger maximum apertures and more diaphragm blades all add up, both in terms of the quality of out-of-focus areas and in terms of the price tag. That being said, lenses that are corrected to produce the sharpest images don’t necessarily produce the ‘creamiest’ bokeh. Special elements that are included in their design to minimise optical aberrations can result in gritty-looking bokeh. (See below.) Some lenses also produce bokeh discs that are either brighter at the edge and darker in the centre, or vice versa, although these can be viewed as giving a lens ‘character’ rather than being seen as a flaw. DUST SPOTS Problem: Visible specks and blobs on out-of-focus highlights, which are most obvious when shooting at large apertures.…

This month our theme is ‘Beauty in the Banal’. Get inspired by the everyday objects that surround you, and put your creative thinking cap on. Maybe you could set up a studio and shoot inanimate objects in a still-life scene, such as a fork, a cheese grater, plug sockets or even a piece of plain paper. If this doesn’t appeal to you, there are plenty of other ways you can approach our challenging theme. Take a walk in a familiar setting and explore with your camera what you would usually ignore. It could be as simple as framing a door with some paint peeling away or a rusty old lock. It’s amazing how what we considered ‘boring’ can become beautiful images. This challenge will require a creative approach and some…

CSC www.panasonic.co.uk SPECIFICATIONS Sensor 20.3MP Live MOS sensor (17.3 x 13.0mm) Focal length conversion on lens 2x Memory 2x SD card slot Viewfinder OLED EVF, 3,680k dots Max video resolution 4K (3,840 x 2,160) ISO range 200-25,600, expandable to 100-25,600 Autofocus 225-zone DFD contrast AF Max burst rate 60fps (4K photo), 30fps (6K photo), 12fps Screen Vari-angle 3.2-inch touchscreen TFT, 1,620k dots Shutter speeds 60-1/8,000 sec, Bulb Weight 725g (body only, with battery and memory card) Dimensions 139 x 98 x 87mm Power supply Lithium-ion battery (supplied), 410 shots Panasonic is hoping that its latest model will appeal to a wider market of enthusiast photographers THE Lumix GH5 is the latest in the line of Panasonic’s top-of-the-range GH series of mirrorless cameras, which have carved out a real reputation among…

T AKE a peek around the back of the mid-range Metz, and it looks too simple to be taken seriously, with just a pair of control buttons. However, you can prod a sophisticated set of features into action, thanks to the flashgun’s mono touchscreen. The Gn 52 power rating is a cut above similarly priced Canon and Nikon flashguns, and the range of additional dedicated options stretches to Micro Four Thirds, Pentax and Sony. As with all other flashguns on test, the Metz features a bounce and swivel head with motorized zoom, 24-105mm in this case, complete with a wideangle diffuser and reflector card. It lacks the RF triggering of some flashguns here but, unlike the Canon 430EX III-RT, infrared wireless modes include both master and slave functions. (check the Metz…

N IKON’S newest flashgun replaces the SB-910 as the company’s flagship model. Compared with the SB-700, it adds a more powerful Gn 55 rating; a longer 24-200mm motorised zoom range, a programmable strobe/ repeat flash mode; on-board selection of TTL and TTL-BL modes; and the option of using an external power pack. A new integral cooling system enables quick-fire shooting for 100 or more shots, even at full output power. Nikon has taken a leaf out of Canon’s book and incorporated RF wireless communication as well as infrared, although it’s not so well implemented. Whereas the Canon 600EX II-RT features an RF transceiver, the SB-5000 only has a receiver and can’t work as a ‘master’. To use multiple flashguns with RF, you’ll need the WR-R10 transceiver, plus a WR-A10 adaptor if…

JAMES ABBOTT Photographer and journalist James is a professional photographer and journalist. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials to help photographers improve their skills. jamesaphoto.co.uk SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc190files O verlaying a grimy texture is one of the most dramatic and fun effects that you can apply to a portrait in Photoshop. Old, cracked and peeling paint photographed on a damaged wall transfers beautifully to skin, and provides a creative way of giving your portraits a completely new look and feel. Old brickwork, stone walls, moss-covered rocks and cracked and peeling paint all work well as textures. At the most basic level, you can simply copy and paste a texture image onto a portrait image, and mask out…

Nine all-new tips cards With nine new tips cards on offer this issue, either add to your collection or start collecting today! This month, learn how to shoot reflections at night, close up bluebells and flash-lit action portraits, and gen up on your tech. These handy wallet-sized cards can easily be carried around with you on a shoot, ready to refer to in a jiffy if you should need the help! Look for your cards at the end of the magazine, or download them to print out via www.bit.ly/dc190cards Whenever you see these logos on a page in the magazine, you can find related content online Your FREE A-Z book on photography This issue we’ve got a great giveaway as Digital Camera presents The to Z of Photography! The A…

TO CELEBRATE its 100th anniversary on 25th July, Nikon is releasing a range of special-edition DSLRs, lenses, binoculars and merchandise. Nikon’s flagship cameras, the full-frame D5 and the APS-C D500, will feature the 100th Anniversary logo and special finishes and details, including a dark metallic grey finish and a stamp noting Nikon’s contribution to the exploration of space on the D5; with the D500 getting a metal case complete with logo and serial number, along with a special body cap (see above) and embossed leather strap. Joining the cameras are a triple f/2.8 zoom lens set, a crystal reproduction Nikon Model I, a miniature Nikon 1, a premium leather camera strap and more… www.nikon.com/100th…

CAMBO is launching a new lens adapter that allows Canon EF lenses to be fitted to the Fujifilm GFX 50S mediumformat camera. Some vignetting is to be expected when using a full-frame DSLR lens on a medium-format body, although Canon’s tilt-shift lenses can provide a large enough image circle to fill the GFX’s sensor. The aperture is set on the adapter using its built-in dial and OLED screen, but there is no direct electronic connection between the camera and the lens. This means you lose autofocus and no Exif data is transferred. www.cambo.com…

THE famous Royal Photographic Society has launched its 160th International Photography Exhibition (IPE). Claimed to be the world’s longest-running photography exhibition, the IPE takes the form of a competition that’s open to both amateur and professional photographers around the world. An all-female panel will select the best images for the exhibition for the 2017 competition, which will enjoy a nationwide 10-month tour, as well as awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. You need to be quick: entries close on 24th May 2017. You can submit up to four images online, with an entry fee of £30 for non-members, £20 for members and £15 for those aged under 30. www.rps.org/ipe160 ANALOGUE NEWS GLASS ROOTS LOMOGRAPHY is set to release the Lomo’Instant Automat Glass Magellan in the next few weeks. Priced at…

T HERE’S lots of photographic fun to be had shooting abstracts – especially if you free yourself from the traditional ideas of what a photograph should be and begin experimenting with colour, texture shape and form. You’ll soon discover wonderful new ways to create lively and colourful images. Best of all you don’t need to get hung-up on shooting at the ‘magic hours’ around dawn and dusk. In fact the harsh midday light can often work in your favour. You don’t need to travel to exotic locations either. All these images were made within a few metres of each other in an area where disused containers were stored. The peeling paint and the rusting metal made the perfect subject. The trick is to decontextualise objects, so you’re specifically concentrating on shape…

C AN’T get out of the house to go landscape shooting this weekend? You can cheat and build your own landscape – or a fakescape, as we like to call it! For this project, we created our mountains using some flour, some sugar and a touch of Photoshop. It’s great fun to do, and you can get really creative with the final result. When it comes to arranging your landscape, it’s best to pour your flour-based mountain formations onto a tray: it’s far easier to clean up! It also helps to shoot the forms at a slight angle, so you create a sense of scale and depth. You’ll need to mount your camera to a tripod and select a narrow aperture setting. You’ll also need to take a couple of shots…

THE patterns and textures lurking within machined parts take on a new life under magnification. Add a splash of colour from a well-placed paper background and a little extra light from a torch, and you have a classic still-life in the making. Once you’ve meticulously arranged your subjects and background, you need to decide which parts of the scene are held in sharp focus, and which fall away into a soft, diffused blur. This is determined by two factors – the point on which you focus, and the depth-of-field in the shot. By using Manual Focus mode, you can rotate the focusing ring to pick the sharp point in the scene (in this case, the tip of the screw), but by using Aperture Priority mode and dialling in different f-stops,…

E VEN if you’re a newcomer to photography, you’ve probably heard the word ‘bokeh’ being bandied around. Bokeh, which is pronounced ‘bouquet’ or ‘bow-kay’ by people in the know, is used to describe the blur in a picture. Not its quantity – that’s something determined by the choice of aperture, focusing distance, focal length and more – but rather its quality. It’s a hard one to quantify as it can’t be measured in the same way that, say, sharpness can. It’s also somewhat subjective: bokeh that one person judges to be beautiful might cause another to recoil in horror. That being said, there are some common terms used to describe the look of out-offocus areas in a picture – busy, nervous, soft, creamy, harsh, jittery – and the way in which…

Lyme Regis This month, Ben Brain invited two readers to join him in the historic fishing port of Lyme Regis, to capture a classic shot of the Cobb and go beachcombing… READER 1 Chelsea Underhill CAMERAS: Canon EOS 750D LOCATION: Seaton BY night, Chelsea works for Tesco, but in her spare time she indulges her passion for photographing the natural world. She has access to a local patch of land where she can get close-ups of wild birds, and has even been known to shoot toadstool time-lapses in her spare room. Chelsea is also a keen motorsports photographer, and she’s often trackside with her Canon equipment. Although she only lives along the coast from Lyme Regis, she fancied the challenge of seeing a local spot with fresh eyes. www.darkfairy photography.co.uk…

RATE MY PHOTO GET RATED! Email your shot to digitalcamera@futurenet.com (subject line: Rate My Photo) LAURA SAYS: I was in Norfolk for the weekend and went for a wander with my camera. At this coastal spot there was a high bank behind where I was standing. As the sun began to set, all the people out for a walk became silhouetted against the sky, and I thought it would make a graphic black-and-white shot. I took the image using my Canon 5D Mk III and a 70-200mm lens, exposing for 1/400 sec at f/5.6 before converting the image in Photoshop. ANDREW SAYS: The first rule of a good silhouette shot is that the blackest area should be simple and clear. You’ve definitely succeeded with that in this image, and…

SLR www.nikon.co.uk SPECIFICATIONS Sensor 24.2MP DX-format CMOS (Expeed 4) Lenses Nikon F (DX format) Memory SD/SDHC/SDXC Viewfinder Eye-level pentamirror viewfinder, 95% coverage Max video resolution Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) at 60, 50, 30, 25 or 24p ISO range 100-25,600 Autofocus points 39 (9 cross-type) Max burst rate 5fps LCD screen 3.2-inch, vari-angle, touch-sensitive, 1,037k-dot LCD Shutter speeds 1/4,000 sec to 30 sec, Bulb Weight 465g (with battery and memory card) Dimensions 124 x 97 x 70mm Power supply Lithium-ion EN-EL14a battery, 820 shots The new AF-P 18-55mm lens transforms the camera’s Live View performance THE D5600 is the latest SLR in Nikon’s D5000- series camera range. It’s one step up from the new entry-level D3400, and one step down from the enthusiastand pro-orientated D7200 and D500. In one vital…

T HE recent Mk III edition of Canon’s 430EX inherits a respectable maximum power rating of Gn (Guide number) 43, a motorised 24-105mm zoom head with 150 or 180 degrees of swivel to the left or right, respectively. On-board controls are now more intuitive. Build quality is very good, albeit without the pro-grade finish of the 600EX II-RT (right). High-speed sync and rear-curtain flash modes are supported, but there’s no stroboscopic repeat mode. Along with simplified controls and a cleaner layout, the Mk III also adds RF (Radio Frequency) triggering that was lacking in the Mk II flashgun. The Mk III lacks wireless master functions, so it can only be used in slave mode. Performance TTL flash metering accuracy is spot-on, recycling speeds are fast, and maximum output is pretty good.…

O FFERING a sizeable step up from the 52 AF-1 (left), this is Metz’s range-topping powerhouse of a flashgun, with pro-level aspirations. It has a beefier Gn 64 power rating, a bigger 24-200mm motorized zoom range, an extended tilt function that stoops to -9 degrees, and an additional strobe/repeat flash mode. It’s also the only flashgun here to feature a subflash module, ideal for adding a little fill-flash when using the head in bounce or swivel mode. Like the 52 AF-1, this upmarket Metz has a touchscreen that should prove more intuitive for the smartphone generation – but this time it’s colour rather than mono, and even clearer for menu navigation. Again, there are full wireless master and slave modes, but they’re limited to infrared, not supported in RF connectivity. Performance…

T 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. Operating modes include fully automatic, TTL, manual and no fewer than three wireless modes. Anything beyond rudimentary settings like TTL exposure bias, requires the use of on-camera menus. These include rear-curtain sync, high-speed sync and manual zoom of the motorised 24-200mm head. Wireless slave mode via infrared is available with the assignment of 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. Both modes require manual power settings. Performance Recycling speed is very fast, despite a high maximum power output. The…

www.bobbooks.co.uk 1 Bob Books £6.99 (60 x 40cm) YOU can choose between two paper types offered by Bob Books for 60 x 40cm prints. There’s the £16.99 Fine Art Matte Poster on 305gsm textured paper, but we decided to test the quality of the budget Gloss Photographic Poster, which uses 248gsm Gloss Fujicolor Crystal Archive Pro Photo Paper. Despite the low price of the print, first impressions of the print quality are very good. The shadow areas are the brightest and most accurate of the bunch, and this instant visual punch is boosted by slightly warm green and yellow hues, although the latter trend doesn’t help flatter skin tones. Blues are more muted, though, and on closer inspection fine detail isn’t quite as crisp as it is in the WhiteWall…

The Sony World Photography Awards showcase the best photography of the past year. www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards The exhibition, including a Martin Parr showcase, runs until 21st May at Somerset House, London. www.worldphoto.org/2017exhibition BORDERLINE HIROSHI TANITA Shortlisted for Open / Nature “The boundary line between blue and white, ice and snow, that appeared in the pond to which thin ice came in winter.” THE HUMAN COMEDY VITO LEONE Shortlisted for Open / Culture “People relaxing at the beach. Everyone tells us a story. Salento, Italy, August 2016.” MOM’S BABY FAN CHEN Shortlisted for Open / Wildlife “Lovely swallows are waiting for mother to come back to feed.” SUNRISE AT SEA SERGEY DIBTSEV Shortlisted for Open / Still Life “It’s not necessary to have money to travel by sea. Just use your imagination! Fabric…

I F YOU want to take your portrait photography to the next level but you’re feeling a bit strapped for cash, fear not: many accessories that photographers rely on can simply be hacked together! In this tutorial we’ll show you how to make a beauty dish for lighting, using two white paper bowls, some tin foil, a pencil, a safety pin, a pair of scissors and a couple of cocktail sticks… A beauty dish is simply a shallow round disk that attaches to a light source and produces a reflected, even light that is flattering to your model. It is softer than a direct flash, but harder than a softbox. A beauty dish won’t produce a hot spot, as the light is reflected from a disc in the centre and out…

NEW MONTHLY PHOTO PROJECT! S OMETIMES it can be tricky to see the potential in an image, as there are so many possibilities at the editing stage. Next time you shoot something you think looks pretty average, think of the alternative effects you can play around with to transform it into a work of art! When technique editor Claire Gillo shot this cactus plant on holiday, she thought it was a pretty bland image. “This image is part of a series that I shot in a cactus park whilst on holiday. I loved the formations of the plants from above. When I got my images home however I was disappointed as they were just a bit bland! “It’s only when I got the idea in my head about it spinning in…

MAKING your ideas and set-ups simple keeps macro shooting free of frustration. There’s seldom room for visual complexity when you work on a small scale, and revealing the intricate detail in nature’s humblest specimens makes for an excellent photo project. Although exotic plants are available all year round at your local florist or supermarket, a simple garden daisy offers all you need for a cracking shot. Place a flower on a blob of Blu-Tack or a similar adhesive on a worktop near a window. To create a focal point, carefully add a drop of water to the centre with a small paintbrush. This will add interest and work as a tiny lens on the stamen. To give a fine-art feel, a coloured sheet of paper keeps the background plain and…

GETTING precise and accurate focusing is much trickier with a macro lens, and using the view?nder can be a hit-or-miss process. Instead, frame up with your camera on a tripod and switch to Live View mode to see your composition on screen. Use the screen’s zoom controls to go in tight, then scroll with the D-pad to display a magnified view of the point you’ve focused on. (Most cameras give 10x magnification – plenty to allow highly accurate focusing.) By switching to manual focus and gently tweaking the focusing ring, you can then get your focus point exactly where you want it. You may still want to make some tiny adjustments – eyes right for this... TIP 1 Let it slide! Make framing and focusing easy With the small stage…

PRO INSIGHT MICRO WORLD We tend to think of the Victorian era as drab and austere. This is far from true, however, and the art of the era was bright and vibrant. This quest for colour was also evident in the exhibitions of microscopical specimens of the time. Specimens were collected for their intrinsic beauty as well as out of scientific interest. The division between art and science we are used to today was not a factor for the Victorians: they were open to viewing scientific objects as works of art. Many of the wealthy gentlemen of the time owned a microscope, and would show off their latest specimens as after-dinner entertainment. An industry sprung up to supply prepared slides. Many of these are now deteriorating with age. It is…

THE OTHER SIDE NAME: Nathaniel Merz LOCATION: Daejeon, South Korea KIT: Nikon D810 with 70-200mm f/4 lens EXPOSURE: 1.3 sec at f/14, ISO 64 WEBSITE: www.500px.com/ nathanielmerz Rich reflection The colour palette in this riverside shot is vibrant yet natural. “Part of my goal was to emphasise the lush green feel of the scene,” says Nathaniel, “but without the bright white layer of fog, I feel the scene would get lost between the strong tones.” He made the hues in the image even more prominent by incorporating a reflection. Alternate angle Rather than shooting with a wide-angle lens, Nathaniel opted for a telephoto lens at 120mm. “I chose to isolate this smaller group of trees and take a more intimate approach that focused on the reflection,” he says. The focal…

EVERY ISSUE, we challenge you to take the most creative and arresting shot around a theme, and share it at the online community at Photocrowd (www.photocrowd.com). Here, you’ll be able to browse the entries and vote on your favourites. The best entries receive a critique from our judging panel – and one winner receives a special prize! Your mission in issue 188 was to capture the world from above and below. We had some amazing entries that covered all subjects from architecture to macro close-ups. Our top three winning images each have a distinct feel and pull you further in to explore. Here are our winners... This month’s photo assignment celebrates the everyday! You can find all the details over the page… 1 PHIL THOROGOOD The detail in this frog…

CSC www.fujifilm.co.uk SPECIFICATIONS Sensor 51.4MP medium-format Bayer sensor (43.8 x 32.9mm) Crop factor 0.8x Memory Two SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS I/II Viewfinder OLED, 3,690k dots Max Video resolution 1,920 x 1,080 ISO range 100-12,800 (50-102,400 expanded) Autofocus points Contrast AF, 117 points Max burst rate 3fps LCD screen 3.2-inch tilting LCD, 2,360k dots Shutter speeds 60-1/4,000 sec, Bulb, Time (electronic shutter, up to 1/16,000 sec) Weight 825g (body only, with battery and memory card) Dimensions 148 x 94 x 91mm Power supply NP-T125 lithium-ion battery, 400 shots This is not an action camera. The GFX is designed for ultrahigh- quality photography FOR a long time, medium-format digital cameras have been big, heavy and incredibly expensive. Now we have not one but two lower-cost cameras that could at last bring mediumformat to the…

WIDE-ANGLE PRIME LENS www.tokinalens.co.uk SPECIFICATIONS Full-frame compatible Yes Effective focal length 20mm full-frame, 30mm APS-C Image stabiliser No Minimum focus distance 0.28m Max magnification factor 0.1x Manual focus override N/A Focus limit switch No Internal focus Yes Filter size 62mm Iris blades 9 Weather seals No Dimensions (dia x length) 69 x 82mm Weight 490g Manual wideangle prime lenses seem to be in the ascendency. There’s a lot to be said for the ability to easily set a hyperfocal distance, or to use zone focusing for street and landscape photography – so much, in fact, that we covered the genre in depth, issue 186’s group test. This addition from Tokina is made for Sony mirrorless cameras like the Alpha 7 series, and is full-frame compatible. The Firin takes its name…

N OT simply a more powerful version of the 430EX II-RT (left) with a Gn 60 rating, Canon’s range-topping flashgun is a fully pro-spec device with a tough, weather-sealed construction, and advanced features to match. A crucial upgrade from the mid-spec Canon is the inclusion of wireless master facilities, both in infrared and RF modes; RF has a 30m range that can work around corners or through obstacles. The motorised zoom has a range of 20-200mm, there’s full 180-degree swivel in both directions and there’s a programmable strobe/ repeat mode. Compared with the original 600EX RT, the Mk II runs cooler, enabling up to 50 per cent more flashes in continuous shooting. Performance Maximum output is as powerful as any of the other top-rated flashguns on test, and recycling speeds are…

T HERE’S a feast of features in this mid-range Nikon Speedlight. Luxuries include full master and slave wireless functions; a range of illumination patterns to choose from; and downward as well upward tilt and full 180-degree swivel in both directions. It beats the competing Canon 430EX III-RT in all these respects, as well as boasting a bigger 24-120mm zoom range. However, wireless connectivity is limited to infrared. There’s a good range of supplied accessories, including a diffusion dome and colour matching filters for both tungsten and fluorescent lighting. On-board controls are easy to operate, but you can only switch between Nikon’s TTL and TTL-BL (Balanced Light) flash metering modes by changing the main exposure metering mode on the host camera body. Performance Despite having the lowest rating of any flashgun on…

A VAILABLE in Canon, Nikon and Sony options, this is a seriously pro-grade flashgun. It offers a full range of highspeed sync, rear-curtain and programmable strobe/repeat flash modes, a generous Gn 58 power rating, and excellent build quality. There’s an external power pack socket and, like the Canon 600EX II-RT, the Phottix has a weathersealed mounting foot to shroud the camera’s hotshoe. Also like the flagship Canon, the Phottix includes an RF transceiver. This puts it ahead of the Nikon Speedlight SB-5000, because you can use the Phottix as a wireless RF master as well as a slave unit in multi-flashgun setups, without having to buy an additional RF transmitter or transceiver. Even so, the flashgun is additionally compatible with Phottix Odin and Strato radio triggers. Performance TTL flash is a…

JON ADAMS Photographer and writer Jon is a photographer and writer, and also provides individual and small group tuition in digital SLR and Photoshop skills. jon@jonadams media.co.uk SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc190files NEW SERIES N O PHOTOGRAPHER’S portfolio is complete without a selection of black-and-white images – and mixing up a great mono shot in Photoshop is much easier than you’d think, as you’ll discover in this project. Once you’ve stripped out the colour from a picture, you’re left with two core ingredients: shape and contrast. These are the key pillars of any good black-and-white image when it’s boiled down; getting the two to work in harmony is guaranteed to result in a strong picture. I’ve picked a landscape shot that was taken on…