Table of contents for May 2021 in Digital Camera Magazine

Things are looking up – and further afield – after our winter hibernation. As we take our tentative steps into the post-lockdown world, our thoughts will return to the adventures we may have been planning before the pandemic struck… whether at home or abroad. Whatever the scope of your plans, your first stop should be this month’s feature (p58), which is packed with hints and tips for taking your best-ever travel photos. If you’re not pining for far-away horizons, though, channel your creativity with more fantastic photo projects in Photo Active (p16) and Stay at Home (p41). One long-term project that definitely invites attention is Vulnerable – find out more about it in our interview with Olga Michi (p132). Elsewhere, Camera College continues with a motion-blur masterclass (p74), while we…

HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc242 Enter the URL above into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar (see the examples above). This will take you to a page on our website. STEP 2 START YOUR DOWNLOAD Just click the highlighted link Here you’ll find all the gifts and videos to accompany this issue of Digital Camera. Click on the link labelled Download the disc for Digital Camera 242 and your download will start. • The 101 Dream Travel Locations ebook is available via a separate link on this download page. STEP 3 ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the .zip…

For the most part, my camera settings for street photography remain pretty similar. I shoot wide-open, leave my ISO around 1,000, and use the highest shutter speeds possible. You can quickly become bored of your own work and style, though, so sometimes you need to freshen things up. If I get jaded, I can try a number of options to get me out of the rut: I’ll switch to another lens, pop on a filter, or try to shoot left-handed. One of the aesthetics that gives me an entirely different look is shooting the variable shutter speeds I’d never typically use day to day. When we talk of slower shutter speeds, I tend to think of anything slower than about 1/30 sec; this is usually when you start to see…

Lockdown may have meant that my studio had to close, but it has not meant my imagination needed to shut down, too. I am essentially a portrait and family photographer, but families have not been allowed in my studio during lockdown, so I have had to focus on digital creations. I have run an Etsy shop since 2018, selling digital backgrounds to other photographers for creative storybook composites. I base my ideas on books, favourite children’s characters, places I have been, and my own imagination. Recently I have teamed up with a local prop hire business to create new digital backgrounds using actual props in combination with digital stock elements in my work. My daughter has been helping me model (when she is in the mood), although she has started…

For 15 years, I have been running The Edge Photography in Essex. I originally started my career as a cruise ship photographer, but really found my calling when I was given a chance to second-shoot for an established studio in 2004, just before I turned my hand to my ultimate passion: wedding photography. I was hooked, and have luckily never had to look back to the ocean cruisers since. I have become one of the most awarded wedding photographers in the UK, with a string of successes in the SWPP, BIPP and WPPI annual competitions, as well as my Fellowship qualifications. As we prepare to open the floodgates to the wedding season of 2021 after – let’s be honest – the disaster that was 2020, it’s essential to hit the…

Set your camera’s exposure mode to Manual. Set up your ISO, aperture and shutter speeds, and choose your white balance. Set your file type to RAW + JPEG. This means you can choose a still or stills from the raw files, and edit the JPEGs together to produce a movie. Use the interval timer shooting mode as before. Make sure your lens is set to manual focus so that the autofocus system doesn’t alter the focal point without your knowledge. Pros Cons Edit a still from a raw file Choosing the RAW + JPEG option enables you to pick a favourite still from your sequence, to produce an individual stunning photo, as well as the option of making a movie – but you will use up capacity…

Daily lockdown walks close to home can offer a myriad of photographic opportunities, whether you take your subjects from the natural world or the built environment. One way to give your lockdown captures a look that will really stand out is to create digital solarisations of them in post-processing. The 19th-century pioneers of photography produced prints where the tones of the photographs would be reversed – an effect known as the Sabattier effect or pseudo-solarisation. This darkroom technique is easy realised with image-editing software, for example by using Photoshop’s Invert function and Solarisation filter. You’ll need to start off with shots that will solarise well – tree foliage is just one example. The objective is to fully expose branches of a tree with flash, which in turn will contrast strongly…

A round the world, the majority of people are friendly and amenable, if sometimes bemused, when a photographer wants to take their picture, as long as it’s done respectfully. With portraits, interaction and communication are key. Spend time talking with the person you’re photographing before taking any pictures and learn something about their personality, their job or their life, which might be something you incorporate into your photos. It’s also useful to get to know each other a little, to explain why you’d like to take their picture and put them at ease. Communicate while taking pictures, too, giving people guidance on what kind of facial expression (smiling? serious?) or body position you’re after, or anything you’d prefer they didn’t do, like thumbs up or peace signs, which often ruin…

Panning the camera at the same speed as a moving subject enables you to keep it in the same position in the frame, so it stays (relatively) sharp while the background becomes blurred. To try this, activate your camera’s servo/continuous autofocus and select an AF point that lines up with the subject’s most important feature.…

WATCH THE VIDEO! FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc242 Regardless of the subject, detail – or the lack of it – is an important element of a photograph. But when you’re focusing on abstract images and those that feature interesting textures, working with the fine detail present in these types of shots and enhancing it can make the world of difference. The most obvious way to enhance detail is through sharpening, but the problem with this approach is that if you over-sharpen images you can introduce artifacts that have a detrimental effect on the overall image – although some sharpening techniques are more effective than others when it comes to accentuating texture. In this month’s four techniques we’re going to look at four completely different ways of enhancing detail in photographs. Some…

This quirky portrait of a goose has a few issues that need sorting. We need to recompose it for a start, and it’s overexposed, so some of the details have been lost. We’ll open the photo in Camera Raw (you could use Lightroom, too) and start by addressing the composition 1. In the Geometry Panel, we can select Scale and enlarge the bird in the frame while Camera Raw retains the resolution; we’ll also tweak the X and Y offsets to position the head where we want it. In the Basic Panel, we can address the overexposure 2 by taking Exposure to -50 and Highlights to -60. Moving down, we can push Texture up to +20 and Clarity to +10 to crispen up the feather details 3. Finally, we want…

STC Clip Filter system now for Nikon Z bodies This super-compact interchangeable filter system is now available for Nikon Z cameras. Choose from a selection of filters for astro and infra-red photography, all precision-made from high-quality materials. www.stc.infinityx.uk; from £112 Leica APO-Summicron-SL 28 f/2 ASPH The first wide-angle prime for Leica’s SL full-frame mirrorless system, this new optic has been designed to offer maximum image quality even when used at its maximum aperture. www.leicacamera.com; £4,050/$5,195 Sony releases two new vlogging microphones The ECM-W2BT consists of a clip-on wireless mic unit and a shoe-compatible wireless receiver (with a built-in mic). Use it standalone, or with the new ECM-LV1 stereo lavalier mic. www.sony.co.uk; ECM-W2BT, £210/$230; ECM-LV1, £32/$30…

As we noted in last month’s issue, 2021 has already been quite a year for top-of-the-range cameras making their debuts. And we’re delighted to have been able to put one of them through the Digital Camera labs for testing. The Sony A1’s specifications list is a long one – where higher-end cameras are conceived to do a specific job very well, it looks like the A1 has been designed to do everything very well. We’ll find out in due course how many photographers need an all-rounder to have such a stellar spec – especially for such a significant investment – but there’s no question that Sony is continuing to push the boundaries of technical innovation. Also under scrutiny this issue is an update to Canon’s EOS M50 – could this…

www.skylum.com Luminar AI is designed to take the drudgery out of photo editing, handling the previously technical and time-consuming tasks of selecting and masking and manual sliders with its own automated machine learning AI. It’s not trying to replace Lightroom or Photoshop, or to tempt you away from software you know and love. Instead, it’s aiming at what Skylum believes is a much wider market of photographers and content creators, who simply want beautiful images without the fuss. Luminar AI is not an upgrade to Luminar 4, but instead is being pitched as a whole new product. Luminar fans may recognise a lot of Luminar 4 in the new program, but we’re saying nothing. Skylum has taken a bold step. It is ending development of Luminar 4 and taking its…

Lens mount Canon EF Launched almost 30 years ago for 35mm film SLRs, the EF 85mm remains perfectly viable for the digital SLRs of today. It’s attractively priced, reasonably compact and light, and ideal for popping in a spare corner of your gadget bag. The optical path is fairly simple, based on nine elements in seven groups, but includes Super Spectra coatings to reduce ghosting and flare. The ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system is fast, whisper-quiet and has full-time manual override with a purely mechanical linkage. Handling is good. Performance Despite the modest aperture rating, sharpness isn’t that impressive wide-open but is still sufficient for plenty of detail in the eyes. The quality of bokeh is pleasing at f/1.8, but the diaphragm isn’t quite as well-rounded as in some competing lenses.…

Lens mount Nikon F Even Nikon’s upmarket 85mm f/1.4 lens is reasonably compact, but this f/1.8 is particularly light for a full-frame compatible lens, at just 305g. It’s also refreshingly inexpensive for an own-brand Nikon. There are no aspherical or ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, but build quality is good and there’s a rubber weather-seal on the mounting plate. The ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system is fast, whisper-quiet and has full-time manual override. There are only seven diaphragm blades to control the aperture, rather than the eight or nine more usually featured in full-frame compatible 85mm primes. Performance Sharpness is very good, apart from in extreme corners at wide apertures. Bokeh is impressively smooth; points of light remain fairly well-rounded when stopping down a little. Sharpness The little Nikon really punches above…

Lens mount s See table This Sigma is a weighty proposition for an 85mm f/1.4 lens. It’s designed for image quality, without any concessions to compactness. The complex optical path is based on 14 elements, including an aspherical element at the rear and two SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, placed at the centre and towards the front. Autofocus is based on a ring-type ultrasonic system. Sigma’s Art lenses are immaculately well-built but, unlike some of them, this one adds the extra bonus of weather seals. Performance Autofocus is both fast and accurate. Sharpness across the entire frame is hugely impressive, even when shooting wide-open, which is a real challenge for an f/1.4 lens. We’ve noticed a little ‘onion ring’ effect in the bokeh of some Sigma Art lenses, but it’s…

For a number of years, I was doing photography on the side; I only started my full-time photography business just before Covid-19 began. (Oh, the irony.) My primary passion is lifestyle family photography. I specialise in emotive storytelling sessions that capture the little moments of a family as they interact authentically with their loved ones. While the pandemic may not have been a great time to start a business, I found it gave me many opportunities to grow further as an artist. I’ve always been detail-driven; through various photography projects, I’ve also found a new love for still-life and flat-lay creations. These skills enable me to offer product shoots for small and corporate businesses. It has also taught me to take a slow-down approach while photographing families, really taking in…

FREE camera bag wor th £66.95! Get this great Lowepro camera bag by subscribing today at: www.magazinesdirect.com/dcm/tahoe150 or call 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘93AY’ Make sure you use this URL or quote the code on the phone: other offers are available that do not include the backpack gift * Offer closes 30 June 2021. Offer open to new UK subscribers only. Pricing is guaranteed for the first 12 months and we will notify you in advance of any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). Your gift will be delivered separately within 60 days after your first payment has cleared. Gifts only available to subscribers on the UK mainland. Gift not available with a digital subscription.…

We are going to make a basic time-lapse movie of some flowers wilting. This tutorial will be shot in the time-lapse photography mode with interval timer shooting: this produces a QuickTime movie in-camera, skipping the post-production process, so you can quickly post it onto social media. This technique uses Aperture Priority to keep images consistent, and enables you to review your video on the back of the camera. I shot this movie over a period of four hours. Pros Cons 1 Set up your camera Set your exposure mode to Aperture Priority. Turn on Auto ISO and Auto White Balance. Turn off all picture control settings such as D-Lighting and Vignetting. This keeps the exposure consistent between frames. Once your settings are all established, you can progress…

Once you have shot your manual time-lapse sequence, transfer the frames to your computer via memory card or Wi-Fi. You may want to adjust some basic exposure settings before you put your movie together; Photoshop and Lightroom offer batch-processing tools that enable you to apply edits on one JPEG file to all the others, saving you heaps of editing time. When you create your movie in Photoshop, you’ll need to experiment with the time duration of your frames, until you find the sweet spot between the movie feeling smooth and it not ending too quickly! 1 Compile your JPEGs Separate the JPEGs into their own folder. In Photoshop, edit the exposure on one JPEG while recording the steps as an Action, then use File > Automate > Batch to apply…

1 ‘Setting Suns’ by Alan Orr “This shot was taken in New York State’s Hudson Valley on a grey and dreary day. ‘If only there was a nice sky behind the field,’ I thought to myself while setting up – and eventually the sky co-operated.” Digital Camera says: Probably one of the nicest ‘grey and dreary’ images you’ll ever shoot, Alan. Fabulous use of foreground, and a beautiful sky to match. 2 ‘Getting Way Too Big For My Boots’ by Lauren Goodwin “Here’s a photograph I took of my daughter on my Nikon D3300. The third lockdown has inspired me to learn how to take photos in Manual exposure mode, and to learn how to use Photoshop.” Digital Camera says: You certainly put lockdown to good use, Lauren. This is…

When I was younger, seeing photos in books of incredible places that were thousands of miles away from the middle of England made me want to go out and explore the world. It wasn’t just a fascination with cultures, but landscapes – from monasteries set on mighty snow-capped mountains to red deserts with sharply outlined dunes. Photos have a big responsibility on their shoulders, then: to inspire others to take their own adventures. More than just putting an impressive landscape in the frame, try to produce photos that make the viewer feel what it’s like to be in that place. There are plenty of creative ways to do that, from aerial perspectives and night photography to finding your own inventive compositions. PRO ADVICE Get moody There’s a tendency to always…

No-one travels halfway around the world to be bored. Photos from your adventures should be exciting for other people to look at, evoking some of the same feelings in the viewer that you felt as you explored a place. Photographing active travel adventures can involve fast-moving subjects, which means tracking, locking in on targets and working with fast shutter speeds. At other times, it’s about creating a mood or sense of adventure by showing a physical challenge or tough environmental and weather conditions. All kinds of creative approaches are available here, from getting up close so that people (like cyclists, kayakers or snowboarders) dominate the picture, to integrating more of the environment and evoking a sense of place. PRO KIT DRY BAG If you’re spending time in snow or on…

As well as the speed and direction of movement, the choice of shutter speed is crucial to determining how much motion blur you’ll record. This is why Shutter Priority (marked as Time Value or Tv on some cameras) makes a good mode to work in when you’re experimenting with this technique. It allows you to dial in a specific shutter speed, with the camera selecting an appropriate aperture (and ISO if this is set to Auto) to give what it determines is the correct overall exposure. Manual mode is even better for critical work: you get to lock in all three exposure settings, making it easier to fine-tune the level of brightness.…

Mounting ring You’ll first need to screw a mounting ring onto the filter thread of the lens; you may need more than one of these if you have lenses in different sizes. Dedicated rings for wide-angle lenses are also available. Filter holder This clips onto the mounting ring and typically has two or three slots for holding square or rectangular filters. You may need to buy an additional attachment if you want to add a circular polarising filter to your setup. Square filters You can use glass or resin filters. They don’t have to be from the same brand as the holder: they just have to be the correct size. The holder can be unclipped with filters in place, making it easy to compose and focus between shots. Filter slots…

If you set a relatively long shutter speed when you shoot with flash, you can combine a sharp flash-lit subject with ghostly motion blur created during the longer exposure. With a standard flash exposure, the flash fires at the start of the exposure, with blur captured in front of the subject. To record blur behind the subject instead, use second-curtain sync.…

Overall Winner and Winner, Urban Concrete Amateur Nurlan Tahirli “This is the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan. I was struck by the building’s unusual look – its stunning design, with simplicity of lines and complexity of structure, portrays the modern beauty of concrete, and how people are interacting with it and enjoying it.” Shortlisted, Concrete in Daily Life Professional Ferdz Bedaña “It’s a very interesting location I notice every time I’m passing by; many people go there to do some exercise or sightseeing. The road leads to a high-rise mountain with a beautiful view of the city, and closes occasionally for vehicles so that people can enjoy their walking and exercise in safety. This concrete road was created by the UAE government for long-lasting use.” Shortlisted, Concrete Infrastructure Professional…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc242 Converging verticals occur when we angle our camera upwards towards a building or structure. The straight vertical edges of the building can lean in towards one another, making it look as if the building is toppling inwards. This effect is emphasised the closer you are to the building – and wider lenses can result in more pronounced distortion. You may be able to avoid converging verticals while taking the shot by stepping back, finding a higher vantage point or using a tilt-shift lens. If none of these options is possible, perspective issues can usually be fixed in Photoshop or Lightroom. Here we’ve used Camera Raw to fix our photo, but if you’re a Lightroom user, you can use the identical tools in the Develop Module. The…

Sigma launches the fp L Second iteration of modular camera is optimised for stills photography over shooting video and packs as many megapixels as the mighty Sony A7R IV Sigma’s first full-frame mirrorless camera turned some heads at launch. With no lens attached, the fp is no bigger than a chunky compact, but its pocket-friendly body belies its serious stills and 4K video shooting capabilities. Now Sigma has released the second iteration of its distinctive modular camera. While sporting the same form factor as the fp, the fp L boasts a resolution of 61MP, matching Sony’s A7R IV. Other headline features of the fp L include a hybrid AF system that augments the contrast-detect autofocus of the fp with phase-detection, and 5x digital Crop Zoom for stills and video –…

What first motivated you to start shooting portraits? When I first found photography, I would take close-ups of a lot of different things, and a lot of architecture. That was easier for me, because your subject was already there. Once I started photographing people, I just felt there was more magic in the photos. There was a connection and an energy between two people, and I could see the potential of that. The more that you would add into it, the more you would get out of it. I would slowly and surely try to add more elements to each photo, and see where I could take it. How do come up with the creative ideas for your pictures? As an artist, I’m really inspired by everything. Coming from an…

www.sony.co.uk If we were to list every key feature of the Sony Alpha 1, it would be a book, not a camera review. First, it has a 50.1-megapixel stacked CMOS back-illuminated gapless sensor with separate pixel and circuit layers, hooked up to a Bionz XR processor with eight times the power of the previous version. This doesn’t just improve the performance and the image quality, but the responsiveness of the camera itself. Key features If 50.1 megapixels isn’t enough, there is also a 199MP pixel-shift Multi Shot mode that merges up to 16 separate images taken in succession; this is designed for static subjects, with the camera mounted on a tripod. The A1 has a sensitivity range of ISO 100-32,000, expandable to ISO 50-102,400; Sony says it can capture a…

www.laowalens.co.uk The Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift adds to Venus Optics’ standing as a producer of exotic, esoteric and excellent lenses. On paper, what the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift offers is extraordinary: it’s the world’s widest full-frame shift lens, offering plus or minus 11mm of shift. However, so large is the image circle that this lens can also be used on medium-format cameras, delivering up to plus or minus 8mm shift on bodies such as the Fujifilm GFX 100S and the Hasselblad X1D II 50C. These properties make it an excellent option for genres like architectural and interior photography – but, unlike the best tilt-shift lenses, the Laowa 15mm only shifts: it isn’t able to tilt. It’s also a fully manual optic, with no electrical connections, and there’s no…

Lens mount Canon RF The RF 85mm f/1.2 lens and its DS (Defocus Smoothing) edition are Canon’s top dogs for portraiture, but the prices are way out of range for most of us. The f/2 lens is much smaller and is less than a quarter of the price. Smart features include a five-stop hybrid image stabiliser, a customisable control ring and an autofocus range limiter that can lock out the range either side of 0.5m – useful given the lens’s 0.5x macro magnification factor at its closest focus distance of 0.35m. Build quality feels robust and the lens features weather-seals but, as usual for non-L-series Canon lenses, the hood is sold separately. Performance As we’ve come to expect from STM lenses, autofocus is quick and virtually silent. The image stabiliser…

Lens mount Nikon Z Nikon’s Z-mount lenses have repeatedly won gold awards in our reviews and group tests, and with good reason. As with most other primes in Nikon’s line-up, this one has an f/1.8 aperture rating that enables great quality with a compact and light construction. In the 85mm sector, however, a slightly faster aperture is often preferred. Quality optics include two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and Nano Crystal Coat. Upmarket build quality includes weather seals, while rapid autofocus is driven by a virtually silent stepping motor. Performance Contrast and sharpness across the entire frame are simply spectacular, even shooting wide-open. Despite ‘only’ being an f/1.8 lens, bokeh is noticeably smoother than from Nikon’s pricier f/1.4 F-mount lens. Sharpness It’s unlikely you’ll need such razor-sharpness across the whole frame,…

Download your gifts via digitalcameraworld.com/dc242 9 ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS Our collectable shooting tips cards enable you to carry handy settings and suggestions around in your kit bag, ready for when you need them. This issue, get wallet-sized advice on shooting long-exposure landscapes, photographing small weddings and capturing epic editorial. 21 creative Actions for Photoshop CC Give any picture a creative new look in a matter of seconds – see page 96. 21 CREATIVE ACTIONS FOR PHOTOSHOP digitalcameraworld.com/dc242 101 Dream Travel Locations ebook Research your next photo trip with this 148-page guide to the world’s most stunning destinations – see page 8. Buyer’s Guide ebook 252 pages of the latest camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download. PRACTICAL Photoshop SENSATIONAL IMAGES MADE…

10 things to shoot, edit or create this month, including spellbinding backdrops and small weddings The longer your lens is, the harder it is to sight and keep up with your subject. Small movements become exaggerated at higher magnifications, and this can make photographing erratic subjects, such as birds, even more challenging. Nikon’s DF-M1 dot sight is built to help improve your accuracy; although this super-specialist attachment won’t appeal to everyone, it’s worth looking into if you spend most of your time searching for (or losing) far-away subjects. You’d be forgiven for thinking the DF-M1 is a piece of military hardware. The pop-up dot sight slots into the hotshoe of a camera, weighs very little and folds down when not in use. In practice, the sight allows you to pinpoint…

Sometimes portrait skin tones can be almost perfect right out the camera. Other times you may be on a shoot with various light sources or difficult lighting conditions that make the skin appear discoloured or murky. Although there are no hard and fast rules to skin retouching, Capture One offers three simple solutions: Luma in the Curve Panel, Basic & Advanced in the Colour Editor, and the option we’ll use here: Skin Tone, also in the Colour Editor. As Capture One is customisable, your screen may not look like mine. Model: Mia Berry Enhance skin tones within Capture One 1 Find the skin tones in the shot Open the Colour Editor. You will be presented with three options: Basic, Advanced and Skin Tone. Select Skin Tone and you will see…

For this project, I got hold of some African daisies (osteospermum): they are nyctinastic, closing every night and opening up again in the morning. This creates an interesting nature time-lapse. At the end of your own time-lapse shoot, your camera will have produced a QuickTime movie. You can view this on your camera screen by pressing the Play button, or extract it from your memory card or via Wi-Fi onto your computer or phone. The movie is then ready to upload to social media. VIEW THE MOVIES To view Roddy’s examples of time-lapse movies, get this issue’s download at digitalcameraworld.com/dc242…

When was the last time you changed your camera’s aspect ratio – if ever? The aspect ratio expresses the relationship between the height and width of an image, and is determined by the physical form of your camera’s rectangular imaging sensor. And although full-frame and APS-C sensors are different in size, they both have a default aspect ratio of 3:2. Four Thirds sensors, as their name indicates, have an aspect ratio of 4:3. But dig into your camera’s menus and you can easily change this setting. For example, my Canon EOS 77D DSLR also offers 1:1, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Choosing to shoot in a different aspect ratio offers a simple way to re-evaluate how you photograph subjects. In this project we are going to explore the different aspect…

Whether it’s the buzzing streets of Mexico City or rural villages in Laos, there’s nothing like getting out on foot and discovering a new place. As a photographer, I’m always on the lookout for something I find compelling, wherever I happen to be. In particular, I like one-off moments: remarkable behaviour, an interaction, a conversation, something that strikes me as funny, tender, emotional or curious in some way. Travel photography doesn’t need to focus only on momentous events and iconic figures, like India’s sadus or Ethiopia’s tribes. For me, it’s about finding something special in everyday life: old men sipping rum; evening dances on a plaza; morning prayers; the daily commute; people at work. It’s all about being open and creative, ready for what you find. PRO ADVICE Take time…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc242 There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being connected with nature – out away from people, but still surrounded by life. This photo location didn’t even have roads! It was shot on the Saltee Islands off the coast of Wexford. This shot is from my first trip there with a Canon 20D. It’s a mere 8MP camera – but with new technology, we can easily overcome the low size for larger prints. This is done with Adobe’s Super Resolution technology, which can double the resolution on each axis. This gives a file four times larger. It looks great and works on TIFF and JPEG, as well as raw. For raw files, you get a full DNG with Kelvin white balance, so it acts like you shot…

What is the minimum focusing distance of a lens? It’s the distance between the subject (specifically where you have focused on the subject) and the focusing plane, which is the sensor of your camera. The focusing plane is marked with a symbol that shows a line through a circle. Is minimum focusing distance the same as working distance? No. Working distance is the distance between the front of the lens and the subject; or, if you want the effective working distance, that’s the distance between the subject and any protruding elements, such as a lens hood. Why is it useful to know the minimum focusing distance of a lens? Knowing the distance helps you avoid missing a shot because you are too close to your subject, and therefore the lens…

Four f/0.95 prime lenses from Laowa Two of the new Argus line optics are for full-frame (35mm and 45mm), with one each for APS-C (33mm) and Micro Four Thirds (25mm) – the crop factor of the last two makes them 50mm. www.laowalens.co.uk; price TBC New book of unseen Elliott Erwitt photos Found Not Lost contains more than 150 images by the Magnum Photos legend, now in his 90s. The book challenges how the younger Erwitt saw the world, and spans the period from 1947-2010. www.gostbooks.com; £60/$80 BenQ updates its SW271 photo monitor This 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) display uses BenQ’s third-generation colour Uniformity Technology and offers superb colour space coverage. A USB-C monitor, the SW271C ships with a full hood. www.benq.eu; £1,299/ $1,599…

Enlarging images through artificial intelligence isn’t new, but recent advancements in computer learning could transform the landscape for ultra-high-resolution photography. Basic implementations of these tools attempt to preserve line detail, while increasing resolution by as much as 400%, filling in the space between pixels where edges aren’t detected. It’s a clever but rudimentary approach that can introduce artifacts. However, the technology has advanced to the point where computer algorithms can ‘see’ what is in the image. Based on context, lossless AI-upscaling can detect where the lines and detail should be as the pixel count is expanded. At present, upscaling can only enhance what’s in the original image, so don’t expect to produce detail that was not there in the first place. But if you’ve got a good starting point, the…

www.canon.co.uk The Canon EOS M50 Mark II has arrived – and, on paper, it’s quite a curious camera. Its 24.1MP image sensor, Digic 8 processor, 2.36 million-dot EVF and 3-inch touchscreen all seem very familiar. And there’s good reason for that: the M50 Mark II is, both internally and externally, virtually identical to the original M50. The same hardware, same ergonomics, same sensor, same almost-everything. What makes the Mark II different, then? Not a huge amount, but it might make a huge amount of difference depending on what you want to use your camera for. Key features The capable 24.1MP APS-C image sensor has a sensitivity of ISO 100-25,600 and a maximum burst shooting speed of 10fps. It renders sharp and appealing stills; and thanks to Canon’s spectacular Dual Pixel…

We’ve all been missing friends and family, on and off over the last year. But with lockdown restrictions easing up, we can look forward to getting reacquainted, and even capturing some quality portrait images as a keepsake. With that in mind, this month’s group test focuses on lenses that are perfect for portraiture. For full-frame shooters, an 85mm prime with a fast aperture is generally the best choice. The focal length gives a flattering perspective and enables a comfortable working distance, so you’re not crowding your subject and invading their personal space, but are still close enough to engage and give direction. A shorter focal length is preferable for APS-C-format or Micro Four Thirds systems, due to their crop factors. Either way, a ‘fast’ aperture rating on a portrait lens…

Lens mount Fuji film X With an effective focal length of 84mm, this lens enables a natural working distance for portraiture on Fujifilm’s APS-C format X-series cameras. Even so, gaining a tight depth of field is more of a challenge. The basic edition of the lens (£849/$999) aims to solve the problem with an extra-wide f/1.2 aperture rating. This up-market APD edition adds an ‘apodisation filter’ – essentially a radial neutral-density filter that gets darker towards the circumference of the image circle. This helps to smooth ‘bokeh discs’ generated by defocused bright objects. Performance Sharpness is pretty good wide-open, where the apodisation filter is at its most effective. Bokeh is smooth for a 56mm lens, but the quality of in-focus and defocused areas isn’t any better than from most 85mm…

Lens mount Micro Four Thirds Thanks to the 2x crop factor of the Micro Four Thirds system, this 45mm lens has an effective focal length of 90mm. It also has a fast aperture rating of f/1.8, bringing some much-needed help in getting a tight depth of field, which is generally a struggle with MFT cameras. The Olympus is far and away the smallest and lightest lens in the group. Autofocus is driven by an ultra-quiet stepping motor, while high-precision manual focusing is available via a ‘fly by wire’ focus ring. Performance Sharpness remains good across the frame, even wide-open, where it only drops off towards the extreme edges and corners. However, bokeh isn’t as smooth as with any of the other lenses on test; when stopping down a little, points…

The newest kid on the block, Sigma’s 85mm DN Art lens for Sony E and Leica L-Mount mirrorless cameras faces some stiff competition. It wins out in style, with terrific build quality and refined handling, as well as spectacular image quality. It’s lighter and more compact than Sigma’s original 85mm Art lens, which was also adapted to include Sony E and Leica L-Mount options. Meanwhile, the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S and Canon RF 85mm f/2 Macro IS STM prove once and for all that ‘slower’ primes can deliver stellar portrait quality. The Nikon lens’s corner-to-corner sharpness and its bokeh quality are impressive, while the Canon lens is amazingly versatile. For Fujifilm X and Micro Four Thirds cameras, look no further than the respective Fujinon and Olympus lenses on test.…

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