Table of contents for November 2021 in Digital Camera Magazine

First, thanks to any readers who joined us at The Photography Show & The Video Show in September. It was so good to see you, and it felt great to be staging a physical event again – we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Our cover feature this issue is the magic of monochrome: turn to page 58 for some pro tips on shooting your best-ever black-and-white images. More technique and tips are waiting in Photo Active (p16) and Stay at Home (p41), while Camera College (p70) is a spooky shot special for Halloween. Enjoy images of wild weather while staying warm indoors in Hotshots (p80), and go on a shoot with portraiture master Andy Gotts (p132). A pair of heavyweight cameras helms Kit Zone (p112), and…

HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc248 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 248 and your download will start, delivered from our own secure server. STEP 3 ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the .zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your…

Camera Fujifilm X-T3 Lens Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR Exposure 1/1,250 sec at f/2, ISO 160 If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably find yourself having the internal debate about which lens to take out with you. Of course you can always gear up your military-grade backpack with six lenses, three cameras and a tripod, plus a monopod sticking out the top. (And don’t forget your packed lunch.) Sometimes, though, it’s better to travel as light as you can: no bag, no boxes of filters, just you and your camera. This is where the dreaded decision comes in. When I first picked up a camera, all I could afford at the time was a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a single 50mm f/1.4 lens. This was all I…

Have you ever considered what a camera drone could do for your photography? I recently made the leap – and I have been really pleased with the results so far. As improvements in technology keep expanding the horizons of image-making, prices have fallen, and a decent starter drone can be purchased for around £400. The model I’m using for this project is the DJI Mini 2. It’s small and compact, so it’s easy to travel with. The Mini 2’s camera is 12 megapixels and can capture 4K video, and the drone has a three-axis motorised gimbal. If you’re thinking about investing in a drone, this is a good place to start. First things first, though – some official regulations. In the UK, any drone that weighs under 250g is considered…

1 ‘Untitled’ by Zech Browning Digital Camera says: You have found an interesting spot to shoot from here, Zech, and it was a good idea to use motion blur to introduce dynamism to an otherwise static scene. It might be worth looking into the Fibonacci spiral for some other composition techniques. 2 ‘Valentine’ by Richard Laurent “In between Digital Camera reader challenges and being locked in, these flowers seemed an ideal subject.” Digital Camera says: The use of a darker background makes the colours pop. Great detail on the water drops. 3 ‘The Beauty of Spring’ by Craig Blackley “St Swithin’s Church in Bath during spring. Having ventured out to see if any trees had blossomed, I was presented with this lovely scene. For me, the sunlight peeking through makes…

If the idea of a landscape shot is to show the world just as we see it, then black-and-white may seem an odd choice! Of course, the monochrome roots of photography denied us colour as a choice for a long time, but it’s more than technical limitations that makes the black-and-white landscape fit into a category of its own. Many of the most famous landscape shots ever captured are in black and white, and pioneers like Ansel Adams are fondly remembered for their contribution to the genre – even though he actually shot nearly as much in colour as he did in mono! When you break down a photograph into what it actually consists of, it’s an arrangement of shapes in a frame. These shapes are formed by nothing more…

It sounds like a contradiction in terms to add colour to a black-and-white picture, but toning treatments are as old as photography itself and work to subtly change the mood and character of an image. In the traditional darkroom, some toning effects were created by using a paper with a hint of amber warmth or blue coolness, but others involved mixing chemicals into the developing tray to colourise the entire print. The digital toning process is much simpler and easier, but in all instances, you need to shoot and post-process your image as a regular black-and-white shot first, to get the lighting and contrast captured the way you want it. Dodge and burn your image in Photoshop Paint on your contrast exactly where you want it using two digital emulations…

You don’t have to splash out on expensive Halloween costumes – a white bedsheet with a couple of handdrawn eyes can give you that timeless, aesthetically pleasing Scooby-Doo look. It can also double up as a canvas for creepy silhouettes. Backlit by either the sun or a flash, the human form can take on a myriad of different forms – especially if you distort the sheet. Alternatively, shoot on the same side as the subject, and capture shadow forms instead. Check the exposure whenever you shoot a bright white object such as a sheet, as the camera will probably try to underexposure it. Be prepared to increase the exposure so that the histogram is closer to the right side of the graph.…

Switch to Manual The trick to this technique is to underexpose daylight to make the whole image look dark, then use flash to illuminate the subject. Before you switch on the flash, set the exposure for the ambient light. For full control, use Manual shooting mode. Flash sync speed Set the shutter speed to the flash sync speed – the fastest shutter speed that you can use with a normal flash exposure. (It’s usually around 1/200 sec, but check your camera manual.) Set the ISO to 400 to start with, then move on to the aperture… Underexpose Reduce the width of the aperture (such as going from f/5.6 to f/8) until the image is relatively dark. Take test shots at different aperture settings to be sure. If the image is…

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. This issue’s big black-and-white feature (page 58) will inspire you to experiment with some creative ideas – but if you’re new to mono photography, knowing where to start can be daunting. To flatten the learning curve and make great tonal results as quickly as possible, our Mono FX Kit brings all the basic ingredients together into a one-click Photoshop kit. Simply load up any colour image, then click through the layers stack in the FX Kit, converting to mono, adding contrast, using classic toning recipes, and finishing off with a vignette and a presentation border. What’s more, the kit allows you to produce files sized exactly to A4…

James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. WATCH THE VIDEO! Photoshop contains a number of features and functions that mimic elements of film shooting and darkroom processing techniques; an example of this is the Photo Filter Adjustment Layer. Many of the options available in Photo Filter mimic corrective filters you would traditionally attach to your lens to shoot under various artificial light sources with daylight-balanced film to avoid colour casts, while others are aimed at applying subtle colour effects to images. The corrective aspect of Photo Filter is more useful with JPEGs than shots taken in raw format, where the white balance can be easily changed during processing; but by working with Blending Modes and…

Butterflies are a brilliant subject throughout the summer months, but it’s not always easy grabbing a shot of an insect that’s so active when the sun is out. This photo also needs some compositional improvements, and is far too underexposed. We’ll use Transform to change the composition but still retain resolution 1. The Scale slider can be pushed up to 140 and we can move the image’s position using the Y-offset slider, so the stem comes out of the bottom right-hand corner. The camera’s meter has been tricked into underexposing the image, so we need a +1.00 push on the Exposure slider in the Basics Panel so that lovely background starts to work 2. We’ll take an Adjustment Brush and mask over the butterfly itself, then push the Texture slider…

OM Digital Solutions, the company formerly known as Olympus Imaging, has announced two new Pro lenses – including its first-ever f/1.4 prime for Micro Four Thirds, which also represents a first-ever focal length for the popular crop-sensor format. The M.Zuiko ED 20mm f/1.4 Pro has an equivalent focal length of 40mm in full-frame terms, while the M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f/4.0 Pro is a slower and more compact version of the existing M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro. The new prime is the first 20mm, and the first f/1.4 lens, to be released by Olympus since the days of producing film cameras. As this was a development announcement, there were no pricing or release date details. www.olympus.co.uk; £/$ TBC…

Compact, light and compatible with Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless cameras, the new Z 40mm f/2 is a slightly-wider-than-standard prime lens, which offers a natural angle of view that will be ideal for candid portraits. Just one third of a stop slower than its siblings the Z 50mm f/1.8 S and the Z 35mm f/1.8 S, the new optic is considerably shorter and less bulky. Lens construction comprises six elements in four groups, with a rounded nine-blade diaphragm to create a pleasing circular bokeh. www.nikon.com; £249/$299…

www.canon.co.uk After being rolled out to pros at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, the EOS R3 is now available to professionals at large – and Canon’s latest mirrorless camera threatens to become the most capable all-round tool around for working photographers. While it’s not technically a replacement for, or even an equivalent to, the EOS-1D X Mark III (as this is ‘only’ a 3-series camera rather than a flagship 1-series), it nonetheless technologically leapfrogs the 1D X III in virtually every department – and stakes a bold claim as the best professional camera, thanks to its 6K raw video, blistering (and blackoutfree) 30fps shooting, and a peerless AF system that enables you to move focus points by moving your eyeball. There’s no doubt that this is Canon’s fastest and most advanced…

www.ukdigital.co.uk Laowa’s 35mm f/0.95 is the fastest-available 35mm lens for full-frame cameras. It’s not the cheapest or the lightest lens on the market, but it certainly produces images you’ll want to share. It might not have autofocus, but its slick design and smooth focusing could make you fall in love with manual focus again. The selling point of this lens is its incredibly wide f/0.95 aperture which creates images where the out-of-focus areas are beautifully smooth and the in-focus areas are pin sharp. The lens doesn’t have any electronics so you can’t change aperture settings using the camera. Instead, there’s an aperture wheel on the lens that enables you to manually select the aperture. The focus ring rotates almost three-quarters of the way around the lens which makes it hard…

Lens mount s See table, page 130 Ultra-fast primes generally equate to big, heavy glass and preposterous prices. This lens from 7Artisans rewrites the rule book: it has an astonishingly fast aperture, but weighs in at just 606g and costs less than some f/1.8 lenses, which are about 1.5 f-stops slower. It’s available in a wide range of mirrorless camera mounts. There are no built-in electronics, so aperture adjustment is via the onboard, stepless control ring. The focus ring operates with smooth precision, and the build is generally robust. Performance Considering its super-fast aperture rating, the lens retains impressive sharpness wide-open, while bokeh is deliciously dreamy. Fast lenses often suffer from axial chromatic aberration at their widest apertures, but this one keeps it to a minimum. Sharpness Sharpness is impressive…

Lens mount Nikon F Compared with the Nikon F-mount Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens on test, Nikon’s own-brand lens is only half the physical length and about a third of the weight. It’s simpler than the Sigma, with eight rather than 13 optical elements, but feels rather less robust. The straightforward optical path doesn’t contain any aspherical or ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, as featured in Nikon’s newer Z-mount 50mm lens. Similarly, there’s no high-tech Nano Crystal Coat for minimising ghosting and flare. More than 20 years old, the lens is showing its age. Performance Autofocus accuracy is more critical in very wide-aperture lenses, and the Nikkor does well in this respect. Centre-sharpness is good even at f/1.4, although it loses out to its Sigma competitor. Sharpness Stop down to f/1.8, and…

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Having studied fine art before training as a graphic designer, Mike also works as a photographer, and has a worldwide client roster including Jeep and Nissan. www.mikekus.com As the old saying goes, “The best camera is the one you have with you.” Spare a thought for Mike Kus, who might have three on him at any one time. But we’re not talking about someone who has to haul the photographic equivalent of the kitchen sink, larder and pantry around with them: instead, Mike’s setup is far less taxing on his back and shoulders. Mike is an evangelist of smartphone photography; not because he’s not at home with a camera, but because he feels that a great image matters more than what it was captured on. And Mike has just shared…

It has been around four years since I started my photography journey. So far I have experimented with lots of different ideas and shot everything from landscapes to aviation. I first came across this idea about a year ago, and realised how simple it is to do. Since then I’ve tried a lot of variations, and as the nights draw in earlier, I spend a lot more time out with friends spinning wool. You’re going to need steel wool (which you can buy from most DIY shops); a metal whisk; a lighter or 9V battery; a length of rope; and some tape to tie together the whisk and the rope. Fill the whisk with the steel wool and light it; then it’s up to you to spin it, and see…

1 Get out into nature Seeing a large marsh harrier hunting in the fields from my own back garden during the first lockdown inspired me to take up wildlife photography. As soon as I got a camera and lens in my hand, there was no stopping me: I got some great shots of the harrier, then went out into my local area every day and explored every inch of it! 2 Practise… a lot! I can’t emphasise this enough: get to know your gear! When you get a new camera in your hands, it can be quite daunting as there is so much to consider – especially if, like me, you’ve never had a digital camera before! I would spend hours in my garden taking pictures of birds, butterflies, bees,…

Last year I was suffering from a painful frozen shoulder, so the convenience of a slim and compact camera with a reasonable zoom range was hard to resist. Being able to reach into a pocket when needed, rather than having to hang a large camera and lens around one’s neck for a prolonged period, or extract them from a kit bag, is liberating. While I love using my smartphone for snaps, it doesn’t work the same way as a camera – the telephoto options are limited and viewing the screen in bright conditions can be difficult. During lockdown, my daily escape for exercise consisted of the same walk around a large field. With a compact camera in my pocket, I was free to seek out interesting compositions and scenes with…

Wildlife photography is highly effective when it appears in black-and-white and with a careful combination of shooting and editing, you can create beautiful wildlife images with a fine-art feel. The natural textures and tonal variety within the fur, feathers and scales of the animal kingdom lend themselves well to monochrome. Take away the distraction of colour and the patterns of an animal and its environment become more obvious. Black-and-white gives a fresh and artful twist to your wildlife. It adds an emotional directness that isn’t always as apparent in colour. While you can take any wildlife shot and convert it to monochrome, it really pays to think about which of your subjects, and the environments they are found in, will work well with colour stripped out. While shooting, look for…

i ‘Pancake Lenticulars’ Stavros Kesedakis, Greece Almost every May, Stavros takes a trip to the USA to chase storms. On this particular day, he and his friend were following a supercell storm that couldn’t quite get its act together and produce a tornado. They were debating if they should keep following the storm when they noticed that it was forming two beautifully shaped clouds. It reminded Stavros of the smooth, laminar appearance of lenticular clouds. While not strictly true lenticular clouds, such structures do form around thunderstorms when stable air is forced to rise, for example by a storm’s cold air outflow or via dynamic lifting by a strong updraft above. However, they could also potentially be low-precipitation supercell updrafts. Without knowing quite how these structures evolved, it’s difficult to…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Super Resolution is a feature in Photoshop’s Camera Raw and Lightroom that doubles the size of your photo. Resolution-boosting tools have been available in Photoshop for a long time, but this one is slightly different. While older tools such as Photoshop’s Image Size command would increase resolution using standard bicubic upsizing, Super Resolution instead employs machine learning to boost the pixel count. It calls upon a database of millions of pairs of high- and low-resolution sample images, compares the detail in your photo to the similar detail it recognises in these sample photos, then deduces the optimum way to enhance the detail and upsize the photo. It’s…

Entered by Amin Nazari from Iran, a piece entitled ‘Radiance’ was the recipient of the photo competition Grand Prize. The short film competition Grand Prize was won by Rei Kuroda from Japan, for a piece titled ‘Escaping from Karma’. The winners were selected from the 65,062 entries submitted by approximately 26,000 people, from 150 countries and regions around the world. There are two categories in both the photo and short film competitions: the Open Category was themed ‘Connect’ and was open to all ages, while the Next Generation Category was themed ‘Passion’, and was only open to those aged 25 or under as of 31 December 2020. The archive video of the online awards ceremony is available to view on the Nikon Photo Contest 2020-2021 website, and the winning works…

The Italian brand’s new collection has been developed to cater for the needs of photography and video professionals, so it will certainly appeal to enthusiasts who like to invest in top-drawer equipment. Pro Light launches with five backpacks offering various capacities, access points and compartments. Choose between Pro Light Backloader, Frontloader, Multiloader and Flexloader. All bags behave as their names suggest, with Flexloader providing full front access as well as an expandable secondary compartment. And two new tough cases expand Manfrotto’s rolling bags line up; Pro Light Tough will offer buyers the choice of both carry-on and check-in sizes. www.manfrotto.com; from £169/$179…

Can you please give us an update on Remembering Wildlife, and how much has been raised for conservation to date, for any readers who may not be familiar with the project? Remembering Wildlife recently celebrated five years since the launch of the book that started the movement, Remembering Elephants, which came out on 19 September 2016. Since then, there have been four more books: Remembering Rhinos, Remembering Great Apes, Remembering Lions and Remembering Cheetahs. Remembering African Wild Dogs will be the sixth. So far, the books have donated £848,000/$1,100,000 to 55 projects across 24 countries. “Rarely seen, often talked about…” says John Kamanga in the foreword. How well does this capture the mystique of African wild dogs? John’s words are spot-on. One of the things that really surprised me in…

www.fujifilm.co.uk Fujifilm’s goal to make medium-format photography more accessible takes another step closer to going mainstream with the GFX 50S II, the fifth model in the GFX series. On paper there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference between the Mark II and its predecessor, but a completely different body, a few internal upgrades and a more tempting price point could see some photographers making the switch to medium-format. Fujifilm already had a couple of relatively affordable medium-format cameras in the GFX 50S and GFX 50R, but after the success of its 102MP cameras, it’s no surprise that the company decided to upgrade its 50MP models. Enter the Fujifilm GFX 50S II. At launch, it’s cheaper than the original GFX 50S, carrying a price tag that’s comparable with some of…

www.7artisans.co.uk The 10mm f/2.8 Fisheye is part of a unique group of lenses. There are some seriously wide-angle rectilinear lenses available for mirrorless full-frame cameras, but fisheye lenses really take off the blinkers. Unlike a circular fisheye – which gives a full 180-degree viewing angle in both the vertical and horizontal planes, but only uses the central region of the image sensor to create a circular image – this 7Artisans lens is a diagonal fisheye. As such, you get a 178-degree viewing angle measured on the diagonal, which is still frankly enormous, and the whole image sensor is utilised to create rectangular images. The lens has a fast f/2.8 aperture rating, well-suited to shooting indoors or at twilight without having to bump up your camera’s ISO setting too far. Given…

Lens mount Canon RF Canon’s EF-mount equivalent of this lens has always been a massively popular buy for DSLR owners. The new RF edition fills a small hole, as it were, in Canon’s full-frame mirrorless line-up. There certainly aren’t many compact and affordable Canon RF lenses, but this one is a no-brainer for prime time. Canon’s upmarket RF 50mm f/1.2 lens costs around 10 times as much. Performance This little lens delivers images that combine good wide-open sharpness with pleasant bokeh. It beats the older EF lens in both respects although, like its forerunner, it lacks optical stabilisation, which can be an issue with first-generation EOS R-series cameras. The stepping motor-driven autofocus system is quick and quiet, fast enough for sporty stills and smooth enough for video. Sharpness Apart from…

Lens mount Nikon Z ikon’s 50mm f/1.8 standard prime has been reinvented for mirrorless full-frame cameras, taking full advantage of the Z mount’s larger diameter and its closer proximity to the image sensor. Despite ‘only’ having an f/1.8 rather than f/1.4 aperture rating, it’s considerably longer than Nikon’s F-mount 50mm f/1.4. The optical path has 12 optical elements, and also includes two aspherical and two ED elements. The addition of Nano Crystal Coat helps to minimise ghosting and flare. Autofocus is courtesy of a stepping motor, ideally suited to shooting stills and movies. Performance The sharpness from this lens is scintillating, blowing the Nikon AF-S 50mm out of the water at wide apertures. The minimum depth of field isn’t quite as tight, but defocused areas look a little smoother nonetheless.…

Lens mount s See table, page 130 gma’s previous 50mm lens was renowned as being a heavyweight, but the replacement ‘Art’ edition really piles on the pounds. It’s the outright largest and heaviest lens in the group, weighing almost three times as much as the directly competing Nikon f/1.4. The main reason for the Art lens’s weight gain is that it has a much more complex and sophisticated optical path than its predecessor, based on 13 rather than eight elements. And when speed is of the essence, you can count on the Sigma’s autofocus system being very fast and consistently accurate. Performance The Sigma is amazingly sharp, even at f/1.4, along with soft and creamy bokeh. It’s virtually a distortion-free lens, and both colour fringing and vignetting are minimal. Overall…

Typical of most primes in Nikon’s enviable Z-mount range, the Z 50mm has a modest f/1.8 aperture rating, which enables a reasonably compact build to suit slinky mirrorless camera bodies. It’s scary-sharp even wide-open, while the quality of bokeh matches or beats most faster-aperture competitors. It’s simply spectacular, and puts Nikon’s AF-S 50mm f/1.4G for DSLRs firmly in the shade for handling, all-round performance and image quality. For Canon and Nikon DSLRs, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is the best standard prime on the market. It’s big and hefty, but the oversized build pays dividends when it comes to image quality, which is thoroughly excellent. However, if you feel at a bit of a loss without image stabilisation, the Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD comes to…

9 ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS This issue, get wallet-sized advice on long exposures, autumn wildlife and making the most of local sporting events. If your copy doesn’t include printed cards, see the Gifts folder of this issue’s download for print-your-own versions. NEW-LOOK TIPS CARDS! ✔ 9 subjects ✔ Techniques ✔ Settings ✔ Kit list Mono FX Kit for Photoshop CC Convert a colour shot into a sensational mono image in just a few clicks, using Photoshop CC and our Mono FX Kit. Find the kit in the Gifts folder of this issue’s download, then see page 90 for your guide to installing and using this brilliant conversion tool. Buyer’s Guide ebook Over 270 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.…

On the conversation du jour… “I feel like smartphone photography gets devalued a lot,” says Mike. “Years ago we used to have that conversation in the pub about whether digital photography was real photography or not. Now I feel like the debate has moved on to whether smartphone photography is actually real photography or not. I feel like there’s still a bit of a stigma attached to smartphone photography and how seriously it’s taken.” Is Instagram still a big influence? “I joined on day one, when all you could do was post a picture and put a filter on it. I had a good camera [an iPhone 4] and a place to put my pictures, so from a hobbyist point of view I’d found my niche. I have landed various…

10 things to inspire your next shoot, from getting started with wildlife to long-exposure landscapes Typically I shoot sports for clients who give me access to areas that are usually closed off to spectators. But I’ll often attend sports events as a public spectator because I want to try new techniques, practise or simply shoot a sport that interests me. By doing this, I have the same access as anyone else who has turned up to watch the event. Most weekends there are small events around the country that offer interesting and dynamic sporting opportunities for images, to any photographer who takes the time to seek them out. The great thing about finding events in your local area is that you don’t have to travel to the far corners of…

Since I was young, I have always paid attention to small details, and liked to look at things in a different way. I think this was indicative that one day I would end up enjoying photography. My interest in photography started when I was a teenager but it was when I was studying for my degree in environmental sciences when I was able to buy a bridge camera. I learned the basic concepts with that camera; it wasn’t the best gear, but it did allow me to start enjoying nature, wildlife, landscape and macro. I have always said that nature photography is my ‘yoga’. It is a very relaxing activity, and the time you spend out there makes you stop thinking about other stuff. You forget about problems, about work;…

This is a fun project for all the family – I will show you how to create a playful scene using just printed-out portraits crumpled up into paper balls. We often only view images in the digital world these days, so it is good to get back to handling prints and distorting them in clever and unusual ways. Similar to the caricatures that you might pay for from a local artist, this project looks to highlight and emphasise certain facial features, but in a humorous way. A cheesy smile, a bulbous nose, an obvious frown… these are the many features you can use to give a character its appeal. Like the emojis you see on social media, there are plenty of expressions to copy and pose. If you are a…

With portrait photography you are normally trying to flatter your subject with your images, but there are times when getting gritty is the way to go. It’s really easy to achieve with black-and-white and a willing ‘character’ as your subject. As a rule, this style of shooting is best suited to a more mature, male face, so have a think about who among your friends and family might fit the bill. It’s best to be honest that you are going for a photo with edge, rather than one that makes them look 10 years younger! A focal length around the 70 to 100mm mark is perfect for a head-and-shoulders composition – and if your lens allows you to shoot at f/2.8, the limited depth of field will look amazing. Remember…

Architectural photography is often seen as a highly specialised discipline, but it’s one of the most accessible forms of photography, and is readily available – indoors and out, day and night. Lens choices tend to involve shorter, wide-angle focal lengths because of restricted space and large subjects, but architectural details can be just as satisfying, so a medium-to-long telephoto zoom is a good choice, too. For mono architectural shots, the high contrast of direct sunlight can be your friend or your foe, depending on which way the building is facing, and what else is around to cast shadows across it. Picking the right time of day will help (morning for eastfacing and afternoon for westfacing buildings), but don’t ignore flat, overcast days, as the soft light from cloud cover will…

Start your Halloween portraits days or weeks early. There’s often too much happening on the evening itself for everyone to take time out to pose. Plus, if you’re looking to shoot outdoor portraits, you’re at the mercy of the weather on that one day. Getting eye-level with your subject is a good plan – although getting lower and angling the camera up will make them look more intimidating. For flattering shots, stand back and use a short telephoto lens, such as an 85mm or a 70-200m. If you want to create a more distorted look, where you’re able to exaggerate the size of noses, heads, hands or feet to creepy effect, choose a wide-angle lens and get close to that body part. Take a few candid snaps, too. Capture the…

Title: A Still Point in Time Location: Walvis Bay, Namibia Date: 2019 www.aerial-africa.com Aerial photographers Jay and Jan Roode have spent more than a decade photographing some of the most spectacular wilderness areas of southern Africa from above, flying thousands of hours in their specially modified Jabiru J430 four-seater aircraft. The South African couple work together, mainly as pilot and photographer, to produce striking images of Africa’s diverse landscapes. Their recent book Aerial Art is a culmination of their remarkable photographic adventures in the skies. One of their favourite images is of a flock of greater flamingo, taken over the obsidian brine pans south of Walvis Bay on the Dorob coastline of Namibia. “We are very fortunate in southern Africa to have many exceptional flamingo breeding sites,” says Jay Roode.…

The 10th edition of GoPro’s flagship product, the Hero10 Black’s new GP2 processor can capture 5.3K video at 60fps (up from 30fps on the Hero9), 4K video at 120fps (up from 60fps), and 2.7K video at 240fps (up from 120fps). Stills are captured at a resolution of 23MP, and 19.6MP stills can be extracted from video footage. Other key features include improved connectivity: the Hero10 Black can be linked via a cable to a smartphone – a new departure for GoPro. www.gopro.com; £529/$499; £379/$399 (with GoPro subscription)…

Boasting a sophisticated optical design with 12 elements in 11 groups (three aspherical lenses, three extra-low dispersion lenses and one ultra extra-low dispersion lens), Panasonic says the 310g weight of the new lens will make it an ideal match for the compact Lumix S5. The autofocus actuator of the S 24mm f/1.8 is designed for smooth and silent operation, and video shooters will welcome the suppression of ‘focus breathing’. Plus, the S 24mm f/1.8’s manual focus ring has non-linear and linear settings, which can be chosen and configured according to user preference. www.panasonic.com; £799/$899…

www.sigma-imaging.co.uk We’re big fans of Sigma’s existing 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM lens, but since it has only been available for Canon, Nikon and Sigma DSLRs, mirrorless users have been out of luck… until now! The 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports is a refreshed version of the old DSLR lens; available in E-mount or L-mount options, it’s compatible with full-frame Sony, Panasonic, Leica and Sigma camera bodies. Like the exceptional DSLR version, this super-telephoto zoom is ideal for wildlife, sports, motorsports and other action photography. The 150-600mm Sports inherits most of its signature features from its DSLR counterpart, though the optical path does differ slightly, with 25 elements arranged in 15 groups, including four FLD Elements and two SLD elements to reduce aberrations. Sigma’s Super Multi-Layer Coating is employed…

Standard zooms like a 24-70mm offer great convenience for everyday shooting, but a standard prime lens brings something extra to the table. On a full-frame camera, you get an entirely natural viewing angle that equates to a lifelike perspective; on a cropsensor body, it makes a great short telephoto for portraiture and the like. Standard primes also typically have a faster aperture rating. Compared with, say, an f/3.5-5.6 standard zoom, an f/1.8 prime is around three f-stops faster. This enables faster shutter speeds for freezing action under dull lighting, and delivers a much tighter depth of field for blurring the background, so you can really isolate the subject. This class of lens has a fixed focal length, so it lacks the versatility of a zoom lens, but there’s a lot…

Lens mount Fujifilm X There’s no denying that the Fujifilm XF 50mm looks a bit pricey for an f/2 lens. Indeed, it has the slowest aperture rating in this test group. However, it’s impeccably built, with comprehensive weather seals, an aperture control ring for refined semi-automatic and manual shooting, and a high-grade optical path that includes an aspherical ED (Extra-low Dispersion) element. The nine-blade diaphragm is very well-rounded. Autofocus is virtually silent, quick for stills and smooth for movie capture. Performance Thanks to the 1.5x crop factor of Fujifilm X-series cameras, the lens has an effective focal length of 75mm and delivers a sufficiently tight depth of field at f/2 to make it a useful portrait lens. Bokeh remains smooth when stopping down a little, while ‘in-focus’ areas have immense…

Lens mount Sony E Renowned for its highquality yet reasonably priced manual-focus prime lenses, Samyang has recently started making autofocus lenses. This 50mm offering is only available in Sony E-mount, where it gives a traditionally ‘standard’ perspective on Sony’s full-frame mirrorless bodies. Physically, it’s quite long for a 50mm f/1.4 lens. The solid construction features mostly metal barrel parts and, at 585g, the Samyang is more than double the weight of the Nikon f/1.4. Performance Centre-sharpness is very respectable at f/1.4, and the Samyang does well to maintain similar levels of sharpness into the edges and corners of the frame at this aperture. From f/2 and onwards, sharpness and contrast are excellent, but vignetting is quite severe until you hit f/2.8. Sharpness Sharpness is very uniform across the frame at…

Lens mount Canon EF, Nikon F Available in Canon EF and Nikon F editions, geared towards DSLRs, this Tamron isn’t quite a 50mm lens, giving a slightly more generous viewing angle of 51 degrees rather than the more usual 46 degrees on a full-frame body. Unlike competing Canon and Nikon 50mm lenses, it features a four-stop optical stabiliser. The lens features extensive weather seals and a fluorine coating on its front element, to repel water and greasy fingerprints. The ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system enables the usual mechanically coupled manual override. Performance Sharpness is very good even at wider apertures, while defocused areas look very soft, and the crossover between sharp and blurred areas in images has a pleasantly smooth transition. Bokeh continues to impress when stopping down a bit from…