Table of contents for December 2021 in Digital Camera Magazine

This month we’ve put together an outdoor special to help our landscape-focused readers get the most from their shoots before winter starts to bite. Turn straight to our cover feature (p58) for a 12-page masterclass in capturing classic scenic views, and see how far you can take what you learn by viewing the winning entries of Landscape Photographer of the Year, in Hotshots (p80). You’ll also find more outdoor photography techniques in Photo Active (p20), and Camera College leaves nothing to chance in its guide to shooting your best-ever autumn photos (p70). Inspirational images by top pros this month include those of adventure photographer Chris Burkard (p134), while Suzi Eszterhas explains the enduring appeal of photographing newborn animals (p10). Camera and lens reviews lead with a hands-on of the Sony…

Most of my time is spent shooting static or slow-moving subjects (portraits, for example) – so recently I was quite keen to try my hand at shooting something more dynamic. There are a lot of technical factors that can contribute to capturing good shots of sports; having the right lens and a good focusing system for instance. But there are a lot of physical factors to consider, too: where you position yourself, for example, and even the height you shoot from. Elements such as the weather obviously affect our shooting style, but are not under our control. An overcast day not only brings a bit of drama to the scene, but also makes shooting in consistent light a lot easier. No matter the natural conditions, though, you can use some…

Shooting portraits and working with people can be a great way to improve your photography skills. Traditionally having a pleasing blurry background will focus the attention on your subject, but this is also true of foregrounds, too. A well-thought-out foreground can also act as a natural frame for your image to sit within. I headed to the Botanical Gardens in Bath with Poppy to shoot some fun portraits with Christmas colours, and to attempt shooting through flowers and branches along the way. I took my Fujifilm X-T3 and an affordable 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 lens. For a conventional portrait you might find this focal length a little wide, but I knew I needed some space to fill the foreground, and to surround Poppy with out-of-focus branches near my camera. This is…

Benedict Brain www.benedictbrain.com Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50R Lens: 1/125 sec at f/11, ISO 100 The magical Italianate village of Portmeirion, nestled on the north Welsh coast, has long held a special allure for me. My father had connections with the architect, and when I was a child we visited frequently. As a location to photograph, however, I always find it really difficult to capture the sense of place I feel when I’m there. How to see beyond the ‘picture-perfect postcard’ aesthetic is a challenge. More often than not, that sense is also corrupted by the throngs of tourists, who not only disrupt the vibe, but also make photography really hard by their very presence. A few weeks ago, I happened to be in Portmeirion again, giving a one-to-one training session…

Flowers are a very popular subject to photograph, and for good reason – the huge variety of types makes for incredible and colourful images. However, I wanted to adapt the concept of just taking photographs of flowers using macro techniques, and get more hands-on with my subjects instead. The leading photographer Rankin recently published An Exploding World, a book featuring images of flowers that he set on fire. This really challenges the traditional ways of flower photography, and I wondered how else it could be done. In this tutorial, I will share one of the approaches that have produced great results for me – freezing flowers and then photographing them. Recently, I have noticed lots of images of freezing flowers trending on Instagram, with many users of the photo-sharing platform…

The landscape provides a rich, varied and ever-changing subject for the keen photographer. A typical approach to capturing the natural beauty of the great outdoors is to frame up with a wide-angle lens – anything from 16mm to 35mm is generally regarded as the focal length zone for shooting classic landscapes. But while a wide-angle lens means you fit more of a scene into your frame, this often causes extra compositional headaches that need to be overcome. Over the next 12 pages, we’ll delve deep into the best approaches for shooting stunning landscapes. We’ll show how bringing together the art of designing your image, shooting at the optimum time, and using tried-and-trusted techniques to make sure your scenics technically hit the mark will ensure you’re never disappointed with your efforts.…

Finding a great view is often the best starting point for a classic scenic shot, but the view itself isn’t enough to be a solid landscape image. When you come across a pleasing vista, think of it as the background. This is the part of your shot where the viewer’s eye will ultimately rest – but to lead them through to this, you need something up-front to draw them in. And when we say “up-front”, we mean it! If you’re using a wide or ultra-wide lens, you want your foreground to dominate the bottom third of the frame, and that often means getting your lens really close to it. And don’t rule out vertical framing, as it can give you a great foreground and a great sky. Seek out different…

On some prime lenses and older optics with a full complement of barrel markings, you can set the hyperfocal distance quickly in manual focus mode. Assuming you want to focus to infinity to get everything sharp, line up the outer f/16 aperture marker with the infinity mark; now you can read off the closest distance that will be sharply focused with the inner f/16 mark. It’s possible that the scene may look blurred in the viewfinder, but your shot will be sharp from the closest distance indicated right through to the detail on the horizon.…

SPONSORED BY Photographer and writer Marcus is a former editor of Digital Camera Photo challenge! You could win a copy of Affinity Photo See page 77 Autumn is a season of contrast. While the natural world starts to slow down, wild animals are doing quite the opposite, immersed in bursts of activity as they stock up for winter. We photographers often need to make like the squirrels at this time of year, too. You might have to wait weeks for a calm, drizzle-free day with a low, raking light that makes your heart thump – and when it comes, you really have to get to work. The peak autumn leaf colours don’t last long either, so there’s no time to procrastinate with a camera! It is easy enough to get…

A simple colour trick will allow you to turn green leaves and foliage into autumnal shades. Add a Selective Colour Adjustment Layer (see tip 6), then click the Colour dropdown and choose Yellows. Set Cyan to -85%, Magenta to +40% and Yellow to +60%. This will turn the foliage into shades of orange and yellow. If you want to make the effect stronger, duplicate the layer with Ctrl/Cmd+J. It’s worth adding a Layer Mask (see tip 3) to make the effect work selectively over parts of the image.…

32 SKIES digitalcameraworld.com/dc249 Jon is a professional photographer and writer. He also provides one-to-one and small-group tuition in both digital SLR and Photoshop image-editing skills. When it comes to shooting landscapes, we can’t always be in the right place at the right time. If you’re in a good location, the first of these boxes will automatically be ticked, but getting the right conditions to coincide with the time you are there is down to the whims of Mother Nature! You may have the bones of a great scenic shot in the viewfinder, but if the sky is a dull grey – or an equally dull, plain, cloudless blue – all you can do is wait, and hope. If your schedule means you can’t wait for the light to change, this…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc249 James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. In photo editing, Levels are often considered to be the lesser sibling of Curves, because they don’t offer quite the same level of control when it comes to brightness, contrast and colour adjustments. But that certainly doesn’t mean that this often-underrated tool is redundant. Not only are Levels easier to get to grips with for beginners, they’re also the only Adjustment Layer of this type available in both Photoshop and Elements. We’ll cover all the techniques in Photoshop, but Photoshop Elements users can follow along, too: the controls are practically identical. Rather than focusing on one area of Levels, we’ll explore a range of…

Our starting raw file isn’t particularly inspiring, but with those boat textures to the fore, it has the makings of a gritty black-and-white photo. The whole image is slightly underexposed – so to start, we are going to brighten the image using the Whites slider in Lightroom’s Basic Panel, pushing it all the way to the right 1. In this case, that is +50. The boat ‘junkyard’ at the back needs a lift, so we’ll run an Adjustment Brush over the top half of the image, then lift the Shadows in this area by +45 2. With that done, we can press V to change the image to black and white. In the resulting B & W Panel, we can have a play with the eight Black & White Mix…

3 Legged Thing Punk 2.0 tripods collection The British brand has just updated its entry-level tripods offering. Brian, Billy, Corey and Travis get chunkier leg locks and a redesigned tri-mount top plate. www.3leggedthing.com from £199/$239 London 1977-1987 by Berris Conolly Part of a series dedicated to rediscovering the best photographs of Britain in the 20th century, this book shows parts of London that many may never have seen before. hoxtonminipress.com £17.95/$TBC Sigma announces 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN The brand’s first zoom lens for crop-sensor mirrorless cameras will come in L-Mount and Sony E mount. Ideal for both stills and video, this new constant-aperture zoom weighs just 290g. www.sigma-imaging-uk.com; £429/$549 7artisans 50mm f/0.95 for multiple mounts This new manual-focus prime will be available for Sony E, Fujifilm X, Canon EOS M,…

Since the launch in late 2013 of the Alpha 7, a pioneering full-frame mirrorless camera, Sony has expanded the line-up to appeal to different types of photographer. The Alpha 7R series offers higher resolutions; the Alpha 7S series offers higher sensitivities; and the Alpha 7C offers full-frame performance in a more compact body. Which begs the question: where does the Alpha 7 itself fit in? The Alpha 7 IV is Sony’s response to that poser. It’s packed with new technology while remaining affordable to non-professionals, with a next-generation Exmor sensor and a high-powered Bionz XR processor yielding all sorts of surprising capabilities. And just wait until you find out the A7 IV’s buffering capacity for burst shots! Check out our early hands-on impressions of Sony’s latest mirrorless body over the…

Good Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM £1,269/$1,299 An ultra-wide bargain www.sigma-imaging-uk.com There’s a tough choice between recent Sigma Art-line wide-angle zooms for Canon and Nikon full-frame DSLRs. It boils down to the 12-24mm f/4 and this 14-24mm f/2.8. Both are about the same size and weight but, while the 14-24mm naturally isn’t quite as generous in its maximum viewing angle, the faster aperture rating is a bonus. Well-made and optically excellent, this lens is a real bargain. Quality glass includes three top-spec Fluorite Low Dispersion elements and a further three Special Low Dispersion elements. Fringing When left uncorrected, the Sigma actually outperforms the pricier Canon lens. Sharpness Impressively consistent across the image frame, and throughout most of the aperture range. Verdict 4.5 Outstanding Better Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM…

Chris Burkard Adventure photographer Chris has turned a passion for surfing into a career that takes him to the furthest corners of the world. Join him on his travels in our interview on page 134 Suzi Eszterhas Wildlife photographer Getting close to wildlife is difficult at the best of times, but doubly so when there’s a newborn involved. Find out how Suzi Eszterhas pulls off the feat on page 10 Luke Davis Photographer Luke’s life journey has included touring in a band and waiting tables, but photography has taken over now! Explore his portfolio of work on page 20 Jon Devo Photographer and writer Jon enjoys celebrating the upsides of fast-developing camera tech. This issue, he explores the interaction of virtual photography and gaming. Page 120 Benedict Brain Fine-art photographer…

HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc249 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 249 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…

10 things you can shoot this month, from starry nights and macro flowers to cycling and airshows! If you were to tell me five years ago that photography would become my life, I’d probably just have laughed. Back then I was balancing touring as a metal musician, waiting tables and studying. That all changed when I took the plunge on a second-hand Canon EOS 600D. It was a magical moment for me, like that scene in Harry Potter where Harry picks up his first wand! I’ve been through various cameras since then, but my passion for image making has only grown. To this day, nothing compares to shooting purely for yourself. More often than not, you’ll find me exploring my home county of Dorset with my better half; Panasonic G9…

From a very young age, I have always been taking photographs. I always had a connection with nature, having grown up in the mountains. I find that black-and-white photography has a mystique that colour photography just doesn’t provide. The black-and-white photographer Diego Ortiz Mugica is my father-in-law, and a big inspiration in my own work. I have just published my first book: Botanicas, from Rain Editions – find out more at: www.raineditions.com.ar. Instagram: @fran_kitz_photography Focus on small objects I mainly produce macro photography: I think that there are a lot of pictures unseen with macro, and by using my 60mm Nikkor Micro lens, I try to capture them. I may also use focus-stacking depending on the object and its detail. Use dark backgrounds Most of my pictures are taken in…

For me, astrophotography is an escape from the stress that life throws at us from time to time. It gives me the opportunity to slow-take, have a breather and enjoy the world. Being out under the stars when all around is so quiet and peaceful is a blessing. I started my astrophotography journey in May 2018 when I was introduced to it by a friend; that was just one month before this image was captured. Those were also the days when post-processing meant stacking multiple images of the stars to reduce the noise. These days I’m much better-equipped: I now have a star tracker mount, which enables me to get much longer exposures and reduce the image noise considerably. Along with the pleasure I get from photographing the stars, I…

1 First, enhance the brightness and contrast. To show the depth and contrast between each colour of the photo, as well as the depth of detail in the frozen water, I boosted Brightness to 51 and enhanced Contrast to 70. 2 Next, Curves – this is fine-tuning that will further enhance the brightness and contrast. Be careful, as you don’t want to over- or under-expose the image. This is why the curve is only bent slightly, just to lift the whites and pinks. 3 To push the image further, think about enhancing Vibrance. Use it sparingly, though, as you want to show off the authenticity of the flowers – pushing this setting too high will overpower the effect for the viewer.…

No matter where you place your lens, you can’t always get the perfect arrangement of shapes in the frame to get the ideal composition. In Photoshop, though, you can subtly distort the image by pulling out the corner handles in Free Transform mode. This can allow you to fine-tune your composition by enlarging or reshaping your foreground interest to suit the space in the frame. Press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A in macOS) to select the whole frame, then press Ctrl/Cmd+T to start Free Transform mode. Now hold Ctrl/Cmd and drag out the corners to improve the use of space. You can also use this technique to level horizons or straighten up wonky buildings. Press Return when you’re finished.…

While every good photographer works hard to get the shot right in-camera, there’s no doubt that shooting raw – your camera’s native image file format – is the best way to ensure the highest quality in terms of both the technical and aesthetic elements of your image. While there’s nothing wrong with shooting in Fine JPEG format if you don’t like editing your digital files, you’ll be limited in what you are able to do if you choose to take your image in a different creative direction. A raw file is essentially a digital negative, and with a few minutes’ work in the raw-processing software of your choice, you can ensure your vision for the image is fully realised. This might sound like a very modern approach, but actually it’s…

There are two key camera controls that enable you to capture the colours of the season authentically: White Balance and Picture Style. Faced with a chilli-hot mix of reds, yellows and oranges, your camera may choose the wrong white balance. It may bias it towards blue to cool the colour temperature, for example, or add green. If you’re shooting raw, you’ll be able to set the white balance when you process your shots, but if you’re shooting JPEG, it’s worth using a white balance preset such as Daylight or Cloudy, or setting a custom white balance for the conditions. Similarly, take a manual approach when it comes to the Picture Style, Picture Control or Film Simulation. Use Landscape for robust reds and yellows, or try Portrait for more subtlety.…

There are two easy ways to light a leaf for interesting results: from the side and from behind. Lit from the side, you can bring out the texture and relief of the leaf’s surface. It works best with a point light source, such as a flashgun or a torch. Position this to one side and angle it across the leaf, and it will provide the necessary shadows along the midrib and veins that will give the photo a three-dimensional look. When a leaf is lit from behind, you’ll be able to bring out all of its delicate structures. It will also appear to glow with colour. Finding the perfect specimen to shoot can be a thankless task, as a leaf that looks good to the naked eye can often appear…

Philip Aldridge In issue 247, we challenged our readers to shoot their best black-and-white image. Well done to Philip, who wins a copy of Affinity Photo worth £49/$50. Digital Camera says: Some great thought has gone into the positioning of this shot, which was taken in sunny Lanzarote, with all the lines converging on the left. This is a superb example of how to use contrast well. 2nd place: Drew Watson A great shot of the photographer’s boots, next to those of his youngest son’s. We particularly like the simple – but very effective – narrative inherent in this image. Good work, Drew. 3rd place: Toni Reddy Titled ‘Sunbeams’, the rays of light coming through the church windows have turned a good shot to a really atmospheric one, adding some…

Winner, Classic View (Youth) ‘The Beast Within the Beauty’ Henri Abbott “A drone shot of the local batch at Paulton, Somerset, with some fog coming from the left-hand side.” Shot with: DJI Mini 2 Winner, Black and White ‘Daybreak Beside the River Brathay’ Miles Middlebrook “Mist rises from the River Brathay near Skelwith Bridge in the Lake District, half an hour after daybreak.” Shot with: Canon EOS 5DS with Tamron 85mm f/1.8 VC lens Winner, Historic Britain ‘Out of the Darkness’ Mark Amphlett “It was a very overcast morning on Loch Awe. The forecast was for mist, and I was hoping for a light covering around the lake; instead the whole area was covered in thick, low-lying cloud. My initial images from that morning were very flat. I waited for…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc249 With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. The basic mechanics of the Clone Tool are very simple: you Alt-click to sample pixels from one place, then paint to replicate them in another. But there’s real skill involved in cloning, and the tool takes experience to master. In fact, with the possible exception of the Pen Tool, the Clone Tool could claim to be the most involved tool in Photoshop. At first glance there’s not much to it, but when you delve into the Clone Source Panel, experiment with brush Blending Modes and discover cloning in the Vanishing Point filter, you’ll soon realise there’s much more to the Clone Tool than…

Reader 1 Andy Jenkinson Camera: Nikon D780 Location: Lancashire A long-term Nikon user, Andy recently upgraded to a full-frame setup after having shot solely on DX bodies. Not convinced by mirrorless – yet – Andy’s new D780 DSLR was selected as much for its video chops as its impeccable still camera capabilities. With a YouTube channel hungry for a feed of regular content, Andy needed a camera that could do both stills and video well. A published author, Andy is a leisure vehicle expert and contributes to various media in that sector. www.andyjenkinson.com Reader 2 Damien Walmsley Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Location: The Midlands A retired dental professor who used both film and digital photography during his clinic and research projects, Damien enjoys many different aspects of photography…

Travel and landscape photographer Location: Mirador los Cuernos, Torres del Paine Date: 2021 www.cathsimard.com Patagonia’s mountains, and the remoteness of the region as a whole, have always attracted me. I’m obsessed with glacial lakes and jagged peaks, and this area has them in abundance. It’s the perfect place to disconnect from the outside world. With such challenging conditions, you have to choose carefully the time of year you visit. December through to February are the warmest months – but also the busiest, and usually when the winds are at their strongest. If you can brave colder temperatures, I find it’s best to go in March and April, which is autumn in the southern hemisphere. The autumn colours are incredible. Landing in El Calafate is one of the best ways to…

www.sony.co.uk Traditionally, the Alpha 7 has been the range’s ‘vanilla’ camera, with the ‘R’ models adding resolution and the ’S’ models adding sensitivity. But there’s nothing vanilla about the A7 IV. While it technically supersedes the A7 III, it’s an altogether more advanced camera that, we think, targets a higher-level audience. The A7 III will continue for now; that model and the A7C will offer a ‘beginner’ option for the full-frame Sony camera system going forward. We have only spent a few hours with the A7 IV so far, but it is some way from an entry-level camera in its capabilities – and in its complexities. Key features Where do we start? How about the sensor? The A7 IV’s new 33MP sensor is hardly headline news by today’s mirrorless camera…

9 ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS This issue, get wallet-sized advice on action shots, nature-inspired portraits and capturing classic planes at air shows. If your copy doesn’t include printed cards, see the Gifts folder of this issue’s download for print-your-own versions. ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS! ✔ 9 subjects ✔ Techniques ✔ Settings ✔ Kit list Super Skies Kit for Photoshop CC Head to the Gifts folder of this issue’s download to nab 32 brilliant sky backdrops, then turn to page 92 for Jon Adams’ guide to replacing the dull sky in an image with something more dramatic, using the Sky Replacement Tool in Photoshop CC. Buyer’s Guide ebook Over 270 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.…

I’ve always felt that learning to edit images effectively and efficiently is just as important as learning how to control your camera and compose an image. I liken editing to seasoning when cooking; most dishes would be bland without it! Sure, cameras nowadays can produce some incredible-looking JPEGs (I’m looking at you, Fujifilm), but shooting in raw and post-processing is the best way of ensuring maximum control over the final output. I’ve always been enamoured with the look of film: it lends a certain ‘feeling’ that digital doesn’t do right out of the box, so is something I try to replicate when editing my images. I don’t feel my work would invoke the same feeling without it. Conversely, many people nowadays prefer a punchier, ‘contrasty’ look, and that’s great. It’s…

Photoshop has many wonderful tools and filters. In October 2020, the release of Photoshop CC 2021 introduced the Sky Replacement Tool. This easy-to-use command takes your image and works out where the sky meets the land or sea, then fills it with another sky from another selected image. I’ve tried it on a range of images, including photos with trees, and it has been accurate pretty much every time. To access the Sky Replacement Tool in Photoshop CC 2021 or 2022, go to Edit > Sky Replacement. You can either pick a sky from the Adobe Collection, or you can import your own skies from your images. To import your images when the Sky Replacement Tool is open, click on the sky picture icon and a pop-up box will appear.…

From a young age, I have always been fascinated with military aircraft. In addition, my father and grandfather were both into photography, and it seems that their enthusiasm has become a part of me. Since 2018, I have taken my interest more seriously. I bought my first kit – a Canon EOS 1300D and a 75-300mm lens – purely for taking photos at the Royal International Air Tattoo. But it didn’t take me long to get the photography bug and before I knew it, I was taking photos of anything and everything. I loved exploring the use of different lenses for different genres of photography. I have now upgraded my camera to an EOS 7D Mark II and a Sigma 150-600mm lens purely for aviation photography. At air shows, I…

Controlling depth of field – the extent of the apparent sharpness of an image – is one of the key creative skills in photography. And while landscape photographers strive to capture crisp details from the foreground to the background in their images, the same doesn’t apply to portrait photography. Here, the contrast between the sharp areas of the image, and the softer ones (‘bokeh’), will draw the viewer’s attention. Bokeh is certainly a pleasing effect but it can be overbearing. So is it possible to create a portrait with depth, rather than just yet another portrait with bokeh? Although it’s a technical challenge, I would recommend switching things up and moving away from just shooting portraits with bokeh all the time. Instead, add some depth by extending the depth of…

1 ‘Morning!’ by Gareth Kendall “What a way to wake up! Camping out along a sea wall in Sheerness, Kent.” Digital Camera says: Apply a small dark vignette here, Gareth. It will draw attention further and help to reduce noise. 2 ‘Kestrel’ by Tony Mathews “A kestrel photographed along the coastal path in South Devon.” Digital Camera says: A slight cropping of the right-hand side would leave a better space for ‘looking room’ on the left. 3 ‘Out!’ by Barton Dolding “There are days when I wonder if my photography is really appreciated… the title is inspired by the forthcoming Ashes Test series in Australia.” Digital Camera says: This has the feel of a Russian movie poster, Barton. You’ve found an interesting colour combination here. As expected with old wood, the image has…

In a typical scenic shot, the sky will be much brighter than the land. Our eyes adjust automatically to this brightness variation while we’re outdoors, smoothing out the difference, but cameras record the intensity of the light objectively; so if a shot is left unadjusted, you’ll get either a well-exposed sky with a foreground that’s too dark, or a well-exposed foreground with an overly bright or blown-out sky. This presents a problem for landscape photographers: you need to even up the brightness difference to create a balanced photo that looks natural and emulates the way the eye perceives the scene. The brightness difference varies with lighting conditions – and whether the sun is in front of you or behind you – but a broad rule of thumb is that the…

If you think the raw files you load into Lightroom or Camera Raw look flatter than you remember them when you viewed them on your camera screen, this is probably because when loaded into the raw editor, they are defaulting to Adobe Color and not the in-camera profile you set. By selecting Profile at the very top of the editing tools, you can browse different options to choose something you think works well, or simply match what you’d set in-camera. You’ll give your shot an instant boost without touching a single slider.…

Whether you’re shooting in your garden, or in a park or an arboretum, there are often plenty of distractions in the background to contend with. It’s easy to focus on the colourful star of your shot, but check in the distance for fence posts, tree trunks, signs and people that will be all too noticeable in the final image. A telephoto lens can help to concentrate the view, and makes it easier to conceal distractions – a micro-movement of the camera may be it all it needs. If you’re using a zoom lens, always refocus after you’ve changed the focal length – zooming can cause the focus to shift, and it is often hard to notice this in the viewfinder at the time of shooting. A fairly wide aperture (such…

Flatten the subject Press the leaf flat against a window and tape it around the edges so that it’s pulled tightly to the glass. Depth of field is minimal at close distances, so making the leaf as flat as possible allows you to record details sharply across the frame. Level up the camera Position the camera so that its back (and therefore the sensor) is parallel with the leaf’s surface. A macro lens allows you to create a life-size image. Manually set the lens at its closest focusing distance, then move the camera back and forth to focus. Use a small aperture To increase the depth of field, choose a small aperture, such as f/16. Avoid the smallest aperture on the lens, as this will result in soft details, even…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc249 Sean McCormack is a photographer and writer, based in Galway. He’s the author of The Indispensable Guide to Lightroom CC. Layers in Photoshop offer a brilliant way to build up edits on different parts of your photo. But because of the way it works, Lightroom doesn’t have the benefit of layers. You can do local corrections that act like layers, but what you’ve been able do has been quite basic – until now, that is. For Lightroom 11, Adobe has consolidated the previous local adjustment tools into a single Masking feature. It’s built from the ground up to give you far more power, and offers a better base for improvements. Older adjustments like the Graduated Filter, the Radial Filter and the Adjustment Brush are still there,…

Challenge 1 Andy Jenkinson Andy was one of several readers to have answered the shout-out for a Monday-afternoon Shootout during The Photography Show in September, and was quick off the mark in the first of two very open-ended photo challenges. Capturing an image with abstract content on the NEC campus is a wide-open brief these days: recent development has endowed the site with new buildings and attractions, including the Resorts World complex of eateries, bars, shopping outlets and a casino. Andy found a striking example of abstraction in the lobby of the north-facing entrance to the complex, in the form of the escalator leading up to the first floor. A tight crop of the scene removes the wider context, so the viewer is left with the interaction of the straight…

The exploding craze of virtual photography is something I’ve discussed here in the past, but this is a slightly different look at a rising digital pastime that’s capturing the imagination of photographers around the world. Photography in computer games is by no means a new thing. Series such as Fatal Frame, Dead Rising, Gran Turismo and Zelda have all found clever ways to incorporate the art of capturing pictures into their titles. The first Fatal Frame game is perhaps one of my favourite examples of virtual photography being deployed in a game. The protagonist, Miku, sets off to find her missing brother. She winds up at an abandoned mansion (obviously), where she’s confronted by ghosts and ghouls. Her only weapon is a camera, which she uses to scare off the…

www.apple.com The iPhone 13 Pro Max is the biggest and best of Apple’s new-generation iPhones. There are four in total, including the pint-sized iPhone 13 Mini, the regular iPhone 13, the regular iPhone 13 Pro and this one. (See table, page 128.) The 13 Pro has the same cameras and tech as the Pro Max, but the Pro Max has the bigger screen, at 6.7 inches versus 6.1 inches, and a slightly longer battery life of up to 28 hours of video playback, versus up to 22 hours on the smaller phone. Both iPhone 13 Pro cameras share the same spectacular three-camera array. And spectacular it is – in its capabilities, its clever shooting modes and computational imaging tricks, and in the sheer quality of the results. You only get…