Table of contents for Spring Issue 2018 in Practical Photography: Lite

AS I WRITE, I’M LOOKING at the feeders I strategically positioned in my garden last year, watching a rather plump robin decide whether it’s bird seed or mealworms for breakfast. It’s a simple setup, but one that’s provided me with hours of entertainment and inspiration. The resultant photos aren’t in the same league as the likes of Simon Roy’s (above), but ‘Project Feeder’ has certainly shown me that you don’t need to stray far to get great wildlife shots. Simon is one of four brilliant pros we’ve enlisted for this issue’s garden safari spectacular. Starting on page 38, we take a detailed look at the types of images you can find on your doorstep, from elegant flora to tiny insects and furry friends. Whatever you’re into, you’ll find something here…

Close-up lens From £50 To get the sort of close-up pictures of flowers and insects that pros take, you will need to be able to focus closer than a basic kit lens allows. These accessories fit over the end of your lens and let you take macro-like shots. canon.co.uk Extension tubes From £60 An extension tube sits between your lens and the camera body and decreases the minimum focus distance Depending on the size, they can give you more magnifying power than a close-up lens can provide. srb-photographic.co.uk Macro lens From £349 If you think that close-up photography is something you wish to pursue further it may be worth investing in a true macro lens. Both Nikon and Canon produce macros while many of the independent lens makers also offer…

• What inspired you to become a flower photographer? I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and have loved gardening and growing lots of plants for many years now. Having a keen interest in photography too, with flowers readily available to me, it was so natural that they would be my preferred subject. Flowers are a popular draw to many photographers for their obvious beauty, interesting shapes, colours and form. I marvel at the patterns and structures and the small details that often go unnoticed to the naked eye. Nature inspires me greatly; it brings fresh opportunity every single day. • When did you start? I’ve been taking flower photos for about 15 years now, and it began really when I bought my first digital camera. I was excited to embrace this…

BUT FOR A BRIEF FLASH OF ELECTRIC blue zipping past, you’d normally miss the skittish but astoundingly colourful kingfisher. Last year I set myself the challenge of photographing more than just a brilliant blur and dedicated many long summer days – and even longer evenings – until, eventually, I got this pin-sharp portrait of a juvenile male at my local wildlife hide. But straight out of the camera it doesn’t look as vibrant as I remember – it’s very flat and doesn’t do the jewel-hued bird the justice it deserves. Colours often need a tweak in Photoshop to get them looking perfect, though it’s important to be extra careful with wildlife and nature images to make sure they don’t distort or look unrealistic. Our easy three-step tutorial below shows you…

IMAGE GRIDS ARE AN excellent way to show your subject in a new way. By creating a montage of different close-up images, the viewer has to piece together all the separate bits to figure out what it is, a little like a jigsaw. Image grids come in lots of different shapes and styles, and we’re giving away 15 bespoke templates and triptychs for you to get creative with. You’ll need to shoot a series of images of the subject you want to use, so try to find an object that means something to you, such as a car, vintage camera or musical instrument. Then capture its intricate details. If the subject is small enough you can put it on some coloured paper or card, which will help tie the images…

A rainy day may not be the most inspiring time to take photographs but it does offer an opportunity to make some creative use of your built-in flash. The idea here is to use the flash light on raindrops to create the sort of magical bokeh effect in the large picture above. Set up your shot as follows: • Focus on your subject and compose your shot. • Select aperture-priority mode and open the lens as wide as you can. • Shoot with the in-built flash turned on. • Increase the ISO for faster shutter speeds and take several shots to get the effect that you want. • Remember that your camera may not be fully waterproof so it’s best to shoot from a sheltered spot out of the direct…

BLOOD RACING. HEART pounding. Each rev of the machine delivering another punch of adrenaline, square to the chest. For many of us, the closest we’ll ever get to the emotional high of racing around a motorsport circuit is through cheering ourselves hoarse in the stands. However, armed with a vast array of trusted kit, James Wright not only gets dangerously close to the action, he brings his viewers right along with him. With almost 30 years of experience under his belt, if there’s anything he doesn’t know about shooting motorsport, it’s not worth mentioning. How did you become interested in photography? I initially inherited a love of photography from my father, although his subject interest was very different from mine. He was an ornithological photographer who would think nothing of…

ONE OF THE MOST VITAL steps in taking a picture is ensuring that you capture true-to-life colours. It can often be an overlooked part of the photographic process, but without the right care and consideration you’re at risk of ruining your shots before you’ve even composed the frame. The good news is that taking control is easy, and with the right approach you can master your camera’s white balance to create convincing colours and beautifully crafted images. What is white balance? Every type of light has its own colour temperature, whether it’s direct sunlight, diffused light through a blanket of cloud or the glow of a tungsten bulb. This is because light is made up of different wavelengths of red, blue and green, and variations in the composition of these…

• EVEN BEFORE I DISCOVERED PHOTOGRAPHY, I was always surrounded by other forms of art, as my parents used to own a gallery when I was younger. However, my obsession with photography only began when I started college, as I discovered its ability to tell stories and reach a wide variety of different audiences. Once I left college, I knew that I wanted to pursue photography further by studying it at university. I was aware that I didn’t yet have a strong enough portfolio of work to approach editors, or enough experience to apply for internships. I felt that if I went to university it would give me enough time to enhance my photographic practice and style through experimenting with a range of different equipment. It’d also give me time…

I ALWAYS LOOK FORWARD TO THE ARRIVAL OF spring, as winter loosens its grip and the land awakens. My thoughts turn to arable fields and March madness, lying among the green shoots of winter wheat as larks sing overhead and brown hares begin their courtship. These characterful creatures behave a bit bonkers at this time of year. They lie for hours in shallow depressions called forms, and are barely noticeable, even when crops are low. Then, suddenly, a field that seemed lifeless is full of males chasing a female who will defend herself by rising up and boxing her pursuers. Any approach, besides crawling, will result in the hares making a speedy retreat. I have to shake off the lazy habits of a winter working with subjects tempted by food…

NATURE photography is one of the classic pillars of the hobby, and it also has fantastic potential as a money-earning sideline for anyone willing to put in the hours, as wildlife shots are incredibly popular with buyers. But while images of exotic flora and fauna from the far flung regions of the world will always top the wish-list of nature photographers and those who seek out their work, the great British countryside also has plenty to offer those snappers who can’t trek the globe – and much of it can be found right on your doorstep. Start a portfolio Whether you live in the middle of the countryside or the centre of town, nature will be all around you – even if it’s confined to a window box on an…

CURVES IS HANDS DOWN the single most versatile adjustment in Photoshop. Capable of replicating the results of nearly every other Adjustment Layer, it’s often overlooked in the editing process, relegated to controlling contrast or lightening and darkening the overall scene. While it may not be as convenient as the plethora of dedicated tools Photoshop has to offer, it boasts an incredibly high level of precision that will really please the control freak in you, as well as allow you to get perfect results every single time. This month, in honour of this under-appreciated classic, we’re going to be looking at three very simple techniques you may not have known existed, and explaining how to put them to powerful effect in your editing workflow to maximise your efficiency. And the best…

HIGH-SPEED ACTION IS A SURE-FIRE WAY to make sure you get an eye-catching image. So we’re taking this photographic genre to the next level by showing you how to capture dynamic action sequences. Taking the best bits of each image in Photoshop, you’ll end up with a single shot that reveals the full flow of your subject’s movement – this is particularly impressive when shooting extreme sports, as you can really see the skill and technique involved. But you don’t have to head to London’s South Bank skatepark, as we did – you can get great results with any moving subject. Cats, dogs, runners and cyclists all work brilliantly. Although this technique is all about movement, you actually want each image in the sequence to be perfectly sharp. This means…

ALL IMAGES CAN BENEFIT from sharpening, even those taken on modern high-res cameras. While it’s not possible to broaden depth-of-field or refocus blurry images, we can boost the contrast of the picture to make it look less soft, and therefore sharper. How much you sharpen takes judgement – not enough and the image will still look soft, but too much and your image will begin to look unnatural. Below we show you how to use a High Pass filter in Elements to sharpen your shot, apply a Layer Mask to make sure you don’t sharpen areas you don’t want to (such as background noise) and also increase local contrast with the Dodge and Burn Tools. 1 Add a High Pass filter Open the image you’d like to sharpen into Photoshop…

LIGHTROOM Import only new images from your memory card Formatting memory cards is part and parcel of digital photography. But if you forget to format a used card, it can be a pain to search through to find out which images have already been imported and which haven’t. If you use Lightroom, go to the Library module and hit the Import button. On the right under File Handling you can check the box that says Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates and this will grey out any files that you’ve already imported into Lightroom. You can also click on the New Photos button (at the top under Copy DNG, Copy, Move and Add). This will show you only the new images on your memory card that are yet to be imported, making…

In almost 30 years of covering British Superbike racing, I can’t ever remember experiencing the emotion of the closing scenes of the 2017 Championship fight. Leon Haslam and Shane Byrne were arch rivals and went head-to-head in the final race. Haslam, keen for his first BSB title, was ahead of Byrne when his brakes failed at 172mph, leaving him no option than to ‘dismount’. Despite a badly broken ankle, he insisted on watching the rest of the race trackside, before being carried to the grid where Byrne was celebrating his sixth BSB title. Byrne immediately broke off his TV interviews and went straight across to Haslam. For me, this shot demonstrates sportsmanship at its very finest.…

AFTER MIGRATING thousands of miles across land and sea, from tropical rainforests to idyllic countryside, the nomadic cuckoos make the UK their home for a few fleeting months to breed. Luckily, they’re greeted warmly by a brood of photographers keen to make the most of their short stay, and none more so than experienced wildlife photographer Jules Cox. After a short break from shooting, Jules was determined to stretch himself creatively and capture the true essence of this beautiful bird... We last interviewed you in 2016 for your roe deer project – what took you from deer to cuckoos? I’m still working on the deer as I think it’s likely to be a ten-year project. I’m about halfway through it at the moment with a lot of work still left…

Camera Buying Guide Unsure about which camera is best for your needs? Whatever you shoot and whatever your budget, our e-book will guide you with reviews, spec and prices for every camera that’s on the market right now. 15 custom image grids Make your photos stand out from the crowd by adding them to one of our bespoke templates made especially for Photoshop and Elements users. Photoshop video lessons Take control of colour and saturation in wildlife shots, turn a sequence of RAWs into stunning panoramas in Lightroom, and get creative with Curves. DOWNLOAD THE DISC CONTENT AT bit.ly/ppdisc1805…

Nikon D760 The current D750 is one of the company’s best selling full-frames, so we’re expecting to see an updated version announced this year. We’d expect it to carry on the all-rounder legacy of the D750, but with an increased burst rate of 8fps, a higher megapixel count and 4K video features. We also expect to see touchscreen operation and the 153-point AF system and improved algorithm found in the current D500 and D850. nikon.co.uk Sony α7000 The king of full-frame mirrorless cameras, Sony also produces one of the most popular APS-C offerings too, in the α6000 range. However, we’re expecting to hear news of the next generation, the α7000, any time now. With this latest entry, we don’t expect a massive change, with the current 4K video, 24MP sensor…

WHILE THE REST OF THE COUNTRY descends into despair at the dark and cold, for many landscape and wildlife photographers winter is a glorious, productive season that provides a plethora of opportunities to capture scenery in seasonal fayre – frozen, barren and, if we’re lucky, shrouded in atmosphere or flooded with low light. Not only that, but for a few months of the year getting up for sunrise (my favourite time to shoot) becomes an entirely reasonable prospect, and I often find myself sharing the landscape with other nature lovers. However, as the season rolls through the eternal month of January and into the brevity of February, the anticipation of spring is palpable. As nature emerges from the quiet rest of winter, spring is synonymous with regeneration. Throughout my photography…

Photography, as its name suggests, is all about light – where it’s coming from and how it falls on your subject are what makes a shot. While a classic portrait of a flower might usually be lit from the front in order to bring out all the vibrancy of the colours, turning things around, so that the light comes from behind and through the flower, can produce some exceptional images. The technique here is to position your camera so that your subject sits between your lens and the primary light source. This ‘contre-jour’ style requires careful metering to ensure that you don’t end up with a silhouette. So take a reading from close in on your subject and expose for that level or use spot metering. Review your images on…

1 Get your tent up While you could feasibly create your own light tent from fabric or card, they are inexpensive items and it will save a lot of time and frustration to simply buy one. Specialist photo equipment sites as well as online marketplaces all sell light tents and they start from around £12.99. 2 Find a subject Once you have your tent, you need a flower to shoot. The best subject is a light coloured flower such as a lily and you should aim for a pastel coloured backdrop that complements the subject. Cut a hole in your backdrop and gently feed the stem of the flower through it, then stabilise it all with a simple stand. 3 Use your histogram Set your camera to manual as otherwise…

GETTING fantastic nature shots isn’t easy. There are all the usual issues a photographer has to contend with, such as correct exposure, accurate focusing and pleasing composition, with the added problem that your subject is easily spooked and unlikely to pose for you. But there is a group of animals on the garden safari whose world is so different to ours that they barely register our interest in them – and for that reason insects make a great subject for your camera. Get in close Here at PP we are great believers in keeping things simple and rarely would we suggest that you should run out and spend a lot of money on gear. But if you really want to take the best pictures of insects that you can, you…

PRACTICALLY EVERY SMARTPHONE and compact on the market has a panorama mode, so it’s clearly something we love to experiment with. But as a photographer with a cache of creative cameras and lenses at your disposal, you can really take your panoramic game to the next level. In addition to better quality and, in most cases, more megapixels, the biggest advantage of your DSLR or CSC is its ability to shoot RAW. These are uncompressed images with heaps more exposure and colour data than JPEGs. The benefit is more editing options when you bring it into RAW editing software such as Lightroom. In years gone by, you’d have to individually edit each RAW file in your panoramic sequence, and then stitch them into a panorama using Photoshop. But Lightroom’s relatively…

AWATERMARK IS A WAY OF branding your images so they can’t be used without your permission. The challenge is getting a balance between including a watermark and not distracting from the image itself. A signature can look more pleasing to the eye and leaves much of the image unobscured. The great news is you can make one yourself. You just need a pen, paper and a camera to photograph your signature, as well as an image you can apply it to. We’ll show you how to resize it and make it black or white. Photoshop Elements lacks the tools for Step 3, but don’t worry, you can jump from Step 2 to Step 4 to add a signature to your shot. Here’s how it’s done... 1 Write and photograph your…

• BLURRY SUBJECT The speedier your subject, the faster your shutter speed will need to be in order to eliminate movement and keep them sharp. Don’t be afraid to push up your ISO to get a faster shutter speed if you experience this. • SHOOTING HANDHELD This technique works best when shooting on a tripod to help you align the images, but sometimes this isn’t practical or possible. In these situations you can still get the shot by shooting handheld, you just need to make sure the focus is locked off and the camera is kept as still as possible so your framing doesn’t change from image to image. You’ll need Photoshop for this to work, so when you’ve followed Step 1 over the page, you need to select all…

Richard Collins PP’s deputy editor is a hugely experienced journalist, tutor and pro fashion photographer. Dan Mold PP’s Photoshop editor is a former Digital Photo staffer who has encyclopedic photo knowledge. Louise Carey PP’s features editor is an experienced fine art and documentary photographer. Is there still a place for the pop-up flash? Q With even entry-level cameras now capable of shooting at very high ISO ratings, is there really any need for the built-in flash now? Mike Hargreaves, Liverpool Dan says: The humble built-in flash, found in many entry-level DSLRs, is a much-maligned piece of tech. It manages to be simultaneously too close, and not close enough to the lens to mean that pictures taken in low-light conditions look flat and harshly lit, while its…

Hoya PRO1 Digital Polariser From £69 Specifically designed with digital cameras in mind this multi-coated polariser reduces lens flare and ghosting, while it’s ultra-thin, matte frame avoids vignetting and reflections. It’s also good value for money. hoyavision.com/uk SRB ND Hard Grad Filter From £15 Another great value-for-money filter. The price doesn’t include the holder or adapter rings but SRB’s system is cheaper than those from Lee or Cokin and the quality of the filter is really good. Also available as a soft grad option. srb-photographic.co.uk Hoya PRO1 Digital UV From £41 Another filter from Hoya’s stable that, while not the cheapest UV filter on the market, has superior build quality and won’t cause any noticeable degradation to your images. Can be safely left on your lens to protect it from…

1 THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX Just because you can take a nice shot of a motorbike going round a corner, it doesn’t make you a photographer. Use light and lines, and think about the shot you want before it happens. Don’t worry about the lenses you don’t have, think about getting the most out of the ones you do. 2 BE FLEXIBLE Use your most useful accessory available to you – your legs. Sometimes moving a few feet, or even just a few inches, can make all the difference between a mediocre shot and a fantastic photograph. If you always experiment with your work, you’ll soon be rewarded. 3 PREPARATION IS KEY There’s nothing worse than turning up to an important shoot and being unprepared. Ensure that you do your…