Table of contents for Spring 2018 in Digital Camera Magazine

ALTHOUGH no price or release date are forthcoming, Sigma has lifted the lid on its new 70mm f/2.8 DG Macro | Art. Available for Canon, Sigma and Sony E-mount, the new lens uses a focus-by-wire system that offers full-time manual focus during autofocus, and is encased in a dust- and splash-proof body. www.sigma-imaging-uk.com SONY STROBE FLASH OUT SONY is introducing a new flagship flashgun. Boasting a Guide Number of 60 (metres at ISO 100 and 200mm), the £619/$600 HVL-F60RM Flash offers a zoom coverage of 20-200mm, radio control, improved recycling times (1.7 seconds, or 0.6 seconds with the FA-EBA1 battery adaptor), and the ability to recall the TTL flash output in manual mode. www.sony.co.uk 36.4MP FULL-FRAME PENTAX RETURN RICOH has revamped its flagship DSLR. The £1,800/$1,999 K-1 Mark II includes…

GET THE BOOK The 144-page book is out on 15th October. Find out more at www.rememberingwildlife.com REMEMBERING Great Apes will be the third book in a charity book series started by wildlife photographer Margot Raggett in 2016. Margot was prompted to take action after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya and started asking fellow wildlife photographers if they would contribute to a fundraising book. Now Remembering Elephants and its successor Remembering Rhinos have raised more than £300,000 for conservation projects via The Born Free Foundation. Taking the series into 2018, Margot has announced that the next book in the series will be Remembering Great Apes – and photographers such as Tim Laman, Anup Shah, Art Wolfe and Frans Lanting have already committed to donating images for the release. The work…

YOU’LL surely be familiar with the stunning time-lapse sequences seen in wildlife documentaries of plants growing, flowers opening or butterflies metamorphosing. Many digital cameras now incorporate timers that enable you to shoot time-lapse sequences of this kind, although these are output as video footage. But is possible to produce a similar effect, presenting time-lapse sequences in a single image, albeit of simpler subjects. By shooting the same subject over a period of time, then incorporating the images into one frame, you can get a good idea of growth or movement. For clarity, it is probably best to limit the number of individual images to no more than five. Try to choose a subject where there is a definite difference between each individual image. The key to success is to keep…

WHEN it comes to filters, there isn’t a huge number available, but what can make selecting the ones you actually need a little more difficult, is that there are variations of some types. These are designed for different shooting conditions and types of landscapes, but it is possible to assemble a simple set that covers quite a few bases without breaking the bank. There are two main styles of filters you can buy: screw-in and drop-in. Screw-in filters screw onto the thread on the front of lenses, and must be the correct size for that particular lens. The great thing about this type is that they take up little space and weigh very little. Drop-in filters are glass or resin sheets that drop into a holder attached to the front…

ND grads are available in three types of graduation. Hard grads feature a short graduation, and are used for straight horizons such as at the coast. Medium grads graduate over roughly 2cm, and are best where elements like trees or hills protrude over the horizon line. Soft grads have a longer graduation, and are best for mountainous locations. This doesn’t mean you have to own several strengths of each filter type: a set of two-stop hard, two-stop medium and four-stop soft, for instance, will cover most situations. SHOOT LIKE A PRO WITH AN ND GRAD Despite shooting at the coast, where much of the horizon is perfectly straight, the headlands at either side of the frame meant a medium grad was the best choice here. This filter has avoided darkening…

THERE will always be those occasions where either the dynamic range of a scene is so large that even stacked ND grads can’t cope with it, or you’ve simply not got any grads with you. Fear not – high dynamic range (HDR) imagery is the perfect solution. Take a set of three exposures that cover the correct exposure for the foreground, then one two stops underexposed and another two stops overexposed. These are blended together in software to reveal detail in all parts of the scene – from the shadows all the way to the highlights. 1 SELECT THE SETTINGS Set the camera up on a tripod and select standard landscape settings; so that’s Aperture Priority, ISO 100 at f/11 or f/16. It’s imperative that all settings except shutter speed…

1 Adjust the Tint slider Shoot raw files and you can remove colour casts later rather than in-camera. Here, we’ve taken the Tint slider towards green to start reducing the magenta cast. 2 Adjust the Temperature slider Moving the Temperature slider to the left reduces some of the amber. We need to be careful: if we lose the natural warmth in this image, we lose what this shot is about. 3 Correct the saturation To further correct the colour cast, you can make adjustments in the HSL panel. Here, we’ve reduced the Magenta saturation to -100 and the Orange saturation to -26 to balance the image.…

UXATINDAR THIS image won the Mountainous Award in the 4th International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. For all the details and winners and the top 101 images, visit the website and download the ebook at www.internationallandscapephotographer.com Subtle sensitivity Generally, a low ISO value means less sensor noise, and a better reproduction of tones and colours. Alex has used his Canon’s base ISO of 100 for this moody mountain capture, which renders the high-contrast tonal information of the sweeping scene in the most stunning quality. Peak timing “Sometimes good fortune plays a greater role in the making of an image than preparation or artistry,” Alex says. Lucky lighting conditions make this shot; the sunlight highlights the water in the middle of the scene and draws the eye into the frame.…

Our expert photo advisor is here to help Fur detail Q I photograph animals at my local zoo. What’s the key to capturing all the lovely detail in their fur or feathers? Catrione Cook A THERE are a lot of different factors that come into play with this type of project, Catriona. You’re looking at achieving the right combination of aperture, careful focusing and ultimately exposure – and, of course, environmental factors can come into it too. When it comes to aperture, there is no right or wrong choice as such, but if you want as much fur detail as possible, an aperture like f/8 will give a little extra sharpness but be careful using this doesn’t then make backgrounds too distracting. Focus has to be accurate. Normally this will…

CHRIS SAYS: This photo was taken during a November trip to the Lake District. The location is Wastwater in the western part of the area, and it was shot on my Canon 750D with a Sigma 10-20mm zoom lens. Unfortunately, our car had slid of a very icy road at Hardknott Pass and we’d got stuck! Two passers-by stopped and helped us back onto the road, then took us via a low-level route to Wastwater. The person standing on the rock in the photo is one of our rescuers, and I thought he added some perspective to the composition. The exposure is one second at f/16. ANDREW SAYS: You had a dramatic journey to get there, but also a dramatic result – just look at that light on the distant…

FUJIFILM X-H1 The new flagship camera for Fujifilm’s X-Series has sports and action potential PANASONIC GX9 A new rangefinder-style mirrorless camera that offers plenty of features PORTRAITPRO BODY 2 The face retouching prowess of PortraitPro is transferred to the entire human body GROUP TEST: MACRO LENSES Eight lenses to help you take that extreme close-up, with something for every camera ND GRAD FILTERS Six variable ND grads that help you choose how long you want your exposure to be CAMERA REMOTES Five solutions for triggering your camera shutter, and much more besides Reviews you can trust Digital Camera is brought to you by the UK’s most experienced team of photography journalists, which means you can trust everything you read, and compare kit with confidence. We believe that the best way…

SOFTWARE www.portraitprobody.com PORTRAITPRO Body complements its facial retouching sister software, PortraitPro. Though the Body variant does include some face-flattering features, its focus is on whole-body retouching. You get a comprehensive range of enhancement options, including the ability to adjust various torso areas like the chest, abdomen, waist and hips, along with sliders for changing arm and leg size, plus tools to tweak more subtle attributes, such as neck length and hip angle. But where PortraitPro Body really makes a case for itself is ease of use. While you can manually drag, enlarge or pinch specific body areas, more dramatic transformations require an initial markup. This is an easy process where you define key anatomical points and trace the outline of each limb. Now the software can automatically target specific body…

1 CamRanger £200/$300 www.camranger.com CAMRANGER is a compact box of tricks that’s little larger than a credit card and 16mm thick. It feels solid and well-made, but there’s little on the exterior to give away the power that lies within. It connects via USB to almost all Canon and Nikon DSLRs from the 450D or D5000 upwards; then its Wi-Fi signal lets you wirelessly connect an Android or Apple smart device – or a laptop – to use as a remote camera control. Set-up is as easy as downloading the CamRanger app and connecting your smart device to the CamRanger’s Wi-Fi hotspot. You then get a remote range of up to 150 feet, and a typical battery life of five to six hours from the user-accessible rechargeable battery. Once connected,…

Before you begin painting with the Art History Brush, it’s worth experimenting with different filter effects to enhance the brush-based look. Duplicate your layer with Ctrl/Cmd+J then go to Filter > Filter Gallery [1] and play with artistic or stylised effects. You can apply several filters at once in the Filter Gallery by clicking the new Filter icon [2] – we’ve used the Water Paper and Palette Knife filters in combination here [3]. Once applied, use the History panel to target the History state at which the filter was applied, then delete the contents of the layer. (Press Ctrl/Cmd+A then Backspace.) Now you can get to work with the Art History Brush [4]. If you like, finish with a pencil sketch effect [5]. Duplicate the original layer and apply Glowing…

Many photographers shoot in raw and process their images in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw before editing in Photoshop, so the idea of using the Camera Raw Filter may seem pointless. The great thing about this filter is that you can apply specific adjustments you may have forgotten earlier in your workflow and have done a lot of work to the image, or you simply shoot in JPEG and would like to enjoy raw-style adjustments. Our effect can be produced in the filter – the result is close, but not the same.…

MAX RIVE NETHERLANDS Cerro Torre, Patagonia, Argentina Max is the overall winner of International Landscape Photographer of the Year, and this shot won International Landscape Photograph of the Year – the first time one photographer has claimed both awards in the same year. INTERNATIONAL LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2017 International Landscape Photographer of the Year is an annual competition celebrating the art and craft of landscape photography. Each year the judges select 101 of the best landscape photographs, which are compiled into a book, as well as rewarding the best single photographs, and the best portfolios. THE BOOK The 2017 International Landscape Photographer of the Year collection is published in three printed editions: a limited-run art book printed with archival pigment inks on cotton rag paper, hand-bound and delivered…

ON PAPER, the new Alpha A7 III shapes up to be Sony’s best value full-frame mirrorless camera yet. While it’s not pushing the boat out in terms of resolution, sticking to the same 24.2 million pixels of the previous two A7 generations, it does feature a new back-illuminated Exmor R sensor design with increased sensitivity – all the way up to an expanded ISO 204,800 (the same as the A9). Sony also says the A7 II can achieve a dynamic range of 15 stops with 14-bit raw files. Factor in 693 phase-detection AF points covering 93% of the image area, 10fps continuous shooting with full autofocus and autoexposure tracking, five-axis optical in-body stabilisation, uncropped 4K video and a battery life of 710 shots per charge, and it looks like you…

FOXES are an animal I’ve always had a soft spot for. At the very beginning, I was happy with taking just a regular fox photo. In the course of time, though, I noticed that some behaviour moved me more than others. While many photographers prefer shooting action, it occurred to me that calm moments fascinated me most. To me, foxes look best when they are totally at ease, free from any discomfort, fear, pain or hunger. Foxes can be so ultimately relaxed. They seem to be fully in the moment – something that’s quite a challenge for people, living in a busy world. I loved watching these serene, almost happy-looking foxes, and photographing them like this automatically turned into a project. Foxes enjoying the warm sunlight or the smell of fresh…

BY AND large, this ‘tiny planet’ effect is remarkably easy to create with just a few simple steps in Photoshop. But it isn’t all in the editing: having the right image to start with makes a world – or should that be a planet – of difference. Pick or take a landscape photo that has a stand-out taller feature, such as the domed building here. If you have a panoramic shot, all the better. To make my starting panoramic image here, I stitched three photos together. Photoshop and Lightroom have features you can use to create panoramas with a few clicks. The workhorse for creating our planet is a filter in Photoshop called Polar Coordinates; providing you have prepared your image first, it’s all over in a few clicks. Blending…

IT’S a real challenge and adventure to grab a beautiful moonrise and a striking foreground in one raw photo – but it’s worth it. Finding a strong foreground is the best place to start with this: it is relatively easy to photograph the moon by itself, but to place it in context requires both planning and patience. The best tip I was given early on in my pursuit of moon photographs was to photograph the moon a day or two before full moon. If you use an app such as PhotoPills, this shows that the moon will rise when there is still some daylight or dusk light so you can achieve much more than a silhouette in your foreground, while the moon will still look full. After that, careful study…

NOTHING beats using optical filters at the point of capture, but there will occasionally be times where long exposures simply aren’t possible. The images here were 30-second exposures taken during sunset. Using an ND filter to increase the exposure time to capture movement in the sky would’ve been possible, but it would have also meant that fewer images could have been taken, as the sky quickly changed. By capturing a scene as it changes, you will inevitably end up with a series of images. To successfully mimic the effect of a Big Stopper on a sky or water, you will need around 10 individual shots, ideally taken with the camera on a tripod roughly 30 seconds apart. With these, you can then use Photoshop to create a similar effect to…

YOUR camera has a range of options for setting the colour temperature and removing colour casts. The default option is Auto White Balance, where the camera sets the colour temperature automatically. It can work well in mixed lighting, but can be a bit heavy-handed – sunsets can look a bit insipid with AWB, for example. Also, it doesn’t guarantee consistency between pictures, which may be a problem if you shoot a sequence. Using one of the white balance presets, which are arranged according to lighting type, does retain the same setting across a series of shots. You may also be able to set the colour temperature in degrees Kelvin (K) manually, or set a custom white balance. Auto White Balance (AWB) The camera often gives the ‘Goldilocks’ of colour temperatures…

GET INVOLVED! If you’d like to take part in any of the features in Photo Active, please send us an email at digitalcamera@futurenet.com with one of the following in the subject line: Rate My Photo, Shootout, Portfolio or Photo Answers. Please include your full name, contact details (including a daytime phone number) and a sample of your work (max 10MB) SHOOTOUT Our readers take on coastal challenges on the beaches of Devon PHOTO ANSWERS Your questions tackled by our resident expert, including tips for after-dark street images, how to get maximum detail when you photograph animals, and creative long exposures POTY WINNERS In the grand finale to the 2018 Photographer of the Year contest, meet the Overall and Young winners, who bring very distinctive approaches to their image-making FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld…

1 Work on a tripod Any exposure that goes above 1/15 sec requires a tripod. If your exposure is going to be seconds or minutes, then it is absolutely essential! 2 Use a filter to slow shutter speed down An ND filter can be used to hold back the light and lengthen exposure. NDs come in different strengths, or you can buy a variable one that allows you to alter its strength. 3 Blur amount Consider how your shutter speed will change the nature of the final image. A speed of 1/4 sec will show some detail in water or clouds, whereas a long exposure of minutes will result in more blur. 4 Subject ideas Be creative with your long exposures. It’s not just water that works – any moving…

NAME: Josh Hinds LOCATION: United Kingdom SUBJECT: Landscape, events and portraiture EQUIPMENT: Nikon D750 with various Nikon and Tamron lenses WEBSITE: www.joshhindsphotography.co.uk OUR overall winner of the 2018 Young Photographer of the Year is Josh Hinds, who showed a tremendous level of quality, versatility and consistency throughout the competition. He received four Top 10 Expert and 12 Top 20 Crowd awards across all of the rounds. Josh took an interest in photography at a young age, but has been taking his photography more seriously for the last three years. “This is the first competition that I have won, and that in itself makes it a very special prize – one that I will hold dear,” he says. “There were so many amazing entrants from across the world, so it’s a…

CSC www.fujifilm.co.uk SPECIFICATIONS Sensor 24.3MP X-Trans CMOS III, 23.5 x 15.6mm Image processor X Processor Pro AF points 91/325-point hybrid contrast/phase AF ISO range 200-12,800, expandable to ISO 100-51,200 Max image size 6,000 x 4,000 pixels Metering zones 256 Video 4K 4K at 30fps, UHD at 30/25/24fps Viewfinder OLED EVF, 3.69 million dots Memory card 2 x SD/SDHC/SDXC, UHS II LCD 3-inch tilting touchscreen, 1,040k dots Max burst 8fps (11fps with optional grip), 14fps electronic shutter Connectivity Wi-Fi Size 140 x 98 x 86mm Weight 673g (body only, with battery and memory card) POSITIONED above the current X-Pro2 and the X-T2, the Fujifilm X-H1 is to be “the highest-performance camera in the X Series range of mirrorless cameras,” according to the firm. Key features in this latest arrival include Fujifilm’s…

F OR the little things in life, you can’t beat a good macro lens. Unlike zoom lenses that carry a ‘macro’ badge, most macro prime lenses deliver full 1.0x or 1:1 magnification at their closest focus distance. This enables you to fill the camera’s whole image sensor with something the size of a postage stamp, gaining enormous magnification when you view the resulting shots on screen or in print. Indeed, with APS-C or Micro Four Thirds crop-sensor cameras, you’ll get an even greater ‘effective’ magnification ratio between 1.5x and 2.0x, compared with a full-frame body. Many manufacturers make APS-C format as well as full-frame compatible macro lenses. However, they often have a relatively short focal length, which also results in a short minimum focus distance. In some cases the ‘working distance’…

PHOTOSHOP MASTERCLASS Jon Adams shows how Camera Raw can help you change the weather outlook in your shots Lightroom Skills Avoid manufactured social media filters and create your own Instagram-inspired look – one you can re-use or adapt over and over again. Plus: how to transfer your preset to your smartphone Tool School Get to grips with the Art History Brush in Photoshop and discover how you can transform your photos into brush-based artwork, with all sorts of cool effects to choose between. Plus: how to create different filter effects for your brush styles Artist Insight Realise the full potential of your images using Photoshop’s Shadows/Highlights and Colour Luminosity controls to faithfully enhance detail and colours in your scenes. Plus: avoid image noise when you apply Luminosity. Creative Spotlight Four…

Our technique gets you the look you want on your computer, but how do you get that look to your phone? Easy! In Grid mode, create a Collection (Ctrl/Cmd+N) called something like ‘Social Media Photos’. The dialog box has an option called Sync With Lightroom CC: tick this, and anything in this collection will automatically go to your phone or device. On your mobile device’s Lightroom CC app, find the Social Media Photos folder. From there, select the image you want to post online. At the top of the screen on the left is a box with an up arrow: the Share icon. Click this. Select Open In… to choose where you want it go. Choose the image size and the service (for example, Copy To Instagram). Voilà!…

Photographer and journalist James is a professional photographer. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials to help other photographers improve their skills. jamesaphoto.co.uk SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc202files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc202video Download the video www.bit.ly/dc202bonus L andscape photography is all about capturing detail and adding drama. Using the right camera settings and filters at the shooting stage will get you most of the way to where you want your images to be – but for the final polish, some image-editing is essential. If you shoot with your camera’s raw image format, you may be wondering why you’d ever need to use Shadows/Highlights in Photoshop. You’re not working on raw image data when you use Photoshop, but the Shadows/Highlights controls in…

Editor, Practical Photoshop With a decade as a working writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter the most to you. SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc202files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc202video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc202bonus EXPERT TIP Which Saturation control is best? There are three different Saturation sliders on offer in Photoshop. One is in the Hue/Saturation dialog, one is in the Vibrance adjustment, and one is in the Camera Raw plugin. They’re all labelled ‘Saturation’, so you’d be forgiven for thinking they all act the same. In fact, they can give quite different results. The slider within Hue/Saturation is much more prone to clipping colours (resulting in blown-out detail), while the other two are better at preventing…

MATT REYNOLDS is a photographer based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He says: “I get a thrill out of chasing those elusive great sunrises and sunsets – not just the sense of serenity experiencing the event, but the rush as you drive hours away because the sky or the forecast look promising. Of course, with that come the lows when Mother Nature does not cooperate. “I have been to this location at Portland Head in Maine a couple of times and struck out. This morning, though, was one of the lucky ones. The photo was taken about 45 minutes before sunrise.” www.mattreynoldsphotography.com Kit Sony Alpha 7R with Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f.4 ZA OSS lens at 16mm Exposure 3 sec at f/16, ISO 100…

ORGANISERS of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards have revealed that almost 320,000 entries from photographers across 200 countries and territories were entered in the competition – the highest number of entries to date. The World Photography Awards feature four distinct competitions – Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus – with the Professional and Open contests each having 10 categories. All the shortlisted Professional and Open photographers’ works will go on to compete to become category winners, with the chance of being named Photographer of the Year (winning $25,000) or Open Photographer of the Year (which has a $5,000 prize). Clare Grafik (judge and head of exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK) says: “From new approaches to portraiture to creative responses to the landscape in which we live, the…

FOR as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed creating unusual things in my mind. This is particularly true when it comes to my photography. I like to perceive what surrounds me through the filter of my imagination. I am amazed by the limitless inspiration that the world can offer, but what seduces me is the possibility of transforming it. Through photography and digital editing, I aim to deconstruct the world around us to create a new reality. This picture belongs to a series called Capture, which I’m working on with Aidan Sartin Conte, an Italian photographer based in Washington DC. Aidan took the original photography, which is of the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy. I then used Aidan’s images as a springboard for my imagination. Together, we…

NEUTRAL-DENSITY graduated filters, or ND grads, are available in different strengths, as well as graduations, so you can select the filter that best balances the exposure of the sky with the foreground. They’re typically available in one-, two-, three- and four-stop strengths where they graduate from the full strength at the top, to no effect roughly in the centre of the filter. THE FILTER HOLDER The most effective ND grads are the drop-in type, rather than screw-in, and for these you’ll need a filter holder. This attaches to the filter thread via an adaptor ring. Most 100mm filters and holders from different brands are compatible, so you can mix and match them if you wish. Manufacturers to consider include Lee Filters, Formatt-Hitech, Cokin, NiSi and Kase. REVERSE ND GRADS A…

SHOOT LIKE A PRO WITH NEUTRAL-DENSITY FILTERS When James shot this scene, the standard exposure with a polariser attached to remove glare was 1/4 sec. Adding a two-stop ND increased the exposure to a full second. This wasn’t quite enough to create silky-smooth water, so a six-stop ND was used to extend the exposure to 60 seconds. The reason a 10-stop ND filter wasn’t used is that with the desired camera settings, the exposure would’ve been a whopping 16 minutes. Nikon D610 with 16-35mm lens at 16mm | 60 sec at f/16, ISO 100 INCREASING the amount of blur in a landscape is one of the many creative options at the landscape photographer’s disposal – and neutral-density filters are a necessity to slow the shutter speed down enough to do…

South Devon coast Time for a Beer! This issue, Ben Brain heads to Beer in sunny Devon to shoot a couple of coastal gems with two enthusiastic photographers. Strong ND filters and second-hand Bronicas at the ready… READER 1 Ben Kapur CAMERA: Sony Alpha 7 II LOCATION: Dorset PART landscape photographer, part YouTuber, 25-year-old Ben was recommended to apply for this Shootout as he’s local to the area, and enjoys shooting landscapes and seascapes on the Devon and Dorset coastlines. In addition to being armed with the right tools for long-exposure seascape work, Ben came armed with extra kit for recording video, as he’s an avid video blogger. (Keep your eyes peeled on his YouTube channel for a video of this Shootout…) www.instagram.com/benjamin_kapur READER 2 Paul Haigh CAMERA: Nikon D300S…

SHOOTING a portrait on a flat, overcast day means you get a shadow-free face, but the original raw file will lack contrast. These things are easy to resolve in Lightroom. First I alter the White Balance by clicking the WB Selector on a neutral grey area. With an Adjustment Brush, I paint over the background, avoiding the hair and body. Next I select the Range Mask at the bottom of the Brush panel. I select Luminance and alter Range so it reads 0/50. Now adjustments will only affect the shadows and midtones. I take the Exposure and Shadows sliders into the negative to darken the background. I select a new brush; in the Effect dropdown I choose Iris Enhance, zoom into the eyes and brush over each iris to brighten…

NAME: Elena Paraskeva LOCATION: Cyprus SUBJECTS: Conceptual fashion, Beauty, Portraits EQUIPMENT: Nikon D810 with various Nikon and Sigma Lenses WEBSITE: www.elenaparaskeva.com FOUR years ago, our Photographer of the Year Elena found a new sense of freedom when she bought a Nikon D5300. She had just recovered from a long-term illness that had left her virtually house-bound, and was keen to spend as much time as possible outside. An interest in landscape photography was the natural result – but it’s portraiture that has seen her develop a style she describes as her “signature as an artist”. Despite only getting into photography relatively recently, Elena has already become a professional photographer, specialising in conceptual fashion, beauty and portrait photography, with her work being seen worldwide. “As a freelance photographer, I have had…

ANDREAS Gursky’s large-scale images present his own unique vision of the contemporary world. His photographs, often made from an elevated perspective, feature everything from goods in Amazon warehouses and 99 Cent shops to landscapes covered with solar panels. However, these images are not straight photographs: he openly uses digital technology to manipulate scenes so he can comment on global capitalism and how we live now. What was his background? Gursky was born in 1955 in Leipzig, East Germany, but his family moved to West Germany soon afterwards. His father was a commercial photographer. He studied at Folkwang University in Essen from 1977-80, then at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf from 1980-87. He was taught by Bernd and Hilla Becher, known for their systematic and ‘objective’ photographs of industrial structures.…

CSC www.panasonic.co.uk SPECIFICATIONS Sensor 20.3MP MFT Live MOS, 17.3 x 13.0mm Image processor Venus AF points 49-area DFD contrast AF ISO range 100-25,600 Max image size 5,184 x 3,888 Metering zones 1,728 Video 4K UHD at 30, 25, 24fps Viewfinder EVF, 2.76 million dots Memory card 1 x SD/SDHC/SDXC, UHS I LCD 3-inch tilting touchscreen, 1,240k dots Max burst 9fps, 6fps with Live View (100+ JPEG, 30+ raw) Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Size 124 x 72 x 47mm (body only) Weight 450g (body only, with battery and memory card) WE reviewed Panasonic’s flagship G9 stills camera last issue; the new GX9 is a step down from that, with a smaller rangefinder-style body but the same 20-megapixel resolution. It’s designed as a premium ‘street photo’ camera that looks like an evolution of…

1 B+W XS-Pro Digital ND Vario MRC Nano From £224/$189 Sizes: 52-82mm www.manfrotto.co.uk THIS is one pricey screw-in filter – but maker Schneider Optics claims it’s a cut above the competition thanks to a Multi Resistant Coating. Where an uncoated filter can reflect around 4% of light, this one only reflects 0.5%, while also minimising ghosting and reflections, and repelling water droplets. The filter is 9mm deep, not including the thread, with knurling around the fixed ring that makes it a doddle to fit and unscrew. The rotating front ring has hard stops to mark the minimum and maximum filter densities, but markings in-between don’t correspond to f-stop light reduction amounts. Rotation is smooth, with pleasing resistance. The filter is said to provide between one and five stops of light…

Photographer and writer Jon is a pro photographer and writer, and also provides individual and small group tuition in DSLR and Photoshop skills. jon@jonadamsmedia.co.uk SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc202files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc202video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc202bonus P HOTOGRAPHY is all about making decisions. From the location choice to the way you frame the scene, and from the focal length you use to the depth of sharp focus, all the steps that lead to you gently pressing the shutter are a series of options. If you shoot in your camera’s raw format, these options continue and extend into the post-processing arena, because with a raw file, nothing is fixed. Raw allows you to carry on making choices, fine-tuning the image you’ve captured until you arrive…

Editor, Practical Photoshop With a decade as a working writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter the most to you. SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILE FROM www.bit.ly/dc202files WATCH VIDEOS www.bit.ly/dc202video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEOS www.bit.ly/dc202bonus STEP BY STEP FROM PHOTO TO PAINTING 1 START PAINTING Open the provided start image, art_history_before, then go to the Layers panel (Window > Layers). Next, make two new layers. Fill the middle layer with white (Edit > Fill) then highlight the top layer, grab the Art History Brush, choose a brush tip then paint loosely over the layer. 2 REFINE THE EFFECT Make another new layer then paint over it again, this time using a smaller brush tip. Paint heavily over…

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BIG-STOPPER SKIES FOR YOUR FIRST SHOT, TRY… TO IMPROVE YOUR SHOT … Frame up on a tripod, and meter the scene in Aperture Priority. Change the aperture until you have a shutter speed of 1/30 sec. Fit a 10-stop ND filter, and switch your main exposure mode to manual. Leave the aperture as set, but dial in a shutter speed of 30 sec, and shoot. TOP TIP: Shoot in raw so you can tweak contrast and colour when processing. PATTERNS IN LANDSCAPES FOR YOUR FIRST SHOT, TRY… TO IMPROVE YOUR SHOT … Shoot at the start or the end of the day, when the sun is low in the sky and gives relief to the land with longer shadows. Use a long-focal-length zoom such as a 70-300mm to isolate pockets…

1 Map out locations You should never head out on landscape shoots in new locations without a good map; we like the Ordnance Survey Landranger series. Before you leave home, use your map to do a recce of the area you are planning to photograph. Ordnance Survey and similar maps are invaluable, because they enable you to plan your route in advance, working out elevations and exactly where the mountain peaks, lakes and scenic spots are, which road or trail you’ll need to reach them, and the best positions to photograph them from. This means that once you get to your location, the only thing you really need to think about is taking brilliant pictures. 2 Get in position Think about the scenes you want to capture, then find out…