Indice dei contenuti per November 2016 in Digital Camera Magazine

THE famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams once said, “The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” Perhaps he would feel the same about the interpretation of a raw file if he were alive today. In a way a raw file is not too dissimilar to a old-school negative and, in the right hands, the treatment of a raw file can transform an image from average to amazing. So this month, Photoshop whizz James Abbott has put together a guide that’ll teach you everything you need to know to get the best out of your raw files and make your images sing. If you’d rather be out and about with your camera in the landscape, check out this month’s Shootout on page 64, where I…

DEREK BARR ETT MILTON KEYNES, UK “On a camera club outing to the Black Country Museum in Dudley, the blacksmith was showing us how they used to hand-forge chains. Most of this talk was done at the forge at the back of the scene, and would not have been conducive to taking photos without using flash. He moved to the front of the area to show us an enormous two-person hammer they used to make ships’ chains. He stepped into a pool of light and enabled me to get this shot. It needed minimal adjustments in contrast and exposure but I applied 100% Clarity to make the image look almost like a painting and show the depth of the darkness he was working in.” Kit Fujifilm X-Pro1 with XF 18-55mm…

Profoto D2 This is the world’s fastest monolight, according to Profoto., with the ability to freeze action at up to 1/63,000 sec, shoot bursts of 20 images per second and sync with shutter speeds as fast as 1/8,000 sec. The D2 also comes with a built-in AirTTL receiver. £1,194/$1,495 BOWENS GENERATION X Bowens’ new flash range features the XMT for location lighting and the XMS for studio-based work. The new 500Ws XMT boasts TTL and high-speed sync, while the XMS is available in 500, 750 and 1000Ws models. £1,199 (XMT 500); from £799 (XMS) LEICA 60MM F/2.8 This new macro lens for the Leica T APS-C system delivers 1:1 reproduction. It’s available in a choice of black or silver anodised finish, and you’ll have to fork out extra for the…

GoPro Hero 5 Black The new flagship GoPro Hero offers voice control, image stabilisation, a touch display, 4K video at 30fps and 12MP stills. It can auto upload photos and videos to a GoPro Plus cloud account and it’s also waterproof without a housing to 10 metres. £350/$399 GoPro Karma drone GoPro’s long-awaited drone is now a reality. Designed to be compact enough to fit in a backpack, the Karma drone includes a three-axis stabiliser and a game-style controller with touch-screen display. £720/$800 or £1,000/$1,100 with a Hero 5 Black Nikon KeyMission Nikon has announced two new KeyMission action cameras. The slim KeyMission 80 is the entry-level unit, waterproof to 1 metre and shockproof to 1.5m. A mid-range KeyMission 170 includes VR, shoots 4K UHD and a more rugged body.…

CONSERVATION photgrapher George Stoyle has been named overall winner of BWPA 2016, with a shot of a Lion’s Mane jellyfish. “I was working for Scottish Natural Heritage to assess the biological status of sea caves around some of the UK’s remote islands,” says George. “At the end of one of the dives I came face to ‘face’ with the largest jellyfish I’d ever seen.”…

 THE UK’s mushroom season commences around September and finishes at the end of March, so October is the prime time to go out and take shots. “Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes,” says Alison Linton, author of Field Guide to the Mushrooms of Britain and Europe. “Some are difficult to see with the naked eye and might be the size of a match stick, while others might have caps as big as a dinner plate!” Alison suggests that attractive specimens to look for are oyster mushrooms, Lawyer’s Wig and Chicken of the Woods. “Various habitats should be explored, including tree trunks, old stumps and meadows. Wear old clothing and waterproof trousers: the best photographs are taken kneeling down so you’re at eye-level with the mushroom. Sometimes lying face-down…

THESE days, camera lenses are very well corrected for optical aberrations. The quality of corrective lens elements and multi-coatings mean that even zoom lenses with complex designs can produce results as crisp and colourful as older primes. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Chromatic aberration still continues to plague digital photos, for instance. This phenomenon is similar to the effect you see when light passes through a prism, with the different wavelengths of light becoming separated. In a digital image, this manifests as a coloured halo around high-contrast objects, and this can make images appear less sharp than they ought to be. More advanced lenses use lowdispersion elements that reduce the degree to which the different wavelengths are dispersed. Cheaper lenses don’t have these, and pictures taken with them will require…

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY For this month’s Shootout, Ben Brain tasked two photographers to capture the stunning views of Britain’s first National Park READER 1 Roger Fountain CAMERA: Fujifilm X-T1 LOCATION: Derby RETIRED college lecturer Roger describes himself as “a delighted newcomer to the world of Fuji” after selling all his Nikon gear. He packed XF 10-20mm f/4 and XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lenses for this trip with his new X-T1. Roger is an keen, experienced photographer and a committee member of Derby City Photographic Club. Living in Derby means that the Peak District’s is a short drive away. derbycityphotographic club.com READER 2 Jason Riley CAMERA: Nikon D7200 LOCATION: Chesterfield JASON is an IT professional and has to fit his photography around the demands of the day job. Landscapes are his passion,…

What is lens compression? It’s a phrase that’s generally used to describe the way different focal lengths display the background in an image. For example, the background will appear more distant when you use a wide-angle lens, whereas a telephoto lens appears to ‘pull’ the background closer to the subject. In reality, nothing is really compressed: it just looks like it is. How does a telephoto lens make the background appear closer? With a telephoto lens, you have to stand further away from your subject in order to get it into the frame. By doing this, you have narrowed the field of view compared with what you’d get from a wider focal length. The apparent compression here is caused by the distance of the lens to the subject and the…

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 the best way to test a product is to use it as it was intended. Our real-world testing involves taking equipment on a proper shoot – whether outdoors or in the studio – and using it exactly as you would, to let you know if it’s fit for purpose. Scientific data won’t tell you everything, but it’s a great way to make comparisons and sense-check our real-world conclusions. We have a series of controlled tests for cameras and lenses that deliver objective benchmarks. You can download the high-resolution test images and resolution charts we shoot from…

www.foap.com Foap Free Foap is a photo marketplace. Enter images to corporate Missions and compete for cash rewards, or just upload your images and wait for the sales to roll in. Downsides? Foap takes a 50% cut, and you’re obliged to rate other content. Available for: iOS & Android www.learnfoto.ca Learn Photo 365 £2.99/$4.99 Inspiration doesn’t always come easy in photography. This app is sure to help though, with more than 100 themed assignments and over 700 sample photos, plus daily photo challenges and helpful tips. Available for: iOS & Android www.lenstag.com Lenstag Free Nobody wants to buy a used camera or lens that’s been stolen, and that’s where Lenstag can help: it’s a free database where you can enter the serial numbers of your kit, so you can check…

JAMES PATERSON 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 (version 15.5) GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc183files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183bonus STEP BY STEP CUT OUT A PERSON Use Select And Mask to isolate the subject from the background 1 MAKE A SELECTION Go to Select > Focus Area to make an initial selection. Select Auto, set Output to Selection and click OK. Next, go to Select > Select And Mask. Grab the Quick Selection tool from the right and paint to include any missing patches. Use the Onion Skin view and adjust transparency to see what’s in or…

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THIS November, Canon will launch the EOS M5, its flagship compact system camera. It’s the company’s first EOS camera to include the new Digic 7 processor, and it also features a 24.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor, Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus and a 7fps continuous shooting speed. The M5 also offers a centrally placed electronic viewfinder and an LCD touchscreen that mimicks the function of a SLR ‘joystick’, enabling you to change the position of the AF point using your thumb when the camera’s held to your eye. The EF-M lens range is still limited, so if you’re prepared to fork out the £1,049/$979 asking price for the M5, you’ll may need to factor in the cost of an EF-EOS M adapter as well.…

LEICA is set to release a new instant camera in November. Available in white, orange or mint, the Leica SOFORT will cost £215, with packs of Leica’s instant colour film priced at £9.50 for ten photos and instant monochrome film at £11. The SOFORT offers a special mode for selfies, as well as Auto, Macro and Sport modes, along with programmes for multiple and timed exposures. The flash can be disabled. EXHIBITION SALGADO’S BATH TIME EIGHT large-format platinum prints from 31 Studio’s Sebastião Salgado collection will be on display in the city of Bath from Friday 11th November to Saturday 19th November. They include ‘Performer at the Mount Hagen Sing Sing festival’, 2008, above. Collective PhotoBath organised a crowd-funding campaign to bring the prints to Bath. They can be viewed…

 The CameraWorld Show, London 2016 Popular retailer CameraWorld is hosting a one-day event at Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden on Saturday 29th October. Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Sigma and more will all be demonstrating their new gear. www.cameraworld.co.uk/theshow Digital Splash This month sees the biggest photography show in the north opening at Exhibition Centre Liverpool. On Saturday 15th October and Sunday 16th October, you’ll be able to see the latest photo gear, try a hands-on workshop and be inspired by a series of seminars. www.digitalsplash.tv…

RICHARD Pardon knows a thing or two about shooting cars. “If you’re shooting static cars, try turning your circular polariser and watch the reflections change across the different bodywork angles,” he reveals. ”To start, I always aim to reduce the reflections on the windscreen to be able to see through to the driver. This gives great contrast to an image; I couldn’t shoot a car without one!” Richard took both of these images on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, the world-famous home to the Indy 500 and many spectacular racing events. However, this type of shot is more complex than just standing by the track. “Both of these images are using rig-shots, whereby the camera is clamped onto the vehicle,” says Richard. “With a long open shutter, the…

YOU don’t need a fancy studio with expensive kit to get professional-looking product shots, as up-and-coming pro Cristian Serrano explains. “Equipment isn’t everything – a simple set-up can get you far. To get this shot I used my Nikon D3100 with a 18-55mm kit lens, plus two Yongnuo Speedlites with umbrellas on either side, and an octabox overhead for the lighting.” To make the milk blue, Cristian simply added food colouring, and to ensure the milk didn’t splash onto the surface, the photographer mounted the watch onto a stand. Cristian has had much success with this image: it essentially started his career as a product photographer. “In 2014 I submitted a picture to a photo contest ran by a company named Flex Watches. Not only did I win the…

NAME: Dina Belenko LOCATION: Khabarovsk, Russia SUBJECT: Still-life EQUIPMENT: Nikon D800, Speedlight SB-910 WEBSITE: www.instagram.com/dinabelenko  “YOU can photograph a portrait of a real or an imaginary person using only inanimate things,” still-life photographer Dina Belenko says. “Every character or place in the world is united with simple everyday objects.” Dina has been taking photographs since high school. At first she snapped pictures of anything she encountered. “Maybe I just liked the sound of the shutter,” she says. “However, one day I got tired of taking mindless pictures and decided to arrange the composition myself.” The photographer jokes that the shoot didn’t go well on that particular day, but her love of the medium began and she never looked back. Dina loves objects, and she loves to find ways to photograph…

www.apple.com 1 Apple MacBook Pro 13in with Retina display £1,199/$1,499 Apple’s Retina display revolutionised laptop screen quality – and while the competition now sports Retinarivalling panels, the MacBook still offers the best viewing experience. Its brightness, contrast, saturation and detail are all sublime, and Apple’s factory colour calibration is the most accurate. Although its 2.7GHz processor is technically faster than the dual-core chips in the Dell and Microsoft laptops on test here, real-world performance is almost identical, and nothing very special. It’s a pity that quicker quad-core processors are restricted to the 15in models. At least the 13in MacBook’s processors make for seriously impressive battery life. Our MacBook configuration lasted a mighty 12 hours 12 minutes in our video loop test, thrashing all but the Surface Book. Dual-core 2.7GHz Intel…

JAMES ABBOTT Photographer and journalist James is a professional photographer and journalist. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials to help others improve their skills. jamesaphoto.co.uk SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc183files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183bonus  COLOUR and monochrome both offer photographers almost infinite possibilities when it comes to how individual colours or tones are represented. From boosting saturation to make colours appear more vivid, to fine-tuning mono conversions by controlling how colours convert to greyscale, there are so many options right at our fingertips. But how about somewhere in-between – that place where colour and mono go hand in hand to complement one another perfectly? Photo-editing is all about finding the most effective way to…

Tony Worobiec Award-winning landscape & documentary photographer www.tonyworobiec.com Which photographers would you like to have round for dinner? John Swannell: I have met him and found him to be witty, yet extremely modest. The other would be my all-time hero, Joel Meyerowitz. What’s top of your bucket list? At the top is getting my ongoing theme on Route 66 published. Tell us a secret about your photography you haven’t told anyone before. The poorer the weather, the better the photography. To crop or not to crop? You should always compose the image relative to the aspect ratio of the camera; there should be no need to crop. What kind of photography are you bad at? I have tried street photography, and in truth, I’m pants! It takes a courageous personality…

WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183bonus When you see this logo in the magazine, you can watch or download related video training. FREE! 9 essential photo tips cards! In every issue of Digital Camera we produce a handful of wallet-sized essential tips cards to help you build and grow your photography skills when out and about. This issue: get tips on the best wildlife to shoot this time of year, close-up fungi, aerial cityscapes, and low-key still-life set-ups, plus newborn tips and tricks for cute results! That should keep you going until next month, when you can expect your next set of cards. Look for the cards at the end of the magazine. SPECIAL EFFECTS EBOOK Create an alternative world where fireballs plummet through the sky heading towards…

SIGMA has announced three new desirable lenses. For sports and wildlife shooters, there’s a 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM | Sport, packing an optical stabiliser and dust- and splash-proof build quality. Two new lenses in Sigma’s premium Art line are coming, too. The 12-24mm f/4 DG HSM | Art lens includes a constant aperture and a large diameter aspherical lens, while a new 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM | Art is certain to end up on many portrait photographers’ wish lists. ? STATS OF THE MONTH 1/80,000 sec That’s not one zero too many: the new Profoto Pro-10 studio flash is able to freeze motion at an incredible 1/80,000 sec. £17,500 The price for this limited-edition Leica M-P ‘TITA NIUM’. Only 333 sets with 28mm f/2 and 50mm f/2 lenses will…

 SINCE the debut of digital photography and camera phones and the launch of social media sites, there has been a record number of people taking and sharing images. Have you ever stopped to have a look at this unending craze and document it yourself? That’s exactly what Digital Camera editor Ben Brain did when he went on a tour of Japan. “When I visited the main tourist attractions, I found the way people behave and document their experiences more interesting than the places themselves,” he says. “When I returned home I simply turned the images to black and white, and edited them into a grid in Photoshop to get the final effect.” To shoot your own shootersshooting montage, head to a popular tourist spot. The more people there are,…

GET INVOLVED! Members of the global Digital Camera community share their work with you… 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 64 Tripods at the ready! Editor Ben Brain takes two Digital Camera readers to the Peak District to battle it out for the landscape titl…

Send your question to digitalcamera@futurenet.com and let us provide you with a solution ANDREW JAMES Our expert photo advisor is here to hel Spot on Q When I shoot flowers with my macro lens, the images always show marks on the petals. What can I do to avoid this? Ruth Hall A IT’S inevitable that colourful petals have little spots and marks all over them. When you are just looking at a scene with your naked eye, you barely notice them, but when you view your resulting macro image, they are often really obvious. Other than actual blemishes on the flower itself, they will just be little spots of pollen, grit and dust. All these things are quite natural, of course – but you want to show off the flower…

THIS issue we want you to wrap up warm and head out into the darkness. Whether you want to capture lunar landscapes or shoot the magical Milky Way, do your research first. Stormy nights with heavy clouds are near-impossible to shoot in, and you’ll be facing a losing battle. Once the conditions clear, don’t waste a second indoors. Pack up your tripod and remote shutter release, and stick your camera into the Bulb mode for winning results! How to enter Visit www.photocrowd.com/a/current and look for Digital Camera’s ‘The Night Sky’ contest. (You need to register with Photocrowd, but it’s free to join.) Click Submit An Image to upload your entry. The closing date is Wednesday 2nd November 2016. The creator of the best photo in the judges’ opinion will receive…

MICHAEL Kenna is one of the most successful fine-art landscape photographers working today. He is famous for his distinctively minimalistic black-and-white images, made in diverse locations around the world, which typically exude a Zen-like sense of calm. What was his early life like? He was born in 1953 into a working-class family in Widnes, Lancashire, and was the youngest of six children. At the age of 11, he started attending a Roman Catholic seminary in Lancashire, with the aim of becoming a priest. However, at the end of his training he instead went to Banbury School of Art, where he developed a passion for photography. This was followed by a three-year photography degree at the London College of Printing. What was the turning-point in his photographic career? In 1977, he…

www.calphoto.co.uk 1 Calumet 7064 Heavy-Duty 3-Way Quick-Release Head £79/$60 WHILE many manufacturers are producing clever, compact three-way heads, the 7064 is an old-school monster, which at 18.4cm is twice the height of the Gitzo head. Everything from the locking handles to the well positioned bubble levels is oversized. Aside from the travel drawbacks, these things help make this head exceptionally robust and a pleasure to use. There’s no dedicated friction adjustment (present on the Manfrotto X-Pro), but the smoothness of the 7064’s joints means you can easily modulate friction and balance on all but the most front-heavy cameras. Up top, the beefy mounting plate is hexagonally shaped so it can be quickly remounted if you want to shoot straight upwards, and it’s safely released using ergonomic dual levers. www.gitzo.com 2…

SEAN McCORMACK Photographer and writer Sean McCormack is a photographer and writer based in Galway in the west of Ireland. He’s the author of The Indispensable Guide to Lightroom CC. seanmcfoto.com SOFTWARE Lightroom CC/6 GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc183files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183bonus SHOOTING the Milky Way needs a lot of luck in our cloudy British Isles. What shows up on-screen can be a sad reflection on what we actually saw with our eyes. It’s good to know that you can rely on Lightroom to help bring impact to the faint glow of our galaxy’s core. For this we’ll use a mix of tools: the Basic panel, the Lens Corrections panel and the Adjustment brush. The base image is of the Milky…

JAMES PATERSON 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 (version 15.5) GET IT FROM www.adobe.com GET START FI LES FROM www.bit.ly/dc183files WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video Download the video www.bit.ly/dc183bonus 1 The simple way Focus-stacking in Photoshop is quick and easy with two auto features. First go into Adobe Bridge: select the images you wish to stack, then go to Tools > Photoshop > Load Files Into Photoshop Layers. Once they’ve opened in Photoshop, go to the Layers Panel and Shift-click on the bottom layer to highlight the whole stack. Go to Edit > Auto-Align, set Auto and click OK. This corrects any discrepancies between frames. Next go…

In this tutorial, we’ll transform a London skyline into a scene straight out of a sci-fi disaster movie, using only a few very simple images: one of the skyline, one of a cloudy sky, and the other a piece of rock. We’ll cut out the skyline, then position the clouds behind to make it look like smoke and flames are coming from behind the buildings. Then we’ll use the surface of the rock to create a meteor shape. Once that’s done, it’s simply a case of building up the effect with a combination of Layer Styles, blending modes, brush skills and Transform controls. Finally, we’ll tie everything together by adding a fiery glow to the scene… WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183bonus PROJECT INFO You’ll learn How to…

WATCH VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183video DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO www.bit.ly/dc183bonus In this tutorial we’ll show you how to create 3D text in Photoshop, then go on to light it with dramatic lighting effects. Once done, we’ll split up the letters and animate each one, so that they each start off outside the frame, then fly towards one another in a stylish animated sequence that wouldn’t look out of place on your local cinema screen. We’ll use the time-lapse video created on the previous page as a backdrop for the 3D letters. One word of caution before you begin, however – rendering times for 3D animations can take hours, so don’t export until you can leave your computer for a while, or perhaps overnight. PROJECT INFO You’ll learn How to make animated 3D…