Indice dei contenuti per June 2019 in Digital Camera Magazine

Are you someone who believes that real creativity only ensues when rules are broken? It’s a view with some support, and photography certainly has its fair share of guidelines and conventions that we’re supposed to follow. So this month, from page 42, allow us to suggest 10 ways to break the rules for creative effect, whether it’s blurring your images, avoiding eye contact or shooting in the midday sun. Also in this issue, things get a tad animal-tastic: we go to the farm to meet micro-pigs in our reader Shootout, discover how award-winning animal photographer Tim Flach creates his incredible images, and reveal the 10 winning shots from our Remembering Lions fundraising book competition. Enjoy the issue. niall.hampton@futurenet.com WIN! 3 SIGMA F/2.8 PRO LENSES WORTH £4,150 Turn to page 107…

Building a travel photography portfolio “Photography started off as a hobby at university, which is when I did my first couple of jobs. I then became a chartered accountant, but would spend as little time as possible in the office and would spend all my time doing photography. During that time I built my portfolio and got some connections within the industry, so that when I quit my job, I already had some things in the pipeline. If you’ve got good photos, contact travel providers or hotels and offer them an exchange of images for a few days of accommodation.” Planning and logistics for filming When we arrived in Skomer, Matt and John took a careful moment to study the island map, deciding where and when to shoot. This was…

10 things to shoot, edit or create this month, including stormy composites, aerial photos and butterflies Slowing down water motion with a neutral-density filter is nothing new… but it’s one of those quintessential landscape techniques that’s always good to have a grip on. The skills you need – learning to balance and calculate exposures and focus before adding a filter – can come in handy for a whole host of other projects and scenarios. Getting silky-smooth water shots is challenging, but having the right equipment helps. In your kit bag, it goes without saying that you’ll need an ND filter to limit the light entering the lens and allow for long exposures to be set. I tried out a screw-on filter to avoid the faff of holders. At extended shutter…

When it comes to combining two images, you need to think about how they are going to work together. You want the colours and tones to blend flawlessly so that it looks like it could be real. We have provided our starting images on the disc for you to practise with, or you can shoot your own. If you do venture next to stormy seas, just make sure you keep a safe distance, and keep your camera gear protected from salty spray! How to combine your images together Start by opening your teacup image and go to the Quick Selection Tool. Make a selection of the middle of the cup and add a Layer Mask. It will select the middle section, so invert by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+I. You’ll now have a…

She conceptual work of DC’s Photographer of the Year 2019 winner Elena Paraskeva is both a mixture of vivid and bold colours for the eyes, and thought-provoking ideas for the brain. This image, which is the finale piece from a body of work called ‘The Lost Swimmer’, represents a character who is drowning in self-doubt. “The character in the series serves as an allegory for a self-conflicted individual,” says Elena. “To the observer, fulfilment in the form of swimming is easily within reach – but to the character, it is unattainable. Eventually, it becomes easier to repress the longing, but inevitably this leads to her emotionally drowning, and a complete inability to grasp on to the life rings that come her way. This is what the image here represents.” Elena…

Our next friendly Facebook photography shooting challenge is now open – and the theme for this issue is shadows or silhouettes. With the summer in full swing and the light strong and high in the sky now is the perfect time to have a go. There are many approaches you can take to our theme, from photographing people on the streets in a classic documentary style to looking at the subject from a more arty, abstract perspective. The outline of a person silhouetted against the light makes an excellent subject – or, for those not knowing where to begin, you could try having an exploration around your kitchen with an LED light and seeing what shapes and patterns you can capture from the utensils. When it comes to getting the…

Rules are made to be broken, so the old saying goes. And that’s certainly the case with photography, where you really don’t have to be bound by everything you’ve learned since first picking up a camera. Some of the technical aspects of photography are carved in stone for sound reasons – they have helped define the visual grammar for the medium for more than 150 years – but in a world that has never been as saturated with photos as the present day, it’s getting ever harder to make your images distinctive and to ensure that your skills as a photographer really stand out from the crowd. So over the next 10 pages, we’re going to cast some conventions to the wind. You’ll learn that some of the guiding principles…

It can be hard to get well-lit results when you’re shooting outdoors in bright sunlight. If the light strikes the person from the front, side or above, you’ll end up with hard shadows across their face; if the sun is behind them, then they’ll end up in shadow. To get around this, you can make sure the background is exposed correctly, and then use flash to illuminate the person. This means there are two exposures to think about when you want to use fill-flash: the exposure of the ambient light and the exposure of the flash. Today’s cameras can handle both or either of them for you, but using your camera in Manual exposure mode will give you the most control over how flash balances with the ambient light. You…

If you want to use flash in bright daylight, shutter speed becomes a key consideration. The entire surface area of the imaging sensor needs to be fully exposed when the flash fires, and this only happens at the camera’s flash sync speed or slower. But a brightly lit scene may require a much faster shutter speed to expose it correctly. For example, if the exposure required to record a portrait is 1/3,200 sec at f/2.8, but the flash sync speed is 1/200 sec, then you have a problem. Depending on the shooting mode, your camera may end up setting the slower flash sync speed (and making the image four stops too bright) or only record part of the scene correctly. OPTION 1 Use a smaller aperture You could decrease the…

Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark III Lens EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Exposure 1/20 sec at f/3.2, ISO 320 Winner, Open Photographer of the Year ‘Harmony’ by Christy Lee Rogers “Shot underwater in Hawaii, this image is part of my Muses Collection. What started to work best for me was having a perspective from outside of the water; looking in and using the surface of a pool as a canvas; utilising natural effects like the refraction of light with movement to bend reality; and shooting at night so I could really control my light.” Camera Nikon D7100 Lens 85mm f/1.4 Exposure 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 100 Winner, Youth Photographer of the Year ‘Abuot’ by Zelle Westfall “I had this image in my mind before I took it. This was…

Jon Adams 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. If you want to get arty with your images, this technique will provide you with the opportunity to really fill your boots! It starts by segmenting a picture into a mosaic of tiles using one of the provided templates, then allows you to hand-paint colour washes onto the tiles in any way you wish, changing the character of the image as you go. You can further customise the effect by changing the perimeter to add a boost in contrast and colour, and even remove the grid in specific places to allow the subject of your picture to float proud of it. This technique works with a…

James Abbott James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. Choosing the right editing techniques for your images isn’t as straightforward as you might think – not when there are so many possibilities. Of course, we all have our favourite techniques, so sticking to a fairly familiar repertoire will create consistency across your shots – and ultimately a style. Consistency of style is a proven way of defining yourself as a photographer – but that still doesn’t mean you have to let the style define you. Photography is primarily about fun or enjoyment, so every now and again it can be useful to try new special effects and simply enjoy the process and learn from the…

Reader 1 Jen Dixon Camera: Canon EOS 60D Location: Bridport, Dorset Jen has been taking photos for as long as she can remember, joining Bridport Camera Club when it was first established to learn how to develop black-and-white film and make prints. After some years of commitments that took her away from photography, Jen has renewed her interest in taking pictures of people and animals, due in no small part to friends and family encouraging her to take photos of their activities, pets and the different parts of the world they live in. Jen also enjoys photographing ceremonial events and music concerts. www.facebook.com/DixonCelebrationPhotography Reader 2 Olivia Faye Camera: Nikon D5300 Location: North Cornwall Digital Camera has been on Olivia’s radar since one of her shots appeared in Rate My Photo.…

Quintin Lake Roving photographer Quintin is past halfway in his 6,000-mile photo walk around the whole of the UK coast. www.theperimeter.uk This month’s route Beasdale to Glenelg 10 days, 103 miles Total so far: 4,262 miles Each gnarly peninsula of the rough bounds, I’m learning, is more remote and rugged than the last. By the time I reach Knoydart, the weather becomes wilder, in harmony with the increasing drama of the landscape. The elements decide when I can take a photo, not me. When the weather softens enough to let me take a photo the subject is sublime: mountains, mist and vertiginous terrain, like a Caspar David Friedrich painting. I meet Tom McLean, adventurer, transatlantic rower and former SAS soldier: he invites me in for tea on the way to…

Remembering Lions will be the fourth book in the charity book series started by wildlife photographer Margot Raggett in 2016… and Digital Camera readers have supplied 10 images to grace its pages, after entering a competition in issue 215. Margot decided to take action after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya, and started asking fellow wildlife photographers if they would contribute images to a fundraising book – this request launched the start of something special. Remembering Elephants and its successors Remembering Rhinos and Remembering Great Apes have together raised more than £460,000 for conservation projects across Africa and Asia. And with over 2,400 images entered for Remembering Lions, more than £10,720 has been raised for lion conservation. Remembering Lions will feature images from wildlife photographers including Frans Lanting, Marsel van…

www.canon.co.uk One of the main attractions of Canon’s EOS R and RP bodies is their comparatively compact and light build, compared with full-frame SLRs. By contrast, the RF 28-70mm is a monster, measuring 104 x 140mm and weighing in at 1,430g. It’s nearly twice the weight and twice the price of Canon’s top-spec EF 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, weighing about the same as a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom. The RF lens’s upscaled build is mainly due to it being a full f/stop faster than most premium standard zooms. The optical elements need a larger diameter to let in more light; this lens has an oversized 95mm filter thread, despite its more limited zoom range with less wide-angle potential. Instead, the design goes all out for premium image quality, with minimal distortions. You…

Lens mount Canon EF-S Four years on from the launch of Canon’s 18-135mm IS STM lens, the ‘IS USM’ edition arrived in 2016. The autofocus system isn’t based on the usual ring-type or motor-based ultrasonic mechanisms: Nano USM uses an ‘elastic metal’ body with a ceramic voltage element and drive unit. The direction and speed of autofocus can be controlled in a very linear fashion, without noticeable start and stop steps. It enables super-fast autofocus for stills, along with smooth AF tracking during movie capture. Performance The optical design of this lens is identical to that of the preceding IS STM edition. There’s therefore no real difference in image quality. As promised, the new autofocus system is smoother for video tracking and faster for stills. The four-stop image stabiliser is…

Lens mounts Micro Four Thirds The two main choices of superzooms for Micro Four Thirds cameras are this lens and the Olympus 14-150mm. They’re both similarly priced but, on balance, we prefer the Panasonic. It’s unfeasibly compact for a superzoom, weighing in at just 265g. Despite this, it manages to pack an optical image stabiliser, which is absent in the competing Olympus lens. Ideal for both stills and movies, the lens features a virtually silent autofocus system based on a stepping motor. As with the Canon, Nikkor and Fujinon lenses, the focus ring remains stationary during autofocus but enables full-time manual override. Performance Sharpness is good at both ends of the zoom range but less impressive in the middle sector. Thanks to firmware corrections, distortions are minimal and colour fringing…

Lens mounts Canon EF-S, Nikon DX, Sony A If you’re going to get a ‘holiday lens’, it makes sense to keep the price down and buy something you’re not going to be too precious about. The Tamron 18-200mm is relatively cheap to buy and, at 400g, it’s also very light. As the second edition of Tamron’s 18-200mm lens, it adds Vibration Compensation and boasts an upgraded, quieter autofocus system. The focus ring rotates during autofocus and doesn’t enable full-time manual override. The lens is 30g lighter than its predecessor, due to the fitment of a plastic rather than metal mounting plate, but includes a weather-seal ring. Performance Autofocus speed is pedestrian, but the stabiliser offers four-stop effectiveness. Image quality is respectable in all areas. Digital Camera verdict The second edition…

Tim Flach Animal photographer Tim travels around the world to capture unique, exotic, rare and important species. On page 132, we quiz him on how photography can impact the natural world. Matthew Williams-Ellis Travel photographer The latest pro masterclass on page 8 is a double whammy of stills and video coverage, as we shadow Matt on a special shoot on Skomer Island. Thomas Heaton Outdoor photographer Focus-stacking allowed Tom to capture every single crack, divot and damp patch in Death Valley National Park. Find out how the technique works on page 34. Filip Snajdr Multi-genre photographer On a recent trip through the Scottish Highlands, Filip jumpstarted his drone battery to capture a magical sunset. See the final aerial shot on page 20. Andrew James Our man with all the answers…

Camera DJI Mavic 2 Pro, Hasselblad Lens 28mm Hasselblad Exposure Bracket over six exposures from 1/5,000 – 1/60 sec at f/9, ISO 100 Chris Gorman’s drone work has been published everywhere from Britain to America, Australia and New Zealand. A photographer with 30 years’ experience, he has embraced the world of drone photography and fuses his knowledge of current affairs with a sharp eye for landscape photography. “I was aware that in this day of disposable photography–where everyone carries a phone and everything has been shot a thousand times over – I needed something to make my images stand out to picture desks,” Chris says. “Drone photography was the obvious answer.” “As a picture editor, I know that newspaper desks receive well over 40,000 images a day, so making your…

When you happen upon a beautiful scene, you want to find the right composition, have perfect light and make the image as technically perfect as possible, while maintaining your artistic vision. A lot of this you cannot control, like the weather and light, or if elements within the frame will align for the perfect composition. One thing you can control is the technical execution of the image, such as exposure and depth of field. The latter is the trickier of the two. For scenes with a single subject, depth of field isn’t an issue, but if you have a scene that requires sharpness both in the immediate foreground and in the far-distant background, focus stacking may be the answer. I used this method on my image from Death Valley National…

Benedict Brain Photographer Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Exposure: A variety of exposures (roughly 1/300 sec) at f/5.6, ISO 250 www.benedictbrain.com There’s a saying that if you look through your camera’s viewfinder and you’ve already seen the picture, you shouldn’t take it. It’s already been done! It’s a sentiment I agree with to some extent. However, there is a danger that you might never take another image. Perhaps by taking the picture that has been ‘done before’, you can get the creative juices flowing. Perhaps it can act as a catalyst to evolve an idea and take it into new territory. Who knows? Taking the shot has got to be better than hanging your camera up. Recently I found myself at sea – for a long time. I…

Enri Canaj Magnum photographer Born in Tirana, Albania in 1980, Canaj has been a freelance photojournalist since 2008 for outlets like Time, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. An award-winning photographer, he started using Olympus cameras in 2013. For many photographers, Magnum Photos is seen as the gold standard. The legendary agency, whose co-founders include Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, is the most prestigious in the world. And being selected to join Magnum was something that Albanian photographer Enri Canaj aspired to, when he was fortunate enough to spend a year studying with Magnum’s Nikos Economopoulos in 2007. “I became familiar with Nikos’ work while I was a student,” explains Canaj. “After finishing my studies, I heard about the workshop that Nikos was doing in Athens. His…

Sometimes you may want the flash to be more subtle or more obvious. You may also need to correct the exposure when the camera gets things wrong. The easiest way to change a TTL flash exposure is to use flash compensation. It can be set either on the camera or on a flashgun; on some camera systems, one overrides the other, and on others the settings are cumulative. Check this in your manual. The way a camera’s exposure compensation function works with flash compensation also varies between systems. With Canon’s EOS cameras, for example, exposure compensation only affects the ambient exposure, while flash compensation only affects the flash exposure. Adjust the exposure compensation on a Nikon SLR, however, and you also make the flash exposure brighter or darker.…

The shutter mechanism inside an SLR is typically constructed from two sets of metal-bladed shutters. These prevent light from reaching the imaging sensor until you take a picture. By default, a flash fires once the first set of shutters has moved out of the way to expose the sensor. This is known as ‘first curtain sync’ or ‘front curtain sync’, and it allows you to fire the flash at a precise moment. The drawback of the flash going off at the start of the exposure is that any movement during the rest of the exposure will appear as a blur in front of the flash-lit subject – making it appear to be reversing at high speed! Many cameras and flashguns give you the option to select ‘second curtain sync’ or…

James Paterson With a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Most sharpening commands offer just a few simple controls – usually a strength or amount setting and a radius. By contrast, Photoshop’s Smart Sharpen command gives you a host of different options. It’s for those who want to apply controlled, methodical sharpening to their photos. In this tutorial I’ll explore the key settings and controls you need to know to get the most out of this advanced sharpening tool. Smart Sharpen is one of the two best sharpening commands in Photoshop – the other is Unsharp Mask. Of the two, Smart Sharpen offers a greater range of features. As well as these two sharpening filters, there’s…

Every month two of our resident expert Photoshop experts are challenged to interpret one raw file in anyway they see fit. Over the following pages, they reveal their rationale and show how you can achieve their look… The original raw by Jocelyn Gale This hazy Manhattan skyline shot includes the Empire State Building. It was taken on a Sony DSC-RX1 with exposure settings of 1/640 sec at f/8, ISO 400. How will our expert photo editors tackle this cityscape image? James Abbott James specialises in landscape and portrait images, and is an advanced Photoshop user. Raw warrior 1 wants to create… A vintage-look cityscape Sean McCormack Sean McCormack is a photographer and writer, based in Galway on the west coast of Ireland. Raw warrior 2 wants to create… A punchy…

Video choice Q I have a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and want to shoot video. There’s a bewildering choice of settings; which should I use to get decent results? Poppy London A A typical DSLR will capture video at 24, 25, 30, 50 or 60 frames per second, and can also shoot at various sizes, such as 1,280 x 720 or 1,920 x 1,080. Before you start ‘rolling’, you have to pick a frame rate and a size; so what’s best? The best size option is to use 1,920 x 1,080. This is Full HD (the quality you’d get from a Blu-ray disc) and is the most common size for video capture. With regard to frame rate, anything above 20fps will look ‘smooth’ and appear like the normal motion…

Our reader Matthew Hampshire This photo was taken in an abandoned seminary in England, although I have also visited many European countries in search of these places. My thinking was to capture the contrasts between the left side of the corridor, which has endured many years of water ingress, and the right side, which was relatively undamaged. I am quite obsessive about symmetry and trying to get everything as square as possible when I shoot old buildings. Wandering around abandoned buildings can be a real adventure, from trying to dodge the security that may be there to finding a way in without causing any damage. Our expert Andrew James It sounds like you have been well and truly bitten by the urbex bug – and this image and the location…

www.tokinalens.com Tokina has focused most of its attention on wide-angle lenses over the years, earning a good reputation in this sector of the market. Surprisingly, the first lens in the new series of Opera lenses was a 50mm f/1.4 prime, but the second is a direct replacement for Tokina’s popular ATX 16-28mm f/2.8 Pro wide-angle zoom for full-frame Canon and Nikon SLRs. The new 16-28mm is aimed at enthusiast photographers, with Tokina’s typically sturdy build quality and a fast and constant f/2.8 aperture rating. The metal mounting plate is weather-sealed and the bulbous front element is protected by a fixed petal hood. The optical layout is based on 15 elements in 13 groups: there are three glass-moulded aspherical elements, including one large-diameter precision-moulded element, second from the front. Towards the…

Lens mount Fujifilm X Anyone after a superzoom lens for a Fujifilm X-mount camera is limited to a choice of one. At least it goes large in terms of quality and credentials, with a string of letters after its name. It’s weather-resistant, with weather seals applied to 20 key areas and a ventilator to prevent dust and moisture from being sucked in during zooming. It has a linear-motor autofocus system in which the focus ring remains stationary but enables electronically coupled manual override. You also get a physical aperture ring and an optical image stabiliser. Performance The autofocus system is super-fast for stills, and smooth and silent for movie capture, and the optical stabilizer has class-leading five-stop performance. However, image quality is good rather than great. Digital Camera verdict The…

Lens mounts Canon EF-S, Nikon DX, Pentax K, Sigma SA, Sony E Measuring just 71 x 86mm and weighing in at 430g, this is the smallest APS-C format lens in the group. It’s only slightly heavier than the competing Tamron 18-200mm, despite having a metal rather than plastic mounting plate. A space-saving ultrasonic motor rather than ring-type autofocus drive helps to shed a few ounces, but the focus ring rotates during autofocus. Three aspherical elements help to reduce the size, while three Special Low Dispersion elements minimise fringing. The optical stabiliser has an effectiveness of about four stops and features auto panning detection. Performance Sharpness isn’t quite as impressive as in Sigma’s 18-300mm lens, but it’s still pretty good. Corner sharpness is slightly better in the 100-200mm section of the…

Lens mounts Canon EF-S, Nikon DX, Sony A Following on from the Tamron 16-300mm lens, which offered an extra-wide viewing angle, Tamron’s latest superzoom goes extra-long instead. Stretching to 400mm, it beats every other APS-C format superzoom on the market for telephoto reach. Autofocus is driven by an HLD (High/Low torque-modulated Drive) motor, which is quick and quiet. The focus ring rotates during autofocus and there’s no full-time manual override. Build quality is good overall, and the construction features weather seals, including one on the metal mounting plate. Performance It’s a big ask to deliver good sharpness at 400mm from such a relatively compact lens, but the Tamron does pretty well. Centre sharpness is good at the shortest setting, although it’s mediocre in the central zoom range. Digital Camera verdict…

Calumet Heavy-Duty 3-Way Quick-Release Head 7064 £79/$103 www.wexphotovideo.com While many manufacturers are producing clever, compact pan-and-tilt heads, the 7064 is an old-school monster: at 18.4cm, it’s twice the height of the Gitzo head on test. It’s designed with medium-format cameras in mind – everything from the locking handles to the well-positioned bubble levels is oversized – but this head also works a treat with any DSLR or full-frame mirrorless camera. Such stoutness helps make this head exceptionally robust and a pleasure to use. You don’t get dedicated friction adjustment like on the Manfrotto X-Pro head, but the smoothness of the 7064’s joints means you can easily modulate friction and balance all but the most front-heavy camera set-ups. Up top, the beefy mounting plate lacks Arca-Swiss versatility, but its hexagonal shape…

Matthew Williams-Ellis Travel photographer London-based travel, documentary and landscape photographer Matt leads workshops and holidays. As well as shooting assignments, he also produces cinematic travel videos called Photo Escapes with fellow pro John Alexander. www.matthewwilliams-ellis.com As I scribe this intro to our latest One To One session, I find myself sitting on a perch looking out at the beautiful Skomer Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, west Wales, rather than sat at my usual office desk typing up after the event. This month’s pro, Matthew Williams-Ellis, is kneeling down before a carpet of sea-beaten bluebells, shooting footage of puffins flying across the cliffs, and the air is a cacophony of seabirds and wind. I’ve joined Matt on an extended and special trip to Skomer, not only to glean his photo…

1 MOVIE QUALITY The Nikon D810 menu offers Matt High and Normal quality video settings. “I set it to High quality, which takes up more memory but is less compressed.” (Quality is his first priority.) 2 WHITE BALANCE “We set a manual white balance and choose the colour temperature, so that every clip is visually consistent, and requires less colour grading. This should save us some editing time later.” 3 FRAME RATE AND SIZE The duo tend to choose a frame rate of 60fps when filming. “This makes for smoother footage, epic when it's slowed down. It can also help when filming handheld work, so that it's less juddery.”…

Dust is everywhere, so it’s inevitable that after a while, your once shiny and new camera lenses will have gathered dust, dirty marks and the odd fingerprint here and there. Lenses are prone to spots and smears – and this can become worse if you’ve been shooting outdoors in harsh weather. But while dust and dirt may be a natural sign of use, it’s important to show your lenses some regular TLC by cleaning them. This should improve image quality – and avoid real damage further down the line. Fortunately, it’s easy and cheap to keep your lenses in tip top condition. Marks on the front of your lens can be removed with a specialist cloth, and you can keep the back (the part that mounts onto the camera body)…

1 Know your species Each species of butterfly has a food plant, and it is likely they will roost on or near this food source. Information on species and their food plants can be found on www.butterfly-conservation.org – this site also has great information on when and where you are likely to find certain species. 2 Study your subject When I first started taking photos of butterflies, I would often go and study a specific species in the evening. Once the temperature starts to cool, you will see butterflies start to be less active, and at some point they will settle for the night. Once they have settled, I make a mental note of where they are and come back for first light to photograph them. 3 You don’t need…

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Following last issue’s guide to flash, this month we’re focusing on fill-flash. As the name suggests, this is a technique where the light from the flash is used to supplement existing lighting – to ‘fill in’ details in dark areas of a picture – rather than being the sole source of illumination. It can be used in both daylight and at night; and can be used subtly, with the flash blending in with the ambient lighting to give a natural-looking result, or more dramatically, where the flash-lit subject ‘pops’ from a darker background. Fill-flash can be useful in portraiture – particularly outdoors on sunny days, where the contrast between the brightly lit parts of a scene and the dark areas can be too extreme to record detail in both without…

If timing isn’t critical, you can improve your chances of getting a shot with the perfect ratio of flash to ambient light by taking a series of exposures at a range of flash compensation settings. Some flashguns and cameras can automate the process for you using Flash Exposure Bracketing. With this active, the next three shots you take will have different flash exposure settings. You can usually set up to +/- 3 stops of adjustment in third-stop increments.…

Andy Rouse Wildlife photographer Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark II Lens: 100-400mm Exposure: 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 800 www.andyrouse.co.uk @wildmanrouse Tigers are something I have a long-term passion for: I have been working with them for over 10 years. But there is one particular tiger that has captured my imagination and my heart, and her name is Noor. For four years I have been following her in her home in Ranthambhore in deepest Rajhasthan, India. This image is one of my favourites from this time. It was the result of a very long day tracking her. First thing in the morning we found her fresh pug marks on the road, followed them, and caught a glimpse of her disappearing up the side of a small hill. I work with…

1 Move the camera! Intentional camera movement is a great technique at the beach. The simplified shapes of the land, sea and sky can create interesting effects when you show your shutter speed right down and move deliberately move your camera during the exposure. Expect hit-and-miss results – but the hits can be spectacular. 2 Wave action The constant ebb and flow of the tide gives you lots of potential for slow-shutter-speed images. Use a tripod and shoot with a cable release to keep the camera still, then time the waves coming in or receding. Shutter speeds of between 1/15 sec and several minutes can be worth trying. 3 Patterns Beaches were made for abstract imagery lovers. Everything from water patterns in the sand to texture on the rocks can…

Our reader Richard Timmons Early one morning, I photographed this scene handheld on my Canon EOS 7D Mark II with a Canon 100-400mm lens. It’s a lake in County Meath, close to where I live in rural Ireland. I often go there early, as it’s a great place to catch the light and the local wildlife. I didn’t know the fishermen in the shot; I was just in the right place at the right time as the fog was lifting off the water and the sun was rising. The exposure settings for this photograph were 1/750 sec at f/8 and ISO 400. Our expert Andrew James What a glorious bit of light you had, Richard! Being in the right place at the right time is half the battle with photography.…

Prize worth £4,150! The prizes All three of these fast zoom lenses received top marks (5/5) when tested in our reviews 1 Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM Art Zero distortion – the ultimate 14-24mm wide-aperture zoom lens. Compatible with: Canon, Nikon & Sigma lens mounts RRP: £1,399.99 2 Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Art The definitive fast-aperture zoom lens for any shoot. Compatible with: Canon, Nikon & Sigma lens mounts RRP: £1,399.99 3 Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Sports Flagship large-aperture telephoto zoom that meets the needs of professionals. Compatible with: Canon, Nikon & Sigma lens mounts RRP: £1,349.99 The challenge To be in with a chance of winning this trinity of top-spec lenses, we’re asking you to submit a series of three photographs. These can cover a theme or subject…

www.canon.co.uk Canon’s DSLR range seems to be going through a phase of consolidation rather than technological advancement – which is a polite way of saying that it hasn’t done anything especially new for a while. The new EOS 250D (branded the Rebel SL3 in the US) fits in that category, with Canon using technologies we’ve already seen in other Canon cameras to refresh the existing EOS 200D (Rebel SL2). Beginners won’t care about any of this. They’ll only care about what this camera costs, what it does and whether it’s right for them. And regardless of what you might think about Canon’s technical progress (or lack of it), it’s judged the EOS 250D pretty much to perfection. Beginners and new DSLR users don’t need the latest tech: they just need…

The joy of owning any interchangeable-lens camera is that you can always fit the right kind of optic for the task at hand. The drawback is that a big bag of lenses can eat into your baggage allowance when you’re travelling, as well as weighing you down when you’re out and about. A superzoom lens aims to satisfy your travel needs, offering everything from wide-angle coverage to serious telephoto reach, without the need to carry additional lenses or to swap the lens that’s fitted to your camera body. Most superzoom lenses are designed for APS-C format cameras, and typically kick off with an 18mm focal length. The Micro Four Thirds format Panasonic 14-140mm gives a similarly wide maximum viewing angle. The long end of the zoom range is a more…

Lens mount Nikon DX This subtle refresh of Nikon’s original 18-200mm lens gains a zoom lock switch but retains the same optical design and image stabiliser. Nikon has subsequently launched two 18-300mm superzooms, but one is big for a travel lens, and the other is more basic, without a focus distance scale. For image quality and performance, the 18-200mm remains our favourite Nikon superzoom, despite its more limited telephoto reach. There are three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements in the optical path and a second-generation Vibration Reduction system. Handling benefits from a smooth-action zoom ring and a ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system. Performance Overall image quality is impressive. A weather-seal ring on the mounting plate helps to block dust and moisture. Digital Camera verdict It can’t match either of Nikon’s new 18-300mm…

Lens mounts Canon EF-S, Nikon DX, Pentax K, Sigma SA, Sony E The larger of Sigma’s two lenses on test, this one is physically only 16mm longer at its minimum zoom setting, but stretches rather more at the long end of the zoom range. It’s also 36 per cent heavier at 585g. Like its smaller sibling, the construction employs Sigma’s Thermally Stable Composite material, which is highly resistant to size fluctuations during temperature changes. Again, there’s a metal mounting plate but no weather-seal ring. Upgraded glass sees the inclusion of four top-grade Fluorite Low Dispersion elements, along with one SLD element. Performance The AF system isn’t particularly speedy and is clearly audible. The optical stabilizer gives a four-stop effectiveness. It beats Sigma’s smaller lens for image quality. Digital Camera verdict…

For an extravagant zoom range without an exorbitant price tag, Sigma’s 18-300mm is the best buy for Canon, Pentax and Sony A-mount bodies. It doesn’t have a very refined autofocus system, but it packs a punch in both telephoto reach and image quality. The optical stabilizer works well in the Canon and Nikon versions, but is omitted in the Pentax and Sony editions. For Nikon DX format cameras, we prefer Nikon’s own 18-200mm VR, which has excellent handling characteristics and all-round performance. There’s a lot to be said for the own-brand Canon 18-135mm lens as well, with its pleasing image quality, tricked-up Nano USM autofocus system and effective stabilisation. The Sigma and Tamron 18-200mm lenses are both compact and give decent image quality, but the Tamron is remarkably inexpensive. The…

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