Digital Camera Magazineの October 2025 の目次

Masai giraffes “These male Masai giraffes were testing their strength by ‘necking’. Learning about your subjects and observing them in the field mean that you can pre-empt and better capture behaviours.” Red squirrel “Images are a powerful medium to tell a story. I have been photographing Red squirrels in the Scottish Highlands for many years, documenting their lives.” Puffin “Taken in the Shetlands, a telephoto lens and wide aperture create a lovely out-off-ocus foreground and background.”…

A quiet lane in the country. Where does it lead to, what’s around the next corner and who is that coming towards you? Photographs of country lanes ask questions that the viewer can interpret and answer however they want. Lanes in open countryside need to have an attractive setting or a visible destination, whereas those in woodland can be more graphically orientated and rely on light and shadow to create interest. If you add people or vehicles, you are introducing additional questions, depending on whether they are coming towards you or travelling away. Throw in the mists and changing colours of late summer and autumn and you have the perfect conditions for creating a landscape photo that suggests a variety of stories. 1 Roll with it For rolling hills, such as…

Autumn is my favourite time to get out with my camera and take portraits. The conditions are perfect and, unlike summer, it’s not unbearably hot, nor is it too chilly as in winter. There’s also a carpet of colourful leaves to use as your backdrop, and if you have kids, nieces and nephews or grandchildren, it’s the perfect time to get them outdoors on some fun walks where you can weave in a few photo opportunities. Young kids won’t need much encouragement to throw leaves in the air or make a splash in puddles, but arrange your shoot for at least two children, as this will help them overcome any shyness. For beautiful golden lighting, as shown here, make sure you shoot in the golden hour just before sunset. Shoot…

This month: Travel Satisfy your wanderlust and come home with your best-ever travel photos Travel and photography go hand in hand, and if you’ve invested a lot of effort and money in an adventure, you’ll want to come home with memorable photos. That’s always a challenge, though – while everything is new, novel and exciting, with so much to aim your lens at, a new destination can be overwhelming. Of course, much depends on your trip and the reasons for making it. On a family holiday, your time for creative photography will probably be limited, so a simple camera outfit makes sense. If your trip is more photography-focused, the kit you need for a city shoot will be different from that needed for a landscape tour or a safari. So, to…

MEET YOUR TRAINERS Edit like a pro with their expert insights…

Curves are one of the most powerful and versatile tools available in Photoshop, whether you’re adjusting brightness, contrast, applying colour correction or adding creative effects. Add to this the ability to use the Curves Adjustment Layers and Blending modes among other controls, and the possibilities quickly reveal themselves to be plentiful. Curves are capable of many things, but as always, we’ll focus on just four useful and creative effects that you can use with your shots. Avoiding the absolute basics, this tutorial will look at techniques that are both creative and functional, ranging from adding contrast without increasing saturation, up to a slightly more involved technique where we mimic the effect of cross-processing film. Overall, the techniques will inadvertently provide an overview of how Curves work, so you can begin…

DxO unveils PhotoLab 9 New AI-powered features for leading editing software PhotoLab is DxO’s flagship photo editor and combines image browsing and organising with advanced non-destructive editing of both raw files and jpegs. Version 9 introduces DxO Ai Masks, new AI masks that harness the power of artificial intelligence to create smart, pixel-precise selections. These can be combined with U-point tools, allowing image adjustments to be performed faster and easier than ever before, according to DxO. Other improvements rolled out in PhotoLab 9 include upgrades to the software’s workflow, where image stacking has been introduced, as well as the Project palette now being directly accessible in Customise mode. And users have been furnished with new batch renaming tools, giving full control over image filenames. Photos captured on iPhones in HEIC/HEIF…

explore.omsystem.com The OM System OM-5 Mark II knows what it does, and it does it incredibly well. Built on fundamentals, it is highly effective, even against flashy rivals. The OM-5 Mark II is everything you’d expect: it’s packed with clever computational features, it’s rugged and lightweight enough to be your adventure buddy… and it’s similar to the original OM System OM-5 and, indeed, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mk III before it. OM has made some significant changes, though. The camera adopts the new and much-improved menu system of the OM-3 and OM-1 Mark II. It also inherits the OM-3’s CP button, putting computational photography at your fingertips. The grip is slightly thicker, providing more purchase in outdoor environments. And for the first time, it is available in a third colour,…

www.sony.co.uk Since emerging as its top-tier glass in 2016, Sony’s G Master lenses have earned a reputation for image quality and all-around performance. Nearly 10 years later, some of the originals have been reinvented in Mark II versions, but the 50-150mm is something altogether new and different. Indeed, it’s a world first with its combination of zoom range and aperture rating. So what’s the deal? Well, 70-200mm f/2.8 ‘trinity’ telephoto zoom lenses are firm favourites with many photographers, especially those shooting weddings and events, where the versatility of this kind of lens can really help. Naturally, the 50-150mm is a whole f/stop faster and can deliver a tighter depth of field at all correlating focal lengths. Sony is keen to point out that the lens sets a whole new agenda,…

WANT TO HAVE YOUR SAY? Email us, with ‘Reader letters’ in the subject line: digitalcamera@futurenet.com Star letter Lone tree in a field I’ve been hoping to capture a shot of a lone tree like this for a while, and yesterday, everything aligned perfectly in this beautiful wheat field. I hadn’t been out looking for a lone tree; I’d spent the morning chasing woodland light around the Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire. However, on the drive home, I spotted this scene — a lone tree perfectly framed against rolling wheat fields. I’d been looking for a composition like this for months. The clouds were thick, but I waited at the roadside for the sun to break through just enough to cast light patterns across the crop. The timing was quiet, unplanned and…

Ellie Rothnie Wildlife photographer The internationally renowned photographer and Canon ambassador shares her valuable insights on photographing seabirds, starting on page 8 Will Cheung Photographer & writer A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the former editor of many photography titles, Will is the man behind Camera Clinic, which continues on page 74 Richard Garvey-Williams Photographer and writer A childhood passion for wildlife developed into Richard becoming a photographer as an adult. We conclude our serialisation of his updated book on page 38 Dan Mold Photographer and writer Experienced in many different genres of photography, Dan worked for our former sister title, PhotoPlus. He shares his tips for autumn photography from page 54 Jon Devo Photographer & writer Our resident tech columnist enjoys considering the latest developments in photography…

1 Respect the rules For the best possible experience at a wildlife reserve, abide by the rules and follow any guidance provided by the expert staff. Don’t go off the beaten track to get a ‘better’ shot, and never put the wildlife – or yourself – in danger. 2 Be weather-proof Wildlife reserves tend to be located in exposed places, so always plan for the worst weather conditions. Take water and snacks and wear appropriate clothing – have waterproofs with you in case of a sudden downpour. 3 Note things down You’re recording sightings with your camera, of course, but it also helps to make a note of what you see and when, so you can plan follow-up visits. Don’t have a pen and paper? Record voice notes on your phone…

Some birds look like they are not-so-distant relatives of the pterodactyl. With its reptilian neck and curved beak, the cormorant is one of them. These features allow the cormorant to catch fish, which is the type of shot we’re aiming for. You can find them on the coast and on inland waterways, and with over 64,000 of them spending the winter in the UK, they are not hard to find either. 1 Where to focus The key shot to get is the cormorant surfacing with a fish trapped in its beak, so you have to watch where it’s diving and coming up. One focusing option is to pre-focus on the spot where it dives, then switch autofocus off so you’re not hunting for focus when it comes up. 2 Alternative…

FINALIST: Places ‘Church of Our Lady’ Hannah Mittlestaedt “From the series ‘Lisbon 2025’. These street photos were taken in Lisbon over three days while on a trip with my university. I was struck by the pastel colours of the buildings and the city’s architecture. I tried to capture everyday street scenes, so I opted for point-and-shoot cameras to be discreet and to create a candid feel.” GOLD WINNER: People ‘Pentecostalism’, from the series Faith. Ritchie Elder FINALIST: People ‘The Bather’. Elena Mendoza GOLD WINNER: Things ‘Egg with a Pearl Earing’, from the series Reinterpreting The Classic. Ewelina Rhys BEST IN SHOW ‘Alaa’, from the series Faith. Ritchie Elder FINALIST: Places ‘I’ll Fix It Next Week…’, from the series Hen Wlad fy Nhadau (Land of my Fathers). Thomas Evans SILVER WINNER:…

Autumn is alive with amazing opportunities, from making use of wet rainy days to exploiting its fiery colour palette, mushrooms sprouting up from the forest floor or the drama of exploding fireworks on Bonfire Night. Here are some quick tips to get you inspired. 1 REFLECTIONS Autumn is typically a wet and rainy season, but don’t let that put you off from getting out there with your camera. Venture out after a heavy downpour (or while it’s raining if you have a raincover, see right) and you can get creative with reflections in puddles as streets and Tarmac turn into slick surfaces. If there are a few fallen leaves in your puddles, then the effect can look particularly autumnal. This image of Peterborough Cathedral was taken with a wide aperture of…

Leaves are autumn’s superstars andpresent us with a beautiful array of fiery colours that we can use in landscapes to add a hit of colour or to make an interesting background. But you don’t just have to shoot leaves outside; in fact, this is a brilliant project to have in the bag for those rainy Sunday afternoons. In this project, we’ll create a cheap and cheerful lightbox with household items and use it to illuminate all the brilliant details in a few autumn leaves. When picking your leaves, use a large freezer bag to carefully store the best ones from your travels. You should be able to collect a variety of different colours and shapes. Just be sure to only pick the best-looking leaves, as any crushed or bruised ones,…

When thinking about processing your raw files, you might either opt for the software supplied by your camera manufacturer or the likes of Adobe Camera Raw and DxO Labs PureRAW. However, you can do all the same things in Affinity Photo 2. Simply drop your raw file into the interface (or use File > Open, if you want to use the traditional method) and it will switch to the Develop persona. Don’t click on Develop in the top left until you’ve made all your adjustments, which is what we’re going to look at here. The palette to the right has all the editing tools you need, from lens corrections to noise reduction and exposure or colour enhancements. Download your files www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc299 Download your project files from the folder titled ‘Affinity_Editing…

Scroll through TikTok or Instagram and you will notice something curious. Stop motion and time-lapse clips are thriving. Lego builds itself, flowers bloom in seconds, cities pulse in fast-forward. These short fragments attract millions of views. In an age of collapsing attention spans, the techniques that demand patience have become the most reliable way to hold an audience on social media. Time-lapse and stop motion go back to 1878, when Eadweard Muybridge strung together still images of a galloping horse, revealing what the naked eye could not. By the early 20th century, Georges Méliès perfected the ‘stop trick’ by stopping and starting film reels to conjure illusions of objects appearing or disappearing. Later, animators such as Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen gave the world stop-motion creatures that thrilled early cinema-goers.…

www.fujifilm.eu As a film photography fanatic who gave up that A hobby due to the rising cost of film, I’ve often dreamed of owning a digital camera that provides a film-like experience. In the X half, Fujifilm might have just achieved that. Also known as the X-HF1, the Fujifilm X half is an attempt at making a digital version of a half-frame film camera. Such cameras, like the Pentax 17, use regular 35mm film, but to get more out of a roll, they only shoot half the frame, which stretches a 36-exposure roll to 72. To maximise space on the roll, half-frame film cameras shoot portrait images when the camera is in landscape, giving it a native 3:4 vertical ratio. This is what Fujifilm has done with the X half…

ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc299 Enter the URL www.digital cameraworld.com/dc299 into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar. This will take you to a page on our website. JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the files for Digital Camera 299’ and your download will start, delivered from our own server. Please override any browser warnings about downloading from a non-secure source – our server is safe! ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the. zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your files, double-click the dcm299-files.zip file icon. When it expands, double-click on Digital Camera 299 files, and the download…

1 Use Auto ISO Ellie recommends using Auto ISO to maintain the fast shutter speeds for capturing birds in flight. The EOS 5D IV’s minimum Auto ISO range limit is 100-25,600, but the camera’s chosen values for Owen’s shots ranged from 100-640. 2 Autofocus settings AI Servo is what Canon calls its autofocus setting for moving subjects. As long as AF is engaged, the camera will continuously focus on the subject. For optimum performance, Owen used expanded AF points, rather than just one. 3 Back-button focus Fast-action photographers favour back-button focus. This is when pressing the AF-ON button starts autofocus, and not the default shutter half-press. The thumb and index finger can now perform two vital functions independently.…

While it was once seen a preserve of private schools, the success of international hockey teams at the Olympics has raised the profile of the sport and widened its audience. Being more accessible than some other activities, hockey is also a great sport to shoot action photos and practise your techniques. As hockey pitches are generally smaller than football ones, at around 91.4 x 55m (100 x 60 yards), you won’t need a big lens to get into the action. It’s also usually easier to get pitchside access, too. What you need to look for are action images as players contest the ball or strike at goal, and also group celebrations. With a longer lens, you can also get close-ups of the emotions of players. Find out more at: englandhockey.co.uk…

You don’t have to head for Stratford-upon-Avon to discover a world of medieval houses; there are surviving examples of mansions and halls all over the country. Your main project this month is to find one nearby and see what photographic opportunities it has to offer. For my part in this quest, I travelled to Gainsborough, on the banks of the River Trent in Lincolnshire. This is the Gainsborough Old Hall, a medieval mansion built in the latter part of the 15th century before being developed into a fashionable Jacobean residence. King Henry VIII even swung by one day in August 1541 with his new wife, Katherine Howard, in tow. While we doubt that the current tearoom was selling its delicious cakes at the time, we can imagine the newlyweds being…

We have already acknowledged how tone and colour are important factors in helping us distinguish between figure and ground. Tonal contrasts and strong or contrasting colours are used regularly to increase the salience (level of impact) of chosen subject matter by drawing focus to it and making it stand out from its surroundings. We may even go to the extreme of colour popping, which is the process of reducing the saturation of everything other than the subject, even to the point of rendering the image monochrome except for our chosen elements. The role of colour in our compositions is, however, far more complex than this. An understanding and appreciation of how different tones and colours in an image can affect the movement of the viewer’s eyes and their emotional response…

One thing I look forward to most in the calendar year is putting on my walking boots, hearing the crunch of branches and leaves underfoot and going on a long autumnal adventure. Landscapes in places such as the Peak District and Lake District are packed with cascading waterfalls, gnarly old trees and mysterious mushrooms. These scenes were taken at the photogenic Padley Gorge in the Peak District. In general, forest scenes work best with direct light at sunrise or sunset as this not only produces a warm golden colour palette, but also causes the trees to cast long, dramatic shadows. I explain how to create a stunning forest starburst effect in the steps below, but another option is to shoot on misty mornings. Here you’re much more reliant on luck,…

1 ‘Black Nab at sunset’ by Shane Sellers “This photo was taken at Saltwick Bay, Whitby, at sunset and includes Black Nab, an outcrop of rock to the right. As I composed the image, I attempted to use the rocks in the foreground as a lead-in towards Black Nab, and I’m happy with how it turned out.” www.egglescliffephotography.com Digital Camera says: Great shot! The rocks provide the big foreground interest that leads the eye into the rest of the photo. 2 ‘A Fresh Start’ by Yvonne Brook “I hadn’t been out with the camera for a while as I’d been feeling a little uninspired. However, when I looked out into the garden, the rain had stopped, the sky was beginning to brighten and I noticed the raindrops on the budding Crocosmia catching the light.”…

British photographer Mike Taylor has taken the top spot in the Street Photography category of the world’s largest photography competition, the Cewe Photo Award. Mike, from Kent, was selected as the winner from over 49,000 global entries submitted to the category and 650,000 entries to the contest overall. Titled ‘The Beautiful Game’, this photo was captured on a Leica Q (Typ 116) at The Rutland Arms in Hammersmith, London. The shot captures football fans engrossed in a round of 16 match between France and Argentina in the 2018 World Cup. Over the years, Mike has taken many photos of fans watching football in British pubs – see the dedicated gallery on his website. “Being named the Street Photography category winner of the Cewe Photo Award and having my work commemorated…

Do you find yourself taking photos and importing them, but then getting distracted and completely forgetting to edit them? We all do. It’s great going back when the weather is bad and finding something that excites you afresh. That’s the case for this photo. I was out walking the dog when I came across sunflowers in a hidden part of my apartment complex. I have a fixed walk for my dog, but I often vary the route a little. I hadn’t been this way in a while, and so I wasn’t expecting to see loads of sunflowers. When our walk was finished, I came back with my Fujifilm X100VI. This Cabbage White butterfly landed on the sunflower and hung around for a bit. I was torn between having a greater…

Q I’ve been offered a used Nikon Z 6II body. What second-hand standard zoom would you recommend for it? Josh Davies A Matthew recommends… Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S I actually bought a pricey Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens for my Z 6II, but reverted back to the Z 24-70mm f/4 S kit lens. It’s wonderfully compact and unbeatable value second-hand. Released (year): 2018 Price new: £1,049/$997 ‘Excellent’ £350/$480 ‘Good’ £290/$420 This is by far and away the best ‘kit’ lens I’ve ever owned. Now seven years old, it’s one of Nikon’s first full-frame lenses for mirrorless Z system cameras. Both in lab testing and real-world use over the years, I’ve found it to be exceptional in terms of image quality and all-round performance. It’s also refreshingly compact, thanks to a retractable…

www.venuslens.net I’ve been impressed with Laowa lenses in the past. They tend to be well built and deliver impressive image quality, if you don’t mind focusing manually and often setting your aperture manually as well. Laowa has produced many 15mm ultra-wide-angle primes, including the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide Angle Macro, which was claimed to be the world’s widest full 1.0x macro lens, but was only available in two mount options for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. The Laowa 15mm f/4.5 0.5x Macro sets its sights at a more modest 0.5x maximum magnification and is available in a number of dedicated mount options. Quite the two-trick pony, it aims to be one of the best macro lenses on the market, as well as one of the best wide-angle lenses. At the time…