Tabla de contenidos para October 2017 en Practical Photography: Lite

There’s something strangely powerful about black & white photography that has yielded some of the most evocative and iconic images ever taken. Not only does it create a strong sense of atmosphere and emotion, but in the absence of colour it focuses the viewer’s eye on an image’s shape, texture, tone and structure. Over the next few pages we take a closer look at five classic mono projects and give you all the tools you need to tackle them. Once you master these techniques, you’re guaranteed more captivating and beautiful results that will instantly inject drama and intrigue into your portfolio. USE MOOD  & DRAMA for more striking landscape shots P34 GO MINIMAL  IN THE CITY with the long exposure technique P36 GET GRITTY PORTRAITS  to reveal more detail and…

The vast majority of black & white images you see around were actually never meant to be in mono. Most were shot with colour in mind, but didn’t quite work and were converted later. In this way, mono is sometimes seen as a ‘get out of jail free’ card. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this approach, and sometimes you can end up with an absolutely stonking image, but you’re undoubtedly more likely to produce better work if you think in mono as you shoot. The best way to work is to set your camera to RAW, but turn on the Monochrome picture style. This will allow you to see what the image looks like in black & white on the back of your camera at the point of capture, but…

If you’ve ever tried shooting a long exposure in bright daylight conditions, you’ll know that even using your camera’s lowest ISO and narrowest aperture, it’s impossible to achieve a very slow shutter speed. This is where ND filters come in, blocking out a large proportion of the available light for much slower shutter speeds. NDs come in lots of different densities, but we recommend a 10-stop (ND1000), which allows through only 1/1000th of the light for ultra-long exposures. This would make a 1/60sec exposure 15secs. You can buy NDs from around £25 – we’d recommend checking out SRB Photographic. If you’re opting for the circular screw-on type (recommended), be sure to get the right filter thread size for your lens. Once the filter is on, focusing and composition become near…

Increase local contrast Open your RAW image in Photoshop and, in the initial Camera Raw window, locate the Clarity slider in the Basic settings tab. Move this to the right to increase local contrast, giving your image a gritty look with exaggerated fine detail. Don’t push Clarity too far though, or your shot won’t look natural. You can also increase global contrast using the Contrast slider, and you can tweak the Shadows and Highlights sliders to reveal more or less details in the very brightest and darkest parts of the image. Relax your subject Not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera so try to help your subject feel at ease. Perhaps put on some music, and spark up a conversation about something else to take their mind off…

Choose your aperture One of the biggest challenges of street photography is getting your subject sharp. Not only do you usually have very little focusing time, but often the subject is moving, and you may be shooting from the hip. You can make things easier by avoiding very wide apertures, which produce a shallow depth-of-field. This means even small focusing errors will leave your subject slightly soft. Instead, select a mid-range aperture of around f/8, giving a larger depth-of-field and better optical quality. Avoid very narrow apertures though, as these will produce slower shutter speeds, leading to unwanted blur. Use a high ISO To ensure you get a pin-sharp image, aim for a shutter speed of 1/250sec. This might mean pushing up the ISO, but don’t worry too much about…

Film Simulation modes can be selected at any time and apply a preset to your camera’s JPEG files, as well as appearing as live previews through the EVF. They are based on some of Fujifilm’s most iconic film recipes, including Velvia, Provia, Classic Chrome and, the newest edition, ACROS. These modes tweak the output of your JPEGs to represent the colour and contrast of the classic film profiles, giving you an added level of creativity to your photos, with anything from Velvia’s vibrant saturation, to ACROS’ deep shadow details and delicate skin tones. These presets can also be applied to the RAW files in Photoshop or Lightroom, meaning you don’t have to sacrifice quality for that classic look.…

“ACROS GIVES ME A REALLY MOODY BLACK & WHITE LOOK TO MY SHOT” David Cleland David pre-ordered a Fujifilm X100 in 2010 and fell in love with it. Today he can be found shooting gritty documentary, intimate music and epic landscapes. Here, David tells us why he loves his X Series. D AVID CLELAND WAS SHOOTING film throughout his college years until he graduated and life got in the way. However, upon starting a family and picking up a camera again to document their early years, his passion was fully reignited and he has been shooting professionally ever since. Not limiting himself to a single genre, David is a man of many talents. • You have some stunning work in many genres – what inspired you to take up photography?…

Roger Stowell (rogerstowell.com/ wordpress) is an pro advertising and editorial photographer. He’s worked for a variety of clients, including Elle , The Observer and BBC Good Food . • One of the most important aspects of market photography, or indeed any kind of shooting experience where you’re in a crowded place, is to become invisible quickly. It’s best not to get in close, as you’ll alert people to your presence and you’ll lose the candid nature of your shot. I’ll often stand in a corner near where some good action is going on, and I tend to find that I’m quickly forgotten. • It’s best to shoot quickly and not to wait. People seem to have a sixth sense that tells them when a camera is looking at them! Set…

Join Leiths-trained chef, recipe writer and food stylist Olia Hercules and experienced editorial and advertising photographer Roger Stowell for a long weekend of delectable food, beautiful French countryside and photography tutelage. Located at the converted farmhouse villa Le Mazeau in the South Vendée, you’ll have the opportunity to practice and develop both your photographic and culinary skills, while simultaneously relaxing, with access to a pool, satellite TV, Wi-Fi and an al fresco dining area, complete with a wood-fired pizza oven. For those keen to explore the area, there are opportunities to visit the markets and restaurants of Niort and La Rochelle. What you’ll learn • Explore the rustic charm of small French towns with your camera, capturing snapshots of everyday market life. • Discuss your photographs from the day and…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop or Elements • An image you’d like to apply different colour effects to CREATIVE USE OF COLOUR is a great way to draw the viewer’s eye towards your image. So in this feature we’ll cover how to tone your shots in three completely different ways. These effects can be used to accentuate the colours already in your shot, or add your own to alter the mood. We kick off with this straight toning effect, where a single colour is blended in. For our shot, a fiery orange was used to create a strong autumnal vibe. This gives it much more warmth than the original, so it’s easier to associate this version with this time of year. Over the page, we reveal an easy way to…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop CS5 and above • An image with plenty of distractions you want removing W E’VE ALL BEEN  there, thinking we’ve taken our genre-defining shot, only to realise that a small child has dragged a tree into the scene, ruining an otherwise glorious photo. In the olden days of film, this would have meant a wasted exposure. But, luckily, with the advances in Photoshop, now it just means an extra 10 minutes of work to salvage your vision. We’re taking a look at four intuitive techniques to remove unwanted clutter in your images. Whether it’s people, objects or sensor spots, these techniques will give you the fighting edge and skills to remove almost anything. Of course, we aren’t limiting our techniques to the humble clone brush…

1 Use Curves... Curves is a powerful tool for adjusting image brightness, contrast and colour. To use it, go to your Layers panel (Window>Layers) and click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon, choosing Curves from the menu. Adjust the curve to change the luminosity of different tones in your shot. We pulled the middle midtones section upwards to brighten the picture. If areas start to clip to pure black or white, you can paint black with a soft Brush Tool on your Curves Layer Mask to restore detail in the clipped areas. 2 ...or use Levels Levels is a really good way of changing the brightness of an image in Photoshop or Elements. In your Layers panel click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon and choose Levels. Drag…

ADOBE BRIDGE Organise images easily with star ratings and labels A messy hard drive can cause headaches when looking for pictures, so it’s sound advice to put shots from your shoots in a folder. Give it a date and name, such as ‘2017 12 25 Christmas Day’. Start with the year, then month and day to make them appear in chronological order. To sort and edit shots within a folder, Adobe Bridge can help no end. Navigate to your photos using the Folders panel and then go into the Filmstrip module. You can now scroll through your shots. Assign star ratings or labels to pictures by going to Label at the top, or hitting the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9. You can then narrow your search down to images with…

Q There’s a lock button on the back of my Nikon camera. What is this for? Bridget Hincliff, Buckinghamshire Louise says: You’re probably referring to the Protect button, which is marked by a key symbol. Pressing this once when reviewing an image protects it from being accidentally deleted. Canons also have this function, but it’s done via the menu. This can be a really useful function if you’ve taken a stunning image that you simply can’t risk losing. It’s also possible you’re making reference to Nikon’s Focus Selector Lock Switch, marked by an L, which stops you accidentally changing the focus point. Many advanced Canon cameras, such as the 5D Mk IV, have a similar switch to lock the rear dial, which stops you accidentally changing settings. These too can…

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Nikon 18-55mm kit lens Almost all DSLRs are sold with a standard kit lens, which offers a zoom range of 18-55mm. There’s no hard-and-fast rule for which focal length is best for this technique, but somewhere around 35mm is a good starting point. As you’re working from a tripod, turn off Vibration Reduction (image stabilisation), as this can reduce overall sharpness. Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 Upgrading your kit lens to a pro-level 24-70mm will give you superb image quality. Many Nikon users believe this lens to be the sharpest standard zoom lens on the market. It also boasts a wide aperture of f/2.8, which allows a shallower depth-of-field and faster shutter speeds. The lens costs £1349 and is compatible with full-frame and APS-C cameras.…

Light painting is a very fun experiment that will likely get better every time you try it, and once mastered there’s no end to how big a subject you can shoot. But at its heart, it does come with a couple of fundamental rules to follow for the best results. Using a torch with a bare bulb will allow it to be seen from the side, as we discuss on our settings page (117), whereas a newer LED torch can only be seen from the front and is excessively powerful, which would cast unwanted light over our entire image and ruin the effect (best to use these in large areas). Light painting isn’t an exact science, and the length of your exposure will depend on several factors, so don’t be…

With your camera settings dialled in, still life arranged and focusing locked, it’s time for the fun bit. A tiny, bright light source is ideal for this technique, as it’ll let you get very fine light trails. We used a Maglite, which has a candle mode, revealing its single LED. This kicks out light in all directions, so as you’re painting the light trails it’s also lighting up your subject. It’s possible to use the LED light from a smart phone, but this only throws light out in one direction. So once you’ve created your light trails, you’ll need to flip the phone around to light up your subject. We’re looking for complete light trails that go around your subject and don’t prematurely end half-way around your prop. If you…

SIGMA’S ART LINE-UP HAS fast become one of the most highly regarded lens ranges on the planet. That’s why we’re excited to see the world’s first 14mm f/1.8 prime, with an ultra wide-angle and fast aperture which could make it every astrophotographer’s dream. The build quality of this glass is superb, with its tough dust and moisture resistant plastic and aluminium design housing 16 elements in 11 groups, as well as 9 rounded diaphragm blades. It features 3 premium FLD and 4 SLD Low Dispersion elements to control chromatic aberration and flare (both of which are near perfectly handled), as well as a newly designed HSM (Hypersonic Motor), which makes for a great autofocusing experience. SIGMA 14MM F/1.8 DG HSM | ART £1679 While this construction does come at a…

Flowers From £1 By introducing a flower to the egde of your lens, you can create a foreground blur that’s almost akin to a light leak. With the many different varieties and colours available, there’s a lot of scope for experimentation. This technique helps to inject some depth into the scene, as well as an ethereal sense of fantasy and illusion. Just remember to hold the flowers as close to the lens as possible so they completely blur out. Psychedelic prism £3 Using a prism isn’t a new hack, but if you were to buy three small mirrors (roughly 6x4in) and tape them together to form a triangle, the result of shooting through them is beautifully psychedelic. This is a technique used well by Lindsay Adler in her fashion photography…

• WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL MY DAD GAVE ME a camera, which I very quickly became obsessed with. I much preferred going out and shooting rather than being stuck in school learning subjects I didn’t care about. When I went to college I chose a major in advertising, which gave me better access to photography. When I was in my second year of college I met a professor whose attitude towards art deeply influenced my journey as an artist. He said that he wanted to record the beauty of the world in order to leave precious and beautiful images for the people that come after us. I was so moved by his view on this artform that I realised that I also wanted to create something meaningful. Although…

Switch your camera to aperture-priority mode and set an aperture of around f/5.6, or wider if your lens allows. This will create a shallow depth-of-field that should make your image more striking. Choose an ISO that gives you a shutter speed of 1/125sec or faster. Outdoors, this should be ISO 100, but indoors it could be ISO 800 or higher. Set single point AF and select the central focus point. Always work in RAW, though feel free to put your camera into the Monochrome picture style, allowing you to see the results in black & white on your LCD as you shoot. Above Choosing a wide aperture of around f/5.6, or wider if your lens allows, gives a shallow depth-of-field. Left With single point AF, you can focus very accurately…

Food may be a basic necessity, but it’s also one of life’s greatest pleasures. Tucking into a delicious meal without a second thought is (hopefully!) an everyday occurence. However, if you’re searching for a sumptuous new project for you to sink your teeth into, why not step beyond the dining room and explore your food’s fascinating journey from the thriving bustle of a marketplace, to the blistering heat of the kitchen, to the plate in front of you. With three exciting projects, jumping from spontaneous market portraiture to exquisitely styled still life, there’s something for everyone. So put down the knife and fork, pick up your camera and get ready to create mouthwateringly good photos. Three tasty projects to cook up... FOOD MARKETS Focus on fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop Lightroom 6 or CC • A RAW in need of a white balance tweak WHAT WE SEE when we’re composing to take a photograph, and what the camera produces when it records the moment, are very rarely the same thing. The human eye undoubtedly has a broader dynamic range, capable of seeing detail in deep shadows and bright highlights. RAW files also come without in-camera processing, so they often look flat. I remember getting up early to catch the morning sun for this shot. The stag was bathed in a rich golden glow, but unfortunately a cloud covered it just as I pressed the shutter. This meant the light was much cooler, and blue. Luckily, the white balance isn’t locked with RAW files so the…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop CC • An image you want to work up in black & white with a high level of precision It’s easy to think that colour becomes irrelevant when converting to black & white, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Convert to mono using the Black & White filter in Photoshop, and you’ll be able to make full use of the colour channels. These remain intact, despite draining the image of colour. Why is this useful? Well, it means you can change the luminance of those colour channels. It’s fantastic if you want to brighten a grassy green foreground, darken a blue sky, or change the contrast of any other colour, giving you a much finer level of control than a standard Brightness/Contrast adjustment.…

dispersion project. WHAT YOU NEED • A DSLR or CSC • A flashgun, triggers and a few other props • Photoshop or Elements THERE ARE GENERALLY two trains of thought when it comes to post-processing – apply small, subtle tweaks that give the shot a natural but enhanced look, or carry out more obvious conceptual fantasy works of art that are more ‘out there’. Our smoke dispersion project definitely belongs to the latter, so is a great one to try if you want to let your imagination run wild in Photoshop. It’s a project of two halves and we’ve outlined each step of the journey, from start to finish. We kick off by capturing a sharp profile portrait, then show you how to shoot your own smoke textures with a…

Louise Carey delves into the art of black & white with 19 evocative mono Actions that will give your image an extra dramatic edge. WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop or Elements • An image you’d like to apply a variety of black & white effects to WHILE WE ALL LOVE BEING ABLE TO EDIT our images to perfection, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to make all the adjustments you’d like to. Luckily, if you’re time-poor and looking for a way to speed up your workflow, we’ve got the perfect solution for you. Photoshop Actions are a fantastic way to shave precious minutes off your edit, while still creating beautifully crafted images. Actions are essentially pre-recorded adjustments that your editing program remembers, so that you don’t have…

1 Correct exposure Open your RAW file into Photoshop to load it into Adobe Camera Raw. Now, in the Basic panel adjust the Exposure slider until you’re happy with the overall luminance of the shot. You can also hold the Alt key down as you make your adjustments to see a clipping warning, to see if your shadows or highlights clip. 2 Reduce noise in seconds In Adobe Camera Raw you can add Noise Reduction in the Detail tab using the Luminance slider. If you prefer, this is possible in Photoshop too. Just go to Filter>Noise> Reduce Noise to reduce the gritty look you get from shooting at high ISO values.…

This month’s light painting technique is essentially a combination of two skills – shooting a long exposure from a tripod, and tracing around your subject with a torch. As your camera’s sensor is collecting light for the whole exposure, the path your torch takes will appear as a continuous light trail, and some of that light will spill onto the subject and illuminate it. The timing of your shot can be tricky to get right, but with some practice you should be able to produce very striking shots. You’ll need to shoot in complete darkness, so wait until after sunset, or find a very dark room. Working in manual mode, choose a shutter speed long enough so you’ll be able to draw around the entire subject. For smaller objects, like…

While this month’s Camera School doesn’t adhere to the same rules as previous assignments, such as the rule-of-thirds or rule-of-odds, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind. Firstly, you should aim to make your subject as large as you can in the frame within reason, so try using a longer focal length or moving your camera closer to the subject. This will give your image more impact and make it stand out against the darker background. Secondly, don’t forget that you will have a light trail to consider too, so leave enough space for this. Due to using a long exposure, you’ll also want to make sure you compose in such a way that keeps your camera very still for the duration. We recommend a sturdy…

Even light trails have to obey the rules of physics, so they’re affected by depth-of-field just as much as your subject is. This means you’ll want to focus accurately on your subject and paint your light trails close to it so that both appear sharp. Focusing in the dark can be an issue, so we suggest using the AF Assist Beam on your camera if it has one. This will kick out a light momentarily to illuminate your subject while your camera focuses. Another option, that’s perhaps even easier, is to turn the room lights on while you achieve sharp focus and then switch them off so you’re in the dark when you’re ready to start painting. The only issue here is that you’ll need to use your torch to…

We want to see a perfectly exposed light painting with a shutter speed long enough to capture uninterrupted trails. Focus on the closest part of your subject and use an aperture of f/8 for strong sharpness. A torch with a candle mode that reveals the bulb will make it easier to make your trails, especially for fine details like boot laces or guitar strings. Your image should be in colour and unedited, other than being resized to the 5MB limit. Once you have your shot, upload it to camera-school.com/mod-6-aft If you need to ask any questions, go to the Camera School Facebook page (facebook.com/ppcameraschool). Your homework deadline is 27 September, so have your shot uploaded by then. BEFORE YOU UPLOAD • Have you used the right settings? • Have you…

Camera Buying Guide Unsure about which camera is best for your needs? Our ebook includes reviews, spec and prices for every interchangeable lens camera available right now. That’s over 80 DSLRs and CSCs to choose from. Actions and brushes This month we’re giving away 19 new black & white Actions for Photoshop and Elements, and 5 custom smoke effects. See pages 86 and 92 for more. Photoshop video lessons Convert to black & white using colour channels, remove lens distortion and straighten horizons, and master the art of cloning and healing.…

Canon Canon 1400D With With Can Canon having updated updated tthe majority of of its its line line-up this year, we we’’re re exp expecting to see the the 1300 1300 D D sequel any time now now . . Fea Featuring the same 24 24 .. 3 3 MP MP s sensor found in many of of Canon Canon’s newest DSLRs, this entry entry--leve level camera will offer excellent excellent image quality, with fast fast autof autofocus, Canon’s brilliant Dual-Pixel AF technology and full tilting touchscreen. We would also expect it to boast the same 100-25,600 ISO range. canon.co.uk Nikon D3500 With the Nikon D3300 on the cusp of turning 3 years old, we are expecting to see a new Nikon entry-level camera on the horizon. This latest entry…

“ALL BRIDES LOVE SOMETHING THAT REPRESENTS THEIR PERSONALITY...” I LOVE ALL TYPES OF PHOTOGRAPHY. EACH GENRE allows you to develop your skills in different ways. I knew I wanted to be a fashion photographer very early on in my career, but I experimented in everything from portraits to architecture and pets to nature. One genre I never really tried was wedding photography because, honestly, it terrified me. It’s such a huge responsibility and I never felt I was good enough and worried that I’d disappoint the bride and groom. A few years ago, I started second shooting some weddings and even shot a few of my own. I confronted my fear because I wanted to expand my portfolio and grow as a photographer. One of my favourite new things is…

A GREAT PORTRAIT is much more than a simple snapshot of a face. It’s about capturing and portraying the true essence of your subject’s character to create a strong emotional connection with the viewer. This is often easier said than done, and in fact the je ne sais quoi that makes some portraits so striking can be extremely hard to define. But one surefire way of achieving a more expressive image is simply to work in mono, which tends to be a far more emotive genre than colour. When you think about it, almost all of the world’s most iconic portraits are taken in black & white. Choose your face Your first job is to choose a suitable subject. For gritty portraits, older faces tend to have more personality, and…

AS PHOTOGRAPHERS, we’re well-versed in capturing the world around us in a very realistic way, tending to portray a subject exactly as our eyes see it. But by focusing in on a very small detail of an object and cropping out the wider scene, you can encourage your viewer to read an image purely for its aesthetic value, rather than taking a more literal interpretation. You might even deliberately frame your shot so as to entirely hide the identity of the subject from the viewer, producing a truly abstract shot akin to a piece of modern art. The beauty of abstract photography lies in the fact you can get an extraordinary image from an ordinary subject, provided it has an interesting shape, texture or pattern. Even something as simple as…

Street photography is usually shot in a documentary style, with the subject unaware they’re on camera. This ensures a natural expression and helps you capture a true representation of daily life at your chosen location. There are a couple of methods you can use to achieve this. The first is to shoot from a distance with a long lens. This makes it easy to remain undetected, but images are often less intimate. The other option is get very close to your subject and shoot from the hip with a wide-angle lens. As the camera isn’t up to your eye, no one will realise you’re taking pictures. This, of course, makes focusing and composition difficult, and so your hit rate will reduce. However, if you have a tilt or flip screen,…

“THE X-TRANS III SENSOR GIVES THE X SERIES BETTER AND TRUER COLOUR RENDITION” If you’re like us, then you’ll know how important it is to be able to get your shot as close to perfect in-camera as you can. Often, people take that to mean a well exposed image, strong composition and a good white balance, but Fujifilm always aim to take it one step further than the competition. Thanks to the X-Trans III sensor, found in the current line-up of X Series cameras, such as the X-Pro2, X-T20, X100F and the X-T2, you can be certain that your colours will look near-perfect as soon as you hit the shutter button. It’s all thanks to the amazing technology at play behind the X-Trans CMOS sensor, which is based on a…

BAYER 2X2 PATTERN This pattern can result in more false colour readings SUSCEPTIBLE TO MOIRÉ With a tightly repeating pattern, Bayer filters pick up moiré OPTICAL LOW PASS FILTER Including an optical low pass filter compromises the overall image sharpness X-TRANS 6X6 PATTERN Allows better and more organic colour capture COMBATS MOIRÉ A more random pattern means less susceptibility to moiré NO LOW PASS FILTER The lack of an optical low pass filter means the X Series offers a higher resolution…

WHILE THE weekly food shop could be considered a chore that’s best to finish as quickly as possible, why not create a whole new photographic opportunity for yourself instead? Trade in the convenience of the supermarket for the bright colours and rustic charm of your local town’s marketplace. Not only will you have the chance to photograph a vast array of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and more, but you’ll also be able to capture candid portraits of the unique characters selling the produce. Shoot street-inspired photos Snapping marketplace pictures draws its key techniques from street photography. Not only do you need to be able to dart in and out of interesting situations without ever having registered your subject’s interest, but you must also have focused, composed and taken your shot…

Hooman Mesri (hoomanmesri.com) is a professional product photographer based in Ontario, Canada. He has more than 15 years’ experience in studio photography and specialises in shooting food and jewellery. • When beginning a food photography project, regardless of the purpose, one must think about all of the operational details. It’s essential to educate yourself about the subject, from the preparation, to the cooking process to the serving. Knowledge about the origin of the food and its history will also help when you’re working with the chef, as it’ll make it easier to communicate your ideas and get the shot. • For documentary-style food photography, where you have a series of images as your final product, continuity is key. I prefer to use the same overall tones in my images, no…

Olia Hercules is a chef, recipe writer, food stylist and author. Her first book Mamushka won the prestigious Fortnum and Mason Award for best debut cookbook 2016. Her second book is titled Kaukasis (Mitchell Beazley, £25, octopusbooks.co.uk). Follow Olia at instagram.com/ oliahercules to find out more. • I always take a big kit bag to all of the shoots I style, but I really only have three essentials that I couldn’t go without. My long DIY tweezers are perfect for creating intricate arrangements, while a little oil or water lets me create highlights on the dish or make the meat look more moist. In the past my heat gun has saved the day when the hob has broken and I needed to grill a steak. • In visual terms, there…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop or Elements • A landscape image that hasn’t already been corrected BEFORE YOU START PROCESSING a landscape image, it’s good practice to ensure all the lines and angles within your frame are geometrically true. This will give you a solid foundation on which to apply your edits, and help you produce a more professional-looking result. These initial editing steps are especially important for seascapes, where an unbroken horizon makes any distortion or skewing particularly noticeable. In step 1, we look at how to remove lens distortion from an image. This will ensure that the horizon isn’t bent, a problem often experienced when using wide-angle glass. In step 2, we check out how to level up a lopsided horizon and, in step 3, how to crop…

This technique requires a little time to get both the portrait and the smoke shots just right. Elements users won’t be able to turn the smoke images into custom brushes, but they can still be great to shoot and use as textures. There’s some great fun to be had by setting up your own home studio and it’s really easy to do. You just need some basic equipment such as a camera with a manual mode and a flashgun that can be fired off-camera with a set of radio triggers. You’ll create the smoke with an incense stick and a holder. Incense is pretty safe, but it’s worth keeping a glass jar with sand in it to dispose of the burnt sticks and some water nearby too for worst case…

1 Add a Hue/ Saturation adjustment Open your shot into Photoshop with File>Open and head over to your Layers panel (Window>Layers). Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon and choose Hue/Saturation from the list that appears. Now you can drag the Hue slider to change the colour, Saturation to choose how intense you want the colour to be and finally Lightness to change how bright or dark the colours look. 2 Edit colour channels Staying within the Hue/Saturation adjustment panel you can edit specific colours within your picture. To boost the orange in this tiger’s head, click on the box that says Master and change it to Reds. Here we can increase the Saturation slider to make these specific colours a bit more punchy. While you’re working on a…

Q I use Photoshop Elements 15 and have lost the outline of my Brush Tool. I can only see a crosshair. Any ideas? Julian King, Camden Louise says: Don’t worry Julian, this is a very common issue. The crosshair you can see is there because the Caps Lock key has been pressed. This mode allows you to see the exact centre of your brush, helping you make very precise strokes with the Brush Tool. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to accidentally hit this button when you’re editing, especially if you use the left Shift key for shortcuts, which sits directly beneath it. Fortunately it’s a quick and easy fix – just hit the Caps Lock key again and your brush outline will reappear. A very similar problem is often experienced when…

Choosing the correct camera settings is essential to producing well-exposed light painting images. Here are our suggestions to help get you started. MANUAL MODE Working in manual mode gives you full control over ISO, aperture and shutter speed, which is essential for the light painting technique. SLOW SHUTTER SPEED Select an exposure time of between 5-30secs, depending on the size of your subject. 10secs is a good starting point. LOW ISO Start with an ISO of 400, adjusting it to 200 if your subject and trails are too bright, and 800 if they’re too dark. MID-RANGE APERTURE Choose an aperture of around f/8, where most lenses offer the best image quality. This should also give you a large enough depth-of-field so that your entire subject appears sharp. You don’t need…

When you’re shooting light trails, you’ll need a long exposure of at least 10 seconds, which means you’ll need to steady your camera. Using a tripod not only allows you to keep your camera still and avoid blur, it also allows you to set your composition and focus perfectly in the light, keeping it exactly the same when it gets dark. We recommend a tripod with a ball head, as you’ll be able to make tiny adjustments, aiming your lens up, down or to the side as required. Of course, if you don’t have a moving head, you can still angle your camera down by pulling the front leg in slightly, so the tripod leans forward, though this may decrease the stability, and remember to not overdo it or your…

1 Choose your focus mode The most suitable autofocus mode to use for stationary subjects is single servo, also called AF-S on Nikon cameras. This searches for your subject when you half-press the shutter and stays locks on until you press the shutter, unlike Continuous, which constantly refocuses while the shutter is half-pressed. 2 Set the active AF point Change the autofocus point selection to Single Point AF, rather than Auto. This mode allows you to choose where the active AF point is positioned in the frame using the D-Pad on the back of the camera. Use the camera’s viewfinder or the screen with Live View to position this AF point over your main subject. 3 Lock it off You may need the lights on to focus, or activate your…

NIKON AF-P DX 10-20MM F/4.5-5.6 6G VR £ £ 329 329 IF YOU’RE ONE OF THE MANY people who uses their APS-C Nikon for landscapes, it’s time to rejoice – this may be the perfect lens for you, offering a comprehensive zoom range of 10-20mm (15-30mm 35mm equivalent), ultra-wide to wide-angle in a relatively tiny body. Its maximum aperture of f/3.5 is enough to allow shooting in dimmer conditions, while its f/29 minimum aperture will let you take your Big Stopper ND filter and shoot long exposures on even the brightest days. Featuring a tough plastic body and rubber grip zoom and focus rings, it houses 14 elements in 11 groups, including 3 aspherical elements to keep distortions to a minimum. It also packs a whopping 109 ¼ diagonal field-of-view…

1 Weighs only 300g We’ve seen drones which are small before, but none that pack in such an insane level of technology and functionality. The Spark weighs a mind-blowing 300g, as well as being small enough to fit into a pocket... almost. 2 Quality 12MP sensor Equipped with the same 1/2.3in sensor as you’d find in a Mavic Pro, the Spark is capable of brilliant stills and smooth 1080p footage, thanks to the 2-axis stabilised gimbal. 3 3D Sensing System A new sensing system on the front allows the Spark to recognise your face, as well as accept hand gestures to control its movements. You are actually able to pilot this drone without the need for any additional controller at all. 4 Intelligent battery The intelligent battery allows up to…

It’s important to remember that the use of drones is covered by relevant laws set out by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). As a recreational user, you must keep your drone in your line of sight, stay at least 150m away from any congested area or organised open air crowd of more than 1000 people, or 50m away from people, property or objects that are not under your control. You are also required to stay below 120m in height, which is automatically built-in. In addition, new regulations are set to require you to register any drone which is over 250g with the CAA.…

 We thought it would be unfair to compare such wildly different lenses against each other in terms of image quality, so we’ve decided to name the three lenses that we felt had the greatest impact and most unique effect. A couple of lenses were more novel than useful, with the Holga not standing out as something we’d use for more than a couple of hours. Similarly, the Fujifilm 56mm APD is one of the best lenses I’ve ever used, but its price and subtle effect (while stunning) doesn’t give it the same level of creativity as others in test. The effects were wide ranging and, in some cases, very unique to each lens – though we also had to take value for money and quality into consideration and at the…