Tabla de contenidos para December 2017 en Practical Photography: Lite

LIGHT MAY BE OUR BEST friend, but a lack of light can be just as powerful. In fact, some of the most innovative images I’ve seen of late have been taken during or after twilight, from winding traffic trails at dusk to flash-lit portraits and low light wildlife. Low light is both a challenging and fantastically rewarding genre, which is why we’ve gathered together six of the world’s best after-dark artists and asked them to share their techniques and insight. Starting on page 36, you’ll find out how to create epic light trails, flash-lit portraits, blue-hour scenics, light paintings, urban deer and amazing starscapes. Winter is almost upon us, and with it a whole new photographic adventure. Join us and embrace the darkness! WATCH FREE VIDEOS! Visit our YouTube channel…

MEET YOUR GUIDE LANCE KEIMIG One of the world’s leading low light experts, Lance has 30 years’ experience in teaching photography and has led hundreds of workshops. He’s currently running nationalparksatnight.com tours, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark. Find out more at thenightskye.com • What makes a good subject for light painting? Do you look for particular things? It depends. In urban areas with artificial light, I look first for light, then subject. Dramatic light is what catches my eye – two or more different sources, overlapping or separate makes for interesting images. Otherwise it’s subject first and the drama comes from the light painting. • Is there a particular time of night that’s best for shooting? Again, it depends.…

1 Find a good location It’s not only important to find a spot dark enough to properly record the stars, you also need to find something interesting to put in front of them. Scout your location in daylight, then rest up until the darkest part of the night for shooting. 2 Get your exposure right Shooting in manual mode, try some test exposures before you bother to focus too accurately, checking the histogram on-screen to make sure you’re not losing shadow detail. Rely on the histogram – it’s the most accurate measurement. 3 Don’t be afraid to push ISO It may seem counter-intuitive for landscape photographers, who are used to setting ISO as low as possible, but if you want sharp stars, free of motion blur, using high ISO settings…

Choose the right kit When working with anything automotive I’ll tend to stay fairly long in length, as this prevents the car from ballooning and becoming distorted. When shooting details I’ll typically use either a 50mm or an 85mm lens on a full-frame camera. However, there’s no set lens that I’ll reach for, as I’ll just work with whatever I think will suit the situation the best. Capture evocative shots Photographing details means that you’re moving further away from the capability of the vehicle. Instead, you’re starting to explore the design language. You want to be using light to add shape and texture to what you’re shooting. You don’t want flat, featureless images – you’re looking for panel and body lines that have a key highlight that then fades across…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop CC • A landscape image with perspective distortion you’d like to correct WIDE-ANGLE LENSES ARE FANTASTIC FOR shooting landscapes, as they let you squeeze in a much broader angle-of-view, giving you the power to fit in more of your location. But unless you use a pricey tilt & shift optic – with special knobs and dials to correct perspective distortion – straight lines in your wide-angle shots will bow to the laws of physics, bending in towards the middle of the frame. Luckily, you don’t have to spend thousands on a tilt & shift lens to fix this distortion – it can be corrected in just a few clicks using the Perspective Warp feature in Photoshop CC. We’ll show you how to use it to…

Tim Berry PP’s contributing editor has a master’s degree in photography and has taught undergraduates. Dan Mold PP’s Photoshop editor is a former Digital Photo staffer who has encyclopedic photo knowledge. Louise Carey PP’s features editor is an experienced fine art and documentary photographer. How can I try out the freelensing technique? Q I came across some images online that were shot using the ‘freelensing’ technique. What exactly is this and do I need any specialist kit to try it myself? Stuart Burfoot, Lancaster Tim says: Freelensing is a creative technique that allows you to achieve quirky depth-of-field effects. The basic idea is to detach your lens from your camera, then tilt it out slightly so that only one part of the lens mount is…

One area frequently overlooked by photographers purchasing a new lens is how resistant it is to tough conditions. This is particularly important for press and travel photographers, who are more likely to drop or knock a lens, but a solid build quality can come in very handy to even the most careful owner. Take it on a beach, for example, or near a waterfall, and a fully weather-sealed lens will ensure there’s no internal dust or water contamination at all. A cheaper lens can quite easily let in dust particles, and this sometimes means a write-off, given the cost of refurbishment. Even if you don’t go to beaches or waterfalls, a gust of wind might blow over your tripod, leaving the lens to take the full force of the fall.…

1 HAVE A VISION Figure out what you want to create, and then discuss your idea with a few carefully selected people who you can trust to give honest feedback. Be ruthlessly ambitious. The world is already full of books, pictures and projects, so it’s difficult to get noticed, but remember that originality never goes out of fashion. 2 LEARN MORE Even if the topic is something you already know loads about, it never hurts to update yourself and find out even more about your chosen subject. If your project is a dive into the unknown, then learn as much about the topic as possible. You should always plan for your work to be able to withstand the test of time. 3 ALWAYS PLAN Your project is wider than just…

1 45.7 megapixels The back-illuminated 45.7MP sensor offers a stunning level of resolution, and the lack of an optical low-pass filter retains sharpness in every shot. 2 8K time-lapses As any good Hollywood cinematographer will tell you, 4K is so last season. The D850 will capture 8K time-lapses, shooting a series of very high resolution images, though sadly it won’t stitch these into a movie. 3 Full-frame 4K The D850’s 4K UHD video uses the entire sensor to record stunning resolution movies, as well as 1080p Full HD footage at up to 120fps to capture those high-action scenes in slow motion. 4 Instant ISO Nikon’s 64-25,600 ISO (the lowest base ISO of any DSLR) can now be activated from this new button behind the shutter. This brings it in line…

While this feels like a renaissance for Polaroid, the medium has never left the conscious of many creatives. Dee Elegia is an exciting artist who incorporates instant photography into her repertoire, and uses it to tell an intimate autobiography. Self-taught Dee specialises in analogue (shooting film), and her work has been published internationally in magazines such as Hylas and Lov Zine. She’s just exhibited in London as part of the ‘Photography on a Postcard’ charity show and auction, and is currently working on a book and a new self-portrait series about dyspraxia. We asked why she chose Polaroid... “What I love about working with Polaroid is the tangible element of it. To me, there’s something really special about holding an instant photograph in your hand. The film itself is also…

• I’M A MEDICAL STUDENT FIRST AND FOREMOST, but in my spare time I’m also an avid travel photographer. I got into photography about three years ago, when I purchased a Fujifilm bridge camera. I was going on a trip around Europe, so before I set off I read up on different techniques and equipment using magazines and online articles, which only further stoked my excitement. The amazing photographic opportunities I experienced during my travels (including the stunning Lake Bled in Slovenia) solidified this new-found passion. Upon my return to the UK, I continued to learn and found the time to visit and shoot photogenic locations such as the Lake District and Snowdonia. I also joined my university’s Photographic Society to increase my experience even more. This actually led to…

LENS Latest Tamron ideal for wildlife & sport  PRICE £TBC FOCAL LENGTH 100-400mm APERTURE RANGE f/4.5-6.3 Tamron’s new 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD follows on from a succession of high-quality releases. Boasting a long telephoto length, which equates to 150-600mm on a 1.5x APS-C crop sensor, this lens allows you to really zero-in on your subjects. With such a great range, it’s ideal for wildlife or sports photography, where you need to get intimate with your subject from a distance. The construction comprises 3 LD (Low Dispersion) elements, to compensate for chromatic aberration. The glass also benefits from eBAND coating, which acts to eliminate flare and ghosting for maximum image clarity. At 1.1kg, this is the lightest lens in Tamron’s ultra-telephoto range, yet despite its weight it manages to boast…

1 Find the right composition The most important place to start is with your location, composition and framing. Do you have a good setting? How are you going to place the subject in it? How will it complement them (or vice versa)? And what time of night is best to shoot? Ideally you’ll want to work undisturbed by passers-by, so keep that in mind too. 2 Check the available light Being able to work with the light in the scene is important – you can add your own light to improve things, but it’s more difficult to take away illumination that’s already there, especially if you’re using continuous lights rather than flash. 3 Add lighting for the subject Finally it’s time to light the subject, either placing your lights to…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop or Elements • An underexposed JPEG image you want to brighten up THE BRIGHTNESS OF AN image is a fundamental factor that affects how much contrast is in it, how lush the colours are and how appealing it is to look at. So if the brightness isn’t spot-on, it can have an immensely detrimental effect on the ‘wow’ factor of your pictures. The exposure calculations and metering modes on most digital cameras can help us get the exposure in the right ballpark, but to get the brightness of individual areas looking right, you’ll need to roll up your digital sleeves. So this month we’ve come up with three fantastically easy ways to lighten your shots. Over the page you’ll see how it’s possible to use…

WHAT YOU NEED • A computer with the minimum required spec • Internet access • A RAW or JPEG image THIS MONTH WE’VE GOT a fantastic giveaway for you. We’ve managed to secure every Practical Photography reader a free copy of CyberLink’s awesome PhotoDirector 8 Deluxe image editing software, worth £50. This powerful program processes JPEG and RAW images with ease, and can be used to organise pictures, apply key adjustments and make advanced edits, all within its straightforward and intuitive interface. Below, we run through some of the core features that’ll take your images to the next level. We start by importing images, make basic adjustments to correct the colour and exposure, then boost impact by sharpening the details. Finally, we explore the advanced editing options, such as the…

WHAT YOU NEED • Any version of Photoshop or Elements • An image you’d like to add extra depth to with a texture. TEXTURES ARE A QUICK and easy way to instantly add grit and impact to your photos. Pretty much anything can be turned into a texture and you don’t have to venture far to find them either – wooden tables, marble kitchen tops, concrete tiles and crumbling paint on walls are just a few of the sorts of surfaces that make brilliant textures. You can, of course, shoot your own, but to get you started we’re giving away a texture pack, full of 45 A4-sized, high-resolution texture files. You’ll find them all in the Free Gifts folder on your Learn Photography Now disc or download. Just follow the…

Chromatic aberration This is a lens’ failure to focus all wavelengths of light to the same point, causing areas of high contrast to display fringing, usually green or purple. Budget lenses generally suffer worst, and it can be tricky to deal with in post. Blur quality (bokeh) ‘Bokeh’ describes the aesthetic character of the out-of-focus areas, which is very important when shooting portraits. The best lenses are often said to display silky-smooth bokeh, though of course this is strictly subjective. Flare & ghosting The most expensive lenses often have advanced coatings on their elements that cut down on internal reflections, limiting the amount of non image-forming light reaching the sensor. This gives punchier, higher contrast results.…

Biography: Jessica lives in Brighton with her husband and daughter. Having been a pro for 20 years, she now specialises in weddings, bumps, babies and family portraits. She has a BA in fine art and art history, an MFA in fine art media and spends most of her time looking for ‘beautiful ugly, the art in the everyday, the order in chaos’. On switching to Olympus: “Switching to the Olympus system has been a wonderful learning experience. The entire team have been supportive of my work, and more importantly have helped take my work to a new level with the mirrorless system. Olympus’ continued commitment to education is what has really drawn me in. I love having the opportunity to talk to young and aspiring photographers about the changing technology…

1 LOOK FOR COOL LOCATIONS Always be on the lookout for interesting locations. You never know what your next brief entails, so be prepared for the unexpected. I take quick snaps of interesting spots I come across and then keep them in a separate album on my phone for the next time I’m commissioned for a shoot. 2 DON’T OVERSHOOT There really is no point in taking the same photo 100 times. Once you think you’ve got the shot, move onto the next setup. You don’t want to tire out your subject and then have to spend hours going through your images later. 3 DON’T GIVE BAD FEEDBACK Never give negative feedback, as you don’t want the person you’re shooting to lose their confidence. Simply let them experiment with their…

1 24.3MP sensor Sporting the tried and tested third-generation X-Trans sensor and X-Processor Pro engine, the X-E3 offers impressive image quality in each and every shot. 2 Upgraded AF Thanks to a new algorithm, the X-E3’s 395-point phase detection autofocus tracking can lock onto subjects that are twice as fast and half the size when compared to its predecessors. 3 Touch control The D-pad and function buttons are now gone. Instead, all menu control and image review is via the 3in 1040k-dot touchscreen, while AF can easily be controlled via the joystick. 4 pee y selection An X Series staple, the shutter speed dial allows you to select between 1/4000sec-30min. FUJIFILM HAS become a bit of an unstoppable force lately. Not only has it challenged the medium-format market with the…

Camera Buying Guide Unsure about which camera is best for your needs? Our ebook includes reviews, spec and prices for every camera available right now. The latest additions include Fujifilm’s stylish X-E3 mirrorless camera. CyberLink PhotoDirector Download version 8 of this great editing software, compatible with PC and Mac. Photoshop video lessons Enhance your wildlife images in Lightroom, fix converging verticals in your landscapes, and add Hollywood sheen to your best portraits. DOWNLOAD THE DISC CONTENT AT bit.ly/ppdisc1713…

Yashica mirrorless MF In bizarre news, we have heard that Japanese company Yashica (once famed for its film cameras) is planning on releasing a digital medium-format mirrorless camera. It would likely use the same 50MP sensor found in the Hasselblad X1D and Pentax 645. While we’d expect the usual digital staples, such as full autofocus, automatic metering modes and LCD screen, exact details are currently scarce. yashica.com Canon full-frame CSC whispers With recent reports from Nikon indicating it is developing a full-frame mirrorless model, a source says Canon will not be outdone. The market leader is expected to have a full-frame mirrorless camera ready for release in 2018. Although no details exist, we have heard that it will feature a custom-designed sensor which is not currently in use in the…

1 Find a good location Pay as much attention to your location as you would a regular landscape, looking for pleasing curves in the road and impressive scenery. An elevated shooting position also helps. 2 Pick the right settings Depending on the distance that the car has to travel through my shot, I either shoot in Bulb or manual mode. It’s the most effective way to balance the time you need for the cars to pass through the frame with recording the optimum amount of natural light in the landscape. I will shoot anything from 20secs to several minutes for an unbroken streak of light, usually starting out with an aperture of f/9 and ISO 100. 3 Keep it steady Like any long exposure, using a tripod and a remote…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop Lightroom 6 or CC • A wildlife RAW image you’d like to work up like a pro IF YOU’VE EVER shot RAWs you may have noticed that the images come out much flatter than their JPEG equivalents, which usually look bright and vibrant straight out of the camera. Despite this flat appearance, RAW is undoubtedly the superior format because it hasn’t been processed in-camera. RAWs are essentially ‘uncooked’ files, meaning you have to make your own adjustments in RAW editing software such as Lightroom to get the image looking exactly how you want, rather than letting the camera decide how the shot is processed. RAW is an extremely useful tool for wildlife photography, where it’s difficult to finesse your in-camera settings before shooting an image…

WHAT YOU NEED • Photoshop CS5 and above • A low-key portrait with plenty of dark tones and some fairy lights WE ALL LOOK FOR inspiration in the work of others, and sometimes de-constructing images can be a great learning tool to further your own work. One of my current favourites is Brandon Woelfel, a young New York-based photographer who is doing some amazing things with low-key images and colour grading, so I figured out how to edit images in his style in the hopes of adding my favourite parts to my own workflow. A lot of his work is shot underexposed (metering for the highlights), with the details being recovered in Photoshop’s RAW converter, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). After this, he heads to Photoshop and adds extra details, as…

WHAT YOU NEED • A DSLR or CSC • A tripod and a car with a stylish interior • Photoshop or Elements IT LOOKS LIKE A SCENE straight from an epic sci-fi movie, but in fact, this jump-to-lightspeed shot was actually taken in the back of a hatchback in Cambridgeshire. It’s so easy to create these amazing images yourself, you just need to know how. In In this tutorial we’ve outlined every step of the process for you – from the gear you need to camera settings, and then how to bring it all together in Photoshop. You’ll learn how to experiment with shutter speeds to get different lengths of trails through the car windscreen, and then how to build up the effect back at your computer to take your…

PHOTOSHOP & ELEMENTS Dramatically reduce the file size of Photoshop PSD files Photoshop’s PSD format is a great way to save files when you’re working on a project that contains lots of Layers. But having lots of Layers leads to bigger file sizes, and it’s easy to end up with files that are hundreds of megabytes in size. One way to reduce the size of a file without losing any image quality is by switching off the Maximise Compatibility option. With the box ticked, Photoshop creates a larger PSD file that is compatible with all versions of Photoshop, but if you know that you’re only going to be editing on your computer and with your version of Photoshop, then untick this box as it can really reduce the size of…

Manfrotto Pixi Evo £39 Able to support 2.5kg in weight, which is roughly an entry-level DSLR and medium telephoto lens, and extending to 19.5cm in height, the Evo is a very stable option. It folds down to 23cm, so will slip easily into a small camera bag, and it has fully adjustable leg lengths and leg angles. manfrotto.co.uk Manfrotto Befree One £99 Available in red, black and grey, the aluminium Befree One travel tripod with included ball head folds to just 32cm, so will fit inside most camera backpacks. It weighs in at 1.3kg, and boasts a maximum height of 130cm. There are four leg sections, and the tripod will hold up to 2.5kg. manfrotto.co.uk Vanguard VEO 2 265CB £249 This 5-section carbon fibre travel tripod with included ball head…

Vignetting This is where the corners of the frame appear darker than the centre, and it’s mostly seen at the widest aperture settings. By f/8, vignetting is normally negligible. Better quality lenses tend to control the issue better, although it can easily be dealt with in post. Softness Most lenses are fairly sharp in the centre of the frame, but it’s the image corners that really separates the men from the boys. This is especially true at the widest apertures, where on poor-quality glass, the furthest reaches of the frame can appear extremely soft. Distortion Barrel distortion, where straight lines near the edges of the frame bend outwards, is common on wide-angles. Premium lenses tend to be better at controlling it. Pin-cushion distortion, common to telephotos, produces the opposite effect.…

“MY BIG BREAK WAS A JAW-DROPPING MOMENT THAT I’LL NEVER FORGET...” FOR MANY OF US, THE closest we’ll ever get to our favourite musician is when we’re combing through the pages of a music magazine, devouring every word of their interview and poring over the brand new photos that accompany it. So how does it feel to be on the other side of that lens, coaxing something out beyond the subject’s daily public facade? Creating an image that allows an audience to connect with a musician is harder than it looks, but it’s standard fare for Carsten Windhorst, one of the UK’s leading music photographers... How did you become interested in photography? I remember picking up and playing with my parents’ camera as a child. Initially, it was simply just…

In our Camera Know-how series, we cast an expert eye over the ins and outs of your DSLR or CSC’s key features, revealing precisely what they do and how you can make the most of them to boost your photographic skills. In this month’s issue, Ben Davis takes a detailed look at aperture-priority, and explains how you can adjust the size of the opening in your camera’s lens to control the amount of background blur in your images... ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE elements of an image is the depth-of-field. This determines how much of the photo is in focus, and how blurred the rest of the scene outside of this zone of sharpness becomes. The depth-of-field is always controlled by the aperture setting, which dictates the size of the…