Table of contents for October 2021 in Digital Camera Magazine

As this issue went to press, excitement was building for autumn. A sunny but cold spring followed by a damp summer have accelerated the arrival of golden season, and we hear that woodland could be particularly colourful in the south of England. So leave nothing to chance, by turning straight to our cover feature (page 62) to discover how to rustle up your best-ever autumn images. More technique and tips can be found in Photo Active (p18) and Stay at Home (p45), while Camera College (p74) offers an essential guide to mastering black and white photography. This month’s Hotshots (p84) focuses on HIPA’s ‘Humanity’, and there are more images to savour as we interview Harry Benson (p10) and David Doubilet (p136). Moving on to camera and kit reviews, a rush…

HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc247 Enter the URL above 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 (see the examples above). This will take you to a page on our website. STEP 2 START YOUR DOWNLOAD Just click the highlighted link Here you’ll find all the gifts and videos to accompany this issue of Digital Camera. Click on the link labelled Download the disc for Digital Camera 247 and your download will start, delivered from our own secure server. STEP 3 ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the .zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you chose to download your…

For many years I’ve photographed people for fashion purposes; more recently that has taken a side-step into photographing performers, musicians and actors. Portraits are a great way to hone your skills with directing others, but throwing in an extra bit of flare can make an image really stand out amongst the crowd. With the world slowly opening up once again, many events performers are keen for new photographs to publicise their work, and shooting with fire can add some truly eye-popping images to your photography portfolio. It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway): make sure you are working in a safe and controlled environment with professional performers who are fire-trained and safety-savvy – especially if you are shooting with larger costumes, headpieces or props, as these can all…

Mountains were all around me as I grew up, but I never understood the sense of why people go up mountains only to come down again afterwards. Photography gave me a reason to go outside and explore the world. Landscape photography is often about getting up very early, going out in the dark, and being where you want to be at sunrise. I’m not a morning person, but all that pays off as soon as you see the first rays of sun, when it is still completely quiet and you only hear birds chirping. Through landscape photography I’ve had many adventures, met great people and have been able to work with different brands. I have always tried to improve myself, and I think this process never ends. I’ve tried different…

Each time you take a photo, you obviously frame it so that it looks appealing – but how often do you go further with your compositions? In the world of design, from graphics to physical items, timeless principles have evolved that enable designers to make everything they produce attractive and distinctive – and there’s nothing to stop you using some of these principles when you shoot and edit your own photos. Check out some of our suggestions for bringing design to your images below, then take our creative challenge over the page to embrace design in your photos. WHAT YOU’LL NEED • Digital camera, and any lens • Time: Over any period you like! THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX FOR GRAPHIC RESULTS Rotate your view Seeing the world the same way…

Think of weather as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and you’ll be going wrong if you’re looking to capture the moods of the season. Damp days are just as viable as those with bright sunshine – and they may be even more rewarding, given that fewer photographers will be outside to explore the potential. Weather conditions can inspire different creative approaches, too. A wet, leaf-strewn foreground, for example, can be used to set up a multiple-exposure image that combines two or three separate shots into one frame. Set up your camera on a tripod to lock it in position. Provided you don’t change the focus point or exposure settings, you can take several shots – introducing different elements into the frame – and blend the results together in layers in Photoshop. Place…

Delicate spider webs are a must on the to-do list of any aspiring nature photographer. Although finding a good example is relatively easy, having the right conditions for a good shot is another matter. For the strands of the web to stand out, you generally need a coating of dew to thicken the shape and add extra glisten, and some medium-to-strong backlighting. These two elements often coincide on a cloudless, early morning, but with a garden spray and a portable light source, you can recreate the conditions at any time – even in your back yard on an overcast day. PRO TECHNIQUE SHOOT A BACKLIT SPIDER’S WEB 1 ADD YOUR MORNING DEW Find a suitable web, and make sure you have enough room behind it to position a small LED…

When you shoot fireworks, the first thing to consider is composition. If possible, and while it’s daylight, check out where the fireworks will be released. Use the recce to consider how you can give your shot context, whether that is an iconic landmark like the London clock tower that houses Big Ben, or maybe just the crowd, if you’re at a local display. Put your camera on a tripod, because shutter speeds will almost certainly be longer than 10 seconds. You’ll also need to use a remote or cable release to allow safe, vibration-free pressing of the shutter button without any delay. Focusing is tricky in the dark, so switch to manual focus and focus the lens to infinity – the infinity position should be marked on the lens barrel.…

You can choose to record a black-and-white image in-camera, or shoot in colour and go grey later in editing software. The advantage of starting with a colour image is that you get more control over the conversion. You can manipulate individual colours to boost or reduce the contrast between different parts of the picture; and if you don’t like the end result, you can revert back to the original colour image. If you set your camera to mono shooting while you’re recording in JPEG, a black-and-white version of the image will be saved to the memory card. Shoot in raw, however, and you get the best of both worlds: a file that contains all the original colour information so that you can do more sophisticated editing, and the opportunity to…

Shoot in raw Although you can convert a colour JPEG to mono in software, you’ll start with the best-quality file if you record in raw, and you’re less likely to see any artifacts when you make large changes to the colour mix. Choose your style Your camera may have a number of dedicated ‘point-and-shoot’ mono modes, but you’ll have more control over the final look if you select the monochrome picture style or film simulation in your camera. Adjust the parameters Even though parameters such as sharpness, contrast and toning don’t alter the raw file, it’s worth setting these to your preferred mono look so that you get an accurate preview image. You should be able to save this ‘look’. It’s playback time Some cameras give you the option of…

1st Place, Portfolio ‘Above The Polar Regions’ Florian Ledoux, France “The Arctic and Antarctica are both facing a range of quick changes. These regions are clearly challenging places to live, and the few animals that make it their home have adapted to face the extreme winter conditions. This series reveals and celebrates, from an aerial point of view, the beauty of the incredible frozen landscapes and the wildlife living at the edge of the ice.” Grand Winner, Humanity ‘Duty’ Ary Bassous, Brazil “Dr Juliana Ribeiro has just taken off her protective gear for lunch, after eight hours of continuous work in the Covid-19 emergency room. Clear signs of prolonged and repeated use of this type of equipment appear on her face. Her features reflect great effort and extreme fatigue due to the…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Color Lookup Tables have been available in Photoshop for a while, but they’re often overlooked as a tonal tool. This may be because they’re thought of primarily as a means for colour-grading video footage in software like Premiere Pro. But they can also be handy for editing stills, especially in combination with Profiles. Referred to as LUTs for short, a Color Lookup Table is a means of remapping colours in your image so that, say, a deep red becomes a dull pink instead. Imagine all the colours in an image written as a list or, as the name suggests, a table. Then imagine each colour in the…

The latest photography news from around the globe 1 FUJIFILM GFX 50S II Priced under £4,000/$4,000, this 51.4MP mediumformat camera feels like terrific value. 2 FUJINON GF35-70mm f/4.5-5.6 WR This new lens is available in a kit with the GFX 50S II, or standalone from November 2021. Priced well below the £4,000 barrier, the Fujifilm GFX 50S II surely cements the brand’s position as purveyor of mediumformat photography to the masses. Housed in the same lightweight and compact weather-sealed magnesium alloy body as its GFX 100S sibling, the GFX 50S II packs a 51.4MP medium-format sensor powering a X-Processor 4 image processing engine. Topping the GFX 50S II’s feature set are a DSLRstyle PASM control dial with six customisable settings, an flat AF joystick that’s designed to be more tactile…

Five additional pieces of evergreen camera kit have been inducted into The Photo and Video Kit Hall of Fame Class of 2021. The awards, launched by MPB, the world’s largest online platform for used photography and videography equipment, is now in its second year. Digital Camera’s very own Rod Lawton had a hand in drawing up the shortlist, which was then put to a public vote. The indomitable Canon EOS 5D Mark III was voted Classic inductee, while there was also well-deserved recognition for the Nikon D850 (Road Tested) and the Sony A7 III (Trendsetter). DJI’s Mavic 2 Pro camera drone took the Game Changer gong, while its lens partner Hasselblad won the Iconic inductee category for its 501C. photoandvideokithalloffame.com…

Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews & techniques Sony and Nikon were the big winners in the EISA Awards 2021-2022. And while Canon collected several trophies, other major brands Olympus and Panasonic didn’t feature. Comprising a collection of photographic, video and audio magazines, EISA stands for The Expert Imaging and Sound Association and its awards are intended a guide for specialist consumers. The Canon EOS R5 was crowned Premium Camera, and the Fujifilm GFX 100S took the award for Professional Camera. Advanced Camera was bestowed on the Nikon Z 6II and its sibling the Z 5 was recognised as the Best Buy Camera (Full Frame). The APS-C Best Buy camera went to Fujifilm’s X-S10, while the Sony A7 S III was Photo/Video Camera. And there was more good…

How do you come up with the ideas for your projects? Although I usually photograph people I haven’t met before, my impetus for shooting a body of work usually comes from personal experience and interests. Having grown up with four dogs in my childhood home, I’ve always been drawn to animals. How do you approach shooting people with animals? These pictures are primarily about the extraordinary bond between people and animals, so I usually try to photograph a person with an animal that they are especially close to. I try to reveal that intimacy in the photographs. Do you prefer to work in colour or black and white? I was a black-and-white photographer for 25 years. Then I started to notice that I was more interested in the work of…

www.nikon.co.uk With the likes of Fujifilm, Olympus and Leica cashing in on the retro camera style for years, the time has come (again) for Nikon to follow suit, this time in the form of the Nikon Z fc. We say ‘again’ because it wasn’t so long ago when Nikon tried the same thing, with the Df in 2013. However, while the Df was was a full-frame DSLR camera, the new Z fc is an APS-C Z-mount mirrorless model. The Z fc is also specced to be a better all-round camera than the Df ever was, in an effort to make it just as versatile as its conventionally styled rivals, only with more visual appeal. Anyone who remembers the Df will spot similar styling cues on the new Z fc. It…

Most macro prime lenses have a maximum magnification ratio of 1.0x or 1:1. This means that, at their shortest focus distance, they can reproduce objects at full life-size on the camera’s image sensor. Something measuring just 36 x 24mm would completely fill the image sensor of a full-frame camera, and it’s just around 22 x 15mm or 17 x 13mm if you’re shooting with an APS-C body or an Micro Four Thirds body respectively. Bear in mind how much larger an image is when you view it on-screen or in print, compared with the size of the camera’s sensor, and the scope for enlargement is incredible. Tiny garden bugs can look like giant creatures, and you can see levels of detail that are invisible to the naked eye. Let’s take…

Lens mounts See table Sigma’s 150mm macro lens was a good performer but has been discontinued, clearing the stage for this Irix full-frame-compatible newcomer. It’s an imposing lens that weighs in at 840g, and comes with a tripod collar. The build quality and finish are impeccable, based on high-quality optical elements and a weather-sealed magnesium alloy barrel. The 1.0x macro working distance is longer than with any other lens on test, at 17.5cm. Like the Samyang macro lens, the Irix is a strictly manual-focus affair, but includes all the necessary electronics for camera-driven aperture control and viewfinder focus indicator lamps. Performance The long-travel focus ring operates smoothly. However, ultra-fine adjustments for macro shooting are more fiddly than with the Samyang lens. Image quality is excellent. Sharpness Unusually, sharpness across the…

Lens mount Micro Four Thirds The Micro Four Thirds system is sometimes criticised for its relatively small image sensor. However, the crop factor not only boosts telephoto reach but gives you double the effective magnification of a full-frame camera. As such, this Olympus lens gives you an effective 2.0x maximum magnification. The lens is beautifully engineered and features a set of weather seals. Although the comparatively short 60mm focal length knocks about 10cm off the minimum focus distance, the macro working distance from the front of the lens to the subject only shrinks from about 14cm to 10cm, compared with most 90-105mm macro optics. Performance High-precision manual focusing is enabled by the electronically coupled focus ring. Image quality is very good in all respects. Sharpness The Olympus resolves more fine…

Lens mounts Canon EF, Nikon F, Sigma Launched in 2011, this optically stabilised fullframe-compatible macro lens predates Sigma’s ‘Global Vision’ Art, Sports and Contemporary line-up by a year. With fast ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and a fully internal focusing arrangement, complete with a range limiter switch that can lock out near or far focusing, the lens works well as a fast telephoto prime. It’s also good for shooting sports and wildlife, with a four-stop stabilizer that has switchable static and panning modes. Performance Corner-sharpness is merely mediocre at wide aperture settings, but that’s no real problem in macro photography, where you’ll generally use narrow apertures to gain even a little depth of field in your shot. Handling is excellent, and the lens delivers superb all-round image quality. Sharpness Sharpness is excellent…

Harry Benson Photojournalist He may have immortalised many of the icons of modern times, but Harry’s latest book is a collection of images of Sir Paul McCartney. Find out more on page 10 Amy Lathrope-Reid Equine photographer Her last outing in Digital Camera revealed how Amy captures her signature horse photos. This time, she turns her talents to an eyecatching creative shoot. Page 24 Jon Devo Photographer and writer Jon enjoys celebrating the upsides of ever-improving camera tech, but wonders if social media is driving photographers to produce images with less impact. Page 116 Jackie Webster Newborns photographer Creating distinctive and original images of newborn babies requires more than just photography skills. Jackie takes you behind the scenes of a shoot on page 38 Sage Sohier Photographer Having photographed people…

Levitation images never fail to be eye-catching, but they’re easier to create than you think. Set your camera and lens on a tripod as low to the ground as possible. Place your model in the middle of the frame and focus on them using manual focus. Mark the ground where the model was, so they know the spot to return to. Now remove your model from the frame and shoot the scene with no props or models. Next, place your model back in the frame where the floor marker is and get them into the desired position. To ensure that your subject stands out from the frame, use a location that has a relatively clear background and isn’t too busy. indyequinephotography.co.uk Model: Sophie Seymour Correct clothing As it will need…

Building a collection of photographs is achieved by being a creature of habit. You can create your own collection of fine-art images. Just think of a topic, like the car parking spaces that documentary photographer Martin Parr shot for a book. Clouds are different every day, so are a great subject for starting your own collection. With different colours and compositions, the possibilities are endless. Ranging from dark and moody to bright blues, there is some amazing imagery you can capture. If you want to produce large prints, make sure you are set up to capture the largest-possible file size. Try varying your shots by using different lenses such as telephotos and wide-angles. You can capture otherworldly shots when the sun is behind clouds, illuminating edges of cloud formations, or…

1 Safety comes first Safety is by far the most important factor in newborn photography. You must get properly trained about how to hold, pose and spot danger signs. Getting trained in a paediatric first-aid course is a great start, and insurance is essential. For safety reasons there are usually hands on the baby most of the time, which are edited out later. 2 Create a personal experience Having great communication with the parents before the session makes everything go much more smoothly. Get to know them, find out their style and the colours in their home. From these discussions you can decide the style and approach for your newborn session. 3 Go with the flow Choosing the colour scheme helps you pick the best props to use to give…

FREE camera bag worth £ 70! (RRP) Get this great Vanguard camera bag by subscribing today at: www.magazinesdirect.com/dcm/range32 or call 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘BM24’ Make sure you use this URL or quote the code on the phone: other offers are available that do not include the camera bag gift * Offer closes 14 October 2021. Offer open to new UK subscribers only. Pricing is guaranteed for the first 12 months and we will notify you in advance of any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). Your gift will be delivered separately within 60 days after your first payment has cleared. Gifts only available to subscribers on the UK mainland. Gift not available with a…

When we take a photo using our digital cameras, our photos are recorded using the RGB (red-green-blue) colour model. Since our computer screens also produce colours in RGB, we essentially see the same colours on our computer monitors that we see on our camera’s LCD screen. However, it is possible to execute a little trick to give your images a multi-colour effect as seen with this image of a boiling kettle (opposite). It’s called the Harris effect after Robert S Harris, who invented the look while at Kodak. The trick is to take several images while some elements within the scene move and others remain static. In this example, the movement occurs in the boiling water. If we take several shots of the kettle, the water and the steam will…

1 ‘Singing in the Wind’ by Alan Dean “At Burton Mere, just as I was about to pack up, an elusive reed warbler popped up in the reeds and started singing.” Digital Camera says: Classic use of the rule of thirds, leaving plenty of ‘looking space’ for the warbler to the right. 2 ‘After the Rain’ by Christine Cheesewright “A dandelion ‘clock’ edited with various Photoshop filters.” Digital Camera says: The natural blending of the background light complements the subject well. 3 ‘Earl of Harold Obelisk’ by Jakub Kopczyk “This was taken on my Sony Alpha 7 III with a Zeiss 16-35mm f/4 lens set up on a tripod and fired with a remote trigger while I flew a drone with two LED lights around the tip of an obelisk.…

Bright, crisp autumn mornings are perfect for contre-jour shooting. Contre-jour is French: a literal translation means shooting ‘against the day’, but it’s easier to think of it as shooting into the light. Rather than having the sun behind the camera, position it so it’s pointing directly at the sun. To do this successfully, it’s best to pick the first (or last) hour of the day, when the sun is low. Metering when the sun is in the shot is always tricky, but not impossible. Select your camera’s multi-pattern metering mode (Evaluative or Matrix) and set up your composition. Try to mask some of the sun behind a tree trunk or branch, so you are slightly dampening its intensity and reducing the chance of flare. We want the sun to appear…

Understanding a little about colour theory can help introduce extra impact in your shots, because if you combine two complementary colours in a scene, you create maximum colour contrast and achieve a bold visual separation between them. The easiest way to understand colour theory is to see how the primary colours of light – red, green and blue – are opposed by the secondary colours of cyan, magenta and yellow. With these six colours in our mental artist’s palette, we can establish that shots featuring strong red-cyan, green-magenta or blue-yellow content will have a real sense of impact. In the shot above, for example, the reason the colours work so well is that the yellow leaves are opposed by the blue sky. USE A POLARISER Polarising filters are often used…

To blur motion in a scene, all you require is a slow shutter speed. ‘Slow’ isn’t a very precise word when it comes to dialling in camera settings, but for a stream flowing through the woods, around 1/2 sec or slower should be sufficient to turn the motion of ripples and cascades into streaks and indistinct shapes. You may need up to two seconds if it’s a slow-moving stream, but it’s unlikely you’ll need any longer than that. The problem is, if you handhold a shot with a shutter speed this slow, camera shake will turn everything into a blur! For that reason, a tripod is essential. You want to keep all non-moving areas of your shot pin-sharp, so only the water is captured as a blur. To get your…

What is Continuous Shooting? It’s a drive mode that allows your camera to shoot a series – often referred to as a burst – of images in very rapid succession. When would I use it? As a general rule, you’d use it to capture a series of images of something that happens really fast, such as a bird taking off, or an athlete running at speed. You may not need all the images, but one of the frames could be better than all the rest. How fast does a camera take the sequence? This depends on the camera’s frame rate. For example, Nikon’s Z 5 has a frame rate of approximately 4.5 frames per second (fps), whereas Nikon’s D500 has a much faster high speed rate of 10.7fps. It also…

This compact all-rounder has been given some appealing updates. While the X-T30 II is based around the same 26.1MP X-Trans sensor as its forebear, it now offers the same AF tracking performance and face/eye detection as Fujifilm’s X-T4. And in the the only visible difference between the X-T30 II and the X-T30, the X-T30 II gets a high-res 1.62 million dot LCD screen. The X-T30 II will be available body only, or in a choice of two kits. www.fujifilm.co.uk; £769/$899 (body only); £849/$999 (XC 15-45mm kit); £1,099/$1,299 (XF18-55mm kit)…

Covering an effective focal range of 27-450mm in full-frame terms, this 16.6x zoom from Tamron will do the job of a standard zoom and a telephoto zoom combined. The optical design comprises three hybrid aspherical elements and four LD (low dispersion) lens elements, which Tamron says will produce the best image quality in its class. Other features of the 18-300 mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD include vibration compensation (VC), weather seals and a moisture-resistant fluorine coating on the front element. The new optic will debut on Sony’s E-mount, with a Fujifilm X version to follow later in the year. www.tamron.eu; £679.99/$699…

www.ricoh-imaging.eu The K-3 Mark III is the latest in a long line of Pentax DSLRs, and we’re always glad to see any new Pentax model. It’s a reminder that DSLRs are still relevant – and that Canon and Nikon are not the only camera manufacturers still making them. The Pentax DSLR range has often been confusing, however. The fullframe K-1 and its K-1 Mark II successor are straightforward enough, but Pentax’s APS-C DSLRs have come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and series. Before the K-3 Mark III, we’d regarded the K-P, now discontinued, as the flagship. Further down the scale we have the five-year-old K-70, which is still available and, oddly, has a more contemporary feel than the K-3 III (on-sensor phase-detect AF, variangle screen). There have also been…

Lens mounts Canon EF Although Canon’s hybrid image stabiliser has been inherited by the company’s newer macro lenses, it was this lens that hit the headlines. With enhanced performance for close-up shooting, the stabiliser counteracts x-y shift (movement in the horizontal and vertical planes) as well as the more usual angular vibrations. Even so, its effectiveness shrinks from four stops to two at shorter focus distances. Weather-sealed build quality is typically robust for an L-series lens. The ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system is rapid and whisper-quiet, while focusing is smooth and precise. Performance Sharpness is excellent at medium to narrow apertures, and remains highly impressive wide-open at f/2.8. Colour fringing is minimal, but barrel distortion can be slightly noticeable if uncorrected in-camera. Sharpness Excellent sharpness is present at narrow apertures, often…

Lens mounts See table There are two very similar editions of this full-framecompatible Laowa lens, catering to DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Both give twice the maximum macro magnification of most macro primes, at 2.0x. The mirrorless version is 30mm longer and has a more well-rounded aperture, based on 13 diaphragm blades rather than seven. The Laowa is a manual-focus lens, but only the Canon EF mount version has any electronics. In other cases, you need to set the aperture manually via the onboard control ring, and no lens-based metadata is recorded in image files. Performance The manual effort required pays dividends, with superb sharpness and a minimum of colour fringing. There’s a little pincushion distortion, but not enough to cause any concern. Sharpness Sharpness is excellent and highly consistent across…

Lens mounts See table Many of us prefer to focus manually for macro shooting. The depth of field tends to be so tiny that you’ll often need to be very selective. However, this Samyang lens isn’t just a manual-focus optic, but generally lacks any electronics at all. The exception is the Nikon-fit version, which enables aperture adjustment from the camera. A problem when you use the lens on a DSLR (apart from Nikon) is that the viewfinder image becomes dark with narrow apertures, the preferred option for macro shooting. However, the lens works a treat in Live View mode, or with mirrorless cameras. Performance Typical of manual-focus lenses, the focus ring has long rotational travel and operates with silky smoothness. It’s ideal for making precise adjustments in macro shooting. Image…

Lens mounts Canon EF, Nikon F Tamron’s highly popular line of 90mm macro lenses stretches back to 1979. The latest edition comes with a host of updates, including a revised and refined optical layout that features two top-grade XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) elements. The updated lens also gains weather seals and a fluorine coating on the front element. Another notable upgrade is that Tamron has also added a ‘hybrid’ Vibration Compensation system. This corrects for x-y shift as well as the more usual angular vibration, making it more effective for close-up shooting. Performance drops from four stops to about two at fairly close range, though. Performance Lab scores for sharpness are good, based on our medium-range charts. However, the Tamron proved excellent at short range, down to the minimum distance…

9 ALL-NEW TIPS CARDS Our collectable shooting tips cards enable you to carry handy settings and suggestions around in your kit bag. This issue, get wallet-sized advice on autumn portraits, dramatic deer, seasonal skies and our seven-day design challenge. NEW-LOOK TIPS CARDS! ✔ 9 subjects ✔ Techniques ✔ Settings ✔ Kit list 32 light leak effects for Photoshop CC Our light leak templates help you add an authentic retro feel to any photo. Grab the effects from the Gifts folder in this issue’s download, then see page 98 for Jon Adams’ guide to blending them with your photos, plus more tips for retro-style images. Create retro photos! Buyer’s Guide ebook Over 250 pages of camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download.…

10 things you can shoot this month, from autumn leaves and newborns to creative levitation images In 2013 I bought my first camera, a Nikon D3200 in red with a 18-55mm kit lens. I bought it because I wanted to take photos of my newborn daughter and teach myself a new skill. I later took that camera on a trip to Chester Zoo: it was incredible! I developed a love for photographing animals. However, later that year I had to sell everything due to finances surrounding my mortgage. It wasn’t until around five years later that I bought a camera again, after being asked to shoot a family wedding, and that was the start of my career. I am now a full-time wedding photographer, who adores escaping to the outdoors…

The Iris Blur filter in Photoshop is a great tool for anyone who wants to add some blur and softening around their subject. It basically allows you to simulate a shallow depth-of-field effect in your image, making it look as if you had been shooting using a wide aperture setting when you took the photo. Iris Blur is particularly useful in portrait images to help make the subject stand out, but can also work well with still-life when you want to emphasise an object. The Iris Blur tool is instinctive to use and requires minimal Photoshop skills. When you are making any adjustments to your image in Photoshop using the Iris Blur filter, first duplicate the Background Layer. That way if you go wrong or want to use a Layer…

Back in 2014, I took up photography after attending an afternoon course. It really seduced me, so I decided to start my job as a professional photographer in art and advertising photography. In order to improve my technique and to create my art portfolio, I initially travelled very often (especially in Europe). In 2015, I won a photo contest in France organised by SanDisk. From there I submitted my best images to international competitions such as the International Photography Awards, Moscow IPA, Tokyo IPA, Monovisions, Monochrome Awards, Umbra IPA, ND Awards, Fine Art IPA, PX3 Paris… Architectural art photography is for me the opportunity to sublimate the achievements of talented designers. I photograph with a personal angle – what I like visually, instinctively – whether it is architecture, landscapes, urban…

The telephoto zoom has become a camera bag staple for wildlife and sports photographers. It’s prized for its convenience and versatility – one lens can do it all. But in addition to capturing faithful reproductions of far-away subjects, a telephoto zoom can also be used for creative applications. This project uses the focal range of a telephoto to turn you into an artist with your lens. It’s about using movement to capture vibrant colours in a different perspective, and creating an abstract view within a photograph. You will learn a fresh way to portray everyday objects and scenes, using slow shutter speeds and moving around with the camera. Telephoto lenses come in a variety of focal ranges, with 70-200mm models being particularly popular with enthusiast and pro photographers. For this…

Autumn is the season photography was invented for. It extends from the tail end of summer greenery right through to frosty mornings; within those boundaries, a vast range of seasonal moods and experiences is just waiting to be captured by your lens. To make the most of autumn’s awesome photogenic display, you have to be on the ball and ready to capture events as they happen, with an eye on the forecast and your camera kit at the ready. Here we suggest 10 great projects anyone can try, regardless of the equipment you have or your experience in using it. Follow us on our journey through the many moods of the season, and capture a portfolio of colour, energy and atmosphere. We often think of autumn as the short period…

Autumn is a great time of year for shooting portraits, especially when you use seasonal props and colours to make your picture pop. The key is to use a wide aperture such as f/2.8 or f/4 for your shot, limiting sharp focus to the eyes and allowing any background to diffuse. A focal length of around 80mm is perfect for portraiture: it gives you a flattering perspective on your subject. Also try to keep the tones complementary; that includes hats, and even your model’s makeup. USE A REFLECTOR A reflector to bounce light back onto your subject, creating catchlights in the eyes, is one of the most useful accessories you can own. The ability to ‘move’ light this way and alter its quality has a dramatic effect on your results.…

While autumn might be the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, it’s also the season of death – as frosts, followed by storms, start to strip the trees of their leaves. Green leaves that were once supple and flexible become dried up as they start to die – but this is when they look really interesting. Whether they’re still holding some of the brighter colours they transitioned through, or they’re taking on a darker, more earthy hue, their textures make for fascinating images. Hunt around the woods for a collection of different autumnal leaves in various stages of decay, and you’ll quickly arm yourself with enough subjects for an afternoon’s indoor still-life photography. Give them a few days to dry out and the textures and patterns will become even more…

We tend to think of autumn as a sombre, moody season, but there’s a lot of fun to be had, too – especially when you introduce children and pets into your seasonal shots. At this time of year, the weather can be even more unpredictable than normal, so it’s best to have your photo subjects lined up and ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. Ideally, you want dry but bright conditions. Choose your shoot location well in advance. You want somewhere with a lot of space, autumnal colour and plenty of naturally occurring props, such as piles of colourful leaves. Children should be dressed warmly, but in clothes that allow them to scramble about and have fun, as this is the key to a successful shoot. Whenever…

With over a decade’s experience as a writer and photographer, James is also an accomplished image editor – and an expert in Affinity Photo. SPONSORED BY Affinity Photo’s Develop Persona offers a great deal of control over black-and-white conversions. It’s geared towards raw photos, and appears automatically whenever you open a raw file in Affinity Photo. Any edit you make here can be altered at any point, and is only committed once you click the Develop button in the top left. This means you can make a series of adjustments to enhance different areas of the black-and-white image, then balance them to work in harmony with one another. It might seem obvious, but it’s worth remembering that when colour is removed, an image is reduced to shades of grey. Objects…

Jon is a professional photographer and writer. He also provides one-to-one and smallgroup tuition in both digital SLR and Photoshop image-editing skills. In this age of instant, one-click smartphone filters that apply an indiscriminate effect to a picture, it’s a real joy to take a little extra time to customise your shots when you want to take a different creative direction. Retro and lo-fi finishes allow you to wind the clock back a few decades, but a homogenous effect will seldom offer the discerning photographer the control and fine-tuning that considered shots require. Light leaks – a ‘happy accident’ that fogged the film by inadvertently exposing it to light – can give a real sense of age to any modern shot. In this issue’s download, we have 32 different effects…

James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. WATCH THE VIDEO! Blur can be the result of many things in photography – most often poor focusing or depth-of-field mistakes. Paradoxically, it can also be used as a creative tool at both the shooting and editing stages of the image-making process – after buying the best lenses you can afford to maximise control of depth-of-field, image quality and overall sharpness, it’s understandable that adding blur to images will feel counter-intuitive. Applying blur effects in post-production is a great way to change the overall look and feel of perfectly sharp and well-focused images, as well as to mimic the effect of certain types of lenses that you may…

It’s a dark and dismal day down by the canal, and this image has been underexposed by as much as one stop, so we’re losing detail in the shadows and the overall image is flat. The good news is, it’s easy to rescue! In Lightroom Classic, we’ll start with some global changes 1. Open the Basic Panel and push Exposure to +50 and Shadows to +25. Now we need to make some local changes, so we’ll select an Adjustment Brush and run it along the length of the towpath 2, then push Highlights to 65 and Exposure to 0.25. With the same brush we can lighten the canal water, too, although we may need to reduce the Exposure setting slightly. With a new Adjustment Brush, let’s pull out some more…

Go to www.digitalcameraworld.com for the latest news, reviews & techniques Fujifilm has also unveiled a pair of new prime lenses for its APS-C sensor XF cameras. An updated optic, the Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR is equivalent to 35mm in full-frame terms and offers fast and silent AF with a linear motor, nine rounded aperture blades and weather resistance. Weighing just 375g, it will go on sale in November, for £819/$899. Sitting alongside the existing XF 35mm f/1.4, the XF 33mm f/1.4 R LM WR offers the same angle of view as a 50mm on a full-frame camera and weighs 360g. Optical construction comprises 15 elements in five groups, and AF is handled by a linear motor. The new lens will cost £699/$799 when it goes on sale…

Complementing its existing Lee100 filter system, the new Z 14-24mm holder is larger than a regular Lee100 holder, to cover the frontal diameter of the Z 14-24mm and fit its extra-large 112mm filter thread without causing vignetting. The new holder comes in a kit with quick-change filter frames to allow the use of existing 100 x 100mm and 100 x 150mm filters; visual “smart alignment” markings aid accurate positioning of the holder on the lens. www.leefilters.com; £149.99/$188…

A true go-anywhere light source, the One weighs just 1.5kg (3.3lb), is a similar size to a 70-200mm lens and features extensive weather protection. Built around an internal Li-ion rechargeable battery, the unit can be recharged from any USB-C power source. Although its maximum light output is quoted at a relatively low 131 Ws, Elinchrom states that actual measured light output from the One is equivalent to the illumination from most 200+ Ws flashes. To boost light output and enhance beam spread, the One’s flash tube is unconcealed, and can also be fitted with Elinchrom’s new OCF modifier mount. www.elinchrom.com; from £799/$949 (single flash kit)…

www.fujifilm.co.uk Medium-format lenses are always going to seem oversized when compared with an APS-C or even a full-frame lens. This is unavoidable: the image circle of a medium-format system needs to be that much bigger, to cover the sensor area. This means more glass, a larger diameter and, in turn, more weight. This naturally drives up the price – and with it the certain expectations that premium product buyers will have. Fujifilm lenses rarely disappoint when it comes to build quality and user experience. There is no doubt that this medium-format lens does carry some bulk, but when the GF 80mm f/1.7 is attached to the front of a Fujifilm GFX camera, it is perfectly balanced. Performance When you are building lenses for use with cameras equipped with north of…

Lens mount Canon RF Breaking new ground, Canon’s RF 100mm is a 1.4x macro lens that features autofocus, and it’s a fast AF system as well, based on a Dual Nano USM system. It’s not only super-speedy for stills, but enables smooth and virtually silent autofocus transitions when you shoot video. The hybrid optical image stabiliser delivers five-stop performance in general shooting, boosted to eight stops if used with later EOS R-series cameras that feature in-body stabilisation. Another key feature is the Spherical Aberration control ring, which enables you to adjust the quality of defocused areas for better bokeh. Performance Levels of sharpness are scintillating, although not quite as astonishing as from the Nikkor Z-mount lens on test, while control over colour fringing isn’t quite as outstanding. Sharpness It’s superb…

Lens mount Nikon Z Nikon’s F-mount 105mm macro lens has been completely reinvented for mirrorless cameras. Handling extras include a customisable control ring and lens-function button, plus a multi-function OLED display. The autofocus system is virtually silent, powered by a Dual-Motor Multi-Focus STM system. The optical Vibration Reduction system is rated at 4.5 stops compared with the three of the older F-mount 105mm lens; that effectiveness is boosted by any Z-series cameras with in-body stabilisation. Performance The lens puts its mighty feature list and handling prowess to good use, delivering stellar performance in all respects. The autofocus system is super-fast and deadly accurate, while manual focusing is ultra-precise. Image quality is simply spectacular. Sharpness Sharpness is epic from the centre of the frame right out to the extreme corners. Fringing…

Lens mounts L-Mount, Sony E Unlike some of Sigma’s DG HSM lenses that have been repurposed to fit L-Mount and Sony E mirrorless bodies, this DG DN lens is all-new. The build quality is excellent and features extensive weather seals, as well as a fluorine coating on the front element. Handling finery includes a customisable function button. There’s also an aperture control ring, complete with a ‘click on/off’ switch. This enables precise aperture adjustments for stills in one-third f/stop increments. There’s no optical image stabiliser, but the lens can take advantage of the in-body stabilisation of recent Sony and Panasonic mirrorless cameras. Performance Autofocus is fast, accurate and near-silent, while manual focusing is precise. Image quality is fabulous and, for levels of sharpness, it eases ahead of the older Sigma…

The three standout lenses in this group are the new Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, Canon’s RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM and Sigma’s 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art. They’re all feature-rich in different ways, and deliver spectacular image quality and all-round performance. The Nikkor Z 105mm edges ahead for sharpness, especially in the all-important medium to narrow aperture range for macro shooting. The Sigma is a great buy for L-Mount and Sony E cameras. The Tamron 90mm is a cracking macro lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. For our money, it edges ahead of the own-brand Canon EF and Nikon F mount macro lenses for DSLRs. The Sigma Macro 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM is a better value buy in the UK and Europe, but…