Table of contents for September 2019 in Digital Camera Magazine

Lauren Scott discovers Sunprint paper and develops some nature-inspired cyanotypes 10 things to shoot, edit or create this month, from stormy seascapes to fun feline face-swaps The historic cyanotype process was used well into the 20th century as a simple and cheap way to produce copies of drawings and photos, known as blueprints. In this project we’ll be ditching the digital camera and replicating this bold cyanotype process using specialised paper (the brand we used was called Sunprint) that has already been coated with light-sensitive chemicals. The paper is both safe and fun, and can be used to make ‘sun art’ using leaves, flowers or any other objects you choose. Those with a recognisable outline tend to work best. To make a Sunprint, you place the object on the paper,…

Acclaimed equine photographer Matthew Seed is a horse lover, and the perfect candidate to help judge this year’s Brooke Photo Competition. Matthew will also be taking one lucky winner on a one-day masterclass, with the loan of a Hasselblad camera. The Brooke charity contest is open to amateurs and pros alike, both within and outside of the UK. There’s a £10 donation to enter, which will go towards improving the lives of hard-working horses, donkeys and mules – and the people who depend on them – around the world. There are two categories to enter (photos taken with a smartphone or tablet, and photos taken with a camera), and it doesn’t matter whether the main equine subjects are your own animals or those found in the wild. The two categories…

The black and white medium and the portrait genre go hand in hand. Often the monochromatic finish is used for more flattering results (it eliminates skin blemishes) and to also reduce distractions. For our monthly shooting challenge, we would like you to go out and capture a great black and white portrait of whoever you like! Think about your subject and how they are going to appear in the frame. Are they young or old, human or animal? Do you want a candid approach or controlled setup? There are many different routes out there that you can go down, so pick the one that’s right for you. The processing of your image will be just as important as taking it. With black and white, you want to take care to…

While we might all gaze longingly and with wonder at the night sky from time to time, fewer of us have the patience and technical know-how to take striking pictures of it. Photographing phenomena such as the northern lights is a specialist pursuit, and so this issue we’ve enlisted the expertise of a real pro in the field – Ollie Taylor, a workshop leader and photographer who shares advice from years of capturing images after dark. Ollie started out as a travel and landscape photographer more than 15 years ago in the UK, but quickly became renowned for his nightscapes and astrophotography. He now spends up to eight months a year on the road, waiting at locations for days and nights until the right conditions materialise – clear night skies,…

When your location is right and you’ve seen a strong indication for an aurora display, priming your camera is the next step. First, when shooting at night take the brightness of the LCD screen on your camera down to its lowest brightness setting, so you’re able to use it without suffering from glare. Whatever lens you use, remove all your filters, as they can decrease the light hitting the sensor and also create unwanted casts that are impossible to remove when editing. Switch your camera to Manual mode, lens to manual mode and move the focus ring to infinity (many lenses have an infinity icon on the lens barrel). Great aurora shots come from letting in as much light as possible, which means a low f-number and greatly boosted ISO.…

Often a really well thought-out and executed image will take me some time to edit in sky-stacking software, and then by using Adjustment Layers and Luminosity Masks in Photoshop. I devised an easier workflow to teach on my workshops, though. This involves boosting the image slightly in Lightroom with the basic sliders, adding a little brushwork when required, then some noise reduction and vignette removal (although many nightscapers actually prefer to add a little vignette). I always teach photographers the advantage of refocusing for the foreground and shooting a long exposure at lower ISOs for a cleaner foreground. Once some noise reduction has been added to the image used for the sky with this method, the two are then blended together manually through a basic Layer Mask in Photoshop; this…

Set the file type and image quality in your camera’s main menu, or via its quick-control screen.…

JPEGs from your camera actually start out as raw files, but they’re converted and compressed into JPEGs by the camera before being saved to the memory card. As raw files are saved without being processed, they contain more detail than JPEGs. They also have a wider dynamic range – that is, they hold more detail in the shadows and highlights – than the histogram on the back of the camera suggests. This is because the histogram is based on the image that you see (which is a JPEG representation of the raw file). It might suggest that the highlights have received too much light and are overexposed or the shadows are too dark, but these areas may still contain detail in the raw file. To get a histogram that is…

CEWE Photo Award The CEWE Photo Award is free to enter, and open to anyone over 18, whether you’re a keen amateur photographer entering your first contest or an already established professional. With 10 unique categories to enter, there’s nowhere better to share your work with the world. https://cewe-photoworld.com/cewephotoaward…

After you’ve taken a shot in raw format, loading it up into Photoshop will launch Adobe Camera Raw, and give you a rather flat-looking file that’s similar to the way the shot appeared on the camera’s LCD screen. This is the default file, taken straight off the camera’s sensor, without any alterations to the white balance, colour, contrast or sharpening. If it were a meal, it would be the basic ingredients, thrown unceremoniously onto a bland plate and dumped in front of you! To breathe life into a raw file, you don’t just need to cook the ingredients; you need to add the right seasoning, herbs and spices to make it taste good. The thing is, because there are so many options for styling up a visual treat, this isn’t…

Making interior shots look exciting isn’t always easy, especially if the architecture is utilitarian. While there’s no denying that beauty can be found in the mundane, with just a little Photoshop prowess you can take control of the overall appearance of an interiors shot to inject it with a much more interesting look and feel. This image is simply a corridor in a self-storage building. While the angle of the camera and use of lines work together to draw the eye into the image, there’s plenty of room to make the image look even more dynamic using light, motion and colour. Using these three editing approaches, the aim is to maintain a pleasingly natural photographic quality with the effects so that the image doesn’t end up looking over processed and…

Mixing it up Can I mix white balances together in a single image when I post-process my raws? Lesley Howe Indeed you can, Lesley – and doing so can sometimes really enhance a shot. As you’ll know, when you decide on the white balance to use in-camera, you have a colour temperature that’s set for the whole image. On most occasions, this is absolutely fine and will give you the result you want. But sometimes, playing around with the colour temperature on different parts of a scene will give you a better end result. You can do this in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw by using one of the localised adjustment tools, such as an Adjustment Brush, a Graduated Filter or a Radial Filter. The best way to explain why…

I thought I’d seen it all by now, but the postman’s path to Culnacraig passes over some of the steepest ground I’ve yet encountered. If there wasn’t a path bidding me to keep going, I’d have turned back. I later found out there have been several rescues of people stranded or injured here. I’m heading into Coigach and Assynt where the isolated mountains of Suilven and Quinag rise steeply from flat moorland like totems in the landscape. For three nights in a row, sunset appears with a glowing intensity as I’ve never seen before. The entire sky is glowing vivid red and pink with the mountains burning fire orange. Holding my hand into the sunlight, it glows gold as if illuminated by a gelled spotlight in a theatre. Previewing the…

www.canon.co.uk Canon’s heavily revamped Mk II edition of the EOS 6D features a higher-resolution 26.2MP image sensor, which gains phase-detection Dual Pixel AF, plus a newer DIGIC 7 processor. Around the back, a vari-angle touchscreen replaces the original’s basic, fixed LCD. Most of the upgrades are inherited by the EOS RP, although the same image sensor is paired with an even newer generation of processor. For stills, the 6D Mk II edges ahead for burst rate but, for video, it tops out at 1080p whereas the RP adds a slightly hamstrung 4K capability. Both cameras feature built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but the 6D Mk II adds NFC and GPS. A minus point is that the pentaprism viewfinder only gives 98 per cent frame coverage. Performance Performance is very good. The…

www.panasonic.com/uk Even heavier than the Pentax K-1 Mk II, this mirrorless camera is the outright heaviest in the group, at 1,017g. Both cameras have fairly conventional SLR styling. As such, there’s a back-illuminated LCD info screen up top, and lots of direct controls. Some are illuminated, but the camera doesn’t light up in the dark to the same extent as the K-1 Mk II. Both have dual-axis tilting screens around the back, although only the S1 has a touchscreen. Its electronic viewfinder is excellent, with a higher resolution than in any of the other mirrorless cameras here. The five-axis sensor-shift stabiliser has slightly greater effectiveness, at 5.5-stops. 4K movie capture is available, whereas the K-1 II tops out at 1080p. Performance The contrast-detection autofocus system almost matches the K-1 II…

www.nikon.co.uk Although the brand-new Sony Alpha 7R IV pushes the resolution envelope even further, the D850 marginally outguns the A7R III with its 45.4MP sensor. To make the most of the resolving power, Nikon’s top-spec 153-point autofocus system puts even the Canon 5D Mk IV in the shade. Sportier than the preceding D810, the D850 has a faster continuous drive rate of up to 7fps. You can boost this to 9fps if you add the optional MB-D18 battery grip and a high-capacity EN-EL 18b battery. The memory buffer is big enough to hold between 29 and 200 shots in raw quality mode, depending on size and compression settings. All of this makes the D850 a great all-rounder – and it features dual memory card slots. Performance The D850 is capable…

Benro Adventure MAD38C Carbon Fiber Monopod £99/$110 www.benroeu.com Made from lightweight carbon-fibre, Benro’s Adventure MAD38C is also equipped with a 50mm-diameter rubber foot, which offers unrivalled grip on flat surfaces. It also links to the leg via a manoeuvrable ball joint that helps with panning when shooting video. Quick-flip leg locks for the four leg sections make the monopod fast to deploy and simple to pack down. The max payload you can mount on this monopod is a hefty 16kg, making the Adventure MAD38C a great choice for use with heavy DSLRs and long lenses. It’s a particularly impressive spec given the monopod’s light 500g weight. Although the 52.5cm packed length isn’t as short as other monopods here, it’s by no means unwieldy when you’re on the go. A 158.5cm…

Sean Goodhart (keen amateur photographer and an associate of the RP S) is somewhat of an expert when it comes to photographing the ground from above. In his series ‘Scratching the Surface’, Sean explores the human imprint and our effect on the surface of the planet, looking for interesting shapes, tones, patterns, colours and textures. Sean’s images provide visually interesting photographs to look at, but also create a discussion point about how we impact the earth. “I like to find unusual viewpoints of familiar views,” he says. “It brings me a lot of satisfaction. The images in this project are all top down, but I’m also making a lot of landscape pictures with a new dimension because of the ability to get higher.” Sean loves the kit that comes with…

Landscape photography is an incredibly creative pursuit. It is important to capture elements such as light, storm clouds, fog or lightning – the list is endless – and use them to our advantage. Another thing we can use to good effect is movement. This isn’t what I’d call an element, though it feels like one. Images can be transformed from flat, lifeless scenes to ethereal, dream-like images of an abstract nature or painterly quality. The motion of a swaying tree, waves gently lapping on the beach, low clouds streaking across the sky or the rapid torrent of a flowing river are all movements that when exposed over a long period of time can transform a photograph. Manipulating our shutter speed by using a neutral density filter allows us to see…

This photograph was taken on the remote island of Kitava, part of the Trobriand archipelago in the Solomon Sea, Papua New Guinea. It’s a remarkable and beautiful place. There’s no electricity, running water or amenities, and the small population is largely self-sufficient. It seemed heavenly, although I’m sure there’s more to the island’s story than I discovered in one day. While I’m often drawn to shoot urban-esque topographies on the fringes of developed areas, I have also started to shoot more portraits. It is, after all, the people and their stories that enrich travel experiences as much as the geography and architecture – if not more so. And I’ve been lucky to meet some amazing people. I still find it awkward approaching people to take their portrait – even after…

Having a camera with Manual exposure mode is a must when you want to capture the northern lights – and night sky shots in general. While DSLRs have traditionally been de rigeur for this genre, full-frame mirrorless cameras can also be used to great effect, with extremely light-sensitive models available from brands including Sony. Aside from a manual camera, a wide-angle lens with a fast maximum aperture is also important – both to collect enough light on the sensor and to generate an expansive view of the lights or stars across the sky. Although we haven’t mentioned it below, batteries and memory cards often stop working or slow down in cold temperatures, so keep your spares in a warm coat pocket. WHAT YOU NEED ON YOUR ASTRO PHOTO TRIP 1…

The aurora borealis is a colourful affair, and some photographers adjust their white balance (measured in Kelvin, or K) to make the spectacle look more intense. On the right, you’ll see a comparison of how a scene looked to the naked eye, along with how the image looks to the camera with adjusted white balances. Most cameras enable you to program a custom value, measured in Kelvin, to the K setting within the White Balance options. Of course, colour temperature (like any setting) is a question of personal taste and what looks good to you. Shoot in Raw and you’ll be able to perfect the colour when you edit your images. Shooting a lot of nightscapes means that I have my camera’s ‘K’ custom-value setting set to a number that…

One of the best times to shoot the moon is before and into twilight, as it’s easier to expose for the landscape as opposed to shooting it under a pitch-black sky. Use an app like PhotoPills or The Photographer’s Ephemeris to plan out where the moon is rising and setting, its trajectory across the sky and its phases, and determine whether you want to capture a crescent or full moon. It’s also a good idea to find out about the three types of twilight; photographing the moon over a landscape generally works better through Civil (the brightest stage), though it’s possible to create great images during Nautical (second phase), especially with other light sources in the scene. During this time, earthshine can be caught on camera – the section of…

Printing specialist CEWE has over 50 years’ experience of bringing its customers’ memories to life, so you can have complete confidence that your images are in good hands. CEWE has scored a practically perfect 9.1/10 on Trustpilot, and although it offers a wide range of products, the CEWE PHOTOBOOK is regarded as the best in the world. Here’s why the CEWE PHOTOBOOK is so impressive. To start with, you can choose between six different types of paper – including three photographic papers. A specialist layflat binding displays stunning landscape shots across a double page, and like all CEWE brand products, a CEWE PHOTOBOOK is sustainability-certified. All CEWE products are checked before they leave the lab, but there’s also the reassurance of a ‘100% satisfaction’ guarantee. Designing your CEWE PHOTOBOOK is…

Raw files use lossless compression or are uncompressed. This means that you can squeeze far fewer of the bigger files onto a memory card than you can with JPEGs. But as it’s really not worth compromising on quality to get more images on a card; larger-capacity cards are generally the order of the day when you shoot raw. Take the Nikon D850, for instance: with a 64GB XQD card in the camera, you can shoot 589 14-bit raw files (at 51.6MB each) or 1,900 Large, Fine Quality JPEGs (at 22MB each) before the card is full. That’s more than three times as many JPEGs, which share exactly the same resolution as the raw files and will still offer excellent quality! Card capacity isn’t the only consideration; with today’s cameras combining…

If you’ve ever looked at a photo and wondered what you can do to bring it to life, ON1 Effects 2019 has the answer – in fact it has hundreds of them in its library of preset photo effects, with inspirational looks for landscapes, people, urban shots, architecture and more. You choose a look, click a button and it’s applied right there. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though, because you can modify each of these preset effects and even create your own. Each preset is built using one or more of ON1 Effects 2019’s 27 powerful filters. You can mix and match filters in any combination, and each filter comes with its own in-depth adjustments. To use ON1 Effects 2019 as a standalone program, launch it and drag…

Profiles have been available in Camera Raw and Lightroom for years, but until recently they were tucked away in the Camera Calibration panel. Now Profiles have been expanded, and they take pride of place at the top of the Basic panel. It’s a natural new home for them, as they’re designed to kickstart your photo editing by giving you a range of starting points. The idea is to begin by selecting an appropriate profile, then go on to make any other edits you like. As such, profiles are a real game-changer, with the potential to alter for ever the way you edit your photos. There are over 50 profiles to pick from, and you can also make your own or download other sets. They are housed in the Profile Browser,…

The original raw by Seth Johnson This shot of a lavender field in Somerset is almost picture-postcard perfect. Well composed and exposed, there really isn’t much wrong with it at all. But our intrepid warriors have a creative vision… James Abbott James specialises in landscape and portrait images, and is an advanced Photoshop user. Jon Adams Jon is a professional photographer and writer. He also provides one-to-one and small-group image-editing tuition. FILE & VIDEO Download the disc: www.bit.ly/dc220disc…

1 Polariser power Try using a circular polarising filter so that you can intensify the saturation and the colours in your shot really pack a punch. 2 Bold backdrops Natural backdrops can work really well, but if you need a different colour to isolate the bloom from the background, drop a coloured card in place. 3 Add some sparkle Give the flower a quick spray of water so that droplets form on the petals, adding interest and a fresh feel. Small water sprayers can be purchased from most garden centres. 4 Fill the frame Don’t be afraid to fill the frame of your image with the flower head itself, rather than trying to get every single flower petal in. A tight, composition that’s full of strong colours and natural patterns…

More res IV your money Sony starts a sensor size arms race Introducing the first-ever full-frame mirrorless camera with a 61-megapixel sensor… Sony has been relatively quiet recently, but is back to its disruptive best. The announcement of the A7R IV comes on the back of the news that Sony is just one per cent behind Canon in the Japanese mirrorless camera market, and with a sales momentum behind it that could well see it take top spot in the near future. Some would say that the Panasonic S1R (47.3MP) and the Nikon Z 7 (45.7MP), as well as the Sony A7R III (42.4MP), have all the image resolution one could possibly need in a full-frame mirrorless camera. But Sony thinks otherwise, and with the A7R IV it has started…

£449/$469 www.sigma-imaging-uk.com This new full-frame 70mm Art lens is the first of Sigma’s ‘Global Vision’ line-up to deliver full 1.0x macro magnification. Build quality and finish is top-class: premium materials include Sigma’s TSC (Thermally Stable Composite) plastic and a brass mounting plate that features a weather-seal ring. Apart from the Sony-fit version, the lens is compatible with Sigma’s optional USB Dock for applying fine-tuning and firmware updates, and the Canon-fit edition is also compatible with in-camera corrections. Autofocus is driven by a coreless DC autofocus motor. It’s not overly quick but is whisper-quiet and incredibly precise. Full-time manual override is available and, often more importantly for macro shooting, the electronically coupled fly-by-wire focus ring enables extremely fine adjustments. The optical design incorporates two top-grade FLD (‘Fluorite’ Low Dispersion) elements and…

www.canon.co.uk You’d expect a mirrorless camera to be relatively slim but, in this case, the RP is much smaller than the 6D Mk II and a whole 280g lighter. The downsizing comes with compromises. The relatively small battery only lasts for around 250 shots, the RP having the worst battery life in this group. The slimness and smallness of the body also makes handling feel a little awkward with RF lenses, most of which are comparatively large and weighty. The RP also has no info screen on the top panel, nor many of the direct-access controls that are featured in the 6D Mk II. Performance The electronic viewfinder is good but not exceptional. The burst rate of 5fps is slower than in the 6D Mk II and drops to 4fps…

www.canon.co.uk Classified as a pro-grade SLR, the 5D Mk IV feels a real handful, in a good way. There are direct-access controls for all the creative shooting options you might need in a hurry, and handling feels entirely natural. The flipside is that it’s chunkier than the Nikon Z 7, and about 50 per cent heavier. For viewfinder-based shooting, the 61-point autofocus system is supremely competent at tracking fast-moving objects. Dual Pixel AF enables excellent autofocus performance in Live View and movie capture, but without the option of eye-detection, and the rear screen has no tilt or vari-angle facility. There are dual memory card slots, so you can create instant backups as you shoot. Performance For sports and wildlife photography, the 5D Mk IV edges ahead of the Z 7…

www.sony.co.uk Proving that you don’t need to sacrifice shooting speed for high resolution, the A7R III can shoot at 10fps, edging ahead of the Nikon Z 7 and beating the D850, albeit with a slightly lower megapixel count. The A7R III is much smaller and lighter than the D850, although top-flight lenses like Sony’s 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master feel a bit of a mismatch, compared with the better balance of pro-grade lenses on the Nikon D850. The A7R III’s menu system is more labyrinthine to navigate, although there’s an absolute wealth of customisation options. As with the Z 7, the Sony’s electronic viewfinder has highly detailed clarity, but still isn’t quite on a par with the D850’s optical pentaprism for panning and tracking action. Performance The hybrid autofocus system is…

B+W XS-Pro Digital HTC Kasemann MRC Nano £110-300/$86-249 (30.5-86mm) www.schneideroptics.com B+W’s premium XS-Pro circular polarisers come in a huge range of thread diameters to suit lenses from tiny Micro Four Thirds optics through to beefy large aperture super-teles. A cheaper ‘F-Pro’ range is also available, but in the UK the price difference isn’t vast. Filter thickness is 4.5mm when fitted – not as wafer-thin as the Cokin Nuances filter, but you’re unlikely to encounter any vignetting. An advantage of the thicker design is that the rear filter element’s frame is easier to grip when screwing the filter on your lens. The silky smooth front element is also easy to rotate, and there’s a secondary thread for multiple filters. B+W’s HTC (High Transmission Circular) glass is claimed to result in minimal…

“Success is 99 per cent failure,” says British photographer and conservationist David Yarrow. That might be true, but the one per cent of Yarrow’s work that isn’t a failure has succeeded quite spectacularly, earning him an international following and eye-catching sales figures for his work, including The Wolf of Main Street and Africa (the latter sold for $106,000 at Sotheby’s in April 2019). Born in Glasgow, Yarrow started out as a sports photographer, creating work seen in newspapers around the world. But it’s his photos of the natural world, from Amboseli to Montana, that he’s more known for now, though Yarrow rejects the ‘wildlife photographer’ tag. 150 of his most iconic photos have been collected together in a new book, featuring wolves, gorillas, lions and elephants. Striking images like these…

Based in London, Ron is a Sony Europe Imaging Ambassador and shoots for a range of clients including Asahi (pictured, above), Nike, Red Bull and Mercedes-Benz. rontimehin.com Music and photography have overlapped for decades – Bill Wyman, Stewart Copeland and Bryan Adams are just three rock stars to have enjoyed success on the other side of a lens. And although a young Ron Timehin seemed destined for a successful career as a trumpet player, having achieved grade 8 at the age of 15, sheet music lost out to shutter speeds and apertures. Ron nurtured his nascent love of photography by shooting cityscapes during downtime on overseas tours with the Bromley Youth Music Trust, initially on his smartphone. He started posting his images on Instagram in 2011, becoming the social media…

1 “Normally I try to keep the ISO as low as possible. If I don’t have a tripod, the maximum I’d normally go to is ISO 1600. I like to shoot at f/8 and above, just so that everything is fairly sharp.” 2 “I like to keep shutter speeds as fast as possible, 1/125sec or above, but on Sony Alpha cameras I have no problem shooting handheld at 1/80sec because of the in-body stabilisation.” 3 “When I use the rear screen I find that the larger view helps me get my lines in place. Occasionally with the viewfinder I find that, even if I think I’m level or if my composition is spot-on, actually it’s not. I try to keep the on-screen info overlays to a minimum so I can see…

In his series Curves, Zahornacky was looking for a way to go beyond the classical beauty of a model. By shooting a set of original film portraits through water, he distorted their perfect symmetry and created a final result that looked, at first glance, more like an abstract painting. “The curvature of the images was achieved by using the physical properties of water,” he says. “In my pieces, I am questioning the viewer’s perception of aesthetics and encouraging them to find beauty in imperfection,” he says. www.michalzahornacky.com Change of gear Michal’s original portrait image (above) was shot on film using a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II. He wanted to break the perfection of the image, and used his Canon EOS 6D Mk II to capture the image through water. “I shot…

We’d been sat in our Toyota Hilux, still as statues, for five full minutes. Those 300 seconds felt like an eternity, as the elephant paced towards us. We’d come face to face with the bull, blocking our path. We were in his way, so now he was agitated. Charles Ndhlovu, our guide, had immediately cut the engine and instructed no noise or movement. Elephants don’t always break branches and kick up dust before they charge; even when hot-tempered, they possess a reputable intelligence. He was being territorial. As he stomped his way past the 4x4 and around to its side, though, that reputable intelligence suddenly terrified me. The path in front now clear, Charles saw his opportunity and started the engine. The noise angered the elephant and, despite the guide’s…

Rachael is a professional photographer specialising in the coast. She is best known for her critically acclaimed Sirens portfolio, featuring stormy seas named after mythical beings. Rachael owns f11 Workshops, providing photography and printing workshops in the South of England, and she leads tours for Ocean Capture. Find out more at her website www.rachaeltalibart.com, and www.f11workshops.com. 1 Know your tides Understand how the tides affect your location. Some subjects are only accessible at low tide and others need water around them to be photogenic. It’s also important for your safety, especially on stormy days. Tide times and heights change daily. I use the Nautide app. 2 Planning Nothing beats local knowledge so don’t wait for the best storm of the year before checking out your chosen beach. Local conditions may…

Subscribe to Digital Camera and get 13 issues direct to your door, plus a handy travel bag for your gear… Find out more myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/dcm/vesta19 or call 0344 848 2852 and quote ‘Vesta 19’ Terms and conditions: This offer is only available for new UK subscribers. Gift is subject to availability (MSRP £49.99). Please allow up to 60 days for the delivery of your gift. In the event of stocks being exhausted we reserve the right to replace with items of similar value. Prices and savings quoted are compared to buying full-priced print and premium issues. You will receive 13 issues in a year. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Payment is non-refundable after the 14 day cancellation period unless…

Now you’re primed with camera settings and kit, you’re probably wondering where and when in the world you might be able to spot the lights. Technically speaking, they never stop; however, seeing them requires darkness, which is why the viewing season only begins when the days start getting shorter. At higher latitudes, it’s not uncommon for aurorae to appear randomly as a shimmering cloud-type entity, or as a wavey or spiralling single line, in any given direction in the sky. Either way, it’s always worth staying put on your aurora stake-out, even if the aurora forecast is not favourable. If the Interplanetary Magnetic Field reverses, you will more than likely see a display. Seeing the northern lights requires very specific locations and therefore a decent amount of travel. Once you’ve…

The flickering curtains of colour that make up the northern lights are one of nature’s most breathtaking spectacles. The lights are guided by the shape of the Earth’s magnetic field and the actual colours you see are determined by the molecules in Earth’s atmosphere where the collision takes place. An auroral display is usually made up of many different forms throughout the night, as pictured above. Most of the time when I have seen a good display of the aurora in the UK – having arrived on location early, of course – its starts as a glow and then proceeds to an arc with a distinct separation between the aurora and the horizon. Often, an aurora increases in strength through the night to form a double arc or ‘drapery’, flickering…

A raw file needs to be processed so it can be turned into an image that can be viewed, shared online or printed. Some cameras let you do this in the camera itself, but this feature is limited in scope and the results aren’t as good as those that can be achieved using a computer and dedicated raw conversion software. Raw software continues to improve, and you can often squeeze even better image quality from older pictures using the latest updates. When you process a raw file, nothing happens to the original image. The changes are ‘non-destructive’ – that is, they are not permanently applied. The adjustments you make are saved alongside the raw file as a set of instructions, which the software then follows to build a JPEG or…

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Exposure: 1/1,600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 www.ramonawalder.com When photographer and filmmaker Judith Benedikt, who has also photographed for The Cow: A Tribute, by Werner Lampert, contacted me in 2015, I was thrilled. For this project, that’s very close to our hearts, we took photographs of the world’s rare, indigenous, beautiful and perfectly adapted cattle breeds in their specific environment. Each picture tells its own story and shows the special character of each animal. For this shot, my assistant and I stayed overnight in a tiny Alpine hut and climbed up to the animals before sunrise. The farmer had no time to join us, so we had to slowly try to make a connection with the animals. This…

One of the earliest things we learn in our journey as photographers is to get our images sharp. Some of that is because we automatically go to the sharper areas in photos and initially ignore blurry areas. While digital photography has massively decreased the learning curve to becoming a good photographer, the process of digital capture itself causes our photos to blur. All digitised items are in step form. This means diagonal lines have a zig-zag effect, which is not at all pleasing. Most sensors get around this by using an anti-aliasing filter. The result blurs the image, which needs to be corrected. This can be in camera for JPEG or with your Raw processor. When you do this on the computer, it’s generally referred to as capture sharpening. In…

Reader 1 Serena Yorke Camera: Nikon D750 Location: London London-based Serena is a bit of an Instagram whiz, and her strong portfolio of macro shots on the social media platform sealed her selection for participation in this Shootout. Bringing a recently acquired Nikon D750 to the Eden Project, Serena was able to transfer images instantly to her smartphone – an ideal setup for keeping on top of her photo feed. Serena loves photographing flora, having honed her chops on DX-format Nikons before moving to full-frame, plus portraits, landscapes and shooting things from a different perspective. www.instagram.com/sweenaz13/ Reader 2 Steve Francis Camera: Canon EOS 550D Location: New Milton Hampshire resident Steve has built up his own commercial library of plant photography in recent years, so he is also well practised in…

CARMARTHENCAMERAS was started in 1998 by the current owner Mathew Whittal-Williams. who'd spent many years working in Francis Photographic, a small but dedicated camera shop dealing in new and used photographic gear. When the shop was first opened. Mathew specialised in used photographic equipment, mainly 35mm film cameras and lenses, but also medium-format and large-format, as well as many collectable film cameras and accessories. With the introduction of digital cameras, the business flourished, with a lot of film equipment being part-exchanged and sold. In 2008 we took over the existing Francis Photographic business when owner Bill Francis retired, and continued to expand and build the new business, adding brands and new lines. With the internet boom, business expanded further with Carmarthen Cameras being quick to branch out on line. In…

Launch price: £2,999/$3,499 (body only) www.canon.co.uk Canon’s EOS 5D Mk III was released in 2012, succeeding a model that marked a real step change in the evolution of digital cameras. No pressure for the Mk III, then, but it was a hit from the start. Heading up its feature set and various improvements over the Mk II was a 22.3MP sensor and the same Digic 5+ processor as found in the EOS 1D X. Another borrow from the 1D X was the 61-point wide-area AF system, with 41 cross-type and five dual cross-type points. Another benefit was the increased ISO sensitivity, which could be set in the range ISO100-25,600 in 1/3-stop or whole stop increments, and expanded to include L: ISO50, H1: ISO51200, H2: ISO102,400. Video capability was a key…

Digital SLR cameras have been around since the turn of the century, steadily evolving into the full-frame bodies that are now available from Canon, Nikon and Pentax. Specialist Leica cameras aside, Sony launched the first full-frame mirrorless ‘system’ body with interchangeable lenses in 2013, and remained a one-stop shop for five years with its A7 and A9 bodies. Nikon and Canon finally responded a year ago with the high-end Z 7 and EOS R respectively, followed by the lower-priced Z 6 and EOS RP. Panasonic is the latest arrival with its Lumix S1R and more mainstream S1. With mirrorless full-frame cameras available from four top brands, the big question is whether they’ve become better buys than their SLR counterparts. Let’s see how four of the most attractive pairs compare… The…

www.ricoh-imaging.co.uk With its rock-solid build, the K-1 Mk II is the heaviest SLR in the group, weighing in at 1,010g. It packs a 36.4MP image sensor that beats the two Canon SLRs on test for megapixel count, and is the only SLR to feature sensor-shift stabilisation. It’s similar to the Lumix S1 in this respect, with a five-axis, five-stop stabiliser. Both cameras can capture a sequence of shots in which the position of the stabiliser is shifted slightly from frame to frame, enabling the creation of an ultra-high-resolution composite image. The K-1 Mk II also adds a trick ‘astrotracer’ mode, and LED illumination of controls. Performance The 33-point autofocus system is adequate for static subjects but struggles a little to track moving objects. The contrast-detection system for Live View capture…

ww.nikon.co.uk With its 45.7MP image sensor, the Z 7 kicks the 5D Mk IV into touch for megapixel count. Coupled with one of Nikon’s superb new Z-series lenses, it’s capable of capturing incredible levels of fine detail and texture. What’s more, it’s easy to make the most of the resolving power, even in handheld shooting, thanks to the lack of mirror-bounce and the addition of a highly effective five-axis, five-stop in-body stabiliser. The hybrid autofocus system enables very good speed and accuracy. Eye-detection is available via a firmware upgrade, but overall tracking performance isn’t quite as good as in the 5D Mk IV. With just a single memory card slot, there’s no facility to create instant backups while you’re shooting. Performance The maximum drive rate of 9fps beats the 5D…

f we had to pick just one camera from this group, it would be the Nikon Z 7; but let’s turn back a few pages and start at the beginning. In the Canon 6D Mk II vs RP contest, the Canon 6D Mk II SLR is a clear winner. It has great handling and a control interface that’s ideally suited to its intended market of enthusiast and creative photographers. By contrast, the RP feels a little too stripped back and has barely more than a fifth of the battery life. Next up, it’s a win for mirrorless: the Panasonic S1 and Pentax K-1 Mk II both have tank-like build quality and exotic features, but the Panasonic S1 edges ahead for autofocus performance and overall image quality. Towards the top end…