Table of contents for Spring 2024 in Digital Camera Magazine

With an appetite for adventure, a can-do attitude and a ‘have W camera, will travel’ philosophy, Chris Burkard is as much a force of nature as the subjects he documents. One of the world’s leading adventure photographers, Burkard has been taking his viewers into far-flung and inaccessible parts of the world for a decade and a half, raising awareness of the state of the planet and the effects of climate change. His main focus, though, is his first love – the sea. Whether on assignment shooting surfing and extreme outdoor sports for global brands or capturing images for his own portfolio, Burkard has a reputation for going the extra mile in every sense, braving uncompromising conditions for periods of time that would leave others in his wake. Chris Burkard Adventure…

No matter what the weather, rain or shine, there are always photographic opportunities to be found in your local woods, whether it’s an ancient tract of gnarled oaks or a Forestry Commission plantation of pine trees. Woods present the photographer with the challenge of having to carefully manage light and shade, and the need to simplify an image to avoid potential clutter. One way of simplifying your woodland images is to look for simple patterns in the trees. Use the vertical tree trunks as a basic form for the image and look for a composition that uses the branches in an interesting way. nigelforsterphotography.co.uk Combining tree shadows, bluebells and backlighting creates an effective image in this shot in the Usk Valley. Shoot against the light Woodlands can be cluttered and…

The standard method of adding text or any kind of graphics, to an angled surface in Adobe Photoshop is to paste and use the transform tools to try to scale it properly. This has an element of hit and miss and if you find the text needs resizing, then the chance of being accurate diminishes with each adjustment. The good thing about using the Vanishing Point tool is that it works equally as well for text as it does for any graphic element, such as graffiti. In this example, we’re adding a sign to an outside wall, but you could equally add graffiti to a street wall. With Photoshop’s Generative Fill, you don’t even have to draw the graffiti either, it can create it for you. 1 Create the text…

Many of my spring projects are conceived over the winter when I find myself looking forward to warmer days. By planning ahead, I hope to take advantage of the conditions and maximise opportunities. As part of the process, I make a detailed list of shots, with the subject, location, light, backgrounds, time of day, composition, aperture, shutter speed and white balance. I also consider safety, ethics, access and consent. Follow nature’s calendar Many of spring’s highlights are spread throughout the season, allowing me to create a timeline and work through it systematically. During early spring, I often walk along small rivers, hoping to see a white-throated dipper, an aquatic songbird with a preference for clean, fast-flowing upland streams. These beautiful wooded valleys are best visited before deciduous trees put on…

If you want to have your shots published in magazines like Digital Camera or for them to succed in competitions, then try to capture moments rather than just pictures. Dramatic images of common subjects will often surpass simple portraits of more exotic species. Animal behaviour may be organic, such as sleeping, grooming or fighting, or it might be contrived by the photographer, for example, a squirrel jumping to reach inaccessible food. Investing time in a subject will increase your understanding of it, and the more at ease an animal is, the more likely it is to behave naturally. One of my favourite behavioural images shows a pair of adult little owls greeting each other on an old wooden gate. The shot was taken from a hide where I’d been feeding…

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FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc280 Blurred motion can be a game-changer for landscape photos, even if you add it in Photoshop afterwards. The original image here is a case in point. The straight-out-of-camera colour version is rather drab and the choppy seas are a distraction. By contrast, the blurred black-and-white version is much stronger. The motion blur draws attention to the jagged shapes and contrasts with the textures on the island. But a long exposure isn’t just a clever effect or a visual trick, it’s also a way to convey the passing of time or emphasise a sense of isolation, which is why it works for our shot here. Of course, it’s always best to capture the motion blur we’re mimicking here at the time of shooting by using a long…

Jon is a professional photographer, videographer and technology journalist. If you witnessed the first attempts at Generative AI video I a year ago, including ‘Will Smith Eating Spaghetti’, I share your horror. If you haven’t, trust me, don’t google it. As with all things AI, the technology has experienced a generational leap in fidelity in the year since those early demonstrations. People who are part of the Hugging Face AI community will have had a heads up about what was coming, but many members of the general public lost their minds when OpenAI took to X (formerly Twitter) in February to share SORA, its text-to-video Generative AI Model (www.bit.ly/dcm280sora). The set of videos, created by text prompts, showed a selection of scenes, actions and art styles, between nine seconds and…

www.polaroid.com When I first heard about the Polaroid I-2, I was thrilled. As a lifelong fan, the idea of a Polaroid camera with full manual control, a high-quality glass lens and a fast aperture was exciting. Could this be a step back towards the quality and performance of the SX-70 and Spectra? The answer is a resounding yes. Not only does the Polaroid I-2 officially feature ‘the sharpest-ever Polaroid lens’ but its f/8 aperture matches that of the SX-70 – it can even shoot on SX-70 film. And while that iconic camera was limited to exposure compensation, here we have full manual control over the aperture and shutter speed. Throw in a LiDAR autofocus system (albeit at the expense of manual focus) and this is the company’s best and most…

DSLR & MIRRORLESS CAMERAS PLUS: Our best-buy accessories Sensor sizes at a glance Three formats dominate DSLR and mirrorless cameras… Full-frame (36 x 24mm) These imaging sensors have similar proportions to a frame of 35mm film. APS-C (≈ 25.1 x 16.7mm) Based on the Advanced Photo System film format from the 1990s. Micro Four Thirds (17.3 x 13mm) The 4:3 aspect ratio allows smaller and lighter lenses to be used. DSLRs Seen something that doesn’t look right? Email us at digitalcamera@futurenet.com with ‘Camera Guide’ in the subject line What to look for in a… DSLR Lens release To remove the lens, press the button and twist the lens anti-clockwise. Use the protective body cap, so you don’t leave the sensor exposed to dust. Shutter release To shoot, press the shutter release button.…

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Chris Burkard Adventure photographer Photography has taken Burkard all over the world, with hard-to-reach and extreme locations a speciality. We speak to him about his latest book, The Oceans, from page 8 Will Cheung Photographer and writer A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the former editor of many photography titles, Cheung is the man behind Camera Clinic, which continues on page 72 Simon Roy Wildlife & nature photographer With a focus on garden wildlife and the relationship between people and nature, Roy has been highly commended in many photo awards. Find out why from page 50 Jon Devo Photographer & writer Our resident tech columnist considers the latest developments in photography and digital imaging. Read his latest dispatch, about Generative AI videos, on page 100 Jay Clue Underwater…

With the rising emotions of joy, swirling colours and a flurry of smiles, the confetti moment is the quintessential photo from any wedding day. However, getting a good photo of the confetti moment can be a challenge. With petals tumbling in every direction, focus know-how, camera skills and split-second timing are required to capture the perfect shot. 5 tips for capturing confetti 1 Use a zoom To capture a range of perspectives as the happy couple walk towards you, a zoom lens is best. Something like an 18-55mm kit lens on a crop-sensor or a 24-70mm on a full-frame camera will be ideal. 2 Capture a burst You’ll want to use Continuous shooting mode, allowing multiple frames per second to be captured. With the fluttering confetti at the whim of…

Photographing wildlife successfully can be a tricky business, requiring plenty of high-end equipment, but there is one type of fauna that is much easier on the wallet and that comes in the form of butterflies. From March onwards, the 58 species of UK native butterflies begin to emerge for the warmer weather and they stick around until October and November when it starts to get frosty again. Attract them to your garden by planting flowers that they like to feed on, while you lay in wait with your camera. Some of the best flowers to plant include Buddleia, with its upright foliage offering purple and lilac colours; Echinops, which feature spiky, blue balls; Cornflowers with compact, bushy plants that host large, deep blue flowers; and not forgetting the orange hues…

The latest theme of our monthly photo challenge is ‘Symmetry’ – so whether you enjoy taking photographs of people, architecture, water features or urban scenes, we want to see an element of symmetry. How you interpret the brief is up to you, but send us your best shot! Enter via email or Facebook Email your entry to digitalcamera@futurenet.com with ‘Symmetry’ as the subject, including a brief description of the image. Or look for the ‘Symmetry’ post at www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld and upload your entry into the feed. Enter by 25 April (only one image per reader, please). The winner will be announced in issue 282 (June), on sale 24 May (Please note that this competition is only open to readers based in the UK). WIN A £50 CEWE WALL ART VOUCHER! Submit…

i WINNER: Photograph of the Year ‘Fire and Water’ Blake Randall, Canada “A stunning lake in the Canadian Rockies.” Location: Abraham Lake, Alberta, Canada. i WINNER: Photographer of the Year ‘A Land Within’ Tony Hewitt, Australia “Red soil left behind from a larger tide forms a red ring around a dryer patch of sand.” Location: King River Tidal Plain, Wyndham, Western Australia. i WINNER: Black and White Award ‘Morning Light’ Jim Guerard, United States Taken on a Sony A1, 2 sec exposure at f/8 and ISO 100. Location: George L Smith State Park, Metter, Georgia, USA. i WINNER: Seascape Award ‘Turned To Stone’ Ciaran Willmore, Ireland “A long-exposure shot while keeping the detail in a stream that leads the eye towards the petrified Witch and the Giant.” Location: Tjornuvik, Streymoy…

Many of the wildlife pictures featured in magazines or the final stages of photography competitions are the result of a well-executed plan. Even seemingly spontaneous moments are likely to have been achieved through patience and perseverance rather than simply being in the right place at the right time. For me, this planning stage is a fun and fundamental part of the picture-making process. It allows me to be more productive when I’m not behind the camera, and more effective when I am. Here, I showcase a few of my most successful spring images and explain the stories behind them and the equipment I used. PRO SHOT Kingfisher fishing I only had the top section of this lovely split cane fishing rod so I fixed it to a pole to get…

1 ‘The Wheel of Light’ by Geoff Chalmers “I took this four-second exposure of the Wheel of Light in Leeds using a Sony A7R IV with a Sony FE 24mm F/1.4 GM lens on a tripod. I like the mix of colours in the wheel and the sense of movement from the light trails of the traffic; I was trying to balance the light from the wheel with the light trails from the moving traffic. It was a challenge to expose correctly as the wheel was changing speed, and so was the traffic. It was fun to explore the range of colours and light trails by experimenting with long exposures.” Instagram: @geoff.photos Digital Camera says: Choosing to shoot this image with a long exposure has given it great clarity. The lights…

Ruth Orkin Photographer Title: ‘Coca-Cola’ Location: New York City, USA Date: 1950 Camera: 35mm O he work of American photographer, journalist and filmmaker Ruth Orkin appears in up in the shadow of Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s and harboured ambitions of becoming a filmmaker. She realised this ambition later in life, collaborating with American photographer and director Morris Engel on Little Fugitive, a classic independent American film (1953). By this time she was settled in New York, where she had become recognised as a photojournalist, shooting for leading magazines. For Orkin, New York was a fascinating canvas to capture, with its relentless energy and endless photographic opportunities. Captured in 1950, Orkin’s photo of people standing at a food counter shows her interest in the minutiae of New York life,…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc280 Spring has sprung and it’s a great time for combining nature and portraits. You booked the model or your client booked you. Off you go into nature and shoot some portraits you love. Styling was discussed in advance and you had the perfect colours for the scene – or maybe you didn’t. Either way, you’re back at the computer and decide that different coloured clothing would work better creatively. Disaster! Well, maybe not. Lightroom Classic’s masking has become so sophisticated that you can even select clothes now. If you look at the Masking panel, that statement may confuse you as you clearly can’t see an option for a clothing mask. It’s still there, just a little hidden. You see, it’s actually part of the People Mask,…

www.canon.co.uk Is there a more unexciting lens than a standard zoom? For years, the choice has been limited to a 24-105mm f/4 or 24-70mm f/2.8, but with only marginal improvements to each new generation, it’s hard to get too excited. Canon promised much when it launched the RF mount, its RF 28-70mm f/2L USM being one of the few revolutionary standard zooms. Things then went quiet, but now we have the Canon RF 24-105mm f/2.8 IS USM Z… Key features This is a 24-105mm lens with a constant f/2.8 aperture, which has been the dream of many photographers. This one comes with a twist; instead of being a photography lens that is also good for video, Canon has made a true hybrid lens. The company says it is intended as…

Although there have been hillforts and defensive enclosures in the UK since around 900BC and the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall with small forts placed at regular intervals, it wasn’t until the Normans arrived in 1066 that the era of stone castle building really began. Since then, over 1,000 stone castles have been built to protect towns, secure strategic locations and project power to subdue restless natives. These days, you can find these castles in various states of repair, from intact buildings and restored interiors, showing how the rich and powerful lived and exercised control over their domains, to crumbling, moss-covered ruins, now a shadow of their former glory. For the photographer, that means a wealth of opportunities are available – from capturing the castle within the landscape itself, to ornate…

PART 1 OF 4 Part 2 in issue 281, on sale 26 April Have you ever taken a scenic photo in portrait orientation but H later thought it might have been better in landscape format? Sometimes, it’s just interesting to see what new versions of old images you can create. That’s where Photoshop 2024’s new Generative Fill tool can come in handy, adding realistic content to enhance an image or give it a different perspective. Previously, Content Aware Fill could be used to expand the canvas of a photo but it was limited because it was generating the image extension directly from elements in the image itself. It couldn’t create new content and the larger the canvas extension, the higher the possibility of generating repeating patterns. Generative Fill differs in…

PRO SHOT Swooping owl This stunning barn owl hunting in a meadow after sunrise was captured with a super-telephoto 500mm lens and a fast shutter speed. Shot from a distance, the sunlight shining on the owl’s wings against the dark backdrop creates a strong image. Spring is a time of new beginnings as nature and bulbs that have been buried for months now appear as flecks of green shoots and buds. With courtship underway, old partnerships and rivalries are resumed – love and war in mother nature. For me, this is the best time of year to be out with a camera; a chance to reflect and refresh, to rekindle old projects or begin new ones, and to remedy mistakes or build upon successes. It can be demanding, too, as…

PRO SHOT Fox cub This wild red fox cub among the bluebells of a woodland was captured with a Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. The encounter was the result of days of observation, planning and fieldcraft. Fieldcraft, the skills needed to find, approach and photograph subjects, is one the most important tools in wildlife photography. It includes the ability to track animals in their natural habitat without them being aware of your presence. With mammals that have a superb sense of smell, such as red foxes, badgers and roe deer, I shower without shampoo and wear clothes that are clean but not freshly washed. I camouflage myself and my gear, using trees and foliage to blend in. A few years ago, I discovered a fox earth in a…

Iam a big fan of Photoshop and feel it is an important tool for the digital photographer. Having said that, I believe you should always try to make the best image possible in-camera and only use editing software to enhance good shots and not to fix bad ones. Using this strongly composed image of a wren sitting amongst bluebells, I had achieved most of what I wanted in-camera but felt the image could be improved with a quick edit. After some tweaks in Photoshop, the edited image is lighter, sharper, and more vibrant. Here, I’ll show you how I achieved the look… TUTORIAL LIGHTEN SHADOWS AND ADD VIBRANCE Six quick and easy steps using Photoshop to make your wildlife image stand out from the crowd 30 Adjust the white balance First,…

This month: Drive modes With all manner of drive functions to try out, your camera has untold potential Traditionally, a camera’s drive function only had one job – to set shooting speed. Usually, there were two options: single frame (S) or continuous shooting (C), with some pro models having two continuous options, low and high. With film cameras, continuous shooting could be two or three frames per second (fps). That sounds pedestrian but with only 36 shots available, it was sufficient. Of course, this all changed with digital and even modest DSLRs could rattle along at 6fps and sustain that speed for a few images. Doing away with the reflex mirror mechanism has meant that mirrorless cameras are even faster and, with electronic shutters and stacked sensors, shooting rates have…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc280 This month… Tool School: The power of Path Blur Set off without your ND filters or unable to use long exposure? Use the Path Blur tool to mimic the effect, then transform your landscape scenes with a strong black-and-white treatment Fundamentals: Change clothes with Masking Take advantage of this hidden Lightroom feature to change the colours of clothes after your shoot Get the Look: Take greater control of contrast There are many ways to alter the contrast in your images, so take greater control and use contrast as a creative tool VIDEO TRAINING The issue 280 download includes video lessons that build on our tutorials, plus bonus videos with extra tips www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc280 PHOTOSHOP The power of the Path Blur tool LIGHTROOM Change clothes after your photoshoot…

FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc280 Contrast, or even a lack of it, can be a much more important element in the overall look and feel of a photo, whether you’re working in colour or black and white. At its most basic level, an increase in contrast is simply increasing the black and white points – the level where pure black and pure white are displayed. Of course, in many situations, you wouldn’t want to push these points that far because you’d lose detail, but it’s the easiest explanation of what’s happening. Controlling contrast is often seen as a basic part of image processing and it is to some degree because it’s often applied and then forgotten about. But there are multiple ways of adding and subtracting contrast alongside other effects for…

Affinity Photo 2.4 Subscription-free editing software and Photoshop alternative gets even more versatile with this update Serif has added support for 50 new cameras to its photo editing software package, Affinity Photo. The latest version, 2.4, now supports camera models including the Nikon Z 8, Z f and Z 30, along with the Sony A7R V, A9 III and A7C II. Newer Panasonic cameras such as the Lumix G9 II and GH6 are also now compatible with Affinity Photo. As cameras such as the Nikon Z 30 and Sony A7R V are now over a year old, Serif took time in adding some of these newer models to its supported camera list, but the expanded camera support is welcome. Yet Affinity Photo version 2.4 doesn’t just add extra supported cameras.…

www.fujifilm.com The overnight success of the X100V took everyone by surprise, but none more so than Fujifilm. Launched in 2020 as the fifth iteration of Fujifilm’s premium compact camera, its sudden popularity among TikTok influencers caused a six-month waiting list to purchase one. Fujifilm is back with the Fujifilm X100VI, a compact camera with a fixed lens design. The premium vintage aesthetic is made for street and travel photographers who want a pocket-friendly camera. The X100 range is also one of the few true rangefinder designs still being made, with the pricier manual focus only Leica M11 the only other option with an optical viewfinder. Key features Externally, little has changed from the previous model, but when you have a viral success on your hands, you don’t want to rock…

www.sony.co.uk Sony has been going about its full-frame mirrorless business for over 10 years, racking up 73 E-mount lenses along the way. New for 2024, the FE 24-50mm F2.8 G standard zoom and simultaneously released FE 16-25mm F2.8 G wide-angle zoom aim to be the most compact and lightweight options in the class of full-frame compatible constant-aperture f/2.8 zooms. So-called ‘trinity’ wide-angle, standard and telephoto zooms with a constant f/2.8 aperture are highly popular the world over, but they’re often bulky, heavy lenses that can feel a bit cumbersome. I often prefer zoom lenses with a slower f/4 aperture, especially for shooting with slinky mirrorless cameras rather than chunky DSLRs, as they’re generally more compact and lightweight, as well as being cheaper to buy. The downside is that they’re less…