Table of contents for Spring 2019 in Practical Photography: Lite

EVERYONE LOVES puffins. They’re unmistakably colourful and photogenic birds that fly like bullets and swim like tuna. I saw them in the flesh for the first time last year on a day trip to the Farne Islands and couldn’t believe how small and agile they were. We’re incredibly lucky in the UK to have such a rich and varied list of native species to train our lenses on, and you’ll find 31 other amazing places to visit in this month’s wildlife special. Wherever you live and whatever your experience, we can pretty much guarantee you’ll see deer, birds of prey, red squirrels and, of course, puffins. Just don’t forget to read Dan Mold’s expert advice from page 34 before you pack your bags – he’s sharing his years of wildlife…

FEW SEABIRDS are as distinctive and well-loved across the UK as the puffin. Belonging to a group of seabirds called auks, puffins are grouped together with the equally photogenic guillemots, razorbills and little auks – so be sure to take pictures of these too when you venture out to take your puffin portraits. Sadly, puffins are on the UK’s red list, and are classed as endangered across Europe, but that does make seeing one in the wild extra special. Their bills are serrated for holding fish and in the summer months you’ll see them returning from the sea with a beak full of sand eels to feed their young, which can make for some great portraits and action shots as they come flying back to shore with their precious haul.…

THERE’S SURELY no animal as majestic and gracious roaming the countryside as the deer. Dainty does and brawny stags with their battle-ready antlers are a joy to photograph. There are six types of deer to be seen in the UK (see panel over the page to tell them apart). They’re all fantastically photogenic. In the UK we’re certainly not short of deer, with numbers up to a record two million, so find a deer park near you and start taking photos! Beautifully backlit Sunrise is a magical time for photographing deer, as the low angle of the sun will bathe your subject in a vibrant wash of hazy golden light – it really pays dividends to get up early. Check the weather the night before you want to shoot to…

WIDESPREAD across the UK, owls and other birds of prey, like raptors, make for a fantastic photographic challenge. Unpredictable and often lightning-quick, it’s worth persevering with these tricky birds – they always make a brilliant focal point. Beautiful dish-shaped faces, large piercing eyes and graceful in flight, the owls we can see in the UK are a spectacle to behold. If you’d like to give it a shot, you can increase your chances of seeing them in the wild with websites such as rarebirdalert.co.uk which shows sightings close to where you live. A place to perch Many birds of prey, including barn owls and buzzards, like to hang out on fence posts, giving them a high viewpoint across fields to help them find their prey. Putting in the hours is…

CHEEKY, CUTE and colourful are just three words that perfectly describe red squirrels. Their fiery red coats, bushy tails and tall, tufted ears always make a stunning focal point in any picture. So if you have the slightest interest in wildlife photography, you need to add some red squirrel portraits to your portfolio. More shy and skittish than their brazen grey American cousins, it’s best to shoot reds from a distance and seek an area with regularly stocked feeders to increase your chances of success (see our wildlife map on page 48). Autumnal browns, winter whites and spring’s lush greens are all great scenarios to photograph red squirrels in. The only season to avoid would be summer, when the red squirrels moult and lose the cute fluffy tufts on their…

1 EMBRACE FAILURE I think there’s too much pressure on people to always deliver on every shoot they go on. Sometimes it’s simply not possible, but that’s absolutely fine. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to take a shot just for the sake of it, as the lack of meaning will come across in the end result. 2 INSURE YOUR KIT Most of us photographers walk around with thousands of pounds worth of equipment on our backs, but we don’t have the adequate insurance to cover us if something goes wrong. I know some people rely on their home insurance to cover their kit, but, from personal experience, I can’t recommend specialist photographic insurance enough. It needn’t cost the earth, and some associations and clubs offer discounted rates, so…

EPIC CITY SCENES deserve dramatic techniques, and Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) certainly delivers on that. Ordinarily used for landscape photography, ICM can be combined with impressive architectural vistas to create abstract images. Find a stunning city vista For this project to work as effectively as possible, find a location that already looks interesting without anything extra added on top. Picturing how a scene would look with motion added will help you to plan the shot, taking into consideration any contrasting colours or interesting shapes. London is an obvious recommendation for this technique, full of iconic architecture, but any large town or city will have amazing vistas you can use. Try to frame up on buildings with unusual shapes – the Lloyd’s building being a classic example – as these will…

Q A friend wants me to take some portraits and has booked us a pro studio. I’ve never used strobe flash heads before – can you give me a crash course? Alex Pawson, London Richard says: Nobody likes to look silly, and walking into a pro-spec studio for the first time might be a daunting prospect. You obviously want to instil confidence in the person who has booked you for a portrait session, so looking like you know your way around all the kit is import. Most studios will have someone on hand to help out, and if you don’t want to lose face you could always claim that you’ve only ever used a different manufacturer’s flash system! Getting set up If you are left on your own, the good…

Once you’re happy with the images you’ve shot – and you have both a blank backdrop and your shot of someone on a step ladder – it’s time to bring everything into Photoshop to complete the flying effect. If you’ve shot RAW files, which will give you the best quality for the editing process, you’ll need to apply your RAW conversion equally across both images in order to achieve consistent tones for blending together seamlessly. Once you have your RAWs converted, the next step is to stack both pictures in Photoshop and then use a Layer Mask to hide the step ladder, revealing the blank frame in the layer below and creating the illusion of flight. We’ll also be looking at adding another layer to composite in any missing pieces…

Lee’s gone for a panoramic crop of 5.5:3 for his shot, but an even tighter aspect ratio of 10:3 would remove some of the ‘dead’ space in the foreground and boost contrast. Select the Crop Tool in Photoshop and set the Ratio to 10:3, then run the crop over your image and hit Return to set it down. A slightly taller crop would also work well, but would require stretching the sky. This is easy to do. Apply the taller crop, then duplicate the layer with Ctrl+J. Go to Edit>Content Aware Scale and pull the bounding box upwards – it will stretch the sky but not the Matterhorn, seamlessly filling the gap.…

In our Camera Know-how series, we cast an expert eye over the ins and outs of your DSLR’s or CSC’s key features, revealing precisely what they do and how you can make the most of them to boost your photographic skills. In this issue, Kingsley Singleton gives an overview of everything you need to get started in creating video, including what resolution to shoot in, what frame rate to pick and how to get better sound. And to finish off, there are some creative projects to test your new skills. THE MAIN REASON MOST OF us buy a digital SLR or compact system camera is to shoot stills, but all modern cameras are also spec’d for high-quality video. In fact, many affordable cameras are now so advanced in terms of…

CAMERA FUJIFILM X-T3 My favourite camera is my Fujifilm X-T3. I love the compact style and design, the lighter weight and build quality. But it’s the intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes these cameras such a joy to use with all the main features and controls available on the outside of the camera without the need to dive into menus. All of that means nothing if the image quality doesn’t match up, but with Fujifilm there’s a beautiful, filmic feel to the images producing stunning results whether you’re shooting RAW or JPEGs. LENS FUJIFILM XF16-55MM F/2.8 R LM WR My workhorse lens is my Fujifilm 16-55mm (24-70mm equivalent). This lens is so fast with its constant f/2.8 aperture, sharp throughout and delivers excellent contrast and colour. It’s not the lightest or…

If you’ve been inspired to improve your landscape photography skills, we’ve got the perfect prize for you! We’ve partnered with Wightlink to offer a weekend trip for two to the Isle of Wight, including a photography workshop at Capture Perfect, overnight accommodation at Seaview Hotel and ferry crossings. The Isle of Wight is the ideal destination for nature lovers and photographers that love shooting epic landscapes, seascapes and coastal golden hours. To enter, visit: photographynow.tv…

While it would be unfair to judge this pre-production shot, since it’s subject to change, we can tell you that it was shot with the very impressive S Pro 70-200mm f/4 OIS. One of three lenses at launch, two of which are certified by Leica, it’s a professional-level telephoto zoom with a constant f/4 aperture. It also utilises the Dual IS system, working in tandem with the in-camera stabilisation to offer up to 6 stops of image stabilisation. This is very handy, given the 1020g camera weight, plus lens, as well as the longer focal length. The other two lenses available at launch are the standard ‘kit zoom’ Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro, and the very impressive Lumix S Pro 50mm f/1.4, the second lens of the three to be…

Boasting the new L. Monochrome D Photo Style, the LX100II can now shoot with a more subtle grade in the monochrome tonal range. As seen in this straight-out-of-camera JPEG, the file shows plenty of contrast, but also a wide gamut in the midtones, which gives it a very filmic look. The 49-point DFD (Depth From Defocus) contrast detection focus system also did a good job, catching the subject as they strode through, thanks to the touchscreen. As you may expect from any Micro Four Thirds sensor, there is some clarity smudging if you zoom into 100%. However, the overall quality is pleasing, and the new additions make it a solid upgrade if you’re in the market.…

For many, these cameras represent the inevitable progression in a life of passion. The advanced camera market is unashamedly premium, and levels its sights directly at the wide gamut of professional photographers. Whether you’re looking for stunning clarity with a 40MP+ sensor, a wide dynamic range with a medium-format CSC or blisteringly fast continuous shooting and tracking focus to boot, this is the list for you. Of course, the obvious price hike in pro-level bodies can’t be ignored, but with any luck, a handful of well-paid jobs will quickly offset the cost. These are our top ten advanced camera bodies for the budding professional. #10 HASSELBLAD X1D-50C £7999 SENSOR MEDIUM-FORMAT RESOLUTION 50MP VIDEO 1080p LET’S TAKE A MOMENT to regard the most beautiful camera ever machined from solid aluminium. The…

PRICE £599 MINIMUM FOCUS 40cm DIAMETER 62mm NIKON KNOWS how to grow suspense. After a long build-up to its new Z Mount CSCs, we were left waiting even longer to get hands-on with the native 50mm f/1.8 lens for the budding system. But now that day has arrived. Performance If you’ve read our reviews of the other two S-Line lenses, the Z 24-70mm f/4 S and the Z 35mmf/1.8 S, you’ll already be familiar with the sleek, tough, weather-sealed construction used on this lens. It’s compact, though also feels fairly robust, while remaining lightweight at only 415g. It does lack the ultra-premium feel of some of its rivals, such as the Sigma Art, though in-hand, it’s still very pleasing. The body packs 12 elements in nine groups, including two ED…

Northern gannets by Andrew Mason I shot this image from the cliffs at Hermaness on the island of Unst, which overlooks Muckle Flugga, the UK’s most northerly point. In the summer, the cliffs are home to over 100,000 nesting seabirds, including gannets. To shoot this photo, I had to hang over the cliff as the gannets soared below me. As I laid on the cliff-top, I was covered in spray from the violent seas below. Nikon D4 | 400mm | 1/2500sec | f/8 | ISO 800 Andrew Mason is a nature and landscape photographer – and PP’s latest columnist. His images have been used by the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts. andrewmasonphoto.com Saint Petersburg train by Babak Fatholahi Last September I travelled to Russia and spent a few weeks in…

ONCE YOU’VE settled on photography as the hobby for you, it’s natural to want to concentrate on one particular genre and really hone your skills in that area. As a hobby for getting you out in the fresh air there’s little to beat photography, and if you have a love for nature it’s possible to combine your interests to produce a really rewarding body of work. Close to nature Nature photography is hugely appealing for a number of reasons. It’s a great test of skill, requiring fieldcraft, a knowledge of animal behaviour and camera techniques honed to deliver a killer shot when your subject might be in frame for just a fraction of a second. It gets you out into the great outdoors in all seasons, connects you with nature…

■ Getting eye-level with your subjects will really take your wildlife portraits up a gear. The trouble is puffins only stand at around 12 inches tall, so you’ll need to lay flat on grass or mud to do this. Place a bin bag on the ground to save your clothes from getting dirty and shoot through some grass that can be blurred with a wide aperture. ■ If your telephoto lens isn’t filling the frame with your subject and you can’t get any closer, you may want to consider a teleconverter. These are special optics that fit between the lens and camera body, magnifying the zoom usually by 1.4x, 1.7x or 2x. But check to make sure your lens is compatible before you part with your hard-earned cash. ■ A…

■ Long telephoto lenses can be unwieldy, which means camera shake is more likely to creep in, even with stabilised glass. Attaching a monopod to the ‘foot’ of your telephoto lens (above) takes the strain off your arms and will help you get sharp shots. ■ Crouching down is key to getting eye-level with the deer for dynamic portraits, but this can be a real pain in the back, literally! Walkstool is a device that allows you to perch down low and can greatly increase comfort when shooting from a low angle for a long period of time. Prices start at around £40 for the basic model. ■ Sunrise is a magical time for photographing deer, bathing your subject in a golden glow. The Photopills app (£9.99 Android and iOS)…

The central AF point on DSLRs is usually the fastest and most responsive, so when shooting fast-moving subjects, like birds of prey, this is the AF point you want to use for best results. The problem with this is you’ll end up with a central composition. A framing that follows the rule-of-thirds is generally accepted as an easy way to make your images more dynamic, and involves positioning your subject a third of the way in from one or two sides of the frame, therefore moving it out of the middle. The good news is you can use the central AF point to get a sharp shot in-camera and achieve a rule-of-thirds composition by cropping your shot back at your computer. In Photoshop open your picture and grab the Crop…

British Red Squirrel is a charity set up by passionate volunteers and conservationists looking to reintroduce and boost red squirrel numbers across the UK. The map over on britishredsquirrel.org is an excellent resource for finding locations where you can see red squirrels, both wild and captive. Many areas are in the north of England and Scotland, though there are some spots in the south where you can see them too, such as the Isle of Wight and Cornwall. Many of the listed red squirrel hotspots are regularly monitored and feeders stocked with food that they love, so you have a higher chance of seeing them. Shelled hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, sweet chestnuts and pine nuts can all be used to supplement their diets. We’ve listed our top picks of the places…

As the saying goes, fail to prepare, prepare to fail, so here are our top tips to help you plan your wildlife shoot. ■ Bring plenty of fully-charged batteries and clear memory cards so you don’t have to end a shoot early. ■ Pro lenses out of budget? Hire a decent optic for your shoot for better image quality, snappier autofocus and best results. ■ Many hides and nature trails can be quite remote so take some food and drink with you to power you through your day. ■ Try not to visit your chosen location during school g h holidays as it will be busier and you may find it harder to park.…

FASHION HAS LONG HAD an obsession with the city. From countless collections of streetwear to a variety of urban backdrops littered through the pages of Vogue, the love affair between fashion and the street is well documented. Despite this symbiotic relationship, it’s not often that you see fashion imagery being inspired by the gritty reality of street photography. This seems like an oversight to us, as creating a photo that combines the glamour and beauty of a styled fashion shoot with the urban grit of the street is a fantastic way to recharge your creativity and create something spectacular. Find the right location “CREATE A SHOT THAT COMBINES THE GLAMOUR OF FASHION WITH THE URBAN GRIT OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY” Ordinarily, if you were planning a fashion shoot you’d be aiming…

Leanne has wisely switched to the RAW file format which holds the ‘raw’ data from the point of capture since she took this lovely shot. RAWs are larger files because of all the additional information they retain. Using RAW editing software, such as Adobe Camera Raw, you can adjust the exposure of your shot by around 2 full stops in either positive or negative directions back at your computer. This image is a little on the dark side so it would be great to be able to tweak the RAW to make it brighter and have more control over the colours. This shot is calling out for a Radial Filter adjustment which would allow the middle focal point to be brightened, with the corners in a vignette.…

Elisabeth Brentano is a travel and nature photographer based in California. Passionate about wildlife conservation, Elisabeth has volunteered for NGOs in Africa and the United States. She’s also worked with brands such as Adobe, Merrell and Yeti. elisabethbrentano.com EMBARKING ON A GLOBAL adventure is a long-held wish for many. Most see travelling as a way to enrich their own lives, rather than as an opportunity to educate, but Elisabeth Brentano is different. Her portfolio is filled with stories that offer a vital glimpse into the realities beyond popular photo hotspots. Meanwhile, her refusal to glorify or gloss over key environmental issues means that she’s become a trusted voice to her 89k-plus followers. Knowledge like this doesn’t come from thin air, and Elisabeth has built up experience from her years of…

Now you’ve built up your basic water cube you can add extra elements to make it even more impressive. You’ll find the Cube Surfer. jpg picture in the Start Images folder, which you can copy and paste in just like the other images. When masking off the surfer you’ll want to use a soft-edged Brush Tool with a low Opacity of around 10% to hide the water so that the sea spray is gradually faded into the ocean waves. If you go wrong in the process, hit D followed by X for a white foreground colour and paint over the water to unmask it, revealing it once again. When you’ve finished, go to File>Save As .…

Sometimes it can be tricky to merge a new sky with your landscape in a convincing manner. This could be for various reasons, such as a high level of noise in the original landscape. In situations like this, a mono treatment works well, even on the trickiest of edits. Go to Layer>Flatten Image and hit Ctrl+Shift+U to convert your shot to mono. Press Ctrl+L to bring up the Levels panel and bring the Shadows and Highlights in towards the middle of the histogram to boost the contrast. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and set the Amount to 15% and hit OK. This will help to blend the two images together.…

This shot, while not the most exciting, was taken at the new base ISO 160, and shows a pleasing amount of dynamic range. This is also an identical sensor and processor to the X-T3, which has swept the board at this year’s Gear of the Year Awards, bagging Best Enthusiast CSC as well as Product of the Year. Of course, there are some differences. The EVF, while impressive for the size, has a lesser magnification than that of the X-T3. Likewise, shooting in the new 30fps burst mode shows the X-T30 can’t capture quite as many shots as the X-T3’s larger buffer. It may only be pre-production, meaning we’re yet to see the final RAW files, but it’s shaping up to be a very promising camera.…

“I WAS REMINDED THAT THERE’S MORE TO WALES THAN JUST SNOWDONIA” I’VE JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO THE GOWER in South Wales where I was treated to a weekend of great company (in the form of other landscape photographers) and superb light (which almost never happens). This was my first visit and it got me pondering on the many parts of the UK that could hold hidden, glorious scenery just waiting to be discovered. I often contemplate the wondrous diversity of this country and despite the fact I’m often the victim of wanderlust for far-flung locations, there are plenty of places in the UK that I’ve yet to explore or, more accurately, explore in the right conditions. In Wales, I automatically think of the epic landscape of Snowdonia to…

1 DSLR CAMERA BODY DSLRs are favoured by many professional wildlife photographers due to their solid build quality, weather sealing, snappy autofocus, battery life, comprehensive lens ranges and memory card slots. DSLRs have two common sensor types, full-frame, which is equivalent to 35mm film, and APS-C, which is cropped and will make a lens feel more zoomed in. 2 POWERFUL TELEPHOTO LENS A lens with a long zoom range such as a 150-600mm will give you a brilliant reach allowing you to fill the frame with your distant wild subject. A 300mm f/2.8 lens is pricey, but preferred by many as its wide apertures let you shoot faster and blur the background into a buttery smooth bokeh. 3 HARD DRIVE If you plan to shoot for several days in a…

■ Use your camera’s continuous autofocus mode, AF-C on Nikon or AI Servo on Canon. This will ensure that when the shutter button is half-pressed, the camera will continually focus on the active AF point placed on the LCD or viewfinder. ■ Some cameras have an AF group mode which will present you with a larger target in your viewfinder to play with, giving you some leeway if your subject is very agile. ■ Premium telephoto lenses sometimes have a focus limiter which will make the lens focus faster and is useful when you know your subject is a certain distance away. ■ Try to get in a position where you can backlight your bird of prey in the golden hour to reveal incredible detail in the wing tips as…

■ Aperture-priority is the best mode to use for red squirrels as in this mode you can dial in the widest aperture to make it easy to blur backgrounds and also achieve faster shutter speeds. If you still struggle to get shutter speeds fast enough to eliminate camera shake, you can boost the ISO. ■ A gimbal head is a specialist tripod head that allows unwieldy heavy telephoto lenses to be moved along the horizontal and vertical axis effortlessly. ■ You can get camouflage for most lenses, like this example from LensCoat (right), which will help your lens blend into the environment and let you avoid scaring away skittish subjects like squirrels. They also act as a thermal barrier in cold climates and offer a small amount of protection. ■…

WITH LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY becoming increasingly competitive, it can be easy to lose your nerve and just shoot whatever you think your audience will enjoy, even if it’s not quite your cup of tea. Daniel Sands is a master at throwing himself in at the deep end and exploring new techniques, even if they’re not riding a popular trend. With a passion for innovation that’s created a portfolio positively overflowing with incredible landscapes, we think Daniel has cracked the formula for stunning photos. How and when did you first become interested in photography? I’ve always been interested in photography to some degree, but I only started to take it seriously in my adult life after being inspired by photos of my local county of Dorset. I (somewhat naively) shrugged these off…

Shooting with a model is a fantastic creative experience, and every photographer should give it a go at least once. The thought of directing a model can make many photographers nervous, even experienced shooters. That’s understandable, but we want to show you that you’ve got nothing to be worried about! As long as you’re friendly, professional and treat your model with respect, you’ll have a great shoot and take some fantastic photos. For the best results, you should plan out exactly what you want from the day, from locations to clothing to poses. Use sites such as Pinterest and Instagram for research and inspiration, and print off a few images to show your model. By sharing this information with them, they’ll have a better idea of what you want and…

GENRE MASH-UPS ARE an endlessly entertaining way to flex your creative muscles and create some unique photos that will surprise and delight your viewer. With so many amazing genres of photography to explore, there are endless combinations you can create by simply following your imagination. We’ve listed a few more of our favourite mash-ups here, including a toy car landscape project (perfect for your next coastal walk) and a wildlife portrait with a studio-effect twist. Now there’s nothing to stop you from cooking up a few more ingenious ideas of your own, so don’t be afraid to get creative. 1 STILL LIFE V LANDSCAPE MAKE TOYS THE FOCUS This technique is all about combining a toy vehicle, a beautiful location and the right camera settings to create a forced…

Q Looking at wildlife shots, I’ve noticed that most images are shot at very long focal lengths and even when the aperture is quite small the background is always blurry. So, does focal length have an effect on the depth-of-field? Abbie Richards, Devon Dan says: You’ve made a good observation Abbie. Wildlife photography generally relies on very long focal length lenses to avoid spooking the animals, and unless you spend thousands of pounds, most long lenses that wildlife photographers use will have maximum apertures of around f/6.3. And yet, as you say, the backgrounds are lovely and blurry. Narrowing your vision Our diagram below demonstrates that as the focal length of a lens increases, the depth of sharp focus decreases. A 300mm lens focused on a subject five metres away…

Q I’ve only ever shot digital but I really want to try my hand at film. Where do I start and what are the differences? Josh Knight, Hertfordshire Richard says: Film seems to be enjoying something of a revival of late – it hasn’t quite reached the ‘hipster’ level that vinyl has in audio recordings, but more and more people are interested in trying out the medium. To get started you will need a camera, of course. If it’s just a case of wanting to dip your toe then we’d recommend a cheap SLR that you could pick up from an online auction site, or from a dedicated reseller. We’ve picked three good options and profiled them below. Shooting on film is obviously going to be a different experience to…

Pointing your camera up at tall buildings can cause a perspective issue where it will appear that the building is ‘falling backwards’ in your frame. Before the dawn of digital photography you needed a tilt-shift lens or a large-format rail camera to adjust for this phenomenon. Now, it’s possible to fix distortion in the edit. You can do this in Lightroom inside the Develop module. In the right sidebar, scroll down to the Lens Correction panel. Click on the Basic tab and click on the ‘Auto’ option which usually does a good job of straightening the image up. If you’re not happy with the result, switch the tab to Manual and tweak the Vertical slider until your buildings are standing straight. For a similar tool in Photoshop, load up your…

SHOOTING GOOD QUALITY VIDEO can be done with just a capable DSLR or CSC, but there are lots of accessories that make it easier and give footage a more polished look. Fortunately, some of them you’ll already have... 1 CAMERA If you want lots of versatility, pick a camera that can shoot in 4K using the whole sensor as well as offering slow-motion settings. Some cameras manage longer recording time than others, too. 2 STORAGE Video eats up space on cards and drives very quickly, and the 4K requires lots of speed, so get several fast cards and/or a drive to back up on location. 3 SUPPORT A regular tripod is all you need for shake-free shots, and a fluid head will allow basic movements. If you want to shoot…

■ Why choose landscapes? In my youth I spent a lot of time walking in the Peak District and Lake District. They’re beautiful parts of the world and I guess I wanted to try and record those wonderful experiences. One particular occasion comes to mind when I was at Watendlath in the Lake District. It was a cold autumn day and I was shooting the farmhouse from across the tarn. The fells rose dramatically behind the farm as wisps of wood smoke appeared from the chimney. My black & white print captured not only what I’d seen but also what I was feeling and I realised then that this was the key to landscape photography. ■ What are the key ingredients to a stunning landscape? The most important ingredient is…

To really sell the effect of moving water, find a shot of very choppy water to add to the book, or you can create the effect yourself. In this final image, we added in some moving water rapids to create the illusion that the water is flowing over the edge of the book into the waterfall. It’s as simple as repeating Step 5, only using the rapid water image instead of waterfalls. Once you’ve introduced it into the image, you can change the colours to match up in the Hue/Saturation panel (Ctrl+U). In the Layers panel, click Add a mask and paint with a black Brush Tool set to a low opacity until it fits neatly.…

1 ONE L OF A MOUNT Lumix has adapted the existing Leica L mount for its new system. This is thanks to a partnership with Leica and Sigma, promising 42 lenses by the end of 2020. 2 HIGH-RES MODE Both cameras feature a High-Res sensor shift mode. This combines eight shots, with the S1 creating a 96MP file, and the S1R offering a mammoth 187MP final image. 3 BELIEVE YOUR EYES Both the S1 and S1R boast an industry-leading EVF with a truly massive 5760k-dot resolution. It claims a 0.005sec lag time, and can hit up to 120fps in refresh rate. 4 TRIAXIAL TILT Panasonic’s new CSCs omit a flip-out screen in favour of a triaxial touchscreen, designed to perform in extreme situations. 5 CONTROL FREAK Panasonic has listened to…

1 LARGE AND IN CHARGE Measuring in at a pretty sizeable 43.8x32.9mm, the 51.4MP medium-format sensor is 1.7x larger than a traditional 35mm camera sensor, allowing for more detailed images. 2 HIGH CONTRAST Despite its rangefinder inspiration, the 50R comes with a rather advanced 425-point contrast detection AF system – a most welcome addition. 3 OPTIC OPULENCE Since the GFX 50S was launched, the lens range has grown. Now incorporating telephoto, macro and wide-angle, it’s the perfect range to complement the huge files. 4 ALL THE RANGE The newly placed EVF helps to define the new rangefinder design, giving it a much more compact feel than the GFX 50S. 5 All exposed The top-plate omits an LCD screen, as found in its predecessor. It also swaps out the ISO dial…

1 MULTI ASPECT A switch on the lens barrel allows you to toggle between 3:2, 4:3, 1:1 and 16:9. This is brilliant if you want to get your framing right in-camera, as well as add an extra dimension. 2 Highly charged Bringing this entry in-line with the more recent Lumix additions, you can now charge via the Micro-USB port – great for topping up on the go. 3 4K PHOTO MODES As has become rather traditional with Panasonic’s latest releases, you get access to 4K Photo Modes. These include Burst Photo, Focus Stacking and Post Focus. 4 Getting touchy Unlike its predecessor, this version boasts a 3in touchscreen, which houses five customisable function ‘buttons’. It also allows you to navigate the menus. 5 LET’S GET PHYSICAL The control scheme is…

SIGMA 60-600MM F/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM SPORT £1899 SIGMA HAS BEEN ON A roll of late, releasing a spate of excellent glass, which now includes this huge 60-600mm behemoth. Tipping the scales at a beefy 2700g, this 10x zoom features a variable f/4.5-6.3 aperture, image stabilisation and huge 105mm front element. While it’s far from the smallest lens, it’s very well balanced and doesn’t feel as heavy as you’d expect. Plus, the OS (Optical Stabilizer) image stabilisation system goes a long way towards aiding handheld shooting, providing up to 4-stops of compensation. Construction is top-notch, taking advantage of tough carbon fibre reinforced plastic and rugged magnesium alloy. It’s also fully weather-sealed, able to resist dust and moisture and comes with a repellent coating on the front element – a must…

The ratings aren’t as clear cut as you might imagine. These ten cameras are the best of the best, and the highest tech that each manufacturer has to offer. While the Nikon D5 and Canon 1D X MkII don’t place highly, they’re both designed for maximum use in demanding fields, and as such are both world-class. Likewise, the Sony α 9 is phenomenal, and really broke the mould. However, it’s more than many people will ever likely require, and pricey too. The Hasselblad produces gorgeous files, but so too does the Fujifilm – at half the price. Canon’s 5D series has supported a generation, however the feature set is starting to look dated against the latest competition. And the winner is... “THE a7R III IS A HIGH-MEGAPIXEL 42.4MP ALL-ROUNDER CSC…