Table of contents for Spring 2022 in Digital Camera Magazine

Spring is finally here, and with it a great deal of fresh photo opportunities. Turn straight to our cover feature (page 50) for some fun and creative ways of shooting the icons of the new season. With techniques including refraction, silhouettes, water splashes, macro and more, there’s plenty to keep you busy over the coming month. Photo Active offers another appealing batch of projects to try today (p16), and there are so many inspirational images to savour from Travel Photographer of the Year, in Hotshots (p42), and the Sony World Photography Awards (p60). Leading pros to grace this issue include National Geographic legend Gerd Ludwig (p120) and Sandra Cattaneo Adorno (p100), while Kevin Mullins takes us on a street shoot in sunny Bristol (p8). Camera fans can discover our initial…

For someone who never set out to be a photographer, Kevin Mullins has built a successful career and carved out a distinctive niche for himself. His main income derives from candid wedding photography, shot in his trademark black and white style, but that’s not the only string to Kevin’s bow. He’s also a Fujifilm ambassador and an educator on subjects such as image editing and street photography, and it’s for the latter that we’re joining him today – for a walk around Bristol. It’s quite a departure from his previous career, building websites in London, until Kevin decided to swap his long commute for a photographic journey instead. Now, following a chance encounter with some inspirational photography in a magazine in 2008, plus a lot of hard work in the…

1/30 sec f/11 ISO 200 I am a macro flower photographer based in Sway on the edge of the New Forest. I found my passion for macro flower photography while studying for a degree in horticulture in 2005. Having been married to a professional press photographer, I was able to draw on his knowledge of the technical aspects of photography. Through nurturing this expertise, I now have an innate eye for composition and an appreciation of the natural world. Nature and flowers inspire me greatly, with an endless supply of colour and texture in the garden, which bring a fresh opportunity each day. My garden revolves around my love of photography, with many plants grown in pots that I’m able to move around and place where the light is best,…

1/3200 sec f/4 ISO 800 The best places to look for hares boxing are open grassy or arable fields, particularly near to woodland fringes or substantial hedgerows, where the hares can usually find shelter. To increase your chances of finding a boxing match, it’s best to get up and out early, and stay downwind to avoid your scent giving you away. You should definitely leave the dog at home. With near 360-degree vision, hares are likely to spot you if you’re on foot, but seem less worried by cars. If possible, shoot from your car with the window down and a beanbag for support; you’ll need a long telephoto lens of 400mm or more. You can spot hares boxing as their mating season begins, from March to April and onwards.…

1/60 sec f/6.3 ISO 100 1 Location, location Drones put us in front of and above interesting places and things, but it still takes a good eye to get the look and feel of what we see. Seek interesting locations where you can capture unique textures, lines and shadows. Feeling the need to shoot from high above? Try a bit lower. One unique advantage is that we can fly lower than a plane, but higher than the rooftop. 2 Apply the basic principles Think of your flying camera as you do your land camera. Many of the same rules and technical issues apply: the correct exposure so that you don’t have blown highlights or lost details in the shadows; good composition so that the main subject isn’t necessarily in the centre of…

f/2.8 ISO 100 1/400 sec 1 Careful composition Set up your composition with the camera on a beanbag to keep it stable and close to the ground. The idea here is to frame one bloom with blurred flowers front and back, using the Live View screen as your framing guide. 2 Focus on the stamen Either use a single AF point, or manually focus on the yellow stamen. Zoom in to check the accuracy of focus, but if using a beanbag, take great care not to move the camera’s position while you do so, because your depth of field will be minimal. 3 Dial in your settings In Aperture Priority mode, set an aperture of f/2.8 and meter off the brighter stamen using Spot. In some lighting conditions you may need to use…

1 Set up your scene Place your Easter eggs – or any other set of colourful shapes – on a table, and position a sheet of glass above them, propped up by two tumblers. Put some water drops on the glass, and with your camera on a tripod, frame up with a macro lens. 2 Dial in your camera settings Use Aperture Priority mode and select a medium f/number (like f/8, for example). Use Live View mode, switch to Manual Focus, and focus on the refraction in the water drops. Zoom in on the screen to ensure your focus point is pin-sharp. 3 Capture the refraction shot Engage the self-timer and set a delay of 2 secs to make sure you don’t jog the camera when taking the shot. Take a test shot…

f/5.6 ISO 400 1/400 sec Frogs might not be the easiest subjects to find or shoot for most of the year, but come the mating season, that all changes. You just need to find a local pond or lake where they spawn each season and keep checking it for activity, because you never know when they are going to start, although a slight increase in temperature can trigger amorous activity. Once mating activity starts, remember that the environment is just as important as the frogs themselves, so scope out what natural elements you have, such as plants or reeds, to use as natural framing devices. Don’t be afraid to leave plenty of space around your main subjects. TIP CARD Take it on location! Try visiting your local ponds or lake…

To introduce colour and action into a rainy day, find a willing young subject who doesn’t mind getting wet! Grey-day environments can be transformed with bright colours, so a rainbow brolly and vibrant wellies are all you need if you want to capture a fun, action portrait. Aside from colour, these kinds of shots are all about freezing the motion of the waterdrops in a splash, and of course, timing the shot to the precise moment. Set your camera to its highest frame rate or ‘burst’ speed, then get your subject to stand in so you can frame up and focus. Once you’ve done this, you can fire off a burst of shots as they jump, then select the best option from the brace of shots you’ll get. The camera…

f/4 ISO 100 1/100 sec Many flowers appear as winter loses its grip – the snowdrop is just one example. (You may have missed them by the time you read this, but you can use the following principles for other ground flowers.) To photograph snowdrops in an arty way, get low (just as we did with the frogs) and shoot them using the widest aperture (the lowest f/number) that your lens allows. By setting f/2.8 or f/4 on a medium telephoto or macro lens, you can capture some intriguing background diffusion. Add a bit of backlighting from either naturally occurring daylight or a carefully positioned LED lamp and your results will be good enough to print out and put in a frame. Review the sharpness and diffusion Precise focusing is…

Polly Braden Photographer Title: Holding the Baby Location: UK Date: 2021 www.pollybraden.com Holding the Baby is the latest work from Polly Braden. The project was originally prompted by a visit by Philip Alston, the UN poverty expert, to the UK in 2019. He concluded that the impact of austerity was greatest on single-parent families, prompting Braden to look at some of the prejudices that manifest for those left ‘holding the baby’. “In 2018, I became a single parent of two children,” says Braden. “All too quickly, I was made aware of how complex and challenging it is. Leaving the house to pop to the supermarket became complicated; a delayed train meant I had to scramble to find someone to pick them up. There was no-one to discuss the children’s needs…

BECOME A PHOTOSHOP MASTER! This month… Tool School: Crop tool essentials Are you making the most of the features within this invaluable Photoshop tool? Read on to discover what you’re missing Fundamentals: Edit spring portraits Find out how to retouch your sunny-day images without taking up too much time in the process Get the Look: Give street shots a stylistic boost Introducing four techniques for adding a unique and distinctive style to a variety of images VIDEO TRAINING The issue 254 download includes video lessons that build on our tutorials, plus bonus videos with extra tips! www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc254 52 MINUTES OF VIDEO FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc254 Download 52 minutes of video training for Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo. FILE & VIDEO www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc254…

Streets have been happy hunting grounds for photographers since the earliest days of the medium. The genre took off in the 20th century and has grown as more and more people take up digital photography. With the latter, the scope for adding a sense of style and mood allows photographers to capture not only their unique view of the world, but to present it in their own unique way, too. We’re going to look at four completely different ways to apply stylistic effects to your street shots that will help you to add all-important finishing touches to make your photography shine. Some of the effects can work well together, and all can be applied individually. But their true strength is that they can be further tweaked using different blending modes…

Graham employed his tripod well to capture the rotating Ferris wheel at various shutter speeds. In this series of images, we can clearly the effect of the shutter speed duration. To reduce the chance of camera shake, it’s a good idea to use your camera’s built-in self timer, so the shot will begin after you have moved your hand away from the camera. The effect shown above was easy to achieve in the low light of the early evening – with more ambient light, you would have needed to use an ND filter.…

The second iteration of the QR11 comes in two sizes to provide compatibility with a wider range of camera models. The QR11 L2.0 is designed for standard-sized cameras, while the QR11 FB2.0 is intended for full-body and gripped cameras. Both options are compatible with Arca-Swiss tripod heads and offer a reversible vertical aspect for improved access to side ports. Choose from 3LT’s signature Copper or Metallic Slate Grey finishes. www.3leggedthing.com; from £49.99/$59.99\…

instagram.com/gadgetsjon Jon is a professional photographer, videographer and technology journalist. Should photographers continue to own the rights to images S they capture of celebrities? That’s a question being pondered as a federal court in California rules on a case. Unsurprisingly, this controversial case has come about because of social media and issues around copyright and ownership. The allegedly infringing image features two legendary hip-hop artists: Nas and Tupac. The picture, which shows the pair hanging out at a New York nightclub in 1993, was captured by celebrity photographer Al Pereira. The case is being brought by Pereira against Nas, who shared the image on his own Instagram account back in 2020. Court documents acquired by media outlet RadarOnline revealed that the case was brought by Pereira against rapper Nas after…

www.tamron.eu At first glance, the Tamron 150-500mm looks and similar to its DSLR-format 150-600mm G2 sibling. The range of switches, for triple-mode VC (Vibration Compensation), auto/manual focusing and an autofocus range limiter, is pretty much identical. Unlike many other Tamron lenses, the ‘VC’ optical stabiliser has switchable operating modes: Modes 1 and 2 are for static and panning shots respectively; Mode 3 is a ‘framing priority’ option that only applies stabilisation during actual exposures. This makes it easier to track erratically moving objects in the camera’s viewfinder or on the rear screen, similar to Mode 3 on some Canon telephoto lenses and Nikon’s ‘Sport VR’ mode. This lens is completely different to Tamron’s 150-600mm in terms of autofocus. The DSLR-based lens uses a conventional ring-type ultrasonic system but the 150-500mm…

Lens mount Fujifilm X The Fujifilm 18-135mm is lightweight but sturdily set of weather-seals. Build quality feels excellent and, as an ‘R’ lens, it features a physical aperture ring. The 7.5x zoom range is small, equating to 27-206mm in full-frame terms, so the reach isn’t generous. The linear stepping motor autofocus system is fast for stills and delivers smooth focus transitions. Another bonus is a highly effective 5-stop optical stabiliser. Performance Despite the limited zoom range, sharpness is only good in the central region of the frame, and even here it drops off at the long end. Sharpness towards the edges and corners of the frame are lacklustre at all zoom settings. Colour fringing and distortions are relatively low, thanks to in-camera firmware corrections. Sharpness Centre-sharpness drops off at long…

Lens mount Micro Four Thirds he two main choices of superzooms for Micro this lens and the Olympus 14-150mm. We prefer the Panasonic – it doesn’t give such powerful telephoto reach, but there’s little in it, the 2x crop factor giving a zoom range of 28-280mm. It’s smaller and lighter than the Olympus lens, and compact for a superzoom at 265g. Ideal for stills and movie capture, the lens features an autofocus system based on a stepping motor. As with all but the Sigma 18-300mm and Tamron 18-400mm lenses on test, the focus ring is stationary during autofocus, but enables manual override. Performance Sharpness is good at both ends of the zoom range, but less impressive in the middle sector. Good dustand splash-resistance boosts confidence for travel shooting. Sharpness Mid-sector…

Lens mount Sony E For close-ups, the minimum focus distance ranging from 0.19m to 0.8m. Optical highlights include GM (Glass Moulded Aspherical), hybrid aspherical, LD (Low Dispersion) and XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) elements. Tamron’s BBAR (Broad-Band Anti-Reflective) coating is applied to minimise ghosting and flare. The RXD (Rapid eXtra-silent Drive) autofocus system is based on a stepping motor and is compatible with Sony’s Fast Hybrid AF, Eye AF and DMF (Direct Manual Focus) modes. Performance The speed and accuracy of the autofocus system is very good, and near-silent in operation. Image quality is decent, but the zoom range is modest compared with the competing Canon and Nikon lenses. Sharpness Levels of sharpness are very good and consistent, throughout the zoom range. Fringing Short 0.05 Long 0.36 Colour fringing is pretty…

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Gerd Ludwig Documentary photographer Based in Los Angeles, Gerd has shot for the likes of National Geographic and his photography has won plaudits the world over. Read more on page 120 Kevin Mullins Street photographer A master of candid photography, Kevin is a passionate advocate of shooting in black and white. He shows us why everything has to start with light, from page 8 Aishling Barratt Smartphone photographer Having discovered the joys of photography on her daily walks during the Covid-19 pandemic, Aishling shares her insights for successful scenics on page 20 Jon Devo Photographer and writer While Jon loves to ponder the benefits of ever-changing camera tech, this month he focuses on who should own the copyright of photos of other people. Page 102 Jacky Parker Flower photographer Having studied…

“The key thing is to always look for the light – a dappled reflective light is always pleasing. Meter for the highlights using the camera’s built-in metering system; spot metering works well if you’re using either fully automatic or semi-auto modes, or you can just use the metering system. It’ll give you an exposure reading and you can dial that in manually, pre-focus on the area and just wait for something interesting to come into that area. The key thing is to meter for the highlight area and wait for someone to enter from the shadows and into the highlights, then you should get what you want.”…

You don’t need to have a beautiful garden to shoot flowers! These three images were taken at local public gardens, all shot handheld on fairly bright/overcast days to avoid harsh shadows. I always carry a knee pad to get down low to see how the subject interacts with the surrounding light, removing any distracting objects from the foreground. You should always be aware of backgrounds – to soften them, I often use a shallow depth of field. Aim to make sure the centre of the flower is the centre of your focus, as this will also draw the eye in. If possible, move around the plant to check for the best composition. All these images were edited in Camera Raw, with the shadows and highlights adjusted. I used my ‘Floaty…

Thinking creatively about how to make subjects come to the fore in your images is time well spent. In this simple scene, how do we make the balloon pictured floating in front of a strong sky stand out? To start with, we can desaturate the background so it becomes greyscale, then add the balloon over the top to make it stand out even more. You can try this approach with any subject, whether it’s an umbrella or a bright colour scene. Have a go yourself and see how an image can be transformed… Produce a ‘colour pop’ image in three steps 1 Convert to greyscale Open your colour photo, convert it to greyscale and save the image with a different filename. Now go to your original colour image and select the…

1/500 sec f/6.3 ISO 4000 I started volunteering for the Earth Trust charity in Oxfordshire, which had several reserves replete with a wide variety of wildlife. This led to me purchasing a Canon EOS 7D Mark II. After a few months, the charity asked me to become their nature photographer and shared my photos in their studies and social media. Photography has really boosted my confidence and allowed me to meet some truly wonderful people. I have a huge passion for all animals, with a particular interest in badgers, owls and birds of prey – red kites, buzzards and kestrels – documenting their daily lives. I would encourage everyone to get out in nature where possible and take photographs of any subject on a camera phone or a pro-level camera.…

1/4000 sec f/5.6 ISO 800 Whether you like to shoot in full manual, W auto exposure mode or somewhere in between, you can learn to capture images full of contrast. The first stage is to give yourself a good chance of success by heading out at the right time. Early in the morning isn’t ideal, because the sun is quite low – far too much of the street usually falls into darkness. I tend to shoot these types of images during the middle of the day. The sun is at a peak time in the sky, causing far more obvious areas of light and dark for you to work with. Placing the sun to your left or right is a good place to start. Today, I was shooting on the…

OVERALL WINNER Eigg, Small Isles, Scotland Fortunato Gatto, Italy “I was alone in this place for about two weeks. I observed the tidal phenomenon for days until I could see peaks drawn in the sand, with the reflection of the clouds in the middle.” Canon EOS 5D Mk III and 24-70mm lens; 1/4 sec at f/13, ISO 100 WINNER: YOUNG TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 14 YEARS AND UNDER CATEGORY Al Dhaid, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Indigo Larmour, Ireland (aged 13) “When rushing to get the best spots, lots of dust and sand is kicked up by both people and camels.” Nikon D600 and 24-85mm lens; 1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 800 WINNER: ONE SHOT – ICONS OF TRAVEL Pyongyang, North Korea, Alain Schroeder, Belgium “An old woman walks under…

f/8 ISO 100 1/15 sec Some photo opportunities happen in front of you and require you to react, while others demand that you take a proactive approach and set everything up to create the possibility. This Easter-egg project is very much of the latter form, and will provide you with an enthralling hour indoors. You don’t need a studio to make it happen – just a few simple props. A really important aspect of the setup is that you treat the glass with some rain repellent (the kind of stuff you squirt on car windscreens). This will cover the glass with a hydrophobic coating and allow water to bead up into a ‘lens’. Without treatment, the water drops will be too flat to work effectively. WATCH THE VIDEO FIRST! See…

f/4 ISO 100 1/200 sec If you – or perhaps more importantly, your camera and lens – are not a big fan of wet days, then this project will allow you to capture the spectacle of an April shower in controlled and (relatively) dry conditions. You’ll need a hose (or a helping hand with a watering can), plus a flashgun that can be fired off camera by a cable or wireless trigger. You’ll also need a prop for your ‘rain’ to fall onto – all you have to do is backlight the water with the flash to get a convincing shot.…

FINALIST Wildlife & Nature Oana Baković, Romania ‘Absolute Beginner’ is a series of images exploring the great variety and beauty of the flora in the photographer’s local area. FINALIST Architecture & Design Javier Arcenillas, Spain ‘Nur-Sultan’ presents a series of photographs of the remarkable and eccentric architecture of the capital of Khazakstan. FINALIST Landscape Lorenzo Poli, Italy ‘Life on Earth’ delves into the ethereal magic of nature and the mysterious beauty of an untamed world, depicted through a diverse set of landscapes. FINALIST Documentary Projects Fabian Ritter, Germany ‘The Long Days of Hanau’ documents the community in Hanau, Germany in the aftermath of the racist attacks in the city on 19 February 2020. FINALIST Creative Alnis Stakle, Latvia ‘Mellow Apocalypse’ reprises visuals from open-source collections such as museums, scientific institutions and image banks to…

1 ‘Misty Sunrise’ by Steve Rex “This photograph was taken from my house in Shropshire last January as part of a series of sunrise photos. Using my Fujifilm XT2 and an 18-55mm lens, I chose a reasonably small aperture of f/18 to produce a starburst effect.” Digital Camera says: A very well-composed image, Steve. The rule of thirds is heavily in play here, with the placement of the tree, the grass and the part of the sky where the clouds are breaking. Warm and vibrant tones finish off the shot nicely. 2 ‘Untitled’ by Don Dmitriy “Travelling through Norway in our car, we became fascinated by this small, unknown lake and how stunning and calming it is. We couldn’t stop ourselves from pausing for some time to admire this beautiful scene while…

Of all the edits you can make to an image in Photoshop, cropping could potentially be the most transformative. A tighter crop can elevate a photo to another level. It can help to remove distractions around the edges, create an unusual aspect ratio or lead to a stronger composition. Here, a cinematic aspect ratio of 16:9 lets us come in tighter to our subject, enhance the mood and remove extraneous details around the edges. Cropping can also be functional. We might need to straighten a wonky horizon, correct sloppy framing or prepare an image for printing at a certain size. With so many uses – both creative and practical – it pays to know the ins and outs of the Crop tool. It may come as a surprise to learn…

Reader 1 Jack B Coll Camera: Canon EOS 80D Location: Bristol Jack originally picked up his first DSLR when he was a teenager, becoming ‘that guy with the camera’ at parties. More recently, he has been interested in abstract and experimental photography techniques, which have led to him unexpectedly acquiring a sizeable collection of pieces of textured glass. “I’ll often hold these in front of my lens to create random artifacts across the image for my abstract style,” he explains. Instagram: @jbcollphotography Reader 2 Graham Foster Camera: Canon EOS 800D Location: Bath Having enjoyed taking standard ‘point and shoot’ holiday snaps over the years, Graham bought a DSLR a couple of years ago. Since then, with more settings to control, he has been learning new techniques and exploring new styles.…

What is Dioptric Adjustment? We all have different eyesight, therefore the view through the viewfinder and the technical data we read on there needs adjustment so that it suits our vision. Otherwise, what you see when you look through the viewfinder could be blurred. How easy is it to correct? Very easy. Most cameras have a small, built-in Dioptre Adjustment wheel that you turn one way or the other to correct the clarity of what you see. Usually you’ll find it on your camera near to the viewfinder, but not always with a plus (+) and a minus (–) symbol marked. How do I adjust it? Look through the viewfinder and turn the wheel until what you see either sharpens or blurs. You should be able to see the scene…

Version two of this raw file processor now allows users to pre-process images without leaving Lightroom and, says DxO, delivers significant speed improvements. In addition, support for cameras with X-Transsensors has arrived, offering Fujifilm photographers the benefits of this software, while improved OS integration brings access to PureRAW via context menus. PureRAW launched last year, and takes DxO’s existing image processing and lens correction technologies and employs them in an entirely new way. Users can optimise their raw files before processing them in their regular software, exporting the image as an “enhanced” DNG raw file. www.dxo.com; £115/$129 (regular price). £69/$92 (upgrade from PureRAW)…

Complementing the far more affordable f/11 RF super-telephotos that the manufacturer launched in 2020 is this pair of top-end primes with price tags to match. The brand’s shortest and lightest-ever 800mm L-series lens, the RF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM weighs in at just over 3.1kg. The RF 1200mm f/8L IS USM is “the world’s longest AF focal length lens for mirrorless cameras,” says Canon, and is 13kg lighter and 30cm shorter than its EF-mount sibling for DSLRs. Both of these new RF optics feature nine-blade apertures and Canon’s top-tier lens coatings, plus no end of cutting-edge lens technology inside. www.canon.co.uk; £19,099.99/$16,999 (RF 800mm f/5.6). £22,449.99/$20,000 (RF 1200mm f/8)…

www.panasonic.com The Panasonic Lumix GH6 shows that Panasonic still has faith in its Lumix G Micro Four Thirds line-up. The new GH6 sits right at the top of the Lumix G range, offering powerful 4K and 5.7K video capabilities, but in a smaller, lighter and cheaper setup than a full-frame system. It’s a serious step up from the Lumix GH5 II, which is essentially an update to Panasonic’s long-running and popular GH5 model, and brings higher resolution, unlimited recording times, a huge leap in frame rates and a wider choice of recording formats, bit depths, bitrates and codecs. While video features are at the heart of the GH6, it’s laid out like a mirrorless camera, and is a highly capable stills camera, matching the resolution of many full-frame models, but…

Whether you’re taking casual shots on walkabout or travelling to the ends of the earth, nobody really wants to be weighed down by a big bag of lenses. A so-called ‘superzoom’ lens offers an all-in-one solution, typically covering everything from useful wide-angle coverage to powerful telephoto reach, at the twist of a zoom ring. As well as enabling you to adapt to pretty much any shooting scenario, it also ensures that you won’t miss any definitive moments because you were changing the lens on your camera at the time. Sticking to just one lens might seem counter-intuitive if you’ve bought a system camera that takes interchangeable lens. Historically, superzooms were notorious for being a poor substitute for using the right tool for the job, the oversized zoom ranges tending to…

Lens mount Nikon Z (DX) This doesn’t have the extravagant zoom range of delivers a useful ‘effective’ 27-210mm in full-frame terms. It’s a mirrorless makeover of Nikon’s popular AF-S DX 18-140mm VR kit lens for DSLRs, but with a more lightweight build, though quality feels good overall. Handling is refined, and alternative functions can be assigned to the manual focus ring in autofocus mode. However, there are no physical auto/manual focus or VR on/off switches, requiring settings to be changed via in-camera menus. Performance The stepping motor-based autofocus is fast and virtually silent, and enables smooth transitions during video capture. Like many recent lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, however, this relies on in-camera correction for distortions. Sharpness Sharpness drops off in the 70-140mm sector of the zoom range, but it’s…

Lens mounts See table on page 118 Until recently, Sigma marketed both this 18-200mm superzoom. The 18-300mm is only 16mm longer at its minimum zoom setting, but its focal length stretches 50 per cent further. It employs Sigma’s TSC (Thermally Stable Composite) material, and the mounting plate is solid metal, but doesn’t have a weather-seal ring. As with other Global Vision lenses, it’s compatible with Sigma’s USB Dock. Speciality glass includes four top-grade FLD (‘Fluorite’ Low Dispersion) elements and one SLD. Performance Typical of motor-based ultrasonic systems, the one in this lens isn’t speedy and is clearly audible, as well as lacking manual override. The optical stabiliser gives a 4-stop effectiveness, complete with auto panning detection, boosting handheld performance. Sharpness Sharpness is excellent through most of the range, dropping off…

Some of the latest lenses for mirrorless full-frame cameras years have been significantly better than the older DSLR-based siblings. Superzooms are no exception, the Nikon Z 24-200mm, Canon RF 24-240mm and Tamron 28-200mm all delivering excellent image quality and all-round performance, albeit with quite a lot of help from in-camera corrections. Either way, they’re superb and enormously versatile lenses for Nikon Z, Canon EOS R and Sony Alpha E-mount cameras respectively. The Nikon Z DX 18-140mm, Fujifilm 18-135mm and Panasonic 14-140mm lenses for crop-sensor cameras aren’t quite as impressive in terms of outright image quality. On the plus side, however, they’re nicely compact and lightweight, making them particularly appealing for travel and walkabout lenses. Again, they’re the best choices for Nikon Z DX, Fujifilm X and Micro Four Thirds cameras.…

9 ALL-NEW PHOTO TIPS CARDS If your magazine doesn’t have printed cards, you can print your own using the PDFs in the Gifts folder of your download. This month’s set includes action, macro – and more! 274-page Buyers Guide ebook Bursting with camera and lens reviews, plus buying advice for accessories! See the Gifts folder in your download and choose your next purchase. Lightroom Smart Collections preset Download this and speed up your editing workflow. A complement to this issue’s One to One pro masterclass (see page 13). Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials Expert video training for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Camera Raw – see page 79 for a full listing of the topics covered in this issue! HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS STEP 1 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc254 Enter the…

ISO 100 f/1.2 1/250 sec Shooting a studio portrait can be a little daunting when you first attempt it. Some shoots are more challenging than others, of course, but when it’s just you and a model with minimal props, you have to get the posing right. Every model will have their own style of posing, and as the photographer you will need to help as much as you can. Seeing angles through your viewfinder, you’ll be in the best position to judge – sometimes just a slight twist of the waist or bend of the arm can make the difference between an elegant shot or an awkward one. We’re going to take a look at some of the basics – the wacky Vogue poses can wait until another day. Once…

Growing up in the South Downs of Sussex, I spent most of my free time as a child exploring the Seven Sisters, the Cuckmere Valley and the surrounding areas. I then became fascinated by photography as a teenager, going on to study it at college, and was soon using the medium to both investigate and express my passion for the natural world. Often experimenting with both abstract and representative photography, I’ve honed my approach from fine art influences, as well as the work of master photographers including Eliot Porter, Joe Cornish, John Blakemore and Sonja Bullaty. I’ll use long exposures and selective focus to create a sense of urgency, and aim to capture the image in camera with as little post-shoot editing as possible. The photographs displayed here were shot…

Getting your focus point spot on is critical with macro shots. Under the magnification of a macro lens, it’s hard to achieve using autofocus, so you’ll get more successful results by taking full control of the process. In Live View mode, where you use the screen to frame up and focus, you can zoom in on the image by up to 10x. This allows you to be ultra-critical when focusing, and you can make sure that your focus is exactly where you want it. If you find your depth of field is too shallow when your shot is sharp, use a smaller aperture (a higher f/number) to deepen the zone of sharp focus and make the background appear sharper. To do the opposite, use a large aperture (a low f/number).…

Most of the time, we look at the world around us from eye level, but a perspective that’s five to six feet above ground is rarely the most dynamic, because that’s how everyone else sees the world. To reveal a fresh angle on a subject, it pays to think differently, and with flowers. That usually means getting low. From a ground-level camera position, flowers will instantly become more dominant in the frame, and you are also changing their relationship with whatever is in the background. To shoot low, use your vari-angle LCD screen, if your camera has one. If it doesn’t then lying prone on a groundsheet is the next best thing – but not as comfortable! Get a natural starburst background To add a starburst to a sunlit daffodil…

With a macro lens, or a set of extension tubes that allow a regular lens to focus closer than normal, you can create artistic shots on a small scale. To do this, you only need a water drop as a focal point, and with a shallow depth of field and a careful focusing technique, you can create subtle and delicate fine-art images using subjects like feathers or dandelion puffballs. It pays to think about your colour palette when framing up these kind of shots, and an easy way to do this in-camera is by trying different White Balance presets. Shoot in daylight using an ‘Indoor’ White Balance setting, and you’ll apply a cool blue wash over the entire scene.…

And the winner of the Winter Scenes challenge is… Peter Kurdulija Titled ‘And Just When I Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Better…’ this image was taken in New Zealand, at Lake Tekapo. Peter captured it on his Nikon D7100 with a Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens; exposure 1/400sec at f/10, ISO 100. Digital Camera says: A great panoramic shot with such a well balanced composition. The central focus of the church works well and the sharp foreground is pleasing. Including the two people draws the eye towards the sun above them, and the panoramic shape lends a sense of space and awe. 2nd place: Susie Tanser Well done to Susie for this image of a bison on a winter’s morning in Yellowstone National Park, USA. The many layers in this image…

As nature starts to open up, it’s time to stretch out and do the things that warmer weather allows. If you’re a lover of portrait photography, the options at this time of year are just amazing. Bluebell woods, wild garlic and blooming hawthorn and elderberry offer wonderful settings for portraits. It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting with natural light or using flash – what matters is utilising the location and editing to bring out the best in the photograph. As it happens, the shot above was lit using a big soft umbrella from camera left, but a diffuser blocking the sun, or a reflector bouncing light in, would have worked as well. There’s always a fear that Lightroom isn’t sufficient for editing portraits, but in reality, it’s more than adequate…

Challenge 1 Jack B Coll After meeting up in College Green, we plotted a circular route around the various installations. By the time we got to the Disco Ball in Millennium Square, it was busy with Thursday night revellers. “I liked the way the people had arranged themselves in this shot – the cluster on the left eventually giving way towards the empty space towards the right,” says Jack. “I was drawn to the lone figure in red standing still while everyone else was dancing or otherwise in motion. It gave the photo a sense of loneliness, of being alone in the crowd. The red jacket also pops nicely amid the blue light.” “In retrospect, I feel I should have tried more shots concentrating on the reflection of the crowd…

WIN AND GET PUBLISHED! See your photo printed alongside some of the world’s finest wildlife photographers Remembering Bears will be the seventh book in the charity book series started by wildlife photographer Margot Raggett in 2016. She was prompted to take action after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya, and started asking fellow wildlife photographers if they would contribute to a fundraising book. Remembering Elephants and its successors – Remembering Rhinos, Remembering Great Apes, Remembering Lions, Remembering Cheetahs and Remembering African Wild Dogs – have between them raised more than £886,000/US$1.159 million for 55 conservation projects across 24 countries. For 2022, Margot has announced that the next book in the series will be Remembering Bears. The book will be published on Monday 10 October 2022 and will feature stunning images…

This is a grab shot and there wasn’t time to dial in the ideal exposure so the image is underexposed and the composition could do with fine-tuning. We can turn the original raw file into a desaturated, grungy-looking street photo, with the man walking by the door contrasting with the portraits on and above it. Tick both Lens Correction boxes before using Transform to rotate and straighten the image; in the Basic panel, use the Whites slider and Exposure to brighten it. To increase contrast, push the Clarity and Texture Sliders up to +20 on each. We don’t want the image to be totally black and white, but we do want to hold the colour back, so decrease the Saturation Slider until the right balance is achieved between mono and…

With its robust exterior promising reliability even in the most demanding conditions, this new model continues Leica’s tradition of producing special editions that will appeal to press and documentary photographers. The Reporter variant eschews the Q2 Monochrom’s standard leather trim for a special Kevlar ‘body armour’, and the remaining areas of the camera body are protected by a special dark green paint with abrasion-resistant properties. Inside, a 47MP greyscale full-frame sensor will capture unparalleled detail from the Q2 Monochrom’s fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 lens. leica-camera.com; £5,250; $6,295…

www.olympus-global.com The Olympus OM-1 is the camera that Olympus loyalists have been waiting for – and in two very distinct, opposite ways. At one end of the spectrum, the Olympus OM-1 is the firm’s latest flagship camera, replacing both the Olympus OM-D E-M1X (2019) and Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III (2020). At the other, it is also the last camera that will ever bear the Olympus brand name; after purchasing the imaging division from Olympus, all future cameras released by OM Digital Solutions will carry the ‘OM System’ brand instead. Thus, it marks the end of an era in one sense, and the beginning of an era in another. So does the OM-1 have what it takes to rank among the best Micro Four Thirds cameras on the market today?…

FujifIlm X-T4 £1,399/$1,699 The APS-C format XT-4 is an extremely strong rival to the GH6, especially with its phase-detect autofocus. Reviewed: issue 231 Panasonic Lumix S5 £1,699/$1,699 Incredibly, the full frame Lumix S5 is no larger than the GH6, and is a close match for video capabilities, too. Reviewed: issue 235 Sigma fp £1,599/$1,699 A completely different kind of camera to the GH6, the Sigma fp has film-making kudos of its own. Reviewed: issue 226…

Lens mount Canon RF Canon has long made an EF 28-300mm superzoom for C its full-frame DSLRs, but it’s enormous at 1,670g, and pricey. By contrast, this RF-mount lens is under half the weight at 750g. The 10x zoom range kicks off with a wide-angle 24mm focal length. Attractions include a fast and virtually silent Nano USM autofocus system, 5-stop optical stabilisation and an electronically coupled control ring, switchable for manual focus. Performance Although the autofocus and stabilisation systems work well, optical performance could be better. Sharpness is good, but colour fringing and distortions are dire at some focal lengths. Arguably, that’s a moot point, as many mirrorless lenses rely on automatic in-camera corrections. Taking these into the equation, this lens’s image quality is very good. Sharpness Sharpness is excellent…

Lens mount Nikon Z (FX) The Z 24-200mm naturally gives you a greater T maximum viewing angle, but loses out for telephoto reach. Although it’s not from Nikon’s acclaimed S-line stable, build quality is good. Premium glass includes two ED elements, one aspherical ED element, and two further aspherical elements. Top-quality ARNEO Coat is applied to minimise ghosting and flare. Performance of the 4.5-stop optical VR system is enhanced when used with the in-body stabilisation of FX Z-mount cameras, and even more essential when mounted on the Z 50 or Z fc. Performance Along with fast, quiet autofocus and excellent handling, the lens delivers superb image quality. Sharpness remains impressive throughout the entire zoom range and across the whole image frame. Sharpness It’s the pick of the crop for retaining…

Lens mounts Canon EF-S, Nikon F (DX) A vailable in Nikon F DX and Canon EF-S mount options, range of 27-600mm and 28.9-640mm respectively, stretching into full super-telephoto territory. The optical design includes two moulded glass aspherical elements and one hybrid aspherical element, plus three low-dispersion elements. Autofocus is driven by an HLD (High/Low torque-modulated Drive) motor. However, the focus ring rotates during autofocus, and there’s no full-time manual override. Build quality is good and features weather-seals. Performance Long-end sharpness is less impressive than with any other lens on test, and colour fringing is noticeable as well. Optical stabilisation is only worth about 2.5 stops, which is less than in most recent and current Tamron ‘VC’ lenses. Sharpness Long-zoom sharpness is lacking throughout the zoom range towards the corners. Fringing…

Gerd Ludwig may not be a name that immediately trips off the tongue when you’re thinking about the world’s greatest photographers, but if you haven’t yet seen his work, then you’ve been missing out on something very special. Ludwig was born in Germany just two years after the end of World War II, and a certain sense of guilt – his father was part of the German forces that invaded Russia in 1942 – helped to shape his future approach to his work. Early on, he abandoned plans to shoot fashion for a career after seeing photography from the Vietnam War, which ultimately led to him deciding to become a photojournalist. He is arguably best known for documenting life in Russia, especially the aftermath of the 1986 nuclear disaster in…

PLUS! 10 all-new photo projects One to One pro masterclass Reader Shootout Editing tutorials ON TEST Leica Q2 Reporter Nikkor Z 28-75mm f/2.8 Mini Test: CFexpress cards DON’T MISS OUT! SUBSCRIBE TODAY & GET A FREE BAG Get Digital Camera delivered and receive a fabulous free gift! See page 40 ON SALE Friday 29 April Contents subject to change…