Table of contents for February 2016 in Digital Camera Magazine

TO KICK off the new year with a frenzy of creativity, we’ve complied a whole year’s worth of fresh and exciting ideas for you to try. With 52 amazing projects to get your creative teeth stuck into, there’s more than enough to keep you going. We’ve included a wide range of cool techniques and wacky ideas that’ll stretch your skill and boost your portfolio. Oh, and don’t forget to share your results with us! We’d love to see them. We also enjoyed a blustery day on the Jurassic coast shooting in gale-force winds with readers Shaun and Mark. Turn to page 74 to enjoy the results. If you’d like to take part in one of our Shootout days, please drop us a line. As usual, there’s also a bunch of…

PERPLEXED BY A PHOTOGRAPHIC PROBLEM? CAUGHT UP IN CAMERA CONFUSION? Send your question to digitalcamera@futurenet.com and let us provide you with a solution ANDREW JAMES Our expert photo advisor is here to help Double up Q My camera allows in-camera multiple exposures. Is this worth trying, or is it just a gimmick? Launa Hopkins A I don’t think it’s a gimmick, Launa. It can be quite fun to experiment with, although some of the results you get are probably best deleted! If you’re wondering what Launa is asking about, it’s possible your camera doesn’t have this function, although an increasing number of models do. Each model will vary in terms of how its multi-exposure facility works or how much flexibility you have with it, but essentially you are laying one…

www.hama.co. u k 1 Hama 40 LED Slim Panel £69/$150 The Hama 40 LED Photo/Video Slim Panel consists of two parts, joined by a flexible 30cm gooseneck. In practice, though, the gooseneck feels awkward and flimsy. The base includes the battery chamber (3x AAA) and a hotshoe with tripod socket; the 80 x 50mm panel houses 40 LEDs, plus a rear dimmer control. Clip-on panels are included for diffusion and tungsten colour balance. Hama doesn’t quote a beam angle or Colour Rendering Index, but in our tests, there was little to choose between this and other lamps. Maximum output power at 1/60 sec, ISO 100, was just above average at 8.1EV, corresponding to f/2. www.limelite.uk.com 2 Limelite Mosaic Solo On-Camera LED Light £69/$130 AT 171 x 75 x 42mm and…

THE BIG INTERVIEW LOTTIE DAVIES We talk to the inspiring and talented Lottie Davies to start the new year! TURNING PRO ANDY FARRER The winner of one of 2015’s major photo contests shares his advice QUESTION MASTER ANDREW JAMES More wise words and opinion from our resident photography guru IMAGE ANALYSIS JAMES BALOG James reveals how to shoot in challenging snowy conditions PORTFOLIO TATSUYA TANAKA Discover the delights of Tatsuya’s amazing miniature world PHOTOSHOP MAESTRO JAMES PATERSON Learn how to transform your shots into striking art with James…

TAKING a reading’ is a term that’s often bandied about by experienced photographers. Essentially it means pointing your lens at the subject you’re shooting, and activating the meter to see the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO suggested by the camera. This is typically done using the spot or partial metering mode, as you can take readings from specific parts of the scene. Doing this has several benefits. For example, you can meter a small subject in a wider scene, then lock in the exposure before recomposing. You’ll need a good eye for tone: take a reading from an area that’s darker or lighter than mid-tone, and the picture come out too bright or dark. 1 Metering the shadows If you point the spot meter at a dark area…

1 Brush over your selection Select a small Adjustment Brush with a Feather of about 60, tick Auto Mask and paint over the area you want to lighten. Here, it’s the overalls that need lightening. Press O to show the mask. Keep the brush crosshair within the edges of the target area. Even with Auto Mask ticked, some of the mask will fall beyond your target. 2 Remove the overspill Still with the masked area shown, click Erase; reduce the size of the brush and its feathering slightly and work over where the brush has spilled out. Zoom in closer to do this. It’s easy to see the eraser working because as you brush, the pink mask will disappear. Work carefully until the selection looks as clean as possible. 3…

Who was Walker Evans? Evans (1903-75) was a photographer who used the documentary style to create art from ordinary and everyday subjects. His work ranged from images of industrial buildings and street signs, to images of industrial landscapes shot from moving trains. He’s best known for his images of Depression-era America in the 1930s, but his work was much more varied. Shortly after he died, critic Hilton Kramer called him “one of the greatest artists of his generation”. What were his major works? In 1936 he spent weeks photographing tenant farmers for Fortune, work that later illustrated the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. In 1938 he began a three-year project on photographing people travelling on the New York subway, which in 1966 was published as Many Are Called.…

The key to effective flash photography is striking the right balance between ambient and flash lighting. The flashguns in this group are all ‘dedicated’ to suit various makes of camera body, enabling TTL (Through The Lens) metering, which is a great starting point. Off-camera flash typically yields even better results, with images taking on a more 3D look. Wireless remote functions can be a big bonus, not just for multi-flash set-ups but also for ditching the more traditional curly off-camera cable. Modern flashguns also tend to include functions like high-speed sync, rear-curtain and maybe even programmable stroboscopic flash modes. Let’s see what these flashes have to offer... THE CONTENDERS 1 Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT £450/$500 2 Gloxy GX-F990 TTL £130/$200 3 Metz 52 AF-1 Digital £180/$300 4 Metz 64 AF-1 Digital…

www.caselogic.com 1 Case Logic Kontrast Pro DSLR Backpack £129/$150 This may be the cheapest backpack here, but it’ll rival bags costing twice the price. There’s space inside for a full-frame body with an attached 70-200mm lens, and up to eight lenses or accessories can slot in on either side. At the back is a partition large enough for a 15in laptop, with a subsection that’ll house a 10.1in tablet. Tripod-mounting points on either side complete the load-lugging abilities. Although none of the bags here offer true on-the-go access, the Kontrast’s top-loading camera compartment at least lets you get at your camera without revealing the rest of your gear. Thick back padding keeps you comfortable, while semi-rigid internal dividers protect your kit. There’s even a tough plastic base for extra stability…

Photoshop SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com/creativecloud GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc173files JAMES PATERSON Editor, Practical Photoshop With a decade as a working writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter the most to you. STEP BY STEP ENHANCE TONES 1 EDIT AND TONE To change the tones in a video, open it in Photoshop. In the Layers Panel, click Create Adjustment Layer > Color Lookup and a preset. Drag Adjustment Layer above Video Group. Open the Timeline Panel and alter the purple block to fit over the whole sequence. 2 BLEND CLIPS TOGETHER Open a second clip. Right-click its layer and choose Duplicate, then select the other document in the destination settings. Go to the Layers Panel and choose Soft Light…

Photoshop SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com/creativecloud GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc173files JAMES PATERSON Editor, Practical Photoshop With a decade as a working writer and photographer behind him, James knows which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter the most to you. SIMPLE HORIZONS For a striking minimalist take on a landscape, reduce the scene to a series of horizontal coloured lines. Start by blurring the image by a few pixels (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), then grab the Single Row Marquee Tool from the Tools Panel. (It’s found alongside the Rectangular Marquee Tool.) Select a line, then press Ctrl/Cmd+J to duplicate and Ctrl/Cmd+T to transform. Hold Alt and drag the middle point outwards to the edges, then press Enter to apply. Finish off with a square crop. Make…

ADJUSTMENT LAYERS Improve and enhance tones with mixtures of Adjustment Layers PAGE 4 NON-DESTRUCTIVE Make every edit on a separate layer for non-destructive control PAGE 6 LAYER MASKS Layer Masks let you combine images to make great montages PAGE 8 SMART OBJECTS Make your layers solid and fully editable by using Smart Objects PAGE 10 BLEND MODES Combine pixels from different layers with creative results PAGE 12 CLIPPING MASKS Create eye-catching designs that combine images and text PAGE 14 LAYER STYLES Add thousands of effects to your layers with Layer Styles PAGE 16 Although they’re part of a program that’s absolutely crammed with dozens of features, tools and commands, layers stand above all of the others. Understanding how they work is the single most important step anyone interested in making…

55 year old Joe Dyer is retired from the electronics and electrical industry. Joe took up photography about five years ago, mostly to take pictures of his dogs. Then he discovered high-speed photography on the internet. His interest in freezing time in photographs led Joe to design the SplashArt Kit, a complete rig for staging and shooting waterdrops. For this shot, drops were generated and camerasychronised by a SplashArt Mk II Kit, using a water bath in front of a frosted Perspex sheet with a graduated blue-to-yellow acetate attached. Two Yongnuo YN560 flashguns @ 1/32 power 16 inches behind the Perspex were radio-triggered from the camera hotshoe. See more of Joe’s work and buy SplashArt Kits at www.phototrigger.co.uk Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens;…

BIG SKY This photograph is underexposed because the exposure meter was fooled by the large expanse of open sky in the scene. BRIGHT STUFF Dialling in some positive exposure compensation has restored the scene to how it was in reality. NEXT MONTH Get up to speed with your camera’s autofocus AS we’ve seen, there are occasions when the meter and the exposure system will deliver photos that are too dark (underexposed) or too bright (overexposed). You can correct these problems for subsequent pictures you take using your camera’s exposure compensation function. Activate this, and then look at the scale in the viewfinder or the camera’s LCD screens. To make the next image you shoot brighter than the previous one, move the indicator towards the ‘+’ end of the scale; to…

NAME: Tatsuya Tanaka LOCATION: Kagoshima, Japan SUBJECT: Still-life EQUIPMENT: Sony A77 with Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 macro lens WEBSITE: www.miniature-calendar.com CONSTRUCTING scenarios in which miniature figures get to interact with full-size objects continues to be a popular photographic pursuit. You might think you’ve seen all that the genre has to offer, but Tatsuya Tanaka has elevated the art form to a whole new level. Tatsuya’s ‘Miniature Calendar’ project sees him post a new scene daily on his website, a routine he’s been following since 2011. You might think the time scale and daily pressure would dilute the ideas, but there’s no sign of that yet. In Tatsuya’s world, the pages of a magazine are transformed into driving rain, potatoes are asteroids and an ice lolly is an iceberg being filmed…

ENTER TODAY! www.photocrowd.com/a/current Closing date: Friday 29th January HIGH-KEY photos are dominated by light tones. They work best when you have a light-coloured background, as well as diffuse lighting to avoid dark shadows from ruining the light and airy high-key effect. It’s for this reason that they suit portraits and still-life work, where you have control over the set-up, but don’t let that prevent you trying the technique with other subjects! Turning to the dark side, low-key images feature mainly shadows and midtones. This adds mood and mystery, making it an effective technique for intense portraits or fine-art nudes. For successful low-key shots, ensure that little light is allowed to fall on the background so that only the main subject is lit. How to enter Visit www.photocrowd.com/a/current and look for…

The pro-grade Canon 600EX-RT is the most powerful flashgun in the group, with faultless TTL accuracy and super-fast recycling speeds. In comparison, Nikon’s pro-oriented SB-910 proved lacking in power, although the SB-700 and it are both good value for money. Combining generous power and top-end features with touch-sensitive ease of use, the Metz 64 AF-1 is a fabulous flashgun that, in the UK at least, is competitively priced. The addition of a sub-flash tube is great for direct fill-flash in bounce or swivel mode. The Nissin also sports this feature but is less powerful, and lacks the Metz’s TTL accuracy and recycling speed. Metz’s more basic and less expensive 52 AF-1 is also good value. The Phottix flashgun is powerful, wellbuilt and worth considering if you want to make use…

LR Lightroom SOFTWARE Lightroom 6 GET IT FROM www.adobe.com/creativecloud GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc173files SEAN MCCORMACK Photographer and writer Sean McCormack is an experienced photographer and writer based in Galway. He is the author of The Indispensable Guide to Lightroom CC. seanmcfoto.com PHOTOGRAPHY began in black and white, using glass plates. It then moved on to printing to paper from negatives. The main issue with printing was the longevity of the print, so often additional chemicals were used to lengthen the life of a print. These chemicals usually stripped the silver from the print, changing the colour. This gave rise to tones that are familiar to anyone looking at older photos from a pre-digital era, right back to the start of printing. We see these as the brown-yellow look of sepia…

Photoshop SOFTWARE Photoshop CC GET IT FROM www.adobe.com/creativecloud GET START FILES FROM www.bit.ly/dc173files GLYN DEWIS Photographer and author Glyn is a commercial photographer, retoucher and also an Adobe Community Professional trainer. He is the author of The Photoshop Workbook. www.glyndewis.com FOR this tutorial, I want to take you through two different ways that you can add smoke or fog into your pictures. Ordinarily, of course, adding in smoke would require a smoke machine. While these have dropped in price considerably over the past few years, it’s probably an expense that you wouldn’t want to stretch to when you consider how infrequently it is likely to be used. A great and believable alternative way is to add in smoke or mist using Photoshop. The software has had a Clouds filter for quite…

www.picturedesk.co.uk Which photographers (living or dead) would you like to have round for dinner? Two Dons: McCullin and Fraser, a late photographer who I worked with a lot. What’s your favourite place? Hell Bay on the Isles of Scilly. What’s on your memory card now? Images of Jimmy Page and Nicko McBrain, Iron Maiden’s drummer. [John is the band’s official photographer.] What’s top of your bucket list? To get one of my portraits in the National Portrait Gallery. Tell us a secret about your photography you haven’t told anyone before... Celebrity really doesn’t impress me in the slightest. Talent does. To crop or not to crop? I am from a film background, so I crop in-camera rather than in-software. What kind of photography are you bad at? I am OK…