Table of contents for April 2026 in Digital Camera Magazine

Talent pool “This was shot in my local pool. We didn’t have any dedicated underwater lights, so I used a speedlight wrapped in a waterproof bag to backlight the subject. Radio triggers are useless underwater, so I had to trigger the flash with my camera’s pop-up flash.” Close to the wind “This was shot on a windy beach with the red silky fabric billowing out like a sail. Two frames were shot from the same position – one with the subject, another of the empty frame – then the model’s legs were masked out to create the ghostly figure.” Light show “Stroboscopic photography has always fascinated me. It’s a creative outlet but also a technical challenge that needs piecing together like a puzzle. 9 out of 10 shots can look…

The train station at night is a mysterious and, occasionally, weird place. The light can be more interesting than during the day, with more colours at play, there are people and there are trains. Don’t forget the architecture and leading lines as well. Rather than walking around with a tripod and risking attracting attention, I suggest you go guerrilla, whipping your camera out when something catches your eye. Be prepared to shoot fast and move on, which means knowing where all the functions are on your camera. You’ll need to have one finger on the ISO, another on the aperture dial and be aware of the tricky lighting conditions. Camera: Nikon Z fc with Nikkor DX 16-50mm (24-75mm effective) lens Settings: 24mm focal length, 1/8 sec at f/4, ISO 800,…

Yes, it’s official, it hasn’t stopped raining in the UK since the turn of the year, but don’t despair, here’s a fun project that involves a bunch of flowers and some lighting. The bonus is that, once you’re done, you can hand them over as a Mother’s Day gift. The idea is to make use of the overlay function and blend modes of your camera to create one image from multiple shots with fast and long shutter speeds. The long shutter speed shots create blur and atmosphere; the short one adds detail. The different modes create different styles of blended image, so once you’ve tried one method out, you can have a go at another. You need to go out and get some flowers – it’s better if they have…

This month: Improve composition Compose yourself for photographs that are worth looking at more than once Framing up and taking a photograph is easy. All you have to do is position the subject in the middle of the viewfinder and press the shutter button. But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – treating composition casually only ends in disappointment, giving pictures that are dull at best. How you compose your photos is a personal matter, and if you want to put the focal point in the top left corner or dead in the middle, that’s your business, so as long as you’re happy that’s perfectly fine. However, improving your composition is a simple process and all it takes is an extra moment or two when you’re framing up the picture.…

www.fujifilm.eu The X-T30 II was launched four years ago, initially appearing to be a stopgap until the technology was ready for a fully fledged X-T40. Instead, Fujifilm skipped that entirely, with the launch of the X-T50 last year. However, instead of introducing a replacement for the entry-level model, the X-T50 became a halfway house between the top of the X-T line – the X-T5 – and the affordable X-T30 II, leaving many questioning whether Fujifilm saw a future for its entry-level model. The arrival of the X-T30 III makes the X-T nomenclature slightly confusing. Out of Fujifilm’s entire lineup, only the X-T30 has been given numerous sequels, and with Fujifilm having a few naming schemes it could have used, it may have made sense to rebrand it as an X-T500.…

With so much to see and do under one roof, The Photography & Video Show (TPVS) is the only photo industry event you need to attend in 2026. Organiser Future Publishing (Digital Camera’s parent company) has been working hard to make the show an unmissable one, and you can get a flavour of what to do while you’re there on these two pages. As there’s a lot to enjoy, a TPVS multi-day ticket makes sense (one-to four-day tickets are available). The NEC is located next to Birmingham International railway station, which connects to all parts of the country. If you’re coming by car, set your sat nav to B40 1NT and look for the show name on the NEC’s signs. You can save £5 when pre-paying for official NEC parking;…

www.nickchurchcreativeacademy.com Following a career in the software industry, Nick became a photographer and educator, launching the Nick Church Creative Academy, which offers a range of online courses and one-to-one coaching sessions. If you want to enhance your photography and editing skills, boost your creativity or turn your hobby into a thriving business, Nick can help. What sort of subjects will you discuss in your talks, ‘The Histogram Myth’ and ‘Nail Your Exposure in Manual mode’? The Histogram Myth is a tongue-in-cheek response to anyone who tells you how your histogram should look. Without knowing the scene in front of the photographer, it’s meaningless. Through examples of where this advice can be ignored – as it is by the finest artists and photographers in the world – the talk discusses when…

www.carysjonesphotography.co.uk An award-winning abstract and equine photographer, Carys travels to countries including Austria, France, Iceland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Norway to seek out horses in their native environment. Having combined her twin passions of horses and photography into a successful career, Carys uses a range of in-camera techniques to create striking fine-art images. What will you be discussing at your talk, ‘The Art of Equine Photography’? I’ll share advice on capturing the ‘traditional’ image of a horse, what makes for a pleasing image, how to add greater creativity to your shots ‘in camera’, using multiple exposure, panning and intentional camera movement during the process, and giving tips on things to consider when planning a shoot with a horse. I’ll also suggest UK locations where native horses can be found free-roaming…

Karolina Konsur Landscape photographer Specialising in seascapes and long-exposure photography, Karolina has attracted an international audience. She helms this month’s cover feature, from page 62 Will Cheung Photographer and writer A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the former editor of many photography titles, Will is the man behind Camera Clinic, which continues on page 82 Carys Jones Equine photographer A speaker at The Photography & Video Show, Carys has combined her twin passions of horses and photography. Find out more about her practice on page 124 Aneesa Dawoojee Photographer and artist A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, Aneesa creates images with social impact. She will be speaking at The Photography & Video Show in March. Page 122 James Paterson Photographer and writer The long-term Digital Camera contributor…

1 Lighting options A popular choice for a powerful yet affordable portable lighting system, James brought a pair of Godox AD300 Pro lights with him. Packing 300W of power, these run off a battery and offer fast recycle times – ideal for today! 2 Wireless triggers There are various ways of firing off-camera flashes, but wireless triggers are reliable and relatively inexpensive. James’s Godox XPro II TTL wireless flash trigger is the Nikon-compatible model, so it was easy to pop it on Huw’s Z 8. 3 Shoot raw files Bring out the full potential of your captures by shooting raw. There’s more latitude for making adjustments at the editing stage afterwards, including changing white balance settings and other creative image properties.…

Swapping clinical perfection for character, the Ricoh GR IV HDF’s headline feature is its built-in Highlight Diffusion Filter, or HDF, which replaces the ND filter found on the standard GR IV. Rather than simply cutting light, this HDF filter subtly diffuses bright areas of the frame, making highlights bloom and smoothing transitions for a dreamlike, ethereal look. This aesthetic feels tailor-made for street, night scenes and atmospheric everyday moments. It’s a conscious aesthetic choice, and one that leans into mood over measurable sharpness without straying from the GR’s fast, reactive shooting ethos. Also announced was the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome, which is the first dedicated black and white camera in the brand’s long-running GR series. A newly developed mono CMOS sensor is designed to deliver ‘the ultimate in black-and-white expression’,…

Q I’ve recently inherited an old Sony A7 camera body from a friend who upgraded. Can you recommend an inexpensive second-hand zoom lens that I could buy for it? George Watts A Matthew recommends… Sony FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Compact, lightweight and affordable, this lens ticks all the boxes for casual, everyday and travel photography. Released (year): 2013 Price new: £395/$448 ‘Excellent’ £150/$180 ‘Good’ £130/$150 This lens surfaced as the kit zoom option alongside the original Sony A7 camera, back in 2013. It maintained its position for some 13 years, until very recently being replaced by a Mark II version, which is more able to do justice to the much faster, very latest Sony A7 V body. That’s a bit academic if you’re using an original A7 camera, though. Highlights include pleasing…

1 ‘Gold Hill’ by Andy Dow “I took this photograph of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, in late summer. It took a while to get the lighting right due to the patchy clouds and even longer to get the right subjects in the foreground. Suddenly, these two children wandered up the hill and created the perfect scene. The only editing I did was to stack a couple of shots in Photoshop and delete the rest of the family from the top layer.” Camera: Canon EOS R6 and RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM lens at 45mm Settings: 1/400 sec at f/9, ISO 100 Instagram: @adpy.co.uk Digital Camera says: It’s difficult enough to come up with something new for an iconic location such as Gold Hill, let alone waiting for it to be…

To create this image, I scattered neon yellow and red glitter on top of a piece of silver glitter card. Then I shone a white LED torch onto the glitter and glitter card and zoomed out with my Canon EF-S 18-55mm zoom lens as it was taking the exposure. I set my Canon EOS 77D camera to an f/16 aperture with an exposure of 1.3 seconds and ISO 100 to make it darker and get more sharpness throughout, thanks to the greater depth of field. The resulting image was this light explosion, which reminds me of a firework or even a supernova explosion. You can experiment with the settings to create interesting alternatives. For instance, if your torch is quite bright, you can use a narrower aperture to make the…

KAROLINA KONSUR A landscape photographer based in Gdansk, Poland, Karolina specialises in seascapes and long exposures. She is an award-winning artist and author of articles published in leading photography magazines, speaks at prestigious industry events and is a global ambassador for Marumi lens filters. Instagram: @karolinakonsur There are moments in the landscape when time seems to stretch, water flows over rocks, clouds drift quietly, and the sky itself begins to move. The long-exposure technique allows photographers to translate this continuous motion into a single frame, compressing time and revealing nature’s silent choreography. It is not merely a technical exercise, but an interpretive one, where patience, observation and intention converge. By extending time, description gives way to expression: rivers soften, waves dissolve into mist and fleeting clouds carve the sky with…

www.sigmauk.com Sigma claims another world-first, but only just. This is the first 200mm f/2 prime lens for mirrorless cameras, but it’s not entirely without precedent. Forerunners include the Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS USM and Nikon AF-S 200mm f/2G ED VR II, launched in 2008 and 2010, respectively. Of course, they were designed for DSLRs and are both now obsolete, clearing the way for the Sigma, which is available in Sony E and L-Mount options. The Sigma just pipped the Laowa 200mm f/2 AF FF (reviewed, issue 302) which is available in Nikon Z and Sony E mount options for mirrorless cameras and in Canon EF mode for DSLRs. It aims to be one of the best telephoto lenses for Sony cameras and one of the best L-mount lenses, although…

More than 500 talks will take place at The Photography & Video Show between 14-17 March, as speakers share their expert insight and inspirational thoughts about the art and craft of the medium. With talks and demonstrations taking place on eight separate stages at the NEC Birmingham show venue, there really will be something for everyone. One of the easiest ways to discover what’s going on and when will be to follow the show’s social media channels and use the handy stage and theatre schedule on the show’s website: www.photographyshow.com/whats-on/stage-theatre-schedule To illustrate the breadth of the show’s programming, we have curated interviews with five major speakers – if you like what you read over the next few pages, make a note in your calendar not to miss their talks. Remember,…

www.aneesadawoojee.com An artist, conflict mediator and school governor, Aneesa is also a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. She has dedicated half of her professional life to creating photography with social and brand impact. Whatever her subject’s background, Aneesa brings creative energy to her shoots. What will you be discussing in your talk, ‘The Power of the Print’, brought to you by Hahnemühle? I will explore how photography can be used to preserve lives and experiences that aren’t often kept in formal archives. I’ll discuss how everyday lives can easily be forgotten. Central to the talk is my approach to ethical, long-term engagement and why print is integral to this as a way of creating tangible records that carry weight and responsibility beyond the digital moment. Print allows these lives…

BONUS SOFTWARE EXTRAS! See page 104 ENTER THIS URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc305 Enter the URL www.digitalcameraworld.com/dc305 into the destination bar of your internet browser – we’re using Google Chrome, but other browsers work in a similar way. Please do not enter it in any search field or search bar. This will take you to a page on our website. JUST CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK Click on the link labelled ‘Download the files for Digital Camera 305’ and your download will start, delivered from our own server. Please override any browser warnings about downloading from a non-secure source – our server is safe! ACCESS YOUR FILES Open the. zip In your Downloads folder, or wherever you download your files, double-click the dcm305-files.zip file icon. When it expands, double-click on Digital Camera 305 files,…

1 Manual exposure With eight years of photography behind him, Huw knows his way around his Nikon Z 8. He prefers to have full control over his settings, rather than delegating some decisions to the camera, so he shoots in Manual exposure mode. 2 Metering mode Matrix or Pattern was the metering method preferred by our apprentice. With this general-purpose mode, the camera takes a reading from the entire frame and adjusts the exposure appropriately for the scene. 3 Autofocus settings Today’s brief was capturing motion so Huw used continuous autofocus (AF-C on Nikon and Sony; Servo on Canon), rather than One Shot AF, to track Chloe. His Nikon Z 8 camera is a speed demon, able to capture raw files at 20 frames per second.…

Apple Creator Studio Get the brand’s Pixelmator Pro, Final Cut Pro and other creative apps for a monthly subscription fee, plus premium content for Keynote, Pages and Numbers Photo editor Pixelmator Pro and video editor Final Cut Pro are popular alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro for those who like to own software outright, but both programs are part of the new Apple Creative Studio subscription, which launched last month. Unlike Adobe’s move to a subscription model, however, Apple says that Pixelmator Pro and Final Cut Pro will remain available as a one-time purchase. Some ‘premium content’ will be only for subscribers, though, which includes a new Warp tool inside Pixelmator. The subscription includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro (Mac and iPad), along with Motion, Compressor…

Star letter: Seascape sunset Inspired by your feature on Coastal Scenes in the September issue (298) and my own love of seascapes, I have become obsessed with this small beach, located about an hour’s drive from where I live. The rocks here provide many excellent creative opportunities for long exposure photography, which I love. Stroove Beach is located on the eastern tip of the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal. It’s a small sandy beach overlooked by the Inishowen Lighthouse, whose harbour lights guide vessels into Lough Foyle. Although most photographs are taken of the lighthouse, I was drawn to the dramatic Dalradian grits and phyllite rocky ridges that shelter the beach on each side. The characteristic folded structure of the rocks was highlighted by the growth of the beautiful yellow…

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GOLD AWARD: Athletics ‘Tokyo Rocket’ Kenjiro Matsuo Momone Ueda of Japan competes in the Women’s Javelin at the World Athletics Championships, held at the National Stadium in Tokyo in September 2025. GOLD AWARD: Ice Hockey ‘Last Line of Defense’ Sophia Sandurskaya This shot was taken at the Kontinental Hockey League game between Spartak Moscow (in red) and Shanghai Dragons (white). Spartak won the match 7-6 after a shootout at the Megasport Stadium in Moscow, Russia, in October 2025. GOLD AWARD: Equestrian ‘Equine Reflection’ Morgan Treacy The runners and riders are reflected in the sand on the beach in Laytown, Ireland’s only horse racing event run on a tidal beach under the Rules of Racing. GOLD AWARD: Swimming & Diving ‘Catching a Breath’ Carel du Plessis Taken at the XTERRA World…

www.canon.co.uk The Canon EOS R6 Mark III might actually be the best Canon camera on the market right now. I’m the biggest cheerleader for the R5 Mark II, but where that camera is all about brute strength, this camera packs a knockout punch and a high IQ. Historically, Canon’s 6-series has been a 20MP-plus proposition. But with its new 32.5MP full-frame sensor, capable of 40fps bursts and half a second of pre-capture, the EOS R6 Mark III ups the ante. Its video credentials are the envy of the dedicated video cameras from most other manufacturers, with 7K 60p internal raw capability, along with 7K open gate capture. The core architecture is the same as the recently announced Canon EOS C50, but they each present a different side of the hybrid…

www.viltrox.co.uk It’s been just over six months since I tested the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.4 Pro for Sony cameras. I’m still hoping that Viltrox will announce a Nikon Z version of the 85mm, but in the meantime, the 50mm lens is being launched in both Sony E and Nikon Z versions. The 50mm isn’t really the little sibling of the 85mm, as they’re exactly the same size and weight, and have an identical layout of controls. That said, while both lenses have the exact same diameter and a 77mm filter thread, the 85mm is an almost imperceptible 2mm longer. The Nikon Z version is 2mm longer again, and 30g heavier, but there’s little in it. The 85mm bowled me over with its pro-grade build and handling, top-drawer image quality and…

www.47-degree.com A street photographer with a keen eye for human stories and everyday moments, Flavio Bosi explored a range of genres before gravitating towards street photography – a move that reflects his curiosity about people and their lives. A tutor with landscape photography tour company, Light & Land, Flavio recently teamed up with fellow tutor Mark Seymour to launch Shoot the Street, a YouTube series dedicated to street, travel and people photography. You are speaking on the Light & Land stand (B87) at The Photography & Video Show. What will your talk be about? Titled ‘Seeing the World Like a Street Photographer’, my talk will focus on how to shift your mindset from the landmarks of a location to the life of the place. I’ll discuss how a street photographer…

www.espenhelland.com Hailing from Norway but now based in Perthshire, Scotland, Espen is a wildlife and conservation photographer and videographer. With an MSc in Wildlife and Conservation, Espen spent five years working as an ecologist in Scotland and uses his camera as a tool for conservation, sharing the incredible wildlife through photos and videos. He also runs in-person workshops, and you can view his work on YouTube (@EspenHelland). What will you be discussing in your talk, ‘From Mountains to the Sea: How we Photograph Nature Matters’, brought to you by OM System? For my talk, I have chosen to include some of the habitats in which I photograph wildlife, starting from the highland mountains, where I photograph animals such as musk ox, and making my way to the coast, where I…