Table of contents for May 2015 in Digital Camera Magazine

The Young Shepherd Ruzely Abdullah, Malaysia “A young shepherd relaxes for a moment while waiting for breathtaking sunset views at Sunset Point, Pushkar, India.” Monsoon Splash Ata Mohammad Adnan, Bangladesh “I ventured out with my camera wrapped in a protective cover and an umbrella as it started raining that afternoon. And as soon as I entered the next road beside my home, I saw these two girls playing with the rain water, and I instantly made this image.” Fake Empire Marek Jarkovsky, Czech Republic “We live in a world when everyone is simply just chasing after career, luxury, social status and the opinion of others. And even though you might realise that, there is no way you could avoid it and remain in touch with other people. Sometimes you have…

Spring has meant the start of Formula One and MotoGP. While you might not be able to get trackside access, there are lots of other opportunities in less high-profile races, and the principles of effective sports photography remain the same. Top sports photographer Adrian Dennis describes how he got this shot of Jorge Lorenzo jumping off the podium as he celebrated his 2013 MotoGP win at Silverstone. “I moved further away from the podium to shoot the celebrations with a long lens. Most photographers stand beneath, looking up at the riders. I wanted to ‘lose’ the safety wires that stop the riders from falling off the balcony, or at least get them lower in the frame and avoid getting sprayed with champagne. Critically, I knew that Jorge Lorenzo often does…

Who says you can’t become a popular photographer in our image-saturated digital age? Clearly nobody told that to Vivienne Gucwa, who’s gone from owning a barely functioning point-and-click camera five years ago to now being a ‘Sony Artisan’ photographer, with over 2.5 million followers online and a best-selling book under her belt (New York Through the Lens, published by Ilex). There is no doubt that Vivienne is a naturally gifted photographer of cityscapes, but she owes some of her success to the power of social media. From initially sharing her work on Tumblr, she graduated to sharing via Google +, Facebook and Instagram. Vivienne gets most of her commissions from people seeing her work online. www.nythroughthelens.com Get started today * Before she became established as a photographer, Vivienne would just…

Get your views heard We’d love to hear your thoughts on the magazine and all things photographic! So email us at digitalcamera@futurenet.com or visit us at www.facebook.com/digitalcameraworld STAR LETTER CAUGHT OUT BY CARDS I made my first trip to see the Northern Lights in 2014, and was very disappointed with the performance of my Canon EOS 7D: at ISO 800, the images were all spoilt by noise. When we decided to go again this year, I lashed out on a 5D Mk III. The results are good, as I hope that you agree, but the camera misbehaved. I was shooting in raw with a 32GB Kingston Ultimate CF card in one slot and a 16GB SanDisk Ultra card in the other. I was rather pleased with myself for putting both…

Darkroom We’re lucky enough to be using the darkroom at the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock – the birthplace of photography. However, for this process, all you need is a dark-ish room and running water. Chemicals The cyanotype emulsion is made of Potassium ferricyanide and Ammonium ferric citrate, although here we’re using a modified Cyanotype Sensitizer formula that’s available from Fotospeed. Printing out The cyanotype process is a ‘printing out’ process, which means you don’t need to use developers or fixers. Once you’ve made an exposure, it’s simply a case of washing out the unexposed emulsion. Wash & dry Once you’ve washed your prints in running water for five minutes or so, you need to carefully hang them up to dry naturally. Don’t be surprised if the intensity of the…

Panoramas are a great way to display a vast and grandiose landscape. Creating panoramas is also a good technique to learn if you don’t own an ultra-wide lens. Using a longer lens, 50mm or so, will work better. To demonstrate, we headed to the beautiful Snowdonia region of Wales. The mountains there present an epic scale and sumptuous level of detail that is very difficult to enscapulate in a single shot. But the vistas are ideal for turning into dramatic panoramas. The first part of the panorama process is taking the shots. Essentially you stand still, swivel round and shoot a sequence of shots – but there’s a little more to it if you want the best results. Using a tripod, take images as you move the camera around. Allow…

If you’re a new parent or you’ve got a family member or friend who has just become one, you’ll definitely want to try this project. Perhaps you could repeat the shot once a month as the baby grows, or take one for each of your kids as they reach a set age. The trick with this type of shoot is to light and frame your baby’s foot so you can easily cut it out at the editing stage. For this reason we’ve used a ring flash: this type of lighting distributes an even amount of light over the surface without creating harsh shadows. When you shoot with flash, set your shutter speed to between 1/100 and 1/250 sec, then balance the aperture setting and ISO with the intensity of the…

As well as delivering the best quality from your camera and offering creative opportunities, raw files can be seen as a safety net, allowing you to change your mind about some of the settings you made when you took a photo. It’s worth getting things right in-camera though, as this will give you a more accurate preview. Exposure • Although you can’t change the aperture, shutter speed and ISO once you’ve taken a shot, you can improve the overall exposure. White balance • You can choose a white balance preset as you can on your camera, or set the white balance manually using sliders or by clicking on areas in the image. Picture styles • Most cameras offer Picture Styles, but you can change the levels of colour, contrast and…

When shooting street photography it can be tricky to know where to start, so I suggested Charlotte work with ‘Bikes’ as a theme for the day. Oxford is buzzing with cyclists! We positioned ourselves on a pontoon in the middle of the road and chose a classiclooking wall with bikes parked up against. By reducing our shutter speed to 1/30 sec, we were able to capture the movement of a cyclist zooming past. We also had a go at panning with the cyclist to blur out the background while keeping the cyclist sharp. I reminded Charlotte that it helps to come out in all weather to get a diverse range of shots. On the day we had scheduled the shoot, the forecast was heavy rain! Don’t let this put you…

Street photography generally falls under the broader candid style, where the person being observed is unaware of the photographer taking their image. This leads to a more natural-looking result that comments on some sort of social aspect or connects people with that space. The problem with asking people to pose for a portrait is they act up to the camera, and often the result can appear forced. To get around this, we tried different techniques including shooting from the hip. As Charlotte’s camera has an articulated LCD screen she was able to keep her camera low and still be able to view the scene in front of her. By having her camera down at hip level, many people simply didn’t notice she was taking pictures. The main disadvantage Charlotte found…

Range Both the Dodge and Burn tools let you target either the Shadows, Midtones or Highlights. For general lightening or darkening, use Midtones. As a rule, don’t Dodge on Shadows or Burn on Highlights. If you want to add contrast to an area, first Dodge on Highlights, then Burn on Shadows. Exposure The Exposure slider controls the strength of the darkening or lightening effect each tool produces. It goes all the way to 100%, but it’s usually best to keep it below 20% and build up the effect gradually. Use the number keys on your keyboard to quickly set a value: 1 for 10%, 2 for 20% and so on. Protect Tones With the Protect Tones option turned on, the tools won’t clip tones to pure white or black, which…

1 Drag the filter With the image open in Develop, choose the Radial Filter, then drag over the area you want to select. You can change the selection size and shape by clicking and dragging it. You can tilt it too. 2 Choose the selection area If you want the area inside the selection to be active, tick Invert Mask. Ensure the Feather slider is set at 50 to 60, so that you have a gradual step between selected and unselected areas. 3 Change the exposure Here I took the Exposure slider back to -85, added some extra contrast and desaturated it a fraction. Remember to keep it reasonably subtle, or the step change will look too pronounced.…

* Elliott Erwitt was born in Paris in 1928 and is famous for his photojournalism, rather quirky documentary photography and commercial work. * He was invited to join Magnum Photos by co-founder Robert Capa in 1953 and has served as president of Magnum for three terms. * As well as writing numerous books and organising exhibitions all over the world, Elliott has directed and produced documentary and comedy movies and TV shows, but now concentrates on his first love, stills photography. Elliott Erwitt is a true giant of contemporary photography. Now 86, he has witnessed many key events in the history of imagemaking: the early days of Magnum Photos, the golden age of photojournalism in the 1950s and 60s, and, of course, the rise of digital cameras. Elliott uses digital…

This might not be what you’d consider a ‘budget’ option, but if you caught our group test of medium-format cameras in issue 159, you’ll have seen that most of them cost upwards of £20,000 ($30,000). The Pentax 645Z is built much more like a 35mm SLR, with an integrated design. It also handles much more like a typical SLR, with all the usual shooting, metering and exposure modes that we’ve come to expect in modern cameras. The biggest difference is that, while the competitors have full-frame sensors measuring 36 x 24mm, the Pentax ups the size to 44 x 33mm and has the largest pixel count at 51.4MP. This considerably outstrips even the Nikon D810. As a less desirable function of going medium-format, the Pentax is much bigger and boxier…

For retaining the utmost fine detail, the Pentax 645Z edges ahead of the Nikon D810, especially when shooting in JPEG quality mode – although there’s little to choose between them in raw mode. The Sony A7R has less resolving power but stays ahead of the Canon 1D X, Canon 5D Mark III and Nikon D4S. The upside for both Canon cameras is that they deliver noise-free images in low lighting conditions, even at high ISO settings. COLOUR ERROR RESULT: The Nikon D810 scores best for colour accuracy, just ahead of the Canon 1D X. Colours from the Pentax 645Z look rather cool. RAWSIGNAL-TO -NOISE RATIO * Higher scores are better NOISE RESULT: Both Canons lead for most of the way, borne out by very clean high-ISO images. The Nikon D810…

Lightroom is a preset lovers’ paradise. Presets are so easy to set up, organise and apply that you could conceivably never have to perform the same task more than once – just set the task up as a preset and apply forever with a single click. We’ve used a few of the existing Black and White and Toned presets here to give you an idea of the effects that can be quickly applied. To try them out for yourself on your own image, simply click through them in the Presets panel to the left of the interface. Even if the Presets don’t have the exact desired effect that you were looking for, they can be a useful starting point for further tweaks using the right-hand side panels. And if you…

1 Brilliant bluebells Capture the richness of forest flora in spring Spring is the perfect time to photograph a forest floor richly carpeted with bluebells. It makes a wonderfully evocative image that you will treasure all year round. Kilian Schönberger took this striking shot in the famous Hallerbos Forest, near Brussels in Belgium. “I took it around an hour after sunrise, as the fog was suddenly crouching between the trees,” he explains. “There was no fog at sunrise, but luckily I stayed long enough to capture this fine forest mood.” You can’t blame Kilian for being tempted to call it a day: he’d driven 220km overnight from Cologne in Germany to get to this spot, setting off shortly after midnight. “It’s possibly the best spot for bluebell photography on the…

Send digital images or exposed film to another photographer to see what they combine it with. That’s what Denis Yakovlev does, and the double exposures he creates with his colleagues are really eye-catching. “I don’t have the opportunity to travel around the world, but my film does,”he explains. “I send my film to another photographer, and we do crazy multiple exposures fun stuff together in camera, then crossprocess the results.” www.lensculture.com/denis-yakovlev Get started today * Whether you shoot digitally or with film, you’ll need strong start images, as you’ll be combining elements from different frames. * Photoshop’s Screen blend mode works by multiplying the light values on one layer with those on the layers below. * For a guide to making a double-exposure portrait in Photoshop, see www.bit.ly/dc164double…

To shoot inspiring child portraits like Sarah J Thomas, you’ll need to first come up with some creative ideas! “As a child photographer, I am constantly fascinated with little imaginations, and dressing up is a big part of that,” Sarah explains. “I try to evoke the magic of childhood in ways that reflect the child’s personality.” Sarah prefers to shoot using natural light. When working on location, she knows she needs to be quick – like on the day she took this image. “It was pretty windy, and the sun was coming out and going in again quickly and often,” she says. Sarah’s top tip? “Have fun! All too often we put pressure on our little ones to perform as we want for the camera, which results in forced grins…

There’s a long tradition of the nude in both art and photography. Exploring the shapes, curves, tones and sculptural forms of the human body make a compelling subject. However, it can be a little intimidating if you’ve new to this style of photography. There’s no need to panic, though, as our complete guide will get you up and running in no time. Not only will we show you great ways to make cool, contemporary and stylish art-nudes, we’ll also reveal how to turn them into genuine cyanotype prints using a cunning combination of digital and analogue technologies. It really is the most magical process...…

You don’t need a whole bunch of fancy kit for lighting to capture striking art-nudes. Here we’re using a simple two light set-up with two long softboxes, which are sometimes known as strips. The skill is positioning them so that they emphasise the shapes, tones, contours and form of the subject in a sculptural way. As you can see from the examples below, lighting from the front produces the least interesting results. Most flash lights have a model light that helps you see where the light is falling: use these to help visualise how the image will look and be prepared to experiment. A Two front lights Using two lights in front of the model at a 45° angle creates even lighting. As you can see, this is somewhat dull,…

Replicating the cyanotype effect in the digital darkroom is pretty easy. In fact, some cameras even feature it as a preset style. However, nothing quite beats the real satisfaction of making a genuine cyanotype print. The cyanotype printing process is a contact-printing method, so the first step is to create a negative, which we will then print onto contact-print film using a modern-day inkjet printer. This can then be used to make a genuine cyanotype print. Naturally, this is a fairly time-consuming job, and not for those who lust after instant gratification. It’s a slow process, but also a magical one. So let’s get started and make our negative using Camera Raw, Photoshop, an inkjet printer and Fotospeed’s Contact Print film. 1 Prepare your photo Process your raw file to…

1 Keep it steady To keep all your images nicely aligned, you’ll need to use a tripod. A three-way head is better than a ball head, because you can lock the head to move in a single axis. Mount your camera in portrait orientation. Try to avoid wide-angle lenses as they can create distortion. 2 Even exposures To keep your sequence of shots consistent, shoot in Manual mode and with manual focus. Don’t alter the settings between shots. Adjusting the aperture, ISO and even the focus as you go along could cause your images to be mis-matched. 3 Positioning When planning the sweep of your pan, try to keep anything important or awkward – such as trees and plants – in the centre of each image. Lots of branches overlapping…

You’ll need to process raw files to turn them into pictures that you can share. Each camera manufacturer supplies their own raw software, so you can’t open a Canon raw file in Nikon raw software and vice versa. However, there are many third-party options that can open and convert raw files from all types of cameras. Adobe’s Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw plugin for Photoshop share features and functionality, although the interfaces are different. Here are the highlights of the latest version of ACR… 1 Raw files You can open multiple raw files and carry out a batch conversion, applying the same edits to all shots. Highlight the images by Shift-clicking them, then make your adjustments, or apply the look of one file to all the rest by clicking Synchronise.…

HELP ME TO IMPROVE MY STREET SHOTS “I’d love to get better at street photography, but often feel I miss good shots because I’m messing around with settings. I always work in Manual, so I have more control – but by the time I’ve got everything sorted, the moment’s gone. So frustrating! I use a Canon 60D with a 18–135mm lens. I also have a 50mm 1.4 lens, which I love.” Charlotte Stacey, Oxford…

The Catalog The Catalog is a database for all your images. It records where they are located and how they have been altered. Your images aren’t physically stored in the Catalog, so you can remove images or make duplicates in Lightroom without affecting the original files. Find your favourites Once you apply extra metadata to an image or set of images, you can find them quickly using the Library Filter. Switch to Grid View and you’ll see the options at the top. Filter by Text such as keywords, Attributes such as star ratings, or camera metadata. View your images For a thumbnail view, use Grid (press G). Loupe View (E) displays the selected image full-screen. Compare (C) displays two images, a ‘select’ and a ‘candidate’ that can be swapped over.…

The modules The modules are selected by five tabs running across the top: Library, Adjustment, Edit, Slideshow and Print. Folder panel The Folder panel displays your images based on their actual locations on your computer’s hard disk. Tags Tags in PhotoDirector enable you to find photos easily later on. An image can have any number of tags. Views Switch between vieweronly, browser-only or full-screen modes. The Browser The Browser panel displays image thumbnails, along with their star ratings. The Zoom menu The Zoom menu changes the magnification in the viewer window.…

Q I want to photograph wildlife, but don’t really know where to start! Can you give me some advice, please? John Jefferies Andrew says This is such a huge subject that there are books devoted to it! But rather than starting with a whole list of kit needs and techniques, my simple advice is to begin with observing the behaviour of different wildlife. Dedicated wildlife photographers spend a lot of time out in the field trying to get close to wild animals, but to start with, I’d suggest you visit some of the many locations across the country where it’s a lot easier to see and photograph different species. There are lots of parks and nature reserves, for example, where you can really get quite close to your subject. Everything…

CSC Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II > Body: £899 / $1,100 > www.olympus.com THE SPECS The Olympus OM-D E-M5 was the first camera in Olympus’s OM-D line of Micro Four Thirds compact system cameras, and is sometimes referred to as the original OM-D. Its electronic viewfinder and SLR-like design distinguished it from the Olympus Pen series. It was also aimed at more experienced photographers than the Pen or Pen Lite. As the name suggests, the OM-D E-M5 Mark II is the replacement for the original E-M5. It sits between the top-end E-M1 and the lower-level E-M10 in the OM-D range. FEATURES The E-M5 II uses a modified version of the 16.1MP Four Thirds type (17.3 x 13mm) sensor in the original E-M5, but it’s coupled with the TruePic VII processing…

The D800 caused quite a stir when it was launched back in 2012, around the same time as the Canon 5D Mk III. Its main selling point was the comparatively monstrous pixel count of 36.3MP, putting the Canon firmly in the shade in this respect. The 800E followed, reducing the anti-aliasing element of its low-pass filter, thereby eking out the greatest possible sharpness at an increased risk of moiré patterning. The D810 has replaced both, and has no low-pass filter at all. Improvements over the D800 and D800E include a later-generation Expeed 4 image processor, a faster 5fps continuous drive rate (7fps in APS-C format crop mode), an increase in maximum sensitivity from ISO 6,400 to 12,800 (from ISO 25,600 to 51,200 in expanded mode), and a larger memory buffer.…

The Sony A7R is amazingly small and slim. At just 407g, the Sony manages to pack in a full-frame image sensor, with a hefty pixel count of 36.4MP. In this respect it matches the Nikon D810, while exceeding its maximum standard sensitivity, at ISO 25,600 compared with the Nikon’s ISO 12,800. Mind you, the Sony has no expanded ISO range. Another similarity with the D810, as well as the Pentax 645Z, is that all three cameras omit an anti-aliasing filter. Compact system cameras are often criticised for their lack of an optical viewfinder. However, while the electronic ’finder built into the Sony can make you feel a little detached from the scene, it has a high 2,400k resolution and excellent colour rendition, with the bonus of real-time previews of the…

Retro film effects Crop the image to square then grab the Graduated Filter tool. Set Exposure to -4.00 and draw four thin gradients around each edge. Drag another gradient in from one corner, then click the Color box and choose a bright orange, with Temp 72, Exposure 2.25 for a light leak effect. Go to the Tone Curve, click Channel and select Blue. Drag up on the bottom-left corner and down on the top-right to add blue to the shadows and yellow to the highlights. Standard retouch Use the Basic Panel sliders to increase colour and reveal detail, then plot an S-shaped curve on the Tone Curve line to add extra punch and saturation. Next, grab the Adjustment Brush, paint a mask over the eyes and use the sliders at…

You may think that infrared is a rather predictable technique which has been done to death – but this image of Buciegas in Spain by Pedro Fernandez Aguado is sure to delight and inspire. “I use a Canon EOS 20D converted for infrared,” he explains. “Although there are some excellent IR filters, if you use a modified camera, you can reduce exposure times and get better results.” Pedro’s camera is converted to a 720nm wavelength, which he thinks is a good place to start. “Other wavelengths below this create more colour casts and allow less freedom in post-processing.” Pedro also shoots the same scenes with a conventional camera, so he can add elements to the infrared image if appropriate. “I always try to choose landscapes with green foliage and skies…

As spring comes into full bloom, now is the time to get up close with your camera. If nature inspires you like Damon Clarke, then start exploring the natural world around you. Damon considers his subjects from many different angles to capture the strongest composition. In his shot of a stargazer lily (below, bottom-left), he reveals that the main focus of the rippling edge stands out by blurring the background. “The composition is balanced yet dynamic by cutting across the field of view diagonally.” There are a few general rules to follow when it comes to macro photography. First, a macro lens with a ratio aspect of one to one (1:1) will come in handy. If you don’t have one of these, a cheaper alternative is to attach an extension…

MISSION FACTFILE Who: Mike Harvey, a portrait, documentary and travel photographer. And taxi driver. What: Mike decided to start taking photographs of some of his passengers in a project called Taxi. The images have been published both in the UK and abroad, by the BBC, Vice, Business Insider and other newspapers and magazines in several countries. “There have been requests to show the photographs in galleries in places like Switzerland and Singapore too, which is very flattering,” he says. Where: Mike is from Neath, a small town near Swansea in South Wales. “It has a great community, and historically, the area is strongly linked to the coal and steel industries,” he explains. Kit list: For the Taxi project, Mike used a Nikon D5000 and an 18–55mm lens. “I’ve just bought…

Studio lights Our lighting set-up is very simple: just two basic lights with long soft boxes. There’s no need to get any more complicated than this when starting out. Turn over for a few more tips on how to position Backdrop The best material for a black backdrop is a large sheet of black velvet, as it absorbs all the light. We used this and a long roll of dark grey background paper, which we ‘scooped’ onto the floor for fulllength shots. Model Collaborate with your model: they’ll have a better idea of which positions they’re capable of getting into. You can’t expect them to make all your creative decisions for you, though, so be prepared with a few poses to get started. Tethered With relatively fast shutter speeds and…

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for the best way of getting your model to pose – which is a good thing, otherwise everything would look the same. The best advice is to collaborate with your model, as they’ll probably have a better idea of what sort of positions they can achieve. However, it’s always a good plan to have an idea of the look you want to create in advance of the shoot. 1 Understand the subtext of your shot The art of nude photography is subtle, and often requires the photographer to suggest nudity rather than explicitly reveal it. It’s this that helps to differentiate art-nudes from glamour photography. The implied nude is mysterious and suggestive. Turning the model’s head so she’s looking away adds a sense of mystery.…

The raw files and JPEGs taken by your camera both start out in the same way: as the raw data captured by the camera sensor. To create the JPEG image, the camera processes this raw data, using the camera settings you’ve dialled in as a guide, then compresses the file before saving it to the memory card. With a raw file, the camera bypasses the processing stage, saving the raw image data and the information about the camera settings in a single, larger file on the memory card. RAW FILES JPEG IMAGES…

The day started when I met video journalist Charlotte in a café. She is struggling to control her SLR in its full Manual mode, while also trying to capture the moment. As I explained, there are many ways around this including changing her ISO setting to Auto. That way she can control her shutter speed and aperture setting while letting her camera balance the ISO in more challenging light conditions. We also had a play around with alternative metering modes. I explained the benefit of switching to spot metering if your subject is against a dark or light background. We headed out to a small covered market. We spent about half an hour grabbing some shots here, and I could see Charlotte wasn’t shy to get her camera close-in and…

We wanted our images to convey a traditional appeal so we selected Monochrome. We were shooting in JPEG and raw, so I informed Charlotte that the black-and-white effect will be applied to the JPEG file but she’d still need to convert the raw files at the editing stage. Being able to preview the image in the black-and-white effect in camera is a handy feature, but it’s also good to be able to select the final style at the editing stage. To get the shot below, we found a café where a couple of office workers were enjoying their lunch break. Although we could see our reflection in the window, it was subtle. The work of photographers such as Lee Friedlander and Harry Callahan purposely includes their reflection or shadow to…

The Photo Fixer Claire Gillo says Charlotte has great confidence when she’s behind her camera, and she’s a people person. She has a natural eye for framing and didn’t struggle to come in close to her subjects. Sometimes Charlotte would benefit from taking a step back and giving her street shots some context. She usually shoots with a 50mm prime on a cropsensor camera – the equivalent of 85mm on a full-frame. She may find a 35mm prime to be a better focal length (50mm equivalent on a full-frame) so she captures a wider view. As we discussed on the day, it would be a great benefit if she shot in raw and edited her images in post-production. That way she’d be able to have far better control over the…

Make effortless panoramas 1 Create breathtaking panoramas by stitching together a sequence of images. Go to the Edit tab, select Photo Merge and then Panorama. Simply locate your images in the Browser panel and double-click to add them to your workspace, then click Merge. Finally, adjust the crop or tick Auto Fill to intelligently fill the edges of your panorama. Focus attention on your subject 2 Draw attention to the focal point of your image with this handy tool. Click on the Adjustment tab and select Radial Filter on the Regional Adjustments tab. Draw a circle around the area you want to apply the filter to, or click Inverse to reverse this. Adjust strength using the Gradient slider. You can make White Balance, Tone HSL/Colour and Detail adjustments. Get…

LONG EXPOSURES What is a long exposure? When you start photography, the basic aim is to take a photograph that is exposed correctly while hand-holding your camera. But as you develop your skills, you’ll discover that a whole range of creative outcomes are possible when you allow the camera’s exposure – the period of time the shutter is actually open so light reaches the sensor – to last for a period running into several seconds, minutes, even hours in some cases. What is the drawback of a long exposure? The most obvious drawback of a long exposure is being able to hold the camera steady enough and avoid any risk of camera shake ruining the shot by causing the things you want to remain solid and fixed within the scene…

Q I’ve just upgraded to Lightroom 5 and have discovered the Radial Filter. I’m just not sure what to use it for! Jim Randall Andrew says Jim, I’m going to be completely honest with you, and admit that when I first upgraded to Lightroom 5, I wasn’t really that impressed with this new tool. I think I had a quick play with it at the time, and then promptly forgot all about it. This is probably more to do with the type of subjects I generally shoot – it just wasn’t something that was going to help me very much as far as I could see. However, since that initial look at it, I have had reason to come back to it a few times, and it’s something I now…

Get critiqued! Email photos to digitalcamera@futurenet.com with the subject ‘Rate My Photo’ Rejan says I started taking images in 2011, and I call myself a late bloomer in photography! To get this shot, a friend and myself planned to photograph the sunset in Manila Bay last March, but there was an event on, and we are not allowed to go near the sea shore. We passed by this big wheel; in Filipino we call it ‘Tsubibo’. I have a very big fear of heights, and every time I see this photo I tell myself that someday I will take the challenge and go on a ride! This image was taken with a Canon EOS 600D and 18–55mm lens at 1/100 sec, f/11, and ISO 100. Claire says It just goes…

How we test Digital Camera is brought to you by the UK’s most experienced team of photography journalists, which means you can trust everything you read on our pages, and compare kit with confidence. We believe the best way to test a product is to use it as it was intended. Our real-world testing involves taking equipment on a proper shoot – whether outdoors or in the studio – and using it exactly as you would, to let you know whether it’s fit for purpose. Although scientific data won’t tell you everything about a product, it’s a great way to make comparisons and sense-check our real-world conclusions. We have a series of controlled tests for cameras and lenses that deliver objective benchmarks. Digital Camera is 100% independent – and never…

The 5D Mk III has been around for three years, but still looks a very fresh camera with winning specifications. It’s a major update to the previous Mk II edition, boasting huge advances in image processing, autofocus and metering, as well as a much greater sensitivity range that stretches to ISO 25,600 instead of ISO 6,400 in its standard range, rising to a mighty ISO 102,400 in expanded mode. The maximum burst rate also gets a boost from 3.9fps to 6fps, edging ahead of the competing Nikon D810 (page 122) with its 5fps rate. Despite impressive attractions, like including the same 61-point autofocus system as the top-flight 1D X, the 5D Mk III has had much of its thunder stolen by the announcement of the forthcoming 5DS and 5DS R.…

OUTDOOR CANON EOS 5D MAR K III Metering and auto white balance are reliable and consistent, colour rendition is beautiful and there’s great detail through the tonal range. CANON EOS 1D X In this test shot, the 1D X gave a marginally darker image than the 5D Mk III, with slightly deeper shadows, but there’s very little difference. NIKON D810 The ability to capture the very fine details in landscape shots is impressive, and the images tend to be very vibrant. NIKON D4S The D4S isn’t capable of capturing quite as much fine detail as the D810 but otherwise, image quality for landscapes looks virtually identical. PENTAX 645Z The Pentax goes to the dark side a little with its metering. There’s seldom any risk of blown highlights, but shadows can…

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