Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 475 i Photography Week

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How many of us have looked up at the night sky and wondered at its vastness? Most of us, right? But relatively few of us will have ever tried to capture the stunning light show in all its glory. Astrophotography becomes complex when you start trying to capture deep space images, so in this feature we’re going to focus on capturing the Milky Way, our own galaxy, consisting of countless stars. In fact, astronomers estimate that there are around 100 to 300 billion stars twinkling in the glowing band in the sky. Most photographers want their Milky Way to inspire the viewer. But from a technical perspective, these images would ideally be sharp, bold and colourful too. Low-light capabilities and high-ISO handling on DSLR and mirrorless cameras have improved enormously…

Although it appears that the stars are moving gently across the sky, it’s not the motion of the stars themselves but Earth’s rotation that causes them to move. In order to take longer exposures of the night sky and still maintain pinpoint stars, you need to use a star tracker. A star tracker, or more scientifically, an equatorial mount, allows us to counteract the Earth’s rotation by rotating our camera in the opposite direction and at the same speed. That way we can ‘track’ the stars and capture exposures of multiple minutes without any star trailing. This unveils fainter details in objects such as the Milky Way, and also produces images with less visible noise. The caveat is that your foreground will be blurred, so you have to capture a…

1 GET AWAY FROM LIGHT POLLUTION The Milky Way is the collective, diffuse glow of stars so distant that they can’t be distinguished with the naked eye. Get as far away from light pollution as possible – use a website such as www.lightpollutionmap.info, and consider the light pollution in the direction you’ll be facing. 2 USE A FULL-FRAME CAMERA Full-frame cameras have an advantage in low-light performance over crop sensor and Micro Four Thirds cameras. The bigger sensors allow for larger individual pixels, which are more efficient at gathering light and producing cleaner images. 3 USE AFAST WIDE-ANGLE LENS I recommend a lens that opens up to at least f/2.8 to gather enough light and detail in the Milky Way. The best option is a fast prime lens that opens…

The Epson International Pano Awards is the largest competition for panoramic photography, and the winners of the 2021 competition have just been announced, with Joshua Hermann winning the Open competition for his series of images depicting striking tree formations in the swamplands of his native Louisiana. Hermann says: “Growing up in south Louisiana and coming to know the swamp and marshlands from an early age, the unique beauty and interesting ecology of the area has stuck with me throughout my life. I hope to share the beauty of these places through my imagery, allow people to get a closer look into the uniqueness of these areas and ultimately to inform them of the importance of protecting these wetlands.” This year’s competition attracted more than 5,000 entries from photographers in 97…

Samyang is celebrating its 50th year as a lens manufacturer and, to mark the occasion, it has just released its first-ever zoom lens – the AF 24-70 f/2.8 for Sony full frame and APS-C mirrorless cameras. Until 2016, Samyang only manufactured manual focus prime lenses, so this new venture into the world of zoom lenses takes Samyang one step closer to reaching the mass market. The manufacturer has spent five years developing the AF 24-70mm f/2.8, which could be used on cameras such as the Sony A7 III, A6400 or new A1. As well as being an excellent lens for stills photography, it’s also fully optimised for shooting video. One of the key features that make it perfect for video is its parfocal zoom, which means its focus doesn’t change…

The spring, summer and autumn T months are considered good times to shoot the Milky Way, but winter is actually the best season for clarity, as haze and mist are not as prevalent as they are on warmer days and cold nights. In winter, the night also falls earlier and it remains darker for longer, which presents greater shooting opportunities. The most prominent part of The Milky Way, the galactic core (the part we see when looking toward the centre of our spiral galaxy), is only visible at certain times of the year – and certain times of the night. In the northern hemisphere, the centre of the Milky Way rises to the south-east in early spring, due south by summer, and to the south-west by autumn. Early spring is…

Because the Milky Way galaxy spans across such a large portion of the sky, it’s necessary to stitch together multiple frames if you want to capture it all in a single image. It’s both a technical and a creative accomplishment to shoot a panorama (180° or more) that shows the full arch of the Milky Way; your tripod needs to be perfectly level from the off, and you need to ensure that each frame you shoot overlaps the previous one by 40-50% in order to avoid any distortion. Like all astrophotography, planning is key. In order to capture a Milky Way panorama, it needs to be arching low over the horizon. If the Milky Way band is passing through the zenith, the point of sky directly above you, then there…

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6 HOURS Motorsports photography is often regarded as one of the most technical and challenging genres, but it’s also one of the most accessible. Circuits with low fencing like Thruxton, Snetterton, and Brands Hatch in the UK allow spectators to capture images that are virtually indistinguishable from those taken by pros with all-areas access. A race weekend comprises practice and qualifying sessions, and when you include supporting classes, the on-track action barely lets up throughout the day. This provides photographers with ample opportunity to capture stunning shots, and allows newcomers to rack up hours of practice in no time at all. The key to motorsports photography isn’t just camera settings and technique though. To up your game you need to anticipate what might happen on the track, and identify the…

Sigma has announced the new 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | Contemporary, a standard zoom lens for APS-C Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras that will also be available in an L-mount version. It’s the first time Sigma has made a zoom lens for crop-sensor mirrorless cameras. A new standard zoom for Sony E cameras is hardly news, but this one is very different. It’s a constant-aperture f/2.8 lens with an effective focal range of 27-75mm, but it’s about half the size – literally – of the constant-aperture lenses we’re used to seeing. It doesn’t go quite as ‘wide’ or as ‘long’ as the Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G (24-82.5mm equivalent), but then the new Sigma is well under half the price and, at 290g, a massive 204g lighter. Sigma says its new…

When it comes to shooting the Milky Way, the most important item in your kitbag will be a sensitive DSLR or mirrorless camera that enables you to open the shutter for at least 30 seconds. Long exposures of two minutes or more are necessary to capture sufficient light, colour, and detail to properly reveal the Milky Way, as well as faint celestial sights such as star fields, galaxies, nebulae, and even gas clouds. A full-frame camera’s sensor has larger individual photosites than that of a crop-sensor model, which are able to capture more light and therefore enable better low-light performance, and less image noise at high ISO settings. Another essential item is a good-quality tripod to keep your camera steady, while a programmable cable release is also handy, should you…

Most Milky Way photos don’t look great ‘out of the box’, so you need to edit them carefully, and Adobe Lightroom Classic is one of the best tools out there for the job. As with shooting, everyone has their own unique approach to editing. However, most of the time, the best process is to start with Lightroom’s global adjustments that affect everything in the image, and then make local adjustments with gradients and brush-based tools. That’s the process I follow during this walkthrough, in which I edit one of my own Milky Way photos from start to finish. I’m using the newest 2021 edition of the software, which includes interesting features like Color Grading that you may not have seen before (see step 6). You can save your favourite editing…

www.fujifilm.co.uk £3,499/$3,999 Fujifilm has taken another big F stride in its effort to make medium-format photography more accessible, and ultimately take it mainstream, with the GFX 50S II, the fifth model in the GFX series. On paper there doesn’t appear to be a huge difference between the Mark II and its predecessor, but a completely different body, a few internal upgrades and a more tempting price point could see some photographers making the switch to medium-format. Fujifilm already has a couple of relatively affordable medium-format cameras in the GFX 50S and GFX 50R, but after the success of its 102MP cameras, it’s no surprise that the company decided to upgrade its 50MP models. Enter the GFX 50S II. At launch, it’s cheaper than the original GFX 50S, with a price…